In 2001, government guarantees for savings banks in Germany were removed following a law suit. We use this natural experiment to examine the effect of government guarantees on bank risk taking, using a large data set of matched bank/borrower information. The results suggest that banks whose...

Using an agency framework, this paper examines advantages of offering venture capitalists a choice between public equity and loan schemes. Both schemes can be used to promote venture capital investments in hightechnology enterprises since they encourage inexperienced venture capitalists to...

Das DIW hat im Auftrag der Stiftung IMPULS ein Gutachten erarbeitet, in dem der Frage nachgegangen wurde, in welchem Umfang den Sektoren Maschinenbau und Büromaschinen, ADV Subventionen in Form von Finanzhilfen und Steuervergünstigungen zufließen. Die Analyse basiert auf der...

Turning unemployment into self-employment has become a major focus of German active labour market policy (ALMP) in recent years. If effective, this would not only reduce Germany?s persistently high unemployment rate, but also increase its notoriously low self-employment rate. Empirical evidence...

Der Beitrag untersucht die Arbeitsmarktwirkungen einer vom Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbund vorgeschlagenen Subventionierung der Sozialbeiträge über einen allgemeinen Freibetrag. Im Rahmen eines mit SOEP-Daten geschätzten diskreten Arbeitsangebotsmodells werden die Wohlfahrtseffekte des Konzepts...

The extension of subsidized child care is currently on top of the political agenda in Germany. In this paper the excess demand for subsidized child care slots is estimated using a partial observability model in the style of Abowd and Farber (1982). The results show that more than 50 percent of...

This article demonstrates that the large feed-in tariffs currently guaranteed for solar electricity in Germany constitute a subsidization regime that, if extended to 2020, threatens to reach a level comparable to that of German hard coal production, a notoriously outstanding example of misguided...

Understanding the determinants of home-efficiency improvements is significant to a range of energy policy issues, including the reduction of fossil fuel use and environmental protection. This paper analyzes retrofit choices by assembling a unique data set merging a nationwide household survey...