This dissertation consists of six self-contained chapters that are related to the behavior of firms and politicians in a broader sense. After an introduction to the topic, the first part of the dissertation elaborates on how institutional and political framework conditions influence the behavior...

Heterogenität von Umweltbedingungen gilt als einer der wichtigsten Faktoren für die Verteilung von Artenreichtum weltweit. Laut der Habitatheterogenität-Hypothese bieten räumlich heterogenere Gebiete eine höhere Vielfalt an Umweltparametern und weisen mehr Refugien und Möglichkeiten zur...

This study was prepared by Nadine Fabritz while she was working at the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in the Department for Human Capital and Innovation. It was completed in June 2014 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich in October...

This dissertation investigates empirically the consequences of recent fiscal policy changes on China?s rural development. It uses a county-level dataset covering over 90 percent of rural counties and a period of 13 years since 1993, in which China started to experience a series of fiscal reforms...

This thesis is a collection of four stand-alone essays on international competition for human capital, together with a general introduction and some concluding remarks. The first essay deals with decentralized public education and human capital mobility. The international mobility of...