Graduate School of Law, Economics, and Society
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In der vorliegenden Studie wird ein entscheidungsmodelltheoretischer Ansatz verwendet, um unter Vernachlässigung von Unsicherheit und Risiko Kennzahlen zu entwickeln, die verschiedene Formen der Altersvorsorge miteinander vergleichbar machen. Zu diesem Zweck werden die steuer- und sozialversicherungsrechtlichen Grundlagen für ausgewählte Altersvorsorgeformen (gesetzliche Rentenversicherung, Basisrentenversicherung, zulagengeförderte Altersvorsorge, betriebliche Altersversorgung und private Rentenversicherung) im Rechtsrahmen des Jahres 2020 erläutert. Darauf aufbauend wird ein eigenes System von Kennzahlen entwickelt, um die Vor- und Nachteile der jeweiligen Alterssicherungsform zu quantifizieren. Die Ergebnisse werden anhand von stilisierten Modellbiografien präsentiert und diskutiert. Eine abschließende Gesamtwürdigung fasst schließlich wesentliche Erkenntnisse zusammen.
Politische Bildung übt nicht nur einen großen Einfluss auf die zukünftige Konstellation des politischen Systems aus, sondern beeinflusst ebenfalls das soziale Miteinander prägend. Damit werden entscheidende Weichen für die Entwicklung der Gesellschaft, der Nation und des Staates gestellt. Im Zuge dieses Prozesses durchläuft jeder junge Bürger einen politischen Bildungsweg an Schulen. Die Vorgaben darüber, wie schulische politische Bildung auszusehen hat und welche Kompetenzen Schüler in diesem Zusammenhang erwerben sollen, geben die Kultus- bzw. Bildungsministerien in Curricula vor, verbindlich für alle Lehrer. Durch eine komparative Analyse der Curricula kann damit eindeutig die staatlich vorgegebene politische, gesellschaftliche und soziale Richtung festgestellt werden, die junge Menschen einschlagen sollen. Welche edukativen Ziele der politischen Bildung werden verfolgt? Was sollen Schüler lernen, um mit diesen Kompetenzen die Zukunft ihres Kollektivs zu gestalten? Wo liegen die Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zweier Staaten, in unserem Fall Deutschlands und Polens, im Hinblick auf die schulische politische Bildung? Beantwortet werden diese Fragestellungen durch das Anwenden zweier Methoden der qualitativen Sozialforschung, der komparativen Inhaltsanalyse, zum einen der strukturierenden zum anderen der induktiven. Davor erfolgt eine komparativ quantitative Untersuchung, die den Umfang der Unterrichtszeit in den Leitfächern für politische Bildung in allen Bundesländern und in Polen vergleicht, was einer empirischen Totalerhebung der komplex umfangreichen Daten entspricht. Die quantitativen Forschungsergebnisse zeigen deutliche Differenzen zwischen Deutschland und Polen, in einem der beiden Staaten wird signifikant mehr Zeit für politische Bildung im Leitfach dieser Disziplin investiert als im anderen. Anhand der qualitativen Daten ist zu erkennen, dass einerseits eine gemeinsame Grundbasis von Kompetenzen der politischen Bildung zwischen Deutschland und Polen besteht. Anderseits stechen in beiden Ländern eindeutige Unterschiede hervor, deren Ursprung zum einen historische Erfahrungen der Nationen und Staaten abbildet, zum anderen aktuell gegensätzliche politische Interessen untermauert.
In dieser Dissertation werden ausgewählte Aspekte der Steuervermeidung und grenzüberschreitenden Besteuerung betrachtet. Im Teil B liegt der Fokus auf der Empirie zu Steuervermeidung und Gewinnverlagerung multinationaler Unternehmen mit drei einzelnen Aufsätzen. Der Teil C untersucht die unterschiedliche Besteuerung von Human- und Sachvermögen anhand der beiden fundamentalen Besteuerungsprinzipien des Äquivalenz- und des Leistungsfähigkeitsprinzips. Der letzte Aufsatz (Teil D) analysiert das Werturteilsfreiheitspostulat im Stakeholder-Ansatz und zeigt mithilfe eines Fallbeispiels, wie die Unternehmensbesteuerung in unterschiedliche Stakeholder-Ansätze integriert werden kann. Eine abschließende Gesamtwürdigung geht auf verbleibende Forschungsfragen ein (Teil E).
