The concept of institutional complementarity – i.e. the idea that the co-existence of two or more institutions enhances the functioning of each – is increasingly used to explain why institutions are resistant to change and why introducing new institutions into a system often leads to...

To understand how the welfare state adjusts to economic shocks it is important to explain both the genesis of popular preferences and the institutional incentives of governments to respond to these preferences. This paper attempts to do both, using a general theoretical framework and detailed...

Der Begriff des Wachstumsunternehmens steht für eine der wichtigsten industriepolitischen Weichenstellungen im Deutschland der 90er Jahre. Um die Innovations- und Wachstumseffekte des typischen Hightech-Unternehmens des Silicon Valleys erschließen zu können, wurde versucht, institutionelle...

One of the more prominent recent failures in institutional innovation in Germany was the Neuer Markt (1997-2003), a special segment of the Frankfurt stock exchange designed for high-growth companies. Based in part on insights from the law and economics approach to agency theory, which emphasizes...

This paper presents a set of panel data to study the diffusion of retail checkout barcode scanning in ten European countries over the period 1981-1996. Estimates from a standard diffusion model suggest that countries differ most in the long-run diffusion level of barcode scanning and less in...

This paper examines the chances for immigrants on the European job market. The data represents a one percent sample of the German population of the Micro census for the years 1998, 2000 and 2003 and Eurostat Labour Force Survey data. The issue addressed is how the academic and occupational level...

Mergers that substantially lessen competition are challenged by antitrust authorities. Instead of blocking anticompetitive transitions straight away, authorities might choose to negotiate with the merging parties and allow the transactions to proceed with modifications that restore or preserve...

The domestic airline merger phenomenon of the late 1980s and early 1990s sparked a great deal of Industrial Organization (IO) literature; yet, that literature neglected non-US domestic mergers and potential for international competitive gains. Using an International Business perspective to...

This paper proposes an explanation as to why some mergers fail, based on the interaction between the pre-merger gathering of information and the postmerger integration processes. Rational managers acting in the interest of shareholders may still lead their firms into unsuccessfully integrated...

Governments in the EU grant Rescue and Restructure Subsidies to bail out ailing firms. In an international asymmetric Cournot duopoly we study effects of such subsidies on market structure and welfare. We adopt a common market setting, where consumers from the two countries form one market. We...