In Germany a public discussion on the power of banks has been going on for decades now with the term power having at least two meanings. On the one hand, it denotes the power of banks to control public corporations through direct shareholdings or the exercise of proxy votes this is the power of...

Do commercial banks invest less in information gathering activity when they compete more aggressively with each other? Does intensifying competitive pressure in bank loan markets affect the quality of informational ties that bind borrowers and lending banks? This paper contributes to this...

Financial Economics is an exciting new field of study that integrates the theory of finance and financial institutions into the main body of economic theory. Eichberger and Harper's successful textbook, Financial Economics, provides a self-contained and comprehensive introduction to the field...

We analyze a model of duopolistic competition in a search market, where firms compete by choosing prices and the number of outlets, while consumers are ignorant about the individual locations. The degree of price transparency prevailing in the market is modeled by the fraction of consumers who...

In the period from the 9th to the 12th century, Germany witnessed essential steps from a backward agrarian society towards a considerable degree of specialization and trade. The two main institutional innovations of this development were the rise of market places (until the 11th century) and...