Paris School of Economics { Ecole´ des Hautes Etudes´ en Sciences Sociales Evaluating the Non-Monetary Impacts of Major Events, Infrastructure, and Institutions submitted by Christian Krekel, MSc in Economics for obtaining the degree of PhD in Economics London, June 23, 2017 Acknowledgments First, and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Claudia Senik: I benefited a lot from her advice and support, and she has considerably shaped my academic interests, aspirations, and achievements. She has also made my transfer to the Paris School of Economics possible, and in doing so, has considerably shaped my professional path. I cannot thank her enough. I would like to give a special thanks to Andrew Clark, who was very supportive in this transfer, and who was always there for good advice. Clearly, without him, my later transfer to the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics would not have been possible either. In this respect, I also have to thank Gert Wagner for his support, and for always giving me the freedom to pursue my own path. I am similarly thankful to Helmut Luetkepohl. It is hard to describe in words how valuable Nicolas Ziebarth's input over the years was: he was always there when I had questions (there was no e-mail left unanswered, and most of them were answered within 24 hours), and he has been a great mentor, in many ways. I would also like to thank Paul Dolan and Georgios Kavetsos, who I enjoyed working with very much, and who made my research stay in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics possible. The Paris School of Economics, London School of Economics, and German Institute for Economic Research provided excellent research environments. The research infrastructure department German Socio-Economic Panel at the latter was particularly stimulating, and I am indebted to its director, Juergen Schupp, for his support over the years. A big thanks goes to Stephen Gibbons and Katrin Rehdanz, who were so kind to be my external examiners. During my thesis, I made a lot of new acquaintances, many of whom have become friends, especially colleagues from the 2011 cohort in the Graduate Center at the German Institute for Economic Research. Here, I would like to mention in particular Sarah Dahmann and Ste- fan Seifert. I would also like to thank my co-authors who worked with me on the different chapters of this dissertation (Jan Goebel, Jens Kolbe, Dimitris Mavridis, Robert Metcalfe, Ste- fan Szymanski, Tim Tiefenbach, Henry Wuestemann, Alexander Zerrahn), friends who gave valuable input (Daniel Kemptner, Christopher Wratil), as well as participants in seminars and i ii conferences who gave valuable comments and suggestions. Last, but not least, I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Herta Wagner-Krekel and Klaus Dieter Krekel, who always supported me (not least logistically during my many moves), and who were always there when I needed them. Thank you, and apologies to all the people I forgot to mention explicitly. iii Table of Contents List of Tables viii List of Figures xiv List of Abbreviations xvii 0 Introduction 1 0.1 Preliminary Remarks . .1 0.2 A Walk Through the Chapters . .3 0.3 Brief Overview . 11 1 The Fukushima Daiichi Meltdown 15 1.1 Introduction . 16 1.2 Literature Review . 19 1.3 Data . 22 1.4 Empirical Model and Identification . 26 1.5 Results . 32 1.6 Discussion and Conclusion . 60 1.7 Appendix . 63 1.8 Online Appendix . 67 2 Urban Land Use 85 2.1 Introduction . 86 2.2 Data . 89 2.3 Empirical Model . 95 2.4 Results . 98 2.5 Policy Implications . 111 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v 2.6 Discussion . 113 2.7 Online Appendix . 116 3 Wind Turbines 125 3.1 Introduction . 126 3.2 Literature Review . 128 3.3 Data . 130 3.4 Empirical Model . 132 3.5 Results . 139 3.6 Discussion . 154 3.7 Conclusion . 156 3.8 Online Appendix . 158 4 The Olympic Games 193 4.1 Introduction . 194 4.2 Data . 197 4.3 Empirical Strategy . 200 4.4 Baseline Results . 203 4.5 Robustness . 210 4.6 Heterogeneity . 215 4.7 Legacy . 219 4.8 Conclusion . 219 4.9 Appendix: Descriptive Statistics . 