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By means of a laboratory experiment, we show that, contrary to standard consumer theory, financially equivalent balance sheet profiles may be perceived as non fungible in a controlled frictionless environment with no probabilistic attributes. A large majority of subjects indeed have a bias in the perception of wealth, such that balance sheet composition matters: for a given net worth with values of assets and debt that are financially certain and risk-free, a greater asset-debt ratio implies greater perceived wealth. The predominance of this bias is explained by low cognitive sophistication and great inattention. Moreover, biased subjects are less patient, less debt averse, more likely to increase spending out of unexpected gains and report greater propensities to consume. A standard optimal consumption choice model, enriched with a rational but inattentive agent a la Gabaix (2014, 2019), aligns our key experimental findings.

We introduce a new microsimulation model built on household transport data to study the distributional effects of carbon-based fuel taxation of private road transport in Germany. Our data includes annual mileage at the car-level, the distinction between fuel types, as well as car-specific fuel consumption, allowing for a very detailed analysis. The model allows focusing on different types of households as well as identifying effect heterogeneity across the income distribution. We compare the recent fuel tax scheme with three policy reform scenarios to empirically test several hypotheses regarding distributional effects of carbon pricing. We find that the legal status quo of the fuel tax has overall regressive effects, with the tax on petrol acting regressive and the tax on diesel acting progressive. A transformation of the current tax into a revenue-neutral carbon-harmonised fuel tax yields a progressive distributional effect, while an introduction of a new carbon tax on transport fuels is neither clearly regressive nor progressive. Combining both tax schemes also has non-regressive effects. Our results suggest that policy makers face various options for pricing road transport greenhouse gas emissions without causing an overall disproportionate tax burden on low-income households.

What are the effects of austerity on distributional policy? We exploit the autonomy of Italian municipalities in setting non-linear income taxes and the exogenous introduction of a fiscal rule to show that austerity increases income tax progressivity. Consistent with this evidence, we find that in a panel of countries austerity correlates with higher marginal tax rates on top- but not on average-earners. The increase in progressivity in Italy is driven by high-skilled mayors, while low-skilled mayors raise taxes uniformly. In the election after the reform, high-skill mayors have higher reelection odds than low-skill mayors, while there was no difference beforehand.

Conditional yield skewness is an important summary statistic of the state of the economy. It exhibits pronounced variation over the business cycle and with the stance of monetary policy, and a tight relationship with the slope of the yield curve. Most importantly, variation in yield skewness has substantial forecasting power for future bond excess returns, high-frequency interest rate changes around FOMC announcements, and consensus survey forecast errors for the ten-year Treasury yield. The COVID pandemic did not disrupt these relations: historically high skewness correctly anticipated the run-up in long-term Treasury yields starting in late 2020. The connection between skewness, survey forecast errors, excess returns, and departures of yields from normality is consistent with a theoretical framework where one of the agents has biased beliefs.

We consider the problem of designing experiments for the comparison of two regression curves describing the relation between a predictor and a response in two groups, where the data between and within the group may be dependent. In order to derive effi- cient designs we use results from stochastic analysis to identify the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) in a corresponding continuous time model. It is demonstrated that in general simultaneous estimation using the data from both groups yields more precise results than estimation of the parameters separately in the two groups. Using the BLUE from simultaneous estimation, we then construct an efficient linear estimator for finite sample size by minimizing the mean squared error between the optimal solution in the continuous time model and its discrete approximation with respect to the weights (of the linear estimator). Finally, the optimal design points are determined by minimizing the maximal width of a simultaneous confidence band for the difference of the two regression functions. The advantages of the new approach are illustrated by means of a simulation study, where it is shown that the use of the optimal designs yields substantially narrower confidence bands than the application of uniform designs. Discussion Paper / SFB823;2/2021

We study the collusive efficacy of competition clauses (CC) such as the meeting competition clause (MCC) and the beating competition clauses (BCC) in a general framework. In contrast to previous theoretical studies, we allow for repeated interaction among the retailers and heterogeneity in their sales capacities. Besides that, the selection of the form of the CC is endogeneized. The retailers choose among a wide range of CC types - including the conventional ones such as the MCC and the BCCs with lump sum refunds. Several common statements about the collusive (in)efficacy of CCs cannot be upheld in our framework. We show that in the absence of hassle costs, MCCs might induce collusion in homogeneous markets even if they are adopted only by few retailers. If hassle and implementation costs are mild, collusion can be enforced by BCCs with lump sum refunds. Remarkably, these fundings hold for any reasonable rationing rule. However, a complete specification of all collusive CCs is in general impossible without any further reference to the underlying rationing rule.

