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Born in the Land of Milk and Honey: Hometown Growth and Individual Wealth Accumulation

How does economic growth affect the distribution of wealth? Combining wealth records from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and local GDP growth across 401 German counties, this paper documents a sizable Hometown-Growth-Wealth Nexus. Using a standard OLG model to guide our estimation strategy, we nd that, because of hometown growth, a person born in flourishing Munich will have accumulated two to three ...

The Price Elasticity of Natural Gas Demand of Small Consumers in Germany during the Energy Crisis 2022

Understanding how consumers respond to turbulent market conditions is crucial for planning security of natural gas supply. This paper estimates the price elasticity of demand of small consumers in Germany in the period with both high price fluctuations and a fear of natural gas shortage in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Using granular data between 2018 and 2023, we estimate an Auto ...

The Long-Term Implications of Destruction During the Second World War on Private Wealth in Germany

By the end of the Second World War, an estimated 20% of the West German housing stock had been destroyed. Building on a theoretical life-cycle model, this paper examines the persistent consequences of the war for individual wealth across generations. As our empirical basis, we link a unique historical dataset on the levels of wartime destruction in 1739 West German cities with micro data on individual ...

Impacts of Electric Carsharing on a Power Sector with Variable Renewables

Electrifying the car fleet is a major strategy for mitigating emissions in the transport sector. As electrification cannot solve all negative externalities associated with cars, reducing the size of the car fleet would be beneficial. Electric carsharing could reconcile current car usage habits with a smaller fleet, but this may reduce the potential of electric cars to align their grid interactions ...

#25 Eine Reserve als Feuerwehr für das Stromsystem?

Versorgungssicherheit im Stromsystem ist fundamental, damit wir nicht im Dunkeln sitzen. In der letzten Folge von fossilfrei haben wir verschiedene Optionen vorgestellt, wie man unser Stromsystem absichern kann, das zunehmend auf fluktuierenden erneuerbaren Energien basiert. In dieser Folge geht es im Detail um eine dieser Optionen: die „Versorgungssicherheitsreserve“. Unser Kollege Karsten...

Der Kuchen muss vielleicht gar nicht kleiner werden

Der Streit der Ampel hat das Land gelähmt, Deutschland ist tief gespalten. Doch eine neue Regierung wird die gleichen Konflikte haben. Es gibt aber eine Lösung. Die Hoffnung, dass die neue Bundesregierung die großen Probleme endlich löst, ist naiv. Vier grundlegende Konfliktlinien zwischen den Parteien im Bundestag spiegeln die Spaltung der Gesellschaft wider und werden wohl auch unter einer neuen ...

Power Sector Benefits of Flexible Heat Pumps in 2030 Scenarios

Heat pumps play a major role in decreasing fossil fuel use in heating. They increase electricity demand, but could also foster the system integration of variable renewable energy sources. We analyze three scenarios for expanding decentralized heat pumps in Germany by 2030, focusing on the role of buffer heat storage. Using an open-source power sector model, we assess costs, capacity investments, and ...

The Evolution of "Theories of Harm" in EU Merger Control

We discuss the main theories of harm in EU merger control and their evolution since the 1990s. We present stylized facts and trends using data extracted from EU merger decisions by natural language processing tools. EU merger policy has adapted over time, both in terms of legislation and theories of harm, as well as in terms of the investigative tools and evidence used. The introduction of the new ...

Property owners have been investing less in energy-efficient renovation in 2024

Despite further increases in heating energy prices, households reduced their energy consumption less