We study the determinants and productivity effects of regional transportation infrastructure investment in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. We estimate productivity effects with regional production functions for each country controlling for the potential endogeneity of public infrastructure...

In allen Wirtschaftszweigen haben Unternehmen in Europa begonnen, internetgestützte Transaktionen in ihre Geschäftsabläufe zu integrieren. Die Anwendungsmuster unterscheiden sich von Branche zu Branche. Im Dienstleistungssektor hat die Einführung von Informations- und Kommunikationstechniken...

Im Zuge der Föderalismusreform wurden die gesetzlichen Ladenschlussbestimmungen in den meisten deutschen Bundesländern kürzlich gelockert. Dies ist ein Schritt in die richtige Richtung, um einen Anstieg von Produktivität und Wachstum im deutschen Einzelhandel zu bewirken. Allerdings birgt...

Im Jahr 2000 erwirtschafteten deutsche Unternehmen Gewinne, die nach Steuern 2,4 Prozent ihres Umsatzes erreichten. Damit lagen sie in einem 18-Länder-Vergleich an viertschlechtester Stelle. Geringere Nettoumsatzrenditen gab es nur noch in Tschechien, Italien und Polen. Eine tiefer gehende...

In the past decades self-employment has gained in importance in the majority of EU Member States. In particular the proportion of small and one-person businesses shows an increasing trend. In contrast to the classical research into business start-ups, which usually focuses on sustainability in...

Disability insurance - the insurance against the loss of the ability to work - is a substantial part of social security expenditures in many countries. The benefit recipiency rates in disability insurance vary strikingly across European countries and the US. This paper investigates the extent...

In recent years the availability of new industry-level data allowed to evaluate the impact of labour market policies more consistently than previous standard cross-country studies. In this paper an industry-level panel is exploited to evaluate the impact of Employment Protection Legislation...

The interest for household production has grown since the release of the new System of National Accounts in 2008. In this paper we analyse how accounting for own-use production may affect labour statistics. Traditional headcount ratios may not be very informative when employment rates consider...

The precarious employment situation in the EU has given rise to public policies that aim at giving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) better access to finance. SMEs may face difficulties due to information problems and other inefficiencies in loan markets. However, the European evidence...