Since June 15, 2017, mobile network operators in the European Economic Area may not impose surcharges for making telephone calls, sending text messages, or using data services in other EEA countries. The regulation was designed to create a digital domestic market without adversely affecting consumers. The regulation raises the expectation of changes in mobile network operators’ tariff structures. ...
In a meta-analysis of 126 impact evaluation studies, we find that financial education significantly impacts financial behavior and, to an even larger extent, financial literacy. These results also hold for the subsample of randomized experiments (RCTs). However, intervention impacts are highly heterogeneous: financial education is less effective for low-income clients as well as in low- and lower-middle–income ...
Starting from a low level, in recent years the battery-supported self-consumption of solar electricity (solar prosumage) has grown significantly in Germany. Its growth is primarily due to the opposing trends in household electricity prices and feed-in tariffs in conjunction with government incentives for battery storage. Various benefits of solar prosumage speak to its positive potential in the German ...
We revisit the alleged retirement consumption puzzle. According to the life-cycle theory, foreseeable income reductions such as those around retirement should not affect consumption. However, we first recall that given higher leisure endowments after retirement, the theory does predict a fall of total market consumption expenditures. In order not to mistake this predicted drop for a puzzle we focus ...
This paper investigates empirically the consumer demand of environmentally relevant goods for Germany, as well as their relationship to the demand for leisure. Higher prices for energy goods like gas, electricity or fuel oil due to higher indirecttaxation amongst others may have serious welfare and distributional effects for households. Also, there is very little evidence of the labor market implications ...
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 ...
Findings from consumer surveys and studies about nutritional labeling tend to be hard to compare, because the methodologies they use and questions they address are quite varied. Nevertheless, by evaluating these studies, we can obtain a good overview of existing nutritional labeling systems and consumer preferences. The present background article offers an overview of the studies frequently cited in ...