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Strict Nash Networks and Partner Heterogeneity

This paper extends the two-way flow model of network formation initiated by Bala and Goyal (Econometrica 68(5):1181-1230, 2000) by allowing for partner heterogeneity.In our model if a player i forms a link with player j, then she pays a cost of c j and gets benefits of V j . Our main result consists of the characterization of strict Nash networks. We find that the introduction of partner heterogeneity ...

Does War Influence Individual Expectations?

We analyse the effect of mass violent conflict on individual expectations in Northern Uganda. We find that the expectations of the future economic situation are negatively affected by recent conflict while the effect on broadly defined welfare is less robust.

Parental Unemployment and Young People's Extreme Right-Wing Party Affinity: Evidence from Panel Data

The paper investigates the extent to which parental unemployment affects young people's far right-wing party affinity. Cross-sectional estimates from the German Socio-Economic Panel show a positive relationship between growing up with unemployed parents and support for the extreme right. The paper uses differences in parental unemployment experience during childhood across siblings to investigate a ...

Individual Risk Attitudes: Measurement, Determinants, and Behavioral Consequences

This paper studies risk attitudes using a large representative survey and a complementary experiment conducted with a representative subject pool in subjects' homes. Using a question asking people about their willingness to take risks -in general -, we find that gender, age, height, and parental background have an economically significant impact on willingness to take risks. The experiment confirms ...

Locational Conditions and Firm Performance: Introduction to the Special Issue

Is the Boone-Indicator Applicable? Evidence from a Combined Data Set of German Manufacturing Enterprises

Boone (2008a) proposes a new competition measure based on Relative Profit Differences (RPD) that, from its theoretical properties, proves to be more robust than the Lerner-Index. However, the proof of the empirical practicability and robustness of the Boone-Indicator is missing. To fill this gap, we use a rich, newly built, data set for German manufacturing enterprises and test its empirical validity ...

One Last Puff? Public Smoking Bans and Smoking Behavior

This paper investigates the short-term effects of public smoking bans on individual smoking behavior. In 2007 and 2008, state-level smoking bans were gradually introduced in all of Germany's federal states. We exploit this variation to identify the effect that smoke-free policies had on individuals' smoking propensity and smoking intensity. Using rich longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic ...

Is Seeking Bad Mood Cognitively Demanding? Contra-Hedonic Orientation and Working-Memory Capacity in Everyday Life

Hedonism, or wanting to feel good, is central to human motivation. At times, however, people also seek to maintain or enhance negative affect or to dampen positive affect, and this can be instrumental for the later attainment of their goals. Here, we investigate the assumption that such contra-hedonic orientation is cognitively more demanding than prohedonic orientation, above and beyond the effects ...

Virtual Life Satisfaction

We study life satisfaction data from the 2005 World Values Survey and a 2009 survey of users of the virtual world Second Life. Second Life users do not have the same demographic profile as the general population, but the differences are not as large as we expected. The mechanisms and causes of life satisfaction seem to be similar in the two samples. Among Second Life users, satisfaction with their ...

Spillovers of Institutional Change in Africa

While previous research has looked at the determinants of the quality of institutions, not much research has been done that looks at the determinants of institutional change. This paper examines what determines the probability of an improvement in political freedoms. Several path-dependent variables, such as the history of political freedom, are clearly influential. In addition to that, economic openness ...