@phdthesis{Wozny2019,
  author    = {Wozny, Florian},
  title     = {Three empirical essays in health economics},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-46991},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-469910},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {200},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Modern health care systems are characterized by pronounced prevention and cost-optimized treatments. This dissertation offers novel empirical evidence on how useful such measures can be. The first chapter analyzes how radiation, a main pollutant in health care, can negatively affect cognitive health. The second chapter focuses on the effect of Low Emission Zones on public heath, as air quality is the major external source of health problems. Both chapters point out potentials for preventive measures. Finally, chapter three studies how changes in treatment prices affect the reallocation of hospital resources. In the following, I briefly summarize each chapter and discuss implications for health care systems as well as other policy areas. Based on the National Educational Panel Study that is linked to data on radiation, chapter one shows that radiation can have negative long-term effects on cognitive skills, even at subclinical doses. Exploiting arguably exogenous variation in soil contamination in Germany due to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the findings show that people exposed to higher radiation perform significantly worse in cognitive tests 25 years later. Identification is ensured by abnormal rainfall within a critical period of ten days. The results show that the effect is stronger among older cohorts than younger cohorts, which is consistent with radiation accelerating cognitive decline as people get older. On average, a one-standarddeviation increase in the initial level of CS137 (around 30 chest x-rays) is associated with a decrease in the cognitive skills by 4.1 percent of a standard deviation (around 0.05 school years). Chapter one shows that sub-clinical levels of radiation can have negative consequences even after early childhood. This is of particular importance because most of the literature focuses on exposure very early in life, often during pregnancy. However, population exposed after birth is over 100 times larger. These results point to substantial external human capital costs of radiation which can be reduced by choices of medical procedures. There is a large potential for reductions because about one-third of all CT scans are assumed to be not medically justified (Brenner and Hall, 2007). If people receive unnecessary CT scans because of economic incentives, this chapter points to additional external costs of health care policies. Furthermore, the results can inform the cost-benefit trade-off for medically indicated procedures. Chapter two provides evidence about the effectiveness of Low Emission Zones. Low Emission Zones are typically justified by improvements in population health. However, there is little evidence about the potential health benefits from policy interventions aiming at improving air quality in inner-cities. The chapter ask how the coverage of Low Emission Zones air pollution and hospitalization, by exploiting variation in the roll out of Low Emission Zones in Germany. It combines information on the geographic coverage of Low Emission Zones with rich panel data on the universe of German hospitals over the period from 2006 to 2016 with precise information on hospital locations and the annual frequency of detailed diagnoses. In order to establish that our estimates of Low Emission Zones' health impacts can indeed be attributed to improvements in local air quality, we use data from Germany's official air pollution monitoring system and assign monitor locations to Low Emission Zones and test whether measures of air pollution are affected by the coverage of a Low Emission Zone. Results in chapter two confirm former results showing that the introduction of Low Emission Zones improved air quality significantly by reducing NO2 and PM10 concentrations. Furthermore, the chapter shows that hospitals which catchment areas are covered by a Low Emission Zone, diagnose significantly less air pollution related diseases, in particular by reducing the incidents of chronic diseases of the circulatory and the respiratory system. The effect is stronger before 2012, which is consistent with a general improvement in the vehicle fleet's emission standards. Depending on the disease, a one-standard-deviation increase in the coverage of a hospitals catchment area covered by a Low Emission Zone reduces the yearly number of diagnoses up to 5 percent. These findings have strong implications for policy makers. In 2015, overall costs for health care in Germany were around 340 billion euros, of which 46 billion euros for diseases of the circulatory system, making it the most expensive type of disease caused by 2.9 million cases (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2017b). Hence, reductions in the incidence of diseases of the circulatory system may directly reduce society's health care costs. Whereas chapter one and two study the demand-side in health care markets and thus preventive potential, chapter three analyzes the supply-side. By exploiting the same hospital panel data set as