Efficiency measurement naturally requires the definition of a frontier as a benchmark indicating efficiency. Usually a measure reflecting the distance of a data point to the frontier indicates the level of efficiency. One of the crucial characteristics to distinguish efficiency measurement tools...

In this position paper we deal with the conception of heterogeneity as both the force and the result of evolutionary change. We ask, how this heterogeneity can be measured empirically and how we can get a measure which allows to get a broad comparable empirical account especially on several...

One of the most recently observed stylised facts in the field of economic growth is the persistent bimodal shape of the world income distribution.. Of course, some theoretical explanations for this new stylised fact already have been provided by neoclassical growth theory within a maximising...

Asked for the most important driving forces of economic development, most economists do not hesitate to state, that it is technical progress which is the main source of quanti-ta-ti-ve and qualitative economic development generated in National Systems of Innovation (NSI). To classify and analyze...

In this paper we add new results to the emerging field of investigating productivity levels rather than productivity change, as initiated by Hall and Jones (1996, 1997). To obtain measures of relative productivity levels we depart from traditional growth accounting and calculate the Malmquist...

The objective of this paper is twofold. First we discuss, whether data envelopment analysis can be applied to households' consumption activities on the basis of Kelvin Lancaster's approach to consumer choice. Then, we apply data envelopment analysis to identify inefficiencies in a subsector of...

This paper reviews empirical and theoretical work concerning the relationship between innovative activities of firms and the dynamics of industries. Stylized facts on industry evolution and the analysis of industrial dynamics in general are a first building block. This discussion just reflects a...

The economic literature started to recognize the heterogeneity characterizing the nature of different technologies, introducing the concept of General Purpose Technologies. In this paper, we offer a new view of General Purpose Technologies, building on the historical as well as on the recent...

The last decades saw a pronounced shift in innovation policy in Germany and many other countries towards increased funding of cooperative R&D. Over the last years, competitions between regional initiatives pushed this trend even further by adding a regional perspective, by increasing the scope...

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of knowledge management on the innovation success of firms in Germany. Using a matching procedure on data from the German Innovation Survey of 2003 (Mannheim Innovation Panel), we pair firms applying knowledge management with twin firms with...