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Author: Ludwig, M.; Flückiger, M.; Larch, M.; Pascali, L. • Journal/Series: CEPR Working Paper DP18767 (Revise & Resubmit at American Economic Review)
In the latter half of the fourth millennium BC, our ancestors witnessed a remarkable transformation, progressing from simple agrarian villages to complex urban civilizations. In regions as far apart as the Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and the Indus Valley,…
Author: Ludwig, M.; Le, H. M. • Journal/Series: (Revise & Resubmit at Journal of the European Economic Association)
We study the impact of saltwater intrusion-a process intensified by climate change-on the livelihoods of farmers in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, a large rice exporter. To capture spatiotemporal variations in salinization, we develop a localized index based on river salinity…
Author: Ludwig, M.; Flückiger, M. • Journal/Series: Journal of Public Economics (accepted)
This paper documents that online social networks – Facebook in particular – can facilitate the spread of social movements across space and time. Focusing on the largest protest movement in recent history, the wave of Black Lives Matter protests sparked…
Author: Ludwig, M.; Flückiger, M.; Hornung, E.; Larch, M.; Mees, A. • Journal/Series: Review of Economic Studies, 89, 774–810
We show that the creation of the first integrated pan-European transport network during Roman times influences economic integration over two millennia. Drawing on spatially highly disaggregated data on excavated Roman ceramics, we document that interregional trade was strongly influenced by…
Author: Ludwig, M.; Fabel, M.; Flückiger, M.; Rainer, H.; Waldinger, M.; Wichert, S. • Journal/Series: Nature Human Behaviour, 9, 481–495
We study the relationship between the Fridays for Future climate protest movement in Germany and citizen political behaviour. In 2019, crowds of young protesters, mostly under voting age, demanded immediate climate action. Exploiting cell-phone-based mobility data and hand-collected information on…
Author: Ludwig, M.; Flückiger, M. • Journal/Series: Journal of Urban Economics, 120
Using subnational data, we document that the climatic suitability for malaria falciparum transmission constitutes a first-nature characteristic that influences today’s spatial distribution of urbanization and socioeconomic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Both, levels of urbanization and development are lower in regions…
Author: Rösel, F.; Geschwind, S. • Journal/Series: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 200, 536–554
Do citizens legislate different tax policies than parliaments? We provide quasi-experimental evidence for causal effects of direct democracy. Town meetings (popular assemblies) replace local councils in small German municipalities below a specific population threshold. Difference-indifferences, RD and event study estimates…
Author: Dorn, F.; Gaebler, S.; Rösel, F. • Journal/Series: Public Choice, 186(3–4), 387–412
International organizations have encouraged national governments to switch from traditional cash-based to business-like accrual accounting, on the presumption that long-run benefits may outweigh substantial implementation and operating costs. We use a quasi-experimental setting to evaluate whether changing public sector accounting…
Author: Ochsner, C.; Rösel, F. • Journal/Series: The Economic Journal, 130(628), 1135–1172
We show that migrating extremists shape political landscapes toward their ideology in the long run. We exploit the unexpected division of the state of Upper Austria into a US and a Soviet occupation zone after WWII. Zoning prompts large-scale Nazi…
Author: Pilny, A.; Rösel, F. • Journal/Series: American Journal of Health Economics, 6(4), 498–532
Appointing or electing professionals to be public officials is a double-edged sword. Experts can use their rich knowledge to implement reforms, but they can also favor their own profession. In this study, we compare physician-trained state health ministers to ministers…
Author: Potrafke, N.; Rösel, F. • Journal/Series: Regional Studies, 54(3), 340–351
Spatial inequalities in publicly provided goods such as health care facilities have substantial socioeconomic effects. Little is known, however, as to why publicly provided goods diverge among urban and rural regions. We exploit narrow parliamentary majorities in German states between…
Author: Free, X.; Langer, S.; Lehmann, R.; Rösel, F. • Journal/Series: Kyklos, 73(2), 227–252
Party performance in state and federal elections is highly interdependent. Federal elections impact regional voting dynamics and vice versa (electoral externalities). We quantify the extent of simultaneous electoral externalities between two layers of government. We apply vector autoregressions with predetermined…
Author: Gaebler, S.; Potrafke, N.; Rösel, F. • Journal/Series: Regional Science and Urban Economics, 81, 103499
We examine whether compulsory voting influences political participation as measured by voter turnout, invalid voting, political interest, confidence in parliament, and party membership. In Austria, some states temporarily introduced compulsory voting in national elections. We inves- tigate border municipalities across…
Author: Potrafke, N.; Rösel, F. • Journal/Series: The Review of International Organizations, 15(1), 133–163
Voter turnout has declined in many countries, raising the question of whether electoral institutions increase voter turnout. We exploit an electoral reform in the Austrian state of Burgenland as a natural experiment to identify the causal effect of polling station…
Author: Rösel, F.; Foertsch, M. • Journal/Series: CESifo Working Paper No. 10259
Does social capital always promote solidarity and democracy, or are social networks such as sports clubs also vulnerable to populism? We exploit quasi-experimental variation in sports club membership in German cities. Sports clubs are booming in cities with successful soccer…
Author: Rösel, F.; Foertsch, M. • Journal/Series: CESifo Working Paper No. 10705
Can public infrastructure help regions to mitigate large shocks? We examine how hospital infrastructure contributes to regional resilience in the event of serious health emergencies. During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, four out of every 1,000 Germans died. We find…
Author: Rösel, F.; Nitschke, R. • Journal/Series: FinanzArchiv (European Journal of Public Finance)
Why do public policies change little over time in individual places, sometimes for centuries? We investigate different mechanisms for policy persistence. Several city mayors serving in democratic Weimar Germany were expelled by the Nazis in 1933, but re-installed by the…
Author: Rösel, F.; Potrafke, N. • Journal/Series: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 229, 106856
Does social media or offline social cohesion overcome collective action problems more effectively when both types of networks are prevalent? We investigate non-violent protests against a place-based economic reform in Austria—a country where one in two citizens uses Facebook but…
Author: Rösel, F. • Journal/Series: CESifo Economic Studies, 70(2), 73–83
Party politics in Austria has two distinctive features: institutionalized power sharing between the two main parties, known as Proporz, and a longstanding tradition of far-right populism. I examine whether these two phenomena are connected: Does reduced political competition correlate with…
Author: Rösel, F.; Ochsner, C. • Journal/Series: American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16(3), 76–112
We study whether long-gone but activated history can shape social attitudes and behavior even after centuries. We exploit the case of the sieges of Vienna in 1529 and 1683, when Turkish troops pillaged individual municipalities across East Austria. In 2005,…
