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Small and medium-sized firms typically obtain capital via bank financing. They often rely on a mixture of relationship and arm’s-length banking. This paper explores the reasons for the dominance of heterogeneous multiple banking systems. We show that the incidence of inefficient credit termination and subsequent firm liquidation is contingent on the borrower’s quality and on the relationship bank’s information precision. Generally, heterogeneous multiple banking leads to fewer inefficient credit decisions than monopoly relationship lending or homogeneous multiple banking, provided that the relationship bank’s fraction of total firm debt is not too large.
In this paper, we propose a model of credit rating agencies using the global games framework to incorporate information and coordination problems. We introduce a refined utility function of a credit rating agency that, additional to reputation maximization, also embeds aspects of competition and feedback effects of the rating on the rated firms. Apart from hinting at explanations for several hypotheses with regard to agencies' optimal rating assessments, our model suggests that the existence of rating agencies may decrease the incidence of multiple equilibria. If investors have discretionary power over the precision of their private information, we can prove that public rating announcements and private information collection are complements rather than substitutes in order to secure uniqueness of equilibrium. In this respect, rating agencies may spark off a virtuous circle that increases the efficiency of the market outcome.
Natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from a bad reputation. Oil and diamonds, particularly, have been blamed for a number of Africa’s illnesses such as poverty, corruption, dictatorship and war. This paper outlines the different areas and transmission channels of how this so-called “resource curse” is said to materialize. By assessing empirical evidence on sub-Saharan Africa it concludes that the resource curse theory fails to sufficiently explain why and how several countries have not or only partly been affected by the “curse”. Theoretically, the paper argues that whether or not natural resources are detrimental to a country’s socio-economic and political development depends on a number of contextual variables, divided into country-specific conditions and resource-specific conditions (type, degree/level of abundance and dependence, resource revenue management, involved companies etc.). Methodologically, a future research agenda needs to examine the complex interplay of these contextual variables by adding sophisticated comparative research designs, especially “small and medium N” comparisons, to the tool box which has been widely confined to the juxtaposition of “large N” and country case studies.
Im wohl spektakulärsten Wirtschaftsstrafverfahren der deutschen Nachkriegsgeschichte, dem "Mannesmann-Prozeß", ging und geht es neben Barabfindungen von Versorgungsleistungen vor allem um die Zulässigkeit von Anerkennungsprämien für ausscheidende und bereits ausgeschiedene Vorstandsmitglieder. Das Verfahren vor der Wirtschaftsstrafkammer des Landgerichts Düsseldorf war nicht nur in den Medien, sondern auch in der aktien- und strafrechtlichen Literatur mit lebhaftem Interesse verfolgt worden. Nach sechsmonatiger Hauptverhandlung endete es zwar mit Freisprüchen für alle Angeklagten, aber auch mit dem Vorwurf gewichtiger Verstöße gegen das Aktienrecht. Das Urteil der Strafkammer ist gleichfalls bereits mehrfach in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur unter verschiedenen Gesichtspunkten ausführlich gewürdigt worden. Ein Ende der Diskussion ist noch nicht abzusehen, da gegen das Urteil Revision beim Bundesgerichtshof eingelegt worden ist. Die folgenden Bemerkungen befassen sich mit einem aktienrechtlichen Teilaspekt, der Zulässigkeit nachträglicher, im ursprünglichen Anstellungsvertrag eines Vorstandsmitglieds nicht vorgesehener Anerkennungsprämien.
Die zu erwartende vorzeitige Auflösung des Bundestages wird wohl dazu führen, daß der derzeit dem Parlament vorliegende Entwurf eines Gesetzes über die Offenlegung der Vorstandsvergütungen nicht mehr verabschiedet wird. Das bietet die Gelegenheit, die diesem Entwurf und dem in den Bundestag eingebrachten Entwurf der FDP-Fraktion zugrundeliegende Grundkonzeption darzustellen und im Hinblick auf eine spätere Gesetzgebung zu prüfen, ob die Entwürfe ihren Zielen gerecht werden (dazu unter II.). Zu erwägen ist überdies grundsätzlich, ob eine detaillierte gesetzliche Regelung zur Offenlegung der Vorstandsvergütungen anzuraten, oder ob es, wie vielfach vorgeschlagen, beim bisherigen Rechtszustand verbleiben sollte, wonach die gesetzliche Pflicht zu den pauschalen Vergütungsangaben gemäß §§ 285 Nr. 9, 314 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 HGB ergänzt wird durch die Empfehlung des Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex (Ziff. 4.2.4 DCGK), in börsennotierten Gesellschaften die Vorstandsvergütungen individuell auszuweisen (dazu unten III.).
Using a set of regional inflation rates we examine the dynamics of inflation dispersion within the U.S.A., Japan and across U.S. and Canadian regions. We find that inflation rate dispersion is significant throughout the sample period in all three samples. Based on methods applied in the empirical growth literature, we provide evidence in favor of significant mean reversion (ß-convergence) in inflation rates in all considered samples. The evidence on ó-convergence is mixed, however. Observed declines in dispersion are usually associated with decreasing overall inflation levels which indicates a positive relationship between mean inflation and overall inflation rate dispersion. Our findings for the within-distribution dynamics of regional inflation rates show that dynamics are largest for Japanese prefectures, followed by U.S. metropolitan areas. For the combined U.S.-Canadian sample, we find a pattern of within-distribution dynamics that is comparable to that found for regions within the European Monetary Union (EMU). In line with findings in the so-called 'border literature' these results suggest that frictions across European markets are at least as large as they are, e.g., across North American markets. Klassifikation: E31, E52, E58
We derive the effects of credit risk transfer (CRT) markets on real sector productivity and on the volume of financial intermediation in a model where banks choose their optimal degree of CRT and monitoring. We find that CRT increases productivity in the up-market real sector but decreases it in the low-end segment. If optimal, CRT unambiguously fosters financial deepening, i.e., it reduces credit-rationing in the economy. These effects rely upon the ability of banks to commit to the optimal CRT at the funding stage. The optimal degree of CRT depends on the combination of moral hazard, general riskiness, and the cost of monitoring in non-monotonic ways.
Wider participation in stockholding is often presumed to reduce wealth inequality. We measure and decompose changes in US wealth inequality between 1989 and 2001, a period of considerable spread of equity culture. Inequality in equity wealth is found to be important for net wealth inequality, despite equity's limited share. Our findings show that reduced wealth inequality is not a necessary outcome of the spread of equity culture. We estimate contributions of stockholder characteristics to levels and inequality in equity holdings, and we distinguish changes in configuration of the stockholder pool from changes in the influence of given characteristics. Our estimates imply that both the 1989 and the 2001 stockholder pools would have produced higher equity holdings in 1998 than were actually observed for 1998 stockholders. This arises from differences both in optimal holdings and in financial attitudes and practices, suggesting a dilution effect of the boom followed by a cleansing effect of the downturn. Cumulative gains and losses in stockholding are shown to be significantly influenced by length of household investment horizon and portfolio breadth but, controlling for those, use of professional advice is either insignificant or counterproductive. JEL Classification: E21, G11
This paper characterizes the optimal inflation buffer consistent with a zero lower bound on nominal interest rates in a New Keynesian sticky-price model. It is shown that a purely forward-looking version of the model that abstracts from inflation inertia would significantly underestimate the inflation buffer. If the central bank follows the prescriptions of a welfare-theoretic objective, a larger buffer appears optimal than would be the case employing a traditional loss function. Taking also into account potential downward nominal rigidities in the price-setting behavior of firms appears not to impose significant further distortions on the economy. JEL Klassifikation: C63, E31, E52 .