In the period from the 9th to the 12th century, Germany witnessed essential steps from a backward agrarian society towards a considerable degree of specialization and trade. The two main institutional innovations of this development were the rise of market places (until the 11th century) and...

In Germany a public discussion on the power of banks has been going on for decades now with the term power having at least two meanings. On the one hand, it denotes the power of banks to control public corporations through direct shareholdings or the exercise of proxy votes this is the power of...

In Germany a public discussion on the "power of banks" has been going on for decades now with the term "power" having at least two meanings. On the one hand, it denotes the power of banks to control public corporations through direct shareholdings or the exercise of proxy votes – this is the...

Financial Economics is an exciting new field of study that integrates the theory of finance and financial institutions into the main body of economic theory. Eichberger and Harper's successful textbook, Financial Economics, provides a self-contained and comprehensive introduction to the field...

We analyze a model of duopolistic competition in a search market, where firms compete by choosing prices and the number of outlets, while consumers are ignorant about the individual locations. The degree of price transparency prevailing in the market is modeled by the fraction of consumers who...

In a dual liquidity crisis, both the government and the banking sector are under severe funding stress. By nature, dual crises have the potential of being particularly disruptive and damaging. Thus, understanding their mechanics, how they unfold and how they can be addressed under various...

Open market operations play a key role in allocating central bank funds to the banking system and thereby in steering short-term interest rates in line with the stance of monetary policy. Many central banks apply so-called 'fixed rate tender' auctions in their open market operations. This paper...

In this paper the transaction cost approach of Oliver E. Williamson is applied to the long-run evolution of the provision of physical assets to the organized securities markets of London and New York. Although this evolution is shown to be in general compliance with the predictions of the...