Welcome
The Unit Empirical Economic Research, represented by Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler, offers courses in the area of statistical as well as micro- and panel econometric methods. All econometric courses include computer exercises with the program package Stata, in which the previously discussed methods and approaches are applied to real data sets. Further information on the courses can be found here.
At the same time, the unit conducts empirical and especially econometric research in the field of environmental, energy, climate and sustainability economics. The work is largely based on data from representative national and international household surveys, but also on firm-specific data. Further information on ongoing and already completed research projects can be found here.
Fourth International "Workshop on Empirical Sustainable Finance (WESFi)" at the University of Kassel
The Units Empirical Economic Research and Sustainable Finance hosted the fourth "Workshop on Empirical Sustainable Finance (WESFi)" on October 20 and 21, 2022. Current empirical work and ideas on the topics of "Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)" and "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)" were presented and discussed. The workshop was organized in hybrid form. Thus, as in previous years, renowned scientists from different countries (Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland) were able to participate.
Articles in the Welt am Sonntag, the Haufe Group portal and the Stuttgarter Zeitung on CO2 offsets
Conferences 2022
The unit was again extremely successful in 2022 in submitting current research for presentation at prestigious international conferences. All members of the unit had the opportunity to discuss their research with international colleagues. Based on competitive review processes, the unit was represented at the following conferences, for example:
At the 27th Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) in Rimini from June 28 to July 01, 2022, Daniel Engler, Dr. Gunnar Gutsche, Dr. Anja Köbrich León, Sophia Möller, Amantia Simixhiu and Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler had the opportunity to present their current work.
At the 37th Conference of the European Economic Association (EEA) in Milan from August 22 to August 26, 2022, Dr. Gunnar Gutsche and Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler had the opportunity to present their current work.
At the 5th conference of the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI) from September 05 to September 07, 2022 in Zurich, Dr. Gunnar Gutsche and Sophia Möller had the opportunity to present their current work.
At the annual conference of the Verein für Socialpolitik from September 11 to September 14, 2022 in Basel, Daniel Engler had the opportunity to present his current work.
Roundtable "Sustainability in the Private Portfolio: Is Transparency the Key to More Sustainable Investment Decisions?"
On February 23, 2022, the Units Empirical Economic Research and Sustainable Finance hosted the roundtable "Sustainability in the Private Portfolio: Is transparency the key to more sustainable investment decisions?". The roundtable is part of the "Dialogue on Climate Economics", the accompanying process to the BMBF funding priority Economics of Climate Change II, where representatives from practice and science discussed in particular the challenges arising in the private portfolio due to new regulatory frameworks (e.g. the introduction of the EU taxonomy for sustainable economic activities). Due to the Corona crisis, the roundtable was hosted in digital format.
The results of the roundtable were summarized by Dr. Gunnar Gutsche at the 11th Forum Climate Economics. The corresponding video can be found here.
Brief study on vaccination status and preparedness in fall 2021.
A brief study by the Universities of Kassel and Gothenburg and the SRH University of Applied Sciences Heidelberg on vaccination status and willingness to vaccinate in Germany in the fall of 2021 has once again shown that the proportion of those willing to vaccinate varies greatly from region to region. In addition, with regard to attitudes toward childhood vaccination, it was found that among parents, willingness to vaccinate their own children depends strongly on their own vaccination status (vaccinated or unvaccinated). The full brief study can be found here.
On December 13, 2021, an article on the study was published in the HNA-Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine. The full newspaper article can be found here.
On March 10, 2022, at an event organized by the Institute for Work and Technology (IAT) entitled "Between Fear, Skepticism, and Denial: What Do We Know About People with Vaccination Reservations in the Covid-19 Pandemic?", scientists and those responsible for health policy and the health care industry exchanged ideas about the arguments people with reservations about COVID-19 vaccinations use and how such reservations can be overcome. Dr. Elke D. Groh brought the results of the brief study, in conjunction with results of a more in-depth econometric analysis, as scientific input to the discussion. The IAT press release on the event can be found here.
For further inquiries, please contact Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler, Dr. Elke D. Groh (University of Kassel) and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Habla (SRH University of Applied Sciences Heidelberg).
