In the German wastewater sector, innovations are often regarded to be the key to both more efficient service provision and reduction of environmental and health-related problems. However, it is unclear what factors foster these innovations. One possible candidate factor is increased competition...

In the German wastewater sector, innovations are often regarded to be the key to better service provision. Our focus is on the question of whether less direct control by the authorities does improve the innovativeness of providers of wastewater services. On the basis of data from a survey among...

Die Umweltpolitik in Deutschland konnte in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten beachtliche Erfolge aufweisen. Als Beispiele können der Rückgang der Emissionen verschiedener "klassischer" Luftschadstoffe, die Verbesserung der Abwasseraufbereitung sowie der Einstieg in die Kreislaufwirtschaft genannt...

The question of whether two drugs – namely alcohol and tobacco – are used as complements or substitutes is of crucial interest if side-effects of anti-drug policies are considered. Numerous papers have empirically addressed this issue by estimating demand systems for alcohol and tobacco and...

This study analyses a parametric estimator for a system of equations with limited dependent variables that was recently proposed. Its performance is compared with those of alternative estimation procedures using Monte Carlo methods. The comparison shows that this new estimator is less efficient...

Nonrandom sample selection may render estimated treatment effects biased even if assignment of treatment is purely random. Lee (2009, Review of Economic Studies, 76: 1071–1102) proposes an estimator for treatment-effect bounds that limit the possible range of the treatment effect. In this...

ABSTRACT An inverse relationship between job insecurity and sickness absence has been established in the literature, which is explained by employees avoiding to send signals of both poor health and uncooperative behavior towards the employer. In this paper, we focus on whether the same mechanism...

Obesity and overweight are linked to diseases that cost society a significant amount of resources. While behavior modification can reduce the problem, instigating such lifestyle changes is an uneasy task. One potential way to reduce the problem is through the use of financial incentives. In this...

We investigate the influence of social approval, reputation, and individual characteristics on voting behavior in the German version of the TV show “Come Dine With Me”. Five contestants prepare a dinner for each other during the course of a week and evaluate each other’s performance. The...

This paper empirically assesses the relative role of health plan prices, service quality and optional benefits in the decision to choose a health plan. We link representative German SOEP panel data from 2007 to 2010 to (i) health plan service quality indicators, (ii) measures of voluntary...