This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 presents new empirical evidence and
a theoretical framework, which suggests that firing costs impede human capital …

This paper examines a labor market in which inventors and firms interact, and its
implications for the allocation of inventors across firms, knowledge diffusion, and productivity …

Background Over the last decades, the need for extensive data in the social sciences has
increased considerably. At the same time, public data producers were already collecting …

This dissertation consists of three independent essays on international economics. First, I
examine how the geographic distribution of innovation determines aggregate productivity …

Innovation is the driving factor behind technological change and economic growth (Romer
[1990], Aghion and Howitt [1992]). According to the Romer [1990] model, short-term …

I causally estimate spatial knowledge spillovers in Research and Development (R&D) and
quantify their importance for R&D policies. Using a new administrative panel on German …

As most countries exhibit vast differences in income across their cities and regions, the shift
from industry to knowledge-based growth has led to an increase in global competition in …