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A Quasi-Experimental Analysis of Rail Noise Barriers and Swiss Residential Rents

AI can support decisions, but it can also be followed too readily. This thesis examines whether requiring people to briefly justify their final decision changes how they use AI advice. In an online experiment with 334 students in Switzerland, participants who had to provide a written justification were 17.6 percentage points less likely to adopt an AI recommendation in subjective tasks. The results suggest that a simple accountability measure can encourage more independent judgment when working with AI.

Over the past decades, local governments all over the world have merged in the expectation of realising economies of scale to ensure the provision of municipal services and enhance administrative efficiency to reduce per capita costs. This study examines the impact of municipal mergers on local taxes in the canton of Bern between 2004 and 2024.