Is there a feasible and desirable alternative to capitalism? Challenging capitalism has been somewhat taboo for academic economists since the collapse of communism. And yet it remains a hot question, not just because nine years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, unemployment is still...

Since World War II, direct stock ownership by households has largely been replaced by indirect stock ownership by financial institutions. We argue that tax policy is the driving force. Using long time-series from eight countries, we show that the fraction of household ownership decreases with...

We address one of the cardinal puzzles of European corporate law: the lack of derivate shareholder suits. We explain this phenomenon on the basis of percentage limits which require shareholders to hold a minimum amount of shares in order to bring a lawsuit. We show that, under this legal regime,...

We address one of the cardinal puzzles of European corporate law: the lack of derivate share-holder suits. We explain this phenomenon on the basis of percentage limits which require share-holders to hold a minimum amount of shares in order to bring a lawsuit. We show that, under this legal...

Ein Buch mit einer bestrickenden Konzeption: Alle umfassenderen theoretischen Alternativen zum zeitgenössischen Kapitalismus werden hier eingehend untersucht - angefangen bei den utopischen Entwürfen in der Ideengeschichte, über Sozialismus, Anarchismus und Planwirtschaft bis hin zu...

Using an index which increases as a firm adopts more governance attributes, we find that 12.7% of foreign firms have a higher index than matching U.S. firms. The best predictor for whether a foreign firm adopts more governance attributes than a comparable U.S. firm is whether the firm comes from...

In this study, we examine the perceptions of individual shareholders during Swiss annual general meetings (AGMs). Using AGMs as a corporate governance device has become ineffective; a panel of experts has called on small shareholders to increase their involvement in order to improve meeting...