in chapter two, chapter three studies the effect of treatment price shocks on the reallocation of hospital resources in Germany. Starting in 2005, the implementation of the German-DRG-System led to general idiosyncratic treatment price shocks for individual hospitals. Thus far there is little evidence of the impact of general price shocks on the reallocation of hospital resources. Additionally, I add to the exiting literature by showing that price shocks can have persistent effects on hospital resources even when these shocks vanish. However, simple OLS regressions would underestimate the true effect, due to endogenous treatment price shocks. I implement a novel instrument variable strategy that exploits the exogenous variation in the number of days of snow in hospital catchment areas. A peculiarity of the reform allowed variation in days of snow to have a persistent impact on treatment prices. I find that treatment price increases lead to increases in input factors such as nursing staff, physicians and the range of treatments offered but to decreases in the treatment volume. This indicates supplier-induced demand. Furthermore, the probability of hospital mergers and privatization decreases. Structural differences in pre-treatment characteristics between hospitals enhance these effects. For instance, private and larger hospitals are more affected. IV estimates reveal that OLS results are biased towards zero in almost all dimensions because structural hospital differences are correlated with the reallocation of hospital resources. These results are important for several reasons. The G-DRG-Reform led to a persistent polarization of hospital resources, as some hospitals were exposed to treatment price increases, while others experienced reductions. If hospitals increase the treatment volume as a response to price reductions by offering unnecessary therapies, it has a negative impact on population wellbeing and public spending. However, results show a decrease in the range of treatments if prices decrease. Hospitals might specialize more, thus attracting more patients. From a policy perspective it is important to evaluate if such changes in the range of treatments jeopardize an adequate nationwide provision of treatments. Furthermore, the results show a decrease in the number of nurses and physicians if prices decrease. This could partly explain the nursing crisis in German hospitals. However, since hospitals specialize more they might be able to realize efficiency gains which justify reductions in input factors without loses in quality. Further research is necessary to provide evidence for the impact of the G-DRG-Reform on health care quality. Another important aspect are changes in the organizational structure. Many public hospitals have been privatized or merged. The findings show that this is at least partly driven by the G-DRG-Reform. This can again lead to a lack in services offered in some regions if merged hospitals specialize more or if hospitals are taken over by ecclesiastical organizations which do not provide all treatments due to moral conviction. Overall, this dissertation reveals large potential for preventive health care measures and helps to explain reallocation processes in the hospital sector if treatment prices change. Furthermore, its findings have potentially relevant implications for other areas of public policy. Chapter one identifies an effect of low dose radiation on cognitive health. As mankind is searching for new energy sources, nuclear power is becoming popular again. However, results of chapter one point to substantial costs of nuclear energy which have not been accounted yet. Chapter two finds strong evidence that air quality improvements by Low Emission Zones translate into health improvements, even at relatively low levels of air pollution. These findings may, for instance, be of relevance to design further policies targeted at air pollution such as diesel bans. As pointed out in chapter three, the implementation of DRG-Systems may have unintended side-effects on the reallocation of hospital resources. This may also apply to other providers in the health care sector such as resident doctors.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Wittbrodt2022,
  author    = {Wittbrodt, Linda},
  title     = {Minimum wage effects in Germany and Europe - four essays},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-55697},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-556977},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {viii, 184},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Am 1. Januar 2015 wurde in Deutschland ein allgemeiner gesetzlicher Mindestlohn in H{\"o}he von 8,50 € brutto pro Stunde eingef{\"u}hrt. Diese Dissertation widmet sich den Auswirkungen der Mindestlohneinf{\"u}hrung in Deutschland sowie Lohnuntergrenzen im Europ{\"a}ischen Kontext und tr{\"a}gt damit zur nationalen und internationalen Forschung bei. Das zweite Kapitel dieser Arbeit fasst die in bisherigen Studien herausgearbeiteten kurzfristigen Effekte der Mindestlohnreform in einem {\"U}berblick zusammen. Es zeigt sich, dass die Mindestlohneinf{\"u}hrung einen deutlich positiven Effekt auf die L{\"o}hne am unteren Ende der Verteilung hatte. Allerdings wies kurz nach der Reform noch ein nicht unerheblicher Anteil der Besch{\"a}ftigungsverh{\"a}ltnisse