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Aufsätze
Frans Buelens / Helma De Smedt / Hans Willems
The (De)regulation of the Brussels Stock Exchange around 1865–1875
Euronext Brussels has her roots in the Stock Exchange of Brussels which was founded in 1801. At that time the Southern Netherlands were part of the French empire of Napoleon. He decreed that in every city where commercial activities were of paramount importance a stock exchange must be founded. All these stock exchanges became government controlled and mehr...
regulated. In Belgium, the inheritance of Napoleon’s strictly regulated stock exchanges stood firmly until 1867. Neither the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830) nor the Belgian Independence (1830) altered fundamentally the stock exchange system. In the meanwhile Belgium turned out to be the first industrial state on the European continent. The severe regulation of stock exchanges was no longer adapted to the needs of the fast evolving capitalist development. New legislation in 1867 brought complete deregulation and so installed a liberal laissez-faire regime, which lasted until, once again, in 1934/35 a highly regulated system was introduced.
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Sibylle Lehmann-Hasemeyer / Carsten Burhop
Die Geografie der deutschen Börsen im Wandel (1913–37)
We compare the size of regional stock exchanges in Germany in 1913 and 1937. We provide new aggregate data about the number of listed and cross-listed firms as well as their market value in 1913 and in 1937. Larger firms tend to have multiple listings. In contrast, small firms were regularly only listed at one stock exchange, in most cases a stock exchange mehr...
close to the headquarter and within the state of incorporation. In addition, we argue that asymmetric information between issuers and potential investors is the key force driving listing decisions, whereas regulatory arbitrage did not have a substantial impact.
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Hans-Peter Burghof / Carolin Koch / Sebastian Schroff /
Ulli Spankowski
From Traditional Floor Trading to Electronic High Frequency Trading (HFT) – Market Implications and Regulatory Aspects
In this paper, we study how the technology-driven rise in automated high frequency trading (HFT) strategies affects the functioning of today’s financial markets. We focus on how HFT affects market quality as well as systemic risk and overall economic welfare. First, we describe the emergence of fully automated electronic markets as a prerequisite mehr...
for HFT. We note that the generic term of HFT covers the activities of a large variety of high frequency traders who perform fundamentally different HFT strategies. A review of the results of different studies shows that the impact of HFT on liquidity, volatility and the speed of price discovery is mainly positive and that HFT activities in this sense can positively influence market quality. However, these benefits often do not persist in turbulent market conditions when they are needed most. In addition, studies show that negative externalities of HFT (e. g., flash crashes) pose a significant threat to financial stability. Based on these findings, we discuss current regulatory initiatives in Europe. We argue that regulation can only be successful if it targets HFT strategies separately and manages to ban harmful strategies (e. g., front running, quote stuffing) and maintain beneficial ones (e. g., market making).
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Harald Wixforth
Kreditgenossenschaften nach der Krise
Die Diskussion über die Struktur der Genossenschaftsbanken nach der Banken- und Finanzkrise 1931
Like other sectors of the German banking system, the credit cooperatives were severely affected by the German financial crisis of summer 1931. As a result, a lively discussion started on the future structure and business of the cooperatives. One of the most prominent representatives of this sector, Hans Helferich from the management board of the mehr...
Preußische Central- Genossenschaftskasse, tried to (promote his plans for the future structure of the credit cooperatives among economists and politicians. Other cooperatives also put forward their own plans. All of these were discussed at the ‚Bankenenquete‘, which started its work in spring 1933. The discussions surprisingly failed to provide any substantial results and the plans to reorganize the structure of credit cooperatives failed completely.
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Timothy W. Guinnane
Financial ‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung’: The 1953 London Debt Agreement
When the Federal Republic of Germany came into being in 1949, German citizens and earlier German governments were in default on some 30 billion Marks. The 1953 London Debt Agreement cut those debts by slightly more than half and extended the repayment periods. The Agreement also allowed Germany to postpone some payments until reunification. The London mehr...
deal reflects a subtle and responsible understanding of the problems associated with the reparations and debt crises of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as fears about the moral hazard problems that would arise with making any part of the Agreement contingent on events Germany could influence. The generous terms offered to Germany reflected its central role in the European economy as well as U.S. foreign policy goals in the emerging Cold War.
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Miszellen
Hartmut Schmidt / Henrik Sattler / Lutz Raettig
Curt Eisfeld und seine Bibliothek
Curt Eisfeld could not afford to finish high school. Despite this disadvantage and various occupational detours, he became a university professor and held the first and only chair for business administration at Hamburg University from 1927 onwards. When he died at 83 in 1969, his private library encompassing about 8.000 volumes was turned over to mehr...
Hamburg University. According to the will of Curt Eisfeld and his spouse Elisabeth the substantial assets of the couple were inherited by the University, which thereby assumed the obligation to maintain the library and to make it accessible. After first steps in the seventies there was little progress toward this end. However, a new effort in 2009 led to the establishment of the ‘Curt-Eisfeld-Nachlassbibliothek’. This paper reveals the background and details of this process and discusses the merits of such a library. As these merits depend primarily on the merits of the original owner, the major part of this paper sheds light on the contributions of Curt Eisfeld at the university level, to the emergence of public accountants and auditors in Germany, and to the strength of the German savings bank system. The paper also provides an in-depth view at Eisfeld’s efforts to continue his professional work during the ‘Third Reich’ and thereafter.
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Ulrich Gröschel
Geschäftspolitik der Sparkassen seit den 1990er-Jahren
Since the beginning of the 1990’s, there have been repeated demands to privatize the German ‘Sparkassen’ (savings banks). The intent behind this demand was to consolidate the entire German banking sector. While the legal form of the banks in the Sparkassen financial group remained unchanged, the liability of the municipalities and mehr...
‘Bundesländer’ (German states) as backers (‘Anstaltslast’, ‘Gewährträgerhaftung’) of their banks was abolished. In addition, the group adopted a strategy ‘back to the roots’ and reanimated its mission as banks with a special commitment to their region (‘öffentlicher Auftrag’). After German reunification in 1990, the Sparkassen financial group faced the challenge of expanding the business to former East Germany and of establishing a market-based savings bank system in the new Federal states. The nineties were also the beginning of far-reaching changes in the regulatory framework and of an encroachment of an Anglo-American capital market culture. Furthermore, the savings banks saw themselves increasingly confronted with new competitors and low-cost online sales channels in an integrated European market with a single currency. Earnings losses could in the past largely be compensated through higher cost efficiency. Ongoing market trends, combined with a monetary regime that keeps pressure on interest earnings might however lead to an erosion of the business model of the savings banks.
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