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Diese Dissertation umfasst drei Studien. Die erste Studie untersucht Overprecision („Überpräzision“). Ich untersuche, wie Menschen Spannweitenschätzungen vornehmen. Teilnehmende müssen die Größe der Spannweite (Präzision) mit der Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass sie den wahren Wert einschließt (Richtigkeit) balancieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Menschen inhärente individuelle Vorlieben für Präzision zu haben scheinen. Gleichzeitig werden vorhersagbar zusätzliche Informationen genutzt, um die Richtigkeit der Schätzungen zu erhöhen. Dafür wird entweder Präzision geopfert, oder die Spannweitenschätzung insgesamt verschoben. Die Richtigkeit der Schätzung wird jedoch nicht maximiert, sondern ein Teil für höhere Präzision aufgegeben. Die zweite Studie untersucht, wie sich die Übersetzung von Finanzberichterstattung auf die Wahrnehmung einer Firma als attraktives Investment auswirkt. Sie beleuchtet drei verschiedene Kanäle: Lesbarkeit, Stimmung, und Präzision der Veröffentlichung. In einem Umfrageexperiment lesen Kleinanleger deutsche und englische Prognoseberichte deutscher Firmen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die deutschen Berichte als besser lesbar wahrgenommen werden. Im Gegensatz zu vorheriger Literatur ist die Lesbarkeit nicht mit einer höheren Investmentattraktivität korreliert. Allein die Stimmung des Textes zeigt eine Korrelation mit höherer Attraktivität. Die dritte Studie untersucht, wie das Angebot von formativen Onlinetests die Leistungen von Studierenden in der Klausur beeinflusst. Sie untersucht zudem, ob die Leistung sich unterscheidet, je nachdem ob die Studierenden zeitlich begrenzten Zugang zu den Tests haben oder ob sie jederzeit auf die Tests zugreifen können. Ein Experiment, welches es ermöglicht den kausalen Intention-to-treat-Effekt zu bestimmen, zeigt, dass die formativen Onlinetests die Studienleistung erhöhen können, allerdings nur für Studierende, welche sich nicht freiwillig für die Tests gemeldet hatten und in der kontinuierlichen Lerngruppe waren., This dissertation comprises three papers. The first study examines overprecision. I examine how people provide range estimates, a challenging task that requires people to balance the width of the range (i.e., its precision) with the probability of the range covering the true value (i.e., accuracy). I find that people appear to have inherent individual preferences for a certain level of precision. At the same time, they appear to predictably incorporate additional information in order to increase accuracy by either sacrificing precision or shifting their ranges altogether. Still, they do not seem to maximise accuracy, but are willing to expend some of it to provide more precise estimates. The second study examines how the translation of financial disclosures changes investors’ perceptions of firms as an attractive investment. It examines three possible channels: readability, tone, and precision of the underlying disclosure. In a survey experiment, retail investors read forecast reports of German firms, provided in German and English. The findings indicate that the German versions are easier to read. Contrary to prior literature, the easier readability does not translate into higher investment attractiveness. Solely tone appears to be correlated with investment attractiveness. The third study analyses how offering formative online assessments influences student performance in the final exam. It further examines whether students perform differently depending on whether they have time-restricted access to the assessments, or whether they can access the assessments at any time. An experiment which allows for the identification of the causal intention-to-treat effect shows that offering formative online assessments can enhance student performance, but only for students who do not opt for taking the test voluntarily and who are in a continuous learning environment.

The cumulative thesis consists of papers that study the impact of Value-at-Risk and average Value-at-Risk-based financial regulation on a representative financial institution's portfolio optimization (see Paper 1 and Paper 2), and a paper that investigates intergenerational risk sharing in a Defined Contribution pension system using an overlapping generations model (see Paper 3). Hence, the thesis contributes to the research strands of risk management in finance and insurance, decision analysis under uncertainty, portfolio optimization, and optimal pension design.

