External refereed essays

Wirtschaftspolitik in der Corona-Krise: Stabilisierung muss durch eine kluge Transformationspolitik ergänzt werden

Is Healthy Neuroticism Associated with Health Behaviors? A Coordinated Integrative Data Analysis

Current literature suggests that neuroticism is positively associated with maladaptive life choices, likelihood of disease, and mortality. However, recent research has identified circumstances under which neuroticism is associated with positive outcomes. The current project examined whether “healthy neuroticism”, defined as the interaction of neuroticism and conscientiousness, was associated with the ...

Microfirms and Innovation in the Service Sector

Interdependencies in Mothers' and Daughters' Work-Family Life Course Trajectories: Similar but Different?

Women’s life courses underwent substantial changes in the family and work domains in the second half of the twentieth century. The associated fundamental changes in opportunity structures and values challenged the importance of families of origin for individual life courses, but two research strands suggest enduring within-family reproduction of women’s family behavior and work outcomes. We revisit ...

Economic Resilience of German Lignite Regions in Transition

This paper recalls the development of the German lignite regions Rhineland and Lusatia since 1945 to allow for a better understanding of their situation in 2019. We analyze their economic resilience, defined as adaptive capacity, using Holling’s adaptive cycle model. We find that the Rhineland is currently in the conservation phase, while Lusatia experiences a reorganization phase following the economic ...

Degrees of Displacement: The Impact of Household PV Battery Prosumage on Utility Generation and Storage

Reductions in the cost of PV and batteries encourage households to invest in PV battery prosumage. We explore the implications for the rest of the power sector by applying two open-source techno-economic models to scenarios in Western Australia for the year 2030. Household PV capacity generally substitutes utility PV, but slightly less so as additional household batteries are installed. Wind power ...

The Accumulation of Wealth in Marriage: Over-Time Change and Within-Couple Inequalities

This study examines the accumulation of personal wealth of husbands and wives and investigates the development of within-couple wealth inequalities over time in marriage. Going beyond previous re- search that mostly studied the marriage wealth premium using household-level wealth data and that conceptualized marriage as an instantaneous transition with uniform consequences over time, we argue that ...

Multi-Dimensional Couple Bargaining and Housework Allocation

Research on couple bargaining and housework allocation focuses almost exclusively on partners’ economic resources. In this study, we ask whether additional bargaining resources, namely physical appearance and social networks, may exert a distinct effect – that is, whether partners can mobilize multiple resources within their bargaining framework. A focus on multiple bargaining chips is made possible ...

The Impact of Liquidity and Capital Requirements on Lending and Stability of African Banks

We assess whether compliance with Basel III’s main requirements, the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) and the risk-weighted Total Capital Ratio (TCR), matters for lending and stability of African banks. Banks with an NSFR or a TCR of at least the required minimum are defined as treatment group in the endogenous treatment estimations. Our results reveal that African banks complying with the capital threshold ...

Inflation Targeting as a Shock Absorber

We study the characteristics of inflation targeting as a shock absorber, using quarterly data for a large panel of countries. To overcome an endogeneity problem between monetary regimes and the likelihood of crises, we propose to study large natural disasters. We find that inflation targeting improves macroeconomic performance following such exogenous shocks. It lowers inflation, raises output growth, ...

Preferences for Nuclear Power in Post-Fukushima Japan: Evidence from a Large Nationwide Household Survey

Utilizing the data of a large nationwide household survey conducted in 2014, we investigatepublic preferences on nuclear power in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear accident and the role offour sets of factors: (1) household/individual socioeconomic characteristics, (2) psychological status,(3) geographical aspects, and (4) Fukushima accident-related experiences. The preferred energy mix,according to ...

Gross Employment Effects in the Renewable Energy Industry in Germany: An Input–Output Analysis from 2000 to 2018

The purpose of this paper is to provide detailed insights into an approach to measure gross employment of the renewable energy (RES) industry in Germany in order to improve transparency and comparability. The method applied for the assessment of gross employment figures follows the input–output (IO) modeling approach and covers direct as well as indirect employment effects.All-in-all, four different ...

Structural Vector Autoregressive Models with More Shocks Than Variables Identified via Heteroskedasticity

In conventional structural vector autoregressive models it is assumed that there are at most as manystructural shocks as there are variables in the model. It is pointed out that heteroskedasticity can beused to identify more shocks than variables. Results are provided that allow a researcher to assesshow many shocks can be identified from specific forms of heteroskedasticity.

Understanding Day Care Enrolment Gaps

We document gaps in day care enrolment by family background in a country with a universal day care system (Germany). Research demonstrates that children of parents with lower educational attainment and children of migrant parents may benefit the most from day care, making it important to understand why such enrolment gaps exist. We use a unique data set that records both parental demand for day care ...

Die Ungleichheit von Lebenserwerbseinkommen

Local Fiscal Policies and Their Impact on the Number and Spatial Distribution of New Firms

We examine the effect of local business taxation and local public good and service (PIGS) provision on the number and spatial distribution of new firms. Testing ground is Germany and we rely on the universe of firm foundations between 1998 and 2006. Methodologically, we estimate fixed effects poisson models coupled with a control function approach. The results suggest that a 1%-decrease in the business ...

How Important Are Local Knowledge Spillovers of Public R&D and What Drives Them?

This paper analyzes the magnitude of local knowledge spillovers of public R&D in Germany and its determinants using patent application data. We identify three distinct transmission channels. First, firms file more patent applications when collaborating with (local) public institutions. Second, firms file more patent applications when citing a public patent. Third, local public R&D seems to increase ...

Dehydration Predicts Longitudinal Decline in Cognitive Functioning and Well-Being Among Older Adults

Adequate hydration is essential for health, with even mild forms of dehydration often having negative effects on cognition and well-being. Despite evidence of higher risk for dehydration among older adults, links between dehydration and cognitive or well-being outcomes have not been established in old age. In this study, we used longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study II (age range 60–89) to ...

An Auction Story: How Simple Bids Struggle with Uncertainty

Short-term electricity markets are key to an efficient production by generation units. We develop a two-period model to assess different bidding formats to determine for each bidding format the optimal bidding strategy of competitive generators facing price-uncertainty. We compare the results for simple bidding, block bidding and multi-part bidding. We find that even under optimal simple and block ...

Distributive Justice in Marriage: Experimental Evidence on Beliefs about Fair Savings Arrangements

Objective This study examines fairness perceptions of experimentally manipulated savings arrangements in couples (i.e., distribution of control and ownership of savings) to identify distributive justice principles in marriage.Background Theoretically, competing norms about individual ownership rights and autonomy (equity principle) and marital sharing (equality principle) in interaction with gender ...