Compared to the U.S., the euro area has been underperforming in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). This holds especially true for peripheral euro area economies. Whereas the U.S. is characterised by a financial system dominated by arms’ length (capital-market oriented) interaction...

The consequences of diversity over a number of pertinent dimensions is often not adequately acknowledged in economics. As Reinhard H. Schmidt (in this issue) states: “One could easily cite important recent research contributions with no traces of institutions and institutional differences of...

We examine whether the financial strength of companies, in particular, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is causally linked to the award of a public procurement contract (PP), especially in the environmentally friendly green area (GPP), For this purpose, we build a combined procurement...