Showing papers in "EconStor Open Access Articles in 2012"

Maternal Employment and Gender Role Attitudes: Dissonance Among British Men and Women in the Transition to Parenthood

Abstract: This study examines how changes in gender role attitudes of couples after childbirth relate to women’s paid work and the type of childcare used. Identifying attitude-practice dissonances matters because how they get resolved influences mothers’ future employment. Previous research examined changes in women’s attitudes and employment, or spouses’ adaptations to each others’ attitudes. This is extended by considering how women and men in couples simultaneously adapt to parenthood in terms of attitude and behavioural changes and by exploring indirect effects of economic constraints. Structural equation models and regression analysis based on the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2007) are applied. The results suggest that less traditional attitudes among women and men are more likely in couples where women’s postnatal labour market participation and the use of formal childcare contradict their traditional prenatal attitudes. Women’s prenatal earnings have an indirect effect on attitude change of both partners through incentives for maternal employment.

Mental health in the slums of Dhaka - a geoepidemiological study

Abstract: Background: Urban health is of global concern because the majority of the world's population lives in urban areas. Although mental health problems (e.g. depression) in developing countries are highly prevalent, such issues are not yet adequately addressed in the rapidly urbanising megacities of these countries, where a growing number of residents live in slums. Little is known about the spectrum of mental well-being in urban slums and only poor knowledge exists on health promotive socio-physical environments in these areas. Using a geo-epidemiological approach, the present study identified factors that contribute to the mental well-being in the slums of Dhaka, which currently accommodates an estimated population of more than 14 million, including 3.4 million slum dwellers. Methods: The baseline data of a cohort study conducted in early 2009 in nine slums of Dhaka were used. Data were collected from 1,938 adults (≥ 15 years). All respondents were geographically marked based on their households using global positioning systems (GPS). Very high-resolution land cover information was processed in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to obtain additional exposure information. We used a factor analysis to reduce the socio-physical explanatory variables to a fewer set of uncorrelated linear combinations of variables. We then regressed these factors on the WHO-5 Well-being Index that was used as a proxy for self-rated mental well-being. Results: Mental well-being was significantly associated with various factors such as selected features of the natural environment, flood risk, sanitation, housing quality, sufficiency and durability. We further identified associations with population density, job satisfaction, and income generation while controlling for individual factors such as age, gender, and diseases. Conclusions: Factors determining mental well-being were related to the socio-physical environment and individual level characteristics. Given that mental well-being is associated with physiological well-being, our study may provide crucial information for developing better health care and disease prevention programmes in slums of Dhaka and other comparable settings.

A Cross-National Perspective on Unemployment and First Births

Abstract: This article investigates the impact of unemployment on the likelihood of having a first child. Using micro-data from the European Community Household Panel, I apply event history methods to analyze first-birth decisions in France, West Germany, and the UK (1994–2001). The results highlight weak negative effects of unemployment on family formation among men, which can be attributed to the inability to financially support a family. Among women, unemployment exerts a positive effect on the propensity to have a first child in Germany and the UK, where institutional settings aggravate work–family conflicts. Unemployment increases the likelihood of family formation among women with a moderate or low level of education. This does not, however, generally apply to French women or to highly educated women in Germany and the UK, who, when unemployed, favor a quick return to work over motherhood.

Individual Risk Attitudes and the Composition of Financial Portfolios: Evidence from German Household Portfolios

Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between the self-declared risk aversion of private investors and their propensity to hold incomplete portfolios of financial assets. The analysis is based on household survey data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) that provides a reliable measure of individual attitudes toward financial risk. Our findings suggest that more risk averse households tend to hold incomplete portfolios consisting mainly of a few risk-free assets. We also find that the propensity to acquire additional assets is highly dependent on whether liquidity and safety needs are met.

