Konrad Stahl

Legal Form, Growth and Exit of West German Firms: Empirical Results for Manufacturing, Construction, Trade and Service Industries

Using a sample of approximately 11,000 West German firms from all major sectors of the economy, the authors test predictions on the relationship between legal form, firm survival, and employment growth. In their tests, the authors distinguish between voluntary liquidation without losses to creditors and bankruptcy, that is forced liquidation. They demonstrate that, in all sectors, firms under limited liability have higher growth and higher insolvency rates than comparable firms under full liability. Firms whose owners are approaching retirement age are characterized by relatively high hazards of voluntary liquidation, while the propensity to declare insolvency is not affected by the owners age. Copyright 1998 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Life cycle savings and consumption constraints

Recent tests of both the pure and the extended life cycle hypothesis have generated inconclusive results on the life cycle behavior of the elderly. We extend the life cycle model by introducing a constraint on the physical consumption opportunities of the elderly which, if binding, imposes a consumption trajectory declining in age. This explains much of the received evidence on the elderlys consumption and savings behavior, in particular declining consumption, and increasing savings and wealth with increasing age. Our analysis of German data gives additional support to our theory. We finally draw the implications of the theory on the incidence of consumption and income (wealth) taxes, and on the recent (inconclusive) tests of intergenerational altruism.

On income tax avoidance: the case of Germany

In this paper, we present a micro estimate determining taxable income as a function of gross income and all major deduction options depending on household and asset categories. It is shown that tax savings strongly increase with increasing income, resulting in a decreasing effective marginal tax rate for the highest income groups. We compute a lower bound on 1983 aggregate income tax losses to the German fiscal authorities of DM 72b, or of 45 % of wage and income taxes paid in 1983. The estimate of tax loss exceeds estimates for other countries by orders of magnitude.

Do savings programs dedicated to home-ownership increase personal savings?: An analysis of the West German Bausparkassen system

Abstract The West German Bausparkassen system consists of savings and loan institutions providing exclusively to their savers loans towards purchasing a home. Thus, inflows correspond to outflows. We provide an analysis of the impacts of the Bausparkassen system and its governmental subsidization on dedicated and general savings. Within a cross-section microanalysis and a time-series macroanalysis we demonstrate the extent of savings activities in the system and the microstructure of system participation; that government subsidization heavily influences participation, but nevertheless participation also extends to households not eligible for subsidies; and that the very existence of the system contributes to overall savings activities.

Dynamic Aspects of Public Goods: A Further Analysis of the Telephone System

This paper reconsiders a dynamic model of the telephone system developed by Artle and Averous, which for the first time introduces public goods in a dynamic framework. With a more restrictive set of assumptions, their proposition showing self-sustaining growth in the demand for telephones is restated and discussed in detail. Comparative statics of the model are discussed to illuminate further properties which are due to the public good characteristics of the telephone system. Alternative interpretations of the dynamics of the model are given. Finally, a paradigm of urban growth is given to suggest applications of this type of model to other areas of economic analysis.

Microeconomic Models of Housing Markets

1. Microeconomic Analysis of Housing Markets: Towards a Conceptual Framework.- 2. The Harvard Urban Development Simulation Model.- 3. Fixprice Equilibria in a Rental Housing Market.- 4. The Ifo Housing Market Model.- 5. The Dortmund Housing Market Model: A Monte Carlo Simulation of a Regional Housing Market.- 6. Postscript The Evolution of Housing Market Analysis: A Historical Perspective.

The actual structure of eBay's feedback mechanism and early evidence on the effects of recent changes

eBay’s feedback mechanism is considered crucial to establishing and maintaining trust on the world’s largest trading platform. Yet, there is confusion among users about its exact institutional details, which changed substantially in May 2007. Most importantly, buyers now have the possibility to leave additional, anonymous ratings on sellers on four different criteria. We provide a thorough description of the institutional details of eBay’s feedback mechanism, including those changes. Then, we provide first descriptive evidence on the impact of those changes on rating behaviour.

Microeconomic Analysis of Housing Markets: Towards a Conceptual Framework

The housing sector is of importance in virtually any economy for several reasons. First, housing is an essential consumption good eating up a large share of the typical household’s budget. Second, housing is the major, if not the dominant asset in many households’ portfolio. Third, housing production and maintenance constitute an important segment of the economy’s productive sector. Indeed, the housing sector contributes, if not instrumentally, to the formation of business cycles. Finally, there is considerable public concern about the efficiency of allocation decisions in that sector, as well as about inequalities in the distribution of housing consumption. In many countries, large public funds and many regulatory activities are devoted to the improvement of efficiency and equity in the allocation decisions in housing.

Economics of information examples in location and land-use theory☆

Abstract In many contexts a decision taken by one economic agent reveals valuable market information to other agents. Two such examples are displayed. In the first case, the location of a retailer reduces locally the uncertainty in the spatial variation of demand, thereby attracting other retailers. In the second case, the change in the quality of rental housing in a homogeneous neighborhood reveals consumer demand which may invite other landlords to follow suit causing capid neighborhood change.

Residential Mobility in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany

Casual evidence of the kind reviewed in the introduction indicates that the residential mobility rates of West Germans are sharply lower than those of Americans. 1 Such an outcome is expected for a number of reasons, which, for ease of exposition, can be divided broadly among transactions costs, search costs, and factors outside the housing market.