This paper studies the impact of immigration on public policy setting. As a natural experiment, we exploit the sudden arrival of eight million forced migrants in West Germany after World War II. These migrants were on average poorer than the West German population, but unlike most international...

We study how business taxes affect establishments' R&D activities. Relying on geocoded panel data targeting the universe of R&D-active establishments in Germany, we exploit around 7,300 changes in the local business tax rate over the period 1987-2013 for identification. Using event study...

Regionale Ungleichheiten sind ausgeprägt und persistent. Qualitativ hochwertige Regionaldaten sind notwendig, um auf Basis empirischer Analysen ein besseres Verständnis über die Ursprünge und Konsequenzen regionaler Disparitäten sowie der Wirksamkeit regionalpolitischer Maßnahmen zu...

Regional disparities are pronounced and persistent. Regional data of high quality are needed to improve the understanding of the origins and consequences of regional disparities and the effectiveness of regional policies through empirical analysis. Against the background of existing problems...

We investigate the long-run effects of government surveillance on civic capital and economic performance, studying the case of the Stasi in East Germany. Exploiting regional variation in the number of spies and administrative features of the system, we combine a border discontinuity design with...