Signature requirements are often used as hurdles to prevent overuse of public referenda. We evaluate the causal effect of lowering signature requirements on the number of observed citizen initiatives. Based on municipality-level data for Germany, we make use of legislative changes at specific population thresholds to build an identification strategy using a regression discontinuity design. We find ...
The core aim of DIA-CORE is to ensure a continuous assessment of the existing policy mechanisms and to establish a fruitful stakeholder dialogue on future policy needs for renewable electricity (RES-E), heating & cooling (RES-H), and transport (RES-T). The project consortium assesses the role that policies play in the support of renewable energies. Looking at individual EU member states, risk...
This dissertation focuses on selected aspects of network congestion arising in liberalized electricity markets and their management methods with a special weight placed on the integration of increased renewable generation in Europe and Germany. In a first step, the theoretical concepts of congestion management are introduced complemented by a review of current management regimes in selected countries. ...
We produce a new decomposition of wage inequality into worker and firm-level components, and study its evolution over time. To do so, we build and estimate an equilibrium search model with on the job search (as in Postel-Viney and Robin, 2002). The model delivers a theory of steady-state wage dispersion driven by heterogeneous worker abilities and firm productivities, as well as matching frictions...
