[Einführung] Der kommunale Finanzausgleich ist ein vertikaler Ausgleich mit horizontalem Effekt. Die originären Steuerquellen der Gemeinden reichen nicht aus, um ihre Ausgaben zu finanzieren. Der Finanzausgleich dient zunächst einmal dazu, die Finanzkraft der kommunalen Ebene insgesamt so...

This thesis consists of four chapters, all of which are related to credit risk and particularly modeling of default risk. The chapters can be read independently, and the intended audience differs somewhat among them. The first chapter is methodical; the intended audience consists of...

We examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to significant gains in cognitive and socio-emotional skills among a sample of disavantaged children aged 12 to 24 months at baseline. We estimate the determinants of parents' material and time...

The extent to which like-with like marry is particularly important for inequality as well as for the outcomes of children that result from the union. In this paper we discuss approaches to the measurement of changes in assortative mating. We derive two key conditions that a well-defined measure...

We show that a common (identical across investors) irrationality in information processing can be enough to create nontrivial trade, using one of standard partial-equilibrium environments. We can attribute this trade to their common irrationality because we strip the investors and their...

This Research Paper contains a detailed documentation of the dynamic computable general equilibrium model PuMA. The model is used for analysing economic, labour market and public finance effects of different policy options, structural changes and other important policy questions. PuMA is similar...

Under simple majority voting an absolute majority of voters may choose policies that are harmful to minorities. It is the purpose of sub- and super-majority rules to protect legitimate minority interests. We study how voting rules are chosen under the veil of ignorance. In our experiment,...

I consider an environment in which the entrepreneur generates information about the quality of the projects prior to contracting with the investor. The investor faces a moral hazard problem, since the entrepreneur may divert the funding for private consumption. When the investor bargains with...