A week after being awarded the A.SK Bright Mind Award at the WZB, Harvard economist Stefanie Stantcheva will give a WZB Talk on the origins and implications of zero-sum thinking - the belief that gains for one individual or group tend to come at the cost of others.

In late 2018, the local government of Madrid implemented a low emission zone (LEZ) in the central district of the city. Although the primary goal of the policy was to enhance air quality, it might also have implications for other related outcomes. For instance, extensive research has documented the detrimental effect of polluted air on academic performance. Consequently, if Madrid’s LEZ was successful in reducing traffic-related emissions, we might observe an improvement in academic performance among students schooled in the LEZ area.

Welche Rolle spielen Einkommensunterschiede und soziale Ungleichheit für die Unterstützung einer rechtspopulistischen Partei? Welche Rolle spielen wahrgenommener sozialer Abstieg und finanzielle sowie allgemeine Unzufriedenheit? Maja Adena und Steffen Huck diskutieren ihre Forschung aus vier Wellen repräesentativer Surveys mit deutschen Wählern und Wählerinnen und werden dabei auch weniger erwartbare Ergebnisse präsentieren.

Over the past forty years, since the Reagan-era paradigm shift to deregulation, income and wealth inequality in the United States has grown significantly faster than in other advanced industrial democracies. High economic inequality has contributed to severe political polarization, socio-economic and geographic segmentation, and erosion of democratic institutions. Analogous processes in Russia and China followed their market openings over the same period.

Social media is a central part of the public sphere and as such of central importance for democracy. In its current form social media is arguably in part responsible for democratic backsliding. The question is how social media should be regulated so that its deliberative democratic potential is enhanced and its dystopian tendencies are held in check. The talk analysis competing approaches that seek to achieve this and analyzes the legal frameworks governing these choices.

New approaches to research on philanthropy have deepened the understanding of giving behavior. They include the ascent of field experiments on fundraising where charities are perceived as active parties. Others include the influence of behavioral economics on our understanding of how social interactions affect donations. The channels through which people donate have recently changed as well. For example, the role of online activities like donation-based crowdfunding is increasing.

Previous research (Carey and Gohdes, 2021) concludes most journalist killings by the state occur in democracies. This paper investigates the link between regime type and journalist killings and argues that democracies are not more hostile to journalists than autocracies. In fact, liberal democratic regimes are the safest of regimes for journalists, i.e. those with by far the least number of journalist killings by the state between 2002 and 2016.

What is the relationship between education and politics? How do government shaped education worldwide until our present day? Adrián del Rio presents a novel dataset on education systems worlwide and describes trends on political control and the politicized nature of education system. The dataset will help researchers and policy-makers to examine several questions about education and politics, improving the quality of policy advice. A subset of the dataset can be provided upon request.

Contact and conflict theory famously predict opposite effects of inter-ethnic exposure on anti-minority discrimination. Contact theory predicts that inter-ethnic contact reduces prejudice; whereas conflict theory predicts that inter-ethnic contact leads to more discrimination. The scope conditions for both theories, however, are vague; prior evidence is mostly correlational; and supportive field experiments have largely accrued in rarified settings.

Existing research in Germany based on survey reports suggest that patients with low income and non-German names are discriminated against both in access to health care and in treatment by specialists. However, because this research is mostly based on interviews with affected individuals, the findings are prone to bias. Field experiments can provide robust evidence of discrimination due to ethnic and socioeconomic background.

Content moderation is key to operations of social media platforms and a large part of this work is outsourced to the global economy. While allowing for cost efficiency and accessing local labor skills and knowledge, outsourcing is generally characterized by indeterminacies in the production process. Moreover, it is complicated by the dynamic character of social media platforms with continuous changes in user activities and moderation policies.

Over the last several decades, two seemingly contradictory trends have emerged: a rise in democracy assistance and a decline in democracy. What explains this disconnect? Although existing work provides some insight about democracy promotion’s mixed effects, more work is needed to understand the impact of additional, often understudied forms of assistance. I explore this puzzle on a panel of 136 nations from 1981-2015 by assessing how two types of democracy promotion – democracy promoting international nongovernmental organizations (DINGOs) and democracy aid – impact governance.

