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Carbon emissions from German manufacturing have increased over the past decade, while carbon intensity (emissions per Euro of gross output) has declined only slightly. We decompose changes in emissions between 2005 and 2017 into scale, composition (changes in the mix of goods produced) and technology (emission factors of production) effects. We find evidence that the production composition in the German manufacturing sector is increasingly shifting towards less carbon intensive products. However, we also find evidence to suggest that the energy intensity of production has increased. These results are largely driven by a few energy intensive sectors.

The manufacturing sector accounts for a substantial share of German GDP, employment and carbon emissions. Therefore, the manufacturing sector’s energy use and carbon emissions are of crucial importance for reaching Germany’s climate goals. In this paper, we analyse energy use patterns in German manufacturing between 2003 and 2014, using rich administrative micro-data. We find that although the manufacturing sector has been faced with rising energy costs as a share of total costs, energy use has not declined except briefly during the economic crisis. We also find that energy intensity in the manufacturing sector has not decreased substantially. In contrast, carbon intensity has fallen slightly between 2003 and 2014. This can be attributed to changes in the fuel mix.

The hedonic pricing method has been used extensively to obtain implicit prices for availability of urban green space, but few have obtained households' preference parameters. We elicit preferences and estimate willingness to pay functions for park availability in Copenhagen using an approach that places identifying restrictions on the utility function. We do this for two different measures of park availability and examine sources of preference heterogeneity. We find that the implicit price of another hectare of park within a 1000 m radius is 53.25 EUR per ha per year for the average apartment corresponding to an increase in annual rent of 0.33% per additional ha. For reducing distance to the nearest park by a meter, the price is 0.59 EUR per meter per year, corresponding to an increase in annual rent of 0.03‰ per meter. We apply our results to a policy scenario reducing the park area available in an area of central Copenhagen and show how estimates of aggregate welfare changes are highly sensitive to the measure of park availability applied. The findings stress the importance of paying attention to how public goods are defined when undertaking welfare economic policy analyses.

This paper explores a newly emerging source of data on the occurrence and spread of innovations drawn from descriptions of goods and services in the US trademark register. Using these data we describe patterns of regional innovation in the United States and study the effect of distance on the early diffusion of innovations. To identify innovations and their locations we tokenize trademark descriptions and identify novel, fast spreading tokens (words). While trademarks appear to capture many innovations missed in patents, among tokens that co-occur in patent documents the diffusion dynamics for patents and trademarks are similar. We also find that fast growing new tokens are frequently new to English, and their use in language co-evolves with the frequency of linked patents and trademarks. Finally, we show that regional incidence of new tokens parallels patterns of inventive activity reflected in patent data. We exploit occurrence of new trademark tokens to re-examine how spatial distance affects the diffusion of innovations in the U.S. economy. Aggregating innovations at the year and census tract level we estimate Poisson models of diffusion intensity between locations, revealing persistent, strong and negative effects of distance on the intensity of diffusion between locations within the US.

We analyze housing markets in a suburb north of the Danish capital Copenhagen. There the concentration of affluent households decreases rapidly with distance to nature. This indicates systematic differences in preferences that are highly correlated with demographics. We assess if and to what extent this is the case by conducting a second-stage hedonic house price study, where we recover household-specific preferences for the availability of peri-urban nature. Preference parameters are identified locally through restrictions on household utility functions. We assess the relationship between demographic factors and household Willingness To Pay for nature availability across the Willingness To Pay distribution. The results of the analysis show that households paid on average 968 EUR per year for the level of peri-urban nature they have available from their home. In extreme cases, some households paid more than seven times the average amount. Willingness To Pay for peri-urban nature increases with income and wealth across the entire population. However, an increase in income will increase Willingness To Pay more for households at the lower end of the willingness to pay distribution, compared to the effect at the high end of the Willingness To Pay distribution. Furthermore, increases in education levels are related to higher willingness to pay in the middle of the willingness to pay distribution, whereas further education has less impact on households with high willingness to pay. Single parent status, car ownership, and other factors also affect Willingness To Pay for nature availability. Our study contributes to the discussion of the distributional aspects of environmental policies with results based on a revealed-preference method where households face a real and binding budget constraint. Our results show that the socio-economic distribution of changes in amenity values is a relevant factor to consider when evaluating policies that affect the provision of nature close to urban areas.

In this paper, we investigate the effect of the state-level renewable heating mandate for existing homes in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany's third largest federal state. The mandate requires homeowners to supply at least 10 % of their heat demand with renewable energy when they replace their existing heating system. To assess the impact of the renewable heating standard on the uptake of renewable heating systems, we use unique data on a federal government subsidy scheme and exploit geographic differences in state laws over time. We find no evidence of an effect of the mandate even after restricting distance to the state border and refining the data set through matching on population and building characteristics. These findings are unchanged, when we allow effects to vary across space or over time. While energy efficiency and renewable standards are often criticized for not being cost-effective, our results challenge the widespread view that a standard is nevertheless successful in achieving its policy goal.

