@techreport{MargaryanSaniterSchumannetal.2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Margaryan, Shushanik and Saniter, Nils and Schumann, Mathias and Siedler, Thomas}, title = {Do internships pay off?}, series = {Journal of human resources}, volume = {57}, journal = {Journal of human resources}, number = {4}, publisher = {University of Wisconsin Press}, address = {Madison}, issn = {0022-166X}, doi = {10.3368/jhr.57.4.0418-9460R2}, pages = {1242 -- 1275}, year = {2022}, abstract = {We study the causal effect of student internship experience in firms on earnings later in life. We use mandatory firm internships at German universities as an instrument for doing a firm internship while attending university. Employing longitudinal data from graduate surveys, we find positive and significant earnings returns of about 6 percent in both ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IV) regressions. The positive returns are particularly pronounced for individuals and areas of study that are characterized by a weak labor market orientation. The empirical findings show that graduates who completed a firm internship face a lower risk of unemployment during the first year of their careers, suggesting a smoother transition to the labor market.}, language = {en} } @techreport{SteckelMissbachOhlendorfetal.2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Steckel, Jan Christoph and Missbach, Leonard and Ohlendorf, Nils and Feindt, Simon and Kalkuhl, Matthias}, title = {Effects of the energy price crisis on European households}, publisher = {Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) gGmbH}, address = {Berlin}, pages = {30}, year = {2022}, language = {en} } @techreport{KalkuhlFlachslandKnopfetal.2022, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Kalkuhl, Matthias and Flachsland, Christian and Knopf, Brigitte and Amberg, Maximilian and Bergmann, Tobias and Kellner, Maximilian and St{\"u}ber, Sophia and Haywood, Luke and Roolfs, Christina and Edenhofer, Ottmar}, title = {Effects of the energy price crisis on households in Germany}, publisher = {Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) gGmbH}, address = {Berlin}, pages = {35}, year = {2022}, language = {en} } @techreport{BruttelGuethHertwigetal.2020, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Bruttel, Lisa Verena and G{\"u}th, Werner and Hertwig, Ralph and Orland, Andreas}, title = {Do people harness deliberate ignorance to avoid envy and its detrimental effects?}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {17}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-44446}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-444463}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Envy is an unpleasant emotion. If individuals anticipate that comparing their payoff with the (potentially higher) payoff of others will make them envious, they may want to actively avoid information about other people's payoffs. Given the opportunity to reduce another person's payoff, an individual's envy may trigger behavior that is detrimental to welfare. In this case, if individuals anticipate that they will react in a welfare-reducing way, they may also avoid information about other people's payoffs from the outset. We investigated these two hypotheses using three experiments. We found that 13\% of our potentially envious subjects avoided information when they did not have the opportunity to reduce another participant's payoff. Psychological scales do not explain this behavior. We also found that voluntarily uninformed subjects did neither deduct less of the payoff nor less frequently than subjects who could not avoid the information.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoFossenKritikos2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Fossen, Frank M. and Kritikos, Alexander}, title = {What Makes an Employer?}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {13}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43736}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-437360}, year = {2019}, abstract = {As the policy debate on entrepreneurship increasingly centers on firm growth in terms of job creation, it is important to better understand which variables influence the first hiring decision and which ones influence the subsequent survival as an employer. Using the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP), we analyze what role individual characteristics of entrepreneurs play in sustainable job creation. While human and social capital variables positively influence the hiring decision and the survival as an employer in the same direction, we show that none of the personality traits affect the two outcomes in the same way. Some traits are only relevant for survival as an employer but do not influence the hiring decision, other traits even unfold a revolving door effect, in the sense that employers tend to fail due to the same characteristics that positively influenced their hiring decision.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoKuennWeissenberger2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and K{\"u}nn, Steffen and Weißenberger, Martin}, title = {Catching up or Lagging Behind?