Are teachers biased in their grading against certain demographic groups? Using data on more than 1 million Danish 9th grade students, we find evidence for small pro-girl and pro-migrant-background biases. We also document large variance in bias across teachers and a negative (“compensatory”) relationship between teacher bias and relative performance of the student group on standardized tests.

China’s Social Credit System is the most ambitious human metric in history, using technology to govern society and create the “perfect citizen.” I trace the historical roots of “governance-by-numbers” systems and show that the metrification of social and personal life also exists in Western societies. I point out the rise of a new governance system, shifting from the rule of law (“nomocracy”) to a system governed by numbers (“numerocracy”), and discuss the consequences for liberal democracies in terms of governance, citizenship, human rights, law & morality.

Elizabeth Nugent is an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.

Guillem Amatller Dómine is a Predoctoral Fellow at IBEI and PhD candidate at Pompeu Fabra in Political Science (Barcelona).

When do groups value revenge or forgiveness in identity-based conflict? Recent data from the US and plans for cross-national comparison.

Stephen Benard is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology, Indiana University Bloomington.

For further questions, please e-mail sbenard [at] indiana.edu.

In the Russian War against Ukraine the existing international legal order is challenged. At the heart of the challenge are struggles over the interpretation of the existing international legal order and what it should become.

Mattias Kumm is Research Professor “Global Constitutionalism” at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and Professor “Rule of Law in the Age of Globalization” at Humboldt University Berlin.

In Switzerland, the predominant family arrangement of different-sex parents is a gendered division of tasks. The majority of couples adopt the model of the father as breadwinner and the mother working parttime in the labour market. This ongoing socio-legal research project is interested in the reorganisation of family arrangements at the moment of divorce and more specifically in how different concepts of gender (in)equality play out in the negotiation of divorce agreements in Switzerland.

This talk brings together seven years of work on understanding the political economic forces that have led to the UK's exit from the European Union in 2020. A common theme across populist surges across the West is the resonance that populist campaigns have with voters in so-called left-behind regions. The focus on cross-sectional patterns, however, often masks understanding the wider social-, economic and political developments that give rise for the necessary conditions of populist revolts to emerge.

We invite researchers to submit papers or extended abstracts to the 5th Economics of Media Bias Workshop. Organized by the eponymous research network, the workshop will be a platform to discuss current research, exchange ideas, and explore new collaboration scenarios.

Current societal challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic or climate change highlight the tension between individual freedom and collective good provision. Striking the right balance is particularly delicate for democratic governments whose authority hinges on citizen acceptance and legitimation. When and why do citizens accept far-reaching limitations of their individual rights for a greater societal good?

With the declaration of a global pandemic in March 2020 and the subsequent imposition of lockdown regulations, the immediate expectation was that social movements were destined to enter into a period of latency, or at the very least, invisibility. Given the introduction of severe restrictions on the use of public space, it seemed that Covid-19 had managed to halt the incredibly intense period of global protest that had shaken the world in the Autumn of 2019, with peaks of contestation in places as diverse as Lebanon, Chile, Hong Kong and Catalonia.

Recurring waves of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to different behavioral responses in many domains of our lives. These behavioral responses include economic decisions, protest and political participation, solidarity, and many more. Additionally, the governments have introduced new rules and behavioral interventions. The examples include school closures and interventions to increase vaccinations or compliance with hygiene measures. Many of those measures have been introduced without being based on a solid scientific evidence, they have changed frequently, and they differ by country.

The concept of trustworthiness can be understood to involve an informal social contract where principals authorize others to act on their behalf in the expectation that the agent will fulfill their responsibilities, despite conditions of risk and uncertainty. When evaluating the trustworthiness of political institutions, public judgments are expected to reflect the quality of government procedures, especially the principles of competency, impartiality and integrity.

Can bombs and broadcasts instigate resistance against a foreign regime? We examine the canonical case of bombing designed to undermine enemy morale—the Allied bomber offensive against Germany during WWII. Our evidence shows that both air power and the airwaves undermined regime support.

Shifting media diets are increasingly viewed as a key driver of political polarization. In particular, prior research has focused on greater choice between partisan outlets and the rise of online news. This paper sheds light on a heretofore understudied yet equally salient development: the decline of local news. We argue that local news exits can induce polarization by increasing exposure to news about national politics, where partisan and ideological differences are more salient than at the local level.

