Consumer bankruptcy regulation in the United States as well as in many other countries allow consumers to petition for a partial debt discharge. Usually, a debt release is possible when the debtor behaves in the creditors’ best interest and after filing for bankruptcy signs over her entire...

Stage financing provides a real option that is valuable when facing external uncertainty. However, it may also induce investor hold-up, if the property rights on an invention are not sufficiently protected. As a consequence, the entrepreneur may not work hard. Investor opportunism is less likely...

The paper discusses the ex-ante- and ex-post-incentives that result from different insolvency regimes. It concentrates on the problem of how to evaluate and utilise the debtor's seizable assets after bankruptcy proceedings are commenced. This is closely related to the problem of creditor...

Ein fehlerhaftes Testat führt oft zur Überbewertung des Unternehmens. Auf dem Sekundärmarkt, d.h. bei der Abschlussprüfung eines bereits börsennotierten Unternehmens, weiß ein uninformierter Anleger ex-ante nicht, ob er Käufer oder Verkäufer überteuerter Aktien sein wird. Er kann einen...

This paper provides a new approach to the theory of capital structure by emphasizing the issue that investors and entrepreneurs may have heterogeneous beliefs on future firm returns. Heterogeneous beliefs are possible even when there is symmetric information but individuals evaluate the same...

The literature on venture financing mainly focuses on entrepreneurial moral hazard. The investor, however, may behave opportunistically, too. We look at the case where the investor demands a higher share on the venture’s return before financing the next stage. Possibly, the staging of capital...