224 4.10 Appendix: Attrition . 230 4.11 Appendix: Additional Figures . 234 5 Instructional Time 237 5.1 Introduction . 238 5.2 Data . 243 5.3 Empirical Strategy . 248 5.4 Results . 256 5.5 Discussion and Policy Implications . 279 5.6 Online Appendix . 283 6 Conclusion 301 6.1 Preliminary Remarks . 301 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 6.2 Wrap Up . 301 Bibliography 309 vii List of Tables 0.1 Overview . 12 1.1 Effects of the Meltdown and the Permanent Shutdown on Environmental Con- cerns in Germany . 39 1.2 Effects on Alternative Well-Being Measures in Germany . 40 1.3 Effects on Risk Aversion in Germany . 41 1.4 Effects on Environmental Concerns by Distance to Reactors in Germany . 42 1.5 Effects on Risk Aversion by Distance to Reactors in Germany . 43 1.6 Effects on Life Satisfaction by Distance to Reactors in Germany . 44 1.7 Effects on Environmental Concerns by Sociodemographics in Germany . 48 1.8 Effects on Political Outcomes in Germany . 49 1.9 Effects of the Meltdown on Well-Being, Political Outcomes, and Environmental Concerns in Switzerland . 52 1.10 Effects of the Meltdown on Well-Being and Political Outcomes in the UK . 53 1.11 Comparison of Meltdown and (Placebo) Policy Effects Between Fukushima and Chernobyl . 58 1.12 Descriptive Statistics { Germany (SOEP) . 63 1.13 Descriptive Statistics { Switzerland (SHP) . 65 1.14 Descriptive Statistics { UK (Understanding Society) . 66 1.15 Balancing Properties between Treatment and Control Group, 2010{2011, Germany 68 1.16 Balancing Properties between Treatment and Control Group, 2009{2012, Switzer- land ........................................... 69 1.17 Balancing Properties Between Treatment and Control Group, 2010{2012, UK . 70 1.18 Determinants of Environmental Concerns . 71 1.19 Effects on Environmental Concerns in Germany (Robustness Checks I) . 72 1.20 Effects on Environmental Concerns in Germany (Robustness Checks II) . 73 viii LIST OF TABLES ix 1.21 Effects on Environmental Concerns in Germany (Robustness Checks III) . 74 1.22 Placebo Dates and Placebo Concerns in Germany . 75 1.23 Placebo Policy Dates in Germany . 76 1.24 Effects on Risk Aversion in Germany . 77 1.25 Effects on Environmental Concerns in Germany in a Pure RD Design . 78 1.26 Effects on Life Satisfaction in Germany (Richter et al. (2013) { Replication I) . 79 1.27 Effects on Life Satisfaction in Germany (Richter et al. (2013) { Replication II) . 80 1.28 Potentially Confounding Events in Germany, Switzerland, and the United King- dom in 2011 . 81 1.29 Effects of the Meltdown and the Permanent Shutdown on Environmental Con- cerns in Germany, Logit Models With Marginal Effects . 83 2.1 Independent Variables of Interest . 90 2.2 Descriptive Statistics . 93 2.3 Results { Final Sample, Satisfaction With Life, FE Model, Distances . 99 2.4 Results - Final Sample, Satisfaction With Life, FE Model, Coverages . 100 2.5 Results { Sub-Samples, Satisfaction With Life, FE Models, Distances . 103 2.6 Results { Sub-Samples, Satisfaction With Life, FE Models, Coverages . 105 2.7 Results { Final Sample, Satisfaction With Life, OLS/FE Models, Distances . 116 2.8 Results { Final Sample, Satisfaction With Life, OLS/FE Models, Coverages . 118 2.9 Average Distribution of Most Important Other Categories of Urban Land Use in Terms of Size Within 1 Kilometre Radius Around Households . 120 2.10 Robustness Checks: Systematic Time Differences or Time Changes in Life Sat- isfaction, Distances . 121 2.11 Robustness Check: Estimating both Distances and Coverages in one Model . 122 2.12 Robustness Check: Exclusion of City of Residence Fixed Effects, Distances . 123 2.13 Robustness Check: Effect of Different Types of Urban Land Use on Moving Behaviour, Distances . 124 3.1 Descriptive Statistics for Propensity-Score Matching (PSM) . 137 3.2 Results { FE Models, Propensity-Score (PS) and Spatial (S) Matching Constructionit,4000 ................................... 140 3.3 Results { FE Models, Propensity-Score (PS) and Spatial (S) Matching Constructionit,4000× Intensity ............................. 142 x LIST OF TABLES 3.4 Results { FE Models, Closer.