The ways in which states, firms or individuals pursue economic goals under the guise of political concerns are multifold. Some recent examples include the US trade conflict with China or the EU’s newly developed sensitivities regarding the security implications of Chinese investments. At the firm and individual level political lobbying is widespread in both developed and developing economies; societal cleavages exploited by politicians result in restricted labor market access for migrants in numerous countries.

The decline of manufacturing employment is frequently invoked as a key cause of worsening U.S. population health trends, including rising mortality due to ‘deaths of despair’.

Can extremism become contagious? Many papers have shown that social control of public actions can lead to sudden transitions from ‘extreme to mainstream’. What is not clear is whether social spillovers can also have first-order effects on private actions, like voting, where persuasion is key. We first build a measure of social interaction frequency using granular data from the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic in Hamburg and information on household characteristics.

Martin Ehlert is Head of the WZB Research Group National Educational Panel Study: Vocational Training and Lifelong Learning.

Lisa Ruhrort is Research Fellow of the WZB Research Group Digital Mobility and Social Differentiation.

Jonas Wiedner is Research Fellow of the WZB Research Unit Migration, Integration, Transnationalization.

Introduction by Mira Fischer
Moderated by Steffen Huck

Co-authors: Isabell Schierenbeck, Ellen Lust, Kevin Köhler

This lecture briefly characterizes the core of President Trump's approach to politics; places him into the broader historical context of American ethnonationalism and conservatism; and discuss the contemporary politics of white identity. In the fall of 2020 America finds itself in a profound constitutional crisis that resonates, disconcertingly, with the year 1932 and its different American and German outcomes. History does not repeat itself. But does it rhyme?

Please note that this event takes place in English only with no translation.

Please note that this event takes place in English only with no translation.

The event is part of the WZB Talks series.

Thomas Palfrey is Research Professor of the WZB Research ProfessorshipCollective Decision Making.

Please note that this event takes place in English only with no translation.

The event is part of the WZB Talks series.

Jelena Cupać and İrem Ebetürk are Research Fellows of the WZB Research Unit Global Governance.

Andrew Schotter is professor at the Department of Economics, New York University.

Please note that this event takes place in English only with no translation.

The event is part of the WZB Talks series.

by Leonard Wantchekon

by Yiming Liu and Jana Friedrichsen

We invite researchers to submit papers or extended abstracts to the 4th Economics of Media Bias Workshop. Organized by the eponymous research network, the workshop will be a platform to discuss current research, exchange ideas, and explore new collaboration scenarios.
As a group of economists and political scientists, we investigate forms, causes, and consequences of media bias, especially in news markets. Main questions of interest are:

(supported by CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition)

Introduction: Helmut Bester

New approaches to research on philanthropy have deepened the understanding of giving behavior. They include the ascent of field experiments on fundraising where charities are perceived as active parties. Others include the influence of behavioral economics on our understanding of how social interactions affect donations. The channels through which people donate have recently changed as well. For example, the role of online activities like donation-based crowdfunding is increasing.

This workshop series aims at fostering the rare dialogue between the arts and economics. It focuses on the revolution that has taken place in TV -  that is as much artistic as it is economic. It will bring together some of the most important players in, and thinkers about, TV series, their ascendancy and increasing economic and artistic importance.

58 Jahre nach dem Erscheinen von „Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer“ kommt am 29. März Dennis Gansels Verfilmung des Kinderbuchklassikers in die deutschen Kinos.

Introduction: Peter Haan

The tremendous growth of digital transactions – mainly through online platforms – has profoundly affected the way we interact and has opened vast opportunities to improve our lives. The disruptive impact of this process is driven by one core feature: its ability to reduce inefficiencies. Consumers have benefited from an unprecedented proliferation of new services and products that previously were simply too costly to be developed and marketed to customers. At the same time, network effects in platform business models have brought market power concerns back to the front stage.

Recently, new approaches to research on philanthropy have deepened our understanding of giving behavior. Those new developments include the ascent of field experiments and growth of lab experiments on fundraising where charities are perceived as active parties. Others include the influence of behavioral economics on our understanding of how social interactions affect donations. The channels through which people donate have recently changed as well. For example, the role of online activities like donation-based crowdfunding is increasing.

Recent years have seen an increased interest in the use of behavioral nudges and social policy to address a diverse set of issues including tax evasion, charitable giving, environmental responsibility and corruption. This has raised the question of whether, and how, such policy measures can achieve changes in long-term behavior and people’s attitudes. In this workshop, we aim to bring together researchers working on this topic, directly or indirectly, across a broad range of subfields including economic history, behavioral, and development economics, among others.

