External refereed essays

Sustainability Impacts of Car Road Pricing: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis for Austria

Nationwide car road pricing schemes are discussed across Europe. We analyse the impacts of such schemes with respect to environmental, economic and social indicators of sustainability, also quantifying the trade-offs among these three dimensions under different charging principles and revenue recycling options. In our analysis we employ a computable general equilibrium (CGE) approach, develop a modelling ...

Theories of Behavior in Principal-Agent Relationship with Hidden Action

In a laboratory experiment, we investigate behavior in a principal-agent situation with moral hazard. We evaluate the predictive success of two theories. One is the standard agency theory, which assumes that the agent will accept any contract offer that satisfies his participation constraint, typically requiring zero expected utility. The other is the "fair-offer" theory suggested by Keser and Willinger ...

Desired Lifetime and End-of-Life Desires across Adulthood from 20 to 90: A Dual-Source Information Model

How long do people want to live, and how does scientific research on aging affect such desires? A dual-source information model proposes that aging expectations and desires are informed differently by two sources: personal experiences on the one hand, and scientific and societal influences on the other. Two studies with independent German national samples explored desires regarding length of life and ...

Voluntary Contributions to Reduce Expected Public Losses

We examine voluntary private contributions to reduce the probability of a public loss in the experimental economics laboratory. In several treatments, we examine how loss probability, initial wealth and ambiguity affect the contribution level. We observe that, in contrast to the risk-neutral Nash equilibrium, participants do make positive contributions although the contribution level is lower than ...

Employment Fluctuations and Dynamics of the Aggregate Average Wage in Poland, 1996-2003

The aggregate average wage is often used as an indicator of economic performance and welfare, and as such often serves as a benchmark for changes in the generosity of public transfers and for wage negotiations. Yet if economies experience a high degree of (non-random) fluctuation in employment, the composition of the employed population will have a considerable effect on the computed average. In this ...

Versteigern statt Verschenken! Warum es sinnvoll ist, eine vollständige Versteigerung der Emissionsrechte anzustreben

Liability for Climate Change: The Benefits, the Costs, and the Transaction Costs

And then there Were Four ... How Many (and Which) Measures of Active Labor Market Policy Do We Still Need?

Quality of Life in Rural Areas: Processes of Divergence and Convergence

In Germany, processes can be observed that have long been out of keeping with the principle of equality of opportunity. Unemployment is concentrated in the structurally weak peripheral areas, in Eastern Germany in particular; emigration of young and better-educated people to the West is not diminishing, but contrary to expectation is again on the increase; aging processes have set in already, and when ...

British and German Manufacturing Productivity Compared: A New Benchmark for 1935/36 Based on Double Deflated Value Added

We present a new estimate of Anglo-German manufacturing productivity levels for 1935/36. It is based on archival data on German manufacturing and published British census data. We calculate comparative levels of value added, correcting for differences in prices for outputs and inputs. This so-called double deflation procedure provides new insights into productivity comparisons because output- and input ...

Optimal Technology Choice and Investment Timing: A Stochastic Model of Industrial Cogeneration vs. Heat-Only Production

In this paper we develop an economic model that explains the decision-making problem under uncertainty of an industrial firm that wants to invest in a process technology. More specifically, the decision is between making an irreversible investment in a combined heat-and-power production (cogeneration) system, or to invest in a conventional heat-only generation system (steam boiler) and to purchase ...

Where Are the Industrial Technologies in Energy-Economy Models? An Innovative CGE Approach for Steel Production in Germany

Top-down computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are used extensively for analysis of energy and climate policies. Energy-intensive industries are usually represented in top-down economic models as abstract economic production functions, commonly of the constant-elasticity-of-substitution (CES) or translog functional form. This study explores methods for improving the realism of energy-intensive ...

Produktdiversifizierung: Konvergenz zwischen ost- und westdeutschen Unternehmen: eine Dekomposition mit Mikrodaten der amtlichen Statistik

In the aftermath of Germany's reunification, redesigning their product range was a major challenge for East-German enterprises. At the same time, there were growing signs that Western enterprises reacted to globalization and European integration by increasingly pursuing strategies of specialization. Using representative micro data from Germany's system of register based, official firm surveys, this ...

A Modern Statistical Infrastructure for Excellent Research and Policy Advice: Report on the German Council for Social and Economic Data during Its First Period in Office (2004-2006)

Fiscal Competition and the Composition of Public Spending: Theory and Evidence

We consider fiscal competition between jurisdictions. Capital taxes are used to finance a public input and two public goods: one that benefits mobile skilled workers and one that benefits immobile unskilled workers. We derive the jurisdictions' reaction functions for different spending categories. We then estimate these reaction functions using data from German communities. Thereby we explicitly allow ...

Ethnic Self-Identification of First-Generation Immigrants

This paper uses the concept of ethnic self-identification of immigrants in a two-dimensional framework. It acknowledges that attachments to both the country of origin and the host country are not necessarily mutually exclusive. There are three possible paths of adjustment from separation at entry, namely the transitions to assimilation, integration, and marginalization. We analyze the determinants ...

Impact Assessment of Emissions Stabilization Scenarios with and without Induced Technological Change

The main aim of this paper is to investigate quantitatively the economic impacts of emissions stabilization scenarios with and without the inclusion of induced technological change (ITC). Improved technological innovations are triggered by increased research and development (R&D) expenditures that advance energy efficiencies. Model results show that ITCs due to increased investment in R&D reduce compliance ...

Measuring Left-Right Political Orientation: The Choice of Response Format

Although left-right items are a standard tool of public opinion research, there is little agreement about the optimal response format. Two disputes can be identified in the literature: (1) whether to provide respondents with a small or large number of answer categories, and (2) whether or not to administer the response scale including a midpoint. This study evaluatesthe performance of the 101, 11, ...

A Cartel Analysis of the German Labor Institutions and Its Implications for Labor Market Reform

This paper offers a cartel explanation for the stability of German collective bargaining institutions. We show that a dense net of legal safeguards has been woven around the wage-setting cartel. These measures make deviation by cartel insiders less attractive and simultaneously erect entry barriers for alternative unions. As we argue, many recent labor policy measures, which make wages more flexible, ...

The Diverse Structures of Passenger Car Taxation in Europe and the EU Commissions Proposal for Reform

In this study we first analyze duties on passenger cars in 27 European countries. Taxes and fees related to the registration, ownership and use of cars are assessed differently across Europe, and their rates vary significantly. We find that the annual taxes levied on specific types of cars differ across countries by a factor of up to four, while the variouskinds of duties levied account for extremely ...