The Central Andes (~21°S) is a subduction-type orogeny formed in the last ~50 Ma from the subduction of the Nazca oceanic plate beneath the South American continental plate. However, the most important phases of deformation occur in the last 20 Ma. Pulses of shortening have led to the sudden growth of the by the Altiplano-Puna plateau. Previous studies have provided insights on the importance of various mechanisms on the overall shortening such as the weakening of the overriding plate from crustal eclogitization and delamination, or the importance of a relatively high friction at the subduction interface, and weak sediments in foreland. However none of them has addressed the mechanism behind these shortening pulses yet. Therefore, we built a series of high resolution 2D visco-plastic subduction models using the ASPECT geodynamic code, in which the oceanic plate is buoyancy-driven and the velocity of the continent is prescribed. We have also implemented a realistic geometry for the south American plate at ~30 Ma. We propose a new plausible mechanism (buckling and steepening of the slab) as the cause of these pulses. The buckling leads to the blockage of the trench. Consequently, the difference of velocity between the South American plate and the trench is accommodated by shortening. The data presented here includes the parameters files, for the reference model (S1) and the following alternative simulations: models with variation of the friction at the subduction interface (S2a-c), a model without eclogitization of the lower crust (S3) and a model with higher thermal conductivity of the upper crust (S4). Additionally, this publication includes the initial composition and thermal state of the lithosphere used for the models and a Readme file that gives all the instructions to run them.

The sample set includes 25 newly sampled sea-level index points based on fossil microatoll measurements from 5 islands in the Spermonde Archipelago, 21 fossl microatoll samples previously published by Mann et al., 2016 from two Islands in the same study region and 20 marine and terrestrial limiting points (e.g. corals, shells and loamy clay) and one further sea-level index point from a Mangrove swamp published by De Klerk, 1982 and Tjia et al., 1972

GFZ acts as a global analysis center of the International GNSS Service (IGS) and provides ultra-rapid (last 24h), rapid (last day), and final (last week) solutions for GPS and GLONASS. The ultra-rapid solution series is published eight times per day with a delay of around three hours. The 3D seismic velocity models are results of a local earthquake tomography which is performed to illuminate the crustal and uppermost mantle structure beneath the southern Puna plateau and to test the delamination hypothesis. The Southern Puna is distinctive from the rest of the Central Andean plateau in having a higher topographic elevation, a thinner lithosphere and in being flanked to the south by the Chilean flat slab region. Previous investigations involving geochemical, geological and geophysical observations, have invoked lithospheric delamination to explain the distinctive magmatic and structural history, elevation and lithospheric thickness of the region. In the present study, Vp and Vp/Vs ratios were obtained using travel time variations recorded by 75 temporary seismic stations between 2007 and 2009. The earthquakes catalog (Mulcahy et al., 2014) contains 1903 local earthquakes (25077 P- and 14059 S-picks). A minimum 1D model is derived with software VELEST (Kissling et al., 1995). The 3D tomographic inversion is performed with software SIMULPS (Thurber, 1983; Evans et al., 1994). Spread values are used to define well resolved model domains (6 for Vp and 5.5 for Vp/Vs), which are calculated from the model resolution matrix (Toomey & Foulger, 1989). The data are provided as one tar.gz archive. Individual ASCII files contain, at each depth from 0 to 200 km: - Vp model (model.vp.depth_???km), format: longitude, latitude, depth, Vp perturbation, absolute Vp - Vp/Vs model (model.vpvs.depth_???km), format: longitude, latitude, depth, Vp/Vs perturbation, absolute Vp/Vs - spread values for Vp (spread.vp.depth_???km), format: longitude, latitude, depth, spread value - spread values for Vp/Vs model (spread.vpvs.depth_???km), format: longitude, latitude, depth, spread value

This is a Level 3 data daily file product from various scientific and utility sensors on board of the `LEO' satellite 'CHAMP' with magnetic field data given by a time resolution of 1 Hz. Thise Level 3 data type is build to hold and merge finally corrected data, focusing on mature data calibration and corrections -- as well as internal consistency. This Level 3 data product is intended to supersede the various Level 2 versions with calibrated magnetic field readings from the CHAMP mission distributed hitherto and should be fitted for scientific use, assembling time series of scalar magnetic field values (but not directly readings from the scalar Overhauser sensor), vector magnetic field data from the boom-mounted Fluxgate 'FGM' sensors and attitude data from the ('ASC') boom-mounted Star Cameras. The vector data are given both in the satellite-bound sensor ('FGM') system and the Earth Centered Earth Fixed local 'NEC' (North-East-Center) system. The attitude time series, processed and cleaned, are represented by quaternions describing the satellite attitude related to the celestial system. The readings of the scalar OVM (Overhauser) absolute magnetometer at the top of the boom are not supplied directly, but were used during calibration of the vector magnetometer readings. The files with daily time coverage are in the (binary and self-describing) 'CDF' file format and accompanied, beside the generic 'CDF'-format timestamp, by the satellite's geocentric positions and utility information like quality flags.