This paper argues that satisfaction data from surveys are biased by varying participant attitudes toward the interview itself. In this manner, interviewees in a German panel study report lower life satisfaction when there is evidence of transient influences like aversion. The empirical findings...

Incentive schemes not only influence the effort provision of workers, but might also induce sorting. As drivers of self-selection, the literature mainly focuses on measures of productivity; however, other variables, such as preferences, beliefs and personality, also play a role. With this paper,...

We use a power-to-resist game to find out the effects of individuals‘ judgments about a proposer‘s selection procedure on the willingness to offer resistance against proposed outcomes. In the experiment, one individual is selected on the grounds of a particular procedure. This individual is...

Inspired by the literature on the role of local career networks for the quality of labor market matches we investigate whether human capital externalities arise from a higher job matching efficiency in skilled regions. Using two samples of highly qualified workers in Germany we find that an...

A small lie appears trivial but it obviously violates moral commandments. We analyze whether the preference for others’ truth telling is absolute or depends on the size of a lie. In a laboratory experiment we compare punishment for different sizes of lies controlling for the resulting economic...

In many European countries efforts are undertaken to improve doctoral education. In the context of new public governance in the Higher Education sector, less state, more competition, less academic self-governance, more internal hierarchy and more influence by external stakeholders under the...

We present an explorative analysis from qualitative and quantitative data of fourteen European economics departments for the years 2001 to 2003 and investigate how one component of a successful PhD education, which is socializing PhD students into the academic community, should be designed in...

One of the main issues of the reform regarding a professor’s remuneration at German universities is the introduction of a performance-dependent salary. This paper applies relative rank order tournaments to special performance benefits at university level. It turns out that the awarding...

Inspired by the literature on the importance of career networks for the quality of labor market matches we investigate whether human capital externalities arise from higher job matching efficiency in skilled regions. Using two samples of highly qualified workers in Germany, we find that...

The paper sheds light on the impact of spatial agglomeration of human capital on individual wages in Western Germany. Using panel data it shows that regional wage differentials are to a large extent attributable to localized human capital externalities arising from the regional share of highly...