The first version of this text was accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Bucerius Law School Hamburg. In the study presented in this book my aim is to further develop and test a theory on which I had begun to work some years previously in the course of my studies at the Bucerius Law School and during a research visit to the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law in Rome. I then continued to pursue my investigations while I was studying at the London School of Economics. I would especially like to thank Prof. Dr. Hans-Bernd Sch?fer of Bucerius Law School for supervising this project and tutoring me throughout my research. He encouraged me to develop a personal research interest in the field of empirical law and economics that I have decided to continue pursuing in the future. I would also very much like to thank Prof. Dr. Florian Faust of Bucerius Law School. When I asked him for advice during a challenging phase of my research project he took the time to advise me immediately despite his busy research agenda. I am furthermore very grateful to Prof. Dr. Stefan Vogenauer of the Institute of European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford for enabling me to support his research. The statistical analysis presented in this book is based on data collected during my work as a research assistant for his project “Civil Justice and Choice of Contract Law: A Business Survey”.1 I very much appreciate the valuable academic experience I gained at his institute. I would also like to express my gratitude to Prof. Dr. Stefan Voigt of the Institute of Law and Economics at the University of Hamburg for publishing this book in his series and being generous with his support. I would like to thank Prof.