Abstract
Paper 1 The Impact of Free Public Transport on Tourist Mobility: Evidence from an Alpine Region
Paper 2 Culture and Tax Compliance: a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in South Tyrol
Paper 3 List Ordering Effects in an Open-List Proportional Representation System with Write-In Candidate Preferences
This dissertation contributes to the fields of public policy evaluation and behavioural economics by examining how individuals respond to policies, incentives and information constraints in real-world settings. It brings together three distinct empirical studies that, despite differences in topic and methodology, share a common analytical approach rooted in understanding human behaviour within public sector domains. Each paper explores a specific policy-relevant domain (transport, tax compliance and electoral behaviour) through the lens of behavioural economics, focusing on actual or incentivised individual decisions in institutional or policy-driven contexts.
Although all three studies are situated in the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol in Northern Italy, this geographical focus was not predetermined at the outset. Rather, it gradually crystallized over the course of the doctoral research. In each case, the choice of South Tyrol as an empirical setting was driven by specific methodological and practical considerations: the availability of unique administrative data on tourist mobility (Paper 1), an ideal setting for experiments due to the presence of large and diverse language groups within the same institutions (Paper 2) and the researcher's familiarity with the regional electoral system and its distinctive features (Paper 3). Thus, the shared setting allows for empirical richness but does not define the thematic core of the thesis.
The first paper evaluates a policy intervention designed to promote sustainable mobility through the provision of free public transport to tourists in the Val Gardena/Gröden valley. Using Difference-in-Differences and Synthetic Control methodologies, the study demonstrates that the introduction of fare-free public transport led to a substantial increase in public transit utilisation among tourists. The analysis provides valuable insights into behavioural responses to environmental and mobility policies in the tourism sector.
The second paper, co-authored with Robin Scheuch, examines cultural drivers of tax compliance through a lab-in-the-field experiment conducted in Bolzano/Bozen. Exploiting the distinctive multicultural setting of South Tyrol, the study isolates cultural effects on tax evasion by holding institutional factors constant. It uncovers nuanced behavioural differences between Italian- and German-speaking participants in both extensive and intensive margins of compliance. While the overall level of tax evasion is similar between the groups, Italian speakers are found to evade larger amounts whereas German speakers tend to evade more frequently. The experiment is further enriched by a belief elicitation task and a dice truth-telling game, providing deeper insights into participants’ motivations and honesty in reporting behaviour.
The third paper investigates the behavioural implications of electoral list design in South Tyrol’s open-list proportional representation system. This electoral system requires voters to handwrite their candidate preferences, with no list provided in the voting booth. The study documents significant list order effects, particularly among in-person voters, highlighting how cognitive limitations and the availability of candidate information shape electoral outcomes. Thus, the research further examines South Tyrol’s unique provision for postal voting in local elections, a feature not found elsewhere in Italy.
Collectively, these findings contribute to the broader discourse in behavioural political economy, elucidating how electoral system design interacts with voter heuristics and potentially influences both the fairness and representational integrity of democratic processes.
Taken together, these three papers illustrate the importance of examining behavioural responses within policy contexts. Each study contributes to a deeper understanding of how individuals navigate policy environments, how institutional, cultural and cognitive factors shape decision-making and how behavioural insights can enhance more effective and equitable public interventions.