In 2006 Germany passed a disclosure enforcement law (EHUG) that strengthened the enforcement of financial statement disclosure in particular for non-listed firms whose compliance before the law was just about 16%. After introducing recurring fines of €2,500 to €25,000 disclosure rates surged...

In their introduction to the special issue of the Review of Economic Dynamics on "Great Depressions of the 20th Century" (Vol. 5, 2002), Timothy J. Kehoe and Edward C. Prescott argue that in the last few years "great depressions" have hit two rich countries: New Zealand and Switzerland. We...