Asymmetric international mobility of highly talented scientists is well documented. We try contributing to the explanation of this phenomenon, looking at the “competitiveness” of higher education systems in terms of being able to attract talented scientists in their field. We characterise...

The empirical literature on mergers, market power and collusion in differentiated markets has mainly focused on methods relying on output and/or panel data. In contrast to this literature we suggest a novel approach that allows for the detection of collusive behavior among a group of firms...

A regression analysis has shown that, due to watered-down competition, prices of single-day ski passes are higher by up to 18 percent in regions covered by ski networks than they would be in an independent region. Networking similarly weakens competition when it comes to multi-day passes....

Gross value added grew at a slow rate everywhere in Austria, due to the fact that exports, the traditional drivers of growth, failed as propellant. The brightening of national and international prospects in the second half of the year helped industrial regions, gaining them a slight growth edge...

Due to demographic change an efficient design of publicly funded long-term care services becomes increasingly important. A new law on public care funds (Pflegefondsgesetz) introduced in 2011 gives statutory priority to the extension of mobile home care over residential care. However, according...

The projection of public net expenditure on care services in the Länder (federal states) that are (partially) financed by the social welfare system and the needs-based guaranteed minimum social benefit system takes into account the demographic development, the better health status of elderly...

We augment the existing literature on regional convergence by uncovering a number of stylized facts on the heterogeneity of regional convergence processes in the absence of currency devaluation as a key policy instrument, and use them to highlight reform strategies that are most likely to be...

Given the recent economic problems of southern EU countries that are rooted in lacking competitiveness, this task will summarise existing knowledge on the factors impeding on or facilitating the economic development of peripheral/low income regions in the EU, and discuss policy options to...

The empirical literature on mergers, market power and collusion in differentiated markets has mainly focused on methods relying on output and/or panel data. In contrast to this literature we suggest a novel approach that allows for the detection of collusive behaviour among a group of firms...

The crisis-ridden countries of southern Europe find themselves in a situation comparable to the one of flagging regions within a country: both are members of a currency union – the euro area in the first case, and the common national currency in the second. In both cases, a key policy...