Die vorliegende Studie wurde im ifo Arbeitsbereich Branchenforschung erstellt und im Frühjahr 2005 abgeschlossen. Auftraggeber war das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit. Gegenstand der Studie sind der Stand und die Perspektiven der „New Economy“ in Deutschland sowie ein Vergleich...

The geography of innovation traditionally concentrates on localised knowledge spillovers, yet neglects collaboration networks as a means to access knowledge outside the region. Using publication and patent data for 1316 regions in the EU27 plus Norway and Switzerland, we find that both localised...

In the past Portugal managed to grow at a significant rate, but the pace has getting slower and slower from decade to decade, until becoming practically stagnant in the first decade of the 21st century. This stumpy growth together with the current debt crisis has fed the rhetoric of structural...

Key indicators show Germany belonging to the countries in the OECD with strong innovation activity even though some weakening in Germany’s position relative to other OECD countries has occurred recently. While the redirection of resources towards unification-related spending as well as low...

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is increasingly recognised as an essential tool of development a tool which empowers the poor by enhancing skills, increasing productivity and improving governance. The success of ICTenabled development (or e-Development) is measured not only by the...

Innovation has become a central theme and challenge in the literature of entrepreneurship, SMEs management, and strategic knowledge management and in the literature of organizational learning. Innovation needs a business environment that is conducive to long-term investments in new business...

Accounting certification in the former Soviet republics lacks credibility. Accountants are not familiar with International Financial Reporting Standards or International Standards on Auditing. Certifications can be bought. Audit opinions can be sold. Financial statements that are auditing by...

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union each of the former Soviet republics has started the process of moving away from central planning and toward a market economy. Part of that process involves private sector institution building. One private sector institution that has generally experienced a...

Offshoring of IT services and back-office services to low-wage countries is a fast-growing market. Besides India, the pacesetter and dominant insourcer, there are numerous other countries and regions attempting to establish themselves as offshoring locations. Our report focuses on nearshoring...

Nowadays high profile merger cases are becoming quite important and are taken as milestones of legal systems that produce the needed juridical backbone of the evolution of the market regulation. Additionally such cases are equally important for the progress of the economic theory in the domain...