Publications
Complexity of Propositions and Voting Behavior in a Direct Democracy: Evidence from Switzerland
(with Zohal Hessami), European Journal of Political Economy, 2018
| PDF | DOI | CESifo working paper |
ABSTRACT: One concern about direct democracy is that citizens may not be sufficiently competent to decide about complex policies. This may lead to exaggerated conservatism in the voting decision (status quo bias). To investigate how complexity affects individual voting behavior, we develop a novel measure of proposition complexity (using official pre-referendum booklets) and combine it with post-referendum survey data from Switzerland. Using Heckman selection estimations to account for endogenous variation in participation rates, we find that an increase in proposition complexity from the 10th to the 90th percentile would decrease voters' approval by 5.6 ppts, which is often decisive: an additional 12% of the propositions in our sample would be rejected.
(with Zohal Hessami), European Journal of Political Economy, 2018
| PDF | DOI | CESifo working paper |
ABSTRACT: One concern about direct democracy is that citizens may not be sufficiently competent to decide about complex policies. This may lead to exaggerated conservatism in the voting decision (status quo bias). To investigate how complexity affects individual voting behavior, we develop a novel measure of proposition complexity (using official pre-referendum booklets) and combine it with post-referendum survey data from Switzerland. Using Heckman selection estimations to account for endogenous variation in participation rates, we find that an increase in proposition complexity from the 10th to the 90th percentile would decrease voters' approval by 5.6 ppts, which is often decisive: an additional 12% of the propositions in our sample would be rejected.
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Working Papers
Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence?
(with Ludger Woessmann, Simon Wiederhold, Jens Ruhose), CESifo Working Paper, January 2021
| PDF | CESifo working paper | IZA working paper |
ABSTRACT: We study a mentoring program that aims to improve the labor-market prospects of school-attending adolescents from disadvantaged families by offering them a university-student mentor. Our RCT investigates program effectiveness on three outcome dimensions that are highly predictive of adolescents’ later labor-market success: math grades, patience/social skills, and labor-market orientation. For low-SES adolescents, the one-to-one mentoring increases a combined index of the outcomes by half a standard deviation after one year, with significant increases in each dimension. Part of the treatment effect is mediated by establishing mentors as attachment figures who provide guidance for the future. The mentoring is not effective for higher-SES adolescents. The results show that substituting lacking family support by other adults can help disadvantaged children at adolescent age.
(with Ludger Woessmann, Simon Wiederhold, Jens Ruhose), CESifo Working Paper, January 2021
| PDF | CESifo working paper | IZA working paper |
ABSTRACT: We study a mentoring program that aims to improve the labor-market prospects of school-attending adolescents from disadvantaged families by offering them a university-student mentor. Our RCT investigates program effectiveness on three outcome dimensions that are highly predictive of adolescents’ later labor-market success: math grades, patience/social skills, and labor-market orientation. For low-SES adolescents, the one-to-one mentoring increases a combined index of the outcomes by half a standard deviation after one year, with significant increases in each dimension. Part of the treatment effect is mediated by establishing mentors as attachment figures who provide guidance for the future. The mentoring is not effective for higher-SES adolescents. The results show that substituting lacking family support by other adults can help disadvantaged children at adolescent age.
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Risky Decisions and the Opportunity Cost of Time
(with Jan Hausfeld), TWI Working Paper, June 2018
| PDF | | Slides | | Press - ifo BI Newsletter (german) |
Paying to Save – Negative Nominal Interest Rates in Developing Countries
Working Paper, 2017
Current Projects
Evaluating the Effectiveness of a 1:1 Mentoring Programme for Adolescents
(with Ludger Woessmann, Simon Wiederhold, Jens Ruhose), project duration (2015 - 2022)
| Project Website |
Incentivizing Habits to Improve Self-Control – Evidence from a Field Experiment
(with Simeon Schudy)
Individualism and Human Capital – Evidence from an International Skill Assessment Study
(with Katharina Hartinger, Simon Wiederhold)
(with Ludger Woessmann, Simon Wiederhold, Jens Ruhose), project duration (2015 - 2022)
| Project Website |
Incentivizing Habits to Improve Self-Control – Evidence from a Field Experiment
(with Simeon Schudy)
Individualism and Human Capital – Evidence from an International Skill Assessment Study
(with Katharina Hartinger, Simon Wiederhold)
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