It is well recognised that the issue of the social rate of discount applies only to the gains from public investment that accrues to the public sector. When it comes to measurement, however, there is a problem: public investment in infrastructure and the like do not usually yield direct...

This paper is an attempt to provide evidence on two questions: Why do companies sponsor art events, and where exactly does the money go? We analyse data collected on the revenue structure of cultural institutions in Berlin and Hamburg. This data set not only tells us where the money goes, it...

Measures of subjective well-being have gained substantial attention in economics as quantitative approximations of individual welfare. They allow researchers to study relevant determinants of welfare on an individual as well as on a societal level. These determinants might not to be easily...

For-profit providers are becoming an increasingly important fixture of U.S. higher education markets. Students who attend for-profit institutions take on more educational debt, have worse labor market outcomes, and are more likely to default than students attending similarly selective public...

In this paper we estimate the causal effect of a training program for disadvantaged youths on their long-run labor market outcomes. Individuals receive lottery offers to participate in the program, but are allowed to choose when to leave the program and to participate in alternative programs. We...

Economic development in Latin America has trailed most other world regions over the past four decades despite its relatively high initial development and school attainment levels. This puzzle can be resolved by considering the actual learning as expressed in tests of cognitive skills, on which...

The demand for air quality depends on health impacts and defensive investments that improvehealth, but little research assesses the empirical importance of defenses. We study the NOxBudget Program (NBP), an important cap-and-trade market for nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions,a key ingredient in...