Die vorliegende kumulative Doktorarbeit umfasst drei Arbeiten aus dem Bereich der empirischen Rechnungslegungsforschung. Die erste Arbeit untersucht die Rolle persönlicher Eigenschaften von Rechnungslegungsstandardsetzern bei der Entwicklung der Internationalen Rechnungslegungsstandards IFRS. Sie dokumentiert, dass in den IFRS insgesamt ein Rückgang der Bedeutung von Prinzipien gegenüber Regeln sowie ein Anstieg der Bedeutung des beizulegenden Zeitwerts im Zeitablauf zu verzeichnen sind. Zwischen Änderungen von IFRS-Eigenschaften sowie beruflichen und kulturellen Eigenschaften von Mitgliedern des International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) wird ein Zusammenhang festgestellt. Die zweite Arbeit widmet sich Ursachen und Folgen fehlerhafter Finanzberichterstattung im Rahmen des deutschen Systems der Durchsetzung von Rechnungslegungsregeln. Sie findet systematische Unterschiede in der Unternehmensführung von Unternehmen, bei denen fehlerhafte Finanzberichte festgestellt werden, gegenüber einer Kontrollgruppe. Weitere Ergebnisse lassen die Vermutung zu, dass die Aufdeckung fehlerhafter Finanzberichte Verbesserungen in der unternehmensspezifischen Aufsicht über den Rechnungslegungsprozess auslösen könnte. Die dritte Arbeit nutzt umfangreiche Befragungsergebnisse deutscher Privatanleger zur Untersuchung der Ursachen ihres Unternehmensüberwachungsverhaltens. Demnach üben Anleger, die ein geringeres Vertrauen in andere Anspruchsgruppen eines Unternehmens haben, zugleich eine geringere Unternehmensüberwachung aus. Darüber hinaus dokumentiert die Arbeit, dass Vertrauen und Unternehmensüberwachung in einem Zusammenhang mit dem Ausmaß der Teilnahme am Aktienmarkt und dem Bildungshintergrund der Anleger stehen. / This cumulative doctoral thesis consists of three papers within the field of empirical financial accounting research. The first paper examines the role of personal characteristics of accounting standard setters in the development of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). It documents that the full set of IFRS exhibited a decrease in the importance of principles relative to rules and an increase in its fair value orientation over time. Changes in IFRS properties are found to be associated with the professional and cultural background of International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) members. The second paper investigates determinants and consequences of erroneous financial reporting under the German financial reporting enforcement regime. The corporate governance of firms detected with erroneous financial reporting is found to differ systematically from that of control firms. Further results suggest that error detection might trigger improvements in firm-level accounting oversight. The third paper uses large-scale survey evidence from German individual investors to explore the determinants of their monitoring behavior. Investors who are less trusting in their fellow stakeholders are found to engage in less monitoring. Furthermore, trust and monitoring are documented to be associated with the stock market exposure and the educational background of investors.

