In light of its importance of innovation on the political agenda it is necessary to provide guidance to decision makers how innovation can effectively be fostered in practice and to disentangle and evaluate the effects of the determinants suggested by the literature. This thesis focuses on the...

Can local industrial policies increase local firm competitiveness? Cluster-oriented policies targeted at selected industries have just such a goal and are very popular among politicians, despite the controversy surrounding these policies in academia. Thus, it would appear useful to discover if...

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...

Die vorliegende Studie wurde im Arbeitsbereich Humankapital und Innovation erstellt und im Dezember 2010 abgeschlossen. Sie wurde durch das Bayerische Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft, Infrastruktur, Verkehr und Technologie gefördert. Gegenstand der Studie ist es, die Innovationstätigkeit von...

Using unique micro-data on German firms, this paper estimates the effect of restrictive bank lending on innovation. In the German three-pillar banking system, comprised of commercial banks, credit unions, and savings banks, firms were differently affected in their ability to raise external debt...

This paper analyzes the escape-entry incentive for innovation by incumbent firms. The threat posed by the possibility of leading-edge firms entering the market influences incumbent innovation. To overcome problems of endogeneity, we apply an instrumental variable approach to analyze a rich...

Can local industrial policies increase local firm competitiveness? Cluster-oriented policies targeted at selected industries have just such a goal and are very popular among politicians, despite the controversy surrounding these policies in academia. Thus, it would appear useful to discover if...

In den letzten beiden Wellen des ifo Innovationstests wurden erstmals Fragenkomplexe zu Ausbildungsstruktur und Kompetenzen der Mitarbeiter der Unternehmen aufgenommen. Erste Auswertungen belegen signifikante Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Humankapital der Unternehmen und ihren...

Der Freistaat Bayern hat im Jahr 1999 mit der High-Tech-Offensive als erstes Bundesland in Deutschland eine landesweite »Clusterpolitik« eingeführt, die insbesondere auf Unternehmen in fünf Technologiefeldern ausgerichtet war. Die Politikmaßnahme sollte die Infrastruktur stärken und damit...