A key requirement for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to maintain their corporate tax-exempt status is that 95 percent of income must be distributed as dividents. Receipt of this income imposes a personal tax burden on shareholders. A central tenet of this research is that REIT management...

Studies have shown that when two information providers or outside auditors exist, the value provided by the second one will be decreased by the actions of the first. Credit rating agencies have been rating bank loans since 1996. Capitalizing on the highly similar functions performed by banks and...

Das Buch bietet einen umfassenden Überblick über die sozialstrukturelle Entwicklung und die Perspektiven des sozialen Wandels in Deutschland vor und nach der Wiedervereinigung. Auf empirischer Grundlage werden die folgenden Teilbereiche dargestellt: Bevölkerungsentwicklung, materielle...

Private equity has become a substantial force in the European financial system. This paper describes some of the recent developments and looks at the structural relationship between private equity investments and economic growth. The econometric analysis of a set of panel data from 20 European...

The relationship between the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is characterized by a persistent potential for disruptions in implementation, such as 'biopiracy' conflicts, because of the agreements'...

Eastward enlargement is one of the hot topics in European economics. The accession of central and eastern European Countries (CEEC) into the European Union (EU) is accompanied by an extension of the eurozone to this region. This paper surveys likely outcomes and challenges of this specific...

India’s actual export specialisation in IT services is unrivalled by any comparable country and it is evidence of a strong comparative advantage. This paper finds that India owes its IT specialisation in part to its reliance on offshoring - driven by the supply of well-educated,...