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

该项目有两个主要目标。（一）首先，本项目旨在为德国上市股份公司的法学、经济学和社会科学实证研究提供更好的法律数据。为此目的，将建立一个载有标准化法律数据的数据库，并免费提供给公众。该数据库将包含1960年至2020年在德国证券交易所的监管或公开市场（“监管市场”或“自由市场”）上交易的全部德国股票公司及其股票。对于这些股份公司，从1990年起的所有公司变更将根据商业登记册的记录进行编码。此外，将公布自1995年以来规定的主要股份披露所显示的所有权结构。（二）第二个目标是利用新的数据库进行三个实证法律研究项目。(1)一方面，将详细分析1960年至2020年德国股票市场的发展情况，从股票公司数量、市值、交易量的水平和在监管和开放市场中的变化（股票公司的进出、资本的流入和流出）两个方面进行分析。指导性问题将是，与其他股权融资来源相比，股市的相对吸引力如何。此外，描述性分析旨在激发关于法律变化对股权融资影响的新假设。(2)另一方面，对1995年至2020年德国上市股份公司的股权结构进行时间的考察和追溯。将特别注意对“德国公司”在2000年前后解散的假设的评估和改进，以及对这一变化的潜在法律或税务解释。(3)最后，对新数据库中的公司变更和交易进行全面编码，将用于实证研究两种形式的公司估值司法审查，即撤销决议的行动（Anfechtungsklage）和评估程序（Spruchverfahren）。一方面，随着时间的推移，将分析对小股东的保护可能存在的不对称性。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。将考虑与相关交易有关的评估投诉的发生率及其结果，以确定评估程序是否能够约束和激励交易设计者向小股东提供公平的补偿。

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.