The economic analysis of technology policy suggests non-distortive public support of private innovative activities with a stress upon basic rather than applied research. Actual technology policy in Germany is marked by a high degree of sectoral selectivity which results from the dominance of...

Since the economic downturn started, exports have fallen dramatically and rapidly. One reason for this is the importance of vertical specialization, where the drop in demand for the final good induces a domino effect on to demand for intermediate inputs. Hence, the strong collapse in exports in...