Our study provides evidence for firms' evaluation of location quality. We use a 2004 survey of 6,000 East German firms that contained questions on the importance and assessment of 15 different location factors ranging from closeness to customers and suppliers, transport infrastructure, and...

Ten years after German reunification the economic situation in the new Federal Länder is still unsatisfactory. New approaches are being sought in promotional policy so that the weaknesses that are known or suspected can be better targeted and removed. One of these weaknesses is the lack of...

The paper deals with a new approach in German innovation policy that organizes contests of initiatives for public funds. Based on an overview of the different programs we investigate the advantages and problems of such an approach. We find that this type of policy may have a large impact and...

Die ostdeutsche Wirtschaft hat fast 25 Jahre nach der Wiedervereinigung noch nicht zur westdeutschen Wirtschaft aufgeschlossen. Im Vergleich zu Westdeutschland erreichte die Wirtschaftsleistung der ostdeutschen Bundesländer pro Kopf im Jahr 2013 nur etwas mehr als 70 Prozent. Auch kurz- oder...

Over the past two decades, research and development (R&D) activities in eastern Germany have increased substantially, albeit to a lesser extent than in western Germany. Furthermore, R&D in eastern Germany was primarily conducted by research in the government sector and less so by universities...

Forschung und Entwicklung wurden in Ostdeutschland in den vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnten deutlich ausgeweitet. Die Expansion war aber etwas schwächer als in Westdeutschland und sie konzentrierte sich stark auf die staatlichen und staatlich geförderten Forschungseinrichtungen. Ostdeutsche...

This paper investigates to what extent the R&D behavior of manufacturing companies was influenced by the 2008/09 crisis. Based on a broad official data set for German manufacturing companies, only a few companies that engaged in R&D during 2008 gave it up in the following year. Some companies...