The size of damages awarded in courts underlines the great impact thatindemnification regulations should have on innovation and imitation incentives.Surprisingly from an economic standpoint, however, various calculation methodsfor damages are acknowledged by the law and may be applied in...

Financing constraints have been discussed as a major obstacle to innovation. Small and mediumsized enterprises and start-ups are particularly concerned by such impediments. Venture capital has emerged as a partial solution in some countries, but is only available for start-up firms with major...

This paper studies the effect of regional spillovers on the rate of firm formation in two major West German industries for the time period from 1989 to 1993. I exploit regional variations in firm formation at the county level to identify the effects of historically given industry structure and...