The paper first develops a theoretical model with different sectors, each providing a channel for an impact of energy prices on growth. In the short run, growth is hampered by increasing energy prices. In the long run, however, capital accumulation may be crowded out by energy use. This happens...

We build a model of competition between strategic data intermediaries collecting consumer information that they sell to firms competing in a product market. Each intermediary has access to exclusive information on a group of consumers and competes with other intermediaries on a common group of...

Decoy ballots do not count in election outcomes, but otherwise they are indistinguishable from real ballots. By means of a game-theoretical model, we show that decoy ballots may not provide effective protection against a malevolent adversary trying to buy real ballots. If the citizenry is...

This paper investigates the distributional welfare effects of the recent trade war in the solar manufacturing sector resulting from the U.S. government-initiated trade tariffs against Chinese solar manufacturers. Our structural econometric model incorporates the vertical structure between...

We model competition for a multi-attribute health service where patients observe attribute quality imprecisely before deciding on a provider. High quality in one attribute, e.g. medical quality, is more important for ex post utility than high quality in the other attribute. Providers can shift...

Countries such as Germany and Switzerland have included the energy transition in their policy programs, setting specific targets in terms of energy production from renewables. However, the energy transition has a cost, which so far has been partly covered by subsidizing the clean production....

The elasticity of substitution between clean and dirty energy and the direction of technological change are central parameters in discussing one of the most challenging questions today, climate change. Despite their importance, there are few studies that empirically estimate these key...

The degree of substitutability between clean and dirty energy plays a central role in leading economic analyses of optimal environmental policy. Despite the importance, a constant and exogenous elasticity of substitution has been a dominant theoretical approach. We challenge this assumption by...

This paper adds a fresh angle to the on-going debate on the potential negative employment effect of environmental policy by bringing to the fore a key factor that directly regulates its magnitude: the elasticity of substitution between labor and energy. Using firm-level data from the French...

This paper studies the causal economic and political effects of agricultural mechanization. For identification, it exploits a spatial discontinuity in the intensity of mechanization induced by land consolidation reforms in France between 1945 and 2008. The results suggest that an increase in...