Publications

The KCG has various series of publications to provide research findings and policy implications to different interested groups, e.g., students, academics, policy makers and the public.

Drivers of Renewable Technology Adoption in the Household Sector

14th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Anke Jacksohn, Peter Grösche, Katrin Rehdanz and Carsten Schröder (Energy Economics, 2019, Vol. 81, 216-226)

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we undertake a simultaneous assessment of the importance of factors that are individually found to be significant for the adoption of renewable energy systems by households but are not yet tested jointly[…]

Virtue Ethics Between East and West in Consumer Research: Review, Synthesis and Directions for Future Research

14th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Guli-Sanam Karimova, Nils Christian Hoffmann, Ludger Heidbrink and Stefan Hoffmann (Journal of Business Ethics, 2019)

This literature review systematically synthesizes studies that link consumer research to differences and similarities in virtue ethics between the East and the West, with a focus on early Chinese and ancient Greek virtue ethics. These two major traditions provide principles that guide consumer behavior and thus serve as a background to comparatively explain and evaluate the ethical nature of consumer behavior in the East and the West. The paper first covers Eastern and Western[…]

Which Is the Fairest One of All? A Positive Analysis of Justice Theories

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: James Konow (Cappelen, A.W. and Tungodden, B. (eds.), 2019 The Economics of Fairness, MA: Edward Elgar (reprinted from the Journal of Economic Literature, 2003): Northampton, 68-119)

This paper evaluates numerous positive and normative theories of justice in positive terms, i.e., in terms of how accurately they describe the impartial fairness preferences of real people. In addition, the paper proposes and defends an integrated justice theory based on[…]

Is Fairness in the Eye of the Beholder? An Impartial Spectator Analysis of Justice

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: James Konow (Bauer, A.M. and Meyerhuber, M. (eds), Empirical Research and Normative Theory: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Two Methodological Traditions between Separation and Interdependence, De Gruyter 2020, 237-272 (reprinted from Social Choice and Welfare, 2009): Berlin)

A popular sentiment is that fairness is inexorably subjective and incapable of being determined by objective standards. This study, on the other hand, seeks to establish evidence on unbiased justice and to propose and demonstrate a general approach for measuring impartial views empirically. Most normative justice theories associate impartiality with limited information and with consensus, i.e., a high level of agreement about what is right. In both the normative and positive literature[…]

Equity versus Equality: Spectators, Stakeholders and Groups

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: James Konow, Tatsuyoshi Saijo and Kenju Akai (Journal of Economic Psychology, 2020, Vol. 77, 102171)

Justice figures prominently in a wide variety of economically important contexts that involve both third parties and involved parties, e.g., in environmental regulation, international trade, and legal proceedings. The primary rivals for fairness rules over the distribution of a fixed good are equality and equity (i.e., allocations that are proportional to contributions). This paper reports the results of a dictator experiment in relation to a large variety of factors that might affect these rules[…]

Research Trends in Environmental and Resource Economics: Insights from four Decades of JEEM

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Roland Kube, Andreas Löschel, Henrik Mertens and Till Requate (Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2018, Vol. 92, 433-464)

This paper provides a contemporary analysis of how research issues have developed in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM) over the four decades of its existence. We have classified the articles in the journal along five dimensions: content, methods, environmental media, the regional dimension of studies[…]

Do Climate Engineering Experts Display Moral-Hazard Behaviour?

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Christine Merk, Gert Pönitzsch and Katrin Rehdanz (Climate Policy, 2019, Vol. 19(2), 231-243)

Discourse analyses and expert interviews about climate engineering (CE) report high levels of reflectivity about the technologies’ risks and challenges, implying that CE experts are unlikely to display moral hazard behaviour, i.e. a reduced focus on mitigation[…]