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Drivers of Renewable Technology Adoption in the Household Sector

Using representative household survey panel data from Germany, we undertake a simultaneous assessment of the importance of factors that have individually been found significant for the adoption of renewable energy systems but have never been tested jointly. These are sociodemographic and housing characteristics, environmental concern, personality traits, and economic factors, i.e. the expected costs ...

A Novel Sampling Strategy for Surveying High-Worth Individuals - An Application Using the Socio-Economic Panel

High-worth individuals are typically underrepresented or completely missing in population surveys. The lack of a register-based sampling frame on high-worth individuals in many countries challenged previous attempts to sample high-worth individuals in voluntary scientific surveys. In a novel research design, we draw on register data on the shareholding structures of companies as a sampling frame. Our ...

Moving Home in the Early Years: What Happens to Children in the Uk?

Children’s early years are a time when many families move home. Does residential mobility affect children’s wellbeing at age five in terms of cognitive and behavioural development? The question arises as moving home is sometimes portrayed as a stressful life event adversely affecting child development, particularly if frequent. Other studies suggest a more mixed role for home moves, which may reflect ...

Replication Studies in Economics - How Many and Which Papers Are Chosen for Replication, and Why?

We investigate how often replication studies are published in empirical economics and what types of journal articles are replicated. We find that between 1974 and 2014 0.1% of publications in the top 50 economics journals were replication studies. We consider the results of published formal replication studies (whether they are negating or reinforcing) and their extent: Narrow replication studies are ...

Business Cycles and Start-ups across Industries: An Empirical Analysis of German Regions

We analyze whether start-up rates in different industries systematically change with business cycle variables. Using a unique data set at the industry level, we mostly find correlations that are consistent with counter-cyclical influences of the business cycle on entries in both innovative and non-innovative industries. Entries into the largescale industries, including the innovative part of manufacturing, ...

Exploring the Possibilities and Boundaries of Survey Data for the Analysis of Wealth and Wealth Transfers

Ein eklatanter Mangel an Register- oder Steuerdaten zur Nutzung von Forschern in Deutschland führt zur Situation, dass Umfragedaten die einzig nutzbaren Anhaltspunkte zur Vermögensverteilung geben. Zwei der vier Forschungsbeiträge dieser Dissertation beschäftigen sich mit der Frage, wie zum einen die Qualität der Umfragedaten verbessert werden kann. Zwei weitere Beiträge erörtern die Möglichkeiten ...

On the Economics of Electrical Storage for Variable Renewable Energy Sources

The use of renewable energy sources is a major strategy to mitigate climate change. Yet Sinn (2017) argues that excessive electrical storage requirements limit the further expansion of variable wind and solar energy. We question, and alter, strong implicit assumptions of Sinn’s approach and find that storage needs are considerably lower, up to two orders of magnitude. First, we move away from corner ...

Language Barriers during the Fieldwork of the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees in Germany

The IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees is one of the first large-scale quantitative surveys in Germany focusing on refugees exclusively. It is able to provide valuable insights on the recent cohort of refugees who arrived in Germany as of the year 2013. However, due to the fact that most respondents of the target population are not proficient in German, the research partners who conducted the survey ...

Quality of Life and Inequality

Does Subsidized Care for Toddlers Increase Maternal Labor Supply? Evidence from a Large-Scale Expansion of Early Childcare

Expanding public or publicly subsidized childcare has been a top social policy priority in many industrialized countries. It is supposed to increase fertility, promote children's development and enhance mothers' labor market attachment. In this paper, we analyze the causal effect of one of the largest expansions of subsidized childcare for children up to three years among industrialized countries on ...