Universities and Firm Performance: Evidence from Germany

Abstract This paper analyses the impact of universities on firm performance based on the universe of firms in Germany from 2013 to 2017. From a regional perspective, firms have 0.92 % more revenues per employee in counties with a university than in a county without a university. To address potential endogeneity concerns, I focus on a subsample of universities, founded for political reasons. Analysing different types of German universities indicates that the high-skilled regional labour supply is important for the positive impact of universities, while proximity to the knowledge spillovers of research-intensive universities is associated with weaker firm performance. The latter finding is at least partially explained by the networks of multinational firms.