We provide, for the first time, comparative evidence of the impact of various types of extremeevents – natural disasters, terrorism, and violent conflicts – on the perceptions ofentrepreneurs concerning some key entrepreneurial issues – such as fear of failure instarting a business...

Based on representative data, the German Micro-Census, we provide an overview of thedevelopment of self-employment and entrepreneurship in Germany between 1991 and 2010,the first two decades after reunification. We investigate the socioeconomic background ofthese individuals, their education,...

We investigate the interdependence of debt financing and R&D activities of young firms.Using micro-level data of the KfW/ZEW Start-up Panel, our estimation results show that firmcharacteristics are more important than personal characteristics of the founders for explainingyoung firms’...

Drivers of entrepreneurial entry are investigated in this study by examining how entry intosmall-business ownership is shaped by industry-specific constraints. The human- andfinancial-capital endowments of potential entrepreneurs entering firms in various industriesare shown to differ...

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...

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...

This paper extends a well-established vertical product differentiation model toan international duopoly with two segmented countries, where firms compete inquality and price. The framework is used to analyse governments’ incentives forunilateral minimum standard-setting as well as the scope...

Der vorliegende Endbericht ist Ergebnis der Studie „Die volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutunggeistigen Eigentums und dessen Schutzes mit Fokus auf den Mittelstand“, welche imAuftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie durch das Fraunhofer-Institut für System und...

The literature on new goods and social welfare generally assumes thatmanufacturers develop innovations. But innovation by users has been foundto also be an important part of innovative activity in the economy. In this Paperwe explore the impact of users as a source of innovation on product...

Der Beitrag behandelt die wissenschaftlichen Diskussion um die Beeinflussung regionaler Innovationsbedingungen, die mit dem von Hans-Jürgen Ewers und Ko-autoren entworfenen Konzept der innovationsorientierten Regionalpolitik ange-stoßen wurde. Zwar haben sich viele der dem Konzept der...