https://hdl.handle.net/10419/222326 2026-09-15T20:44:52Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339362 Title: Basic needs satisfaction as a fundamental distributive principle: Evidence from the lab and the field Authors: Dohmen, Thomas; Meyer, Frauke; Walkowitz, Gari Abstract: This paper provides clear evidence that concerns for basic needs satisfaction (BNS) represent a distinct distributional motive. Using a unified theoretical and experimental framework across five dictator-game experiments in Germany and Georgia (N=446), we disentangle BNS from motives such as maximin, selfishness, efficiency, generosity, and envy. A substantial share of participants displayed BNS-driven choices and were willing to forgo income and efficiency to satisfy others' basic needs. BNS remained robust across contexts, incentive schemes, and countries, and increased when needs satisfaction had strategic relevance. The results highlight the importance of BNS for understanding distributional preferences and policy design. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339378 Title: The impact of interest: Firms' investment sensitivity to interest rates Authors: Best, Lea; Born, Benjamin; Menkhoff, Manuel Abstract: We study how firms' investment responds to interest rate changes based on a German firm survey, combining hypothetical vignettes, open-ended questions, and rich firm data. We estimate a 7 percent semi-elasticity of investment to loan rates-about half the total corporate investment response to monetary policy shocks. Adjustment is heterogeneous: many firms do not react, citing cash buffers or a lack of opportunities, while adjusters revise sharply. Managers' narratives about monetary policy transmission to investment emphasize direct borrowing-cost effects and rarely mention general-equilibrium channels. Local projections show this direct channel is central to output dynamics after monetary policy shocks. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339377 Title: When needs change norms: Experimental evidence that income shocks undermine norm-driven cooperation in forest commons Authors: Suri, Dominik; Börner, Jan; Kebebew, Zerihun; Kube, Sebastian Abstract: Forest protection contributes to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. Yet negative income shocks can induce local forest users to increase extraction in order to cope with economic hardship. We study how social norms shape collaborative forest management when communities face an exogenous income shock. We implement an incentivized framed field experiment with 162 smallholder farmers in rural Ethiopia using an interactive dynamic resource extraction game. Farmers individually decide how many trees to harvest from a community forest: harvested trees yield private income, whereas unharvested trees generate group benefits. They do so under different experimental treatments-either with or without i) the presence of a negative income shock and ii) a previous activation of social norms-allowing us to causally identify mechanisms shaping forest management. We find that the activation of social norms fosters fully sustainable resource management in the absence of an income shock. Moreover, a different norm emerges when the community encounters an income shock: now, harvesting more than can sustainably regrow is considered socially appropriate and harvesting behavior adjusts accordingly. Yet without norm activation, the negative income shock puts even more pressure on deforestation. Taken together, these findings suggest that policy-makers should work with local communities to develop complementary institutional mechanisms that sustain collective forest management in times of crisis. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339380 Title: Missing men and women's demand for political representation Authors: Boelmann, Barbara; Stapper, Carola Abstract: Over the past century, women have gained formal political rights, yet remain under-represented in leadership-partly due to lower demand for representation among women themselves. In this paper, we shift the perspective from why men extended political rights to women toward what shaped women's own demand for representation. Specifically, we study how male absence during World War I affected German women's demand for the franchise, exploiting exogenous variation in drafting intensity across regions for identification. To make demand for political representation directly measurable, we construct a newly digitised panel dataset of the universe of German suffragette clubs - a revealed-preference measure of demand, given the considerable costs of maintaining a club, especially under wartime restrictions on political activism. Our results show that women were more likely to keep suffragette clubs open in counties with greater male absence. This effect is driven by regions where women publicly led war relief efforts, pointing to agency and specifically women's experience in visible leadership roles as the central mechanism. We further show that this demand for representation persisted after the franchise was extended, with women more likely to run for parliament and to vote in counties with greater wartime male absence and a suffragette club. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z