The main purpose of this paper is to provide a critical overview of the recent empirical contributions that use cross country data to study the effect of product market regulation and reform on a country’s macroeconomic performance. After a brief review of the theoretical literature and of...

We sketch a visionary strategy for Europe in which full employment is quickly regained by 2020, where income inequality is reduced and the economies are more sustainable. We name this scenario "vibrant." It is contrasted with what would happen if present policies continue within the European...

Higher education contributes to economic innovation. This study measures and compares the extent to which national governments’ policies foster this contribution across Europe. The study stresses the relevance of policies which are ‘empowering’ for higher education institutions, or in...

Subsidized research joint ventures (RJVs) between public research institutions and industry have become increasingly popular in Europe and the US. We study the long-run effects of such a support scheme that has been maintained by the Danish government since 1995. To cope with identification...

Unsere (Arbeits-)Welt scheint sich mit zunehmender Geschwindigkeit zu verändern. Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt zentrale Aspekte dieser Entwicklung und diskutiert ihre voraussichtlichen Auswirkungen auf Arbeit und Beschäftigung. Der Wandel ist weltweit spürbar und Roboter und Maschinen...

The world is changing rapidly. This paper describes key shifts and it discusses their likely impacts on employment-related aspects. Labor market pressures are felt around the globe, and robots and automation increasingly become reality. However, there will be no "end of work". Rather, it is that...

This research argues that variations in the interplay between cultural assimilation and cultural diffusion have played a significant role in giving rise to differential patterns of economic development across the globe. Societies that were geographically less vulnerable to cultural diffusion...

This paper investigates how physical, organisational, institutional, cognitive, social, and ethnic proximities between inventors shape their collaboration decisions. Using a new panel of UK inventors and a novel identification strategy, this paper systematically explores the net effects of all...

Intangible knowledge capital (IKC) – technology produced by workers but not embodied in them – can offset the "middle income trap" as China exhausts the benefits of international technology transfer. IKC is productivity-enhancing among Chinese enterprises – more so in domestically owned...

In this paper we investigate the effect of local banking development on firms’ innovative activities, using a rich data set on innovation for a large number of Italian firms over the 1990’s. There is evidence that banking development affects the probability of process innovation,...