Thiemo Fetzer
Biographic Data
| ID | 942272 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thiemo Fetzer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thiemo |
| FAMILY NAME | Fetzer |
| SIGNATURE | FETZER T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Warwick |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3471-3469 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 196 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
How Big Is the Media Multiplier? Evidence from Dyadic News Data
This paper estimates the size of the media multiplier, an easily generalizable model-based measure of how far media coverage magnifies the economic response to shocks. We combine monthly aggregated and anonymized credit card activity data from 114 card-issuing countries in 5 destination countries with a large corpus of news coverage in issuing countries reporting on violent events in the destinations. To define and quantify the media multiplier, …
Monitoring Technology: The Impact of Body-Worn Cameras on Citizen-Police Interactions
We provide experimental evidence that using body-worn cameras (BWCs) for police monitoring improves police-citizen interactions. In an intervention carried out in Brazil in 2018, we find that treated incidents show a 61.2% decrease in police use of force and a 47.0% reduction in adverse interactions, including handcuff use and arrests. The use of body-worn cameras also significantly improves the quality of police reporting. The rate of incomplete…
Team production on the battlefield: Evidence from Nato in Afghanistan
Losing on the home front? Battlefield casualties, media, and public support for foreign interventions
How domestic constituents respond to signals of weakness in foreign wars remains an important question in international relations. This paper studies the impact of battlefield casualties and media coverage on public demand for war termination. To identify the effect of troop fatalities, we leverage the timing of survey collection across respondents from nine members of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Quasi‐experimental…
Political expression of academics on Twitter
Academics play a vital role in the generation and dissemination of knowledge, ideas and narratives. Social media provide new, more direct ways of science communication. Yet, since not all academics engage with social media, the sample that does so may have an outsized influence on shaping public perceptions of academia through the set topics they engage with and their style and tone of communication. We describe patterns in academics' expression …
Crime, Insecurity, and Community Policing: Experiments on Building Trust
How can societies effectively reduce crime without exacerbating adversarial relationships between the police and citizens? In recent decades, perhaps the most celebrated innovation in police reform has been the introduction of community policing, where citizens are involved in building channels of dialogue and improving police-citizen collaboration. Despite the widespread adoption of community policing in the United States and increasingly in the…
Cohesive Institutions and Political Violence
Can revenue sharing of resource rents be a source of distributive conflict? Can cohesive institutions avoid such conflicts? We exploit exogenous variation in local government revenues and new data on local democratic institutions in Nigeria to study these questions. We find a strong link between rents and conflict. Conflicts are highly organized and concentrated in districts and time periods with unelected local governments. Once local government…
Losing on the Home Front? Battlefield Casualties, Media, and Public Support for Foreign Interventions
Organizational, economic or cultural? Firm-side barriers to employing women in Saudi Arabia
Community policing does not build citizen trust in police or reduce crime in the Global South
Easier said than done High-profile instances of police brutality in the last few years have brought attention to patterns of abuse that have existed since the inception of modern policing. There have been many calls for police reform, a process that in many countries has taken the form of increased police engagement with communities. Blair et al . report the results of a large-scale experiment testing the effectiveness of this approach across six…
Coronavirus Perceptions and Economic Anxiety
We provide one of the first systematic assessments of the development and determinants of economic anxiety at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Using a global data set on internet searches and two representative surveys from the United States, we document a substantial increase in economic anxiety during and after the arrival of the coronavirus. We also document a large dispersion in beliefs about the pandemic risk factors of the coronavirus…
Security Transitions
How do foreign powers disengage from a conflict? We study this issue by examining the recent, large-scale security transition from international troops to local forces in the ongoing civil conflict in Afghanistan. We construct a new dataset that combines information on this transition process with declassified conflict outcomes and previously unreleased quarterly survey data of residents’ perceptions of local security. Our empirical design levera…
Subsidising the spread of Covid-19: Evidence from the UK’S Eat-Out-to-Help-Out Scheme
