Research


Here is my Google scholar profile. This pages focuses on current working papers and portrays some work in progress. Publications are listed below.


WORKING PAPERS

Flechtner, S. (2023): "Beyond Fads and Magic Bullets: The Promise of Behavioural Approaches in Development Economics"(R-R Journal of Economic Surveys)


The history of development economics has been portrayed as a succession of fads and magic bullets. This study inquires whether behavioural approaches to economic development are destined to become such a fad or whether they have long-lasting contributions to offer. I first show that behavioural development economics is not yet a cohesive field with a consensual definition and propose to distinguish three different views of behavioural development economics: the scarcity view, the non-optimal behaviour view, and the psycho-social-cultural-view. I provide a systematic review of publications in the field of behavioural development economics from 2000-2021, distinguishing these three fields. The non-optimal view has been, by far, the dominant view, and self-control issues stand out as the single-most studied behavioural mechanism. Finally, I argue that the sub-field's ability to advance the understanding of behaviour relevant to the persistence or alleviation of poverty depends crucially on the inclusion of the psycho-social-cultural view. This view has important contributions to offer in terms of (1) the diagnosis of non-rational behaviour, (2) the identification and measurement of behavioural mechanisms and (3) understanding conditions of external validity, and should be embraced more enthusiastically.


Lich, U., Flechtner, S. & Pelz, S. (2023): "Women, Energy, and Empowerment: Exploring Gender Disparities in Cooking Fuel Adoption and Appliance Ownership" (submitted/ under review)


This study delves into the intricate relationship between universal access to electricity and gender equality. Despite the Sustainable Development Goals' alignment, empirical evidence reveals potential disparities in the benefits of electricity access for women. The research investigates how gendered decision-making within households is associated with energy usage patterns, specifically focusing on cooking fuels and household appliances. Analyzing data from the World Bank's Multi-Tier Framework from Honduras, Nepal and Rwanda, we explore the relationship of female agency levels and female household heads with fuel choices and appliance ownership. We find that Nepalese households are up to 12 percentage points more likely to use clean cooking fuels when women in the household experience high levels of agency, but find no such associations in Honduras or Rwanda. In terms of household appliances, we observe mixed results. In Honduras, we find some suggestive evidence that households with higher female agency are more likely to own fridges and to have established the required electricity service. Women in Nepal seem to be slightly less prone to appliance ownership in general, while the opposite is observed in Rwanda. The findings highlight the significance of context-specific preferences, emphasizing the importance of inclusive electrification strategies that cater to diverse gender perspectives.


Flechtner, S. & Middelanis, M.: "The Role of the Commodity Price Boom in Shaping Public Social Spending: Evidence from Latin America" (R-R World Development)


We study the potential impact of the commodity price boom of 2003 to 2013 on public social spending in Latin America. We estimate structural vector autoregression and local projections for 16 Latin American countries and enquire if we can

attribute increases in public spending on health, education, and social protection to increases in a country's net commodity export prices. Focusing on the impulse responses derived from country-specic estimations, we nd a huge variety in response

patterns. We identify three countries where the commodity price boom led to lasting increases in public social spending (Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico). Some other countries increased their public spending over shorter periods of time of one

or two years and fell back to pre-boom levels thereafter (Brazil, Chile), while yet others did not respond at all (Bolivia, Colombia, Peru). As expected, we cannot relate public social spending with commodity prices in countries without commodity price boom. Among countries with positive responses, there is no clear tendency concerning the function of spending that benets most. We discuss potential explanations behind the heterogeneity of our country-wise results and conclude that the presence of left-wing governments, fiscal rules, natural resource funds and economic diversication provide plausible explanations for single country cases, no general patterns emerge. We conclude that the commodity price boom was neither necessary nor sucient for social policy expansion in Latin America, and factors explaining its eects dier from country to country.


