1. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-22 // 1996

    Environmental Policy Instruments and Their Effects on Innovation

    The influence of environmental policy on innovative behaviour of companies has so far recieved little attention in scientific discourse. Based on recent literature, the paper analyses the impact of requirements,…

  2. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-21 // 1996

    Steuer-Klientel-Effekte: Realität oder Illusion ?

    In this article we examine how model selection in neural networks can be guided by statistical procedures such as hypotheses tests,information criteria and cross validation. The application of these methods in…

  3. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-20 // 1996

    Option Pricing Using EGARCH Models

    Various empirical studies have shown that the time-varying volatility of asset returns can be described by GARCH (generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity) models. The corresponding GARCH option…

  4. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-19 // 1996

    Patents and R&D. An Econometric Investigation Using Applications for German, Europeans and US Patents by German Companies

    Based on the data of the first wave of the Mannheim Innovation panel,this paper explores the link between R&D expenditures and patents. Ourdata allow a detailed analysis of the firm size distribution of R&Dand…

  5. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-18 // 1996

    International Trade and Competition Policy

    With the completion of the Uruguay Round of international trade negotiations, attention turns to plausible next steps. One question on the agenda of possibilities is the adoption of competition policies that…

  6. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-17 // 1996

    Price Indexes for PC Database Software and the Value of Code Compatibility

    Changing product quality poses a challenge for the computation of price indexes, in particular in technologically advanced industries. We assess the differences between traditional and quality-corrected indexes…

  7. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-16 // 1996

    Tests of Representative Firm Models: Results from German Manufacturing Industries

    Many studies of producer behavior consider cost and input demand functions derived from microeconomic theory and estimate them on the basis of aggregate data. If firms' characteristics differs, the neglect…

  8. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-14 // 1996

    Employment and Wage Effect of Sicial Security Financing. An Empirical Analysis of the West German Experience and Some Policy Simulations

    This paper follows up recent work on the relationship between (un -- )employment and wage effects of social security financing undertaken by the OECD Jobs Study. Based on a simple macroeconometric model of the…

  9. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-13 // 1996

    The Size Distribution of Profits from Innovation

    The research reported in this paper seeks to determine how skewed the distribution of profits from technological innovation is -- i.e., whether it conforms most closely to the Paretian, log normal, or some other…

  10. ZEW Discussion Paper No. 96-12 // 1996

    Value at Risk: Proposals on a Generalization

    The Value at Risk approach (VaR) is more and more used as a tool for risk measurement. The approach however has shortcomings both from a theoretical and a practical point of view. VaR can be classified within…