This article reports a complete two stage hedonic analysis for road noise. For the estimation of the hedonic price function I develop a spatial research design which simultaneously reduces the risk of omitted variable bias and the risk of measurement error in the noise measure. The preference parameters are identified following the approach developed in Bajari and Benkard (2005) by using a simple functional form for utility. Preferences are very heterogeneous and observable demographic characteristics explain 30 percent of the variation in taste for quiet. Results are used to discuss willingness to pay for noise reductions from two policy measures.

We use online search data to predict car sales in the German and UK automobile industries. Search data subsume several distinct search motives, which are not separately observable. We develop a model linking search motives to observable search data and sales. The model shows that predictions of sales relying on observable search data as a proxy for prepurchase search will be biased. We show how to remove the biases and estimate the effect of pre-purchase search on sales. To assist identification of this effect, we use the introduction of scrappage subsidies for cars in 2008/2009 as a quasi-natural experiment. We also show that online search data are (i) highly persistent over time, (ii) potentially subject to permanent shocks, and (iii) correlated across products, but to different extent. We address these challenges to estimation and inference by using recent econometric methods for large N, large T panels.

The existing literature identifies patent thickets indirectly. In this paper we propose a novel measure based on patent citations which allows us to measure the density of patent thickets directly. We discuss the algorithm which generates the measure and present descriptive results validating it. Moreover, we identify technology areas which are particularly impacted by patent thickets.

Complex high technology industries are increasingly affected by patent thickets in which firms’ patents mutually block the use of important technologies. Firms facing patent thickets patent intensively to acquire bargaining chips and use licensing to ensure freedom to operate. Such licensing allows rivals to either avoid or resolve hold-up from blocking patents. R&D incentives depend on whether licensing takes place ex ante or ex post. We model the choice between ex ante licensing and entry into patent portfolio races leading to ex post licensing. It is shown that higher degrees of blocking lead firms to license ex post, while stronger product market competition leads firms to license ex ante. Empirical results support these theoretical predictions.

As recent external quality control results have shown, the diagnosis of Rothia dentocariosa infection still presents problems for clinical laboratories. This review describes the taxonomy, as well as the chemotaxonomic, morphological and biochemical characteristics, of this organism, and surveys bacteria that may be confused with Rothia dentocariosa.

ESC Committee for Practice Guidelines (CPG), Silvia G. Priori (Chairperson) (Italy), Maria Angeles Alonso Garcia (Spain), Jean-Jacques Blanc (France), Andrzej Budaj (Poland), Martin Cowie (UK), Veronica Dean (France), Jaap Deckers (The Netherlands), Enrique Fernandez Burgos (Spain), John Lekakis (Greece), Bertil Lindahl (Sweden), Gianfranco Mazzotta (Italy), Joao Morais (Portugal), Ali Oto (Turkey), Otto A. Smiseth (Norway)

This report analyses whether entry of UK enterprises into patenting in a technology area is affected by patent thickets in the technology area.The aim is to contribute to our understanding of the role of patent thickets as a barrier to entry into new technologies for UK enterprises, in particular small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).The report consists of several parts:1) A review of the literature on patent thickets, including the limited empirical evidence regarding effects of patent thickets on RD2) Discussion of the factors contributing to thicket formation and growth;3) An empirical evaluation of the extent to which patent thickets appear to be barriers to entry in some technology areas.

Fifty-six strains of rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) and 14 strains of aerobic actinomycetes as quality controls (QC) were tested in the API (RAPID) Coryne system version 2. Both groups yielded codes with low identification scores, considerable overlaps, and similar diagnoses. No species-specific codes were observed. Thus, the system would not be useful for the identification of RGM.

This review presents data on in vitro susceptibilities of aerobically growing Gram-positive rods and in vivo activities of antibiotics used against Gram-positive rods. While in some instances susceptibility and efficacy are predictable (e.g. penicillin vs. Listeria and microaerophilic coryneforms, or metronidazole vs. Gardnerella) susceptibility testing by dilution techniques seems necessary for many Gram-positive rods as long as they are deemed clinically relevant.

