Publication records

Two articles explain the genesis and contents of the German IT Security Act 2.0, which was enacted in May 2021. This first article focuses on the origins of the law, the obligations of companies as operators of information technology, and the new regulations on the security of IT products.

The sunk cost effect is one of the most well-known decision making biases. In this article, I describe how my co-authors and I developed an 8-item test comprised of hypothetical scenarios to determine the respondent’s susceptibility to the sunk cost effect. We validate the scale with an incentivized experiment. We also find evidence that experience, rather than smarts, which helps people to avoid falling foul of the effect.

This dissertation in the field of empirical financial economics broadly explores the interplay between monetary policy, debt securities markets and bank credit. Specifically, the three chapters of this dissertation share two major themes, debt capital structure and the effects of central bank policy. Chapter 1 studies a determinant of the corporate debt capital structure and it finds that the rise of universal banking conglomerates contributed to the increase in bond financing in the U.S. The article of Chapter 2 links the two themes by analyzing a mechanism that describes how the corporate debt structure influences the transmission of central bank policy to the real economy. When central banks purchase corporate bonds, purchase-eligible firms substitute bond debt for bank loans. This, in turn, frees up balance sheet capacity at banks that then start lending to firms without access to bond markets. Finally, chapter 3 is based on an article that examines to what extent central bank policy, among other causes, may be responsible for the low interest rates in recent years. It also analyzes the consequences of low interest rates and issues policy recommendations.

The European Commission has presented proposals for the horizontal regulation of artificial intelligence. It is thus foreseeable that the regulatory systems of data protection and IT security will be supplemented by a further cross-sectoral approach to the regulation of information technology. This article explains the proposals and describes their advantages and disadvantages.

[Die Europäische Kommission hat Vorschläge vorgelegt, wie eine horizontale Regulierung künstlicher Intelligenz erfolgen soll. Damit ist absehbar, dass neben die Regulierungssysteme des Datenschutzes und der IT-Sicherheit ein weiterer sektorübergreifender Ansatz zur Regulierung von Informationstechnik treten wird.]

Complex tasks often cannot be addressed with expertise, but instead by assembling a diverse cognitive repertoire in teams. In such cases, engaging diversity may enhance performance. Yet various behavioral and social limits often deter organizations from recognizing or integrating valuable diversity. I argue that random selection is an undervalued tool for capturing the diversity bonus because it helps address (1) the paradox of merit, by avoiding fruitless deliberation; (2) biased reasoning, by deciding on the basis of no reason; and (3) learning traps, by discovering self-confirming false beliefs. More generally, incorporating random selection in organizational design can generate a less-is-more effect: deciding by blind luck means exercising less control over outcomes but achieving more by saving time and resources, as well as detecting and sanitizing biased reasons.

Managers are very prone to both benchmarking and stereotyping. These practices lead them into underestimating the power of luck, so that they often attribute success to capabilities and failure to bad luck in people or organizations they see as having the attributes of greatness, while they discount capabilities and attribute success to luck in people or organizations that do not conform to their ideas of greatness. Looking at second-level performers (where luck probably plays a lesser role) may be a smarter way to benchmark.

We provide a canonical and tractable model of a trade platform enabling buyers and sellers to transact. The platform charges a percentage fee on third-party product sales and decides whether to be "hybrid", like Amazon, by selling its own product. It thereby controls the number of differentiated products (variety) it hosts and their prices. Using the mixed market demand system, we capture interactions between monopolistically competitive sellers and a sizeable platform product. Using long-run aggregative games with free entry, we endogenize seller participation through an aggregate variable manipulated by the platform's fee. We show that a higher quality (or lower cost) of the platform's product increases its market share and the seller fee, and lowers consumer surplus. Banning hybrid mode benefits consumers. The hybrid platform might favor its product and debase third-party products if the own product advantage is sufficiently high. We also provide some tax policy implications.

With permission of CEPR. Accepted: RAND Journal of Economics

The article examines the risk of the proliferation of potentially harmful disinformation through 'oral' social media services such as Clubhouse. While false or misleading information may have fewer means to stick and go viral, it is also more difficult to fact-check speakers, which may create new vulnerabilities for the information ecosystem online.