This paper documents that a large-scale government subsidy aimed at encouraging people to eat out in restaurants in the wake of the first 2020 COVID-19 wave in the United Kingdom has had a significant causal impact on new cases, accelerating the subsequent second COVID-19 wave. The scheme subsidised 50% off the cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks for an unlimited number of visits in participating restaurants on Mondays–Wednesdays from 3–31 Augu…
Evaluating Covid-19 Public Health Messaging in Italy: Self-Reported Compliance and Growing Mental Health Concerns
Tariffs and Politics: Evidence from Trump’s Trade Wars
We use the recent trade escalation between the USA and its trade partners to study whether retaliatory tariffs are politically targeted. We find comprehensive evidence using individual and aggregate voting data suggesting that retaliation is carefully targeted to hurt Trump. We develop a simulation approach to construct counterfactual retaliation responses allowing us to quantify the extent of political targeting while also studying potential tra…
Who voted for Brexit? Individual and regional data combined
Previous analyses of the 2016 Brexit referendum used region-level data or small samples based on polling data. The former might be subject to ecological fallacy and the latter might suffer from small-sample bias. We use individual-level data on thousands of respondents in Understanding Society, the UK's largest household survey, which includes the EU referendum question. We find that voting Leave is associated with older age, white ethnicity, low…
Did Austerity Cause Brexit
This paper documents a significant association between the exposure of an individual or area to the UK government's austerity-induced welfare reforms begun in 2010, and the following: the subsequent rise in support for the UK Independence Party, an important correlate of Leave support in the 2016 UK referendum on European Union membership; broader individual-level measures of political dissatisfaction; and direct measures of support for Leave. Le…
More than an urban legend: The short- and long-run effects of unplanned fertility shocks
This paper examines the short- and long-run effects of a quasi-exogenous variation in fertility behavior due to a yearlong period of power rationing in Colombia in 1992. We show that power shortages caused a mini baby boom and that the increase in fertility was unplanned and persistent: the time in between births was reduced and overall lifetime fertility increased. We also present evidence suggesting that women who had a baby due to the outage f…
Market Structure and Borrower Welfare in Microfinance
Motivated by recent controversies surrounding the role of commercial lenders in microfinance, we analyze borrower welfare under different market structures, considering a benevolent non-profit lender, a for-profit monopolist, and a competitive credit market. To understand the magnitude of the effects analyzed, we simulate the model with parameters estimated from the MIX Market database. Our results suggest that market power can have severe implic…
Who voted for Brexit? A comprehensive district-level analysis
On 23 June 2016, the British electorate voted to leave the European Union (EU). We analyse vote and turnout shares across 380 local authority areas in the United Kingdom. We find that exposure to the EU in terms of immigration and trade provides relatively little explanatory power for the referendum vote. Instead, we find that fundamental characteristics of the voting population were key drivers of the Vote Leave share, in particular their educat…
Take What You Can: Property Rights, Contestability and Conflict
Weak property rights are strongly associated with underdevelopment, low state capacity and civil conflict. In economic models of conflict, outbreaks of violence require a prize that is both valuable and contestable. This article exploits spatial and temporal variation in the availability of land with title that is contestable by private actors to explore the relationship between (in)secure property rights and civil conflict in the Brazilian Amazo…
Group lending without joint liability
Did Austerity Cause Brexit
This paper documents a significant association between the exposure of an individual or area to the UK government's austerity-induced welfare reforms begun in 2010, and the following: the subsequent rise in support for the UK Independence Party, an important correlate of Leave support in the 2016 UK referendum on European Union membership; broader individual-level measures of political dissatisfaction; and direct measures of support for Leave. Le…
Subsidising the spread of Covid-19: Evidence from the UK’S Eat-Out-to-Help-Out Scheme
This paper documents that a large-scale government subsidy aimed at encouraging people to eat out in restaurants in the wake of the first 2020 COVID-19 wave in the United Kingdom has had a significant causal impact on new cases, accelerating the subsequent second COVID-19 wave. The scheme subsidised 50% off the cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks for an unlimited number of visits in participating restaurants on Mondays–Wednesdays from 3–31 Augu…
Take What You Can: Property Rights, Contestability and Conflict
Weak property rights are strongly associated with underdevelopment, low state capacity and civil conflict. In economic models of conflict, outbreaks of violence require a prize that is both valuable and contestable. This article exploits spatial and temporal variation in the availability of land with title that is contestable by private actors to explore the relationship between (in)secure property rights and civil conflict in the Brazilian Amazo…
Tariffs and Politics: Evidence from Trump’s Trade Wars
