Modern economies rely heavily on their infrastructure networks. These networks face threats ranging from natural disasters to human attacks. As networks are pervasive, the investments needed to protect them are very large; this motivates the study of targeted defense. What are the 'key' nodes to...

In the linear coinsurance problem, examined first by Mossin (1968), a higher absolute risk aversion with respect to wealth in the sense of Arrow-Pratt implies a higher optimal coinsurance rate. We show that this property does not hold for health insurance under ex post moral hazard; i.e., when...

Die aktuelle Finanzkrise hat es an den Tag gebracht. Die Mehrzahl der wirtschaftlichen Akteure handelt nicht in der Form rational, wie es die ökonomische Theorie erwartet, sondern nach alltagsökonomischen Faustregeln. Rational sind diese nur insoweit, als es sich nach Auffassung der Masse vor...

This paper investigates whether immigrants adapt to the attitudes of the majority population in the host country by focusing on the effect of ethnic persistence and assimilation on individual risk proclivity. Employing information from a unique representative German survey, we find that...

Die Sicherstellung von gleichen Lebenschancen ist ein Ziel, das seit vielen Jahren alle westlich geprägten demokratisch verfassten Gesellschaften teilen. Obwohl alle Bürger formal über gleiche Rechte verfügen, sind auch in Deutschland die Chancen für individuelle Lebensverläufe je nach...

For many years, securing equal life opportunities has been a normative goal shared by all democratic societies in the western world. Although, in principle, all citizens enjoy the same rights, in reality, individual life opportunities still vary according to family background which, in turn,...

This paper is the first to analyze the impact of family background on permanent earnings based on sibling correlations in Germany and to provide a cross-country comparison of Germany, Denmark, and USA. The main findings are that family and community background has a stronger influence on...

Aufgrund des noch weitgehend unausgebildeten kognitiven Vermögens kleiner Kinder müssen von ihren Eltern für sie tagtäglich größere und kleinere Entscheidungen stellvertretend getroffen werden. Die langfristigen Konsequenzen - insbesondere in der Humankapitalbildung - sind in der Regel von...

In this paper, we employ register data for eight cohorts of second-generation immigrant pupils to identify the impact of each parent's years since migration on their children's school achievements. We exploit variation in years since migration and within-family variation. We find evidence of a...