[ D] Firms in Germany curb expenses for innovation due to the economic crisis. After the innovation expenditures increased to a high level of 128.1 billion euro in 2008, a decline by ten percent in 2009 and stagnation on this considerably lower level are to be expected in 2010. Good news is, however, that firms have largely spared the investments for Research and Development as they are especially important for the long-term competitiveness. These are the findings from the recently published Innovation Survey 2009 for Germany. The survey is conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim in collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research and infas (Institute for Applied Social Sciences) by a mandate of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research. read more
"Green IT" is often discussed in the current climate debate. This leads to the impression that companies are influenced by aspects like energy efficiency and environmental protection when using information technologies (IT). The findings of a survey conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim and Creditreform indicate that this is only sometimes the case. The survey analyses around 900 companies with a particularly high usage of IT. read more
Social software will again be an important topic at CeBit 2010. The use of social software applications is still subject of controversial public discussion. Some argue that wikis, blogs and other online social networks for firms distract employees from their jobs. Others consider social software an important impulse for a firm's success. The latter has been proven by a survey conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Mannheim. The survey indicates that service providers using social software applications are more innovative than firms not using social software apps (ZEW Discussion Paper No. 09-046). read more
The unemployment benefits by the government enjoy a high level of approval by the German population. A high percentage of unemployed immigrants does not change this fact. An increase in the percentage of unemployed immigrants by one percentage point lowers the approval of unemployment benefits by the government by only 0.014 points on a scale from zero to five. This is the finding of a study conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. The study analyses the relation between the regional percentage of unemployed immigrants and the general approval of German citizens towards unemployment benefits by the government. read more
In October 11/12, 2010, the first interdisciplinary conference of the Leibniz Network on Real Estate Markets and Capital Markets (ReCapNet) will take place at the ZEW in Mannheim, Germany. This conference is open to all researchers who are interested in the relationship between real estate markets and capital markets. We welcome contributions in finance and economics, as well as in economic and urban geography, regional science, urban development planning, demography, and law.
The deadline for submission of extended abstracts or full papers is July 31, 2010: conference@recapnet.org Further Information and Call for Papers
The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, Germany, is holding its 8th conference on "The Economics of Information and Communication Technologies" on July 2-3, 2010. The conference objective is to discuss recent scientific contributions to the economics of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the economics of ICT industries. Theoretical, empirical, experimental and policy oriented contributions are welcome.
The deadline for submission of full papers is March 15, 2010: ict-conference@zew.de read more
The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and the University of Mannheim are jointly organising the second conference on "Recent Developments in Macroeconomics" on June 24 and 25, 2010 in Mannheim, Germany.
The conference programme will include keynote addresses as well as presentations of contributed papers. In particular, we encourage the submission of papers that deal with the impact of the financial crisis on the real economy. An additional focus will be on economic integration, fiscal policy, macroeconometrics, labour markets and macroeconomic aspects of climate change. Submissions of papers in other areas are encouraged as well.
We invite the submission of theoretical as well as empirical work. Contributions must be submitted electronically as a PDF file until April 15, 2010 to: macro-conference@zew.de, the decision on acceptance will be reached no further than May 1, 2010. read more