We use the recent trade escalation between the USA and its trade partners to study whether retaliatory tariffs are politically targeted. We find comprehensive evidence using individual and aggregate voting data suggesting that retaliation is carefully targeted to hurt Trump. We develop a simulation approach to construct counterfactual retaliation responses allowing us to quantify the extent of political targeting while also studying potential tra…
Group lending without joint liability
Market Structure and Borrower Welfare in Microfinance
Motivated by recent controversies surrounding the role of commercial lenders in microfinance, we analyze borrower welfare under different market structures, considering a benevolent non-profit lender, a for-profit monopolist, and a competitive credit market. To understand the magnitude of the effects analyzed, we simulate the model with parameters estimated from the MIX Market database. Our results suggest that market power can have severe implic…
Losing on the home front? Battlefield casualties, media, and public support for foreign interventions
How domestic constituents respond to signals of weakness in foreign wars remains an important question in international relations. This paper studies the impact of battlefield casualties and media coverage on public demand for war termination. To identify the effect of troop fatalities, we leverage the timing of survey collection across respondents from nine members of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Quasi‐experimental…
Political expression of academics on Twitter
Academics play a vital role in the generation and dissemination of knowledge, ideas and narratives. Social media provide new, more direct ways of science communication. Yet, since not all academics engage with social media, the sample that does so may have an outsized influence on shaping public perceptions of academia through the set topics they engage with and their style and tone of communication. We describe patterns in academics' expression …
Group lending without joint liability
Who voted for Brexit? A comprehensive district-level analysis
On 23 June 2016, the British electorate voted to leave the European Union (EU). We analyse vote and turnout shares across 380 local authority areas in the United Kingdom. We find that exposure to the EU in terms of immigration and trade provides relatively little explanatory power for the referendum vote. Instead, we find that fundamental characteristics of the voting population were key drivers of the Vote Leave share, in particular their educat…
Take What You Can: Property Rights, Contestability and Conflict
Weak property rights are strongly associated with underdevelopment, low state capacity and civil conflict. In economic models of conflict, outbreaks of violence require a prize that is both valuable and contestable. This article exploits spatial and temporal variation in the availability of land with title that is contestable by private actors to explore the relationship between (in)secure property rights and civil conflict in the Brazilian Amazo…
More than an urban legend: The short- and long-run effects of unplanned fertility shocks
This paper examines the short- and long-run effects of a quasi-exogenous variation in fertility behavior due to a yearlong period of power rationing in Colombia in 1992. We show that power shortages caused a mini baby boom and that the increase in fertility was unplanned and persistent: the time in between births was reduced and overall lifetime fertility increased. We also present evidence suggesting that women who had a baby due to the outage f…
Market Structure and Borrower Welfare in Microfinance
Motivated by recent controversies surrounding the role of commercial lenders in microfinance, we analyze borrower welfare under different market structures, considering a benevolent non-profit lender, a for-profit monopolist, and a competitive credit market. To understand the magnitude of the effects analyzed, we simulate the model with parameters estimated from the MIX Market database. Our results suggest that market power can have severe implic…
Who voted for Brexit? Individual and regional data combined
Previous analyses of the 2016 Brexit referendum used region-level data or small samples based on polling data. The former might be subject to ecological fallacy and the latter might suffer from small-sample bias. We use individual-level data on thousands of respondents in Understanding Society, the UK's largest household survey, which includes the EU referendum question. We find that voting Leave is associated with older age, white ethnicity, low…
Did Austerity Cause Brexit
This paper documents a significant association between the exposure of an individual or area to the UK government's austerity-induced welfare reforms begun in 2010, and the following: the subsequent rise in support for the UK Independence Party, an important correlate of Leave support in the 2016 UK referendum on European Union membership; broader individual-level measures of political dissatisfaction; and direct measures of support for Leave. Le…
Evaluating Covid-19 Public Health Messaging in Italy: Self-Reported Compliance and Growing Mental Health Concerns
Tariffs and Politics: Evidence from Trump’s Trade Wars
We use the recent trade escalation between the USA and its trade partners to study whether retaliatory tariffs are politically targeted. We find comprehensive evidence using individual and aggregate voting data suggesting that retaliation is carefully targeted to hurt Trump. We develop a simulation approach to construct counterfactual retaliation responses allowing us to quantify the extent of political targeting while also studying potential tra…