Flechtner, S. and D'Ippoliti, C. (2023): "Individual-level determinants of field of study choices explain only a minor part of horizontal gender segregation" (submitted/ under review)


We review the main economic theories on horizontal gender segregation, with a focus on student-level determinants of field of study choices. The economic literature has first conceptualized field choices as investment in human capital – with explanations based on students’ skills, and the prospective occupations’ expected returns and risks –, then as consumption – based on students’ preferences, and gender-specific social norms. While previous studies have tested these explanations separately, we use a unique dataset of secondary school graduates in Germany to consider all simultaneously. We find that all explanations considered are statistically relevant but substantially only marginally important. Our findings lend support to the recent turn away from individual-level determinants of horizontal segregation, focusing on the roles of schools (e.g. competitiveness of school environment and gender composition), teachers (e.g. teacher gender-matches), and broader communities (e.g availability of role models and peer effects).


Flechtner, S. & Heinrich, T. (2023): "Drivers of youth outsiderness in European labour markets. A comment on Marques and Salavisa (2017) with a note on interpreting sufficiency in fsQCA" (link to previous version) (submitted/ under review)


Marques and Salavisa (2017) use fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze age-based labour market dualization in Southern European, Anglo-Saxon and a few Nordic countries. They argue that segmentation at the expense of young outsiders is driven by several factors in non-linear ways: deindustrialization, labour market coordination, employment protection, and liberalization can lead to youth outsiderness. We are able to replicate their analysis in technical terms, but argue that the analysis and the interpretation of its results are subject to technical misunderstandings. When correcting for these, we must call into question the study's results. To underpin our argument, we provide a hands-on discussion of how two measures of fit in fsQCA - the consistency and PRI scores of the sufficiency solution terms - are calculated. A good understanding of these allows the researcher to understand which cases and configurations drive the results, and thus facilitates technically correct decisions during the analysis and a better understanding of the results. We conjecture that the original paper cannot present conclusive evidence on the hypotheses it sought to test for a lack of sufficient variation in the empirical data sample.


Faininger, R. & Flechtner, S. (2023): "Heterogeneous migrant wealth gaps in Germany" 


We analyse the migrant wealth gap in Germany, using Recentered Influence Functions (RIF)-decomposition on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 2017 and distinguishing migrants from different origins (high-income vs. non high-income countries of origin) as well as from the first and second generation of migration. While households without migration history own more overall net wealth than all of these sub-groups, the wealth gap for migrants from high-income countries is considerably lower. The largest wealth gap is experienced by households originating from non high-income countries in the upper half of the distribution, who own less than half of the wealth of native households. Household characteristics explain a relatively large part of the wealth gap for second-generation migrants from high-income countries, but only half of the gap or less for the other three groups. The most relevant household characteristics include age, income, and education, with considerable heterogeneity across groups and percentiles. Remittances and assets held abroad, differential rates of return to different assets that prevail in different groups, as well as inheritances may account for the large unexplained parts.


Flechtner, S. (2022): "(Why) do poor households under-save? A review of the behavioural literature"


Under-saving of poor households in developing countries is an intensively studied topic in behavioral development economics. According to a growing body of empirical studies, poor households’ savings are constrained by behavioral factors such as self-control problems. This paper reviews the empirical evidence since 2000. The main finding is that

the behavioral analysis of under-saving has produced little robust evidence concerning the relevance of behavioral explanations for under-saving, and implications for policymaking are still rather unclear. Most studies have been dedicated to the study of self-control problems, but clear and unambiguous evidence of a link between self-control problems and under-saving is scarce. Some studies are in themselves inconclusive; at other times, different studies reach contradictory conclusions that are difficult to reconcile, raising concerns about the generalizability and external validity of single studies’ findings. The article concludes by proposing some steps towards the reconciliation of different findings.




WORK IN PROGRESS



Flechtner, S. and D'Ippoliti, C.: "Can women in STEM close the gender gap?"


Flechtner, S. & Hardeck, I.: "Does business taxation influence wage levels?"


Unterein, D., Flechtner, S., Stephan, M. & Werner, A.: "Introducing the 4-day-week in a medium-size firm: effects on productivity, job satisfaction, and health"



 


OTHER WRITINGS

"Think Positive, Climb out of Poverty? It’s Just Not So Easy!" , blog post at developingeconomics.org, 9 August 2018.


