As institutional investors are engaged to realize attractive risk-adjusted returns, they can by definition be seen as risk managers. This paper analyzes their risk management behavior from a macro perspective and focuses on their incentives for rational herding. Based on a questionnaire survey...

In jüngster Vergangenheit hat die Versicherungswirtschaft einen grundlegenden Wandel durchlaufen. Deregulierung, Globalisierung sowie Substitutionskonkurrenz führten zu einem verschärften Wettbewerb um Marktanteile bei sinkenden Gewinnmargen. Aufgrund dieser neuen Wettbewerbsdynamik und den...

In this paper, I examine an inter-temporal exchange economy with a complete financial market. The economy is populated by two heterogeneous investors who differ from each other in their attitudes towards risk. In such a model, a single representative agent can be created who generates the same...

The rational prodigality argument, which often serves to justify social security, is considered in a second-best tax framework with endogenous labor supply. Rational prodigality renders the familiar policies time inconsistent. We analyze time consistent policies and show that a wage tax suffices...

Zur Bewertung von Investitionsprojekten mit mehrperiodigen Zahlungen können die erwarteten Zahlungen mit geeigneten Kapitalkosten diskontiert werden. Die Kapitalkosten werden in der Regel als die erwartete einperiodige Rendite der Investition bestimmt, wobei häufig auf Kapitalmarktmodelle wie...

Many public goods like dams, fire departments, and lighthouses do not provide direct utility but act more as insurance devices against floods, fire, and shipwreck. They either diminish the probability or the size of the loss. We extend the public good model with this insurance aspect and...

This paper develops a market microstructure model with asymmetric information in order to quantify the influence which practical decision rules have on asset process. The users of practical decision rules have incomplete information at their disposal and trade in a market with both fully...

Many theoretical models show that redistribution causes low growth or capital outflows even though empirically redistribution and growth are often found to be positively associated across countries. This paper argues that tax competition and the danger of capital outflows leads optimizing...

The question of the main determinants of persistent responses due to nominal shocks captures, at least since Chari et al. (2000), a major part of the recent macroeconomic debate. However, the question whether sticky wages and/or sticky prices are sufficient for persistent reactions of key...

We examine the impact of corporate currency hedging on economic stability by introducing hedging activity in a Mundell-Fleming-Tobin framework for analyzing currency and financial crises. The ratio between hedged and unhedged firms is modelled depending on firm size as well as hedging costs. The...