In this paper we investigate the influence of coupon structure on the financial behavior of Individual Investors in the fixed-income market. Examining circa 26 million decisions on 204 standard putable bonds with different coupon offerings our major findings are: (i) Products with a flat coupon...

This paper is the first to analyze and value early exercises of Individual Investors in fixed-income investment products. Assuming decision and transaction costs we consider that a continuous decision-making on holding or exercising is not optimal anymore and propose a new approach to modeling...

Psychology has inspired economics to recognize intentions in addition to outcomes as being relevant for utility and behavior. Reciprocal behavior, in particular, has been related to the kindness of chosen actions and how kindness can be derived from the benefits obtained in unchosen...

Intention-based models of reciprocity argue that people assess kindness by measuring the intended consequences of actual behavior (deeds) against foregone payoffs resulting from unchosen alternatives (omissions). While the effects of omissions have been intensively studied in recent years, less...

This paper studies the empirical early exercise behavior of Individual Investors in non-tradable putable bonds. Analyzing circa 31 million holding and exercise decisions of more than 220,000 Individual Investors over 13 years, our major findings are: (i) Individual Investors use their early...

Gegenstand zahlreicher regionalökonomischer Untersuchungen ist die Spezialisierung von Regionen auf eine oder wenige Branchen und die gemeinsame Standortwahl von Unternehmen, also regionale Konzentration. Bevor jedoch die Gründe für die Verteilung ökonomischer Aktivität im Raum erforscht...

The latest Argentinean debt restructuring was the first time the resolution of a modem financial crisis was completely handed over to the private financial markets without official intervention by public institutions. We argue that the resulting harshest haircut for private creditors in history...

The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index is a composite index with a focus on cross-section information. The usage of the data in the form of time series has been discouraged in the past, due to changes in the composition of sources. Basing assessments only on sources that...

Corruption among central banks induces distorted policies by, first, increasing the inflation bias and, second, potentially inducing a pro-cyclical adjustment of employment. In response to a negative supply shock a corrupt central banker is tempted to decrease money supply. In this case, he...

Recent empirical studies claim that, in addition to levels of corruption, investors are deterred by its unpredictability. I claim instead that it is petty corruption that deters investors. I employ seven subcomponents of corruption for a sample of 102 countries that appear in the 2003 Global...