This paper studies the causal effects of graduating from university with an honors degree on subsequent earnings. While a rich body of literature has focused on estimating returns to human capital, few studies have analyzed returns at the very top of the education distribution. We highlight the...

Die Finanzbeziehungen zwischen Bund und Ländern stehen vor einer umfassenden Reform. Neben einer Neuordnung des Länderfinanzausgleichs diskutiert die Politik derzeit Finanzhilfen für strukturschwache Regionen nach dem Auslaufen des Solidarpakts sowie die Stärkung der allgemeinen Finanzkraft...

This paper studies the causal effects of graduating from university with an honors degree on subsequent earnings. While a rich body of literature has focused on estimating returns to human capital, few studies have analyzed returns at the very top of the education distribution. We highlight the...

In this short note, we use data from different elections in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia between 1975 and 2010 to show that the social democrats generally profit from higher voter turnout at the expense of the conservatives. We deal with the endogeneity of voter turnout by using...

We study political determinants of municipality amalgamations during a boundary reform in the German state of Brandenburg, which reduced the number of municipalities from 1,489 to 421. The analysis is conducted using data on the political decision makers as well as fiscal and socio-economic...

We examine the effect of citizen initiatives on finished residential area in the German federal state of Bavaria. There is already a prominent literature on the fiscal effect of initiatives and political economic reasons that drive urban development. Yet, there is almost no literature that links...

In 1990, during reunification, West German democratic institutions and the existing political party system were expanded to the East German states. Even after 25 years, the people of eastern and western Germany still differ in their political engagement and attitudes. However, these differences...

Im Jahr 1990 wurden im Zuge der Wiedervereinigung die westdeutschen demokratischen Institutionen und das bestehende Parteiensystem auf die ostdeutschen Bundesländer ausgeweitet. Auch 25 Jahre danach unterscheiden sich die Menschen in Ost- und Westdeutschland weiterhin in ihrem politischen...

In many countries, important features of municipal government (such as the electoral system, mayors' salaries, and the number of councillors) depend on whether the municipality is above or below arbitrary population thresholds. Several papers have used a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to...