Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Economy - Environment economics, grade: 1,7, University of Heidelberg (Alfred Weber Institut fur Wirtschaftswissenschaften), course: The Economics of Information Disclosure, language: English, abstract: This paper tries to analyze electricity markets from the point of view of standard microeconomic theory. The research paper focuses on the question what role information distribution and information disclosure play for the demand for green electricity products. In the first part of the paper there are several assumptions made about the characteristics of electricity markets and about electricity as consumption good. In the second part the role of information disclosure is evaluated and empirical evidence discussed.

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Economics - Micro-economics, grade: 1,0, University of Heidelberg (Alfred Weber Institut fur Wirtschaftswissenschaften), course: Empirical Political Economy, language: English, abstract: Recent political alarm signals make Lobbying as a research field highly relevant. The main objective is to challenge common approaches to model the mechanisms of how lobbyists gain political influence. I will explain what parameters or factors makes lobbyists more successful in their aim to influence political decision makers and what "channels" they use to do so. This issue is closely related to the question of what makes incumbents prone to lobbyists' activities. This paper starts with a short theoretical introduction to rent seeking games, which are the theoretical underpinning of a school of thought which models lobbying as a kind of political investment through well-aimed campaign contributions. I question the conjecture that financial contributions are the main leverage for lobbyists to gain political influence and provide empirical data which support my claim. My analysis focuses on the total amount of money, which is transferred from U.S. interest groups to U.S. politics and could be understood as political investment through campaign financing. To explain my findings in this context, the question is addressed whether political donations do have a measurable effect on political decisions. In the second part of the paper another popular interpretation of a lobbyist's main instrument to influence is discussed: The provision of special knowledge. Empirical analysis shows that the data delivers strong evidence to reject this idea. Instead, I develop a new way of interpreting the meaning of "special knowledge" by asking what advantage a politician has to socialise with lobbyists. By focusing this question in more detail a theoretical model is introduced which shows how important the concerns of special interest groups could be for p"

Can works of art convey psychological pain? This study deals with the question of whether the paintings of famous artists who have committed suicide are reflective of their inner turmoil. The authors discovered that, in the absence of information about or interpretation by the artists, paintings provided sufficient information to enable non-expert judges to make reliable content-related judgements (e.g. destructiveness and hopelessness) that distinguished between paintings created near the time of artists' suicides and their paintings created at a time of better mental well-being. It was also found that non-expert judges were able to correctly identify suicide paintings from an array of various other paintings. The authors discuss the relevance of these findings for psychological work both in terms of assessment and treatment of people with suicidal feelings.