Summary The Vitek AutoMicrobic system in combination with the Gram-positive susceptibility card detects β-lactamase in staphylococci by utilizing penicillin as the substrate coupled with oxacillin as an inducer. The β-lactamase activity of 21 clinical isolates and two reference strains of Staphylococcus lugdunensis was determined with this automated system and compared with a liquid nitrocefin assay after induction with oxacillin. Eight (38 %) clinical isolates and the reference strain ATCC 49 576 of S. lugdunensis showed production of β-lactamase in both tests. Thirteen (62 %) clinical isolates and the type strain ATCC 43 809 were nitrocefin-negative. The Vitek AutoMicrobic system reported false-positive s-lactamase results for 9 of those 13 isolates and for the type strain of S. lugdunensis . Results for disk diffusion (ampicillin) were concordant with the nitrocefin assay. With one exception, the MICs for penicillin of the nitrocefin-negative strains were in the equivocal range of 0.06–0.12 mg/1 according to NCCLS. However, none of the nitrocefin-negative and Vitek-positive strains revealed any of the known staphylococcal genes for β-lactamase as investigated by Southern hybridization, supporting the fact that false-positive β-lactamase results may occur in the Vitek AutoMicrobic system. We conclude from our data that it may be justified to include S. lugdunensis in the quality control of Vitek cards containing s-lactamase tests.

Staphaurex Plus® (Murex Diagnostics), a rapid agglutination test for detecting Staphylococcus aureus , was combined with the free coagulase test to search for the coagulase-negative species Staphylococcus lugdunensis and for S. aureus . Staphaurex Plus® detected 29 S. lugdunensis and 1602 S. aureus in our routine laboratory over 6 months. Furthermore, 10 out of 902 coagulase-negative staphylococci other than S. lugdunensis reacted with Staphaurex Plus®. The sensitivity and specificity for detecting S. aureus were 99.7% and 95.7%, respectively. Clumping factor-positive S. lugdunensis can bind fibrinogen coated on the latex particles of Staphaurex Plus®. If this agglutination was considered true positive, the specificity for S. aureus was 98.9%. We conclude that Staphaurex Plus® is a highly sensitive and specific agglutination test for S. aureus and simultaneously detects clumping factor-positive S. lugdunensis .

Commercial blood culture systems support the growth of fastidious bacteria in blood. However, normally sterile body fluids (NSBF) other than blood are frequently transported and cultivated in blood culture bottles. In a 2-year period only 9 isolates of Haemophilus influenzae and 5 isolates of H. parainfluenzae were cultivated out of 7196 NSBF in our routine laboratory. The growth of H. influenzae and H. parainfluenzae in blood culture bottles without blood was compared to growth in different supplemented liquid media. Inocula of 108 bacteria of 12 H. influenzae and 16 H. parainfluenzae strains were not detected in blood culture bottles ( BacT Alert and BacT Alert -FAN ) without addition of blood. Inocula of 102 to 106 bacteria of 2 H. influenzae and 4 H. parainfluenzae strains grew in BacT Alert bottles with blood only and in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth only when supplemented with X- and V-factor. Inocula of 108 bacteria of these strains did not survive in BHI-Liquoid bottles if blood was added after a delay of 24 h. We conclude if X- and/ or V-factor dependent organisms are expected from NSBF, transport and cultivation in blood culture bottles without blood cannot be recommended. Rapid transport to the laboratory and inoculation of both liquid and solid media containing X- and V-factor are crucial for optimal recovery of these fastidious organisms.

This paper exploits enlargement of the European Union as a natural experiment to provide evidence for cluttering of the trade mark register in Europe. Enlargement increased regulatory uncertainty for pharmaceutical firms because the number of medical regulators that had to approve invented names for pharmaceutical products increased sharply at the time. The effects of this regulatory shock on pharmaceutical firms’ trade mark application strategies are studied using Difference-in-Differences and bias adjusted matching estimators. It is shown that enlargement had a significant and quantitatively important effect on pharmaceutical firms’ incentives to clutter trade mark registers with trade marks they are unlikely to use.

This report explores the problem of "cluttering" of trade mark registers. The report consists of two parts:The first presents a conceptual discussion of “cluttering” of trade mark registers.The second part provides an exploratory empirical analysis of trade mark applications at the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the European trade mark office (OHIM).This part contains results of a descriptive and an econometric analysis.

Entrepreneurship education has two effects: it improves students’ entrepreneurial skills and provides impetus to those suited to entrepreneurship while discouraging others. While entrepreneurship education helps students to make a vocational decision its effects may conflict for those unsuited to entrepreneurship. We show that vocational and skill formation effects of entrepreneurship education can be identified empirically using a structural equation model. While conflicting effects of vocational and skill directed course content are observed in some individuals, overall these types of content are complements. We discuss how our results extend recent research and provide implications for the design of entrepreneurship courses.

