Mutually beneficial agreements might fail if the parties fear contractual opportunism. Litigation is supposed to prevent this, but still leaves room for litigational opportunism: Even knowing that the opponent has fulfilled his obligations, a party might bring suit. We show that with positive...

Even if the expected punishment on tax evasion is negligible, empirical studies show that actual tax evasion is smaller than rational choice models predict. In addition to this, tax payer do not respond on parameter changes as predicted. Some authors tried to explain this puzzle by assuming "tax...

Mutually beneficial agreements might fail if the parties fear contractual opportunism. Litigation is supposed to be a remedy, but gives scope for another kind of opportunistic behavior which we call litigational opportunism: Even knowing that the opponent has fulfilled his obligations, a party...

Die empirische Prüfung theoretischer Forschungsergebnisse wirft in der Ökonomie - wie bei jeder Sozialwissenschaft - Probleme auf. Anders als in den Naturwissenschaften können kaum volkswirtschaftliche Labors errichtet werden. Seit einigen Jahren nutzen Ökonomen die Erfahrungen der...

The paper argues in favor of the economic analysis as a method of international comparison of legal systems. It demonstrates that the legal rules governing the termination of employment contracts in the US are not "weaker" than in Germany. Arguing in terms of expected damages, the probability of...

A university system has both efficiency and equity objectives. Efficiency requires the adoption of a tuition fee system that maximizes net social benefits. These benefits take two main forms: clear cut wealth benefits, and a more diffuse range of benefits to society like the improvement of...