The impact of the provision of public infrastructures on regional economic development in Germany

The present paper presents an analysis of the impact of public infrastructure capital on regional economic developments in Germany. After presenting some descriptive statistical data on the economies of the 11 regions in (West) Germany a simple theoretical model of a cost-minimizing firm is presented in which the stock of public capital is included as a proxy for public services provided to firms as a fixed unpaid factor of production. Duality theory is used to recover the productivity effects of public infrastructures by calculating the cost-saving effects that are associated with public services. It is shown that these cost-saving effects work their way through adjustments in the demand for private inputs. Using a translog cost 'function we present panel estimates for the 11 federal states of (West) Germany with labour, structures and equipment as private factors of production. The results strongly indicate that public capital formation encourages private investment. In addition, it is demonstrated empirically that with respect to private capital a distinction between structures and equipment is of crucial importance because the effects on the former are of far greater importance than the effects on the latter. --

Assimilation, labour market experience, and earnings profiles of temporary and permanent immigrant workers in germany

We test the assimilation hypothesis as initially proposed by Chiswick (1978) by making. use of a rich panel dataset for Germany which allows us to control for unobserved population heterogeneity and potential selectivity bias arising from an individual's re-migration decision and employment behaviour. To take into account the institutional aspects of the German guest-worker system we use information on an immigrant's expected duration of stay in Germany to distinguish between temporary and permanent migrants and to test for differences in earnings/experience profiles with respect to a foreigner's expected duration of stay. We find that years of schooling in Germany have a strong positive effect on earnings, that earnings/experience profiles of guest-workers differ by expected duration of stay, and that the renumeration of labour market experience in Germany is higher for natives than for most foreigners. The assimilation hypothesis is therefore not supported by the evidence for Germany. --

Patents and R&D: an econometric investigation using applications for German, European 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. Our data allow a detailed analysis of the firm size distribution of R&D and patent applications at different patent offices. It is shown that the share of R&D performing firms is strictly increasing with firm size. The share of firms applying for patents shows an even steeper increase with firm size. Moreover, large firms more likely apply for patents in more than one country. The home patent office seems to be especially important for small firms. Using various count data models, the paper explores the relationship between R&D and patents at the firm level. We carefully test several distributional assumptions for count data models. A negbin hurdle model seems to be the most appropriate count data model for our data as the decision to patent inventions and the productivity of R&D are ruled by different mechanisms. Our estimates point towards significant returns to scale of R&D. Furthermore, the empirical results can be interpreted towards minor and insignificant spillover effects. Even after controlling for a variety of firm characteristics, firm size exhibits a large effect on the propensity to patent. --

Innovation and Information Technology in Services

The missing effect of investments of firms in information and communication technologies on productivity is studied by various recent papers (e.g. Oliner and Sichels 1994, Landauer 1995, Brynjolfsson and Hitt 1996). Several explanations are given for this missing link. Our paper deals with two of them, using two newly available data sets for the German service sector. Using data from a survey of innovative activities in services we show that investment in information technology (IT) has a stronger effect on the quality of services than on the productivity of the IT-using firm. IT investment seems to be especially effective when innovations enhance the delivery speed and the spatial or temporal availability of service. Moreover, data of the German IT survey point towards the need to differentiate between types of IT investment. It is shown that especially the most recent generation of IT as indicated by the number of PCs used is the source of productivity growth whereas traditional IT like mainframes exhibit only minor productivity effects. We conclude from our results that mismeasurement of the quality of new products and processes is one important reason for our inability to uncover the productivity effect of IT. Moreover, dividing IT-investment by the type of IT clarifies that the kind of IT a firm uses is more important for productivity growth what than its quantity. In any case we expect that the bulk of the IT-related productivity growth is still to come. In order to realize the benefits from IT investment entirely, firms have to undergo a large restructuring of business functions. --Information Technology,Productivity,Service Sector

Regional productivity growth and investments in public infrastructure: the case of Germany

This paper examines whether the productivity growth in the West-German states is influenced by the provision of public infrastructure. Medium-term labour productivity growth and output growth varies a lot between German states. This differences are more pronounced during the eighties. The traditional total factor productivity shows a smaller difference than labour productivity. The regional differences in the productivity growth rates can only partly be attributed to the differences in factor input growth. We estimate a translog-cost-function for the period 1970-1988 for 11 German states using a three-equation fixed-effects panel data model. We show that there are important cost-saving effects that are associated with public services. Likewise, the demand for labour, and the private investment demand for structures and equipment is effected by public capital goods. Our estimates indicate that public capital formation encourages private investment. This effect is especially strong with respect to the private demand for structures. These results confirm that regional or urban economic growth can be forstered by the government by public investment. --

