This paper examines the influence of environmental factors on technical, cost, scale and revenue efficiency of German savings banks in 2001-2005. Taking into account growing regional disparities in economic wealth and population size, it differentiates between declining and growing regions....

This paper examines the effects of the distribution of unemployment by duration on the level of unemployment. It explores one central as- sumption that is observed empirically: when the share of long-term (short-term) unemployed increases, the unemployment rate increases (decreases). By...

Insurance products are distributed both by independent and dependent agents, although the use of independent agents is more costly. The product quality hypothesis states that independent agents provide both insurers and customers with higher service quality and therefore, remain on the market....

In Germany self-employment among foreigners increased significantly in recent years. We study the geographical distribution of ethnic minority self-employment in Germany and find determinants for variations in start-up activities across 440 administrative German regions. We analyze the Statistic...

Aufgrund der starken regionalen Verankerung kann bei den Sparkassen ein besonderes Interesse an den Folgen des demographischen Wandels und speziell von Alterung und Abwanderung vermutet werden. Dabei sind die Sparkassen nicht nur über das Regionalprinzip eng mit einer bestimmten Region...

This paper investigates the performance of Germany's three-pillar banking system in providing financial services nationwide, regarding different outreach indicators. At the federal state level, bank outreach shows South-North and West-East gaps. Combining regional and bank data at the district...

This study focuses on the influence of heavy job demands on retirement, using the available SHARE waves. Heavy job demands may have a direct and health mediated effect on individual retirement. An econometric challenge is the dynamic self-selection of workers into jobs. The main findings...

This paper investigates the role of published stock recommendations in print and online media as investor sentiment in the near-term German stock market. In line with extant literature on other sentiment measures, vector autoregressions reveal that past stock returns drive today's sentiment, but...

To most individuals saving for retirement is the number one financial goal. However, it reveals a complex task and induces serious behavioral problems which cannot be explained by traditional economic theory. This paper investigates the role of behavioral asset selection on retirement portfolios...

Insurance markets are characterized by profound market imperfections. Insurance intermediaries reduce transaction costs and information asymmetries. From transaction cost economics, agency theory, and law and economics literature the hypothesis is derived that insurance brokers may provide more...