This paper provides a new attempt to examine the relationship between an economy's exposure to foreign trade and its degree of urban concentration. In contrast to previous work, which is often based on rich cross-country data sets, the analysis is focused exclusively on European countries,...

This paper uses a dataset on the foreign activities by Swedish manufacturing firms to examine the performance of German affiliates compared with affiliates in other locations. It is found that German affiliates, on average, have higher labour productivity, R&D expenditure per employee and...

This paper analyses structural and cyclical determinants of banking profitability in 16 Western European countries. We find that financial structure matters, particularly through the beneficial effect of the capital market orientation in the respective national financial system. Furthermore,...

The flat income tax has become increasingly popular recently, yet its implementation is limited to Eastern Europe. We analyse the distributional and e? ciency effects of flat tax scenarios for Western European countries. Our simulations show that flat tax rates required to attain revenue...

We use a stylized model to show that, if transfers to the poor are founded on a security argument, there is a negative trade-off between law enforcement expenditures and criminality. In contrast, if transfers are based on altruism, the correlation between the same variables may appear positive....

Dieses Papier betrachtet den Effekt der Umwelt- und Sozialperformance europäischer Unternehmen auf deren Shareholder Value. Der Shareholder Value wird dabei mit der durchschnittlichen monatlichen Aktienrendite zwischen 1996 und 2001 operationalisiert. Die Studie basiert auf zweistufigen...

This paper attempts to answer the question whether the threat of systemic risk in banking exists only on a national or on a European level. Following De Nicolo and Kwast (2001), mean rolling-window correlations between bank stock returns are used as a measure for interdependencies among European...

Der ökonomische und politische Desintegrationsprozeß innerhalb der Russischen Föderation führte zwischen 1990 und 1994 zu einer Halbierung des überregionalen innerrussischen Getreidehandels und deutlichen Rückgängen in der Erzeugung. Aus der europäischen Wirtschaftsgeschichte und den...

This paper aims to shed light on firm specific drivers that lead firms to internationalise their innovation activities. The paper draws a comprehensive picture of driving forces by including firm capabilities, characteristics of the firm’s competitive environment and the influence of...