Dismissal rules, i.e. legally enforced long term contracts, have beem defended against criticism for, among other things, providing efficient incentives to invest in relationship specific skills. However, in many situations efficient investment can also be attained by spot contracts. We...

Modern 'principal-agent theory' has made a lot of progress in proposing theoretical Solutions to agency problems. This paper contributes to a better understanding of behavior in agency situations. In particular, we provide experimental evidence on offered contracts and effort choices in a simple...

In this experiment, we analyze strategic delegation in a Cournot duopoly. Owners can choose among two different contracts which determine their managers' salaries. One contract simply gives managers incentives to maximize firm profits, while the second contract gives an additional sales bonus....

We propose a new approach to the pricing and hedging of contingent claims under transaction costs in a general incomplete market in discrete time. Under the assumptions of a bounded mean-variance tradeoff, substantial risk and a nondegeneracy condition on the conditional variances of asset...

This paper presents a general theory that works out the relation between coherent risk measures, valuation bounds, and certain classes of portfolio optimization problems. It is economically general in the sense that it works for any cash stream spaces, be it in dynamic trading settings, one-step...

Credit risk refers to the risk of incurring losses due to unexpected changes in the credit quality of a counterparty or issuer. In this paper we give an introduction to the modeling of credit risks and the valuation of credit-risky securities. We consider individual as well as correlated credit...

Empirical studies in family economics usually rely on questionnaires, statistical or panel data. Here we try to study experimentally some crucial aspects of engaging in a marriage. First the female partner can end the relationship or suggest one of the two forms of joint venture. Whereas a full...

In this experimental study of tax evasion and its determinants participants earn their income in a complex stochastic intertemporal environment including the possibility to invest into a risky asset. The earned income has to be declared in four tax returns which are randomly verified. If tax...

Problems arising in Finance have become a significant source of new developments in Stochastic Analysis. We discuss some recent case studies, in particular some decomposition and representation theorems which are motivated by problems of hedging derivatives and of intertemporal consumption choice.