Der ifo Geschäftsklimaindex für die gewerbliche Wirtschaft Deutschlands gilt als wichtigster und meist-beachteter Frühindikator zur Beurteilung der aktuellen Konjunkturlage in Deutschland. Wenig bekannt ist, dass die ifo-Indikatoren auch für Ostdeutschland und Sachsen zur Verfügung stehen....

Der Markt für Architekten- und Ingenieursleistungen zeigt eine starke Segmentation. Einer kleinen Zahl umsatzstarker Bürogesellschaften steht eine Vielzahl von Einzelbüros gegenüber, die am Rande oder unterhalb der Schwelle zur Wirtschaftlichkeit arbeiten. Haftungs- und Deckungsausweitungen...

Recent dynamic models of firm entry and exit emphasise the relationship between a firm's productivity and the decision to enter or exit. If firm turnover is driven by productivity differentials then the reallocation of resources across firms at the micro level can have important implications for...

Im Jahr 2000 erwirtschafteten deutsche Unternehmen Gewinne, die nach Steuern 2,4 Prozent ihres Umsatzes erreichten. Damit lagen sie in einem 18-Länder-Vergleich an viertschlechtester Stelle. Geringere Nettoumsatzrenditen gab es nur noch in Tschechien, Italien und Polen. Eine tiefer gehende...

This paper analyses the effects of innovation networks on product and pro-cess innovation and sales growth of high technology SMEs. Innovation net-works are positively related to both product and process innovation, i.e. know-ledge creation. One exception is the negative effect of innovation...

In our model, individual consumers follow simple behavioral decision rules based on imitation and habit as suggested in consumer research, social learning, and related fields. Demand can be viewed as the outcome of a population game whose revision protocol is determined by the consumers'...

Generalized additive models have become a widely used instrument for flexible regression analysis. In many practical situations, however, it is desirable to restrict the flexibility of nonparametric estimation in order to accommodate a presumed monotonic relationship between a covariate and the...

In a duopoly market, aspiration levels express how much sellers want to earn given their expectations about the other's behavior. We augment the sellers' decision task by eliciting their profit aspiration. In a first experimental phase, whenever satisficing is not possible, sales choices, point...

From a theoretical point of view, greater trade openness affects firm-level volatility by changing the exposure and the reaction of firms to macroeconomic shocks. The net effect is ambiguous, though. This paper provides firm-level evidence on the link between openness and volatility. Using two...

The relationship between individual firms? export behaviour and firm performance has been studied extensively in the economic literature. However, most studies from the field of economics only distinguish between exporting and non-exporting companies, using the firms? export status as a binary...