A modified disk approximation test using a disk dispenser was employed to detect inducible s-lactamase in gram-negative bacilli. In 186 (63.1%) of 295 clnical isolates s-lactamase activity was detected by demonstration of antagonism between cefoxitin and third generation cephalosporins including ceftazidim, ceftriaxone, cefotaxim, or latamoxef. The rates of inducible s-lactamase were: for Pseudomonas spp., 92.4% (134 of 145 isolates); for Enterobacter spp., 88.2% (30 of 34); for Morganellamorganii, 88.9% (8 of 9); for Citrobacter freundii, 85.7% (6 of 7); and for Serratia spp., 63.6% (7 of 11). Resistance to cefoxitin was associated with inducible s-lactamase in 172 out of 190 (90.5%) isolates, intermediate sensitivity in 10 out of 16 (62.5%), and sensitivity in 4 out of 89 (4.5%). Subculture studies of isolates with inducible s-lactamase on media containing antibiotics showed persistent resistance in 5.4%. The disk approximation test using a dispenser can be performed easily in a routine laboratory and provides rapid and potentially important information for the clinician caring for patients treated with s-lactam antibiotics.

The ApiZym system is a commercially available test system for the detection of enzymatic profiles of bacteria. This paper reviews published ApiZum studies from 1977 to date. It presents the results of 60 publications which were compiled and tabulated with special emphasis on practical subdivisions to facilitate clinical use. The ApiZym system results to be a rapid and simple performing tool for the discrimination of similar microorganisms.

We describe a pseudoepidemic due to nontuberculous mycobacteria contaminating the water tank of a machine used to clean and disinfect fiberoptic endoscopes. Forty-six bronchoscopies performed on 41 patients during a six-month period yielded 16 specimens positive for acid-fast bacilli (AFB). One specimen showed Mycobacterium avium complex from an AIDS patient and one, M tuberculosis from a patient with active cavitary tuberculosis. In four patients, only the smears showed AFB; subsequent cultures remained negative. Of the rest, seven contained M chelonae and three M gordonae, all in patients with no clinical signs of mycobacterial disease. Two of the three M gordonae isolates represented laboratory contamination from an antimicrobial solution in a culture medium. Four patients in the beginning of the pseudoepidemic were treated for presumed tuberculosis until negative culture results were available. Control of the "outbreak" was achieved by regular disinfection of the implicated water tank in the cleaning machine. Contamination of bronchoscopes with nontuberculous mycobacteria can lead to unnecessary diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.

The existing literature identifies patent thickets indirectly. In this paper we propose a novel measure based on patent citations which allows us to measure the density of patent thickets directly. We discuss the algorithm which generates the measure and present descriptive results validating it. Moreover, we identify technology areas which are particularly impacted by patent thickets.

Escalation of advertising or R&D expenditure can give rise to endogenous barriers to entry. This paper investigates whether escalation of investments in R&D raises the return to investments in advertising or vice versa. We provide three empirical tests using a dataset which combines stock market and balance sheet data with information on patents, patent citations, trade marks and trade mark citations from the Internet. Results from Tobin’s q regressions show that advertising is a complement to R&D for companies that rely mainly on R&D. R&D is not a complement to advertising for companies relying mainly on advertising. The same results hold in regressions of the gross-profits ratio on R&D to sales and advertising to sales ratios. These results are derived using two stage GMM regressions in which we instrument the ratios using information on patents and trade marks. Finally, quantile regression is used to exclude the possibility that R&D and advertising are complements to a common unobserved variable. We confirm that advertising is a direct complement to R&D for companies relying mainly on R&D.

Entrepreneurship education ranks highly on policy agendas in Europe and the US, but little research is available to assess its impacts. In this context it is of primary importance to understand whether entrepreneurship education raises intentions to be entrepreneurial generally or whether it helps students determine how well suited they are for entrepreneurship. We develop a theoretical model of Bayesian learning in which entrepreneurship education generates signals which help students to evaluate their own aptitude for entrepreneurial tasks. We derive predictions from the model and test them using data from a compulsory entrepreneurship course at a German university. Using survey responses from 189 students ex ante and ex post, we find that entrepreneurial propensity declined somewhat in spite of generally good evaluations of the class. Our tests of Bayesian updating provide support for the notion that students receive valuable signals and learn about their own type in the entrepreneurship course.

We have evaluated the performance of the rapid ATB E system (bioMerieux SA, La Balme-les-Grottes, France) for 292 strains of Enterobacteriaceae . The disk diffusion test according to NCCLS guidelines was used as a reference method. Essential agreement between the two systems was 96.9%, whereas full agreement was 91.7%. These values varied considerably for individual antibiotics and particular antibiotic-species-combinations. Results for piperacillin (essential agreement 89.0%) and nitrofurantoin (essential agreement 84.4%) were not satisfactory and should, therefore, be eliminated from the gallery or not be reported to the physician.

We analyse economic welfare in R&D intensive industries under varying assumptions on the spillover process. The focus lies on spillover processes with complementary R&D investments such as those modelling absorptive capacity. There spillovers give rise to both negative and positive externalities. We show that the rationale for public policy intervention is strengthened where spillovers also have positive effects. This conclusion is based on the supermodularity of the spillover process and the investment game. We characterise a large class of spillover processes with similar implications for public policy. We show that results of much empirical work on absorptive capacity extend to this class of models.