East German wages have been below the West German wage level since unification. Moreover, the East-West wage gap implied by the contractual wages specified in collective wage agreements is drifting ever further apart from the wage gap in terms of effective wages. This paper looks at the role of...

After 20 years of transition from an economy integrated in an exchange scheme of planned economies towards an open market economy based on the ideas of competition, we ask whether East German firms succeeded in finding their place in the international division of labour. We concentrate on the...

We develop a composite indicator measuring the performance of national innovation systems. The indicator takes into account both hard factors that are quantifiable (such as R&D spending, number of patents) and soft factors like the assessment of preconditions for innovation by managers. We apply...

Financial theory creates a puzzle. Some authors argue that high-risk entrepreneurs choose debt contracts instead of equity contracts since risky but high returns are of relatively more value for a loan-financed firm. On the contrary, authors who focus explicitly on start-up finance predict that...

This paper takes up a phenomenon in European geographical development: the simultaneity of regional economic convergence on the one hand and the continued spatial concentration of economic activities on the other. Overall, the disparities in productivity and income between regions in the...