In many analyses of the Chinese so-called economic miracle, cultural factors loom large. Thispaper offers a brief overview of recent economic approaches to culture and puts these into ananalytical framework that highlights the dynamic and creative aspects of culture. I argue thatChina is a model...

In his comprehensive critique of current economic approaches to social capital, Durlauf(2002) recommends a stronger reliance on methods of experimental economics and socialpsychology. This paper surveys different notions of social capital and submits an alternativeconceptual approach based on...

Economics is increasingly adopting the methodological standards and procedures of the naturalsciences. The paper analyzes this ‘naturalistic turn’ from the philosophical perspective onnaturalism, and I discuss the implications for the field of finance. The theory of finance is aninteresting...

This paper studies the effects that heterogeneous multiple bank financing hason a firm’s risk- and information-policy, particularly with respect to credit rene-gotiation efficiency. We find that a significant, yet limited, degree of relationshiplending enables firms with high asset specificity...

With the development of new internet technologies new security problems arise. Thus, it isimportant to consider security aspects during the complete development process of a web application.Every participant of such a process should have the appropriate knowledge. Classicallearning methods are...

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) have become active investors on the financial markets. Thisworking paper meets the increasing thirst for information on the investment activities of SovereignWealth Funds, their legal environment and the implications on German stock listedcorporations. Thus, this...

This work describes the legal structuring of a mortgage covered bond in accordance withthe regulations of paragraphs 791 cont. and 1184 cont. German Civil Code (BürgerlichesGesetzbuch). The work shows how to structure the share of common rights of the bondholders according to the regulations of...

Most previous research on efficiency in banking takes a regulatory perspective. In contrast,this paper investigates the empirical relation between efficiency and profitability in five largeeconomies of the European Union during the period 1998-2005 and discusses the results fromthe perspective...

Funds of Hedge Funds (FHF) are perceived to be the premier choice of institutional investorsfor first-time allocations into the alternative investment asset class. While many papers coverthe bright side of FHF investing, we in this paper empirically investigate the maximum drawdownsof FHF....

Despite the common view that there is inherently a relationship of confliction, it is now impossibleto imagine the financing of family-owned enterprises in Germany without the alternativemethod of Private Equity financing. Based on a survey on Private Equity in familyowned companies specialising...