Agents compete to acquire a limited economic opportunity of uncertain pro…tability.Each agent decides how much he acquires public signals before making investmentunder fear of preemption. I show that equilibria have various levels of e¢ ciency undermild competition. The e¤ect of competition...

This paper provides unheard direct evidence that comparisons exert a significant effect onsubjective well-being. It also evaluates the relative importance of different types ofbenchmarks...

Our econometric research allows for a possible response of a person's hours worked tohours typically worked by members of a multidimensional labor market reference group thatconsiders demographics and geographic location...

In public good provision, privileged groups enjoy the advantage that some of its membersfind it optimal to supply a positive amount of the public good. However, their inherentasymmetric nature may make the enforcement of cooperative behavior through informalsanctioning harder to accomplish...

This paper explores the identity formation of a cohort of students with immigrant backgroundsin Sweden and the consequences of identity for subsequent labor market outcomes. Uniquefor this study is that identity is defined according to a two-dimensional acculturationframework based on both...

Am Abend des 30. Oktober 1938 löste eine Radiosendung in den USA eine Massenhysterie aus (vgl. Wells 1974: 342). Das Hörspiel Krieg der Welten wurde von ca. sechs Millionen Menschen verfolgt, zwei Millionen von ihnen glaubten, die Sendung basiere auf aktuellen Geschehnissen. Die darauf...

Universities and public research organisations play a vital role not only in thegeneration of new technological knowledge, but also in its diffusion. We analyse fourEast German local networks of innovators which differ in structure and innovativeperformance and investigate the characteristic...

Communication is at the center of any business transaction. Unfortunately until recently, communication has rarely been assigned its proper relevance in traditional business studies at German universities. This paper attempts to demonstrate why communication science can and should be an integral...

The measurement of social norms plays a pivotal role in many social sciences.While economists predominantly conduct experiments, sociologistsrather employ (factorial) surveys. Both methods, however, suer from distinctweaknesses. Experiments, on the one hand, often fall short in themeasurement of...

In line with the widely applied principle of just deserts, we assume that the severityof the penalty on a contract offender increases in the harm on the other. Whenthis principle holds, the influence of the efficiency of the agreement on the incentivesto abide by it crucially depends on whether...