We employ laboratory methods to study stability of competitive equilibrium in Scarf's economy (International Economic Review, 1960). Tatonnement theory predicts that prices are globally unstable for this economy, i.e. unless prices start at the competitive equilibrium they oscillate without...

This present paper analyzes an energy tax reform that exempts the energy-intensive export sector from paying the energy tax and uses the additional revenue to cut existing taxes in all sectors. To that end, a two sector two factor model of an open economy that is small on the import side but not...

The present paper analyzes the consequences of a consumption tax reform for the export sector. In particular, it offers an explanation why exporters support such a reform although economic theory basically predicts trade neutrality. To this purpose, the basic neoclassical model is replaced with...

The present paper applies a theoretical two-sector three-factor model to analyze a variety of energy tax reforms with the common feature of at least partly exempting the energy-intensive export sector from the tax. As a result, all scenarios with exemptions reduce energy less than the...

A large body of experimental research has demonstrated that, on average, people violate the axioms of expected utility theory as well as of discounted utility theory. In particular, aggregate behavior is best characterized by probability distortions and hyperbolic discounting. But is it the same...

This study compares individual preferences across incentives (i.e., hypothetical vs. real incentives) and over time (i.e. elicitation at two different points in time) in a choice experiment involving charitable donating decisions. We provide evidence of hypothetical bias but little evidence of...

This paper studies the evolution of life satisfaction over the life course in Germany. It clarifies the causal interpretation of the econometric model by discussing the choice of control variables and the underidentification between age, cohort and time effects. The empirical part analyzes the...

Almost all important decisions in people’s lives entail risky and delayed consequences. Regardless of whether we make choices involving health, wealth, love or education, almost every choice involves costs and benefits that are uncertain and materialize over time. Because risk and delay often...

The British Industrial Revolution triggered a reversal in the social order of society whereby the landed elite was replaced by industrial capitalists rising from the middle classes as the economically dominant group. Many observers have linked this transformation to the contrast in values...

In recent decades, the US has experienced a widening of the college enrolment gap between rich and poor families. This is commonly interpreted as evidence for a tightening of borrowing constraints. This paper asks whether this is indeed the case. I present an incomplete-markets...