This study investigates the link between bankruptcy and security legislation and potential credit losses faced by banks based on a cross-country study for the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany. Focusing on corporate credit, we find that legislation produces the highest...

Transaction costs, one often hears, are the economic equivalent of friction in physical systems. Like physicists, economists can sometimes neglect friction in formulating theories; but like engineers, they can never neglect friction in studying how the system actually does let alone should work....

Recent studies show that significant historical events, particularly the slave trade, had an impact on contemporary African economies. The transmission mechanisms, however, are not well established. The purpose of the present paper is to consider two such transmission mechanisms, notably...

To limit global warming to 1.5°C, vast amounts of CO2 will have to be removed from the atmosphere via Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). Enhancing the CO2 sequestration of ecosystems will require not just one approach but a portfolio of CDR options, including so‐called nature‐based approaches...

We use data on financially distressed Chinese companies in order to study a debt market where property rights are crudely defined and poorly enforced. To help with identification we use an event where a business-friendly province published new guidelines regarding the administration and...

Vor dem Hintergrund stark steigender Boden- und Wohnraumpreise in attraktiven deutschen Großstädten werden seit einigen Jahren intensive Debatten über die Eigentumsverhältnisse an innerstädtischen Grundstücken geführt. Zunehmend mehr Gehör konnten sich zuletzt jene Stimmen verschaffen,...

Property rights granted by land and water policies are not always identical with the claims – meaning perceived rights - people base their actions on. A high discrepancy between both resembles an ineffective policy implementation and bears the risk of unsustainable decision-making....

We study the role of proximity to historical ethnic borders in determining individual land ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa. Following an instrumental variable strategy, we document that individuals have a lower likelihood of owning land near historical ethnic borders. In particular, the...

User rights in fisheries refer to the rights of fishers to harvest from fish resources. In terms of security, exclusivity, duration, and transferability these rights can be strong or weak. In recent years there has been a substantial movement toward stronger user rights in many fisheries around...

Enclosures enforced private property rights at the onset of industrialization, yet numerous estimations of the enclosures' effects on production and productivity rely on non- experimental designs. We estimate the causal effects of enclosure reforms applying state- of-the-art...