Using unique panel data on German manufacturing firms this paper shows the development of the bank's willingness to lend to businesses during the financial crisis and its effect on firm innovations. Due to differences in business practices commercial banks, credit unions and savings banks in...

If one cluster increases local competitiveness, can politicians, by interlinking clusters, achieve an even better effect at the state level? To answer this question, the paper analyzes the Cluster Initiative" introduced in 1999 by the Bavarian State Government. The purpose of the initiative was...