Vorträge des DIW Berlin

Regulation and Investment Incentives in Electricity Distribution

In this paper we analyze the investment behavior of electricity distribution companies. First, we test whether the implementation of an incentive-based regulatory scheme with revenue caps impacts the firms' investment decisions. Second, we test if the specific regulatory design to determine the revenue caps impacts the firms' investment behavior. The analysis is based on a unique and detailed firm...

Offset Credits in the EU Emissions Trading System: A Firm-Level Evaluation of Transaction Costs

Voting for Inefficiency

In this paper, we propose a probabilistic voter model that rationalizes the inefficient use of labor input in municipality-owned enterprises. Our focus is on the relationship between absolute as well as relative inefficiency measures and the size of the municipality in which public firms operate. We show that larger communities maintain enterprises which are on average more efficient in absolute...

Productivity Growth and Its Sources: A StoNED Metafrontier Analyis of the German Electricity Generating Sector

Energy supply in Germany has undergone considerable changes during the last decade, of which especially the nuclear phase-out and enormous installations of renewable energy sources pose new challenges for conventional combustion technologies. To analyze potential adaption processes due to this changing market conditions, this paper analyzes productivity change and its components in the German...

Productivity in the Electricity Retail Market: Does Ownership Matter? A Structural Production Function Approach for Germany

Sonntagsmatinee: Was hält Europa noch zusammen?: Podiumsdiskussion

Discussant to: Liquidity Shocks, Dollar Funding Costs, and the Bank Lending Channel during the European Sovereign Crisis. Ricardo Correa, Horacio Sapriza, Andrei Zlate

Finding Your Right (or Left) Partner to Merge

Speculative Bubbles in Urban Housing Markets in Germany

(Not) in My Backyard? The Impact of Citizen Initiatives on Housing Supply in Germany

Economic Resilience of German Regions

Think National, Forecast Local: A Case Study of 71 German Urban Housing Markets

Does Personalized Feedback Increase Respondent Motivation?

Puncturing Inequalities: A Configurational Analysis of Upward Mobility

Cognitive Skills, Non-Cognitive Skills and Family Background: Evidence from Sibling Correlations

This paper estimates sibling correlations in cognitive skills and non-cognitive skills to evaluate the importance of family background for skill formation. The study is based on a large representative German dataset, which includes IQ test scores and measures of noncognitive skills. Using a Restricted Maximum Likelihood model we find substantial influences of family background on the formation of...

How Does Education Improve Cognitive Skills? Instructional Time versus Timing of Instruction

This paper investigates two mechanisms through which education may affect cognitive skills in adolescence: the role of instructional quantity and the timing ofinstruction with respect to age. To identify causal effects, I exploit a school reform carried out at the state level in Germany as a quasi-natural experiment: between 2001 and 2007, the academic-track high school (Gymnasium) was reduced...

Job Search Expectations

An Analysis of Allowance Banking in the EU ETS

The existence of some 2 billion unused EU Allowances (EUAs) at the end of Phase II of the EU.s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has sparked considerable debate about structural shortcomings of the EU ETS. However, there has been a surprising lack of interest in considering the accumulation of EUAs in light of the theory of intertemporal permit trading, i.e. allowance banking. In this paper we...

The Effect of Peer Observation on Consumption Choices: Experimental Evidence

This paper uses a clean experiment to investigate the impact of peer observation on the consumption decisions of rural households in Thailand. We find that those groups that observe each other show lower within group standard deviation in their decisions. At the same time, we also find that individual choice is influenced by group choice. We find that unfamiliarity with product is counteracted by...

Weather Shocks and Education in Mongolia

This paper analyzes the impact of extreme weather shocks on education outcomes in Mongolia. Our focus is on particularly harsh winters that caused mass livestock mortality (called dzud in Mongolian) between 1999-2002 and in 2009/2010. The timing of events allows us to analyze both short- and long-term effects of weather shocks on education. Our analysis disentangles the effects by age of exposure....