This study investigates the payout policy of state-owned municipal firms. Based on insights from agency theory we derive an empirically testable model based on Lintner's corporate dividend policy model accounting for the characteristics of state-owned firms in terms of corporate governance and ownership structure. Exploiting a large and new panel dataset on German firms from the years 2003 to 20...
Abstract: Antitrust authorities try to detect and sanction existing cartels and hinder the formation of new ones. Firms nevertheless try to collude while avoiding sanctions, for example by colluding tacitly instead of explicitly forming a cartel. In this paper, we focus on differences in the communication of firms that either form an explicit cartel or try to collude tacitly. The latter may still...
Abstract: We examine experimentally the impact of corporate social responsibility techniques on individuals’ performance and willingness to compete. Our baseline treatment adopts the Niederle-Vesterlund (2007) paradigm whereby individuals perform a task under piece-rate and tournament incentives, followed by an opportunity to determine which of the two payment schemes they prefer. In our...
(joint with André Stenzel and Peter Schmidt) We consider dynamic price-setting in the presence of rating systems and asymmetric information about product quality. We provide a framework in which the price charged determines the characteristics of purchasing consumers. The price has two effects on future ratings: (i) a direct price effect on reviews, and (ii) an indirect selection effect...
Ein wesentliches Ziel der EU ist die Annäherung von Wohlstand und wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung zwischen seinen Mitgliedstaaten. Seit 2010 läuft aber vor allem in der Euro-Zone die Entwicklung zwischen der südlichen Peripherie und den übrigen Ländern auseinander. Dabei mangelt es in den südlichen Ländern weder an Kapital noch an innovativen Ideen. Vielmehr schaffen ...
As the policy debate on entrepreneurship increasingly centers on firm growth in terms of job creation, it is important to better understand which variables influence the first hiring decision and which ones influence the subsequent survival as an employer. Using the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), we analyze what role individual characteristics of entrepreneurs play in sustainable job creation. ...