Somit wird in der vorliegenden Dissertation grenzüberschreitende Besteuerung anhand betriebswirtschaftlicher, besteuerungsprinzipiengestützter bzw. dogmatischer und wissenschaftstheoretischer Gesichtspunkte untersucht.
The universal two-child policy was introduced by the central government of China in 2016 to respond to the country’s deteriorating population problems, but it was soon replaced by a three-child policy in 2021 given that it failed to continuously boost fertility in Chinese society. This dissertation empirically investigates the implementation of universal two-child policy in three Chinese major cities. Based on the data collected through semi-structured interviews with leaders of local family planning agencies, it finds that local officials are primarily devoted to coping with the discontent of the bereaved single-child parents (shidu families), which is an unexpected consequence of the historical one-child policy, rather than working on the tasks regarding birth encouragement. The dissertation suggests understanding the implementation of China’s population policy within the framework of both historical and rational choice institutionalism. The target responsibility system as an effective tool of the central authority drives local agents to fix their attention at tasks that have larger impact on their career. The shifted focus in the implementation of the universal two-child policy is a result of local officials’ emphasis on the task of maintaining social stability. Shidu families are deemed as a salient threat to social order because their discontent with the state support has incurred continuous petitions at both the national and local level, which would severely undermine local officials’ career advancement. However, in the meantime, stability maintenance is found to have become alienated as reflected by the rising costs and that it replaced birth support to be the focus of local family planning agents in the universal two-child policy era. Since the conflict between the shidu group and the state is unlikely to be resolved, the future population policy design and enforcement will continue to be constrained by the shidu problem.
The following study, The Integration of Female Refugees in Germany: Perspectives of Women and an Analysis of Federal and Selected State and City Integration Policies from 1998-2019, is focused on the qualitative analysis of integration policy in Germany regarding female refugees. The states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, and Saxony-Anhalt have been selected for this dissertation as well as the cities of Cologne, Wuerzburg, and Magdeburg. Through an analysis and comparison of integration policies and programs on the federal and selected state and city levels the question will be answered how recognized female refugees are taken into account with the development and formulation of integration policy in Germany. The analysis is then complemented through interviews with recognized female refugees in each of the states and cities. Through analyzing the results of the interviews the question will be answered how the women view their situation and integration. Through a comparison of the findings from the policy analysis and the interviews it will then be able to decipher if integration policies and programs are truly reaching their target group, if they are effective, or what hurdles they may be producing. The goal of the study is to provide initial findings on the overall integration of recognized female refugees in Germany in connection to integration policies in order to discover potential deficits or ineffective programs and policies which can then be further researched in order to produce concrete policy suggestions.
Über 30 Jahre Rechtsprechung durch den EuGH haben die Systeme der Besteuerung am Binnenmarkt nachhaltig geprägt. Während sich die Mitgliedstaaten bei der Errichtung ihrer Steuersysteme jedoch zumeist positiv definierter Prinzipien bedienen, basiert die Rechtsprechung des Gerichtshofs in weiten Teilen auf den prohibitiv formulierten Grundverkehrsfreiheiten. In Abwesenheit einer sekundärrechtlichen Harmonisierungslösung forcierte der Gerichtshof in den vergangenen Jahren zunehmend den Integrationsprozess im direkten Steuerrecht. Insbesondere in der jüngeren Vergangenheit fühlten sich die Mitgliedstaaten hierdurch zunehmend in ihren Souveränitätsrechten verletzt. Vorliegende Abhandlung gibt eine Antwort auf die Fragestellung, ob und wie eine unionsrechtskonforme und gleichzeitig ökonomisch-systematische Ausgestaltung der europäischen Steuerrechtsordnungen durch den EuGH noch möglich ist.
The dissertation deals with the market and welfare effects of different business practices and the firm's incentives to use them: resale price maintenance, revenue sharing of a platform operator, membership fees to buyers using a platform and patent licensing.
