Need for modernizing financial institutions

As the flow of financial aid from the industrial countries may be expected to shrink rapidly as a consequence of their economic difficulties, the developing countries will have to find out possibilities of using their own financial resources more effectively. In this connection the task of modernizing their financial institutions should not be neglected.     

Determinants of export performance

Comparative advantage, government incentives and entrepreneurial dynamics as determinants of a country’s export performance are discussed in this article. The author’s particular attention is focussed on the present situation and future perspectives of the less developed countries.     

Weltweiter Globalisierungsprozeß erfordert gestaltende Eingriffe der Politik

In der Januarausgabe 2007 des WIRTSCHAFTSDIENST ver?ffentlichten wir einen Aufsatz von Professor Thomas Apolte mit dem Titel „Warum die Politik die Globalisierung nicht liebt“. Hierzu eine Replik von Professor Heiko K?rner und Professor Gisela Kubon-Gilke sowie eine Erwiderung von Professor Thomas Apolte.     

Patent pools,litigation, and innovation

This article analyzes patent pools and their effects on litigation incentives, overall royalty rates, and social welfare when patent rights are probabilistic and can be invalidated in court. With probabilistic patents, the license fees reflect the strength of the patents. We show that patent pools of complementary patents can be used to discourage infringement by depriving potential licensees of the ability to selectively challenge patents and making them committed to a proposition of all‐or‐nothing in patent litigation. If patents are sufficiently weak, patent pools with complementary patents reduce social welfare as they charge higher licensing fees and chill subsequent innovation incentives.     

Rising Income Inequality: Do Not Draw the Obvious Conclusions

Inequality is dominating the political debate in various countries still characterised by sluggish economic recovery and high unemployment. The drivers of higher income inequality since 1995 have been globalisation, technological change and migration. At the same time, these factors have had an undeniably positive impact on aggregate income. While populist parties advocate more nationalistic-oriented approaches, we argue that the appropriate policy response to this dilemma is to alleviate the social costs of globalisation rather than rejecting the aggregate economic benefit.     

The Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Germany

This paper explains individual start-up activities on the basis of both person-related characteristics and the regional context. The analysis is based upon micro data from the GEM adult population survey. Both individual and regional variables have an influence on the decision to become self-employed. There are considerable differences between nascent opportunity entrepreneurship and nascent necessity entrepreneurship. Whereas the results for opportunity entrepreneurship are in line with theoretical predictions the factors influencing necessity entrepreneurship are far more difficult to determine. The most significant change between 2001 and 2003/2004 is the reversal of the influence of a change in the regional rate of unemployment on nascent entrepreneurship activities.