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，该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数据。为此目的，将建立一个包含标准化法律数据的数据库，并免费向公众提供。该数据库将包含1960-2020年期间在德国证券交易所受监管或公开市场(“Regulierter Markt”或“Freiverkehr”)交易的全部德国股份公司及其股票。对于这些股份制公司，自1990年起的所有公司变更都将根据商业登记簿的记录进行编码。此外，自1995年以来授权披露的主要持股情况所显示的所有权结构也将公布。(2)第二个目标是为三个经验性法律研究项目开发新的数据库。(1)首先，将从受监管和公开市场的水平(股份公司数量、市值、交易量)和变化(股份公司的进出、资本流入和流出)来详细分析1960年至2020年德国股市的发展。指导性问题将是与其他股权融资来源相比，股票市场的相对吸引力。此外，描述性分析旨在激发关于法律变化对股权融资的影响的新假设。(2)另一方面，随着时间的推移，将审查和追踪1995年至2020年德国上市公司的所有权结构。将特别注意对“德国公司”这一假设的评估和完善。已经在2000年左右解散，并为这一变化提供了潜在的法律或税收解释。(3)最后，新数据库中公司变更和交易的综合编码将用于经验性地调查两种形式的公司估值司法审查，即决议无效诉讼(“Anfechtungsklage”)和评估程序(“Spruchverfahren”)。一方面，随着时间的推移，对中小股东保护的潜在不对称性将被分析。另一方面，该项目将评估评估程序作为更具体的公司估值司法审查类型。将考虑与相关交易相关的评估投诉的发生率及其结果，以确定评估程序是否起到约束和激励交易设计者向少数股东提供公平补偿的作用。

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.