This contribution introduces a new direct measure of political media bias by analyzing articles and newscasts with respect to the tonality on political parties and politicians. On this basis we develop an index sorting the media in the political left to right spectrum. We apply the index to...

Recent experience shows that under certain conditions it can be assumed that de-mand for luxury goods is partly abnormal. To tackle the problem whether they can and should be taxed we (a) show that a positive slope of demand is possible by distinguishing snob and network benefits, (b)...

In economic literature comparisons between the American and German Council of Economic Advisors lead to the result that the American Council works quite well, whereas the German Council is broadly criticised. Taking a closer look these conclusions are disputable. Therefore, in this contribution...

The (socio-)psychological concepts of individual aspiration for conformity and consistency are integrated into the rational-choice framework. By using this integrative approach it is shown that after a shock the aspiration for conformity results in an equilibrium which deviates from the homo...

Bei aller Hysterie, die sich an Begriffen wie ?Klimakatastrophe? festmachen lässt und die aktuell fast schon zu Bestandteilen des Glaubensbekenntnis mutieren, ist es für Ökonomen, die sich mit Umwelt und Umweltgütern beschäftigen, umso wichtiger, nüchtern, abgewogen und rational zu...

Political reforms can be understood as the reconfiguration of formal institutions. The rational choice of formal institutions is the core topic of the New Institutional Economics research program. While bounded rationality is a core assumption of the New Institutional Economics and the reason...

Conspicuous consumption of luxuries plays a central role in the work of Thorstein B. Veblen. More recently, interpersonal effects have emerged as an important factor in consumption theory. However, the inadequate modelling of individuals' interaction often leads to questionable results with...

This contribution provides a game theoretical derivation of market demand as a function of the level and distribution of income in the considered economy: if (i) the price is low, everyone buys the good; if (ii ) the price is high, only the rich buy the good (a status good in a narrow sense). If...

We investigate if four leading, electronic news gathering organizations in the US - ABC News, CBS News, FOX News, and NBC News - fulfill their role as the fourth estate in the US democracy. Our analysis, using the Political Coverage Index (PCI) introduced by Dewenter et al (2020), is based on...