Do Laws Shape Attitudes? Evidence From Same-Sex Relationship Recognition Policies in Europe
(joint with Cevat G. Aksoy, Christopher S. Carpenter, and Ralph De Haas)
Understanding whether laws shape or simply reflect citizens’ attitudes is important but empirically difficult. We provide new evidence on this question by studying the relationship between legal same-sex relationship recognition policies (SSRRPs) and attitudes toward sexual minorities in Europe. Using data from the European Social Surveys covering 2002-2016 and exploiting variation in the timing of SSRRPs across countries, we show that legal relationship recognition is associated with statistically significant improvements in attitudes toward sexual minorities. These effects are widespread across demographic groups, emerge only after the policies are adopted, and are not observed for views on other social issues. Our results suggest that laws can exert a powerful influence in shaping societal attitudes.
Structural Estimation of Limited Attention on eBay Germany
(Preliminary draft available upon request)
The separation of the price for a good or service into a base part and one or more smaller parts is called "partitioned pricing". While classical theory would predict that partitioned pricing should not affect consumer decisions, empirical evidence suggests that it does because consumers exhibit limited attention with regards to the smaller price part. I revisit the question by web-scraping publicly available choice-level data from eBay Germany. I estimate a model of limited attention in the context of online purchases in which sellers can split the product price into a base price and a shipping fee. I extend past research by applying a structural approach that allows quantifying the effect of the bias on consumer welfare. Further, I focus on posted-price purchases while previous research has mainly focused on auctions. Using observed data also allows me to analyze products of different price levels, which is generally not feasible in experiments due to financial constraints. Preliminary evidence suggests that consumers exhibit limited attention with regard to the shipping fee across all products.
Airbnb and Rents: Evidence from Berlin
(joint with Tomaso Duso, Claus Michelsen, and Maximilian Schäfer)
We assess the causal impact of the peer-to-peer accommodation platform Airbnb on rent prices using the introduction of a law that bans the misuse of apartments as short-term rentals in Berlin, Germany.
In the political debate about regulating the peer-to-peer accommodation platform Airbnb, proponents of regulation are often concerned about the platform's potential impact on the housing market through the displacement of long-term rentals. While several cities worldwide have already reacted to the rise of Airbnb with different policy interventions, causal evidence on the topic remains scarce.
We use the introduction of regulation of Airbnb as an instrument for the number of Airbnb listings. We systematically select control variables from a rich set of variables using a double-Lasso estimator. Our results suggest that one additional nearby entire home listed on Airbnb increases rents by 15 cent on average.
Modeling Spatial Competition to Study the Impact of Airbnb on the Hotel Sector
(joint with Maximilian Schäfer)
