We explore the role of social capital in the spread of the recent Covid-19 pandemic in independent analyses for Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. We exploit within-country variation in social capital and Covid-19 cases to show that high-social-capital...

We analyze the effects of a large place-based policy, subsidizing up to 50% of the investment costs of manufacturing firms in East Germany. We show that a one-percentage-point decrease in the subsidy rate leads to a 1% decrease in manufacturing employment. We document important local spillovers...

Public disclosure laws on politicians' outside income aim to enhance electoral accountability, but their effects remain unclear and may backfire. Using a German disclosure reform, administrative tax data, and a difference-in-difference design, we show that MPs increased their outside income...