Sorting of people on the labor market not only assures the most productive use of valuableskills but also generates individual utility gains if people experience an optimal match betweenjob characteristics and their preferences. Based on individual data on subjective well-being it ispossible to...

Many countries are forging ahead with convenient balloting methods, in particularelectronic and postal voting, in order to re-engage voters. In this paper, we test whether thecost reductions with postal voting increase turnout. The empirical analysis is based on anewly collected data set on the...

Volunteering constitutes one of the most important pro-social activities. FollowingAristotle, helping others is the way to higher individual well-being. This view contrasts with theselfish utility maximizer who avoids costs from helping others. The two rival views are studiedempirically. We find...

In many countries environmental policies and regulations are implemented to improveenvironmental quality and thus individuals’ well-being. However, how do individuals valuethe environment? In this paper, we review the Life Satisfaction Approach (LSA) representinga new non-market valuation...

Over the last decades, empirical research on subjective well-being in the socialsciences has provided a major new stimulus to the discourse on individual happiness.Recently this research has also been linked to economics where reported subjective wellbeingis often taken as a proxy measure for...

Camera surveillance has recently gained prominence in policy proposals on combatingterrorism. We evaluate this instrument of counterterrorism as resting on the premise of adeterrence effect. Based on comparative arguments and previous evidence on crime, weexpect camera surveillance to have a...

Im vorliegenden kurzen Beitrag diskutieren wir Fragestellungen, die bei der Bewertungdieser sicherheitspolitischen Entwicklung Eingang finden sollten. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist dieDarstellung von theoretischen Argumenten und empirischen Erkenntnissen, welche es unteranderem bei der Planung und...

This paper addresses the personal linkages between the public administration and the legislaturethat emerge because public servants pursue a political mandate. There are concernsthat the strong representation of bureaucrats in many Western parliaments compromises theconstitutionally proposed...

A framework is proposed for organizing phenomena related to the (mis)predictionof utility, in particular neglecting adaptation. A categorization is introduced that accounts forasymmetries in misprediction. In decision-making, goods and activities satisfying extrinsicdesires are more salient than...

‘Happiness Research’ has attracted a great deal of attention in the social sciences as well as inthe general public. This is reflected by a massive increase in the amount of scholarly work onpeople’s subjective well-being1 and the frequent featuring of happiness research in the media.The...