We derive the optimal contract between a principal and a liquidity-constrained agent in a stochastically repeated environment. The contract comprises a court-enforceable explicit bonus rule and an implicit fixed salary promise that must be self-enforcing. Since the agent's rent increases with...

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An mehreren Orten in den USA entstanden in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten Zentren privater Forschungs- und Gründungsaktivitäten, von denen das Silicon Valley südlich von San Francisco wohl das bekannteste ist. Nahe der privat finanzierten Stanford University entstand ein Forschungs- und...

The O-Ring theory provides a framework for analyzing the effects of team production on the emergence of firms in the New Economy. Given risk-aversion of the potential team members, the productive advantage of perfect ability matching in teams suffices to establish an equilibrium which separates...

The effect of severance pay on management behavior during a takeover battle is generally ambiguous. Yet, the severance payment completely restraining all influence activities always constitutes a golden handshake. The manager leaving office still benefits from the increase in the merged firm's...

Adverse selection induces economic limits to market substitution. If quality uncertainty persists in both internet and traditional marketplaces, a second-best equilibrium with parallel market segments may arise. Positive trade in parallel segments implies that the information cost advantage of...

Dem von Presse, Wirtschaft und Politik vorgeworfenen Defizit bundesdeutscher Hochschulen soll mit einem verstärkten Qualitätswettbewerb um den Kunden Studenten abgeholfen werden. Student(inn)en müßten dann allerdings bei der Wahl ihrer Hochschule Kriterien in Betracht ziehen, die durch...