Using a microeconomic model and data from the Establishment Panel of the German Institute for Employment Research, we analyze the optimal establishment size against the background of rent-seeking workers and the influence of works councils. The theoretical part shows that establishment size has...

This  paper  empirically  examines  the  impact  of temporary agency  work  strategies on firm  performance  using  panel  data   from  German   establishments.  Thereby,  special attention is devoted  to  the  question,  whether  there  are  performance differences ...

We sketch a model that shows how skill-biased technological changemay reverse the classic Balassa-Samuelson effect, leading to a negativerelationship between the productivity in the tradable sector andthe real exchange rate. In a small open economy, export goods areproduced with capital,...

<span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:CMR12" lang="EN-US">Findings from the literature suggest that previous estimates of the variety gains from trade are too small because of the imprecise measurement of the imported variety set under the Armington assumption. In this contribution, I use results from the literature on multi-product firms to obtain...</span>

This paper outlines the foundations of corporate governance.  The discussion includes a review on the modern corporation, transaction costs theory, agency costs theory, legal investor protection, investor protection by corporate governance and its various mechanisms, as well as an overview of...

<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">We analyze the doping behavior of heterogeneous athletes in an environment of private information. In a n-player strategic game, modeled as an all-pay auction, each athlete has private information about his actual physical ability and choses the amount of performance-enhancing drugs. The use of...</span>

We embed a two-sided matching market with non-transferable utility, a marriage market, into a random search model. We study steadystate equilibria and characterize the limit of the corresponding equilibrium matchings as exogenous search frictions become small. The central question is whether the...

The traditional methodology examining optimal boards relates a simple board variable  (e.g., independence or board demography) to firm performance, however, ig- noring other board characteristics.  This paper investigates how the education and business  experience of directors affect firm ...

This paper explores the robustness of the Balassa-Samuelson (BS) hypothesis.We analyze a panel of OECD countries from 1970 to 2008 and compare three different datasets on sectoral productivity, including a newly constructed database on total factor productivity. Overall, our DOLS estimation...

Regulators and shareholders are calling for independent directors. Independent directors, however, have numerous external professional commitments. Using  To- bin’s Q as an approximation  of market valuation and controlling for endogeneity, our empirical analysis reveals that neither...