Verbot von Leerverkäufen in der Krise

During the recent financial and economic crisis political and corporate representatives demanded for stricter regulations of short sales to limit the risks of price manipulation and potential stock price crashes. In autumn 2008 regulators of most industrial countries decided to implement temporary short sale restrictions to prevent a further collapse of the capital market. While some countries restricted only naked short sales and increased their disclosure requirements, other markets like the USA and Great Britain implemented a full ban on short selling. The analysis of these two markets supports the hypothesis that temporary bans are unlikely to prevent or limit large price drops in the affected stocks. Instead the results suggest that the implemented emergency measures led to a temporary overvaluation of stock prices and to a deterioration of market efficiency. These results become even more prominent for stocks with high dispersion of investor opinion.     

The impact of investor sentiment on the German stock market

This paper develops a broad-based sentiment indicator for Germany and investigates whether investor sentiment can explain stock returns on the German stock market. Based on a principal component analysis, we construct a sentiment indicator that condenses information of several well-known sentiment proxies. We show that this indicator explains the return spread between sentiment sensitive stocks and stocks that are not sensitive to sentiment fluctuations. Specifically, stocks that are difficult to arbitrage and hard to value are sensitive to the indicator. However, we do not find much predictive power of sentiment for future stock returns.     

Effects of habitat and landscape quality on amphibian assemblages of urban stormwater ponds

Urbanisation is one of the most severe drivers of current global biodiversity loss and has contributed to severe declines in many amphibian species. The aim of this study was to determine whether artificial stormwater ponds, designed to control water flow, can act as refuges for amphibians in urban areas. Moreover, we analysed the influence of habitat and landscape quality on amphibian species richness of 46 stormwater ponds (STOPON) in comparison to 46 control ponds (CONTROL).Our study revealed that environmental conditions clearly varied between STOPON and CONTROL. The most pronounced differences were that STOPON were larger, shallower, sunnier, more isolated by streets and had a greater cover of built-up area and lower cover of arable land surrounding them. Nevertheless, the amphibian assemblages of STOPON and CONTROL were very similar. All nine amphibian species (including three threatened species) detected in this study were found in both pond types. Moreover, species richness (2.8 ± 0.2 vs. 2.3 ± 0.2) and the frequency of each species did not differ between STOPON and CONTROL. The only exception was Pelophylax spp., which occurred more regularly in STOPON. Both habitat and landscape quality affected amphibian species richness; however, the explanatory power of the habitat models was about twice as high as those of the landscape models.In conclusion, stormwater ponds play an important role for amphibians in urban areas. In comparison to CONTROL, the low landscape quality in the surroundings of STOPON seemed to be compensated by a higher habitat quality due to regular management.     

DO CIVIL AND POLITICAL REPRESSION REALLY BOOST FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS?

Multinational enterprises are often accused of having a preference for investing in countries in which the working populations' civil and political rights are largely disregarded. This article presents an empirical investigation of the popular "political repression boosts FDI" hypothesis and arrives at the conclusion that the hypothesis is not supported. On the contrary, multinational enterprises rather appear to be attracted by countries in which civil and political freedom is respected.     

Supervision der Geschäftsführung kleiner freier Träger der Sozialen Arbeit

The economic pressure weighting on social organizations is ever increasing. Leadership coaching supports smaller operating agencies in implementing social management, in integrating an appropriate leadership strategy and in taking measures allowing them to survive in times of scarce resources. The introduction of patterns of economic thinking and action is often perceived as a threat and is considered to be incompatible with the traditional values of social work. Two detailed case studies reflect problems in the coaching practice and ways of a successful restructuring.     

My Wealth, (Y)Our Life Satisfaction? Sole and Joint Wealth Ownership and Life Satisfaction in Marriage

This study examines the money-subjective well-being nexus by studying the link between changes in jointly and solely (i.e. respondents’ own and their partner’s own) held gross wealth and changes in married individuals’ subjective well-being. Joint assets reflect norms of sharing responsibilities and resources. Solely held assets, in contrast, offer individual economic independence. Using wealth data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP; 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017), we estimate individual fixed effects regressions. Although coefficients for all three wealth measures are positive, our results highlight that only increases in jointly held wealth are associated with statistically significant increases in spouses’ life satisfaction in Germany. Despite expectations about a stronger relevance of joint wealth for men compared to women in line with men’s role as a financial provider for the family, we do not find substantial gender differences in the positive association between increases in joint wealth and life satisfaction. In light of the individualisation of marriages, our results highlight that the personal benefits associated with marital sharing of wealth seem to trump those of economic independence and financial autonomy.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-022-09630-7.     

The Influence of Commitment,Trust, Satisfaction,and Involvement on Donor Retention

Due to certain developments in the business of fundraising, there exists an increasing necessity to theoretically and empirically analyze donor behavior. This article examines donor retention from the donor’s point of view. It concretizes four antecedents and their relationships with one another. The influencing variables investigated are commitment, trust, satisfaction, and involvement. The empirical analysis conducted in Germany among donors of four representative social non-profit organizations shows that all variables have an influence on donor retention, although some of them only indirectly.