The paper presents a comprehensive data set of all bonds issued by the sixteenGerman states (Länder) since 1992. It thus provides a complete picture of acapital market comparable in size to funds raised in the German fixed incomemarket for corporations. The quantitative analysis reveals that...

We use data from over 20,000 firms in 60 countries to identify constraints on the growth offirms. We interpret managers´ answers to survey questions on the extent to which variousaspects of their external environment inhibit the performance of their firm as measuring theshadow cost of...

When a deficit occurs in the funding of collective goods, it is usually covered by raising theamount of taxes or by rationing the supply of the goods. This article compares the efficiencyof these institutions. We report the results of a 2x2 experiment based on a game in the firststage of which...

In public good provision, privileged groups enjoy the advantage that some of its membersfind it optimal to supply a positive amount of the public good. However, their inherentasymmetric nature may make the enforcement of cooperative behavior through informalsanctioning harder to accomplish...

Political corruption is a concern of many modern democracies. It weakens democraticinstitutions, restricts public services, and lowers productivity undermining economicdevelopment. Yet despite its importance, our understanding of what determines corruption islimited. This paper uses a novel...

Seit Beginn der 90er Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts gibt es eine immer stärker werdende Entwicklung zur Reform der öffentlichen Verwaltung (vgl. Bähr/Hieber 2002: 7). Im Blickpunkt der Diskussion um ein neues ressourcenorientiertes Haushalts- und Rechnungswesen stehen insbesondere die...

Schon im Jahr 1951 urteilte der damalige Finanzminister eines deutschen Bundeslandes über die kamerale Buchführung: Wer rechnet heute noch kameralistisch? (...) Kaufleute behaupten, man könne mit ihr wohl das Verhältnis von Einnahmen zu Ausgaben ermitteln, aber den Erfolg der...

Modeling the spatial aspect of growth has finally become an important subject of economics as exemplified by the increasing popularity of the new economic geography. However, new economic geography models have still not been able to develop a consistent approach to integrate innovation, space...

Previous research indicates that risky and uncertain marginal returnsfrom the public good significantly lower contributions. This paper presentsexperimental results illustrating that the effects of risk and uncertainty dependon the employed parameterization. Specifically, if the value of the...

Costly signaling of commitment to a group has been proposed as an explanation forparticipation in religion and ritual. But if the signal’s cost is too small, freeriders willsend the signal and behave selfishly later. Effective signaling may then be prohibitivelycostly. If the average level of...