Innovation ist von zentraler Bedeutung für Entwicklung und Wirtschaftswachstum. Innovation findet in einem institutionellen Rahmen statt. Auktionen und auktionsähnliche Mechanismen sind Institutionen. Sie organisieren Transaktionen zwischen ökonomischen Agenten. Auktionen enthüllen private...

This research investigates how online video contests (OVCs) affect brand image, as measured by brand and advertisement attitudes. After conducting a pre-test to discover an appropriate product for the Generation Y target market, we ran an experiment examining OVCs, television, and magazine...

Doctor of Philosophy

I examine properties of worker behavior under promotion tournaments, and discuss their implications for the design of promotion tournaments. Given their tasks, workers will decide how much effort they exert. In addition to this decision-making, they have the opportunity to decide their...

There is growing consensus on the view that corruption hurts economic performance by reducing private investment, by adversely affecting the quantity and quality of public infrastructure, by reducing tax revenue, and by reducing human capital accumulation. In addition to inefficiency effects –...

The dissertation offers an analysis of the role of budgetary institutions on the determination of fiscal outcomes. In the second chapter I provide a theoretical model that rationalizes differences in fiscal outcomes of two countries that are supposed to obey the same set of numerical constraints...

This paper investigates the role of currency denomination in the the intertemporal risk-return relation among G7 countries. Similar to the findings of previous studies, our estimation also shows that the financial markets of the G7 countries are integrated. We obtain significant pricing...

We study the impact of time-varying macroeconomic conditions on optimal dynamic capital structure and the aggregate dynamics of firms in a cross-section. Our structural-equilibrium framework embeds a contingent-claim corporate financing model within a standard consumption-based asset- pricing...

European farmers face increasing income uncertainty and the debate is growing on the role of insurance schemes and of public support in this field. This debate is further stimulated by the perspective of introducing instruments to cope with risk also in the Common Agricultural Policy. Therefore,...

This paper develops theoretical and empirical models to understand how farmers formulate their participation strategies when deciding to enroll in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) under uncertainty. A theoretical model is employed to obtain the impacts of various factors on the optimal...