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.
{"title":"“Thanks in advance” – The negative effect of a polite phrase on compliance with a request","authors":"Lisa V. Bruttel, Juri Nithammer, Florian Stolley","doi":"10.1515/ger-2021-0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2021-0020","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":46476,"journal":{"name":"German Economic Review","volume":"88 1","pages":"61 - 78"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79443842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract We examine the timing of a business investment providing valuable external benefits to society. A surge in uncertainty about private returns, a typical feature if not a cause of recessions, delays capital outlays to an extent that may be detrimental to social welfare. Is there an efficiency-improving public policy directed at accelerating investment? By real option analysis, we try answering this question by comparing three fiscal policies: (i) a simple subsidy on investment, (ii) a balanced-budget fiscal stimulus where the subsidy is subsequently covered by profit taxation, and (iii) by taxing external benefits as well. We show that, under a balanced-budget stimulus, investment acceleration may come at the expense of a net economic loss, and the higher is uncertainty on private returns, the higher the likehood of a negative outcome. However, this risk strongly declines when government spending is balanced by taxing both private and public returns on investment.
{"title":"Do balanced-budget fiscal stimuli of investment increase its economic value?","authors":"C. Dosi, M. Moretto, R. Tamborini","doi":"10.1515/ger-2020-0059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2020-0059","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We examine the timing of a business investment providing valuable external benefits to society. A surge in uncertainty about private returns, a typical feature if not a cause of recessions, delays capital outlays to an extent that may be detrimental to social welfare. Is there an efficiency-improving public policy directed at accelerating investment? By real option analysis, we try answering this question by comparing three fiscal policies: (i) a simple subsidy on investment, (ii) a balanced-budget fiscal stimulus where the subsidy is subsequently covered by profit taxation, and (iii) by taxing external benefits as well. We show that, under a balanced-budget stimulus, investment acceleration may come at the expense of a net economic loss, and the higher is uncertainty on private returns, the higher the likehood of a negative outcome. However, this risk strongly declines when government spending is balanced by taxing both private and public returns on investment.","PeriodicalId":46476,"journal":{"name":"German Economic Review","volume":"34 1","pages":"157 - 179"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90112241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract We present an uncertainty measure that is based on a business survey in which uncertainty is captured directly by a qualitative question on subjective uncertainty regarding expectations. Uncertainty perceptions display persistence at the firm level and changes are associated with past business assessments and expectations. While our uncertainty measure correlates with commonly used alternatives, it is superior in forecasting and suggests a larger role of uncertainty shocks for aggregate fluctuations. Its informational content is highest when considering smaller firms or firms with a low growth rate. Our results confirm the feasibility of constructing uncertainty measures from business survey questions that elicit information on uncertainty of respondents directly.
{"title":"A direct measure of subjective business uncertainty","authors":"C. Glocker, Werner Hölzl","doi":"10.1515/ger-2021-0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2021-0025","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We present an uncertainty measure that is based on a business survey in which uncertainty is captured directly by a qualitative question on subjective uncertainty regarding expectations. Uncertainty perceptions display persistence at the firm level and changes are associated with past business assessments and expectations. While our uncertainty measure correlates with commonly used alternatives, it is superior in forecasting and suggests a larger role of uncertainty shocks for aggregate fluctuations. Its informational content is highest when considering smaller firms or firms with a low growth rate. Our results confirm the feasibility of constructing uncertainty measures from business survey questions that elicit information on uncertainty of respondents directly.","PeriodicalId":46476,"journal":{"name":"German Economic Review","volume":"51 1","pages":"121 - 155"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86829037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The Austrian ski resort of Ischgl is commonly claimed to be ground zero for the diffusion of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the first wave of infections experienced by Germany. Drawing on data for 401 German counties, we find that conditional on geographical latitude and testing behavior by health authorities, road distance to Ischgl is indeed an important predictor of infection cases, but – in line with expectations – not of fatality rates. Were all German counties located as far from Ischgl as the most distant county of Vorpommern-Rügen, Germany would have seen about 45 % fewer COVID-19 cases. A simple diffusion model predicts that the absolute value of the distance-to-Ischgl elasticity should fall over time when inter- and intra-county mobility are unrestricted. We test this hypothesis and conclude that the German lockdown measures have halted the spread of the virus.
