Topic Research and Development

Addressing the Weaknesses of the EU Economy through Competitionand Industrial Policy

The European Union's economy is at a crossroads, facing challenges that threaten its competitiveness, long-term growth, and security. Despite a strong industrial base and high potential in innovation-driven sectors, the EU has yet to fully capitalise on its strengths.

Are M&As Spurring or Stifling Innovation? Evidence from Antidiabetic Drug Development

This paper provides empirical evidence on which M&A deals spur innovation, and which stifle it. To do so, we consider not only the product market position of the acquiring firm, but also the position of both target and acquirer in the technology space. Focusing on the antidiabetic drugs market, our dataset tracks the lifecycle and patenting of all individual antidiabetic projects in development between ...

Environmentally-Responsible Households: Irresponsible Corporate Lobbying

How do firms respond to greener household preferences? We construct a novel index of environmental willingness to act on the state-quarter level based on Google Trends search data. Relating the index to firm-level information on the U.S. auto- motive sector from 2006 to 2019, we find ambiguous results. On average, firms innovate more in electric, hydrogen, and hybrid (clean) technologies and reduce ...

The Reliability of Replications: A Study in Computational Reproductions

This study investigates researcher variability in computational reproduction, an activity for which it is least expected. Eighty-five independent teams attempted numerical replication of results from an original study of policy preferences and immigration. Reproduction teams were randomly grouped into a ‘transparent group’ receiving original study and code or ‘opaque group’ receiving only a method ...

Mapping the Economy: 100 Years of DIW Berlin ; 1925-2025

Power Generation from Nuclear Fusion Not Expected in the Foreseeable Future: Applied Research Developing Dynamically

Research into nuclear fusion for military purposes has been regularly conducted since the 1940s. However, the idea of being able to use nuclear power for power generation within mere decades has not come to fruition. While some successes have been highlighted by the media, such as the experiments at the National Ignition Facility in California at the end of 2022, the main problems remain as challenging ...

Workshop on Entrepreneurship and Management

In the workshop on entrepreneurship and management at DIW Berlin, scientists discuss research results from the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation and management. The two-day event includes presentations and discussions on entrepreneurial human capital, the impact of technological progress on companies, strategies for the resilience of startups and the dynamics of innovation.

Growing Clean? Directing Technological Change in Germany

The emerging net zero paradigm requires economies to go green; and Europe’s ambition is to lead the way. This requires directing technological change toward cleaner growth, which intersects with green industrial policies in the form of green innovation subsidies. Leveraging a quasi-exhaustive novel dataset on German R&D subsidies, we provide rigorous evidence on whether green R&D subsidies...

Entrepreneurs and Their Impact on Jobs and Economic Growth: Updated

Entrepreneurs, creators of new firms, are a rare species. Even in innovation-driven economies, only 1–2% of the work force starts a business in any given year. Yet entrepreneurs, particularly innovative entrepreneurs, are vital to the competitiveness of the economy and may establish new jobs. The gains of entrepreneurship are only realized, however, if the business environment is receptive to innovation. ...

The Evolution of "Theories of Harm" in EU Merger Control

We discuss the main theories of harm in EU merger control and their evolution since the 1990s. We present stylized facts and trends using data extracted from EU merger decisions by natural language processing tools. EU merger policy has adapted over time, both in terms of legislation and theories of harm, as well as in terms of the investigative tools and evidence used. The introduction of the new ...