Publications

(with Germà Bel, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Sociey) We study how the privatisation of urban water is being challenged in Catalonia, which has a high proportion of private management and a high degree of monopolisation in the water contract market, compared to Spain. We use detailed and up-to-date municipal data to study the…

(with Germà Bel and Esther Pano, Public Management Review) We investigate the effects of interlocal cooperation in social services, focusing on two poverty-related outcomes: guaranteed minimum income and housing rental support. Using a rich database on municipalities in Catalonia, we firstly apply a quasi-experimental strategy and then perform robustness analyses using panel models. Our most…

(joint with Germà Bel, Environmental Economics and Policy Studies). In this article, we estimate the causal effect of the Door-to-Door waste collection policy on the collection of plastic waste in Catalonia. We use municipality-level data on the share of separately collected light packaging and apply a Difference-in-Differences framework. We find that Door-to-Door increased the share…

(with Gökhan Dilek) Local responses to renewable energy projects range from opposition that delays or blocks deployment to active support and participation. A common narrative underlying these behaviors emphasizes economic considerations: projects that impose local externalities without deliveringlocal benefits tend to face resistance, whereas renewable energy communities (RECs) that are formed by citizens are argued…

(with Germà Bel).   Governments around the globe are considering taking back direct control as an option to reform privatized public services, particularly on the local level. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find that remunicipalization of urban water leads to price reductions of about 3-6 cents per cubic meter in larger municipalities, but the effect…

Joint with Germà Bel, IREA working paper. Municipalities increasingly cooperate with one another to improve their public services. We estimate the causal effect of Inter-Municipal Cooperation (IMC) on the environmental performance of waste collection in Catalonia. Using a difference-in-differences framework and conditioning parallel trends on drivers of selection into treatment, we find that joining an…

(joint with Daniel Lampart, SGB Dossier 153). Seit über 100 Jahren schliessen sich Berufstätige in Gewerkschaften zusammen, um ihre Arbeitsbedingungen und ihre Rechte im Betrieb oder in den Branchen zu verbessern. So verhindern sie, dass sie gegeneinander ausgespielt werden können. Gewerkschaften verhandeln mit den Arbeitgebern…

(joint with Michael Siegenthaler, KOF Analysen 2021(1)) We use data from the Swiss Earnings Structure Survey (SESS) from 1994 to 2018 to document the design of employee contributions to occupational pension funds in Switzerland. We find that contribution rates increased more strongly with age in…

(joint with Daniel Lampart, SGB-Dossier 133) Die Temporärarbeit ist potenziell eine prekäre Arbeitsform. Die Angestellten sind bei einem Temporärbüro angestellt und werden für einen einzelnen Einsatz an Einsatzbetriebe verliehen, meist befristet. Die Mehrheit sucht eigentlich eine Dauerstelle. Sie arbeiten unfreiwillig temporär. Weil die Zukunftsaussichten unsicherer…