L{\"o}hne unter 8,50 € auf. Weiterhin deutet die Evidenz auf geringe negative Besch{\"a}ftigungseffekte hin, welche durch eine Reduktion von Minijobs getrieben ist. Entgegen der Erwartungen konnten jedoch in der kurzen Frist keine Effekte auf Armut und allgemeine Ungleichheit gefunden werden. Dies h{\"a}ngt insbesondere mit der Tatsache zusammen, dass Arbeitsstunden reduziert wurden und sich die Stundenlohnerh{\"o}hung daher nicht auf die Monatsl{\"o}hne niederschlug. Das dritte Kapitel geht der Frage nach, ob die im Vorfeld prognostizierten Arbeitsplatzverluste im Zuge der Reform kurzfristig eingetreten sind und welche Art der Besch{\"a}ftigung davon gegebenenfalls st{\"a}rker betroffen war. Zur empirischen Identifikation der Effekte wird in diesem (sowie im vierten Kapitel) ein regionaler Differenzen-von-Differenzen-Ansatz verwendet, mit dem die Auswirkungen auf regul{\"a}re Besch{\"a}ftigung (Teil- und Vollzeit) sowie Minijobs gesch{\"a}tzt werden. Unsere Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass der Mindestlohn die Gesamtbesch{\"a}ftigung leicht reduziert hat, was im Wesentlichen auf einen R{\"u}ckgang von Minijobs zur{\"u}ckzuf{\"u}hren ist. Das vierte Kapitel schließt methodisch an das vorige an. Seine Motivation ergibt sich aus der Beobachtung, dass Frauen unter den Niedriglohnempf{\"a}nger:innen h{\"a}ufig {\"u}berrepr{\"a}sentiert sind. Die prim{\"a}re Forschungsfrage in diesem Kapitel ist daher, ob der Mindestlohn zu einer Verringerung der geschlechterspezifischen Lohnl{\"u}cke gef{\"u}hrt hat. Dazu identifizieren wir die Effekte auf die Lohnl{\"u}cke am 10. und 25. Perzentil sowie beim Mittelwert der zugrundeliegenden geschlechtsspezifischen Lohnverteilungen. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass - verglichen mit Regionen mit niedriger Eingriffstiefe - die geschlechtsspezifische Lohnl{\"u}cke am 10. Perzentil f{\"u}r mindestlohnberechtigte Besch{\"a}ftigte in Regionen mit hoher Eingriffstiefe um 4,6 Prozentpunkte gesunken ist. Wir sch{\"a}tzen, dass dies eine Reduktion um 32\\% im Vergleich zu 2014 bedeutet. Am 25. Perzentil und am Mittelwert sind die Auswirkungen geringer und nicht gleichermaßen robust. Das f{\"u}nfte Kapitel beh{\"a}lt den geschlechterspezifischen Fokus auf die Mindestlohneffekte bei. Im Vergleich zum Rest der Dissertation weitet es jedoch den Blick auf andere L{\"a}nder der Europ{\"a}ischen Union. Gem{\"a}ß der f{\"u}r das vorangegangene Kapitel dargelegten {\"U}berlegungen, k{\"o}nnten Frauen potenziell besonders von einem Mindestlohn profitieren. Dies k{\"o}nnte jedoch auch bedeuten, dass sie dadurch auch {\"o}fter von Arbeitsplatzverlusten oder Arbeitszeitverk{\"u}rzungen betroffen sind. Dieses Kapitel res{\"u}miert daher einerseits vorhandene Evidenz aus EU-Staaten, die sich auf den Zusammenhang zwischen Lohnuntergrenzen und der geschlechtsspezifischen Lohnl{\"u}cke bezieht. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus enth{\"a}lt es eine systematische Zusammenfassung von Studien, die den Einfluss von Mindestl{\"o}hnen auf Besch{\"a}ftigungsverluste oder Arbeitszeitver{\"a}nderungen untersuchen, von denen insbesondere Frauen betroffen sind. Es zeigen sich Hinweise, dass h{\"o}here Lohnuntergrenzen mit einer geringeren geschlechtsspezifischen Lohnl{\"u}cke verbunden sind. Hinsichtlich der Besch{\"a}ftigung scheinen Frauen nicht per se gr{\"o}ßere Besch{\"a}ftigungsverluste zu erleiden als M{\"a}nner. Allerdings zeigen Studien, dass sich der Mindestlohn hier besonders auf Teilzeitbesch{\"a}ftigte auswirkt. Es ist daher nicht auszuschließen, dass der negative Zusammenhang zwischen dem Mindestlohn und dem geschlechtsspezifischen Lohngef{\"a}lle mit den Arbeitsplatzverlusten dieser schlechter bezahlten, oft weiblichen Teilzeitbesch{\"a}ftigten zusammenh{\"a}ngt. Diese spezifische Form der Arbeit sollte daher im Zusammenhang mit dem Mindestlohn besondere Beachtung finden.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Šedova2022,
  author    = {Šedov{\´a}, Barbora},
  title     = {Heterogeneous effects of weather and climate change on human migration},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-53673},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-536733},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xix, 284},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {While estimated numbers of past and future climate migrants are alarming, the growing empirical evidence suggests that the association between adverse climate-related events and migration is not universally positive. This dissertation seeks to advance our understanding of when and how climate migration emerges by analyzing heterogeneous climatic influences on migration in low- and middle-income countries. To this end, it draws on established economic theories of migration, datasets from physical and social sciences, causal inference techniques and approaches from systematic literature review. In three of its five chapters, I estimate causal effects of processes of climate change on inequality and migration in India and Sub-Saharan Africa. By employing interaction terms and by analyzing sub-samples of data, I explore how these relationships differ for various segments of the population. In the remaining two chapters, I present two systematic literature reviews. First, I undertake a comprehensive