Hazy Dreams: The Impact of Air Pollution on Sleep  [Working Paper]  (with Benedikt Janzen) 

Abstract: Surprisingly little is known about the causal impact of air pollution on human sleep. We provide quasi-experimental evidence that short-run exposure to particulate matter reduces objectively measured sleep. Using daily district-level data on sleep duration from 0.5 million consumer wearable users in Germany from 2020 to 2022, we show that even relatively low levels of particulate matter air pollution adversely affect sleep. We use a high-dimensional fixed effects approach and document that a 10 $\mu$g/m$^3$ increase in average daily PM10 concentration reduces sleep duration by about one minute. To strengthen the causal interpretation of our findings, we confirm these findings with an instrumental variables approach, using local wind direction as a predictor for local air pollution. Our findings offer a potential mechanism linking air pollution to a wide range of human outcomes. Although the estimated effects are modest in magnitude, the central role of sleep in human well-being highlights the potential social burden of pollution-induced sleep loss.

From Fireside Intentions to Housing Market Frictions: Evidence from a Major Forest Fire [Working Paper]  (with Marie Breuillé, Camille Grivault, Sébastien Houde, Julie Le Gallo and Alexandra Verlhiac)  

Abstract: We study how different parties active in housing markets react to a climate-risk shock in the form of a large and salient wildfire. We combine administrative and tracked real estate platform data and characterize a clear divergence between intended and realized adjustment due to market dynamics resulting in housing frictions. Housing supply increases substantially and prospective buyers’ interest in exposed locations is lower. Despite the resulting supply-demand imbalance, transaction and offer prices remain stable, consistent with price rigidity preventing intended sales from materializing. Instead, we find evidence consistent with some excess properties being increasingly redirected toward long-term and short-term rental markets. The results reveal an asymmetry: prospective buyers’ demand responds in a manner consistent with increased risk awareness, while owners’ asking prices adjust little. As a result, the shock induces substantial intended housing-market adjustment that does not translate into comparable spatial adjustment, with patterns consistent with market frictions and asset reallocation contributing to this wedge.

Trade-labor linkages and international investment: Protectionism in disguise? (with Damian Raess)
Abstract: We estimate the impact of labor clauses in preferential trade agreements on bilateral FDI. Using a structural gravity equation framework, estimated with todays’ standard PPML method, we find that labor clauses, if treated exogenously, significantly decrease global investment. However, the exogeneity of policy variables is doubtful. Applying the identification by fixed effects method, allowing labor clauses to be endogenously determined, the results show that labor clauses promote investment. We find interesting heterogeneity between different kind of country pairs. Investment from relatively low to relatively high as well as investment between relatively similar economies in terms of labor right standards benefits from labor provisions in preferential trade agreements. We find little to no evidence for a harmful impact of labor provisions on investments from high labor right standard economies into low labor right standard economies neglecting developing economies often cited fear of labor clauses potential protectionist impact and their resistance towards the inclusion of said clauses in trade negotiations.

Bigler, P., & Janzen, B. (2024). Too hot to sleep. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 128, 103063.  [Published Version]
Media Coverage: Financial Times

Bigler, P., & Radulescu, D. (2025). Environmental, Redistributive, and Revenue Effects of Policies Promoting Fuel-Efficient and Electric Vehicles. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 12(5), 1059-1096. [Published version] [CESifo WP] 

Media coverage: SNF - press release , Watson (short) , Watson (extended) , SRF (article),  SRF (audio),  Energate, Le Temps 

Bigler, P. (2025). Magnitude and decomposition of the solar rebound: Evidence from Swiss households. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 133, 103194. [Published Version]

Media Coverage: PV magazine

Bigler, P., & Janzen, B. (2026). Green spills: Peer effects in pro-environmental behaviors. Journal of Public Economics, 262, 105722. [Published Version]
(Awards: SAEE junior workshop best presentation award; SAEE best dissertation award 2023, SSES Young Economist Award 2024)
Media Coverage: FAZ; Press Release (Uni Passau), FAZ (Sonntag), Focus, PV magazine

Bigler, P., & Radulescu, D. (2021). Heating system choice among Swiss households: determinants and effects of policy counterfactuals. In Research Handbook on Environmental Sociology (pp. 187-215). Edward Elgar Publishing.