In einer neuen Studie zeigen wir, dass die lokale Arbeitslosigkeit sinkt, wenn der Landrat direkt vom Volk und nicht vom Kreistag gewählt wird. Unsere Ergebnisse beruhen auf einem Vergleich von Landkreisen in Brandenburg, wo bei zu geringer Wahlbeteiligung die Direktwahl ungültig wird und der...

Bei den einzigen freien DDR-­Kommunalwahlen im Mai 1990 wurden fast 30 000 Kommunalpolitiker in die sächsischen Gemeinderäte und Kreistage gewählt. Aufgrund der zahlreichen Gemeinde-­ und Kreisfusionen im Freistaat werden 30 Jahre später nur noch knapp 8 000 Mandate bei den Kommunalwahlen...

Eine Studie zeigt: Steht ein Arzt an der Spitze des Gesundheitsministeriums, steigen die Investitionen im Krankenhaussektor. Sollten Politikerinnen und Politiker Fachleute sein? Diese Frage wird häufig nach Regierungsbildungen diskutiert. Welchen Einfluss Fachkompetenz auf die Amtsführung hat,...

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,...

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,...

We investigate whether politicians award intergovernmental grants to core supporters. Our new dataset contains information on discretionary project grants from a German state government to municipalities over the period 2008-2011. The results show that discretionary grants were awarded to...

The beauty premium in politics shows that attractive politicians are more likely to get elected to office than less attractive politicians, but little is known about whether beauty also shapes the behavior of members of parliament (MPs) once in office. We use newly collected data on the...

We investigate a case of political favoritism. Some members of the Bavarian parliament hired relatives as office employees who were paid using taxpayers' money. We examine whether being involved in the scandal influenced re-election prospects and voter turnout. The results do not show that being...

We examine moonlighting by politicians in Germany. In July 2007, the German Supreme Court adjudicated that members of parliament (MPs) have to publish details of their outside earnings. Using panel data models, we investigate how outside earnings are correlated with absence and parliamentary...