The Asymptotes of Power

Abstract: This is the latest in a series of articles we have been writing on the current crisis. The purpose of our previous papers was to characterize the crisis. We claimed that it was a 'systemic crisis', and that capitalists were gripped by 'systemic fear'. In this article, we seek to explain why. The problem that capitalists face today, we argue, is not that their power has withered, but, on the contrary, that their power has increased. Indeed, not only has their power increased, it has increased by so much that it might be approaching its asymptote. And since capitalists look not backward to the past but forward to the future, they have good reason to fear that, from now on, the most likely trajectory of this power will be not up, but down. The paper begins by setting up our general framework and key concepts. It continues with a step-by-step deconstruction of key power processes in the United States, attempting to assess how close these processes are to their asymptotes. And it concludes with brief observations about what may lie ahead.

Investment Bank Power and Neoliberal Regulation: From the Volcker Shock to the Volcker Rule

Abstract: In 1941, Paul Sweezy (1910–2004), a founding member of the ‘monopoly capital’ school of Marxism, published an article on the power of US investment banks in light of the 1929 stock market crash and ensuing depression. His assessment of their relative position and future prospects within the corporate hierarchy was bleak. Although the major investment banks had survived the turbulent 1930s, Sweezy argued that they failed to reassert the dominance they secured during the initial transition from competitive to monopoly capitalism around the turn of the twentieth century (see Veblen 1923). Firms that once embraced the guidance of investment bankers had matured into giants capable of expanding their operations through internal financing. As a result, most of the securities market activity that took place involved routine refunding operations that required little investment bank expertise, while those few securities that were newly issued were privately placed with increasingly powerful institutional investors.

Tainted Love: Art’s Ethos and Capitalization

Abstract: The commercial methods and transactional processes of the art market contravene in almost every way the free market principles and investment assumptions and patterns core to modern global finance. What Noah Horowitz calls the art market’s "anti-speculative vehemence" is intimately allied to its protagonist’s amorous-erotic investment in art, widely flaunted in the highly visible acquisition of blue-chip art by capitalist elites as much as in the cloying discourses in public and private art sectors supporting and relying upon such expenditure. The centrality of this amorous ethos to the concentration of social and capital power in art relies upon and maintains the belief that while art is indeed traded on a market it is rather that market’s obstruction of liberal free-market principles and practices that accords with an involvement in art itself. Simultaneously, the domination of capital power in art means that art’s audiences are now obliged to share in the capriciousness of the subjective love of art allied to the corporatism of capital power rather than a previously assumed statist 'care' for public culture, providing in the process an ersatz-public legitimization for such power. This paper seeks to remove the support for the decontamination of capitalized power through art’s amorous ethos. Since art-prices are explicitly financially generated without reference to production or consumption, they make manifest the condition of all price-setting—or what could be called capital’s procedural and operational “financiality”, the term designating finance as the primary condition for, rather than consequence of, capitalization and price-setting. As such, the art market embodies the truth of finance, and it does so precisely in its failure or limitations of art as a kind of free-market investment. It is not then that art pricing is a puzzle compared to other, productive or consuming, sectors of the economy, but that the art market dispels their obscuring of capitalization as the primary determinant of price. The convergence of interests and operations of art (in particular contemporary art) and capital elites can then be apprehended not as paradox but as consistent, reconfiguring in the process the significance of the love of art as the condition and satisfaction of its protagonists’ involvement in it.

The Renminbi and Poor-country Growth

Abstract: The paper estimates i) the degree of currency undervaluation and its relationship with per capita income (convergence), as informed by the Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson (HBS) framework. ii) The role of the real effective exchange rate, both its level and its stability over time, for underpinning growth in developing countries, especially in large dual economies such as China and India. iii) New empirical evidence on growth linkages between China and poor countries for the last two decades and on potential displacement effects of renminbi (RMB) appreciation.

Why do farmers behave as they do? Understanding compliance with rural, agricultural, and food attribute standards

Abstract: Agricultural production experiences a shift in underlying institutions during the last years., Importance of private stakeholders like retailers, processors, consumers as well as tax payers is, emerging. Eligibility for single farm payments and marketing of products is linked to compliance with, diverse codes of practice and standards. Voluntary certification schemes are not only relevant with, respect to agriculture's traditional activity (i.e. food production), but is also highly relevant in case of, rural policies. Examples are the EU's agri-environmental schemes, aimed at preserving biodiversity, landscape elements, etc., which are characterized by voluntary participation and the contractual, commitment to apply certain standards. However, these relationships are highly characterized by, information asymmetries. Economic literature offers several approaches to analyse similar relations. The classical approach bases on the assumption of utility maximising agents that will comply with, rules as long as the net utility of compliance will be higher than the net utility of an offence. Recent, evidence challenges this result. Experiments show that people behave more honest than the classical, deterrence model predicts. Main objective of the paper is to compare the various approaches to explain, compliant behaviour. Additionally, an outlook for empirical applications of the theoretical framework, developed here is given to motivate further research. However, our outlook shows that the selection of, appropriate variables to analyse compliance empirically is open to debate.

