Start-ups often lack certain knowledge and skills and are in the need of external assistance. If this external help is combined with capital we can talk about relationship financing or smart capital. In a heterogeneous financial system such as the one in Germany, which type of financier supplies...

This paper empirically investigates the link between political patronage and bank performance for Ukraine during 2003Q3-2005Q2. We find significant differences between politically affiliated and non-affiliated banks. The data suggest that affiliated banks have significantly lower interest...

The paper adopts the methodology of the empirical finance literature to analyze a common question that liability maturity structure has an impact on firm performance. A comparison is made between two countries, the US and Germany, with different types of financial systems. We find that German...