This report estimates the "social rate of time preference" (SRTP) for New Zealand public policy appraisal using a Ramsey equation. It uses the Weitzman (1998) method to derive a declining discount rate schedule of 2% (real) for years 1-30, 1.5% for years 31-100, and 1% for years 101 on. The...

The objective of this study is to evaluate the costs and benefits of different demand risk sharing rules for road infrastructure concessions, from the point of view of the economic attractiveness of the projects for the concessionaire and the price reduction for users. The traffic trajectory of...

We critically assess an almost universal Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) practice. In addition to the central Net Present Value (NPV), analysts frequently also report multiple additional values in what is commonly referred to as 'NPV sensitivity analysis'. This practice is generally justified with...

Energy system and power market models refrain from distinguishing between private and social discount rates. We devise a strategy to account for diverging private and social discount rates in intertemporal optimization frameworks, resulting in an optimal carbon tax above the marginal damage when...

Current decarbonization policies neglect damages from local air pollutants. We analyze the trade-off between complementary taxation of carbon emissions and local air pollution. We quantify results for the European power market until 2050. Taxing only air pollution results in social cost of 5,890...

We analyze how school vouchers affect post-secondary attainment by exploiting the universal voucher program implemented in Chile in 1981. The program allowed students to choose which primary and secondary schools to attend. The government covered tuition independently of whether the chosen...

In response to strong revenue and income losses that a large share of the self-employed faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the German federal government introduced a €50bn emergency aid program. Based on real-time online-survey data comprising more than 20,000 observations, we analyze the...

In response to strong revenue and income losses that a large share of the self-employed faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the German federal government introduced a €50bn emergency aid program. Based on real-time online-survey data comprising more than 20,000 observations, we analyze the...

In 2021, the Biden Administration issued mandates requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for U.S. federal employees and contractors and for some healthcare and private sector workers. Although these mandates have been subject to legal challenges and some have been halted or delayed, rigorous appraisal...

How can colleges find successful applicants? Criteria such as GPA, interviews, essays, and tests provide information about candidates, but which work and why? We shed light on these questions using unique data on the universe of objective and subjective rankings of all college applicants in...