We exploit a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on diversity of citizenship in legal disputes to estimate the contribution of the court system to firm value. In an event study, we find that an increase in state court quality from bottom to top tercile is associated with an average increase in equity...

Die Bedeutung des Europäischen Gerichtshofes (EuGH) als "Motor der Integration" ist allgemein anerkannt. Welche Auswirkungen die Rechtsprechung des Gerichtshofes in den EU-Mitgliedstaaten hat, ist bisher weniger gut erforscht. Dieser Artikel analysiert die Umsetzung der Urteile Laval (C-341/05)...

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is a very powerful court compared to other international courts and even national courts of last resort. Observers almost unanimously agree that it is the preliminary references procedure that made the ECJ the powerful court it is today. In this paper, we...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the optimal scale of local jurisdictions (cantons) in Switzerland applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to the years 2000 to 2004. Aggregate output performance indicators for four local government activities (administration, education, health, and...

Entrepreneurship is usually indentified as an important determinant of aggregate productivity and long-term growth. The determinants of entrepreneurship, nevertheless, are not entirely understood. A recent literature has linked entrepreneurship to the development of the justice system. This...

Die politische Unabhängigkeit der Europäischen Zentralbank wurde in den entsprechenden Verträgen gesichert. Wie sieht es aber mit ihrer Rechtsbindung aus? Wer kann die EZB vor Gericht aufgrund von Pflichtverletzungen verklagen und ist dies grundsätzlich überhaupt möglich? Diesen Fragen...

Entrepreneurship is usually identified as an important determinant of aggregate productivity and long-term growth. The determinants of entrepreneurship, nevertheless, are not entirely understood. A recent literature has linked entrepreneurship to the development of the justice system. This paper...

Macroeconomic imbalances are large, and structural problems are deep-rooted in Portugal. The new government’s strong commitment to program implementation is encouraging. Fiscal performance so far demonstrates the need to refocus the fiscal strategy on strong expenditure control, as...