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Are the Losers of Communism the Winners of Capitalism? The Effects of Conformism in the GDR on Transition Success

Following the fall of the Iron Curtain it was important for the acceptance of the new economic and political system that the former Communist elites did not maintain their privileges, and that protesters, who helped to overturn the old system, improved their situation. With newly available panel data on East Germany’s socialist past, the German Democratic Republic, we analyze how former Communist elites, ...

Inflation Targeting as a Shock Absorber

We study the characteristics of inflation targeting as a shock absorber, using quarterly data for a large panel of countries. To overcome an endogeneity problem between monetary regimes and the likelihood of crises, we propose to study large natural disasters. We find that inflation targeting improves macroeconomic performance following such exogenous shocks. It lowers inflation, raises output growth, ...

The Value of Health - Empirical Issues when Estimating the Monetary Value of a QALY Based on Well-Being

Cost-utility analysis compares the monetary cost of health interventions to the associated health consequences expressed using quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). At whichthreshold the ratio of both is still acceptable is a highly contested issue. Obtaining societal valuations of the monetary value of a QALY can help in setting such threshold values but it remains methodologically challenging. A recent ...

Preferences for Nuclear Power in Post-Fukushima Japan: Evidence from a Large Nationwide Household Survey

Utilizing the data of a large nationwide household survey conducted in 2014, we investigatepublic preferences on nuclear power in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear accident and the role offour sets of factors: (1) household/individual socioeconomic characteristics, (2) psychological status,(3) geographical aspects, and (4) Fukushima accident-related experiences. The preferred energy mix,according to ...

Gross Employment Effects in the Renewable Energy Industry in Germany: An Input–Output Analysis from 2000 to 2018

The purpose of this paper is to provide detailed insights into an approach to measure gross employment of the renewable energy (RES) industry in Germany in order to improve transparency and comparability. The method applied for the assessment of gross employment figures follows the input–output (IO) modeling approach and covers direct as well as indirect employment effects.All-in-all, four different ...

Structural Vector Autoregressive Models with More Shocks Than Variables Identified via Heteroskedasticity

In conventional structural vector autoregressive models it is assumed that there are at most as manystructural shocks as there are variables in the model. It is pointed out that heteroskedasticity can beused to identify more shocks than variables. Results are provided that allow a researcher to assesshow many shocks can be identified from specific forms of heteroskedasticity.

Microfirms and Innovation in the Service Sector

Inform Me When It Matters: Cost Salience, Energy Consumption, and Efficiency Investments

Effective attention to information may play a prominent role in consumer choice for energy-intensive services and it may simply be a function of receiving timely information when consumption takes place. This paper investigates whether and why the timing of utility bills leads to salience bias in heat energy consumption. In Germany, the 12-month billing period varies across buildings with a significant ...

Interdependencies in Mothers' and Daughters' Work-Family Life Course Trajectories: Similar but Different?

Women’s life courses underwent substantial changes in the family and work domains in the second half of the twentieth century. The associated fundamental changes in opportunity structures and values challenged the importance of families of origin for individual life courses, but two research strands suggest enduring within-family reproduction of women’s family behavior and work outcomes. We revisit ...

Essays on Methods for Causal Inference

This dissertation consists of three papers sharing the objective to analyze how machine learning methods can be useful to economists and econometricians in their pursuit to understand causal mechanisms operating in the economy. Such causal knowledge is essential when designing policies that help achieve societal goals. ML techniques are increasingly applied in and adapted to practical policy settings. ...