@phdthesis{MartinezBarrancoKukutschka, author = {Mart{\´i}nez Barranco Kukutschka, Roberto}, title = {Clearing the anti-corruption roadblocks: Better methods for better policies}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-4078}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-40789}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {119}, abstract = {This dissertation is an attempt to align the research and policy agendas in the field of anti-corruption. It explores the issue of measurement and looks at the relationship between the widely used "subjective indicators of corruption" (e.g., expert perception-based indicators and popular opinion surveys) and the more recently developed methods of quantifying corruption either through indirect measurements or administrative data. After the validation of the measurement instruments, it dives into some of the most widely cited "theories of change" in the literature to evaluate the effectiveness of the legal and economic approaches to fight corruption, while incorporating more nuanced explanatory models that focus on the interactions between institutional and policy factors rather than assuming that different elements have isolated effects on the societal levels of corruption. The idea of interactions in then taken forward to explore the potential of information communication technologies (ICTs) in creating virtuous cycles to control corruption. The final section summarises the main findings and contributions to the existing anti-corruption literature and advocates in favour of using methods that recognise the complex relationships between the different causes of and constraints against corruption. It calls for more multi-disciplinary approaches to improve our understanding of corruption and support the design of policies to curb it.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Sieker, author = {Sieker, Felix}, title = {Disruption or continuation? The role of platforms in transforming work}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-4076}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-40766}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {126}, abstract = {One central manifestation of the digital transformation that has caused profound structural changes to all parts of economic and social life are platform companies. The dissemination of platforms is associated with the restructuring of entire markets, the reorganisation of companies and the restructuring of employment relationships. This dissertation asks to what extent platform companies as a new organisational form and their impact on employment represent a disruption or a continuation of liberalization trends that have been in place for a longer time. Two arguments are advanced in this context. First, it is argued that platform companies are worth to be discussed as a distinct topic, as they differ in important regards from previous organisational forms and have profound effects on the political economy of industrialized countries. Platform companies occupy a central position in the economy and control large parts of the critical infrastructure of the internet. Although platform companies share some similarities with previous firm models such as the vertically integrated firm and the nexus of contracts model, they depart in other regards. In particular, network effects and the control of information converted into data points are key features that give them unprecedented power. Second, the effect of platform companies on employment is moderated by institutions. However, not all institutions are equally important. Whereas the employment contract, for instance, has proven to be a very resilient institution preventing the dissemination of independent contractors as preferred employment model of platform companies, the influence of unions has been limited. Moreover, the largest effect of platform companies on employment may be more of an indirect than a direct nature. Platform companies had only limited success in disseminating their preferred employment model of independent contracting, but rather reinforced existing subcontracting trends. All chapters in this dissertation contribute to these arguments from different perspectives. Moving from a macro-perspective to a micro-perspective, Chapter Two represents a review chapter on key features of platforms and their impact on the political economy of industrialized countries. Chapter Three analyses mechanisms that explain responses in ten major European countries to regulate platform work. Finally, Chapter Four represents a case study on the effect of Amazon logistics on employment in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Haas, author = {Haas, J{\"o}rg}, title = {Economic Policy Coordination and the European Semester}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-3794}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-37946}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {146}, abstract = {This dissertation asks three interrelated questions about economic policy coordination: (1) Why do we see persistent macroeconomic imbalances that make international coordination necessary? (2) What kind of economic policies does the European Union promote in its member states via its coordination framework, the European Semester? (3) What determines whether governments implement recommendations issued under the Semester? The first paper argues that economic ideas, and their emphasis in media reporting, help secure public support for policies that result in external imbalances. It finds that the dominant interpretations of current account balances in Australia and Germany concur with distinct perspectives: external surpluses are seen as evidence of competitiveness in Germany, while external deficits are interpreted as evidence of attractiveness for investments in Australia. Survey experiments in both countries suggest that exposure to these diverging interpretations of the current account has a causal effect on citizens' support for their country's economic strategy. The second and third papers analyse policy recommendations under the European Semester, arguably the most ambitious example of economic policy coordination worldwide. The findings show that the European Union does not use the Semester to promote a single economic model across all member states. Recommendations do not uniformly recommend more reliance on the market or the state. Rather, they tend to suggest fiscal restraint and less protection for labour market insiders, while simultaneously promoting measures that benefit vulnerable groups in society. During the second decade of EMU, recommendations have gradually become more favourable of state intervention. The fourth paper investigates possible reasons for (non-)compliance with the Semester. It argues that recommendations are more likely to be implemented when their policy direction is in line with national governments' economic ideology. The analysis shows that recommendations advocating less state intervention in the economy are more likely to be implemented under right-wing governments.