Die Kontrolle staatlicher Subventionen in Europa hat eine bewegte Geschichte: Bis in die 1970er haben viele europäische Staaten ausgiebig Subventionspolitik betrieben, die nach heutigen Regeln kaum möglich gewesen wären. Mit der Vertiefung des europäischen Binnenmarktes gegen Ende der 1980er und Anfang der 1990er wurden zunehmend europäische Normen für die staatliche Beihilfe-politik auf nationaler Ebene durchgesetzt. Diese Studie untersucht insbesondere die Auswirkungen der Ost-Erweiterung der Europäischen Union im Jahr 2004 auf die Unabhängigkeit der Europäischen Beihilfekontrolle. Hierfür werden neben quantitativen auch qualitative Analysen in Form von Case Studies genutzt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass in den vergangenen Jahren ein einheitliches Level Playing Field zwischen den Mitgliedsstaaten entstanden ist. Auch der Status des EU Kommissars für Wettbewerb zeigt sich als stark und unabhängig und – bis auf wenige Ausnahmen - weitgehend frei von nationaler Einflussnahm.

The recent increase in R&D offshoring have raised fears that knowledge and competitiveness in advanced countries may be at risk of 'hollowing out'. At the same time, economic research has stressed that this process is also likely to allow some reverse technology transfer and foster growth at home. This paper addresses this issue by investigating the extent to which R&D offshoring is associated with productivity dynamics of European regions. We find that offshoring regions have higher productivity growth, but this positive effect fades down with the number of investment projects carried out abroad. A large and positive correlation emerge between the extent of R&D offshoring and the home region productivity growth, supporting the idea that carrying out R&D abroad strengthen European competitiveness.

In recent decades, the international division of labor has expanded rapidly in the wake of European integration. In this context, especially Western European high-wage countries should have specialized on (human-)capital intensively manufactured goods and should have increasingly sourced labor-intensively manufactured goods, especially parts and components, from Eastern European low wage countries. Since this should be beneficial for the high-skilled and harmful to the lower-qualified workforce in high-wage countries, the opening up of Eastern Europe is often considered as a vital reason for increasing unemployment of the lower-qualified in Western Europe. This paper addresses this issue by analyzing the skill content of Western European countries’ bilateral trade using input-output techniques in order to evaluate possible effects of international trade on labor demand. Thereby, differences in factor inputs and production technologies have been considered, allowing for vertical product differentiation. In this case, skill content of bilateral exports and imports partially differs substantially, especially in bilateral trade between Western and Eastern European countries. According to the results, East-West trade should be harmful particularly to the medium-skilled in Western European countries.

Das Halle Forum on Urban Economic Growth findet seit 2006 im zweijährigen Rhythmus am IWH statt. Die Tagung vom 29. und 30. November 2012 befasste sich mit Problemen der Entwicklung mittel- und osteuropäischer Städte. Thematisch umfassten die Vorträge ein breites Spektrum, in dessen Mitte die Frage nach der Wirkung formeller und informeller Institutionen auf die Stadtentwicklung stand. Sie verstand sich damit gleichzeitig als Auftaktveranstaltung des multinational angelegten IWH-Projekts „The Economic Re-positioning of Post-socialist Cities (RePoCit) – Institutional Settings, Local Strategies and Urban Economic Growth“.

Islamic finance is based on ethical principles in line with Islamic religious law. Despite its low share of the global financial market, Islamic finance has been one of this sector's fastest growing components over the last decades and has gained further momentum in the wake of the financial crisis. The paper examines the development of and possible prospects for Islamic finance, with a special focus on Europe. It compares Islamic and conventional finance, particularly as concerns risks associated with the operations of respective institutions, as well as corporate governance. The paper also analyses empirical evidence comparing Islamic and conventional financial institutions with regard to their: (i) efficiency and profitability; and (ii) stability and resilience. Finally, the paper considers the conduct of monetary policy in an Islamic banking context. This is not uncomplicated given the fact that interest rates - normally a cornerstone of monetary policy - are prohibited under Islamic finance. Liquidity management issues are thus discussed here, with particular reference to the euro area.

The introduction of the Euro has been accompanied by the hope that international competition between EMU member states would increase due to higher price transparency. This paper contributes to the literature by analyzing price elasticities in international trade flows between Germany and France and between Germany and the United Kingdom before and after the introduction of the Euro. Using disaggregated Eurostat trade statistics, we adopt a heterogeneous dynamic panel framework for the estimation of price elasticities. We suggest a Kalman-filter approach to control for unobservable quality changes which otherwise would bias estimates of price elasticities. We divide the complete sample, which ranges from 1995 to 2008, into two sub-samples and show that price elasticities in trade between EMU members did not change substantially after the introduction of the Euro. Hence, we do not find evidence for an increase in international price competition resulting from EMU.

Trotz fortschreitender Internationalisierung ist das Gros technologischer Aktivitäten multinationaler Unternehmen in den Konzernzentralen angesiedelt, die sich in den führenden Industrienationen befinden. Allerdings führen multinationale Unternehmen zunehmend Innovationen sowie Forschung und Entwicklung (FuE) auch an ausländischen Standorten durch. In diesem Kontext steigt auch die Bedeutung nachholender Ökonomien als Standorte für FuE sowie Innovation. Dies gilt nicht nur für die rasch wachsenden Wirtschaften Chinas und Indiens sondern auch für die mittel- und osteuropäischen Transformationsökonomien in der Europäischen Union.

Innovation systems abroad become more and more important to multinational enterprises (MNEs) as sources of knowledge and technology. On the other hand, MNEs’ foreign subsidiaries can be considered agents of technological and economic development in their target location region. Applying a logit estimation, this discussion paper investigates which firm- and region-specific determinants influence cooperations in the area of research and development (R&D) between the foreign subsidiary and the regional innovation system. Results suggest that especially the foreign subsidiary’s mandate in terms of R&D and management, its size and the regional knowledge stock are positively associated with these co-operations. The analysis focuses on posttransition economies, using the example of five selected CEE countries and East Germany. We exploit a unique dataset – the IWH FDI Micro Database – which holds information on 1,245 foreign subsidiaries in this region.

Structural Funds are the main instrument of the EU Cohesion Policy. Their effective use is subject to an ongoing debate in political and scientific circles. European fiscal assistance under this heading should promote economic and social cohesion in the member states of the European Union. Recently the domestic institutional capacity to absorb, to distribute and to invest Structural Funds effectively has become a crucial determinant of the cohesion process and has attracted attention of the scientific community. The aim of this study is to shed light on the effectiveness of Structural Funds in the countries of the first Central and Eastern European enlargement round in 2004. Using regional data for these countries we have a look on the impact of several institutional governance variables on the effectiveness of Structural Funds. In the interpretation of results reference is made to regional economics. Results of the empirical analysis indicate an influence of certain institutional variables on the effectiveness of Structural Funds in the new member states.

In 2012, economic growth was low in most regions of the world. In the euro area, production has been shrinking since the end of 2011, and the British economy barely stagnated in 2012. In the US, anxieties about the fiscal course in 2013 have dampened the recovery at the end of the year. The Japanese economy appears to be falling back into recession, as exports have been falling since summer due to weak demand from Europe and China. In important emerging economies such as China, India, and Brazil, expansion slowed already in 2011. Growth of world trade is, with about 2 ½ % in 2012, particularly slow. Recent data about container turnovers do not indicate a recovery of trade at the end of the year.