meta-regression analysis of the econometric climate migration literature to summarize general climate migration patterns and explain the conflicting findings. Second, motivated by the broad range of approaches in the field, I examine the literature from a methodological perspective to provide best practice guidelines for studying climate migration empirically. Overall, the evidence from this dissertation shows that climatic influences on human migration are highly heterogeneous. Whether adverse climate-related impacts materialize in migration depends on the socio-economic characteristics of the individual households, such as wealth, level of education, agricultural dependence or access to adaptation technologies and insurance. For instance, I show that while adverse climatic shocks are generally associated with an increase in migration in rural India, they reduce migration in the agricultural context of Sub-Saharan Africa, where the average wealth levels are much lower so that households largely cannot afford the upfront costs of moving. I find that unlike local climatic shocks which primarily enhance internal migration to cities and hence accelerate urbanization, shocks transmitted via agricultural producer prices increase migration to neighboring countries, likely due to the simultaneous decrease in real income in nearby urban areas. These findings advance our current understanding by showing when and how economic agents respond to climatic events, thus providing explicit contexts and mechanisms of climate change effects on migration in the future. The resulting collection of findings can guide policy interventions to avoid or mitigate any present and future welfare losses from climate change-related migration choices.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Ziemann2022,
  author    = {Ziemann, Niklas},
  title     = {Four essays on the role of distance for economic decision-making},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-59107},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-591073},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xii, 128},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Distances affect economic decision-making in numerous situations. The time at which we make a decision about future consumption has an impact on our consumption behavior. The spatial distance to employer, school or university impacts the place where we live and vice versa. The emotional closeness to other individuals influences our willingness to give money to them. This cumulative thesis aims to enrich the literature on the role of distance for economic decision-making. Thereby, each of my research projects sheds light on the impact of one kind of distance for efficient decision-making.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Schuetze2020,
  author    = {Sch{\"u}tze, Franziska},
  title     = {Finance for a sustainable economy},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-48441},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-484415},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {xi, 128},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {With his September 2015 speech "Breaking the tragedy of the horizon", the President of the Central Bank of England, Mark Carney, put climate change on the agenda of financial market regulators. Until then, climate change had been framed mainly as a problem of negative externalities leading to long-term economic costs, which resulted in countries trying to keep the short-term costs of climate action to a minimum. Carney argued that climate change, as well as climate policy, can also lead to short-term financial risks, potentially causing strong adjustments in asset prices. Analysing the effect of a sustainability transition on the financial sector challenges traditional economic and financial analysis and requires a much deeper understanding of the interrelations between climate policy and financial markets. This dissertation thus investigates the implications of climate policy for financial markets as well as the role of financial markets in a transition to a sustainable economy. The approach combines insights from macroeconomic and financial risk analysis. Following an introduction and classification in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 shows a macroeconomic analysis that combines ambitious climate targets (negative externality) with technological innovation (positive externality), adaptive expectations and an investment program, resulting in overall positive macroeconomic outcomes. The analysis also reveals the limitations of climate economic models in their representation of financial markets. Therefore, the subsequent part of this dissertation is concerned with the link between climate policies and financial markets. In Chapter 3, an empirical analysis of stock-market responses to the announcement of climate policy targets is performed to investigate impacts of climate policy on financial markets. Results show that 1) international climate negotiations have an effect on asset prices and 2) investors increasingly recognize transition risks in carbon-intensive investments. In Chapter 4, an analysis of equity markets and the interbank market shows that transition risks can potentially affect a large part of the equity market and that financial