Demographisch gegliederte Nachfragesysteme modellieren Unterschiede im Verbrauch verschiedener Verbrauchergruppen bzw. Haushaltstypen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird untersucht, welche Nachfragesysteme einerseits die Restriktionen der neoklassischen Nachfragetheorie erfüllen und andererseits...

Die Eigenschaften moderner Konsumgüter sind für die Konsumenten oft schwer einzuschätzen. Die Folgen sind Qualitätsunsicherheit und fehlerhafte Bewertungen der von den Produkten ausgehenden Gefahren. Informationsprobleme können ein "Marktversagen" begründen. -- Von den Autoren ist...

Fungibility of money is a central principle in economics. It implies that any unit of money is substitutable for another and that the composition of income is irrelevant for consumption. We find in a field experiment that even in a simple, incentivized setup many subjects do not treat money as...

In Germany, employees are generally obliged to participate in the public health insurance system, where coverage is universal, co-payments and deductibles are moderate, and premia are based on income. However, they may buy private insurance instead if their income exceeds the compulsory...

This paper investigates the short-term effects of public smoking bans on individual smoking behavior. In 2007 and 2008, state-level smoking bans were gradually introduced in all of Germany's sixteen federal states. We exploit this variation in the timing of state bans to identify the effect that...

This paper provides field evidence on (a) how price framing affects consumers' decision to switch health insurance plans and (b) how the price elasticity of demand for health insurance can be influenced by policymakers through simple regulatory efforts. In 2009, in order to foster competition...

This paper develops a conceptual framework that can explain why economic development goes along with increases in body weight and obesity rates. We first introduce the concept of novelty consumption, which refers to an increase in food availability due to trade or innovation. Then we study how...

This paper proposes a novel approach to explore the relationship between cultural participation and subjective well-being. While most empirical research has considered such a connection using cultural and leisure activities individually or in additive terms, drawing from the sociological...

This paper analyses the relationship between locus of control (LOC) and the demand for supplementary health insurance. Drawing on longitudinal data from Germany, we find robust evidence that individuals having an internal LOC are more likely to take up supplementary private health insurance...