In this brown bag seminar all NWO candidates will have the opportunity to practice their proposal presentation. Your (critical) feedback will be highly appreciated.
Eva Janssens: “Estimation and identification of parameters in macroeconomic models with incomplete markets”
Studying the macroeconomy using heterogeneous agent models with incomplete markets is becoming the norm rather than the exception. In order to reap the fruits of these developments, reliable estimation methods have to be developed for these models. By developing both frequentist and Bayesian econometric methods, the aim of this research project is to take medium to large-scale incomplete market models to the data and to demonstrate how we can use these estimates to answer relevant policy questions, such as the effect of tax changes on inequality, or increased labor market flexibility on aggregate labor supply.
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Oscar Soons: “An Institutionally Diverse Monetary Union”
For a decade, the European Monetary Union was celebrated as a great success. It seemed to facilitate European integration, enhancing trade and risk sharing and stimulating growth. The recent financial and sovereign debt crises have, however, exposed the fragility of a monetary union among countries with very different institutions. This research will study monetary unification using a novel approach, focusing on persistent and diverse institutional quality. The goal is to study how the institutionally diverse nature of the European Monetary Union affects its stability and sustainability, and what the implications are for future reforms.
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Rik Letterie: “Reform in the Dutch Market for Long-Term Care: Quantifying the Benefits of Choice and Price-Cap Regulation”
Long-term health care provision in the Netherlands is one of the most expensive in the world. Moreover, there are serious concerns about the quality of the care provided. To contain the costs, the government made eligibility for intramural care more stringent in the reforms of 2013 and 2014; more recently, in 2018, the government has replaced price fixing by incentive-regulation to stimulate care homes to increase quality. Our research will use data on patient choices and care home characteristics to first estimate demand and supply and then quantify the patient welfare effects of changes in eligibility criteria and price regulation.
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Katharina Brütt: “Endogenous group formation and decision-making”
This project will examine the impact of endogenous group formation processes on differences in how groups and individuals make decisions. It will do so theoretically and in laboratory experiments. The focus lies on how self-selection and rules governing entry and exit of members alter a group’s compositions and its consequences for decision-making. We will specifically investigate how these mechanisms affect the extent to which decisions are pro-social in strategic interactions and the quality of decisions in cognitively challenging environments. Drivers of self-selection and group dynamics, such as social preferences and beliefs about group member’s preferences and abilities, will be identified.
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Benjamin Wache: “Communications Technology, Innovation, and Financial Flows: Evidence from the 19th Century”
Does innovative communication technology lower information frictions, and how does this impact the economy? This dissertation investigates these questions, using data on the telegraph from the 19th century network as a laboratory. Projects in this dissertation address the following issues: Did the telegraph have an impact on the amount of innovation in those locations where it arrived? Did the telegraph lead to increased financial flows, and did this in turn foster innovation? What are the telegraph’s effects in the long run? A major contribution of this dissertation will be the creation of data on telegraph network in the U.S.
