To clarify the causal links between financial activity and economic growth, three theoretical models are analyzed and a LISREL structural equation path model is estimated. In the modeling part, poverty traps result from large fixed costs or high proportions of real investment to run a financial...

We investigate the consistency of efficiency scores derived with two competing frontier methods in the financial economics literature: stochastic Frontier and Data Envelopment Analysis. We sample 34,192 observations for all German universal banks and analyze whether efficiency measures yield...

This paper presents the first MIMIC (multiple indicator multiple causes) model estimate of the size and development of the shadow economy and of do-it-yourself (DIY) activities in Germany from 1970 to 2005. By 2005, they reached a level of about 17% and 4.94%. While the shadow economy has...

This paper analyzes the determinants of the interest margin of German banks over the period 1995-2007, explicitly addressing differences among different bank groups. We use three empirical models to focus on the following aspects: the time evolution of the interest margin, the average...

The Italian and German banking systems shared similar characteristics early in the 1990s but have evolved in different directions since then: Italy privatized its publicly-owned banks while Germany has maintained a large share of state-owned savings banks. Contemporaneously, banks in both...

This research provides a comparative study of the Japanese and German nursing-home sectors. Facing aging populations, both countries share similar long-term care policies based on social insurance. However, descriptive statistics indicate significant differences in the outcomes of utilization...

This paper analyzes the determinants of the interest margin of German banks over the period 1995-2007, explicitly addressing differences among different bank groups. We use three empirical models to focus on the following aspects: the time evolution of the interest margin, the average...

This paper analyzes the determinants of the interest margin of German banks over the period 1995–2007, explicitly addressing differences among different bank groups. We use three empirical models to focus on the following aspects: the time evolution of the interest margin, the average...