Drawing on household data from Germany, this study econometrically analyzes the determinants of automobile ownership, focusing specifically on the extent to which decreases in family size translate into fewer cars at the national level. Beyond identifying several variables over which policy...

A number of recent empirical studies document significant effects of in-patient care quality indicators on the choice of hospital. These studies use either objective quality indicators based on quantitative figures, or if subjective reputation scores are used, scores based on the opinion of...

Understanding the determinants of home-efficiency improvements is significant to a range of energy policy issues, including the reduction of fossil fuel use and environmental protection.This paper analyzes retrofit choices by assembling a unique data set merging a nationwide household survey...

Identifying the incidence of free-ridership is significant to a range of issues relevant to program evaluation, including the calculation of net program benefits and more general assessments of political acceptability. Estimates of freeridership in the area of energy policy frequently rely on...

We answer the questions, how many firms acting in the modern German biotechnology industry are funded by venture capital companies (VCC) as well as equity funded by corporate investors. The theory suggests a high relevance of VCC as venturing partner of high-tech projects. In addition we argue...

This paper analyses the link between the VDAX as a proxy for European financial uncertainty and the number of terror incidents in Western Europe. Considering data of the Global Terrorism Database, the number of terror incidents does – on average – not affect financial uncertainty. In...

We document the importance of non-pecuniary aspects in employment relationships by showing that labour supply elasticities differ significantly among individuals’ job characteristics. Factor analysis indicates the relevance of four characteristics: autonomy, workload, variety and job security....

This article contributes to the debate on the systemic effects of technology policy by investigating knowledge spillovers of pre-competitive publicly funded Industrial Collective Research (ICR) in Germany. The ICR aims to compensate for obstacles faced by SME in carrying out research and...

This paper studies the internationalization behaviour of French companies, using more than 330.000 observations for three two-year intervals. We analyze the role of productivity, organisational and ownership structure, and of financial characteristics for the decision to enter into and exit from...