In the second chapter we investigate the incentives of two manufacturers with common retailers to use resale price maintenance (RPM). Retailers provide product specific services that increase demand and manufacturers use minimum RPM to compete for favorable services for their products. Minimum RPM increases consumer pricesby voiding retailer price competition and can create a prisoner’s dilemma for manufacturers without increasing, and possibly even decreasing the overall service level. If manufacturer market power is asymmetric, minimum RPM tends to distort the allocation of sales services towards the high-priced products of the manufacturer with more market power. These results challenge the service argument as an efficiency defense for minimum RPM.
The third chapter deals with trade platforms whose operators not only allow third party sellers to offer their products to consumers, but also offer products themselves. In this context, the platform operator faces a hold-up problem if he uses classical two-part tariffs only (which previous literature on two-sided markets has focused on) as potential competition between the platform operator and sellers reduces platform attractiveness. Since some sellers refuse to join the platform, some products that are not known to the platform operator will not be offered at all. We discuss the effects of different platform tariffs on this hold-up problem. We find that revenue-based fees lower the platform operator's incentives to compete with sellers, increasing platform attractiveness. Therefore, charging such proportional fees can be profitable, what may explain why several trade platforms indeed charge proportional fees.
The fourth chapter investigates the optimal tariff system in a model in which buyers are heterogeneous. A platform model is presented in which transactions are modeled explicitly and buyers can differ in their expected valuations when they decide to join the platform. The main effect that the model identifies is that the participation decision sorts buyers according to their expected valuations. This affects the pricing of sellers. Furthermore diffing form the usual approach, in which buyers are ex-ante homogeneous, the platform does not internalize the full transaction surplus. Hence it does not implement the socially efficient price on the platform, also it has control of the price with the transaction fee.
The fifth chapter investigates the effects of licensing on the market outcome after the patent has expired. In a setting with endogenous entry, a licensee has a head start over the competition which translated into a first mover advantage if strategies are strategic substitutes. As competitive strategies quantities and informative advertising are considered explicitly. We find that although licensing increases the joint profit of the patentee and licensee, this does not necessarily come from a reduction in consumer surplus or other firms profits. For the case of quantity competition we show that licensing is welfare improving. For the case of informative advertising, however, we show that licensing increases prices and is thus detrimental to consumer surplus.
Aufgrund der gestiegenen Komplexität der Umwelt ist es für den Gesetzgeber unerlässlich, Experten in die Entscheidungsfindungsphase einzubeziehen, um funktionsfähige Regelwerke zu erstellen. Diese Spezialisten sind in der Theorie in Informationslieferanten und Interessensvertreter zu differenzieren. Die Vorgehensweisen "echter" Lobbyisten haben sich im Laufe der Zeit auf eine äußerst diskrete Ebene verschoben, sodass ein Sichtbarmachen nicht legitimierter Handlungen sich als ein äußerst schwieriges Unterfangen darstellt. Die politikwissenschaftlichen Ansätze zum empirischen Nachweis von Lobbyismusaktivitäten im Gesetzgebungsprozess werden daher einerseits auf die Anwendbarkeit im Steuerrecht überprüft und die bestmögliche Methodenkombination auf das europäische Vorhaben einer Gemeinsamen Konsolidierten Körperschaftsteuer-Bemessungsgrundlage (GKKB) angewandt. Es ist hierdurch möglich, eine begrenzte Anzahl von Individuen, Verbänden und Unternehmen aus der Gesamtheit der durch offizielle Dokumente der Europäischen Kommission sichtbaren Akteure herauszufiltern, denen eine erhöhte Beteiligung am Entstehungsprozess des Richtlinienentwurfs nachgesagt wird.
The present dissertation analyzes whether bank debt lending influences certain managerial decisions of borrowers, and if so, how. More precisely, the thesis investigates the influence of bank debt lending on the cost of debt and capital structure of firms, and on the accounting behavior of borrowers prior to borrowing new bank debt. The major aim of the dissertation is to deliver empirical evidence that central managerial decisions of companies are not only made by managers and equity owners but also driven by important debt investors. The objects of discussion are German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These firms are particularly suitable for this analysis, as they commonly have high bank debt proportions.
