Distinguishing carefully between mobility across firms and across occupations, this study provides causal estimates of the wage effects of mobility among graduates from apprenticeship in Germany. Our instrumental variables approach exploits variation in regional labor market characteristics....

Due to data limitations and the absence of testable, model-based predictions, theory and evidence on herd behavior are only loosely connected. This paper attempts to close this gap in the herding literature. From a theoretical perspective, we use numerical simulations of a herd model to derive...

I study the optimal audit mechanism when the principal cannot commit to an audit strategy. Invoking a revelation principle, the agent reports her type to a mediator who assigns contracts and recommends the principal whether to audit. For each reported type the mediator randomizes over a...

Distinguishing carefully between mobility across firms and across occupations, this study provides causal estimates of the wage effects of mobility among graduates from apprenticeship in Germany. Our instrumental variables approach exploits variation in regional labor market characteristics....

Smith et al. (1988) reported large bubbles and crashes in experimental asset markets, a result that has been replicated many times. Here we test whether the occurrence of bubbles depends on the experimental subjects' cognitive sophistication. In a two-part experiment, we first run a battery of...

Increasing mothers' labor supply is a key policy challenge in many OECD countries. Germany recently introduced a generous parental benfiet that allows for strong consumption smoothing after childbirth and, by taking into account opportunity costs of childbearing, incentivizes working women to...

For optimal audit contracts the principle of maximum deterrence applies: penalties imposed by the contract are either zero or at their maximal level. Additionally, an imperfect audit technology which reveals the agent’s type only with an error makes the principal worse off. In this paper I...

This paper tests whether the Ricardian Equivalence proposition holds in a life cycle consumption laboratory experiment. This proposition is a fundamental assumption underlying numerous studies on intertemporal choice and has important implications for tax policy. Using nonparametric and panel...

I study the optimal audit mechanism when the principal cannot commit to an audit strategy. Invoking a revelation principle, the agent reports her type to a mediator who assigns contracts and recommends the principal whether to audit. For each reported type the mediator randomizes over a...

The green paradox conveys the idea that climate policies may have unintended side effects when taking into account the reaction of fossil fuel suppliers. In particular, carbon taxes that will be implemented in the future induce resource owners to extract more rapidly which increases present...