Maintaining the innovation capabilities of firms, employees and institutions is a key component for the generation of sustainable growth, employment, and high income in industrial societies. Gaining insights into the German innovation system and the institutional framework is as important to policy making as is data on the endowment of the German economy with factors fostering innovation and their recent development. Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research has repeatedly commissioned reports on the competitive strength of the German innovation system since the mid-eighties. The considerable attention that the public and the political, administrative and economic actors have paid to these reports in the past few years proves the strong interest in the assessment of and indicators for the dynamics behind innovation activities. The present study closely follows the pattern of those carried out before. It has been extended, however, to include an extensive discussion on indicators for technological performance and an outline of the key features of the German innovation system.

Commissioned and brought tohgether for the research project by the world-renowned Council on Foreign Relations, the authors have produced an important compendia in applied economics.

The process of firms’ growth – in terms of productivity or employment – is a major concern of policy makers. In this context, innovations are considered to play a crucial role in stimulating firms’ performance. This book investigates this general hypothesis by looking at three topics: 1. Does innovation lead to an increase in employment growth? 2. Does innovation boost labour productivity? 3. Does innovation in one period improve innovation performance in subsequent periods?

This book examines steadily-growing increases in inequality within Western capitalist democracies, examining with care the differences between these democracies rooted in their culture and institutions. It highlights the differences in growth and inequalities between different countries, pointing to the role of endogenous institutions that affect social inequalities as well as the relationship between redistribution and economic growth. The book presents extensive comparative research on institutional factors such as industrial relations, welfare systems, training and innovation policies. Paying attention to diverse types of democracies and to the main features of left-wing parties, the book highlights the importance of politics, and of different types of democracies, in shaping social inequalities and diverse development paths. It will appeal to students and scholars interested in economic and labour sociology, welfare studies, comparative political economy, comparative welfare, varieties of capitalism, and comparative politics. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Information technology accounts for over one-third of recent U.S. GDP growth and nearly two-thirds of corporate capital investment. ''The New Economy'' appears omnipresent, but little is actually known about its workings. This seminal volume brings together the research and critical thinking of many of the world's top macro and micro economists to provide a unique, multifaceted perspective. Through the use of detailed, up-to-date country and industry studies, this book provides the most authoritative and detailed analysis ever assembled into the causes of technological innovation and its relationship to economic performance. The country studies cover the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the Nordic states. Nine industry studies examine the Internet, computers and semiconductors, banking, securities trading, venture capital, energy, agricultural biotechnology, pharmaceutical biotechnology, and automobiles. Commissioned and brought together for the research project by the world-renowned Council on Foreign Relations, the authors have produced one of the most important compendia in applied economics to be published in recent times. The contributors are Charles Calomiris, Ian Domowitz, Robert Evenson, Charles Fine, Robert Gordon, Richard Langlois, Josh Lerner, Markku Malkamäki, Patrick Messerlin, Joel Mokyr, David Mowery, Richard R. Nelson, Stephen Nickell, Gary Pisano, Adam Posen, Daniel Raff, Horst Siebert, Timothy Simcoe, Benn Steil, Michael Stolpe, John Van Reenen, David Victor, and Matti Virén.

German economic performance has astonished the world. At the turn of the century, Germany had been written off as the sick man of Europe. No more. Even as most of its European neighbors and OECD trading partners have struggled in the face of a turbulent global economy, the German economy has thrived. How does Germany do it? What is the secret? In The Seven Secrets of Germany, authors David Audretsch and Erik Lehmann answer these very questions. This book reveals, explains, and analyzes seven key aspects of Germany, its economy, and its society that have provided the nation with considerable buoyance in an era of global turbulence. These seven features range from the key and strategic role played by small firms to world leadership in its skilled and trained labor force, an ability to harness global opportunities through leveraging local resources, public infrastructure, the capacity to deal with change and confront challenges in a flexible manner, and the emergence of a remarkably positive identity and image. The Seven Secrets of Germany have insulated the country from long-term economic deterioration and enabled it to take advantage of the opportunities afforded from globalization rather than succumbing as a victim to globalization. This insights can be instructive to other countries and refute the defeatist view that globalization leads to an inevitable deterioration of the standard of living, quality of life, and degree of economic prosperity.

The main objective of this book has been to carry out research into the definition of industrial policy and its goals; to evaluate previously-introduced policies and instruments; and to identify the future challenges for and features of a modern EU industrial policy. A modern industrial policy is seen as a non-traditional policy towards the industrial sector, based not necessarily on only the elimination of market failures (within the sectoral and/or horizontal approaches), but rather on the expanding the scope of industrial economic activities within the framework of both the pre- and post-fabrication stages. The book targets three market segments: academics; policy and decision-makers at the EU, national and regional level, as well as business practitioners. It includes a wide-ranging analysis of different spheres of industrial policies conducted within the European Union, making it of interest to an international audience. Each chapter also offers detailed and valuable comments, as well as conclusions that can be generally applied, ensuring the book’s universality. The book presents the results of a research project conducted in the Collegium of World Economy at the Warsaw School of Economics.