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Is Voting Really Habit-Forming and Transformative? Long-Run Effects of Earlier Eligibility on Turnout and Political Involvement from the UK

Habit formation theory and the transformative voting hypothesis both imply that voting has downstream consequences for turnout and political involvement. Although several studies have applied causal research designs to study this question, the long-run evidence is extremely limited, especially for potentially transformative effects. We jointly examine the short- and long-term impact of earlier voting ...

The Hidden Homeownership Welfare State: An International Long-Term Perspective on the Tax Treatment of Homeowners

Welfare is traditionally understood through social security decommodifying labor markets or social investment policies. In the domain of housing, however, welfare for homeowners is largely hidden in the tax codes’ fiscal exemptions. Based on a content analysis of legislation, this paper introduces a novel yearly database of 37 countries between 1910 and 2020 to uncover the “hidden welfare state” of ...

Face Mask Use and Physical Distancing before and after Mandatory Masking: No Evidence on Risk Compensation in Public Waiting Lines

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the introduction of mandatory face mask usage triggered a heated debate. A major point of debate is whether community use of masks creates a false sense of security that would diminish physical distancing, counteracting any potential direct benefit from masking. We conducted a randomized field experiment in Berlin, Germany, to investigate how masks affect distancing and ...

Behavioral Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment

Children with lower socioeconomic status (SES) tend to benefit more from early child care, but are substantially less likely to be enrolled. We study whether reducing behavioral barriers in the application process increases enrollment in child care for lower-SES children. In our RCT in Germany with highly subsidized child care (n > 600), treated families receive application information and personal ...

Labor-Intensive Firms Are a Catalyst for Monetary Policy and Its Distributive Effects

The mandate of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy is to ensure price stability. Interest rate changes by the ECB affect labor costs and the value added of firms. If both dimensions are not equally affected, monetary policy has a distributive effect between workers and shareholders. Balance sheet data from over two million companies in the euro area show that the labor costs in labor-intensive ...

SOEP-IS 2020 – Survey Report on the 2020 SOEP Innovation Sample on Social Cohesion (GZ)

Drivers of Participation Elasticities across Europe: Gender or Earner Role within the Household?

We compute participation tax rates across the EU and find that work disincentives inherent in tax-benefit systems largely depend on household composition and the individual's earner role within the household. We then estimate participation elasticities using an IV group estimator that enables us to investigate the responsiveness of individuals to work incentives. We contribute to the literature on ...

Incubators, Accelerators and Urban Economic Development

We combine theory and evidence on incubator and accelerator programmes and their effects on urban economic development. These structured co-working programmes have grown rapidly. However, a rich descriptive literature reveals little about their impact on participants or surrounding urban areas. We situate programmes in a conceptual framework of co-location tools, theorise objectives and benefits and ...

Comparison of Power Sector Models by Analyzing the Impact of Modeling Features on Optimal Capacity Expansion

The transition towards decarbonized energy systems requires the expansion of renewable and flexibility technologies in power sectors. In a model comparison, we examine the optimal expansion of such technologies with six capacity expansion power system models. The technologies under investigation include base- and peak-load power plants, electricity storage, and transmission. We define four highly simplified ...

Loneliness During a Nationwide Lockdown and the Moderating Effect of Extroversion

Loneliness levels were assessed in a longitudinal, nationwide sample (N total = 6,010) collected over the course of the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. When in-person social contact restrictions were put in place, loneliness increased significantly compared to prepandemic levels but began to decrease again even before contact restrictions were eased. The loneliness costs were distributed ...