This paper discusses the role of so-called national champions within the context of the EU's ambitious goal to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economic region in the world by 2010. We find football to be a useful analogy in our discussion of national champions. There are...

Nobuko Inagawa has written an excellent paper on the relevance of Japanese experiences for a successful integration of Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) into the world economy. Talking about the case of Japan is particularly interesting - and potentially controversial - compared...

Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die Frage der industriepolitischen Beeinflussung in asiatischen Ländern und ob es im Rahmen einer globalisierten Ökonomie, in der sich die Wissensbeständeim Abstand von 5 Jahren jeweils verdoppeln, auch weiterhin ein Erfolgsmodell sein wird.

This paper explores the role of country asymmetries for trade and industrial policies withheterogeneous firms. Our analysis delivers a number of novel results. First, trade policies,infrastructure policies and industrial policies which improve the business conditions in onecountry have negative...

Business support policies designed to raise productivity and employment are commonworldwide, but rigorous micro-econometric evaluation of their causal effects is rare. Weexploit multiple changes in the area-specific eligibility criteria for a major program to supportmanufacturing jobs...

The paper explores the link between international economic integration and technological capability in colonial India. The example of iron industry shows that many new ideas and skills flowed into India from Europe, but not all met with commercial success. The essay suggests that in those fields...