Klimawandel, Verknappung der Ressourcen, peak oil, die Sorge um unsere Lebensgrundlagen und deren Erhaltung und die Notwendigkeit zur Energiewende, sind Themen, die die Transition Town Initiativen antreiben, auf eine Veränderung der bisherigen ressourcen- und energieintensiven Lebens- und...

Which impact does government size have on life satisfaction, and how do effects of bigger government differ between income groups in society? Previous studies typically employed country averages and thus neglect possibly heterogeneous happiness effects between income groups. The paper addresses...

The recent process of political and economic transformation in eastern European countries has not only contributed to the decentralisation of political structure but also significantly enhanced the fiscal autonomy of municipalities belonging to these countries. Although the degree of...

Die vorliegende Studie wurde im Auftrag der Robert Bosch Stiftung im ifo Arbeitsbereich "Sozialpolitik und Arbeitsmärkte" erstellt und im Juni 2005 abgeschlossen, um die Arbeit der von der Bosch Stiftung initiierten Kommission "Familie und demographischer Wandel" zu unterstützen. Gegenstand...

Stefanie Gäbler prepared this study while she was working at the ifo Center for Public Finance and Political Economy. The study was completed in March 2020 and accepted as doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich. It consists of six distinct empirical essays...

This dissertation consists of four essays in the economics of digital transformation and specifically considers the link between geography and digitalization in the know-ledge economy.

Even though people regularly express concern about sharing personal information online and fear a loss of privacy, their behavior seldom matches their opinions - A phenomenon called Privacy Paradox and researched for over 20 years. Several influencing factors have been identified. A central one...

Elisabeth Grewenig prepared this study while she was working at the Center for Economics of Education at the ifo Institute. The study was completed in March 2021 and accepted as doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the LMU Munich. It consists of five distinct empirical essays that...

Taking into account the potentially different starting and framework conditions of regions in different parts of the European Union, we will present a new approach for sustainability transition analysis. We hypothesise: favourable overall institutional conditions, such as a high degree of formal...

We address empirically trust as a determinant of support for government intervention. The central notion provided in the present paper is that the influence of generalized social trust on intervention attitudes is conditional on the perceived reliability, honesty, and incorruptibility of state...