Clawbacks are contractual provisions in executive compensation contracts that allow for an ex post recoupment of variable pay if certain triggering conditions are met. As a result of regulatory responses to financial crises and corporate scandals as well as of growing shareholder pressure to...

Using a simple symmetric principal-agent model with two banks, we study the effects of both bailouts and bonus taxes on risk taking and managerial compensation. We assume financial institutions to be systemic only on a collective basis, implying support with bailouts only if they both fail...

Using a principal-agent model with two-periods, we analyze the effects of both bailouts and bonus taxation on managerial compensation and short-termism. In our model, short-termism increases expected short-term profits at the expense of expected long-term profits and is harmful not only for...

Tax transparent limited liability entities (TTLLEs) such as the GmbH & Co. KG in Germany, the trading trust in Australia, or the S Corporation and the LLC in the U.S., can be found in many developed economies. While these entities are to a large extent functionally equivalent, their underlying...

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is the most influential work in economics ever written. But it is neither complete nor perfect. Smith's theory of the firm, or the lack thereof, is one of the masterpiece's blind spots. Smith thought history had shown that joint stock companies cannot compete with...

Based on the sensitivity of the European Financial Markets highlighted by the last financial crisis, the European Union is pushing for reforms of the existing regulatory framework and has also proposed a Financial Transaction Tax. Until now, the European Union has already adopted a Regulation on...