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Traut, author = {Traut, Frederik}, title = {Regulatory Corridors. The Reasons Behind Complexity in International and European Banking Regulation Accords}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-4074}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-40743}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {309}, abstract = {The international banking regulation regime is complex. This complexity leaves room for regulatory arbitrage and boosts administrative burdens, which reduces its mitigating effect on financial instability. This book addresses the question on why states agree on such a potentially inefficient regime. First, it evaluates research on international banking regulation negotiations, which either neglect complexity or offer insufficient functionalist regulatory capture arguments for its emergence. Second, it proposes an economic cost-benefit model that explains complexity in international banking regulation as a function of diverging preferences in multipolar negotiations. This is based on an outcome-based definition of complexity: regimes that yield a set of different potential outcomes for the same banks are complex. The degree of complexity is described by a regulatory corridor whose walls are the boundaries of this set. The larger such a corridor, the more costly are its implications in terms of stability but its boundaries come closer to the preferences of signatories. Based on this assumed trade-off, three main claims are derived: (i) states with diverging preferences will introduce at least some complexity in their multinational regulatory regime, as a regulatory corridors-solution allows at least one of them to come closer to their initial preferences, which is individually welfare-enhancing; (ii) this is not only a collective action problem, as a central planner would also introduce complexity (potentially to a different extent); and (iii) this holds in an intertemporal case with an infinite time-horizon; changing expectations might widen the optimal regulatory corridor. Third, these claims are evaluated in three qualitative case studies on the treatment of operational risk in Basel II, the implementation of Basel III capital requirements in the European Union, and the European bank resolution regime. They find support for propositions (i) and (ii). Other methods might be needed to evaluate (iii). A policy-relevant result of this research is that some degree of complexity can contribute to welfare-enhancement. Complexity that is the result of unmanaged collective action by states could reduce collective welfare while still being individually rational. Regulators should treat complexity as a variable in negotiations to achieve the former and avoid the latter.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{BerenbergGossler, author = {Berenberg-Gossler, Paul}, title = {Financial Integration and Regulation: Essays in Macroeconomics}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-37189}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {131}, abstract = {This thesis consists of three chapters investigating the interactions between the financial and real sector. It provides new evidence on (i) the correlation between portfolio investment integration and business cycle synchronization, (ii) financial regulation and how it is driven by the business cycle, and (iii) electoral incentives influencing financial regulators. Chapter 1 analyses the correlation between cross-border portfolio investment integration and business cycle synchronization. Using data on 29 advanced economies' cross-border financial asset holdings, it shows that portfolio investment integration correlates positively with business cycle synchronization when faced with idiosyncratic shocks. However, it correlates negatively when faced with common or global shocks. Chapter 2, coauthored with Gon{\c{c}}alo Pina, employs a text-mining approach to build a new dataset on regulatory actions against the US financial advisor industry. Employing a Bartik shift-share instrument, it provides causal evidence that regulatory actions are driven by the business cycle. Chapter 3, coauthored with Gon{\c{c}}alo Pina, discusses the political economy of regulatory actions against the US financial advisor industry. It shows that regulators consistently delay punishment against firms prior to gubernatorial elections.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Linek, author = {Linek, Maximilian}, title = {Measures to Influence Individual Behavior: Four Essays in Economics}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-3725}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-37255}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {118}, abstract = {This dissertation in economics studies the effects of changing individuals' choice environments on their behavior. The choice environment is the setting within which an individual makes her decision. It is widely acknowledged that even inconspicuous changes to this environment can have strong effects on behavior. This notion has spurred large efforts in the public and private sector to design these environments and steer behavior. The dissertation studies four measures that change choice environments to achieve public and private objectives. The first chapter investigates the effects of community meetings on behavior changes that were desired by the central government in Rwanda. It studies these effects with and without performance incentives for local leaders and sheds light on who controls meetings and how they operate. The second chapter studies expected effects of Basic Income on time use, deploying a large-scale survey experiment. The results show intended reallocations that may contribute to foster social cohesion in society. In addition, the chapter suggests its methodology as a new approach to explore policies that are difficult or costly to test. Finally, the third and fourth chapter study the effects of social information and defaults in online donations. The third chapter shows that the empirical regularity of conditional cooperation fails. The fourth and last chapter explores the complex relationship between different numbers and values of donation amount defaults.