Events

3 Apr

14:00

The Bright Side of Tax Evasion

Research Seminars Wladislaw Mill (University of Mannheim) ESF Room MT205 Personal website

This paper investigates whether tax evasion can be beneficial for an optimal income tax schedule. Past theoretical discussions have presented mixed outcomes as to whether allowing taxpayers to opt into uncertainty could indeed enhance overall tax revenues. In this study, we conducted an original real effort experiment in an online labor market with almost 1,000 participants to test this hypothesis empirically. Our findings show significant positive labor supply responses to the opportunity to evade (increased labor supply by 37%). More importantly, the expected tax revenue significantly and substantially increased by up to more than 50%. Strikingly, this effect persists when comparing effective tax rates: Lowering effective tax rates through probabilistic enforcement (the opportunity to evade) is more efficient than simply lowering statutory tax rates. Our findings suggest that the opportunity for tax evasion can increase tax revenues beyond what a corresponding decrease in nominal rates would achieve.

This event is both online and in person. Join the Teams meeting

7 Apr

14:00

Pigou’s Advice and Sisyphus’ Warning: Carbon Pricing with Non-Permanent Carbon Dioxide Removal

Research Seminars Max Franks (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) ESF Room P103 Personal website

This paper develops a welfare and public economics perspective on optimal policies for carbon removal and storage (CDR) in permanent and non-permanent sinks. Non-permanent CDR reduces mitigation costs, even though the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere eventually. It may serve as bridge technology until permanent CDR becomes available. In contrast to permanent removals, non-permanent CDR does not reduce the optimal long-run temperature level. Its valuation differs from the social cost of carbon since a social cost of carbon removal arises from marginal damages caused by emissions released from non-permanent storage. We discuss three policy regimes that ensure optimal deployment of non-permanent CDR in terms of their informational and institutional requirements for monitoring, liability, and financing.

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9 Apr

12:00

Institutional Factors and the Extraction of Limited Health Resources

Internal Lunch Seminars Jonathan Stäbler (Masaryk University - Department of Public Economics) ESF Academic Club Personal website

The healthcare situation in many developed countries has become precarious due to limited supply and a steadily growing demand stemming from mandatory health cover for all. As a result, health resources may get allocated inefficiently with those with potentially serious conditions not getting treated in a timely manner. In this paper, we test measures to prevent such inefficiencies, including i) instituting a co-payment for using healthcare services, ii) creating a triage system based on self-reporting one's symptoms, and iii) receiving access to more accurate signals about one's health needs. Drawing on a game theoretic framework with other-regarding preferences, we conduct an online experiment with a large, representative sample of UK adults, where participants decide whether to extract resources from a limited common pool after receiving a noisy signal about their types. Our results suggest that all measures reduce unnecessary extractions from the common pool. While both the cost and self-report triage system have the highest impact on participants extraction choices, the accuracy treatment leads to the highest efficiency, as it reduces the errors stemming from noisy signals.

10 Apr

14:00

Integrators: The Firm Boundaries of Capital-Skill Complementarity

Research Seminars Stijn Vanormelingen (KU Leuven) ESF Room MT205 Personal website

We show that external suppliers are critical for facilitating machinery investments and capturing the skill bias of new machines. Linking firm data on capital investments, buyer-supplier transactions, and worker skills in Belgium, we find that the adoption of new machinery by manufacturing firms strongly increases the skills demanded from external suppliers. By contrast, the machines do not alter the skill mix of in-house employment. The skill bias of external suppliers reflects machine integration initially and machine-complementary services eventually. External integrators are especially important for smaller manufacturing firms, and the skill bias of investment depends on the capital type and application sector. Our findings help reconcile recent firm-level studies of in-house employment with long-standing theories of capital-skill complementarities

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22 Apr

14:00

“Climate Change Is Not Real!” – Investigating the Role of Social Media Message Formats in Climate Change Misinformation

Research Seminars Ellie Ismagilova (Swansea University) ESF Room S311 Personal website

In today's world, social media is a major source of information for many people. However, not all information on social media is accurate, and misinformation can spread quickly, especially on important topics like climate change. This study aims to examiner how social media message formats (text, picture and video) affect climate change perception and behaviours. A mixed-method study with participants from UK and Mexico was conducted. The study found that misinformation reduces the credibility of social media posts in all formats (text, picture, video). Accurate posts about climate change prompted people to think about taking action to protect the environment. In contrast, misinformation posts made some people believe that climate change is not caused by humans and therefore not their problem to fix. Finally, it was found that higher social media literacy generally helps people recognise misinformation, especially in pictures. However, surprisingly, those with higher social media literacy might find video misinformation more credible. The study significantly advances our understanding of the interplay between message formats, misinformation, and social media's impact on climate change perceptions.

