Many of real-world public-goods are characterized by a marginal per capita return (MPCR) close to zero and have to be provided by large groups. Up until now, there is almost no evidence on how large groups facing a low MPCR behave in controlled public-good laboratory experiments involving...

Um klimapolitische Maßnahmen hinsichtlich ihrer Wirkung abschätzen und bewerten zu können, ist es hilfreich, sich die wichtigsten Charakteristika des Klimaproblems noch einmal ins Gedächtnis zu rufen. Klimapolitik zu betreiben bedeutet, ein global öffentliches Gut zur Verfügung zu stellen....

We use the differences between life satisfaction and emotional well-being of employed and unemployed persons to analyze how a person’s employment status affects cognitive well-being. Our results show that unemployment has a negative impact on cognitive, but not on affective well-being, which...

We use a controlled laboratory experiment with and without overlapping generations to study the emergence of public debt. Public debt is chosen by popular vote, pays for public goods, and is repaid with general taxes. With a single generation, public debt is accumulated prudently, never leading...

In a recent paper Konrad and Thum (2014) present a model that shows that unilateral pre-commitment reduces the likelihood of agreement in bilateral negotiations over the provision of a public good when parties have private information over their contribution costs. We test the model in a...

The dynamics of behavior observed in standard public-good experiments can be explained by imperfect conditional cooperation combined with social learning (Fischbacher and Gächter, 2010). But it is unclear what determines first-round contributions. We argue that first-round contributions depend...

After the Fukushima accident, the German government decided to change the energy system in a dramatic way (the energy transition). The core of this project is the transition from a fossil fuel based system to a system that relies heavily on the use of renewable energies. In this paper, it is...

Experiments on sequential bargaining have shown that subjects' behavior is far from the equilibrium prediction. Whereas previous models explain these deviations by some kind of social preferences, we investigate an alternative interpretation of behavior based on the assumption of bounded...