Following Max Weber, many theories have hypothesized that Protestantism should have favored economic development. With its religious heterogeneity, the Holy Roman Empire presents an ideal testing ground for this hypothesis. Using population figures of 272 cities in the years 1300–1900, I find...

Der vorliegende Beitrag zielt darauf, eine fundierte Vorgehensweise für die Untersuchung der Frage zu entwickeln, welche Auswirkungen die mentale Verfaßtheit ökonomischen Akteure auf ihr mikroökonomisches Entscheidungs- und Wahlhandlungsverhalten hat und welche Konsequenzen sich daraus auf...

Piracy in international waters is on the rise again, in particular off the coast of Somalia. While the dynamic game between pirates, ship-owners, insurance firms and the military seems to have reached some kind of equilibrium, piracy risks generating significant negative externalities to third...

We investigate the persistence of levels of self-employment and new business formation in different time periods and under different framework conditions. The analysis shows that high levels of regional self-employment and new business formation tend to be persistent for periods as long as 80...

Three monetary regimes - the gold standard, a regime of 'socialism in many countries' and the post-Bretton Woods regime - and difficult transitions between them have shaped the economic history of the twentieth century. The regimes consisted of coherent sets of government policies and equally...