In this paper nonparametric instrumental variable estimation of local average treatment effects (LATE) is extended to incorporate confounding covariates. Estimation of local average treatment effects is appealing since their identification relies on much weaker assumptions than the...

The paper proposes a simple equilibrium model of venture capital, entrepreneurship and innovation. Venture capitalists not only finance but also advise start-up entrepreneurs and thereby add value to new firms. The paper demonstrates how a productive and active VC industry boosts innovation...

Propensity score matching is a nonparametric technique frequently used for estimating average treatment effects. Yet its applicability is not confined to treatment evaluation. In this paper the propensity score property is generalized to the setting of selection on unobservables. It is shown...

We experimentally investigate how firms and consumers react to a sudden cost increase in a competitive retail market. We compare two conditions which exclusively differ with respect to how difficult it is to organize and enforce boycotts. We find that cost increases translate into sudden price...

In German literature, particularly in poetry, an amazing wealth of illustrations for economic contract theory can be found. Signaling, screening, incentive contracts, the winner's curse, and even the prisoner's dilemma within a team are treated by different writers. The respective examples are...

This paper surveys the state of the art on monetary policy and central bank behaviour from a public choice perspective. After a brief look at the roots of today’s view of monetary policy conduct and institutional design in early work on political business cycles, the inflation-stabilisation...

This paper reviews the main identification and estimation strategies for microeconometric policy evaluation. Particular emphasis is laid on evaluating policies consisting of multiple programmes, which is of high relevance in practice. For example, active labour market policies may consist of...

We use a model of self-centered inequality aversion suggested by Fehr and Schmidt (1999) to study voting on redistribution. We theoretically identify two classes of conditions when an empirically plausible amount of fairness preferences induces redistribution through referenda. We test the...

The paper analyzes the impact of the initial observation on the problem of testing for unit roots. To this end, we derive a family of optimal tests that maximize a weighted average power criterion with respect to the initial observation. We then investigate the relationship of this optimal...