1. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. R&R, Journal of Political Economy // 2021

    Long-Term Health Insurance: Theory Meets Evidence

    To insure policyholders against contemporaneous health expenditure shocks and future reclassification risk, long-term health insurance constitutes an alternative to community-rated short-term contracts with an…

  2. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-093 // 2021

    Procuring Survival

    Public spending (i.e., “G”) enables governments to fulfill their fiscal policies. This paper takes a micro perspective and quantifies the impact of procurement spending — a specific component of G — on firm…

  3. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-092 // 2021

    Nonlinear Prices, Homogeneous Goods, Search

    We analyze competition on nonlinear prices in homogeneous goods markets with consumer search. In equilibrium firms offer two-part tariffs consisting of a linear price and lump-sum fee. The equilibrium production…

  4. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-091 // 2021

    Information Acquisition and Diffusion in Markets

    Consumers can acquire information through their own search efforts or through their social network. Information diffusion via word-of-mouth communication leads to some consumers free-riding on their “friends”…

  5. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-090 // 2021

    Truly Costly Search and Word-Of-Mouth Communication

    In markets with search frictions, consumers can acquire information about goods either through costly search or from friends via word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. How do sellers’ market power react to a very…

  6. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-089 // 2021

    Uncertain Product Availability in Search Markets

    In many markets buyers are poorly informed about which firms sell the product (product availability) and prices, and therefore have to spend time to obtain this information. In contrast, sellers typically have a…

  7. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-088 // 2021

    The Demand for Voluntary Carbon Dioxide Removal – Experimental Evidence From an Afforestation Project in Germany

    Comprehensive mitigation efforts (including all emission sources and sinks, all GHGs, and all economic sectors) are becoming ever-more important. While established methods of direct emissions avoidance must…

  8. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-087 // 2021

    Social Mobility and Economic Development

    We explore the role of social mobility as a driver of economic development. First, we map the geography of intergenerational mobility of education for 52 Latin American regions, as well as its evolution over…

  9. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-086 // 2021

    Scaling, Unwinding and Greening QE in a Calibrated Portfolio Balance Model

    We develop a portfolio balance model to analyze the impact of euro area quantitative easing (QE) on asset yields. Our model features two countries each populated by two agents representing their respective…

  10. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-085 // 2021

    Enforcement of Fiscal Rules: Lessons From the Fiscal Compact

    In 2012, 22 EU countries signed the Fiscal Compact, an intergovernmental agreement aimed at backing EU fiscal rules with national arrangements. The main objective of the Compact was to strengthen compliance.…

  11. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-084 // 2021

    Financial Constraints for R&D and Innovation: New Evidence From a Survey Experiment

    We utilize a new survey experiment to evaluate the existence and degree of financial constraints for R&D in the economy. The experiment does not only allow to deduct the presence of financial constraints, but…

  12. ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 21-083 // 2021

    Mandated Sick Pay: Coverage, Utilization, and Welfare Effects

    This paper evaluates how sick pay mandates operate at the job level in the United States. Using the National Compensation Survey and difference-in-differences models, we estimate their impact on coverage rates,…