Germany, Inc. – Legal data and empirical analyses on exchange-traded German stock corporations

该项目有两个主要目标。(I)首先，本项目旨在为德国上市公司的法学、经济学和社会科学的实证研究提供更好的法律的数据。为此，将建立一个标准化法律的数据库，免费向公众提供。该数据库将包含1960年至2020年期间在德国证券交易所的受监管或公开市场（“regulierter Markt”或“Freiverkehr”）上交易的所有德国股份公司及其股票。对于这些股份公司，自1990年以来的所有公司变更都将根据商业登记册的记录进行编码。此外，还将提供自1995年以来规定的主要股权披露所显示的所有权结构。(II)第二个目标是为三个经验性法律的研究项目开发新的数据库。(1)首先，将详细分析1960年至2020年德国股票市场的发展，包括监管和开放市场的水平（股份公司数量，市值，交易量）和变化（股份公司的进入和退出，资本流入和流出）。指导性问题将是股票市场与其他股权融资来源相比的相对吸引力。此外，描述性分析的目的是激发新的假设的法律变化对股权融资的影响。 (2)另一方面，对1995年至2020年德国上市公司的股权结构进行了研究和跟踪。将特别注意评估和完善的假设，“德国，公司”。已经在2000年左右解散，以及对这种变化的潜在法律的或税收解释。(3)最后，在新的数据库中的公司变化和交易的综合编码将被用来实证调查两种形式的公司估值的司法审查，即行动的决议（“Anfechtungsklage”）和评估程序（“Spruchverfahren”）的废止。一方面，随着时间的推移，沿着其发展，对中小股东保护的潜在不对称性进行了分析。另一方面，本项目将评估评估程序，作为对公司估值进行司法审查的更具体类型。与相关交易相关的评估投诉的发生率及其结果将被考虑，以确定评估程序是否能约束和激励交易设计者向少数股东提供公平补偿。

The project has two main objectives. (I) Firstly, the project aims to provide better legal data for empirical research in law, economics, and social science about listed German stock corporations. For this purpose, a database with standardized legal data will be created and made available to the public free of charge. The database will contain the entirety of German stock corporations and their shares to the extent they are traded on the regulated or open market (“regulierter Markt” or “Freiverkehr”) at the German stock exchanges in 1960–2020. For these stock corporations, all corporate changes from 1990 onwards will be coded based on records from the commercial register. In addition, the ownership structure as it appears from major shareholdings disclosure mandated since 1995 will be made available. (II) The second objective is to exploit the new database for three empirical legal research projects. (1) For one thing, the development of German stock markets in the years 1960 to 2020 will be analyzed in detail in terms of levels (number of stock corporations, market capitalization, trading volumes) and changes (entry and exit of stock corporations, capital inflows and outflows) in the regulated and open market. The guiding question will be the relative attractiveness of the stock market compared to other sources of equity financing. Also, the descriptive analyses are meant to stimulate novel hypotheses about the effects of changes in the law on equity financing. (2) For another thing, the ownership structure of listed German stock corporations in the years 1995 to 2020 will be examined and traced over time. Special attention will be paid to an assessment and refinement of the hypothesis that “Germany, Inc.” has been dissolving around the year 2000 as well as to potential legal or tax explanations for this change. (3) Finally, the comprehensive coding of corporate changes and transactions in the new database will be used to empirically investigate two forms of judicial review of company valuations, namely the action for annulment of resolutions (“Anfechtungsklage”) and appraisal proceedings (“Spruchverfahren”). On the one hand, a potential asymmetry in protection afforded to minority shareholders will be analyzed along with its development over time. On the other hand, the project will evaluate appraisal proceedings as the more specific type of judicial review of company valuation. The incidence of appraisal complaints relative to relevant transactions and their outcomes will be considered to determine whether appraisal proceedings work to discipline and incentivize transaction designers to offer fair compensation to minority shareholders.