interconnections can amplify negative shocks. In Chapter 5, an analysis of mortgage loans shows how information on climate policy and the energy performance of buildings can be integrated into risk management and reflected in interest rates. While costs of climate action have been explored at great depth, this dissertation offers two main contributions. First, it highlights the importance of a green investment program to strengthen the macroeconomic benefits of climate action. Second, it shows different approaches on how to integrate transition risks and opportunities into financial market analysis. Anticipating potential losses and gains in the value of financial assets as early as possible can make the financial system more resilient to transition risks and can stimulate investments into the decarbonization of the economy.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{GohlGreenaway2023,
  author    = {Gohl-Greenaway, Niklas},
  title     = {Essays in public economics},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-60902},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-609026},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {10, 291},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {This cumulative dissertation uses economic theory and micro-econometric tools and evaluation methods to analyse public policies and their impact on welfare and individual behaviour. In particular, it focuses on policies in two distinct areas that represent fundamental societal challenges in the 21st century: the ageing of society and life in densely-populated urban agglomerations. Together, these areas shape important financial decisions in a person's life, impact welfare, and are driving forces behind many of the challenges in today's societies. The five self-contained research chapters of this thesis analyse the forward looking effects of pension reforms, affordable housing policies as well as a public transport subsidy and its effect on air pollution.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Obst2022,
  author    = {Obst, Cosima},
  title     = {Essays in labor economics},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-56379},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-563794},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {272},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {This thesis offers insights into the process of workers decisions to invest into work-related training. Specifically, the role of personality traits and attitudes is analysed. The aim is to understand whether such traits contribute to an under-investment into training. Importantly, general and specific training are distinguished, where the worker's productivity increases in many firms in the former and only in the current firm in the latter case. Additionally, this thesis contributes to the evaluation of the German minimum wage introduction in 2015, identifying causal effects on wages and working hours. Chapters two to four focus on the work-related training decision. First, individuals with an internal locus of control see a direct link between their own actions and their labor market success, while external individuals connect their outcomes to fate, luck, and other people. Consequently, it can be expected that internal individuals expect higher returns to training and are, thus, more willing to participate. The results reflect this hypothesis with internal individuals being more likely to participate in general (but not specific) training. Second, training can be viewed either as a risky investment or as an insurance against negative labor income shocks. In both cases, risk attitudes are expected to play a role in the decision process. The data point towards risk seeking individuals being more likely to participate in general (but not specific) training, and thus, training being viewed on average as a risky investment. Third, job satisfaction influences behavioral decisions in the job context, where dissatisfied workers may react by neglecting their duties, improving the situation or quitting the job. In the first case, dissatisfied workers are expected to invest less in training, while the latter two reactions could lead to higher participation rates amongst dissatisfied workers. The results suggest that on average dissatisfied workers are less likely to invest into training than satisfied workers. However, closer inspections of quit intentions and different sources of dissatisfaction paint less clear pictures, pointing towards the complexity of the job satisfaction construct. Chapters five and six evaluate the introduction of the minimum wage in Germany in 2015. First, in 2015 an increase in the growth of hourly wages can be identified as a causal effect of the minimum wage introduction. However, at the same time, a reduction in the weekly working hours results in an overall unchanged growth in monthly earnings. When considering the effects in 2016, the decrease in weekly working hours disappears, resulting in a significant increase in the growth of monthly earnings due to the minimum wage. Importantly, the analysis suggests that the increase in hourly wages was not sufficient to ensure all workers receiving the minimum wage. This points to non-compliance being an issue in the first years after the minimum wage introduction.},
  language  = {en}
}