Zukunftsperspektiven kommunaler Energiewirtschaft

Abstract: Die Geschehnisse in Fukushima und der anschliesend von der Politik in Deutschland beschlossene endgultige Ausstieg aus der Atomkraft bewirken eine breite politische Hinwendung zur Energiewende. Das heist, kunftig erhalten erneuerbare Energien, Effizienzstrategien und dezentrale Erzeugungsalternativen einen deutlich groseren Stellenwert. Damit hat sich ein historisch einmaliges Zeitfenster fur die Verwirklichung einer atomstromfreien und klimaschutzmotivierten Energieversorgung geoffnet. Und die Moglichkeiten der Stadtwerke, diesen Strukturwandel in der Energieversorgung masgeblich mitzugestalten, sind vielfaltig. Das war bereits im Jahr 2008 das Ergebnis einer dreijahrigen Forschungspartnerschaft "Infrafutur" des Wuppertal Instituts.

A Conceptual Framework for Definition of the Correlation Between Company Size Categories and the Proliferation of Business Information Systems in Hungary

Abstract: Based on a conceptual model, this paper aims to explore the background of the decision-making process leading to the introduction of business information systems among enterprises in Hungary. Together with presenting the problems arising in the course of the implementation of such systems, their usage patterns are also investigated. A strong correlation is established between the size of an enterprise, the scope of its business activities and the range of the business information systems it applies.

A Household Study of Self-Regulation in Children - Intergenerational Links and Maternal Antecedents

Abstract: Delay of gratification (DoG) and delay discounting (DD) are behavioral measures of self-regulation and impulsivity. Whereas DoG refers to the postponement of gratification, DD involves the devaluation of a reward over time. Previous studies have demonstrated associations between paternal self-control, paternal personality traits, parenting styles, maternal intelligence, and children’s self-regulation. The present study explored intergenerational links between mothers’ and child’s self-regulation and maternal antecedents of children’s DoG. We analyzed 267 mother-child dyads in the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Children’s Study. Measures included an experiment using gummy bears as rewards to assess DoG in children and monetary choice procedures to assess DD in mothers. Additionally, cognitive abilities and personality traits of mothers and children were assessed. The main result was that the children’s age and breastfeeding were significant predictors of DoG in children, even when we controlled for other influences such as maternal cognitive abilities and personality traits. We explain the result in the context of previous findings concerning attachment security, bonding, maternal sensitivity, children’s self-regulation of energy intake, neuroscientific evidence, and breastfeeding. Further studies should use equivalent measures of DoG in children and parents to further explore this link between breastfeeding and DoG in a genetically sensitive design.

The Influence of Optimal Tax Burden on Economic Activity and Production Capacity

Abstract: That the modern state couldn’t exist without taxes is something that doesn’t need to be argued to society. It is also acknowledged that tax burden influences not only the budget revenues, but investments, demand and supply, prices and others. All this has direct as well as indirect influence on the economic activity and production capacity. In the concept of tax burden the important fact is the connection of tax burden with the economic activity and production capacity. The influence of tax burden on budget tax revenues and production capacity can be realized in two different ways. On the one hand, tax burden influences production technologies,effective usage of resources that accordingly will be depicted on the production capacity and, on the other hand, the change of tax burden influences budget tax revenues that will be depicted on the economic activity.