Purpose: Sentiment analysis is built from the information provided through text (reviews) to help understand the social sentiment toward their brand, product, or service. The main purpose of this paper is to draw an overview of the topics and the use of the sentiment analysis approach in tourism research. Methods: The study is a bibliometric analysis (VOSviewer), with a systematic and integrative review. The search occurred in March 2021 (Scopus) applying the search terms "sentiment analysis" and "tourism" in the title, abstract, or keywords, resulting in a final sample of 111 papers. Results: This analysis pointed out that China (35) and the United States (24) are the leading countries studying sentiment analysis with tourism. The first paper using sentiment analysis was published in 2012; there is a growing interest in this topic, presenting qualitative and quantitative approaches. The main results present four clusters to understand this subject. Cluster 1 discusses sentiment analysis and its application in tourism research, searching how online reviews can impact decision-making. Cluster 2 examines the resources used to make sentiment analysis, such as social media. Cluster 3 argues about methodological approaches in sentiment analysis and tourism, such as deep learning and sentiment classification, to understand the user-generated content. Cluster 4 highlights questions relating to the internet and tourism. Implications: The use of sentiment analysis in tourism research shows that government and entrepreneurship can draw and enhance communication strategies, reduce cost, and time, and mainly contribute to the decision-making process and understand consumer behavior., SUBMITTED: FEB 2021, 1st REVISION SUBMITTED: JUN 2021, 2nd REVISION SUBMITTED: AUG 2021, ACCEPTED: SEP 2021, REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY, PUBLISHED ONLINE: 18 OCT 2021

The agricultural sector faces major challenges to produce sufficient food for the world’s rising population. Addressing these challenges requires a transformation towards sustainable agriculture. Although sustainable agricultural practices such as agroforestry provide various benefits, small-scale farmers’ uptake of such practices can be very low in certain regions. Consequently, interventions are required that support farmers’ implementation and raise low adoption rates. Small-scale farmers’ adoption of sustainable agricultural practices and the underlying decision-processes constitute the core of this thesis. Overall, the thesis aims to support policy-makers in developing and implementing effective measures that encourage farmers to adopt innovative sustainable practices. The specific objectives are (1) to identify efficient information seeding strategies to disseminate agricultural knowledge within social networks, (2) compare common behavioural approaches to explain farmers’ adoption decisions, (3) identify intrinsic drivers based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and evaluate the effectiveness of non-economic policy interventions targeting intrinsic motivational factors, and (4) assess the interrelated human-environmental consequences of farmers’ adoption decisions under different climate scenarios.

Influential economic approaches as random utility models assume a monotonic relation between choice frequencies and “strength of preference,” in line with widespread evidence from the cognitive sciences, which also document an inverse relation to response times. However, for economic decisions under risk, these effects are largely untested, because models used to fit data assume them. Further, the dimension underlying strength of preference remains unclear in economics, with candidates including payoff-irrelevant numerical magnitudes. We provide a systematic, out-of-sample empirical validation of these relations (both for choices and response times) relying on both a new experimental design and simulations.

Purpose: This study examines the process by which eWOM susceptibility moderates the strength of indirect links between the perceived credibility of eWOM messages and the intention to visit a destination via the destination image and the perceived usefulness of these messages. Methods: The research hypotheses were tested according to structural equations modelling and Hayes procedure, which made it possible to study simultaneously and rigorously the mediating and moderating effects, and to have a clear view on the model fittness. Results: The results indicate that the mediation links of the destination image on the relationship between perceived credibility and intention to visit a destination, are moderated by the susceptibility of the eWOM (the comments generated by Internet users or the sharing of tourists' experiences on Facebook). This study also indicates that the relationship between the perceived credibility of the eWOM and the intentions to visit a destination is mediated by the usefulness of the eWOM messages and the destination image. Implications: Tourism practitioners seeking to attract tourists can use the eWOM as a communication technique for product and/or service recommendations. Given the powerful influence of the eWOM, it should not be ignored or misused, but managed to improve the effectiveness of marketing strategies in hospitality, tourism and travel., SUBMITTED: JUL 2020, REVISION SUBMITTED: OCT 2020, 2nd REVISION SUBMITTED: DEC 2020, ACCEPTED: JAN 2020, REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY, PUBLISHED ONLINE: 15 FEB 2021