The dissertation comprises three separate empirical analyses, which investigate selected aspects in the above mentioned context. Section 3.1 inspects the impact of the Basel II Capital Accord and the financial crisis on the cost of debt of German SMEs. Basel II formalized the credit assessment of debtors. This might have led to higher costs and a higher risk awareness of banks. Banks might have tried to refinance those additional costs by imposing tighter credit terms on debtors. Especially SMEs might face a higher cost of debt, as they tend to have comparably high proportions of bank debt, low equity ratios, and consecutively lower ratings than big companies. The results presented in Section 3.1 indicate a significant rise of the cost of debt since 2007. Unfortunately, the amendment of Basel II was followed by the financial crisis. It is difficult to separate the effect of the reform and the one of the crisis on the costs of debt capital of German SMEs. The presented analysis controls for several possible interdependencies be-tween credit costs, credit shortage and the insolvency risk of companies. However, none of the analyzed facts indicates a significant change in the extent of bank credit granting to SMEs during the financial crisis that would justify higher costs of debt capital. The results might point out that banks made use of the special situation of the financial crisis and raised credit standards for SME loans.
Section 3.2 examines whether bank debt financing drives certain accounting choices of Ger-man SMEs. At least since Basel II, banks have to base their credit assessments on objective, quantitative ratings, which commonly rely on financial statement data. As loan interest rates account for a significant proportion of the cost of capital of SMEs, their incentive to optimize loan conditions is obvious. Under the assumption that SMEs are aware of the importance of financial statements data in credit assessments, they might have an incentive to direct their financial statements at banks. More precisely, SMEs might strive to exploit their asymmetric information advantage over banks by manipulating earnings with the intention to achieve decent credit terms. The results presented in Section 3.2 show that SMEs have significantly higher total accruals in the period prior to borrowing new bank debt than in other periods. Moreover, a higher bank debt proportion is accompanied by higher total accruals. Hence, particularly bank-dependent firms seem to alter their accounting behavior prior to the important corporate financing event of bor-rowing new bank debt. Finally, the study investigates whether earnings manipulation is detected by banks or whether it is effective and influences the cost of debt of German SMEs. Empirical results in Section 3.2 indicate that SMEs, which report positive discretionary accruals are re-warded in terms of a lower cost of debt. This might imply that banks do not see through earnings manipulation.
Section 3.3 contains results of a comprehensive survey of German SMEs, which intends to further analyze the research questions posed in Section 3.1 and 3.2. First, the survey aims to verify or falsify the results concerning the impact of Basel II on the cost of debt and the re-quirements to obtain a loan for SMEs since 2007. A large proportion of survey respondents complained about a higher effort needed to obtain a new bank loan since 2007. Moreover, for the majority of survey participants both the collateral demanded by banks and the strictness of covenants increased since Basel II. In addition, almost half of surveyed SMEs experience higher costs of bank debt since the amendment of the reform. The second part of the survey aims to investigate whether SMEs apply measures of earnings manipulation in the period prior to bor-rowing new bank debt. The majority of SMEs admit that they would use both certain means of real activities and accrual manipulation in order to achieve decent credit terms in the subsequent debt contract negotiation.
Taking these empirical results into consideration, the dissertation shows that certain manage-rial decisions of German SMEs are influenced by debt holders. Results in Sections 3.1 and 3.3 indicate that SME bank lending was affected by Basel II and the financial crisis. The cost of debt of German SMEs is significantly higher since Basel II, even after controlling for potential influences of the financial crisis. These higher costs of debt might have additional side effects on further corporate financing and/or investment decisions. Furthermore, results in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 indicate that bank debt lending influences accounting choices of German SMEs, particu-larly in the period before borrowing new bank debt. SME use both means of real activities and accrual management in order to achieve decent credit terms. This change of accounting behavior might be accompanied by effort, additional effects on other corporate contracts, and notable economic costs.