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{MartinezLopez, author = {Mart{\´i}nez L{\´o}pez, Gabriel Tarriba}, title = {The roots of ambition: Explaining the immigrant advantage in educational aspirations and choices in Western Europe}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-3773}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-37738}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {155}, abstract = {In most Western European countries, the children of immigrants generally have a lower educational performance than children of native origin. Yet controlling for performance, they tend to make more ambitious educational choices. While the first phenomenon is largely explained by the disadvantaged socioeconomic situation of most immigrant families, the reasons for the second phenomenon remain unclear. In this doctoral dissertation, I explore some of the mechanisms that could account for the high educational ambitions of the children of immigrants in Western Europe. The dissertation comprises an introductory chapter followed by three empirical chapters. Chapter 2 focuses on the effects of cross-nativity parentage on the likelihood of enrolling in academic upper secondary school in England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. Transnational children (those with a first-generation and a second-generation immigrant parent) display the high educational ambition of children with two immigrant parents in most regards. In contrast, mixed children (those with a first-generation immigrant parent and a native-origin parent) closely resemble children with two native parents. In chapter 3, I examine the relationship between children's sources of information on future education and their realistic educational aspirations. I analyze how this relationship differs between natives and the children of immigrants in England and Sweden. The results indicate that for natives in both countries, and for the children of immigrants in England, information is positively related to realistic educational aspirations. However, information does not seem to affect the aspirations of the children of immigrants in Sweden and, for foreign-born children who immigrated before age 6, the relationship seems to be negative. Finally, in chapter 4, I explore ethnic differences in intergenerational educational mobility in Germany, focusing on the comparison between native-origin youth, Turkish-origin youth and the children of native German immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. I find that immigrant-origin youth are more likely to be upwardly mobile in terms of educational attainment, and that they are less affected by their parents' educational attainment than natives. Moreover, I find a moderating role of age of immigration. I discuss possible explanations for my findings, including contextual differences in the substantive meaning of educational attainment.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Loschert, author = {Loschert, Franziska Eva}, title = {Business as usual in times of Politicisation? Preferences of member states regarding EU labour migration policies}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-4013}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-40137}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {297}, abstract = {What drives the positions taken by EU member states in the Council? Liberal Intergovernmentalism most prominently argues that governments enjoy the leeway of a 'permissive consensus' to represent the interests of strong domestic producer groups in the Council. Yet, in a Postfunctionalist Union, where citizens are no longer 'rationally ignorant' about their governments' decisions in Brussels, identity politics are expected to override issue-specific business interests. The key mechanism that brings us from Moravcsik's insulated 'client politics' to Postfunctionalist 'mass politics' is the phenomenon of politicisation. EU labour migration policies targeting third country nationals is a policy field where both clientelist business interests and politicised mass public interests are likely to surface, clash, and influence policymakers. While business demands liberalised and harmonised labour migration policies, governments under public scrutiny and pressure from right-wing populist parties are concerned that meeting the employers' demands when legislating in Brussels will be costly in upcoming elections. This dissertation poses the question whether and to what extend politicisation of the EU and of immigration moderates the responsiveness of government to issues-specific interests of employers or mass public interests when negotiating EU labour migration policies. Drawing on a time-consistent quantitative measurement of politicisation of the EU and immigration in four member states, I study the impact of politicisation on the state preferences regarding five draft directives on EU labour migration policies. My research finds that the evidence for a moderating effect of politicisation on the responsiveness of governments is weak. Instead, whether governments respond to business or mass public interests is largely determined by the issue-specific dependence of employers on a common EU policy to attract labour migrants. If dependence is considered high, governments tend to represent employers' interests and harmonise labour migration policies. Yet, this dissertation shows that identity and sovereignty related concerns matter as well but manifest more strongly in governments' preferences when issue-specific dependence is low, because unilateral policies are considered more effective. Only against this background of an 'ignorant or sceptical business' does politicisation have at times a reinforcing effect upon the responsiveness of governments to the communitarian parts of their electorate.