@phdthesis{Westermaier, author = {Westermaier, Franz}, title = {Essays in microeconomics with applications in education, health and crime}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-22864}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {VII, 105}, abstract = {(...) Simple changes in an institutional framework can have huge impacts for the human society which makes it important to analyze them and define their consequences to create a surplus for the society. In the following dissertation, I present applications how policy regulations and external events generate behavioral responses with a focus on indirect effects, e.g. from health on education and education on crime. All chapters, while not exclusively, follow an empirical approach and show effects in important fields of human society. Beyond the research methods from microeconomics, this dissertation tackles the field of health, early childhood development, secondary education, adolescent drug-abuse and law enforcement. Several identification strategies are used to cope with endogeneity and deliver causal effects between the fields of education, health and crime.(...)}, language = {en} } @article{TraxlerWestermaierWohlschlegel, author = {Traxler, Christian and Westermaier, Franz and Wohlschlegel, Ansgar}, title = {Bunching on the Autobahn? Speeding responses to a 'notched' penalty scheme}, series = {Journal of Public Economics}, volume = {157}, journal = {Journal of Public Economics}, doi = {10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.11.006}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-25867}, pages = {78 -- 94}, abstract = {This paper studies drivers' responses to a 'notched' penalty scheme in which speeding penalties are stepwise and discontinuously increasing in speed. We present survey evidence suggesting that drivers in Germany are well aware of the notched penalty structure. Based on a simple analytical framework, we analyze the impact of the notches on drivers' optimal speed choices. The model's predictions are confronted with data on more than 150,000 speeding tickets from the Autobahn and 290,000 speed measures from a traffic monitoring system. The data provide evidence on modest levels of bunching, despite several frictions working against it. We analyze the normative implications and assess the scope for welfare gains from moving from a simple, notched penalty scheme to a more complex but less salient Pigouvian scheme.}, language = {en} } @article{WestermaierMuehlenwegMorefield, author = {Westermaier, Franz and M{\"u}hlenweg, Andrea M. and Morefield, Brant}, title = {Parental Health and Child Behavior: Evidence from Parental Health Shocks}, series = {Review of Economics of the Household}, volume = {14}, journal = {Review of Economics of the Household}, number = {3}, publisher = {Springer US}, address = {Berlin [u.a.]}, isbn = {1569-5239}, doi = {10.1007/s11150-015-9284-y}, pages = {577 -- 598}, abstract = {This study examines the importance of parental health in the development of child behavior during early childhood. Our analysis is based on child psychometric measures from a longitudinal German dataset, which tracks mothers and their newborns up to age six. We identify major changes in parental health (shocks) and control for a variety of initial characteristics of the child including prenatal conditions. The results are robust to placebo regressions of health shocks that occur after the outcomes are measured. Our findings point to negative effects of maternal health shocks on children's emotional symptoms, conduct problems and hyperactivity. We estimate that maternal health shocks worsen outcomes by as much as 0.9 standard deviations. In contrast, paternal health seems to be less relevant to children's behavioral skills.}, language = {en} }