We document that trust in public institutions – and particularly trust in banks, business and government – has declined over recent years. U.S. time series evidence suggests that this partly reflects the pro-cyclical nature of trust in institutions. Cross-country comparisons reveal a clear...

Comparing domestic- and foreign-owned firms in Germany, this paper finds that foreign-owned firms are more likely to focus on short-term profit. This influence is particularly strong if the local managers of the German subsidiary are not sent from the foreign parent company. Moreover, the...

In this paper we develop a new empirical approach to uncovering the impact of social attitudes on economic development. We first show that trust of second-generation Americans is significantly influenced by the country of origin of their forebears. In the spirit of the epidemiology literature,...

This paper studies aggregate dynamics in a cobweb model where learning takes place through a selection mechanism, by which more successful firms are replicated at a higher rate. The structure of the model allows to characterize analytically the aggregate dynamics, and to compute the effect on...

The citation analysis of the research output of the German economic research institutes presented here is based on publications in peer-reviewed journals listed in the Social Science Citation Index for the 2000–2009 period. The novel feature of the paper is that a count data model quantifies...

Moderne Evaluationsmethoden auf der Basis ökonometrischer Verfahren und randomisierter Feldexperimente machen es für immer mehr Politikbereiche möglich, die Wirksamkeit wirtschaftspolitischer Maßnahmen zu überprüfen. Gleichwohl sind diese Methoden in der deutschen Evaluationspraxis nicht...

Politikentscheidungen gestalten die Wohlfahrt von Nationen, aber ihre Praxis erfolgt komplexen Regeln. Evidenzbasierte Politikberatung durch Wissenschaftler will forschungsbasierten harten Fakten und Restriktionen Gewicht geben. Der Beitrag diskutiert Herausforderungen und Erfolgsbedingungen...

This guide, updated for the 2014-15 job market season, describes the U.S. academic market for new Ph.D. economists and offers advice on conducting an academic job search. It reports findings from published papers, describes practical details, and provides links to internet resources. Topics...

While policy measures affect the welfare of nations, the practice of policy advice is determined by complex rules. Evidence-based scientific policy advice gives weight to hard empirical facts and restrictions. The lecture discusses challenges and conditions for success and provides suggestions...

Academic careers in Germany have been under debate for a while. We conduct a survey among postdocs in Germany, to analyze the perceptions and attitudes of postdocs regarding their research incentives, their working conditions, and their career prospects. We conceptualize the career prospects of...