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23 Apr

12:00

Distributed and trustworthy digital twin platform based on blockchain and Web3 technologies

Internal Lunch Seminars Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Bamakan (Masaryk University - Department of Business Management) ESF Academic Club

The fourth industrial revolution has significantly increased the adoption of Digital Twins (DTs) across various sectors, including intelligent manufacturing, automation, logistics, and medical analysis. Despite substantial progress in deploying DT projects, numerous challenges remain, such as managing distributed data flows, protecting commercial confidentiality, securing intellectual property, and ensuring privacy and security. This research introduces a novel approach to addressing these challenges by leveraging blockchain and Web3 technologies, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). The study aims to develop a distributed, tamper-proof DT cooperation platform that facilitates traceable and trustworthy data sharing while preserving intellectual property rights and enabling decentralized governance. This platform enhances idea and invention ownership, promotes collective decision-making through consensus protocols, and explores innovative solutions like blockchain-based federated learning and efficient DT project fundraising tools. Relying on security models and analysis tools, this study addresses several important security analysis methods that are known as practical analysis methods. They can strongly prove every claimed security feature of DT projects. The proposed solutions set the stage for future academic and industrial advancements, supported by a comprehensive SWOT (Strongness - Weakness - Opportunity - Threat) analysis, and outline potential future research directions.

24 Apr

14:00

Goodbye monopoly: the effect of open access passenger rail competition on price and frequency in France on the High-Speed Paris-Lyon Line

Research Seminars Flaurent Laroche (Universite Lumiere Lyon 2) ESF Room MT205 Personal website

The Paris-Lyon line is the busiest High-Speed Line in Europe and has been open to competition in open access since December 18, 2021. The main objective of the paper is to explore the effects for users with respect to price and frequency compare with the existing literature. The analysis is based on a large database (n = 1243) collected by web scraping from September 2019 to October 2022. The method relies on a descriptive analysis with a similar route without competition (Paris-Bordeaux) in the comparison group. The results highlight an increase of frequency by 15% and a decrease in price by 23%. The prices charged by the newcomer are lower than those of the incumbent (−30% to −50%). The comparison with the control route suggests a positive effect on price that moderates the economic catch-up effect following the COVID-19 pandemic in an inflationary context. More specifically, SNCF appears to take a wait and see attitude to competitive pressure from Trenitalia. It has moderated its prices since the new offer was introduced and has maintained its trains.

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29 Apr

13:00

Case Studies in Commercialization and Institutional Evolution

Public Lectures Joacim Larsson von Garaguly, Victoria Kihlström, Ravi Dar (Dalarna University) ESF Large meeting room of the Dean's Office (2nd floor)

This joint presentation of four research projects explores how institutions and markets evolve through processes of commercialization, innovation, and adaptation. The first study examines the transformation of a traditional nonprofit ski race into a major commercial event, highlighting the commercialization and professionalization of sports. The second study investigates how state interventions in solar energy markets both disrupt traditional market mechanisms and create new opportunities, focusing on how market actors respond to these transitions. The third study explores the concept of "hype" in management, using the case of Business Intelligence to illustrate the tension between technological control and market-driven innovation. The fourth study analyzes the introduction of digital reporting in Swedish road construction projects, where state-led environmental requirements elicit mixed reactions from contractors—ranging from proactive engagement to skeptical resistance.

  1. The commercialization and professionalization of sports: The Vasaloppet case (Joacim Larsson von Garaguly)
  2. Market construction for solar energy – actors and activities (Victoria Kihlström)
  3. What is a Hype? (Ravi Dar)
  4. The State as a driver of Innovation (Ravi Dar)

15 May

14:00

Integrated vs. Separated Schooling for Refugee Children: Long-Term Effects on Education and Assimilation

Research Seminars Caterina Pavese (ifo/LMU Munich) ESF Room MT205 Personal website

The large influx of refugees over recent decades challenges many Western countries to devise effective policies for long-term integration. A key policy question is whether refugee children should be directly integrated into native schools or initially separated into migrant schools. In the Netherlands, refugee children arriving at primary-school age are taught either in integrated or separated schools depending on their randomly assigned municipality, whereas all secondary-school-aged arrivals are initially separated. We exploit this setting in a novel difference-in-differences framework, leveraging rich administrative data. Results indicate that on average, integrated primary schooling increases cultural assimilation as measured by hormonal-contraceptive usage but decreases educational outcomes at age 18. The negative educational effects are restricted to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, whereas the positive assimilation effects are strongest for children from advantaged backgrounds.

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23 May

13:00

What Can We Conclude from the Evidence on Minimum Wages and Employment? Recent Progress

Public Lectures David Neumark (University of California-Irvine) ESF Room P101 Personal website

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