This paper hypothesizes and empirically establishes the persistent effects of novelty-seeking traits on crosscountry differences in scientific knowledge creation. I use data on the prevalence of specific allele variants of the human DRD4 exon III gene, which population geneticists have linked to...

In spite of scientific agreement on the negative effects of anthropogenic climate change, efforts to find cooperative solutions on the international level have been unsatisfactory so far. Trade sanctions in the form of import tariffs are one principal measure discussed as a means to foster...

Using employer-employee data from Germany, this paper analyzes the relationship between wages and past and contemporaneous labor market conditions. Specifically, we test the implications of implicit contract models (Beaudry and DiNardo, 1991) and an on-the-job search model (Hagedorn and...

Shall investments become more robust or more short-lived if unfavorable exogeneous conditions become more uncertain? What if the investments' design is irreversible for its whole life time? Such decision problems are frequently encountered, for example in infrastructure construction. We analyze...

Shall investments become more robust or more short-lived if unfavorable exogeneous conditions become more uncertain? What if the investments' design is irreversible for its whole life time? Such decision problems are frequently encountered, for example in infrastructure construction. We analyze...

In this study we analyze the relationship between heat events and mortality in Germany. The main research questions are: Does heat lead to rising mortality and if yes, are the effects persistent or compensated for in the near future? Furthermore, we consider differences between heat effects in...

In this paper we test the 'red herring' hypothesis for expenditures on long-term care. The main contribution of this paper is that we assess the 'red herring' hypothesis using an aggregated measure that allows us to control for entering the final period of life on the individual level. In...