High-Tech-Gründungen in Deutschland: Trends, Strukturen, Potenziale

Das Projekt verfolgt folgende Zielsetzungen: Untersuchung der Anzahl und Entwicklung von Unternehmensgründungen im Hightech-Sektor - unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Hersteller und Anwender von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) und Software - in Deutschland sowie Analyse der regionalen Verteilung der Hightech-Gründungen, Untersuchung der Merkmale von Hightech-Gründern (Bildungsabschluss, Berufserfahrung in Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft) und der von ihnen gegründeten Unternehmen (Größe, Wachstum, FuE-Beteiligung, Innovationsaktivität), Analyse von Hemmnissen und Erfolgsfaktoren der Entwicklung von Hightech-Gründungen sowie ihrer Zukunftsperspektiven und Risiken. Für die empirischen Analysen werden unterschiedliche Datenbasen herangezogen: Den Ausgangspunkt bildet das ZEW-Gründungspanel, das zur Beschreibung der quantitativen Entwicklung und regionalen Verteilung von Hightech-Gründungen in Deutschland dient. Zur Untersuchung der Merkmale, Hemmnisse, Erfolgsfaktoren und Risiken wird eine telefonische Befragung von 1.000 Hightech-Gründungen in Deutschland durchgeführt, die auf einer Stichprobe aus dem ZEW-Gründungspanel basiert. Ergänzend wird eine Analyse der einschlägigen Literatur durchgeführt

Patents and R&D: an econometric investigation using applications for German, European 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. Our data allow a detailed analysis of the firm size distribution of R&D and patent applications at different patent offices. It is shown that the share of R&D performing firms is strictly increasing with firm size. The share of firms applying for patents shows an even steeper increase with firm size. Moreover, large firms more likely apply for patents in more than one country. The home patent office seems to be especially important for small firms. Using various count data models, the paper explores the relationship between R&D and patents at the firm level. We carefully test several distributional assumptions for count data models. A negbin hurdle model seems to be the most appropriate count data model for our data as the decision to patent inventions and the productivity of R&D are ruled by different mechanisms. Our estimates point towards significant returns to scale of R&D. Furthermore, the empirical results can be interpreted towards minor and insignificant spillover effects. Even after controlling for a variety of firm characteristics, firm size exhibits a large effect on the propensity to patent

Das Mannheimer Innovationspanel

Im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Forschung und Technologie führt das ZEW seit 1993 im Rahmen des Projektes 'Erhebungen zur Beschreibung des Innovationsverhaltens der deutschen Wirtschaft' umfangreiche Unternehmensbefragungen durch. Mit dem Mannheimer Innovationspanel wird in mehrfacher Hinsicht Neuland - zumindest für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland - betreten. Erstmals wird ein für die alten und die neuen Länder repräsentatives Unternehmenspanel aufgebaut, das neben dem Verarbeitenden Gewerbe auch Unternehmen aus einer Reihe weiterer Wirtschaftszweige umfaßt. Die erste Welle des MIP stellt gleichzeitig die deutsche Teilerhebung der in allen EG-Ländern durchgeführten 'Community Innovation Survey' dar. Der Fragebogen wurde im OECD-Rahmen und darüber hinaus noch enger innerhalb der EG harmonisiert. Damit werden in Kürze international vergleichbare Mikrodaten zur Analyse des Innovationsgeschehens zur Verfügung stehen

Business angels : crucial elements of the European financial ecosystem

Europa steht vor einem Innovationsrätsel. Trotz hoher Forschungsinvestitionen und marktführender Unternehmen in vielen Branchen, gehen disruptive und radikale Innovationen meist nicht von europäischen Start-ups aus. Ein Grund dafür sind finanzielle Engpässe. Den meisten innovativen jungen Unternehmen gelingt es nicht, institutionelle Förderer oder Risikokapitalgeber für ihre Geschäftsidee zu gewinnen, weshalb das Wachstumspotential europäischer Startup-Unternehmen häufig nicht vollständig ausgeschöpft wird. Business Angels – private Investoren, die junge Unternehmen mit Kapital und Erfahrung unterstützen – könnten diese finanzielle Förderungslücke schließen und somit einen wichtigen Beitrag leisten, um die Innovationstätigkeit in Europa anzukurbeln. Über die Investitionstätigkeit von Business Angels in Europa ist derzeit allerdings relativ wenig bekannt. Dieser Policy Brief fasst aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse des Zentrums für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) zusammen, beschreibt Entwicklungen im deutschen und europäischen Markt für Business Angels und diskutiert mögliche Maßnahmen, die darauf abzielen, die Entwicklung des Marktes für Investitionen durch Business Angels zu fördern

Assimilation, labour market experience, and earnings profiles of temporary and permanent immigrant workers in germany

We test the assimilation hypothesis as initially proposed by Chiswick (1978) by making. use of a rich panel dataset for Germany which allows us to control for unobserved population heterogeneity and potential selectivity bias arising from an individual's re-migration decision and employment behaviour. To take into account the institutional aspects of the German guest-worker system we use information on an immigrant's expected duration of stay in Germany to distinguish between temporary and permanent migrants and to test for differences in earnings/experience profiles with respect to a foreigner's expected duration of stay. We find that years of schooling in Germany have a strong positive effect on earnings, that earnings/experience profiles of guest-workers differ by expected duration of stay, and that the renumeration of labour market experience in Germany is higher for natives than for most foreigners. The assimilation hypothesis is therefore not supported by the evidence for Germany