In a mean-downside risk framework, portfolio lines that combine the market portfolio and the risk-free asset (i.e., passive benchmark strategies) are non-linear if the target differs from the risk-free rate. Here, downside risk-based performance measures assign different performance levels to...

This paper analyzes the German market for supplemental dental insurance (SuppDI) to identify selection behavior based on individuals’ private information. The rather limited underwriting by German private health insurers makes this market especially prone to selection effects. Although the...

We consider portfolio optimization in a regime-switching market. The assets of the portfolio are modeled through a hidden Markov model (HMM) in discrete time, where drift and volatility of the single assets are allowed to switch between different states. We consider different parametrizations of...

We examine how firms manage their foreign exchange (FX) exposure using publicly reported data on FX exposure before and after hedging with corresponding hedging instruments. Based on calculated firm-, year-, and currency-specific hedge ratios, we find that about 80 [20] percent of FX firm...

Venture projects are fraught with exogenous market risk and endogenous agency risk. We apply a real options perspective to analyze the investment decision of the venture capitalist (VC) in this set-up. The solutions presented are conflictive: the VC reduces his exposure to exogenous risk by...

Der Beitrag kommentiert den Stand der Literatur zu den Auswirkungen der Medienberichterstattung auf politische Meinungen und Wahlverhalten. Er geht dabei insbesondere auf den theoretischen Hintergrund, die Rolle der Wettbewerbs- und Regulierungspolitik sowie die Besonderheiten des digitalen...

This paper contributes to the understanding of the long-run consequences of Roman rule on economic development. In ancient times, the area of contemporary Germany was divided into a Roman and non-Roman part. The study uses this division to test whether the formerly Roman part of Germany show a...

German savings banks play a key role in financing German SMEs. Accordingly, the analysis of their efficiency is of economic importance. We apply data envelopment analysis to explore the influence of the financial crisis (2007 to 2008) as well as the Eurozone crisis (since the end of 2009) on the...

We use Bayesian additive regression trees to reexamine the efficiency of growth and inflation forecasts for Germany. To this end, we use forecasts of four leading German economic research institutes for the sample period from 1970 to 2016. We reject the strong form of forecasts efficiency and...

German Abstract: Die Diskussion über die "richtige" methodische Ableitung und Höhe der Marktrisikoprämie wurde durch die Finanzmarkt- und Staatsschuldenkrise neu entfacht. Während in Deutschland der Ansatz impliziter Kapitalkosten als Alternative zu historischen Marktrisikoprämien...