This dissertation consists of six self-contained chapters that are related to the behavior of firms and politicians in a broader sense. After an introduction to the topic, the first part of the dissertation elaborates on how institutional and political framework conditions influence the behavior...

This volume includes five self-contained chapters in the fields of public debt and fiscal transfer schemes. After an introduction to the topic, chapter 2 shows that the institutional setting of fiscal policy making needs to be considered when assessing the sustainability of fiscal policy. Using...

This volume was prepared by Benedikt Heid while he was working at the ifo Institute and the University of Bayreuth. It was completed in December 2013 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. It includes six self-contained...

This volume was prepared by Benedikt Heid while he was working at the ifo Institute and the University of Bayreuth. It was completed in December 2013 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. It includes six self-contained...

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...

The purpose of this dissertation thesis is to investigate how changes in the institutional setting have affected the payout policy of German firms. This dissertation thesis further contributes to the literature on event study methodology by analyzing the measurment of abnormal credit default...

The introduction of single stock futures to a market presents the opportunity to assess an individualcompany's response to futures trading directly, in contrast to the market-wide impact obtainedfrom index futures studies. Thirty-eight South African companies were evaluated in terms of apossible...

This dissertation utilizes the event study methodology from the modern theory of finance to examine corporate name changes (CNCs). Data sources include press releases and articles announcing CNCs compiled by Lexis Nexis, annual reports collected from the SEC File microfiche database compiled by...

A recent outbreak of bird flu or avian influenza (AI), an especially highly pathogenicstrain (HPAI) of H5N1, started in Hong Kong in January 2003 and caused 159 humandeaths in Asia, Africa and Europe through early 2007. In addition, this outbreak resultedin millions of slaughtered birds and...