Community policing does not build citizen trust in police or reduce crime in the Global South
Easier said than done High-profile instances of police brutality in the last few years have brought attention to patterns of abuse that have existed since the inception of modern policing. There have been many calls for police reform, a process that in many countries has taken the form of increased police engagement with communities. Blair et al . report the results of a large-scale experiment testing the effectiveness of this approach across six…
Coronavirus Perceptions and Economic Anxiety
We provide one of the first systematic assessments of the development and determinants of economic anxiety at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Using a global data set on internet searches and two representative surveys from the United States, we document a substantial increase in economic anxiety during and after the arrival of the coronavirus. We also document a large dispersion in beliefs about the pandemic risk factors of the coronavirus…
Security Transitions
How do foreign powers disengage from a conflict? We study this issue by examining the recent, large-scale security transition from international troops to local forces in the ongoing civil conflict in Afghanistan. We construct a new dataset that combines information on this transition process with declassified conflict outcomes and previously unreleased quarterly survey data of residents’ perceptions of local security. Our empirical design levera…
Subsidising the spread of Covid-19: Evidence from the UK’S Eat-Out-to-Help-Out Scheme
This paper documents that a large-scale government subsidy aimed at encouraging people to eat out in restaurants in the wake of the first 2020 COVID-19 wave in the United Kingdom has had a significant causal impact on new cases, accelerating the subsequent second COVID-19 wave. The scheme subsidised 50% off the cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks for an unlimited number of visits in participating restaurants on Mondays–Wednesdays from 3–31 Augu…
Organizational, economic or cultural? Firm-side barriers to employing women in Saudi Arabia
Losing on the Home Front? Battlefield Casualties, Media, and Public Support for Foreign Interventions
Crime, Insecurity, and Community Policing: Experiments on Building Trust
How can societies effectively reduce crime without exacerbating adversarial relationships between the police and citizens? In recent decades, perhaps the most celebrated innovation in police reform has been the introduction of community policing, where citizens are involved in building channels of dialogue and improving police-citizen collaboration. Despite the widespread adoption of community policing in the United States and increasingly in the…
Cohesive Institutions and Political Violence
Can revenue sharing of resource rents be a source of distributive conflict? Can cohesive institutions avoid such conflicts? We exploit exogenous variation in local government revenues and new data on local democratic institutions in Nigeria to study these questions. We find a strong link between rents and conflict. Conflicts are highly organized and concentrated in districts and time periods with unelected local governments. Once local government…
Monitoring Technology: The Impact of Body-Worn Cameras on Citizen-Police Interactions
We provide experimental evidence that using body-worn cameras (BWCs) for police monitoring improves police-citizen interactions. In an intervention carried out in Brazil in 2018, we find that treated incidents show a 61.2% decrease in police use of force and a 47.0% reduction in adverse interactions, including handcuff use and arrests. The use of body-worn cameras also significantly improves the quality of police reporting. The rate of incomplete…
Team production on the battlefield: Evidence from Nato in Afghanistan
Losing on the home front? Battlefield casualties, media, and public support for foreign interventions
How domestic constituents respond to signals of weakness in foreign wars remains an important question in international relations. This paper studies the impact of battlefield casualties and media coverage on public demand for war termination. To identify the effect of troop fatalities, we leverage the timing of survey collection across respondents from nine members of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Quasi‐experimental…
Political expression of academics on Twitter
Academics play a vital role in the generation and dissemination of knowledge, ideas and narratives. Social media provide new, more direct ways of science communication. Yet, since not all academics engage with social media, the sample that does so may have an outsized influence on shaping public perceptions of academia through the set topics they engage with and their style and tone of communication. We describe patterns in academics' expression …
How Big Is the Media Multiplier? Evidence from Dyadic News Data
This paper estimates the size of the media multiplier, an easily generalizable model-based measure of how far media coverage magnifies the economic response to shocks. We combine monthly aggregated and anonymized credit card activity data from 114 card-issuing countries in 5 destination countries with a large corpus of news coverage in issuing countries reporting on violent events in the destinations. To define and quantify the media multiplier, …
Economics (12 works) · Political science (12 works) · Business (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Medicine (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Psychological intervention (5 works) · Demographic economics (4 works)