This study analyses the stringency of EU environmental regulations. Contrary to the proposition of an economic -trading up- of standards, the positive theory of environmental federalism which is developed allows for an examination of political mechanisms and the effects of regulation. Empirical...

With the advent of big data in economics machine learning algorithms become more and more appealing to economists. Despite some attempts of establishing artificial neural networks in in the early 1990s, only little is known about their ability of estimating causal effects in policy evaluation....