ZEW Discussion Papers

This paper investigates whether and in what sense the west German wage structure has been ‘rigid’ in the 1990s. To test the hypothesis that a rigid wage structure has been responsible for rising low-skilled…

This paper considers the effect of different firm leaderships on the innovative performance of firms from seven EU countries. We investigate whether owner-led or manager-led firms achieve a larger share of their…

This paper investigates under which conditions firms use fixed-term contracts, subcontracted and freelance work. Using a probit model which accounts for unobserved heterogeneity, we find that positive changes in…

This paper analyzes the relationship between investment in information and communication technology (ICT),non –ICT –investment,labor productivity and workplace reorganization. Firms are assumed to reorganize…

This paper derives a three stage Cournot–oligopoly game for product innovation, expenditure on introducing the product and competition on the product market. Product innovation is assumed to increase consumer…

This study provides new stylized facts on the determinants of corporate failure and acquisition in Germany. It also offers important lessons for the design of empirical studies. We show that firms experiencing…

This paper presents estimates of the unification bonus for East Germans over the period 1991 to 1998. The unification bonus is defined as the discounted value of the difference between a person’s actual income…

This paper focuses on two aspects being neglected in the analysis of agglomeration tendencies so far. First, it regards regional agglomeration patterns and secondly, the allocation of capital across industrial…