Price manipulation in financial markets is a prohibited activity, but identifying it is a problem in thinly traded securities markets. One service that clients expect of a portfolio manager is to provide up-to-date valuations. Actions to obtain these valuations are regarded as proper by the...

Microborrowers may take usurious loans to repay a loan taken from a micro nance institution because of having neglected the time inconsistency of optimal plans or having discounted future payoffs too strongly from the ex-post perspective. Microfinance programs should strive at preventing such...

Die Diskussion über den Kreditwucher und dessen Zu- oder Unzulässigkeit beschäftigt seit Jahrhunderten Philosophen, Theologen, Moralisten und sogar Dichter. Die rechtliche Handhabung stellte für die Gesetzgeber aller Zeiten eine Herausforderung dar. Neu und äußerst Besorgnis erregend dabei...

We define predatory lending as a welfare-reducing provision of credit. Using a textbook model, we show that lenders profit if they can tempt households into “debt traps,” that is, overborrowing and delinquency. We then test whether payday lending fits our definition of predatory. We find...

This paper investigates the long-term trend and the underlying determinants of public sector centralization in Germany from 1871 until today. The institutional and the quantitative review of the German history provides no conclusive evidence for a continuous process of government centralization...

Many modern trade and growth models are characterized by multiple equilibria. In theory the analysis of multiple equilibria is possible, but in practice it is difficult to test for the presence of multiple equilibria. Based on the methodology developed by Davis and Weinstein (2004) for the case...

In the famous debate between Keynes and Ohlin on the transfer problem, the interaction between non-traded goods and unemployment complicates the analysis considerably. We analyze these issues using four different models to conclude that Keynes's concern regarding the large burden imposed on...