Adaptable Techniques for Making IT-Related Investment Decisions

Abstract: The author investigated the main methods used for making IT-related investment decisions. In the view of these methods it can be said that no method was found that would help to make investment decisions 'routinelike'. The use of traditional financial indicators – which would be suitable for so-called regular investments - has a lot of obstructions and it would be dangerous to base decisions only on them. Return on Investment (ROI) methods are used in the case of classical investments (buildings, machineries) to analyze capital investments. Their simplest explanation is that net profit is expressed in percentage of invested capital. If it is a planned investment, a quotient is used for comparing variations. Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) has gained upon from the 60’s (in case of several IT-related investments as well), as it made possible to consider certain not quantifiable factors and uncertain elements too, so it meant a great help for choosing between different alternatives. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)-model was created by GartnerGroup in the beginning of the 90’s, which is an excellent method for monitoring IT infrastructure and for analysing direct and indirect costs of possessed and used softwares and hardwares. An another method for making investment decisions, Rapid Economic Justification (REJ) is an attempt made by Microsoft and Intellectual Arbitrage to develop a better-balanced approach for examining and developing IT projects as it had been before. REJ offers the possibility of assessment balance against the cost-models dealing with only the cost side of a project.

Supporting the Development of Gerontechnology as Part of Silver Economy Building

Abstract: The concept of the "silver economy" is one of the complex response trials to the challenges of ageing societies. Its key objective is to bring goods and services to meet the needs of older people through gerontechnology. Article approximates relationships between technology and the ageing of the population and the main features of silver economy and gerontechnology. It is supplemented by examples of support efforts to promote gerontechnology including: (1) documents and strategic programs, (2) network organizations and clusters, (3) research and development institutions. Essay draws attention to the development of solutions such as: strategies for innovation, welfare clusters, regional silver economy networks, research institutions such as "agelab" and cultural institutions "medialab". Study indicates potential directions for further research.

Naming and War in Modern Germany

Abstract: This paper analyzes naming behavior in Germany in the context of rapid social change. It begins with an overview of general developments in naming in Germany over the last one hundred years, based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), which supplies us with almost 45,000 datasets. The paper focuses on the periods of World War II and the Cold War since we conclude that general developments in naming were disrupted by these two phenomena. Wartime brings accelerated social change in its wake and people react to this social change - often on an apparently individual level. Here, our findings are in accordance with established sociological theories.

The influence of the psychological factors upon the entrepreneurial tendency in crisis environments

Abstract: We aim to determine whether the relationship of psychological factors and environmental factors affecting the entrepreneurial tendency change, due to perceptions of negative economic environment/economic crisis. The study focuses on the way in which perceptions of economic crisis and scarcity of money affects the entrepreneurial tendency of young people. We selected 152 students with Internal Locus of Control/ILC (using Rotter's Locus of Control Scale), and they were involved in four experimental scenarios. The exposure of young people with ILC in crisis conditions significantly affects their entrepreneurial tendency, while the intensity of scarcity of money has an insignificant effect.

The Effects of Technology and Innovation on Society

Abstract: Various models of the information society have been developed so far and they are so different from country to country that it would be rather unwise to look for a single, allencompassing definition. In our time a number of profound socio-economic changes are underway. The application of these theories and schools on ICT is problematic in many respects. First, as we stated above, there is not a single, widely used paradigm which has synthesised the various schools and theories dealing with technology and society. Second, these fragmented approaches do not have a fully-fledged mode of application to the relationship of ICT and (information) society. Third, SCOT, ANT, the evolutionary- or the systems approach to the history of technology when dealing with information society – does not take into account the results of approaches studying the very essence of the information age: information, communication and knowledge. The list of unnoticed or partially incorporated sciences, which focuses on the role of ICT in human information processing and other cognitive activities, is much longer.

Die abnehmende Bedeutung des Elternhauses: Intergenerationale Übertragung von Parteibindungen in Deutschland 1984 bis 2010

Abstract: In vielen westlichen Demokratien nimmt der Anteil langfristig parteigebundener Burger ab, ein Trend, der insbesondere junge Erwachsene betrifft. Dieser Beitrag geht der Frage nach, ob Veranderungen in der Ubertragung von Parteibindungen von einer Generation zur nachsten fur den Ruckgang der Parteibindungen in Bevolkerung verantwortlich sind. Auf Basis der Daten des Sozio-Oekonomischen Panels (SOEP) wird der Einfluss der elterlichen politischen Orientierungen auf die Entwicklung von Parteiidentifikationen junger Erwachsener zwischen den Geburtsjahrgangen 1968 bis 1993 verglichen. Die Analysen zeigen, dass insbesondere parteipolitisch gepragte Elternhauser zunehmend weniger erfolgreich darin sind, ihre politischen Ansichten an die nachste Generation weiterzugeben. Der Beitrag untersucht die Bedeutung von sozialer Mobilitat, Bildungsexpansion, Wertewandel, Politisierung des Elternhauses und Veranderungen der Konsistenz elterlicher Parteibindungen fur diesen Trend.

