We show that the joint liability lending contracts derived in Ghatak (2000) violate an ex post incentive-compatibility constraint which says the amount of joint liability cannot exceed the amount of individual liability. We derive and characterize optimal separating joint liability contracts...

With German reunification in 1990, the EastGerman economy has been challenged to be transformedfrom a centrally planned economy to acompetitive market economy with the samestandard of living as in West Germany. Thegeneral intention has been to close the hugeeconomic gap between East German and...