The complexity of a tax system can be measured by the costs of private taxpayers and businesses in complying with the tax law. According to the empirical literature tax compliance costs are strongly correlated with the source and the amount of a taxpayers’ income. For that reason, these costs...

The paper addresses the question whether the preferential treatment of retained earnings according to section 34a EStG is suitable to achieve a comparable tax burden of partnerships and corporations. It can be shown that it is impossible to determine a reference value for all domestic companies....

In May 2009 Ulrich Hedtke presented a paper at the Schumpeter School Kolloquium dealing with Schumpeter’s perception of the entrepreneur. In his paper he argues that Schumpeter’s concept of entrepreneurship changed over time, illustrates the transition of Schumpeter’s ideas, and discusses...

In 2008, school districts were abolished in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federal state. Critics have argued that free school choice will lead to increased segregation and educational disparities. The data used is from Wuppertal, a major city in NRW. Since the Turkish...

In this study we empirically investigate the contribution of personality traits to the gender gap in entrepreneurship. Our empirical analyses, which are based on data obtained from a large scale survey of individuals in 36 countries, suggest that a group of personality traits which we call...

This paper analyzes how policy changes affect shareholder wealth in the context of environmental regulation. We exploit the unique and unexpected German reaction to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which involved the immediate shutdown of almost half of Germany’s nuclear reactors while...

While empirical studies that use event-study methodology find on average that the gains from mergers and acquisitions are positive, those focusing on accounting figures tend to find a significant drop in performance. We argue that each of the four possible combinations between positive or...

Recent empirical studies have shown that many employees would prefer to be self-employed, just as many nascent entrepreneurs are also in fulltime, paid employment. This paper investigates the factors determining individual preference for being self-employed, entrepreneurial intention and...

This paper analyzes the effect of the abolition of school districts in North-Rhine Westphalia on ethnic segregation in primary schools, using data from the school statistics from 2006/07 to 2008/09. The effect of the new policy is not easily identified, because several additional changes to the...

The information and communication technology (ICT) is a cross-section technology. ICT accelerate structural change and has a revitalizing effect especially in advanced economies. For Germany, it is therefore important not to leave behind on the fast growing ICT market and to produce a high...