Natural analogies among organizational culture models

Abstract: The current article presents and justifies the wise use of natural analogies in teaching Firm culture at the Universities and in consulting activities in organizations, associated with necessary study of an existing firm culture, before undertaking change management initiatives that are intended to ensure lasting effects. The meanings and structures of widely used cultural metaphors such as an iceberg, a tree, an onion, a water-lily, an apple and an egg are described and analyzed here.

Individual wealth accumulation: Why does dining together as a family matter?

Abstract: This study uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine whether self-regulation, proxied by regularly dining together with family, is associated with better financial preparedness and greater wealth accumulation across time among households. Findings reveal that individuals who had sufficient self-regulation to regularly eat meals together with their family, increased wealth at a faster rate than others between 1994 and 2004. Moreover, those who exhibited self-regulation by frequently spending mealtime with their family showed greater preference for investment portfolio diversification. Consistent with other studies, results indicate that wealth accumulation increased with age, income, and educational attainment.

Dealing With Incomplete Household Panel Data in Inequality Research

Abstract: In trying to capture complete within-household heterogeneity, household panel surveys typically try to interview all adult household members. Following from this, such surveys tend to suffer from partial unit nonresponse (PUNR), that is, the nonresponse of at least one member of an otherwise participating household, most likely yielding an underestimation of aggregate household income. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), the authors evaluate four different strategies to deal with this phenomenon: (a) ignorance, that is, assuming the missing individual’s income to be zero; (b) adjustment of the equivalence scale to account for differences in household size and composition; (c) elimination of all households observed to suffer PUNR and reweighting of households observed to be at risk of but not affected by PUNR; and (d) longitudinal imputation of the missing income components. The aim of this article is to show how the choice of technique affects substantive results in inequality research. The authors find indications of substantial bias on income inequality and poverty as well as on income mobility.

Temporary Work as an Active Labor Market Policy: Evaluating an Innovative Activation Program for Disadvantaged Youths

Abstract: While high rates of youth unemployment are a severe problem in most European countries, the program evaluation literature shows that di sadvantaged youths constitute a group that is particularly difficult to assist effectively. As innovative measures are thus needed, we evaluate a German pilot program that ta rgets low-skilled young unemployed and combines three components: a) individual coaching, b) classroom training and c) temporary work. Using an ex-post quasi-randomization approach, our analysis shows that the program has a positive impact on the post-program employment probability of participants.

Evaluating continuous training programmes by using the generalized propensity score

Abstract: Summary: The paper assesses the heterogeneity of treatment effects arising from variation in the duration of training. We use German administrative data that have the extraordinary feature that the amount of treatment varies continuously from 10 days to 395 days (i.e. 13 months). This feature allows us to estimate a continuous dose- response function that relates each value of the dose, i.e. days of training, to the individual post-treatment probability of employment (the response). The dose-response function is estimated after adjusting for covariate imbalance by using the generalized propensity score, which is a recently developed method for covariate adjustment under continuous treatment regimes. Our data have the advantage that we can consider both the actual and the planned durations of training as treatment variables: if only actual durations are observed, treatment effect estimates may be biased because of endogenous exits. Our results indicate an increasing dose-response function for treatments of up to 120 days, which then flattens out, i.e. longer training programmes do not seem to add an additional treatment effect.

