A sunspot variable is any random variable that is not related to fundamental factors of the economy but a potential coordination device. The coordination power of sunspots has been analysed in theory and in experiments. However, some have discussed whether sunspots, e.g., public announcements...

In the context of international bargaining, standard models predict that a shift in military power can cause preventive war because it changes the relative bargaining position between states. We find that shifts in military power are not the only cause of war under commitment problems and that...

Das Papier befasst sich modelltheoretisch mit dem empirischen Phänomen des „Demokratischen Friedens“, der Beobachtung also, dass Demokratien ihre Konflikte in der Regel nicht kriegerisch lösen. Die Grundlage meiner Analyse bildet das Modell von Fearon (1995), ein Verhandlungsspiel mit 2...

We analyze the impact of occupational deregulation on the wages of licensed workers. To do so, we exploit a deregulation policy in the German craft sector that removed the master certificate as a requirement for starting a business in about half of the craft occupations. Specifically, we examine...