This paper measures the causal effect of coalition vs. single-party governments on fiscal policies using a data set of 396 municipalities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the time period 1985-2004. Using a regression discontinuity design to take the endogeneity of the type of...

Proportional election systems are widespread across countries and often lead to coalition governments. This creates interest in how the form of government (single-party or coalition governments) causally influences fiscal policies. It is difficult to estimate this causal effect empirically...

Empirical work on the causal effect of government fragmentation finds diversified results. This might be explained by the fact that studies typically are settled in different institutional environments. To assess in how far the political system might shape the effects of fragmentation, this...

This paper empirically examines whether government ideology and government fragmentation have influenced the process of CO2-emission reductions in the time period 1992–2008. Using data from 19 OECD countries, I find that (1) right-wing governments are associated with emission reduction to a...

Empirical research on the causal effect of government fragmentation derives diverse results. One reason for this diversity might be that studies are typically settled in a variety of institutional environments. To assess the extent to which the local political system might shape the effects of...

This paper examines the causal effect of a change in the nomination scheme of the city manager from appointment by the local council to election by the citizens on urban development policies. Using the fact that the timing of the reform was as good as random in municipalities of the German state...

Knowing the multivariate stochastic dependence between random variables is of crucial importance for many finance applications. To check the adequacy of copula assumptions by which stochastic dependencies can be described, goodness-of-fit (gof) tests have to be carried out. These tests require...

There are several motivations for domestic policy-makers to protect food markets in the course of globalization. On the other hand, there are also theoretical arguments for why globalization should lead to less assistance to domestic farmers. By using a large cross-country data set and a dynamic...