Suchergebnisse

Industrial research in East Germany mostly takes place in small and medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and non-profit external industrial research institutions, whereas in West Germany industrial research mainly takes place in large companies. The German Federal government, along with Länder governments, subsidize industrial research in East Germany-within the framework of technology neutral public support programmes-spending about half a billion EUR annually. This approach, which subsidizes a broad spectrum of product and process innovations through project grants, has been proven, by and large, successful. Publicly supported industrial SMEs increased employment, gained access to new markets, as well as improved their productivity and profit situation. This is the finding of a study for the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology conducted by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). In order to promote the growth of East German businesses, priority should be placed on research and development (R&D) and innovation. For this reason, the German government-which has expanded SMEs support to West Germany-needs to continue preference to East Germany.

In 1998, the left-of-center government of Hungary carved out a second pillar mandatory private pension system from the original mono-pillar public system. Participation in the mixed system was optional for those who were already working, but mandatory for new entrants to the workforce. About 50 per cent of the workforce joined voluntarily and another 25 per cent were mandated to do so by law between 1999 and 2010. The private system has not produced miracles: either in terms of the financial stability of the social security system, or greatly improved social security in old age. Moreover, the international financial and economic crisis has highlighted the transition costs of pre-funding. Rather than rationalizing the system, the current conservative government de facto "nationalized" the second pillar in 2011 and is to use part of the released capital to compensate for tax reductions.