Research Projects
Research Projects
Embedded Files
Working Papers
Working Papers
Free the Period? Evaluating Tampon Tax Reforms using Household Scanner Data — with Ulrich Wohak,
R&R at the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
We study price and volume effects of value added tax reductions for period products. We exploit varying treatment intensities and timing in several European countries and find that prices decrease by 10-14%. This corresponds to full pass-through 12 months post policy change, with low-income households benefiting the most. While the average effect on aggregate purchase volumes is statistically zero, low income households' demand is stimulated. We find evidence that prices of top-selling products decrease less while households purchase higher quality products as a result of the tax reform.
We had the pleasure to present our work at the European Parliament.
Borrowed Plumes: The Gender Gap in Claiming Credit for Teamwork — with Jakob Moeller and Anna Walter
R&R at Experimental Economics
Teamwork is prevalent in many forms of production, but individual contributions to team output are often ambiguous. We use a large-scale online experiment to investigate gender differences in claiming credit for contributions to teamwork with misaligned incentives: Team members have an incentive to exaggerate their contribution, but this harms the other team member. In this setting, we find that men claim to have contributed more than equally contributing women. Using two further between-subject treatments, we experimentally test and rule out gender differences in social preferences and in overconfidence as mechanisms for the gender claim-gap. Instead, we provide exploratory evidence that men and women place different cognitive weights on factors when deciding on their claim. Further, we only find a gender gap among high-contributors, and we show that the gap is particularly pronounced for large claims, which has potentially important consequences for gender equity in labour market outcomes.
The Figure shows the cumulative density functions (CDFs) of the average claim per individual across the three rounds for each treatment. We see:
In the Individual Bonus and Split Bonus Treatment, the gender gap in claims grows as claims increase
In the Accuracy Treatment, divergence between contribution claims and actual contribution mainly occurs at actual contributions below 50%
A large proportion of 50-claims — especially in the Split Bonus Treatment
No evidence for under-claiming
Work in Progress
Work in Progress
Student Trauma: The Effect of Shootings on College Student Mental Health
Gun violence is reshaping the U.S. education system. In this paper, I estimate the effect of shootings on college student mental health. Using the unexpected event of a shooting as exogenous shock, I compare mental health responses of students who were enrolled at an affected college at the time of the event to others who were not. I construct an index incorporating information on mental health symptoms such as depression, anxiety, use of medication and help-seeking. My results show, that students experiencing a shooting suffer from worse mental health outcomes. Additional evidence on mechanisms suggests that while proximity to the shooting does not matter, the effect is driven by the trauma associated with physical harm.
Natural Disasters and Crime: The Effect of Earthquakes on Violence Against Women — with Bernhard Moscoso
Pass-Through, Markups and Consumer Preferences in Inflationary Environments — with Klaus Gugler, Lukas Pirnbacher, Florian Szücs, Ulrich Wohak
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