Insider trading on the German capital market — Can insiders achieve excess returns through their information advantage?

This study investigates whether corporate insiders can generate excess returns on the German capital market due to their information advantage. This is done with the help of an event study based on a market model that estimates the expected returns. Furthermore, the effect size of individual aspects is examined in a multiple regression. It is shown that insiders can achieve short-term excess returns of up to 2.1% after purchases and of up to -2.95% after sales. Moreover, these are strikingly high for, relative to market capitalization, transactions of smaller firms and transactions of other executives. The greatest influence on the excess return of a transaction is the market capitalization of the company in the case of buy transactions, while the excess return of sell transactions is largely determined by the share of trading volume in the outstanding shares. An imitation of insider transactions by outsiders may allow for excess returns, but this strongly depends on the share to be traded due to the bid-ask spread as well as the trading commissions. Despite the existence of regulation, it is evident that insiders can achieve significant excess returns, presumably on the basis of non-public information

Berlin 1945. Obraz pokonanego miasta w świetle wspomnień i raportów aliantów

The aim of this article is to present an image of the fallen German capital, as seen through the eyes of Soviet and American political officers, responsible for rebuilding German life in the sectors of Berlin they occupied. The image of Berlin presented in this article is a picture of the city as seen primarily through the eyes of Soviet officers: Alexander Dymschitz, a literary scholar and cultural editorial staff member at the Tägliche Rundschau newspaper published by the Russians as early as 15 May, Sergei Tjulpanov – head of the Propaganda Board of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD), and Grigory Weiss, an officer in the Cultural Department of SMAD. The narrative is supplemented by testimonies of Western Allies – memoirs of General Frank L. Howley and reports of American political officers, a selection of which was presented in 1979 by historian Brewster S. Chamberlin. The aim of the narrative based on the above-mentioned sources will be to show Berlin through the eyes of the Allies, which will also serve as a pretext for asking the question about the so-called “Americanisation” and “Sovietisation” of German society immediately after the end of the Second World War.

The Czechoslovak Capital of West Germany: The Story of Peute Reederei

There are numerous interesting topics pertaining to the economy of socialist Czechoslovakia that have not received sufficient attention in the secondary literature. One of these topics is the question of the capital penetration of socialist enterprises into Western (capitalist) Europe. In this essay, we examine the circumstances of the establishment and subsequent activities of the Peute Reederei company, which had both Czechoslovak and West German capital participation, based on a company archive which, however, has survived only in fragments. The company was established under West German law and had its headquarters in West Germany. Data on Peute Reederei were drawn from available unpublished and published archival materials, period and professional literature, and journalism, but we would above all like to express our gratitude to the private family archive of Mr. Rudolf Hurt (Hurt Archive), which provided the authors with archival materials concerning the Hamburg branch of the Czechoslovak Elbe-Oder Shipping Company.

German Deunification

In 2021, Angela Merkel's fourth and last term as the chancellor of Germany will end. To understand Merkel's domestic and foreign policy, one must understand the country she inherited. She came to power in 2005 following the first center-left government since 1982, the government of Gerhard Schröder, and was in the fortunate position of becoming chancellor after a coalition government of social democrats and Greens had done the devil's bidding of implementing very unpopular neoliberal policies to the sole benefit of German capital and the rich.