{"title":"Après-ski: The spread of coronavirus from Ischgl through Germany","authors":"Gabriel Felbermayr, Julian Hinz, Sonali Chowdhry","doi":"10.1515/ger-2020-0063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2020-0063","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Austrian ski resort of Ischgl is commonly claimed to be ground zero for the diffusion of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the first wave of infections experienced by Germany. Drawing on data for 401 German counties, we find that conditional on geographical latitude and testing behavior by health authorities, road distance to Ischgl is indeed an important predictor of infection cases, but – in line with expectations – not of fatality rates. Were all German counties located as far from Ischgl as the most distant county of Vorpommern-Rügen, Germany would have seen about 45 % fewer COVID-19 cases. A simple diffusion model predicts that the absolute value of the distance-to-Ischgl elasticity should fall over time when inter- and intra-county mobility are unrestricted. We test this hypothesis and conclude that the German lockdown measures have halted the spread of the virus.","PeriodicalId":46476,"journal":{"name":"German Economic Review","volume":"92 1","pages":"415 - 446"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85845588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Around the world, policy makers and public authorities are increasingly turning to behaviorally informed interventions (“nudges”) in order to help tackle important contexts of public policy. Despite their impressive merit record, these policy tools have been heavily criticized as being obscure and manipulative, thus facing challenges for their legitimate assertion in the regulatory toolkit. In this study, we seek to assess whether transparency over the use of such interventions may constitute a viable way of addressing these ethical concerns, and focus particularly on the potentially moderating role of something we call “status quo experience”, i. e. subjects’ understanding of the behavioral consequences of different choice architectures. We conduct a laboratory experiment, whereby subjects play three rounds of a public good game, the first of which defaults them towards a fully non-cooperative contribution, while the rest default them towards a fully cooperative one. Subjects in our treatment groups further receive an “informational shock” at varying points in time, disclosing how and why a fully cooperative default contribution is being used. We find that providing subjects with informational disclosure about the nudge intervention did not result in significantly different aggregate behavioral measurements between control and treatment groups. This seems to be independent of status quo experience and of the timing of transparency provision. We nonetheless find some indication that the latter could help sustain cooperation over time.
{"title":"Nudging openly – An experimental analysis of nudge transparency in a public goods setting","authors":"Erika Große Hokamp, Joachim Weimann","doi":"10.1515/ger-2019-076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2019-076","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Around the world, policy makers and public authorities are increasingly turning to behaviorally informed interventions (“nudges”) in order to help tackle important contexts of public policy. Despite their impressive merit record, these policy tools have been heavily criticized as being obscure and manipulative, thus facing challenges for their legitimate assertion in the regulatory toolkit. In this study, we seek to assess whether transparency over the use of such interventions may constitute a viable way of addressing these ethical concerns, and focus particularly on the potentially moderating role of something we call “status quo experience”, i. e. subjects’ understanding of the behavioral consequences of different choice architectures. We conduct a laboratory experiment, whereby subjects play three rounds of a public good game, the first of which defaults them towards a fully non-cooperative contribution, while the rest default them towards a fully cooperative one. Subjects in our treatment groups further receive an “informational shock” at varying points in time, disclosing how and why a fully cooperative default contribution is being used. We find that providing subjects with informational disclosure about the nudge intervention did not result in significantly different aggregate behavioral measurements between control and treatment groups. This seems to be independent of status quo experience and of the timing of transparency provision. We nonetheless find some indication that the latter could help sustain cooperation over time.","PeriodicalId":46476,"journal":{"name":"German Economic Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"1 - 19"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91376717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Empirically, revenues of public pension systems are more volatile than expenditures. Therefore, the question arises how the social security authority should buffer its revenues and adjust its contributions over the business cycle. This paper studies the corresponding effects on the life cycle of households and the business cycle in a large-scale overlapping generations model. In particular, the labor supply is endogenous and takes the intertemporal links between contributions and pension benefits into account. Sluggish adjustments of contribution rates that are implemented by adjusting a financial buffer stock both stabilize an economy and decrease the volatility of lifetime utilities of most workers and retirees, in contrast to sole adjustments of contribution rates. However, changes of consumption, capital income, or lump sum taxes, which aim to balance public pension budgets, improve the allocation of aggregate risk across cohorts for people up to an age of at least 71 years.
{"title":"The effects of financing rules in pay-as-you-go pension systems on the life and the business cycle","authors":"Christian Scharrer","doi":"10.1515/ger-2020-0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2020-0037","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Empirically, revenues of public pension systems are more volatile than expenditures. Therefore, the question arises how the social security authority should buffer its revenues and adjust its contributions over the business cycle. This paper studies the corresponding effects on the life cycle of households and the business cycle in a large-scale overlapping generations model. In particular, the labor supply is endogenous and takes the intertemporal links between contributions and pension benefits into account. Sluggish adjustments of contribution rates that are implemented by adjusting a financial buffer stock both stabilize an economy and decrease the volatility of lifetime utilities of most workers and retirees, in contrast to sole adjustments of contribution rates. However, changes of consumption, capital income, or lump sum taxes, which aim to balance public pension budgets, improve the allocation of aggregate risk across cohorts for people up to an age of at least 71 years.","PeriodicalId":46476,"journal":{"name":"German Economic Review","volume":"34 1","pages":"489 - 511"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81982336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract A growing body of literature highlights the importance of financial literacy in affecting household choices. However, much fewer studies focus on understanding the determinants of different levels of financial literacy. Our paper contributes to filling this gap by analyzing a specific determinant, i. e., the educational system, to explain the heterogeneity of financial literacy scores across Germany. The results suggest that the lower financial literacy observed in East Germany can be partially attributed to the different institutional framework experienced during the Cold War, more specifically, to the socialist educational system experienced in East Germany, which affected specific cohorts of individuals. By exploiting the unique set-up of the German reunification, we identify education as a channel through which institutions and financial literacy are related in the German context. In support of this hypothesis, we find that individuals exposed to the Eastern educational system exhibit 12 %12hspace{0.1667em}% to 21 %21hspace{0.1667em}% lower financial literacy scores compared with the households in the control group, not exposed to such system.
