In this paper, I propose a life cycle model of painkiller consumption that combines the theory of health deficit accumulation with the theory of addiction. Chronic pain is conceptualized as a persistent negative shock to lifetime utility that can be treated by pain relief medication. Some...

In this paper I discuss overweight and obesity and their repercussions on health deficit accumulation and longevity in a life cycle model. Individual decisions are conceptualized as the partial control of impulsive desires of a short-run self (the limbic system) by a rationally forward-looking...

In this paper, we study the welfare effects of Christmas presents with a focus on the effect of presents for gift-givers. Based on a survey among students at the University of Göttingen, Germany, we find that the vast majority of gift-givers prefers in-kind gifts compared to gifts of money. The...

There exists a steady trend at which later born cohorts, at the same age, are healthier than earlier born cohorts. We show this trend by computing a health deficit index for a panel of 14 European Countries and six waves of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We find...

Empirical evidence for the U.S. suggests that the consumption of intoxicants increases in association with the socio-economic deprivation of the middle-class. To explore the underlying mechanisms, we set up a task-based labor market model with endogenous mental health status and a health care...

This paper revisits the monetary policy asset price nexus employing a novel identification approach for structural VARs in a framework of non-Gaussian independent shocks. This allows us to remain "agnostic" about the contemporaneous relations between the variables. We provide empirical evidence...

This paper is the first to estimate the effect of two international agreements (Rotterdam Convention, RC, and the Stockholm Convention, SC) in reducing trade in hazardous substances. We estimate the effects of ratification of these agreements on imports of the affected products putting emphasis...

The literature on international business cycles has employed dynamic factor models to disentangle global from group-specific and national factors in countries' macroeconomic aggregates. Therefore, the countries have simply been classified ex ante as belonging to the same region or the same level...

It has been argued that hyperbolic discounting of future gains and losses leads to time-inconsistent behavior and thereby, in the context of health economics, not enough investment in health and too much indulgence of unhealthy consumption. Here, we challenge this view. We set up a life-cycle...

We model the role of the ocean in climate change, using the concept of multicointegration. Surface temperature and radiative forcing cointegrate and the accumulated cointegration disequilibria represent the change in Earth system heat content, which is predominantly stored in the ocean. System...