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What Is the “Right” Geographic Market Definition?

This paper examines the “right” geographic definition of relevant markets by analyzing how excise tax pass-through varies with local competition in the retail gasoline market of a large metropolitan city. Using a natural experiment from three unanticipated and exogenous fuel tax hikes and detailed station-level price data, we show that average pass-through is invariant to the number of nearby competitors ...

The Distribution of National Income in Germany, 1992–2019

This paper estimates and analyzes the distribution and composition of pre-tax national income in Germany since reunification, combining personal income tax returns, household survey data, and national accounts. We find that pre-tax national income inequality has increased since the 1990s, though to a lesser extent than suggested by previous studies. Our results draw parallels in top income structure ...

Fair Data Principles in Energy Research: An Empirical Analysis on Current Practices, Researcher Attitudes, Application Barriers and Practical Implications

For a successful energy transition, the FAIR data principles provide an essential framework for managing and reusing energy related data for research, yet their implementation remains limited. In this explorative study, we empirically examine how energy researchers engage with energy data in relation to FAIR data principles, research data platforms, and open science practices, while acknowledging the ...

The European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) Dataset: Leave Duration Entitlements for 21 Countries from 1970 to 2024

BACKGROUND Parenting leave policies shape how caregiving and paid work can be reconciled around the time of childbirth. They have important implications for fertility, employment, and gender equality. Still, there are limited quantitative cross-country data capturing longterm policy changes that impact how long parents can temporarily be away from work to care for their children, and how leave can ...

Payout Policies and Agency Conflicts in State-Owned Enterprises: Empirical Evidence from German Official Statistics

This study examines the payout policies of modern state-owned enterprises (SOEs) using unique official statistics on German SOEs from 2003 to 2014. The findings reveal that agency conflicts significantly influence SOEs’ payout behavior, leading to payout smoothing over time. Vertical agency costs, arising from owner-manager conflicts, and horizontal agency costs, stemming from owner-owner conflicts, ...

Industrial Decarbonization in a Fragmented World: Carbon Pricing with Border Adjustments Using Standardized Values

Long-Duration Electricity Storage Needs for Coping with Dunkelflaute Events in Europe

Coping with prolonged periods of low availability of wind and solar power, also referred to as variable renewable energy droughts or “Dunkelflaute”, emerges as a key challenge for realizing decarbonized energy systems based on renewable energy. Here we investigate the role of long-duration electricity storage and geographical balancing through transmission in dealing with such events in Europe, combining ...

Is There an Information Channel of Monetary Policy?

Exploiting the heteroskedasticity of the changes in short-term and long-term interest rates and exchange rates around the FOMC announcement, we identify three structural monetary policy shocks. We eliminate the predictable part of the shocks and study their effects on financial variables and macro variables. The first shock resembles a conventional monetary policy shock, and the second resembles an ...

Labor Market Entry Dynamics and Mental Health Outcomes among Young People with and without Disability

Young people with disability face significant barriers to stable employment. Yet, little is known about how early labor market experiences shape their long-term mental health. This study examines associations between early career insecurity and subsequent mental health trajectories, focusing on disability status as a key axis of inequality. We use nationally representative longitudinal data from the ...

Public Appeals and Collective Crisis Mitigation

Arrivals of crises often trigger public appeals from policy leaders, attempting to encourage crisis-mitigating behaviors. We ask whether the tone of an appeal changes its effectiveness, and to what extent policymakers know what tone to use. Using a controlled experiment in a large, general-population sample, we first study the impact of appeals and of their emotional tone on contributions to a well-defined ...