This paper presents an experimental study of the random incentive mechanisms which are a standard procedure in economic and psychological experiments. Random incentive mechanisms have several advantages but are incentive-compatible only if responses to the single tasks are independent. This is...

Economic experiments report that individuals perform better under a piece rate payment scheme in comparison to a fixed payment scheme. The reason is straightforward: incentives motivate people, and without incentives they decrease their effort. Yet women are prone to choose a fixed payment over...

This paper investigates the relationship between market overconfidence and occurrence of stock-price bubbles. Sixty participants traded stocks in ten experimental asset markets. Markets were constructed on the basis of subjects’ overconfidence: The most overconfident subjects form high...

Standard economic theory assumes that individual risk taking decisions are independent from the social context. Recent experimental evidence however shows that the income of peers has a systematic impact on observed degrees of risk aversion. In particular, subjects strive for balance in the...

We investigate the relation between global FX volatility and the excess returns to carry trade portfolios. We find a significantly negative return co-movement of high interest rate currencies with global volatility, whereas low interest rate currencies provide a hedge against volatility shocks....

In our current time the idea of a global currency seems to be pathbreaking. However, the introduction of such a currency requires a uniform governance which implicates that countries lose national autonomy. Presently, countries prefer national monetary policy and national financial regulation....

The external imbalances in Europe have led the Europzone into a crisis. Out of three goals in international monetary policy, only two can be realized at the same time. By joining a monetary union a country has implicitly decided about these two goals. In order to stay competitive, wages and...

The image is undisputed in the political debate that the function of the financial sector is to "play servant" to the real economy, but the consequences derived from this debate are controversial. Clearer is the academic concept to restrict the functions of the financial sector deliberately. But...

Technical analysis involves the prediction of future exchange rate (or other assetprice) movements from an inductive analysis of past movements. A reading of the large literature on this topic allows us to establish a set of stylised facts, including the facts that technical analysis is an...