This paper provides an analytical framework and uses data from the US and Germany to test for the existence of contagious presenteeism and negative externalities in sickness insurance schemes. The first part exploits high-frequency Google Flu data and the staggered implementation of U.S. sick...

This paper develops an approach to measuring the intensity of competition in international markets. The method measures the degree of 'outside' competition faced by exporters located in one source country from firms located outside the source country. We use the elasticity of price and quantity...

It is well documented that retail prices in Japan are higher than in other countries for similar products. The two main competing explanations for this finding are: (1) a relatively high degree of discriminatory practices against imports and (2) relatively high distribution costs associated with...

The theoretical literature on pricing-to-market has identified two possible reasons why the elasticity of prices to exchange rate changes may be asymmetric across appreciations and depreciations. If firms are attempting to increase market shares in foreign markets subject to the possibility of...

This paper reviews the recent literature on pass-through and pricing-to-market. Pricing-to market behavior is estimated for a new, larger data set with 60 German and 20 U.S. 7-digit industries. The results conform closely to what has been found elsewhere in smaller detailed data sets and at...

This paper measures the degree of price discrimination across export destinations that is associated with exchange rate changes using U.S., U.K., German and Japanese industry-level data. Given the industries sampled more price discrimination across destinations is observed in the U.K., German...

We study theoretically and empirically how consumers in an individual private long-term health insurance market with front-loaded contracts respond to newly mandated portability requirements of their old-age provisions. To foster competition, effective 2009, German legislature made the...

Using a randomized field experiment, we show that health care specialists cream-skim patients by their expected profitability. In the German two-tier system, outpatient reimbursement rates for both public and private insurance are centrally determined but are significantly higher for the...

We study a fundamental reform of the public Disability Insurance (DI) system in Germany. Effective 2001, cohorts born after 1960 are no longer eligible for "occupational DI." Occupational DI (ODI) implies benefit eligibility when health shocks prevent employees from working in their previous...