Capping auditor liability: The German experience

There are serious concerns in some Western countries that methods should be found to resolve what is commonly referred to as the auditing profession's liability crisis. A number of legislative-based proposals to limit auditors' liability have been suggested. However, anxiety has been voiced relating to the inherent uncertainties attached to such apparently untested reforms. In this respect it is interesting to note that for more than sixty years the German auditing profession has operated within a regulatory environment in which liability is restricted by a legislatively sanctioned universal cap. We document the German experience and consider whether their form of liability restricting mechanism can provide a contribution to the debate concerning the efficacy of proposals to reform auditor liability elsewhere. We draw attention to the fact that at this time when the auditing professions in other countries are campaigning for reductions in liability exposure, it is interesting to observe that the German auditing profession has recently campaigned for increases in exposure. We use this and related events to suggest that the German experience illustrates that it is unlikely that the liability crisis can be resolved by simply changing the legal basis upon which financial penalties for auditors are assessed. We argue that a necessary precursor to a redesign of penalty mechanisms is a need to obtain measured consensus concerning identification of the constituency of claimants that should have rights to pursue auditors in the courts. Such an identification process needs to be firmly based within a model of corporate governance which reflects what can reasonably be expected from and provided by the auditing profession. In this respect we support the application of the intermediate form of corporate governance which until relatively recently characterized the German system. Within this system auditors were ascribed a less influential role than was envisaged in Anglo-American traditions. This arose since they acted principally as information agents to an influential supervisory board rather than as shareholders' representatives.     

历史将如何评价安然?

由于安达信在对能源业巨头安然公司审计过程中完全未能发现掩藏在其表象之下的真实面目,导致会计职业受到更为严格的审查.作为世界最好的会计公司之一的安达信,其高级职员销毁相关证据的恶劣行径留给人们的印象也不会很快被淡忘.     

Financing EU cohesion policy in Central and Eastern Europe

Following publication of Agenda 2000 the EU Commission has been criticised as overly optimistic on the budgetary consequences of the envisaged accession of a number of Central and East European Countries. This article briefly reviews the evolution of regional disparities within the EU and the impact of the Structural and Cohesion Funds on the present recipient regions. It then investigates whether it is financially feasible to extend EU regional policy to the five likely new CEEC member states without a major reform of the present system.     

Inflation and distribution in a Keynes-Wicksell model of the business cycle

The paper integrates a Kaleckian hypothesis of markup pricing and markup adjustments into a dynamic IS-LM model of Keynes-Wicksell type. Local stability and instability are characterized by different speeds of adjustments in the adaptive expectations of inflation. Application of the Hopf bifurcation theorem proves existence of periodic orbits in the three-dimensional state space. The global dynamics is investigated by means of computer simulations. A suitable modification of the rule of adaptive expectations checks the explosive tendencies and gives rise to an apparently unique and stable limit cycle. It is sketched how the evolution of the most important variables over this growth cycle compares to empirical stylized facts.     

Stabilitätseffekte konjekturaler Variation und steigender Grenzkosten in Preisoligopolen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Value creation and pricing in buyouts: Empirical evidence from Europe and North America

Using a unique proprietary data set of 1980 realized and unrealized buyouts completed between 1986 and 2010, we examine entry and exit pricing in buyouts and its influence on private equity (PE) sponsors' returns. We find that besides leverage and operational improvements, EBITDA multiple expansion (i.e. the difference between entry and exit pricing) is a fundamental factor in explaining equity returns and the result of skill rather than pure luck. We also provide evidence that more experienced PE sponsors use more debt to finance a PE transaction and debt is positively related to entry buyout pricing. However, for a transaction with a given leverage level, more experienced PE sponsors are able to negotiate lower prices. In addition, our results show that deals conducted by first time funds which are realized in a later stage of a fund's life cycle are associated with lower exit prices which can be explained by the increased exit pressure for the PE sponsor.     

The risk appetite of private equity sponsors

Using a unique proprietary data set of 460 realized buyouts completed between 1990 and 2005, we examine the risk appetite of private equity (PE) sponsors in different states of the PE market and analyze key determinants of deal-level equity risk. We develop a new approach to mathematically model PE investment equity risk based on the Black-Cox default model. We find higher equity volatilities during boom periods. Further, deals conducted by more reputed PE sponsors have lower equity volatilities as they are unwilling to imperil their reputation by taking excessive risks. In addition, we find that PE sponsors' risk appetite is negatively related to the ownership stake in the buyout target company.     

Die Auswirkung von Globalisierung von Versicherungsmärkten aus medizinisch-demographischer Sicht

The opening of national life insurance markets is prevented by the fear, that the mortality experience might be too different to adopt one country’s principles to other markets. In this article the postwar German mortality is related to main cause of death groups, showing a simular development in relation to what was observed in the US and other countries. Comparing actual population life tables of Western European countries unvails that today’s differences in the death probabilities are only minor. From this point of view selling German life insurance contracts in neighborning countries like Austria or Switzerland would not create an unacceptable risk.