Standard program evaluations implicitly assume that individuals are perfectly informed about the considered policy change and the related institutional rules. This seems not very plausible in many contexts, as diverse examples show. However, evidence on how incomplete information affects the...

This paper investigates the role of biased health perceptions as driving forces of risky health behavior. We define absolute and relative health perception biases, illustrate their measurement in surveys and provide evidence on their relevance. Next, we decompose the theoretical effect into its...

Does introducing or abolishing a policy measure affect the eligible individuals in the same way - just with opposite signs or are the reform effects of moving to a more or less generous policy symmetric? This is an important question that standard program evaluation results cannot answer and...

Imposing benefit cuts to job seekers who do not comply with rules and requirements has become a commonly used enforcement device in unemployment insurance (UI) systems. This paper provides first estimates of how non-compliant job seekers react when confronted with a stricter enforcement regime....

Enforcing the compliance with job search obligations is a core task of conditional benefit systems like unemployment insurance (UI) or welfare. For targeted policy design, it is key to understand how the enforcement regime affects job search outcomes. This paper provides first estimates that...

Report based on a study conducted for the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Bonn 2014 (97 pages)

Wirkungsevaluationen stehen oft vor der Herausforderung, Kausalität zwischen der betrachteten neuen Politikmassnahme und den resultierenden Outcomes herzustellen. Mangelnde Vergleichbarkeit zwischen der Programmgruppe (neue Politik) und der Kontrollgruppe (Status Quo) macht oft eine kausale...

Report based on a study conducted for the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Bonn 2014 (133 pages), short overview published in: Die Volkswirtschaft, 5-2014, 52-54 (<a href="http://www.dievolkswirtschaft.ch/files/editions/201405/pdf/22_Arni_Wunsch_DE.pdf">German</a> | <a href="http://www.dievolkswirtschaft.ch/files/editions/201405/pdf/22_Arni_Wunsch_FR.pdf">French</a>)