In Deutschland beanspruchen gleich zwei Ressorts, das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) sowie das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (BMWi) die Zuständigkeit für die deutsche Innovationspolitik. Dieses für den Bund offensichtlich bedeutsame Politikfeld...

Several reviews and impact assessment studies have concluded that the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6) succeeded in fostering scientific excellence and attracting the “A Team” in public science. However, these studies typically fail to contrast their...

Residential buildings strongly contribute to global CO2 emissions due to the high energy demand for electricity and heating, particularly in industrialised countries. Within the EU, decentralised heat generation is of particular relevance for future climate policy, as its emissions are not...

This article explores the propensity to patent in the light of the disclosure effect. Unlike earlier approaches concerned with the patenting decision, we take into account that a disclosure effect may decrease the merits of patenting by facilitating inventing around the patent for competitors....

Using a unique dataset of personal characteristics of national finance ministers in Europe (1980 – 2010), I show that especially a finance minister’s experience affects the development of public debt. Both a finance minister’s experience gained in office and his political experience have...

A simple model of yardstick competition between jurisdictions is presented. Governments of jurisdictions face the alternative to choose between an old and a new policy with stochastic payoffs. The new policy is superior to the old policy in one state of the world, and inferior in the other....

The democratic accountability of policymaking institutions which are autonomous within delegated mandates has not received as much attention as their independence. We analyze in a theoretical model the effects of accountability in the form of possible overriding of economic policy decisions by...

This paper examines the linking of price-based and quantity-based provision of a public good by two parties in the example of pollution control under a global quantity constraint, using a stochastic partial-equilibrium model. One country chooses a price-based instrument (tax) and trades with...

This paper examines the factors determining vertical government structures. An empirical analysis for a panel of OECD countries indicates that apart from preferences, economies of scale, and other factors, institutions explain cross-national differences in the degree of fiscal decentralization....

Der vom Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie initiierte Fachdialog Ordnungsrahmen für die digitale Wirtschaft soll staatlichen Handlungsbedarf und staatliche Handlungsoptionen für die Etablierung eines kohärenten Ordnungsrahmens aufzeigen, der Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft einerseits...