Haftungsregeln und Innovation

This paper discusses the incentives for innovation when liability is limited or not. Clearly innovative activity involves risk. On the one hand, the risk of firm owners is limited if their liability is limited. On the other hand credits will be more difficult to receive if liability is limited. The paper first discusses these issues theoretically and then presents empirical results on R&D intensity with respect to sales and to investment into capital. We find that firms with limited liability undertake more R&D than other firms. The legal form has no impact on capital investment.