Since the formation of Extinction Rebellion in 2018 protest groups applying similar forms of civil disobedience (CD) were founded across 12 western countries forming the A-22 network. We define CD as any non-violent act breaching the law who´s intentionality originates from maximizing reach within society while harm to particular individuals or groups is instrumental within certain constraints. Thus far, the Netherlands are the only government responding to protesters demands and committed to phase out inefficient fossil subsidies by 2025. But even when considering softer determinants of success as government response such as citizens decreasing reactance against climate policies (see Kountouri et al. 2023 & Ozden et al.,2022). The current impact of present climate crisis directed CD appears rather minor considering that 92% of authoritarian states (n=50) in which CD played a salient role between 1971 and 2004 underwent a at least partially successful democratic transition as illustrated by Karatnycky (2004). This lab-in-the-field experiment examines behavioural impacts of CD on recipients from civil society in the context of climate crisis mitigation. It thereby contributes to an economic assessment of changes in individual decision making moderated by CD. Participants play in groups of 6 in a sequential public good game in which they can contribute to a real public good CO2-emission reduction by either spending it on purchasing CO2 emission rights or donating to the german protest group Letzte Generation. The central treatment condition of the study is the participation of a protester of the Letzte Generation. Group members are being informed if they are paired with an activist. We hypothesize that contribution decisions change in the presence of a protester whereas the direction of the effect may be determined by the degree to which participants belief in counteracting narratives such as a lack of performative legitimacy, technological optimism and cynicism.

Mit der Verabschiedung des European Green Deal 2020 durch die Europäische Union wird der Nachhaltigkeit im europäischen Wirtschaftraum ein gesetzlicher Rahmen gegeben. Zielstellung ist die Umgestaltung der EU-Wirtschaft für eine nachhaltige Zukunft. Dies betrifft nicht nur Großunternehmen. Auch kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) müssen sich ihrer Verantwortung bewusst werden. Sie haben einen erheblichen Anteil an der Bruttowertschöpfung (OECD, 2021). KMU bieten rund 70 Prozent der Beschäftigungsverhältnisse (OECD, 2021). Schätzungsweise 60 Prozent der CO2 Emissionen werden durch KMU verursacht (Hillary, 2004). Im Gegensatz zu Großunternehmen gibt es in der Literatur für KMU bis dato nur wenig Ansätze, für eine nachhaltige Unternehmensgestaltung. Ansätze für Großunternehmen sind nicht auf KMU übertragbar. Um hier einen Beitrag leisten zu können, muss verstanden werden, wie KMU mit dem Themenfeld der Nachhaltigkeit umgehen. Gründe und Motive, sich nachhaltig auszurichten, sind für KMU hinlänglich bekannt. In dieser Arbeit wird die Frage gestellt, wie sich die Art der Motivation (intrinsisch vs. extrinsisch) in KMU auf die Umsetzung der Unternehmensnachhaltigkeit auswirkt. Untersucht wird die Frage anhand einer Fallstudie in KMU entlang der lebensmittelproduzierenden Wertschöpfungskette.

One potential factor contributing to the gender earnings gap is joint taxation of spouses, as it creates disincentives for the secondary earner, typically women, to work. Yet, quantifying its impact on earnings has been challenging due to the lack of exogenous variation and the interaction with traditional gender norms. We overcome these challenges by exploiting the introduction of joint taxation for existing same-sex civil partnerships in Germany in 2013. We use novel, uniquely linked, administrative income tax return data on the universe of all same-sex couples who file jointly and employ a difference-in-differences approach with different-sex couples as the control group. We find that same-sex secondary earners significantly decrease their earnings after filing taxes jointly and that the partner pay gap substantially widens.

ChatGPT disrupted the application of machine-learning methods and drastically reduced the usage barrier. Chatbots are now widely used in a lot of different situations. They provide advice, assist in writing source code, or assess and summarize information from various sources. However, their scope is not only limited to aiding humans; they can also be used to take on tasks like negotiating or bargaining. To understand the implications of Chatbot usage on bargaining situations, we conduct a laboratory experiment with the ultimatum game. In the ultimatum game, two human players interact: The receiver decides on accepting or rejecting a monetary offer from the proposer. To shed light on the new bargaining situation, we let ChatGPT provide an offer to a human player. In the novel design, we vary the wealth of the receivers. Our results indicate that humans have the same beliefs about other humans and chatbots. However, our results contradict these beliefs in an important point: Humans favor poor receivers as correctly anticipated by the humans, but ChatGPT favors rich receivers which the humans did not expect to happen. These results imply that ChatGPT’s answers are not aligned with those of humans and that humans do not anticipate this difference.

