We develop a hybrid algorithm using Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) to solve multi-objective step function maximization problems. We then apply the algorithm to a specific economic problem which is taken out of the corporate governance literature.

This paper demonstrates that the current literature on cross-ownership among firms underestimates the true degree of separation between cash flow rights and voting rights. We use accounting identities to define coefficients of control, such that any (direct or indirect) control of a firm may be...

This paper studies the influence of the private benefits of control on the capital structure and the growth of private companies. It is argued that companies in which existing owners would lose more control if they expanded, have smaller equity increases, are more highly levered and grow more...

This study examines changes in block ownership for a large sample of listed and non-listed German firms. The frequency of block trading is similar to other countries, and the vast majority of block trades leads to changes in ultimate ownership (control transfers). Such changes are more likely...

This study provides new stylized facts on the determinants of corporate failure and acquisition in Germany. It also offers important lessons for the design of empirical studies. We show that firms experiencing failure or acquisition are significantly different from surviving firms on a number of...

This study investigates the determinants of changes in corporate ownership and firm failure, taking into account different types of sellers and buyers of control blocks. For a large panel of German corporations we find that firms are more likely to fail or to be sold when performance is poor,...

We analyze the degree of contract completeness with respect to staging of venture capital investments using a hand-collected German data set of contract data from 464 rounds into 290 entrepreneurial firms. We distinguish three forms of staging (pure milestone financing, pure round financing and...

The main objective of the present paper is to disentangle observed differences in the design of contracts across VC types into firm selection effects and corporate governance differences between VC types (different contracts). Based on a theoretical approach developed in the first part of the...

The paper shows the ways of disclosing financial risks by IFRS 7 and certain types of sensitivity analysis. The different possibilities of preparing a sensitivity analysis, such as value at risk are illustrated and their suitability for reporting are faced critically. Following, the manner of...

The Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (FREP) has been examining financial reporting of companies listed in the regulated market in Germany since 1.7.2005. The paper analyzes the enforcement disclosure quality between 2006 and 2008 by comparing the published activity reports of the panel with...