Das Finanzierungsumfeld für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) befindet sich im Wandel. Die Veränderungen des konjunkturellen Umfelds und der damit verbundenen Niedrigzinspolitik sowie die Basel-Regulierungen zeigen einen deutlichen Einfluss auf die Finanzierungsstrukturen der KMU. So...

Almost all international environmental agreements include a minimum participation rule. Under such a rule an agreement becomes legally binding if and only if a certain threshold in terms of membership or contribution is reached. We analyze a cartel game with open membership and heterogeneous...

The main argument of this paper is that initiatives for regional cooperation - particularly related to short-term external financing: reserve sharing and trade-related payments systems - are promising avenues for policy efforts, in face of an international financial situation marked by...

This paper investigates how patent applications and grants held by new ventures improve their ability to attract venture capital (VC) financing. We argue that investors are faced with considerable uncertainty and therefore rely on patents as signals when trying to assess the prospects of...

We use a simple balanced budget contest to collect taxes on a private good in order to ?nance a pure public good. We show that-with an appropriately chosen structure of winning probabilities-this contest can provide the public good efficiently and without distorting private consumption. We...

Laut Koalitionsvertrag sollen die gesetzlichen Krankenkassen den kassenindividuellen Zusatzbeitrag zukünftig als prozentualen Satz vom beitragspflichtigen Einkommen erheben. Der Verhandlungsführer der SPD und Verfechter der Bürgerversicherung, Karl Lauterbach, feierte dieses...