"Poor Behavior, Good Behavioral Policies? Double Standards for the North and South", blog post at developingeconomics.org, 14 September 2017.


"Towards a Critical Pluralist Research Agenda in Development Economics: Some Bricks from Berlin to Build Upon", blog post at developingeconomics.org (jointly with Jakob Hafele and Theresa Neef), 13 July 2017.

 

PUBLICATIONS


Flechtner, S. (2023): "The reproduction of inequalities through educational aspirations: evidence from teenagers in India", Journal of Development Studies, doi: 10.1080/00220388.2023.2273799.


Flechtner, S. & Sánchez-Ancochea, D. (2022): "Why is knowledge accumulation so hard? Exploring econometric research on the determinants of social policy in Latin America", Latin American Research Review 57: 258-277. doi:

10.1017/lar.2022.21.


Flechtner, S: (2021): "Poverty research and its discontents: Review and Discussion of Issues Raised in Dimensions of Poverty. Measurement, Epistemic Injustices and Social Activism, (2020)", Review of Income and Wealth 67(2), 530-544. doi:

10.1111/roiw.12498.


Flechtner, S. (2020): "Winning the fight against global poverty one experiment at a time? The Economics Nobel 2019", ORDO – Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 70(1): 395-406.


Flechtner, S. & Gräbner, C. (2019): "The heterogeneous relationship between income and inequality: a panel co-integration approach", Economics Bulletin 39(4): 2540-2549.


Decker, S., Elsner, W. & Flechtner, S. (2019, eds): Principles and Pluralist Approaches in Teaching Economics: Towards a Transformative Science. Routledge Advances in Heterodox Economics. London: Routledge.   


Flechtner, S. (2019): "Entwicklung und Freiheit - Verhaltens-, sozio- und entwicklungsökonomische Perspektiven", in Katharina Hirschbrunn, Ulrich Klüh und Richard Sturn (eds), Jahrbuch Normative und institutionelle Grundfragen der Ökonomik, 17: Kapitalismus und Freiheit. Marburg: Metropolis.


Decker, S., Elsner, W. & Flechtner, S. (2018, eds): Advancing Pluralism in Teaching Economics: International Perspectives on a Textbook Science. Routledge Advances in Heterodox Economics. London: Routledge.


Flechtner, S. (2017): "Should aspirations be a matter of policy concern?", Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 18(4): 517-530, doi: 10.1080/19452829.2017.1364224.


Flechtner, S. (2017): "Individuelle Zielsetzungen – ein Ansatzpunkt zur Bekämpfung von Armut und Ungleichheiten?", Der Öffentliche Sektor - The Public Sector 43(2): 49-53.


Flechtner, S. (2017): "Growth Miracle or Endangered Development? Vested Interests, Policy-Making, and Economic Development in the Dominican Republic", Journal of Economic Issues 51(2): 323-331.


Flechtner, S. (2017): "Inequality, (unmet) aspirations and social protest", in H. Hanappi & S. Katsikides (eds), Evolutionary Political Economy in Action. A Cyprus Symposium, Part 1: Political Economy in Action: 109-123. Abingdon/ New York: Routledge.


Flechtner, S. (2017): "Desigualdad y desenvolvimiento económico en la República Dominicana - Un análisis desde la perspectiva de la economía política", in A. Klump and C. Felbeck (eds), Dominicanidad: Perspectivas de un concepto transnacional: 169-203. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.


Flechtner, S. (2016): Aspirations and the persistence of poverty and inequalities. Dissertation, Europa-Universität Flensburg.


Flechtner, S. & Panther, S. (2016): "Economic inequality, political power and political decision-making: the case of the 'middle-income trap'", in S. Fadda & P. Tridico (eds), Varieties of Economic Inequality: 72-94. Abingdon/ New York: Routledge.


Flechtner, S. (2014): "Aspiration Traps: When Poverty Stifles Hope", World Bank Inequality in Focus, 3(1),  January 2014.