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Examines determinants of voting behavior on cultural policy issues; case study of the 1994 referendum on the Zurich Opera House, Switzerland. Finds that variations across ballot districts can be explained chiefly with a few socioeconomic variables.

This paper critically assesses the literature on the relationship between economic integration and the environment. In particular, we investigate how trade liberalisation and capital market integration affect environmental policy and thus environmental quality. Conversely, we also study how environmental policy can be used to serve non-environmental (trade policy) goals. The interaction between economic integration and environmental policy is not only approached from a traditional social welfare maximising perspective, but - as a novelty - also includes the emerging political-economic literature on this set of issues. This altered perspective leads us to substantially different results. Moreover, we present the substantial empirical evidence for both perspectives. This allows us to put the theoretical findings in perspective.

Wie treffen wir mutigere Entscheidungen, um zukunfts- und konfliktfähig zu werden? Und warum ist das so schwer? Im Angesicht der Situation Deutschlands und dem Agieren der Regierung in der Frühphase des Ukrainekriegs möchten die Beiträger*innen ein Zeichen für mehr Mut setzten - in der Politik wie in der Gesellschaft, in Krisenzeiten wie im Alltag. In elf pointierten Essays widmen sie sich dieser vernachlässigten Tugend und betrachten ihre verschiedenen Facetten und Voraussetzungen. Zudem leuchten sie die Rahmenbedingungen für mutigere Enscheidungen und ein mutigeres Handeln aus - bis hin zu den individuellen Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen dessen, was Mut ausmacht.

We examine sources of biased terror perceptions. In particular, we investigate how international experts of the IFO World Economic Survey assess the effect of terror on the world economy and the economy of their own country. The results show that respondents from terror stricken countries have more favorable views on the effect of terror on the word economy (but not on their own countries). Male respondents and those from democratic and richer countries are likewise more optimistic.

Wir analysieren die Wirkung der Dezentralisierung auf die Korruption am Beispiel Indonesiens. Aus theoretischer Sicht ist der Effekt unbestimmt: Zwar erhöht die größere Nähe der Betroffenen zu den Entscheidungsprozessen ihre Eingriffs- und Partizipationsmöglichkeiten, und auch der interjurisdiktionelle Wettbewerb senkt tendenziell das Korruptionsniveau, doch ist in Entwicklungsländern auf der lokalen Ebene der politische Prozess oft weniger transparent und die Bürokratie ineffizienter. Wir untersuchen mithilfe einer umfangreichen Befragung die ersten Erfahrungen Indonesiens, das 2001 eine sehr weitreichende Dezentralisierung implementiert hat, und finden, dass das durchschnittliche Korruptionsniveau wenig verändert ist, aber sich die Korruption systematisch zu den Institutionen verlagert hat, deren Entscheidungskompetenzen sich vergrößert haben. Schließlich analysieren wir die Determinanten der regional sehr unterschiedlichen Korruptionsniveaus. ; We analyze the effect of decentralization on the corruption level for the Indonesian example. From a theoretical perspective this effect is undetermined a priori - decentralization brings the decision-making process closer to the people and thus facilitates participation and accountability and sets off an interjurisdictional competition, which both tends to lower corruption. However, in developing countries local political processes are often less transparent and administrations suffer from severe capacity constraints and inefficiencies. We analyze the impact effects of Indonesia's far-reaching decentralization in 2001 on corruption through a very encompassing survey and find that the overall level has remained unaltered, but that corruption has shifted to those institutions that have gained power. We also investigate the determinants of local corruption levels which differ very substantially across Indonesia.

Analyzing law enforcement data on corruption incidents for a panel of 79 Russian regions for the period 2004-2007, we find that the relative salaries of bureaucrats determine corruption levels: Corruption declines as relative salaries rise up to a turning point, beyond which corruption rises again. Other important determinants are the strength of law enforcement, available rents through government budgets and natural resources, education levels, unemployment rates, and income inequality.

The existing literature on the determinants of terrorism treats terror as a uniform phenomenon and does not distinguish between different types of terror. This paper explicitly addresses the heterogeneity of terror by classifying groups according to their ideologies. We show that the pattern of terror and its determinants differ strongly for different types of terror. We analyze determinants of domestic and international terrorism, for target and origin using the Global Terrorism Database and show that there have been major shifts in terror activity and composition over time.

We analyze the determinants of the origin of domestic and international terrorism in a large panel data set of 159 countries spanning from 1970 to 2007. We show that terror increases with GDP per capita, a higher POLITY score measuring a more open and competitive political system and experiences of domestic conflict, anarchy and regime transitions. Our evidence thus contradicts the notion that terrorism is rooted in economic deprivation or that strongly autocratic regimes breed more terrorists. Rather we show that weak or failing states are a hotbed for terrorism. Lastly, we show that domestic terror is determined by similar forces as international terror.