This volume was prepared by Sebastian Benz while he was working at the Ifo Institute. It was completed in December 2013 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich. It includes five self-contained chapters. All chapters discuss different...

A strong innovation performance based on R&D, product development and the implementation of advanced production technologies is key for the long-term competitiveness of European economies. This study investigates the effects of production offshoring on R&D and innovation activities of the firm...

For many years, analysis on innovations focused on high technology industries which were treated as synonymous with high competitiveness and growth. New research on low and medium technology industries has revealed that their growth is also based on innovations, though their sources differ from...

This paper investigates the differences in innovation behaviour, i.e. differences in innovation sources and innovation effects, among manufacturing firms in three NMS: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It is based on a survey of firms operating in four manufacturing industries: food and...

This paper investigates the barriers to innovation perceived by Polish manufacturing firms. It refers to the heterogeneity of innovation active firms. We introduce a taxonomy of innovative firms based on the frequency with which they introduce commercialised innovations using data from both CIS4...

This paper uses obstacles to innovation to investigate the heterogeneity of Polish innovating firms. Based on the frequency with which they introduce innovations, and using data from both CIS4 (for 2002-2004) and CIS5 (2004-2006), the paper distinguishes between two groups of innovating firms:...

The bulk of innovation subsidies in Finland are allocated to firms in industries where the employment share of “innovators,” i.e., workers who are specialized in R&D&I, is very high. The average subsidy per employee is typically the highest among young firms. At the firm level, an increase...

In Finland, universities have the explicit mandate to support the transformation of high-quality knowledge into profitable business, as well as to promote the creation of new businesses and workplaces within the boundaries of their so-called third mission. This report looks at how Finnish...

There is a large body of literature on the relationship between innovations and employment at the firm level, with most of the results indicating positive effects. Thus far, this kind of analysis has not been performed for Poland and it seems to be an important and interesting field for...

This doctoral thesis analyses the impact of education and other determinants on labour market outcomes using microeconometric methods. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction. Chapter 2 uses a randomised field experiment among German human resource managers to evaluate which skill signals such as...