Our paper empirically considers two general hypotheses related to the literature of behavioral economics. First, we test the null hypothesis that individuals behave, on average, in a manner more consistent with the rational expectations hypothesis than with the idea of self-control in the face...

This paper studies whether anomalies in consumption can be explained by a behavioral model in which agents make predictable errors in forecasting income. We use a micro-data set containing subjective expectations about future income. The paper shows that, the null hypothesis of rational...

This article tests the thesis of supply-induced demand in the German hospital sector. The empirical investigation described makes use of comprehensive data and represents the first time this has been done for Germany. A cross-section analysis is performed at the level of geographical planning...

The strict separation between the ambulatory and hospital sectors of the German health system has been the subject of massive criticism on the grounds that it is (one of the factors) responsible for inefficiencies. This article describes an empirical study of the relationship between service...

Die Untersuchung analysiert die Sparneigung der im Sozio-oekonomischen Panel befragten Personen bzw. Haushalte in Bezug auf Erbschaften und Schenkungen. Ausgangspunkt sind Querschnittsregressionen, die den Vermögensbestand in 2002 durch das Lebenszeiteinkommen und in der Vergangenheit erhaltene...

A method of testing the relative importance for consumption of full insurance behaviour and changes in income is proposed and estimated using data across Canadian provinces. The focus of the estimation is less on whether or not the full insurance model can be rejected than on how much each of...

Text messaging has become an important revenue component for European and Asian mobile operators. We develop a simple model of demand for mobile services incorporating the existence of call externalities and network effects. We show that when incoming messages and calls stimulate outgoing...

Female 'empowerment' has increasingly become a policy goal, both as an end to itself and as a means to achieving other development goals. Microfinance in particular has often been argued, but not without controversy, to be a tool for empowering women. Here, using a randomized controlled trial,...

A Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) in the health-care sector is used to test the loss aversion theory that is derived from reference-dependent preferences: The absolute subjective value of a deviation from a reference point is generally greater when the deviation represents a loss than when the...

We investigate the theoretical possibility and empirical regularity of two troublesome anomalies that frequently arise when cross-price elasticities are estimated for a set of brands expected to be substitutes. These anomalies are the occurrence of: (a) negatively signed cross-elasticities; and...