R&D expenditures of firms varies vastly between and within industries. In recent years a lot of theoretical and empirical studies attempted to explain the distribution of R&D expenditures. Four main factors repeatedly appeared in this literature: Firm size, market power, appropriability and...

This paper deals with the innovation behavior and the R&D activities at the firm level in East Germany. The theoretical and empirical analyses lead to the conclusion that the relatively low level of the R&D intensity in East Germany is a reflex of the relatively weak economy, especially the...

This study analyzes the effects of public R&D policy schemes on the innovation activities of firms located in Eastern Germany. The main question in this context is whether public funds stimulate R&D activities or simply crowd out privately financed R&D. Empirically, we investigate the average...

Since the German reunification, Eastern German firms are prioritized in public policy schemes. This study analyzes the impact of public technology policies on innovation of firms located in Eastern Germany. The main question is whether public funding stimulates innovation activities or whether...

We investigate the long-run effects of government surveillance on civic capital and economic performance, studying the case of the Stasi in East Germany. Exploiting regional variation in the number of spies and administrative features of the system, we combine a border discontinuity design with...

In a recent paper, Bloom et al. (2020) find evidence for a substantial decline in research productivity in the U.S. economy during the last 40 years. In this paper, we replicate their findings for China and Germany, using detailed firm-level data spanning three decades. Our results indicate that...