This paper presents a first empirical examination of all available German mini-bond offerings between 2010 and 2015. We compare the default probability according to a mini-bond's initial rating with that implied by credit risk models, and show that rating agencies can create ratings inflation by...

Institutional investments di ffer in several key aspects, including fi nancial sophistication and frequency of monitoring from retail mutual funds. This paper analyzes how this "e ffective governance" impedes tournament behavior. For mutual funds, it has been shown that relative "loser" managers...

Besides the more commonly used REITs, German investors can also invest in a lesser-known real estate vehicle, Open-Ended Property Funds. OPFs are considered a compromise between listed and direct real estate investments. OPF fund managers generally provide daily (perfect) liquidity. However, if...