In 1978, Roger Koenker and Gilbert Bassett, Jr. introduced a new econometric estimation method and entitled it quantile regression. Since then, many subsequent authors have elaborated and extended the underlying theoretical framework. Other contributions have successfully applied the procedure...

Measuring the contribution of different markets to the price discovery process of a common asset has been the subject of many research studies in the last decade. In particular the newly developed derivatives markets have given rise to an increasing number of empirical studies examining the...

Germany has been an immigration country for more than 30 years now, although many politicians claim the opposite and many people in Germany are inclined to agree with their assessment. However, it is the actual experience with immigration, and not what people would like to experience, which...

In an increasingly competitive environment, firms have to optimally adjust both their allocation of input factors and their technology portfolio. The latter determines economies of scope and scale in future research and production. The aim of this dissertation is to achieve better insight into...

Chapter 1 is joint work with Günter Franke, University of Konstanz, and Markus Herrmann, HSBC London, and addresses the question how collateralized debt obligation (CDO-) transactions are designed. An important issue is the information asymmetry about the quality of securitized debt between...

Background: Health-care institutions have looked to business for models to respond to the requirement for reform. This has changed the perspective of institutions that were founded on charitable principles, and managed with liberal employment policies and deficit budgeting. Using lesions from...