This lecture presents theory and evidence from a series of studies about the impact of aggregators and intermediaries on news consumption and the structure of the news industry.  A theoretical model considers how increased switching changes advertising markets as well as content strategy for publishers.

While the literature on charitable giving and fundraising has made
signgificant progress over the last years, it has focussed exclusively
on small donations. The real action for large (arts) institutions is,
however, in big donations about which the literature knows next to nothing.

Recently, the new approaches to the research on philanthropy have deepened our understanding of giving behavior. Those new developments include the ascent of field experiments and growth of lab experiments on fundraising where charities are perceived as active parties. Others include the influence of behavioral economics on our understanding of how social interactions affect donations. The ways people donate has recently changed as well. For example, the role of online activities like donation-based crowdfunding is increasing.

No other cultural phenomenon has excited audiences and makers in recent memory as much as the rise of the epic TV series. Fascinating viewers with stories of previously unseen psychological, moral and social complexity, the epic TV series has been hailed as the most important new art form since the arrival of 19th century music drama. Its birth took place on July 12, 1997, when HBO premiered Tom Fontana‘s phantasmagorical prison drama Oz which would awe American audiences for 56 episodes over six seasons.

This workshop is the sixth in a series fostering the rare dialogue between the arts and economics. It focuses on the revolution that has taken place in TV -  that is as much artistic as it is economic. It will bring together some of the most important players in, and thinkers about, TV series, their ascendancy and increasing economic and artistic importance.

Cognitive skills are a major component of economic decisions. Many of these decisions take place in strategic contexts which require thinking about others’ behavior and which are cognitively complex. The aim of the workshop is to advance our understanding about the interplay of strategic sophistication and cognitive skills.

Most consumers respond with scepticism or hostility when asked directly about factory farming, based on their associations of cruelty to animals. Most people say to be willing to pay higher prices for meat if livestock is held in a more animal-friendly way. This however does not translate into consumer decisions: around 98% of the meat comes from large scale livestock farming. Why? Which living conditions have to be guaranteed to animals? Is it right to eat animals? And how can customers take more responsibility?

Introduction:

On 28-29 October 2013, the WZB is hosting an international conference on the “Advances on the Political Economy of Conflict and Redistribution II” which is jointly organized by Thomas R. Cusack (WZB), Kai A. Konrad (Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, and WZB) and Karl Ove Moene (Norwegian Centre of Excellence on Equality, Social Organization, and Performance at the University of Oslo).

In the past decade, a new approach to political economy has deepened our understanding of how political institutions shape economic outcomes and how economic forces feed back on political processes. Concurrently, there have been fruitful developments on the effect of social and cultural institutions on economic behavior. In an effort to generate insights spanning the two areas, this workshop will explore the interaction of social and political factors, with a particular focus on religion and politics, by bringing together scholars in both economics and economic history.

Hailed by viewers and critics alike as the greatest TV show ever, Breaking Bad explores themes of economic conditions, occupational choice, self-affirmation and moral change through the example of high-school chemistry teacher Walter White who when diagnosed with terminal lung cancer seeks financial salvation for his family in the drug business.

How do political parties which are in competition with other parties under proportional representation, choose the composition of their lists with regard to gender and competence? Torsten Persson asks this question for Sweden. He has built a unique data set with rich individual data on all politicial candidates, in all parties, in all Swedish municipalities, since 1988. The data show that the elected shares of women and competent men both increase with the quality of the party leadership.

We argue that the standard EU model (and a fortiori PT, CPT, etc) is empirically useless, and that we should rethink risky choice theory.

Workshop organized by Steffen Huck, Michael Hutter, Sir Peter Jonas, and Dorothea Kübler

While new ideas are two a penny, ideas that change the world are few and far between. In this workshop we want to explore the social, cultural and economic mechanisms that operate between the birth of an idea and its fulfilment in establishing change (or changing the establishment).

Experimental results on the Ellsberg paradox typically reveal

Two decades after the end of central planning, we investigate the extent to which the advantages bequeathed by planning in terms of high investment in physical infrastructure and human capital compensated for the costs in allocative inefficiency and weak incentives for innovation.

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