Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly a core component of corporate strategy in the global economy. In recent years its importance has become even greater, primarily because of the financial scandals, investors’ losses, and reputational damage to listed companies. While...

This article contributes to the literature on macroeconomic announcements and their impact on asset prices by investigating how the 15-second Xetra DAX returns reflect the monthly announcements of the two best known business cycle forecasts for Germany, i.e. the ifo Business Climate Index and...

Extensive research has been conducted on the economics of standards in the last three decades. To date, standard-setting studies emphasize a superior role of demand-side-driven technology diffusion; these contributions assume the evolution of a user-driven momentum and network externalities. We...

We examine the effect of one of the presumably most powerful cartels ever on the profitability of its members. More precisely, we consider the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate, a coal cartel that operated in Imperial Germany in the late 19th and early 20th century, using a newly constructed...

Generally, information provision and certification have been identified as the major economic functions of rating agencies. This paper analyzes whether the watchlist" (rating review) Instrument has extended the agencies' role towards a monitoring position, as proposed by Boot, Milbourn, and...

The merger wave that took place during the first phase of globalization, which lasted from 1895 to 1914, changed the industrial structure in Europe and the U.S. remarkably. Therefore, it is of great importance to assess whether mergers were successful during this period. Noteworthy, studies that...

This event study investigates the impact of the Japanese nuclear disaster in Fukushima-Daiichi on the daily stock prices of French, German, Japanese, and U.S. nuclear utility and alternative energy firms. Hypotheses regarding the (cumulative) abnormal returns based on a three-factor model are...

We present a theorem helpful in estimating the mean and variance of a linear function with arbitrary multivariate randomness in its coefficients and variables. We derive a generalized decomposition result from two random linear functions in which the result can be applied to most models using...