}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {12}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43701}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-437012}, year = {2019}, abstract = {From an active labor market policy perspective, start-up subsidies for unemployed individuals are very effective in improving long-term labor market outcomes for participants. From a business perspective, however, the assessment of these public programs is less clear since they might attract individuals with low entrepreneurial abilities and produce businesses with low survival rates and little contribution to job creation, economic growth, and innovation. In this paper, we use a rich data set to compare participants of a German start-up subsidy program for unemployed individuals to a group of regular founders who started from nonunemployment and did not receive the subsidy. The data allows us to analyze their business performance up until 40 months after business formation. We find that formerly subsidized founders lag behind not only in survival and job creation, but especially also in innovation activities. The gaps in these business outcomes are relatively constant or even widening over time. Hence, we do not see any indication of catching up in the longer run. While the gap in survival can be entirely explained by initial differences in observable start-up characteristics, the gap in business development remains and seems to be the result of restricted access to capital as well as differential business strategies and dynamics. Considering these conflicting results for the assessment of the subsidy program from an ALMP and business perspective, policy makers need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of such a strategy to find the right policy mix.}, language = {en} } @techreport{CaliendoGoethnerWeissenberger2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Goethner, Maximilian and Weißenberger, Martin}, title = {Entrepreneurial Persistence Beyond Survival: Measurement and Determinants}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {11}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43456}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-434563}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Entrepreneurial persistence is demonstrated by an entrepreneur's continued positive maintenance of entrepreneurial motivation and constantly-renewed active engagement in a new business venture despite counter forces or enticing alternatives. It is thus a crucial factor for entrepreneurs when pursuing and exploiting their business opportunities and to realize potential economic gains and benefits. Using rich data on a representative sample of German business founders, we investigate the determinants of entrepreneurial persistence. Next to observed survival we also construct a hybrid persistence measure capturing also the motivational dimension of persistence. We analyze the influence of individual-level (human capital and personality) and business-related characteristics on both measures as well as their relative importance. We find that the two indicators emphasize different aspects of persistence. For the survival indicator, the predictive power is concentrated in business characteristics and human capital, while for hybrid persistence, the dominant factors are business characteristics and personality. Finally, we show that results are heterogeneous across subgroups. In particular, formerly-unemployed founders do not differ in survival chances, but they are more likely to lack a high psychological commitment to their business ventures.}, language = {en} } @techreport{BruttelFelgendreherGuethetal.2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Bruttel, Lisa Verena and Felgendreher, Simon and G{\"u}th, Werner and Hertwig, Ralph}, title = {Strategic ignorance in repeated prisoners' dilemma experiments and its effects on the dynamics of voluntary cooperation}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {10}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43188}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-431881}, pages = {30}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Being ignorant of key aspects of a strategic interaction can represent an advantage rather than a handicap. We study one particular context in which ignorance can be beneficial: iterated strategic interactions in which voluntary cooperation may be sustained into the final round if players voluntarily forego knowledge about the time horizon. We experimentally examine this option to remain ignorant about the time horizon in a finitely repeated two-person prisoners' dilemma game. We confirm that pairs without horizon knowledge avoid the drop in cooperation that otherwise occurs toward the end of the game. However, this effect is superposed by cooperation declining more rapidly in pairs without horizon knowledge during the middle phase of the game, especially if players do not know that the other player also wanted to remain ignorant of the time horizon.}, language = {en} } @techreport{BorckSchrauth2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Borck, Rainald and Schrauth, Philipp}, title = {Population density and urban air quality}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {8}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-42771}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-427719}, pages = {53}, year = {2019}, abstract = {We use panel data from Germany to analyze the effect of population density on urban air pollution (nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and ozone). To address unobserved heterogeneity and omitted variables, we present long difference/fixed effects estimates and instrumental variables estimates, using historical population and soil quality as instruments. Our preferred estimates imply that a one-standard deviation increase in population density increases air pollution by 3-12\%.}, language = {en} } @techreport{BruttelNithammerStolley2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Bruttel, Lisa Verena and Nithammer, Juri and Stolley, Florian}, title = {"Thanks in Advance"}, series = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, journal = {CEPA Discussion Papers}, number = {7}, issn = {2628-653X}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-42770}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-427706}, pages = {18}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This paper studies the effect of the commonly used phrase "thanks in advance" on compliance with a small request. In a controlled laboratory experiment we ask participants to give a detailed answer to an open question. The treatment variable is whether or not they see the phrase "thanks in advance." Our participants react to the treatment by exerting less effort in answering the request even though they perceive the phrase as polite.}, language = {en} }