Increasing investment in innovation has been a major goal of research and innovation policy in Europe over the past decade. Yet to secure competitive advantage and achieve growth, R&D investment has to be translated into successful innovations, and this is first and foremost the task of firms....

Public intervention in the automotive industry has a long, global history. In Europe, both, individual member states and the European Union (EU), often allocate public resources to automobile manufacturers through a wide variety of instruments and institutions. This willingness to offer support...

The aim of this project is to investigate the competitive behaviour of e-commerce firms over the course of the product lifecycle for consumer electronics such as digital cameras, IT hardware, and smartphones. We combine data from Austria's largest online price comparison site with retail data...

The aggravating turbulences in the market for euro government bonds have so far precluded any recovery from the debt crisis. The key problem is that structural reforms and consolidation measures have long impact lags and are not able to stop an acute self-fulfilling crisis of confidence. In the...

The financial and economic crisis has drawn attention to the need for a better understanding of destabilising effects that arise in the financial sector and spill over to the real economy. In turn, weakening economic conditions are likely to feed back to the financial sector, thus giving rise to...

Die neue Bundesregierung steht in der kommenden Legislaturperiode vor großen wirtschaftspolitischen Herausforderungen. Zwar war die deutsche Wirtschaftsentwicklung in den letzten Jahren überraschend positiv. Hervorzuheben sind vor allem die starke Zunahme der Beschäftigung und die schnelle...

Die Bundesregierung hat am 8. November 2012 die Einführung einer Markttransparenzstelle für Kraftstoffe beschlossen. Diese wurde im Herbst/Winter des Jahres 2013 vom Bundeskartellamt eingerichtet. Zahlreiche Beschwerden über nicht nachvollziehbare Preissetzungen und Oligopol- macht der...

Start-ups, especially those in high-tech industries, are an important force for innovation. They contribute to the competitive success of the economy, and help to create new jobs. Bank financing is the most important source of external credit for newly established firms. In the last two decades,...

Recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the growth of emerging economies such as China and India have not only increased international trade but have also led to offshoring of activities away from Europe. A firm's decision to move production away from Europe...

Within the last few decades, rising environmental concerns, particularly about global climate change, have forced policy-makers to act in an effort to mitigate further harm. Yet though greenhouse gas emissions and the wasteful use of natural resources are detrimental to the environment,...