Study on household electricity consumption
In a study, Dr. Elke D. Groh and Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler investigated the influence of individual attitudes and values on household electricity consumption. This study was published in February 2022 in the journal Ecological Economics published.
On November 22, 2021, an article on the study was published in the HNA-Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine newspaper. The full newspaper article can be found here.
On December 02, 2021, Hessischer Rundfunk broadcast an interview with Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler and Dr. Elke D. Groh about this study on hrINFO, hr4 and hr1. The complete interview can be found below:
Article in Stuttgarter Zeitung: "What's the use of climate calculators?"
On October 29, 2021, an article on climate calculators andCO2 offsets was published in the Stuttgarter Zeitung, which contains assessments by Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler. You can find the complete article here.
Berlin Energy Days 2021
On April 21, Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler participated in the panel discussion of the event "Corona in climate protection: brake or catalyst?" during the Berlin Energy Days 2021, i.e. the central annual conference of the energy transition in Germany. The video of this virtual event will appear here shortly. A short video statement on successful climate policy in the run-up to the event can be found here.
Article in Stuttgarter Zeitung: "Investing money with a good conscience".
On October 27, 2020, an article on sustainable financial products was published in the Stuttgarter Zeitung, containing assessments by Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler. You can find the complete newspaper article here.
Japanese-German research cooperation
Prof. Toshihide Arimura, Asst. Prof. Miwa Nakai, Tatsuya Abe and Riga Wu from the Waseda Institute of Political Economy, in Tokyo, were guests at the Unit Empirical Economic Research and the Unit Economics with a focus on decentralized energy economics in August 2019.
In October 2019, the two units, represented by Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler, Prof. Dr. Heike Wetzel, Dr. Gunnar Gutsche, Dr. Elke D. Groh and Victor von Loessl, visited their research partners in Japan. Within the framework of the "Energy and Climate Policy Workshop" at Kyoto Sangyo University, a workshop with Prof. Takanori Ida at Kyoto University and project meetings for joint research work within the BMBF-funded projects NostaClimate and BeSmart at Waseda University in Tokyo, a productive exchange of latest research findings and joint project ideas took place.
The Japanese-German research cooperation is funded by the DAAD within the framework of the Program for Project-Related Exchange of Persons.
Climate economics projects
Within the framework of the second phase of the BMBF funding program "Economics of Climate Change II", a total of 29 projects are being funded, seven of which involve the University of Kassel. The unit was extremely successful in acquiring the projects. It is involved in a total of four new projects, each with a duration of three years and a total budget of more than 1.3 million euros for the unit. Details on the four collaborative projects NostaClimate, IF, BeSmart and DeGeb can be found here. As part of this funding program, the kick-off conference for the "Dialogue on Climate Economics" took place in Berlin from June 12 to June 14, 2019. Prof. Dr. Andreas Ziegler, Dr. Gunnar Gutsche, Dr. Elke D. Groh and Amantia Simixhiu participated in this conference as representatives of the four projects. The aim of the "Dialogue on Climate Economics" is to communicate the results of the individual projects beyond the boundaries of science and thus to intensify the exchange between research and practice. Further information can be found here.
