Several Länder in Germany have introduced, or are about to introduce, tuition fees for higher education. We discuss three hypotheses pertaining to (i) their distributional effects, (ii) their effect on the demand for higher education and study behaviour, and (iii) the competition and financial...

Several Bundesländer in Germany have or are about to introduce tuition fees for higher education. We discuss three hypotheses pertaining to (i) their distributional effects, (ii) their effect on the demand for higher education and study behavior, and (iii) the competition and financial...

In dieser Studie werden Gründungen aus Arbeitslosigkeit der Jahre 2003 und 2004 inklusive der seit Anfang 2003 geförderten Ich-AGs auf repräsentativer empirischer Basis analysiert. Es zeigt sich, dass Gründungen aus Arbeitslosigkeit im Durchschnitt kleiner sind als andere Gründungen und...

This paper examines the use of innovation protection mechanisms in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). By starting from a knowledge-based view the aim is to achieve a better understanding of how the role perceived by innovating SMEs of patent protection and the long-term retention of qualified...

Diese Arbeit befaßt sich mit dem Übergangsverhalten von Abgängern aus der Berufsausbildung in die erste Beschäftigung. Anhand Daten des Sozioökonomischen Panels wird ein Verweildauermodell, für die Zeitspanne zwischen dem Abschluß der Berufsausbildung und dem Eintritt in das erste...

Financial theory creates a puzzle. Some authors argue that high-risk entrepreneurs choose debt contracts instead of equity contracts since risky but high returns are of relatively more value for a loan-financed firm. On the contrary, authors who focus explicitly on start-up finance predict that...

This paper deals with the labor market entrance of young people in the Federal Republic of Germany. The main focus is on failures during this stage. First, an overview of the youth labor market in Germany is given. Then, the transition from vocational training to work is analyzed: The duration...

The paper investigates young firms' choice of capital source. Our theoretical model hypothesizes a positive (negative) relation between riskiness of the project (price of venture capital) and receiving informed equity. We test our predictions by employing a unique data set collected by KfW...

This paper analyzes the importance of equity finance for the R&D activity of small and medium-sized enterprises. We use information on almost 6000 German SMEs from a company survey. Using the intensity of banking competition at the district level as instrument to control for endogeneity, we find...