While in the US stock-based incentives are commonly used since the 50s of the last century, in Germany they were invented only some ten years ago. Even in 1996 firms faced considerable regulatory difficulties when willing to grant such incentives. In the meantime the legal environment has...

This paper investigates the strategy of private equity investors to take public companiesprivate in blockholder-based economies. Drawing on a unique dataset, we providestrong evidence that private equity investors buy companies in order to mitigatepotential agency problems and hence to improve...

The new institutional economics offers a bold and simple argument for how states promoted commercial expansion in early modern Europe. Focused on the importance of secure property rights for reducing transaction costs, commerce expands much as an engine burns fuel more efficiently and creates...

The ability to cooperate in collective action problems — such as those relating to the useof common property resources or the provision of local public goods — is a key determinant ofeconomic performance. In this paper we discuss two aspects of collective action problemsin developing...

Die vorliegende Studie versucht, einen Beitrag zu den derzeitigen Diskussionen innerhalbder Europäischen Union (EU) um die Einführung einer eigentumsrechtlichen Entbündelung(Ownership Unbundling, OU) im Gassektor zu leisten. Dabei geht es um dieFrage, ob die vollständige eigentumsrechtliche...

Based on practitioners’ experience of making things work on the ground, severalcommon themes emerged. These themes prompted questions about how success can bereplicated, how to overcome obstacles, and what role government can play.The themes were:• scaling down and linking up;• cutting...

The computational properties of an econometric method are fundamentaldeterminants of its importance and practical usefulness, in conjunction withthe method’s statistical properties. Computational methods in econometricsare advanced through successfully combining ideas and methods in...

We apply the property rights theory of Grossman-Hart-Moore in the musicindustry and study the optimal allocation of copyright between the artistswho create music and the labels who promote and distribute it. Digital tech-nology opens up a role for new intermediaries. We …nd that entry of...

This paper explores the consequences of creating and improvingproperty rights so that …xed assets can be used as collateral. Thishas become a cause célèbre of Hernando de Soto whose views areinfluential in debates about policy reform concerning property rights.Hence, we refer to the economic...