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Engelbrecht, author = {Engelbrecht, Sandra}, title = {From pressure for change to actual change: How class actors' responses to labour migration shape the trajectories of continuity and change in employment relations institutions}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-4004}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-40048}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {432}, abstract = {This dissertation uncovers how pressure for change in the European Union (EU) open market is translated into actual change by explaining how employers' use of migrant labour, and trade unions' responses thereto, drive institutional developments in three areas central to the governance of work: collective bargaining, job security regulations, and workplace representation. Based on process-tracing case studies of the German manufacturing sector, the German, Norwegian, and Swedish construction and hotel and restaurant sectors, I trace how sectoral differences in the interactions between employers and trade unions trigger distinct causal processes that contribute either to institutional continuity or liberalization. The findings reveal that liberalization in Germany does not follow a single trajectory: while employers' and trade unions' responses to migrant labour in the manufacturing sector contribute to dualization, the responses in the construction and hotel and restaurant sectors instead contribute to deregulatory liberalization. I find that the class actors' responses in the Swedish construction and hotel and restaurant sectors, in turn, contribute to a third variety of liberalization - socially embedded flexibilization, whereas the actors' responses in the Norwegian construction sector trigger a process of institutional resilience creation, endeavouring to contribute to institutional continuity under high pressure for change. In capturing how individual employers through their use of migrant labour are pursuing non-politically controlled change strategies, this dissertation offers us the insight that employers' logic of action based on compliance with employment relations rules and practices is explicitly contested by the logic of action stimulated by the increased marketization generated through European integration. Aside from addressing the micro-level drivers of change resulting from the accumulated actions of individual employers, this dissertation also highlights the role of different labour supplies in enabling change processes to take place. It is argued that unless trade unions, as counterpart to employers, and nation states in their enforcement and legislative capacities create conditions that disable employers from noncompliance with existing institutions in their use of migrant labour, employers will follow the logic of action encouraged in the EU open market and use their access to migrant labour in ways that result in liberalization of the employment relations.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{MejiaLopez, author = {Mej{\´i}a L{\´o}pez, Luis Everdy}, title = {Guarding the Guardians of the Regulatory State: Understanding the Role of Judicial Accountability in the Governance of Regulatory Agencies}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-3710}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-37103}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {115}, abstract = {This doctoral dissertation contributes to the debate on the accountability of the regulatory state by studying the role of judicial controls in the governance of regulatory agencies. The investigation consists of three individual research projects motivated by an overarching research question, which enquires how does judicial review of administrative decisions shapes the democratic accountability of the regulatory state. The research conducted here bridges frameworks and research methods from political science and administrative law to better understand how different governments have addressed the need for judicial controls to supervise regulatory agencies. The empirical evidence used for this research consists of unique information compiled by the author in three original and comprehensive datasets, which allowed to conduct diverse research methods for the examination of the evidence. The theoretical frameworks adapted for this study are designed to contribute with empirical knowledge about the varieties of judicial accountability adopted globally to supervise regulation authorities of two of the most representative industries operating under the 'independent agency' oversight governance paradigm: the energy and telecommunications public utilities, which are also supervised by competition regulators. The analysis starts with a global perspective of judicial accountability provisions implemented around the globe to supervise regulatory agencies. I conducted a comparative assessment of the intensity of judicial review that courts of appeal can exercise to supervise the legality of regulatory decisions of 100 authorities. The second investigation performs a closer examination of judicial supervision over regulatory agencies from two countries representative of opposite legal traditions: Spain and the United Kingdom. Finally, a third study enquires about the causes that prevent young regulatory agencies to comply with lawful administrative procedures throughout the enforcement of regulation. This last investigation studies the case of the Mexican Agency for Safety, Energy and Environment (ASEA). The overall outcomes of this study advance our understanding of the challenges to improve democratic mechanisms to hold regulatory agencies accountable, which is not only fundamental for a successful performance of regulatory institutions, but also a necessary condition to legitimize the activity of the state, enhance the trust on our governments and the consolidation of democratic values.}, language = {en} }