Publikationen der Abteilung Unternehmen und Märkte

A (Re)Municipalization Trend among Energy Utilities: Truth or Myth?

In the 1990s, a number of municipalities started privatizing their energy utilities; in recent years, there has been an intensive debate about whether a paradigm shift has taken place since then. Cities and municipalities have considered putting the energy, water, gas and heat supply back into the hands of public companies; Berlin and Hamburg are two prominent examples. But is there really an overarching ...

EU Competition Policy Enforcement Supports Investment in the Energy Sectors

Energy sectors—primarily power generation and gas production, but also energy transmission and distribution—require significant capital investment in infrastructure. Market structures as well as the degree of competition and regulation are key factors that determine firms’ incentive to invest. Yet the empirical research on the link between these factors and private investment is still quite scarce, ...

Weak Corporate Investment Requires Immediate Action

Although the federal government has been taking steps to strengthen investment in Germany, it remains considerably low. This includes private investment, on which thepresent study focuses. German companies are barely investing more than they did before the crisis, but this is not the case elsewhere: in the US, for example, the level of investment is nearly 14 percent higher than it was in 2007. One ...

Support for Private Research and Development in OECD Countries on the Rise but Increasingly Inefficient

The majority of OECD member states promote companies’ research and development (R&D) activities by providing project funding. Recently, in many countries, tax incentives have also begun to play an increasingly important role. The present study examines the level of R&D support in 18 OECD countries and explores how efficient the system of funding actually is. The main findings show that in the majority ...

German Construction Industry: Refurbishment Lacks Momentum, New Residential Construction Gets Second Wind

The construction industry has been a key pillar of the German economy in recent years. New residential construction played a major part in this with the volume of new construction growing nominally by over 60 percent between 2010 and 2014. The development of construction work on existing residential buildings was less dynamic, however, with just under ten-percent growth between 2010 and 2014. A key ...

No Decline in Investment in Public-Sector Energy and Water Supply

A considerable share of public investment comes not only from public budgets but also from public utility companies. One major area of investment is energy and water supply, where the utility companies have substantial fixed assets in the form of distribution infrastructure. Using new microdata which has not been analyzed before, the present report shows that—unlike with the core public budgets—public ...

Local Public Infrastructure Showing Signs of Wear and Tear

Investment in public infrastructure is essential to ensure competitiveness and create growth potential. Although Germany certainly has a well-developed infrastructure compared to other countries, local public infrastructure has been in decline for many years now. This means that current levels of investment are not sufficient to offset this decline, and the infrastructure is becoming increasingly outdated ...

Overcoming Weaknesses in Municipal Investment

East-West Gap in Private Research, Development, and Innovation in Germany: Research-Intensive Industries and Larger Companies Represented Weakly: Five Questions to Alexander Eickelpasch

Structural Differences at the Root of East-West Gap in Research, Development, and Innovation in Germany

Over the past two decades, research and development (R&D) activities in eastern Germany have increased substantially, albeit to a lesser extent than in western Germany. Furthermore, R&D in eastern Germany was primarily conducted by research in the government sector and less so by universities and businesses. In 2013, overall, R&D activities in eastern Germany reached 86 percent of the western German ...