The acquisition of technological capabilities through a comprehensive system of indicators is a central part of the annual report of the German Expertenkommission Forschung und Innovation (Expert Commission Research and Innovation (EFI)) on the conditions of research, technology and innovation in Germany. The ZEW is involved in the development, measurement, and analysis of such indicators in the area of start-ups. The project on firm dynamics aims at capturing the start-up activities in the German knowledge economy (research and knowledge-intensive industries) and the development of the stock of enterprises, including the deaths of enterprises, by means of indicators and to compare them over time and internationally. The indicators are birth and death rates, firm churning, and the change in the stock of companies. Data for Germany are taken from the Mannheim Enterprise Panel (MUP), data for other European countries come from the business demography statistics of Eurostat.