Contributions published at Microeconomics, Industrial Organization, and Environmental Economics (Armin Schmutzler)

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Many governments subsidize regional rail service as an alternative to road traffic. This paper assesses whether increases in service frequency reduce road traffic externalities. We exploit differences in service frequency growth by procurement mode following a railway reform in Germany to address endogeneity of service growth. Increases in service frequency reduce the number of severe road traffic accidents, carbon monoxide, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide pollution and infant mortality. Placebo regressions with sulfur dioxide and ozone yield no effect. Service frequency growth between 1994 and 2004 improves environmental quality by an amount that is worth approximately 28-40 % of total subsidies. An analysis of household behavior shows that the effects of railway services on outcome variables are driven by substitution from road to rail.

In this paper we analyze R&D collaboration networks in industries where firms are competitors in the product market. Firms’ benefits from collaborations arise by sharing knowledge about a cost-reducing technology. By forming collaborations, however, firms also change their own competitive position in the market as well as the overall market structure. We analyze incentives of firms to form R&D collaborations with other firms and the implications of these alliance decisions for the overall network structure. We provide a general characterization of both equilibrium networks and endogenous production choices, and compare it to the efficient network architecture. We also allow for firms to differ in their technological characteristics, investigate how this affects their propensity to collaborate and study the resulting network architecture.

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This paper analyzes how all-pay auctions with endogenous prizes can be used to provide effort incentives. We show that wide classes of effort distributions can be implemented as equilibrium outcomes of such games. We also ask how all-pay auctions have to be structured so as to induce high expected highest efforts without generating excessive wasteful efforts of losers. All-pay auctions with endogenous prizes can do better than all-pay auctions with fixed prizes in this respect, in particular, when the prize function is approximately linear. We use the results to compare patents and prizes as innovation incentives, and to explore promotion incentives in organizations.

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Using data from the television show "Golden Balls", I analyze a prisoner's dilemma with pre-play communication and examine which factors of communication are crucial to overcome coordination issues. I perform regressions on the probability of cooperation and find that statements of intent and reputational concerns have a positive effect on cooperation. Tactile communication, dominant behavior, and uttering the perception that stakes are larger, influence cooperation negatively.

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Die Haushaltstheorie der Mikroökonomik geht von einem Homo Oeconomicus aus, der seinen Nutzen rein über die Wahl der besten Produkteigenschaften maximiert. Diese Wahl wird sich durch das hinzufügen einer irrelevanten Alternative nicht verändern. Durch eine grosse Zahl an Studien am menschlichen Verhalten kann Zweifel an der Tauglichkeit dieses Modelles erhoben werden. Eine der Unstimmigkeiten ist, dass der Mensch sich häufig vom Kontext der Produktauswahl beeinflussen lässt. In dieser Bachelorarbeit soll ein genauer Überblick über einen dieser Kontexteffekte verschafft werden: der "compromise effect". Ein Teil der vorhandenen Literatur widmet sich der empirischen Untersuchung. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit befinden sich zusammengefasst die wichtigsten Studien, welche versuchen, den "compromise effect" zu erklären. Der zweite Teil ist der theoretischen Erklärung gewidmet. Es werden zwei verschiedene Modelle erklärt und diskutiert.

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