The dissertation at hand focuses on the enforcement of accounting standards in Germany. The legal basis of the external enforcement of accounting standards in Germany was created by the „Bilanzkontrollgesetz” (Financial Reporting Enforcement Act) at the end of 2004. An enforcement mechanism was installed to enforce accounting standard compliance by regular reviews of disclosed financial statements. The system was established as implementation of EU guidelines. Since 2005, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) shall be applied for consolidated financial statement of firms listed on a regulated market segment within the European Union (EU) (Regulation EC No. 1606/2002). Simultaneously to the harmonization of accounting standards, the EU fostered the standardization of enforcement systems to ensure compliance with international accounting standards. Par. 16 of the so-called “IAS Regulation” mandates the “Committee of European Securities Regulators” (CESR) to “develop a common approach to enforcement". Germany’s unique two-tiered system operates since July 2005; it involves the “Deutsche Pruefstelle fuer Rechnungslegung” (Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel), a newly established private organization primarily assigned to conduct the reviews. As the second tier, the „Bundesanstalt fuer Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht” (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) has the sovereign authority to order the publication of errors („error announcements“) and if necessary, to force the cooperation of firms in the review process.
The dissertation is structured as follows. A general introduction focuses on the theoretical background and the reasoning for the need of external enforcement mechanisms. The common approach to enforcement in the European Union is described. Building on this, the thesis consists of three individual essays that analyze three specific questions in the context of the enforcement of financial reporting standards in Germany.
The first paper focuses on the systematical evaluation of the information contained in 100 selected error announcements (from a total population of 151 evaluable announcements). The study finds that error announcements on average contain 3.64 single errors and 77% affect the reported profit. Relatively small as well as big, highly levered and rather unprofitable firms are overrepresented in the sample of misstatement firms. In a second step, the essay investigates the development of censured firms over time; the pre- and post-misstatement development of the firms in terms of balance sheet data, financial ratios and (real) earnings management are tracked. The analysis detects increasing leverage ratios and a decline in profitability over time. In the year of misstatement firms report large total and discretionary accruals, indicating earnings management. Compared to matched control firms, significant differences in profitability, market valuation, earnings management and real activities manipulations are observable. A major contribution of this first study is the examination of trends in financial data and (real) earnings management over a number of years surrounding misstatements as well as the elaboration of the distinction to non-misstating firms. The results show the meaning of the enforcement of IFRS for the quality of financial reporting to standard setters, policy makers, and investors in Germany.
The second paper examines the interrelation of enforcement releases, firm characteristics and earnings quality. Prior literature documents the correlation between underperformance in financial ratios and the probability of erroneous disclosure of financial statements; this study provides evidence for differences in characteristics between firms with enforcement releases and control firms as well as a broad sample of German publicly traded firms (4,730 firm-year observations). Furthermore, research affirms the connection of financial ratios to earnings quality metrics. The accuracy of financial information is considered to be correlated with its quality and therefore the differences in earnings quality between various sub-samples is examined. Overall, the results document the underperformance in important financial ratios as well as indicate an inferior earnings quality of firms subject to enforcement releases vis-a-vis the control groups. These results hold with regard to both different earnings quality specifications and different periods observed. This study appends the earnings quality discussion and contributes to develop a comprehensive picture of accounting quality for the unique institutional settings of Germany. The paper shows that a conjoint two-tier public and private enforcement system is effective and might be an adequate model for other countries. Implications for the regulation of corporate governance, the enforcement panel and the auditor are identified.
The third essay additionally considers the role of the auditor. The firms subject to error announcements are used to evaluate the consequences of increasing earnings management over time on enforcement releases and their recognition in audit fees. Prior literature provides evidence on a phenomenon called „balance sheet bloat” that is due to income increasing earnings management and later influences the disclosure of misstated financial statements. The evidence of earnings management recognition in audit fees and findings on the content of future information in audit fees leads to the hypothesis that auditors recognize increasing audit risk in fees before the enforcement process starts. The study extends related earnings management and audit fee literature by modeling the development of earnings management within the misstatement firms and systematically link it to auditor reactions. Significant predictive power of different commonly used accrual measures for enforcement releases in the period prior and up to the misstatement period are found by the study. In the same period of time an increase in audit fees, e.g. the recognition of increased audit risk, can be observed. A possible audit fee effect after the misstatement period is investigated, but no significant relation is obtained.
The dissertation closes with a summary of the main findings, a conclusion to the connection of the three essays as well as subsumption of findings in the accounting literature.