Since the German reunification, Eastern German firms are prioritized in public policy schemes. This study analyzes the impact of public technology policies on innovation of firms located in Eastern Germany. The main question is whether public funding stimulates innovation activities or whether...

This paper analyses the effects of minimum wages on competition in the German roofing sector. The case is particularly interesting since this sector is faced with a uniform minimum wage despite significant regional disparities in productivity and wages. As a control industry we take the plumbing...

In this paper we report the results of an empirical study on the employment growth effects of a policy intervention, explicitly aimed at increasing placement efficiency of the Federal Employment Agency in Germany. We use the Hartz III reform in the year 2004 as an exogenous intervention that...