The authors analyze the reasons for the establishment of a regulatory regime for international financial markets in accordance with the ideas of liberal internationalism. They argue that the system of international markets is affected by polymorphy, indicating the existence of different forms of regulation. Five factors produce this polymorphy: the non-existence of a homogenous object of steering, the dynamic nature of these objects, the fact that the purpose of governance is not clearly defined, the dominance of governance by the USA and Great Britain, and governance as a result of a multi-level game with various coalitions.

This article analyzes to what extend new knowledge and ignorance-structures within financial markets challenge basic assumptions in scientific discourse. ‘Ignorance’ is seen as an inherent part of governance-regimes. It is argued that the self-fulfilling prophecy of a bank run as the dominant metaphor for systemic risks is insufficient to capture today’s dynamics and categorical changes. Therefore, the paper seeks to show that ‘science’ has not sufficiently attempted to fully come to terms with issues of uncertainty and self-reference.

Der Aufsatz stellt den Stand der Institutionalisierung von Folgenabschätzungen im Prozess der Gesetzeserstellung in der Exekutive in Großbritannien dar. / The paper examines the practice of Impact Assessments in the legislative process in Great Britain.

Humboldt-Univ., Diss.-2006--Berlin, 2005. / Literaturverz. S. 207 - 211.

Univ., Examensarbeit--Duisburg, 2006.

Handelshøyskole, Diss.--Bergen, 2007. / Enth. 4 Beitr.

Univ., Diss.--Bonn, 2007.

Zugl.: Regensburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

Using retrospective data analysis, this paper looks at the potential effects that the EU financial transaction tax would have on registered Austrian funds. We use original data for 927 investment funds over a 12-month trading period covering the 2014 calendar year. We analyse its effect on total net assets and on performance. We find that the cost of FTT on Austrian funds for 2014 would be Euro 89.5 million. The effect of FTT differs between funds and is influenced by fund category, gilt-edged securities held, risk and investment strategy. Behavioural changes in the market would likely arise in these areas if FTT were to be introduced. (authors' abstract) / Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Series

This dissertation encompasses four studies on selected topics in financial regulation and financial stability. The first paper asks whether there is empirical evidence of cyclicality in regulatory capital requirements prescribed by Basel regimes. This much debated issue was until then only addressed in theoretical papers, or simulation studies. While we do not find evidence on cyclicality in the Basel I or Basel II Standardized Approach, we find statistically and economically significant evidence concerning Basel II IRB portfolios. The second paper implements an agent based model to simulate an artificial asset market. This setup is then used to assess the impact of (i) a short selling ban, (ii) a Tobin Tax like transaction tax, (iii) mandatory Value-at-Risk limits and (iv) arbitrary combinations of these. I present results that show that while reducing volatility, a short selling ban nurtures market bubbles, and a Tobin Tax increases the variance of the returns. In this model a mandatory risk limit is beneficial from all stability perspectives taken. I examine the robustness of the model regarding its initial parameterization and show that high levels of a Tobin Tax lead to substantial market turbulence. The third paper considers the question which macroeconomic variables are linked to a time series of special interest from a financial stability perspective: firm defaults. Furthermore, we evaluate the empirical evidence of a hidden credit cycle by adding a latent factor to our models. We conclude that there is no empirical support of a hidden credit cycle in Austria once sufficient regressors are included and industry sectors differ in their respective macro drivers. The forth paper extends this work by implementing Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) - a modern technique to counter model uncertainty. Furthermore we enrich this statistical approach by combining BMA with Bayesian ridge regression. We draw the conclusion that BMA is indeed a powerful tool to counter model uncertainty. Interest rates and components of inflation are distilled as major drivers for firm failures in Austria. (author's abstract)