EconPol Forum

Companies in the EU spend much less on R&D than their competitors in the US and focus their innovation activities on mid-tech rather than high-tech sectors (IT hard-ware, software, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals). Reforms of EU innovation policy are necessary to avoid the “mid-tech trap,” i.e., the traditional dominance of the same companies, especially from the automotive sector.

Both Germany and the US are among the most innovative and entrepreneurially ac-tive countries in the world. Nevertheless, they face different challenges: the strengthening of incremental innovative entrepreneurship in Germany versus the continuous promotion of radical and disruptive entrepreneurship in the US.

Measures to promote technological sovereignty vary greatly from country to country and range from the promotion of R&D activities to subsidies for the construction of industrial plants. Systematic forecasting of technology trends would enable policy makers to deal with new technologies at an early stage and adapt policies and institutions.

This paper examines the impact of different cultural values, attitudes and similar attributes on some of the key dimensions of economic performance. It shows a weak correlation between the relative endowment of continental countries with some cultural attributes and the relative performance of their economies.

Europe ‒ once a leader in industrial development and innovation ‒ has lost its competitiveness. Which place will it take in a new world order? Climate protection and the digital transformation will also influence the next era of prosperity. The EU and its member states now want to build a robust, secure, resilient, and sustainable economy. Meanwhile, the US, China, and some emerging economies have overtaken the EU in many international rankings.