States merge small and medium sized municipalities to achieve economies of scale. Little is known to which extent mergers of large local governments reduce expenditures. I use the synthetic control method to identify the effect of mergers of county-sized administrations in Germany (districts) on...

Left-hand drive (LHD) vehicles share higher road accident risks under left-hand traffic because of blind spot areas. Due to low import prices, the number of wrong-hand drive vehicles skyrockets in emerging countries like Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. I identify the causal effect of wrong-hand...

States merge local governments to achieve economies of scale. Little is known to which extent mergers of county-sized local governments reduce expenditures, and influence political outcomes. I use the synthetic control method to identify the effect of mergers of large local governments in...

Die ökonomische Wucht der Teilung Deutschlands in Bundesrepublik und DDR vor etwa 70 Jahren wird bis heute völlig unterschätzt. Aufgrund mehrerer Wellen von Massenabwanderung aus Ostdeutschland driften die Einwohnerzahlen beider Landesteile bis heute massiv und ungebremst auseinander. Auf dem...

Die unverändert geringe Wirtschaftskraft, die Steuerprogression und die geltenden Zerlegungsregeln sind die Kernursachen der niedrigen Steuerkraft in Ostdeutschland. Dies geht aus einer Studie der Dresdner Niederlassung des ifo Instituts im Auftrag des Sächsischen Staatsministeriums der...

To which extent does business experience of politicians influence economic policies and economic outcomes? I review the new empirical literature which examines this question. The survey encompasses the literature on business politicians at the national, sub-national and local level. The results...

We use the US presidential election on 3 November 2020 to examine how the US president influences economic expectations of international experts. We design a large-scale RCT among 843 experts working in 107 countries, asking about their expectations regarding GDP growth, unemployment, inflation,...