{"title":"Financial literacy, institutions and education: Lessons from the German reunification","authors":"M. Davoli, J. Hou","doi":"10.1515/ger-2020-0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2020-0027","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A growing body of literature highlights the importance of financial literacy in affecting household choices. However, much fewer studies focus on understanding the determinants of different levels of financial literacy. Our paper contributes to filling this gap by analyzing a specific determinant, i. e., the educational system, to explain the heterogeneity of financial literacy scores across Germany. The results suggest that the lower financial literacy observed in East Germany can be partially attributed to the different institutional framework experienced during the Cold War, more specifically, to the socialist educational system experienced in East Germany, which affected specific cohorts of individuals. By exploiting the unique set-up of the German reunification, we identify education as a channel through which institutions and financial literacy are related in the German context. In support of this hypothesis, we find that individuals exposed to the Eastern educational system exhibit 12 %12hspace{0.1667em}% to 21 %21hspace{0.1667em}% lower financial literacy scores compared with the households in the control group, not exposed to such system.","PeriodicalId":46476,"journal":{"name":"German Economic Review","volume":"16 1","pages":"447 - 488"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78322774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The global financial crisis (GFC) has shown that monetary policy focused on a stable price level may negatively affect the stability of the financial system. Therefore, achieving price and financial stability using interest rates as the main tool is difficult. In this paper, we analyse how often monetary policy strengthened imbalances in the financial system in 20 countries from 1999Q1 to 2020Q2. To this end, we compare monetary policy stance with a novel financial imbalance index (FII). We find that monetary policy is material in aggravating financial imbalances mostly in Eurozone countries. We attribute this finding to the ECB’s “too loose, too long” monetary policy and to difficulties with applying single monetary policies in countries with different economic conditions and in different phases of credit and financial cycles. Our results point to a need for a proactive macroprudential policy in the environment of low interest rates.
{"title":"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer – the case of monetary policy and financial imbalances","authors":"Małgorzata Iwanicz-Drozdowska, Łukasz Kurowski","doi":"10.1515/ger-2020-0045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2020-0045","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The global financial crisis (GFC) has shown that monetary policy focused on a stable price level may negatively affect the stability of the financial system. Therefore, achieving price and financial stability using interest rates as the main tool is difficult. In this paper, we analyse how often monetary policy strengthened imbalances in the financial system in 20 countries from 1999Q1 to 2020Q2. To this end, we compare monetary policy stance with a novel financial imbalance index (FII). We find that monetary policy is material in aggravating financial imbalances mostly in Eurozone countries. We attribute this finding to the ECB’s “too loose, too long” monetary policy and to difficulties with applying single monetary policies in countries with different economic conditions and in different phases of credit and financial cycles. Our results point to a need for a proactive macroprudential policy in the environment of low interest rates.","PeriodicalId":46476,"journal":{"name":"German Economic Review","volume":"41 1","pages":"383 - 414"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77661171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Trade elasticities are a crucial variable for research on international trade. Caliendo and Parro (2015) provide a novel method to estimate trade elasticities which is based on odds ratio triplets calculated from structural gravity equations. We find that these odds ratios can be set up not only as triplets, but also e. g. as quadruplets (quads) and quintuples (quints). We estimate trade elasticities from triplets, quads and quints for the two digit level of ISIC Rev.3. The corresponding estimates show certain differences, but the results are generally robust. Because the different odds ratios are all theoretically validated, we suggest using them for checking robustness. Benefits could also arise because larger odds ratios might be able to provide more reliable estimates.
{"title":"Triplets, quads and quints: Estimating disaggregate trade elasticities with different odds ratios","authors":"Adrienne Margarete Bohlmann","doi":"10.1515/ger-2019-0128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/ger-2019-0128","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Trade elasticities are a crucial variable for research on international trade. Caliendo and Parro (2015) provide a novel method to estimate trade elasticities which is based on odds ratio triplets calculated from structural gravity equations. We find that these odds ratios can be set up not only as triplets, but also e. g. as quadruplets (quads) and quintuples (quints). We estimate trade elasticities from triplets, quads and quints for the two digit level of ISIC Rev.3. The corresponding estimates show certain differences, but the results are generally robust. Because the different odds ratios are all theoretically validated, we suggest using them for checking robustness. Benefits could also arise because larger odds ratios might be able to provide more reliable estimates.","PeriodicalId":46476,"journal":{"name":"German Economic Review","volume":"39 1","pages":"359 - 381"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87492625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}