ZEW Discussion Papers

The aim of this study is the analysis of so called socially responsible investments (SRI). First, the performance of SRI equity investment funds and equity indices is investigated using Jensen´s alpha as…

Despite of the apparent failure of the Kyoto Protocol with respect to environmental effectiveness, it has established a broad international mechanism that might be able to provide a global reduction of…

To meet its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol, the EU plans to implement an emissions trading system with grandfathering of allowances. Besides having distributional impacts, the choice of the grandfathering…

This paper investigates whether failure in innovation at the firm level can account for cross-country heterogeneity in manufacturing productivity growth. There is no strong evidence in the literature on the…

This paper incorporates the cost of adjustment between observed and optimal leverage in explaining the variation in firm’s equity or bank-debt financing investments. Using a dynamic adjustment approach…

Based on a large data set containing information on occupations between 1979 and 1999, this study explores the “black box” surrounding the skill–biased technological change hypothesis by analyzing the mechanisms…

The systemic risk potential in the European banking market has increased. Hence, the following questions emerge: Is there a need for a truly European supervisory framework? And, how should a potential…

Shoven und Whalley, die Wegbereiter der angewandten Gleichgewichtsanalyse, haben in ihrem bekannten JEL-Übersichtsartikel von 1984 das Los der Gleichgewichtsmodellierer als „jack of all trades“ beklagt. Ziel…

Environmental regulations often want to stimulate the generation and adoption of ecoefficient innovations. An important argument in the public debate is also the creation of new markets for environmentally…