原文：R&D and Firm Performance in a Transition EconomyINTRODUCTIONAccording to international comparative statistics the Eastern European countries show much less innovative activity than e.g. the EU average This might be good or bad. If the firms are not capable enough to handle R&D processes it is good that they recognize this. During a country ’s transformation process to a market economy, adoption of established processes and products in connection with product variation and competitive production possibilities are an attractive alternative to innovation. However most observers ask for more R&D in these countries and for policies easing innovation in order to increase growth.Those policy interventions are not only subject of theoretical discussions. Subsidies granted by the European Commission in member countries, like the sixth framework program, are also relevant for the accession countries of the European Union. Perhaps R&D subsidies are partly wasted if granted in an early stage of the transformation process and could be used in a more productive way. It might be the case that instead of conducting research and development firms in these areas are better off by the production of established products at lower costs than in the Western countries. Answers to these questions would surely be helpful for the policy design for transformation processes.The purpose of our article is to compare the success of innovative activity in Eastern and Western Germany in order to investigate whether there are differences with respect to R&D performance between the two parts of reunified Germany. Eastern Germany is a very special example of a transition economy. The movement from the former German Democratic Republic...
