Simon Kuznets’ (1955) hypothesis that as a country develops, a natural cycle develops where inequality first increases, then decreases, has become known at the Kuznets curve. This pattern has also been applied to the environment, an ‘Environmental Kuznets curve’, showing that as...

In this project, we analyze whether the arts can mitigate negative impacts of social distancing and isolation on mental health and wellbeing, ease the burden of closed day-care and school facilities on families, and preserve attitudes of solidarity and trust. Using the SOEP-CoV questionnaire, we...

In this project, we analyze whether the arts can mitigate negative impacts of social distancing and isolation on mental health and wellbeing, ease the burden of closed day-care and school facilities on families, and preserve attitudes of solidarity and trust. Using the SOEP-CoV questionnaire, we...

This paper evaluates the impact of a policy that was implemented to reduce the energy intensity of firms in some manufacturing sectors in India, on the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of firms and on its components, scale efficiency and technical change. Using plant-level panel data on...

Self-attribution bias is a long-standing concept in psychology research and refers to individuals' tendency to attribute successes to personal skills and failures to factors beyond their control. Recently, this bias is also being studied in household finance research and is considered to...

Individual preferences must be evaluated to take into account the citizens' interests for public decisions. Usually, economists assess individual preferences through market decisions. But more often, public decisions impact goods without market prices. Without a market to refer to, evaluating...

While the interest in smart shopping carts is growing, both retailers and consumer groups have concerns about how real-time spending feedback will influence shopping behavior. Building on budgeting and spending theories, the authors conduct three lab and grocery store experiments, which robustly...

In this paper we explain how practice, prior knowledge and task difficulty interact to affect demand for hedonic experiences. As predicted by the human capital model, we propose that the key determinant of demand for hedonic experiences is the increase in performance efficiency that can be...

We study whether and how parents interfere paternalistically in their children's intertemporal decision-making. Based on experiments with over 2,000 members of 610 families, we find that parents anticipate their children's present bias and aim to mitigate it. Using a novel method to measure...

A growing share of the United States population uses e-cigarettes. In response, policymakers are considering regulating e-cigarettes, or have already done so, due to concerns regarding e-cigarettes' public health impact. However, there is currently little population-based evidence to inform...