Essays in political economics [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Marcus Drometer

Essays in Political EconomicsInauguraldissertationzur Erlangung des GradesDoctor oeconomiae publicae(Dr. oec. publ.)an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit˜at Munc˜ henVolkswirtschaftliche Fakult˜at2008vorgelegt vonMarcus DrometerReferent: Prof. Dr. Andreas Hau erKorreferent: Prof. Dr. Berthold WiggerPromotionsabschlussberatung: 04. Februar 2009AcknowledgementsFirst of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Andreas Hau er who always provided mewith an ideal mixture of friendly encouragement and constructive criticism. This thesis hasgained substantially from his comments and suggestions. During the past years, I have alsoreceived a lot of support from colleagues at the Economics Department at the University ofMunich. In particular, I would like to thank Florian Kajuth, Christian Schulte, ChristianTraxler and Hannah H˜ohrisch for helpful advice and many enjoyable lunch and cofiee breaks.Many of the ideas underlying this thesis were stimulated during my stay at the StockholmSchool of Economics and in particular during the lectures at the Institute of InternationalEconomics Studies (IIES) at the University of Stockholm. I would like to acknowledge thehospitality of these institutions and thank Magnus Johannesson, David Str˜omberg, JakobSvensson and Ethan Kaplan for their advice. I also would like to thank Gh˜okan Butarak andIgnat Stepanok for many fruitful discussions and for having made my stay in Stockholm areal pleasure.