Heterogeneity in the rebound effect: Further evidence for Germany

Abstract: Rebound effects measure the behaviorally induced offset in the reduction of energy consumption following efficiency improvements. Using both panel estimation and quantile regression methods on household travel diary data collected in Germany between 1997 and 2009, this study investigates the heterogeneity of the rebound effect in private transport. With the average rebound effect being in the range of 57% to 62%, our results are in line with a recent German study by Frondel, Peters, and Vance (2008), but are substantially larger than those obtained from other studies. Furthermore, our quantile regression results indicate that the magnitude of estimated fuel price elasticities – from which rebound effects can be derived – depends inversely on the household's driving intensity: households with low vehicle mileage exhibit fuel price elasticities, and hence rebound effects, that are significantly larger than those for households with high vehicle mileage.

Creative Ageing Policy in Regional Development

Abstract: The shaping of creative economy is particularly important for development of cities and regions. This process can be analyzed in conjunction with changes in work and leisure time and their place in the human life cycle. This article aims to approximate the main features of: contemporary position of elderly people, creative ageing policy, benefits from seniors creativity and controversies linked to this concept. This essay also indicates the patterns of recommendations and activities in development of services for older people which may be the subject of further in-depth research. These examples exist in: (1) documents and strategic programs, (2) the activities of network organizations and (3) the activities of urban cultural and artistic institutions.

Gefährdung der Solidarität oder Aufbruch in die Moderne? Die Auswirkungen der Tarifpluralität auf den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt

Abstract: As a consequence of a ruling of the Federal Labour Court in 2010, the German labour market entered a new regime, allowing multiple unions to operate in the same firm. This alteration has instigated an intense debate about its possible consequences for labour relations. We examine the conceptual and empirical basis for this concern. Our analysis does not lead us to expect an important increase neither in the foundation of occupational unions nor in strike activities. We therefore argue that multi-unionism should be viewed as a natural feature of German industrial relations.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Respondent-Driven Sampling

Abstract: Respondent-driven sampling is a network sampling technique typically employed for hard-to-reach populations (for example, drug users, men who have sex with men, people with HIV). Similarly to snowball sampling, initial seed respondents recruit additional respondents from their network of friends. The recruiting process repeats iteratively, thereby forming long referral chains. Unlike in snowball sampling, it is crucial to obtain estimates of respondents' personal network sizes (that is, number of acquaintances in the target population) and information about who recruited whom. Markov chain theory makes it possible to derive population estimates and sampling weights. We introduce a new Stata command for respondent-driven sampling and illustrate its use.

The Real Convergence of CEE Countries: A Study of Real GDP per capita

Abstract: The paper examines the unconditional sigma and time-series convergence of real GDP per capita (measured in national currencies and euros) for CEE8 countries during the 1995 : Q1 – 2011 : Q1 period by applying the unit root fra-mework using the DF-GLS test and the Lee and Strazicich (2003; 2004) test, which allows for endogenous breaks in trends and constants. We selected Germany as a benchmark country for relative real GDP per capita because of its geographical and economical position relative to all CEE8 countries. We have found that both sigma convergence and time-series convergence were present for most of the CEE8 countries prior to the breaks in trends, but after the breaks, the convergence slowed or reversed and thus indicated divergence.

Nahrungsmittelstandards: Ein Vergleich zweier privatwirtschaftlicher Initiativen aus Sicht landwirtschaftlicher Erzeuger

Abstract: Sowohl globalisierungskritische Nichtregierungsorganisationen als auch Wissenschaftler kritisieren die zunehmend strengeren Auflagen fur importierte Nahrungsmittel europaischer und nordamerikanischer Einzelhandelsketten. Die Diskussion kreist vor allem um die mogliche Benachteiligung kleiner Landwirte in den Entwicklungslandern. Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert GlobalGAP, einen Businessto- business-Standard, der haufig in dieser Diskussion genannt wird. Die Analyse bedient sich eines Vergleichs mit einem weiteren privatwirtschaftlichen internationalen Standard: dem okologischen Landbau. Obwohl beide Standards eine sehr unterschiedliche Entstehungsgeschichte aufweisen, bestehen doch auch viele Gemeinsamkeiten. Die Analyse verschiedener empirischer Studien zeigt, dass in beiden Fallen die Umsetzung der jeweiligen Standards auf Ebene des landwirtschaftlichen Betriebes sowohl zu monetaren als auch immateriellen Vorteilen fuhren kann.