Since the beginning of the 1990s, it has been widely expected that the implementation of the European Single Market would lead to a rapid convergence of Europe’s financial systems. In the present paper we will show that at least in the period prior to the introduction of the common currency...

The structure of banking systems has been frequently in the debate over a long time. A re-structuring of banking systems is very often based on the experience of other countries. Ger-man cooperative banks can learn much about the development of Italy's cooperative banks. In contradiction to the...

Douglass North gehört zu den führenden Sozialwissenschaftlern des 20. Jahrhunderts.Er wurde für seine bahnbrechenden Leistungen auf dem Gebiet der ökonomischenGeschichtstheorie mit dem Nobelpreis ausgezeichnet. Dieser Aufsatz rekonstruiert (a)seine kliometrische Diagnose der Moderne, (b)...

This paper analyzes the trade-off between official liquidity provision and debtor moral hazard ininternational financial crises. In the model, crises are caused by the interaction of bad fundamentals,self-fulfilling runs and policies by three classes of optimizing agents: international...

We study the effect of fair institutions on growth. In our model, individuals are endowed with unequal entitlements to theeconomy’s output. They can free-ride or cooperate. Cooperation is individually costly, but increases aggregate output and growth.Experimentally, we observe significantly...

mode of production exist that is based on the contributions of many software programmerswithout providing any direct monetary incentives for them? And how can these programmerscoordinate their actions without relying on either the guidance of the price mechanism or thedirection through a...

In this paper we combine a wide range of country-level institutional indicators with surveydata taken from the Global Enterprise Monitor on potential and actual entrepreneurial entry,to investigate the role of the institutions as determinants of the entrepreneurial entry,controlling for...

Die Debatte über die optimale Ausgestaltung der Alterssicherung wird in jüngster Zeit äußerst kontrovers und hitzig geführt. Dabei scheint uns ein zentraler Aspekt nicht genügend beachte zu werden: Welcher Zusammenhang besteht zwischen den Merkmalen des Finanzsystems und des...

Wenn man untersuchen möchte, ob sich die Finanzsysteme verschiedener Länder im Verlauf der letzten Jahre aneinander angeglichen haben oder demnächst angleichen werden, braucht man ein Konzept zur Beschreibung von Finanzsystemen, durch das wesentliche Strukturen, deren Unterschiede und...

This paper provides a framework for the securities transaction industry inthe EU to understand the functions performed, the institutions involved andthe parameters concerned that shape market and ownership structure. Ofparticular interest are microeconomic incentives of the industry players...