Current publications
Dannenberg, Astrid, Gunnar Gutsche, Marlene Batzke, Sven Christens, Daniel Engler, Fabian Mankat, Sophia Möller, Eva Weingärtner, Andreas Ernst, Marcel Lumkowsky, Georg von Wangenheim, Gerrit Hornung, and Andreas Ziegler (2024), The effects of norms on environmental behavior, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 18 (1), 165-187
Kanberger, Elke D., Theresa Luigs, and Andreas Ziegler (2024), The relevance of proximity and work-related experiences for the individual support for power plants: An empirical analysis of wind, coal, and nuclear energy, Energy Policy 192, 114185
Kanberger, Elke D. and Andreas Ziegler (2024), The relevance of life-cycle CO2 emissions for vehicle purchase decisions: A stated choice experiment for Germany, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 126, 104031
Schleich, Joachim, Elisabeth Dütschke, Elke D. Kanberger, and Andreas Ziegler (2024), On the relationship between individual carbon literacy and carbon footprints, Ecological Economics 218, 108100
Engler, Daniel, Gunnar Gutsche, Amantia Simixhiu, and Andreas Ziegler (2023), On the relationship between corporate CO2 offsetting and pro-environmental activities in small- and medium-sized firms in Germany, Energy Economics 118, 106487
Gutsche, Gunnar, Heike Wetzel, and Andreas Ziegler (2023), Determinants of individual sustainable investment behavior - A framed field experiment, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 209, 491-508
Haverkamp, Thilo K.G., H. Welsch, and Andreas Ziegler (2023), The relationship between climate protection activities, economic preferences, and life satisfaction: Empirical evidence for Germany, Energy Economics 128, 106938
Kanberger, Elke D. and Andreas Ziegler (2023), On the preferences for an environmentally friendly and fair energy transition: A stated choice experiment for Germany, Energy Policy 182, 113730
Fait, Larissa, Elke D. Groh, and Heike Wetzel (2022), "I take the green one": The choice of regional green electricity contracts in the light of regional and environmental identity, Energy Policy 163, 112831
Groh, Elke D. (2022), Exposure to wind turbines, regional identity and the willingness to pay for regionally produced electricity, Resource and Energy Economics 70, 101332
Groh, Elke D. and Andreas Ziegler (2022), On the relevance of values, norms, and economic preferences for electricity consumption, Ecological Economics 192, 107264
Haefner, Gonzalo, Anja Köbrich León, and Janosch Schobin (2022), Frying Nemo? Experimental evidence on anthropomorphism, animal ethics, and food choice, Appetite 173 (1), 105989
Köbrich León, Anja and Janosch Schobin (2022), Romance and the ozone layer: panel evidence on green behavior in couples, Empirical Economics 63, 2101-2123
Schobin, Janosch (2022), Loneliness and emancipation: a multilevel analysis of the connection between gender inequality, loneliness, and social isolation in the ISSP 2017, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19 (2), 7428
El Ouadghiri, Imane, Khaled Guesmi, Jonathan Peillex, and Andreas Ziegler (2021), Public attention to environmental issues and stock market returns, Ecological Economics 180, 106836
Engler, Daniel, Elke D. Groh, Gunnar Gutsche, and Andreas Ziegler (2021), Acceptance of climate-oriented policy measures under the COVID-19 crisis: An empirical analysis for Germany, Climate Policy 21 (10), 1281-1297
Fischer, Beate, Gunnar Gutsche, and Heike Wetzel (2021), Who wants to get involved? Determining citizen willingness to participate in German renewable energy cooperatives, Energy Research & Social Science 76, 102013
Gutsche, Gunnar, Miwa Nakai, and Toshi H. Arimura (2021), Revisiting the determinants of individual sustainable investment - The case of Japan, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance 30, 100497
Kesternich, Martin, Andreas Löschel, and Andreas Ziegler (2021), Negotiating weights for burden sharing rules in international climate negotiations: An empirical analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy Studies 23 (2), 309-331
Ziegler, Andreas (2021), New Ecological Paradigm meets behavioral economics: On the relationship between environmental values and economic preferences, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 109, 102516
IVWL Research Seminar Economic Behavior and Governance
The IVWL will continue the IVWL Research Seminar Economic Behavior and Governance in the winter semester 2024/25. The goal of the seminar is to intensify the scientific exchange with colleagues from abroad, who are offered a forum to present their current research work at our department. The seminar takes place at Nora-Platiel-Straße 6 in room 0210.
Below you will find the current program:
Wednesday, 23.10.2024, 16:30
Jörg Ankel-Peters (RWI – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Essen): “Seeking scientific consensus - using expert surveys to settle replication debates”
Wednesday, 30.10.2024, 16:30
Adrian Fabre (Centre international de recherche sur l’environnement et le développement, Paris): “International attitudes toward global policies”
Wednesday, 22.01.2025, 16:30
Franziska Hoffart (Kassel Institute for Sustainability, Kassel): "Adressing climate-related asset stranding: Implications for a just energy transition and hydrogen economy"