The past decade has witnessed significant turmoil and political conflicts in several Middle Eastern countries, such as Egypt, Syria, and Libya, called the Arab Spring. These revolutions did not only affect the countries mentioned previously; their neighboring countries were also directly...

Nach Daten des Europäischen Haushaltspanels (ECHP) und des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) benötigt im Durchschnitt etwa jeder fünfte Erwerbstätige in Europa eine Fremdsprache am Arbeitsplatz. Bei den ausländischen Erwerbstätigen mit der Nationalität eines der Mitgliedstaaten sind es...

This paper investigates the link between fiscal policy shocks and movements in asset markets using a Fully Simultaneous System approach in a Bayesian framework. Building on the works of Blanchard and Perotti (2002), Leeper and Zha (2003), and Sims and Zha (1999, 2006), the empirical evidence for...

The relation between personal taxes and firm value has fundamental implications for understanding why firms pay dividends and how taxes influence capital structure choices. Assessing personal tax valuation effects also influences tax policy debates regarding the integration of corporate and...

I analyse the effect of ownership structure and bank control on performance. I employ a unique data set of 715 German takeovers to test whether group structure, large shareholders, and bank control affect their value to shareholders. First, I find that takeovers increase bidder value, but...

We analyze the interaction of stock market movements and politics in Germany. In contrast to the empirical evidence available for the U.S., we do not find that German stock market returns tend to be higher during liberal than during conservative governments. Also in contrast to results for the...

I use a time-varying parameter model in order to study the predictability of monthly real stock returns in Germany over the period 1880?1913. I find that the extent to which returns were predictable underwent significant changes over time. Specifically, predictability of returns, as measured by...

We study return predictability of stock indexes of blue chip firms and smaller hightechnology firms in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom during the second half of the 1990s. We measure return predictability in terms of first-order autocorrelation coefficients, and find evidence for return...

We study the link between underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs) and index excess returns in secondary markets. We use a theoretical model to argue that underpricing of IPOs raises investors' attention and, thereby, triggers investments in secondary markets. Our theoretical model...