The valuation of firms is one of the topics that valuation theorists and practitioners have addressed since the early stages of economic sciences. Firm valuations are regularly conducted using discounted cash flow (DCF) models in which expected future cash flows are discounted at...

This dissertation consists of six self-contained chapters that are related to the behavior of firms and politicians in a broader sense. After an introduction to the topic, the first part of the dissertation elaborates on how institutional and political framework conditions influence the behavior...