We analyze how investment into the pipeline system supplying Russian natural gas to WesternEurope is distorted for strategic reasons. We use a two stage multilateral bargaining game amongheterogenous players, some lacking the ability to make long-term commitments. At the first stagethe players...

The paper deals with the search for optimal slack grade conditions. The evaluation of the optimal slack grade takes into account the relationship be-tween slack and organizational performance and efficiency measures of re-source allocation. Organization and behavioural theory deliver some...

Business groups in emerging markets perform better than unaffiliatedfirms. One explanation is that business groups substitute some functions ofmissing institutions, for example, enforcing contracts. We investigate thisby setting up a model where firms within the business group are connectedto...

Seit einigen Jahren wird in Deutschland über Veränderungen in der Finanzierungund im Leistungskatalog des Krankenversicherungssystems intensiv diskutiert. Dabeiwerden häufig problematische Anreizstrukturen im Hinblick auf das Verhaltender Versicherten genannt. Insbesondere haben Versicherte...

The Peter Principle captures two stylized facts about hierarchies: first, promotions often placeemployees into jobs for which they are less well suited than for that previously held. Second,demotions are extremely rare...

We analyse pricing, e¤ort and tipping decisions in the online service GoogleAnswers. While users set a price for the answer to their question ex ante, theycan additionally give a tip to the researcher ex post.In line with the related experimental literature we …nd evidence that tippingis...

We consider guilt averse agents and principals and study the effects ofguilt on optimal behavior of the principal and the agent in a moral hazardmodel.The principal’s contract proposal contains a target effort in addition tothe monetary incentive scheme. By accepting the agreement, the...

Amidst a sharp increase in household debt levels, many countries have substantially reformedtheir consumer bankruptcy regulations. I first classify the mechanisms triggered by current U.S.and European bankruptcy regulations and then evaluate these mechanisms within a hidden actionmodel. I...

German open end real estate funds are internationally the only exceptionwhich have been for almost 50 years very successful. Since 2004, the whole sectorsuffers a crisis which is very close, if not already identical, to a bank run.Both phenomenon seek an explanation. The ongoing crisis let to...

Untersuchungsgegenstand des Projekts sind die Übertragungsmechanismen (contagion) derRisiken in Finanzsystemen durch Verhaltenssymmetrien (z.B. durch Risikomodelle und ihre regulierteUmsetzung), Intransparenz (z.B. über Beteiligungsgesellschaften etwa im Bereich PrivateEquity) und Moral Hazard...