在關於政黨認同的研究中，除了明白表示出政黨認同的這群人之外，其餘沒有明白表示出政黨認同的選民，通常被歸類為所謂的「中立無反應」者，或是「獨立選民」。然而，這群沒有明白表示出政黨認同或投票對象的受訪者是否真是中立或無反應者，抑或真是獨立選民呢？葉銘元（1994）針對我國的獨立選民曾做過相當詳細的研究，本文接續其研究，選擇政治大學選舉研究中心的面訪資料，針對1989年至1999年間我國獨立選民的發展與變遷情形，分別就「我國獨立選民政黨認同及社會背景的發展與變遷」、「我國獨立選民政治涉入的發展與變遷」、「我國獨立選民投票取向的發展與變遷」及「影響獨立選民發展與變遷的因素」等方面作分析。 研究結果發現：我國獨立選民的比例雖然有下降的趨勢，但是近年來此種趨勢似乎有逆轉的情形，且獨立選民比例的高低的確會受到選舉制度不同的影響。獨立選民的社會背景也和政黨認同者有差異，他們的政治涉入較政黨認同者為低，對候選人及政黨評價較低，對議題保持中立的立場，投票時比較會考量候選人的條件優劣，較不會依政黨界限投票。與此同時，我們也發現獨立選民的組成上是由政治知識及政治涉入較低的「冷漠型獨立選民」，逐漸轉變為政治知識及政治涉入較高的「理想型獨立選民」。 在未來的發展趨勢上，我們發現新世代及新新世代選民中獨立選民所佔的比例是較低的，因此我們可以預期，獨立選民的比例應該還有下降的可能性。在民主化的進程繼續推展，政黨政治日益成熟穩定之後，我們預期有政黨認同的選民會呈現增長的趨勢，與此同時，獨立選民並不會大幅度的減少。基於獨立選民是理想公民的期待，我們相信還是會有一定比例的民眾認為自己是獨立選民，但正如同我們觀察到的，此時的獨立選民將不再是對政治一無所知，或是對政治冷漠的冷漠型獨立選民；而將成為對政治保持高度關注，並能依自己客觀的態度做出政治決定的理想公民。 / In most studies about party identification, people who do not clearly indicate their party identification are usually classified as so「neutral non-respondents」or 「Independents」. Are these respondents really neutral or non-response, or are they really independents ? Yeh Ming-Yuan (1994) has done detailed research on independent voters in Taiwan. This thesis follows his research, using individual level survey data to analyze the developing and changing situation of independent voters in Taiwan from 1989 through 1999. In particular, this thesis examines changing party identification and social background of independent voters, changing political involvement among independent voters, changing vote intentions of independent voters, and the facts which have influenced the develop of independent voters. Our research outcomes have shown that although the percentage of independent voters in Taiwan has declined, in recent years this trend seems to have reversed, The percentage of independent voters has actually been influenced by changes in the electoral system. There are differences in social background between independents and party identifiers. The degree of political involvement of independent voters is lower than that of party identifiers. Their evaluation of candidates and parties is also lower than those of party identifiers. They tend to stay neutral to all political issues when making their voting decisions, they tend to consider the conditions of the candidates, rather than voting by the boundary of parties. However, we also discover that independent voters are gradually evolving from "apathetic independent voters", with lower political knowledge and lower political involvement, to "ideal independent voters", with higher political knowledge and higher political involvement. Looking to the future, we discover that the percentage of independent voters in the next generation and the generation after that are much lower. Hence we can predict that the percentage of independent voters will likely decline. With the continuing development of democracy and the increasing maturity and stability of party politics, we expect that the percentage of party indentifiers will grow. However, this does not necessarily mean that the percentage of independent voters will decline dramatically.Because of the expectation that independent voters are the ideal citizens, we believe that there are still a certain percentage of people who will consider themselves as independent voters. Hence, independent voters increasingly will not be "apathetic independent voters" who know nothing about politics. On the contrary, they will become "ideal citizens" who keep highly concerned about politics and make political decisions according to their own subjective attitudes.

Following the historic election of Barack Obama, the largest overhaul of the nation's health care system since the Great Society, and with the country still reeling from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, a group of disenchanted conservative Republicans and elected leaders wary of government policy gave rise to a new political movement - the Tea Party. Since taking the American political system by storm in 2010, considerable research has focused on the electoral consequences of the Tea Party. Using an original dataset and the American National Election Study, I study the Tea Party Caucus at the elite level by analyzing roll call votes, incumbency, and endorsements, and at the mass level through an examination of congressional districts and constituencies. Findings show that members of the Tea Party Caucus and their Republican House colleagues are largely homogeneous. Exceptions to this include economic final passage votes, legislation receiving presidential support, district lean, census region, and presidential vote in congressional districts. Furthermore, evidence is seen that economic factors in members' districts affected the election of freshmen representatives in 2010, and that district variables strongly influence legislative voting behavior. Finally, discontinuity is discovered between the Tea Party movement at the mass level and the Tea Party Caucus at the elite level.