This paper investigates the determinants of inflation target credibility (ITC) using a unique survey we designed to measure the credibility of the ECB's inflation target. Containing over 200,000 responses from German consumers collected between January 2019 and November 2024, our dataset enables...

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened public awareness regarding the importance of health insurance. Several factors influencing the choice of an insurance brand include the plan value, agent characteristics, referrals, and consumer trust. Over the past five years, the use of influencers has...

Organizational politics are recognized as a ubiquitous and negative threat to knowledge sharing in organizations, yet less research has examined the boundary conditions that affect this relationship, particularly in interdependent manufacturing contexts. This article aims to explore how...

Establishing causal relationships is a core aspect of empirical economics. Borrowing ideas from the medical sciences, we propose tentative guidelines for reliable causal inferences that cover aspects related to both the study itself and its fit with the existing background knowledge. Moreover,...

We examine public trust in the European Central Bank (ECB) and its determinants using data from the Bundesbank Household Panel survey for Germany. Employing an interdisciplinary approach that integrates insights from political science and psychology, we offer a fresh perspective on the factors...

Accurate risk assessment is crucial for predicting potential financial losses. This paper introduces an innovative approach by employing expected risk models that utilize risk samples to capture comprehensive risk characteristics. The innovation lies in the integration of classical credibility...

The EU's Cohesion Policy (CP) intends to promote European economic, social, and territorial cohesion. The policy occupies about a third of the EU budget and it is the most evaluated of all EU policies. With the support of the German Ministry of Finance, two in-depth ZEW research papers by...

The cryptocurrency market offers attractive but risky investment opportunities, characterized by rapid growth, extreme volatility, and uncertainty. Traditional risk management models, which rely on probabilistic assumptions and historical data, often fail to capture the market's unique dynamics...

Research suggests that institutions affect the levels of corruption in a country. We take these arguments a step further and examine whether it is the presence of inclusive institutions and/or the credible and consistent implementation of institutions that matter, as regards corruption. We use a...

Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDE) countries are the leading destinations of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We investigate whether prudent monetary and fiscal policy through indicators that reflect the expectations concerning the central bank's commitment to a target and the...

Fiscal consolidation and the reintroduction of the WAEMU fiscal framework is crucial for maintaining debt sustainability, external viability, and financial stability. The 3 and 70 percent of GDP deficit and debt ceilings envisaged by the expired rule remain appropriate, while addressing the...

Purpose - Extending the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study investigates the impact of social media influencers (SMI) on consumer well-being (CW) as well as the influence of CW on purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach - A between-subjects experiment (macro- vs...

Borrowing ideas from the medical sciences, we propose tentative guidelines for reliable causal inferences that cover aspects related to both the study itself and its fit with background knowledge. We argue that the current paradigm in economics tends to put too much emphasis on internal aspects...

Elevated inflation can threaten the credibility of central banks and increase the risk that inflation expectations do not remain anchored. Wage-price spirals might develop in such an environment, and high inflation could become entrenched. We quantitively assess the risks of a wage-price spiral...

Monetary policy governance - how monetary policy objectives are determined, how decisions are made and who makes them - determines the quality and effectiveness of monetary policy decisions. In this paper, we examine some desirable and some adverse outcomes associated with different governance...