The switch from the means-tested “Erziehungsgeld” to the wage-replacing “Elterngeld” constituted a fundamental shift in family policy in Germany, at least as it pertains to parental benefits. Since its introduction in 2007 the “Elterngeld” has been reformed several times. Especially the reform introducing the “ElterngeldPlus” and “Partnerschaftsbonus” for births after the 1st of July 2015 changed the incentives for part-time employment during parental benefit receipt substantially. The explicit goals of this reform were to facilitate an earlier return to the labour market for women, increase the time fathers have with their children and promote a more equal distribution of market and domestic labour within couples. Empirical evidence on the impact of this reform is scarce, besides its potential to affect labour market outcomes of both mothers and fathers. I use a difference-in-differences estimation on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel to investigate the link between the introduction of the “ElterngeldPlus” with “Partnerschaftsbonus” and labour market outcomes from one year before to three years after the birth of the first child. Preliminary results suggest that labour market outcomes of both parents are different following the implementation of the reform, however the timing of these differences is later than predicted by initial theoretical considerations.

This study examines the question whether the deliberate decision to join a social dilemma situation leads to an increase in cooperation. Subjects receive an outside option prior to playing a repeated public goods game. Rejecting an outside option alters subjects’ beliefs regarding contributions of interaction partners. A non-credible outside option increases cooperation in the first round but might not be able to prevent the typical decaying pattern throughout the game. A credible outside option in contrast might foster sustainable cooperation throughout the game via the exclusion of free riders. In order to verify the assumption cooperative types are elicited in a first step according to Fischbacher et al. (2001).

In higher education, we can observe an increased adoption rate of large language model (LLM) tools such as ChatGPT among students. Related work shows that these tools can pass several standardized higher education exams and potentially aid students' learning efforts. While using LLM-based tools in higher education is not undisputed, the evidence shows that these tools can be “good students”. Therefore, in this research project we ask: "Are they also good teachers?”. Given the lack of studies connected to this question, we propose a research design to gather empirical evidence on whether a student's learning success within an LLM-centred lecture significantly deviates from a classical learning arrangement (RQ1). We also aim to look for a connection between learning success, and student- as well as instructor-based factors that may influence learning behaviour, depending on the learning arrangement (RQ2).

Abstract: There is a growing amount of evidence that the costs of crime for a society are large. Estimates suggest that the largest share of the costs of crime falls onto the victim side in the form of lives lost and injuries. Still, this can be expected to be an underestimate of the victim-related costs: Many of the victim costs are indirect or intangible of nature and inherently difficult to measure. While a relatively young literature in economics has made progress in understanding and measuring these costs of victimization (Bindler and Ketel, 2022) much is yet unknown. This project's goal is to add to the knowledge about adverse effects of especially violent crime on victims by concentrating on mental health outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on police data on the universe of all reported crimes as well as detailed information on mental health care provision from various sources using individual-level administrative data from New Zealand. Using an event study design with two-way fixed effects we estimate short- and long-term effects of violent crime victimization on mental health while especially considering heterogeneity with respect to the victim-offender relationship. The results suggest a relatively short-run positive effect of violent crime victimization on mental health treatment as well as a significant differences between effects for familiar and unfamiliar offenders for especially female victims.

In light of the persistent shortage of organ donations needed to save precious human lives, several countries have modified their organ donation laws by introducing an opt-out system, making every deceased a potential organ donor unless the person has objected. This study examines the impact of adopting opt-out on organ donation rates. Using a panel dataset covering a 21-year period, I apply a synthetic control approach to focus on countries that changed their prevailing organ donation legislation from opt-in to opt-out. I compare them to a synthetic counterfactual from countries that have kept their legislation the same since 1999. Synthetic control estimates show that Argentina and Wales achieved substantially higher organ donation rates with the shift from an opt-in to an opt-out system than without the reform taking place. My findings suggest that as one strategy among others, implementing opt-out cannot solve the organ shortage problem entirely but effectively contributes to reducing it considerably.