Ignoring endogeneity when assessing investors’ decisions carries the risk of biased estimates for the influence of exogeneous marketing variables. This study shows how to overcome this challenge by using Pólya trees in the quantification of impacts on investors’ decisions. A total of 2255 investors recruited for this study received and opened a digital marketing newsletter about investing daily. Given the nature of investors’ decisions characterized by heterogeneity and endogeneity, the response model is assessed with the Dirichlet process mixture and estimated with the Markov chain Monte Carlo method. Digital marketing substantially exceeds the impact of investor experience, but both have a significant positive impact on investors’ trading volume. Findings obtained with the Dirichlet process mixture as a flexible model indicate that digital marketing even with latent endogenous factors makes an underlying contribution to the investors’ actions in the stock market.

Southeast Asia has been experiencing unprecedented economic growth propelled by thriving production and service sectors, rapid urbanization, extensive digitalization, and a growing young population. However, issues such as regional disparities in economic and social indicators cannot be ignored. For instance, while urban areas enjoy new-found opportunities, their rural counterparts lag behind. Frequent natural disasters and natural resource degradation due to illegal logging and over exploitation have added further pressure on the rural poor. Additionally, the effects of the recent economic slowdown due to COVID-19 have also trickled to the rural areas. Forced unemployment of rural migrants in the cities, increased financial instability and weaker agricultural supply chains have aggravated their vulnerability to poverty. The region is at a crucial crossroad – facing challenges that need to be addressed, but also opportunities that herald a better future for individuals and the countries alike. Against this background, the overall objective of this thesis is to provide a better understanding of decision-making, especially amongst rural populations in Thailand and Vietnam. In particular, the thesis investigates (i) who is an internal migrant, (ii) how do environmental shocks impact migration decisions, (iii) what predicts the duration of stay of migrants in the city and their migration intensity, (iv) what are the determinants and motivations behind migrant remittances, (v) can the Big Five Model of personality traits be validated in rural Southeast Asia, (vi) what role do non-cognitive skills play in occupational outcomes, (vii) what determines internet usage amongst migrants, and, (viii) how are food consumption patterns changing in Vietnam and what are its environmental effects.

Purpose: To introduce and define the concept of sieving tourism destinations as an umbrella term representing faster decision-making processes compared to destination choice models, and to demonstrate its usefulness for both sides of consumption and production of tourism attractions. Methods: Fast decision at the consumers’ demand side is demonstrated via an exploratory graphic model. Producers’ supply side sieving is measured by observing data elimination on two public serving internet platforms compared to a baseline taken from special interest group tour operators representing Jewish heritage attractions in Sicily and Thessaloniki. Results: On the demand side, nowadays market conditions enable destination choice decision making in a few simple steps often interpreted as spontaneous, intuitive, or irrational. Quantitative analyses on the supply side provided measurable sieving ratios. They reveal careful partial sieving performed at local level editorship, while much harsher sieving occurs on social media platforms. This is interpreted as a market failure related to niche and special interest groups attractions. Implications: The demand side findings call for targeted marketing distinguishing customers not only by income but also by temperament, mood, and personality. The supply side findings call for careful examination of the conditions for inclusion and exclusion from the list of attractions as well as the need to remedy the concealment of minor attractions from social media platforms., SUBMITTED: SEP 2020, REVISION SUBMITTED: NOV 2020, ACCEPTED: JAN 2021, REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY, PUBLISHED ONLINE: 15 FEB 2021

This study investigates the contagious nature of tax avoidance by examining how narratives affect tax avoiding behavior. We adapt the idea of narrative economics indicating that individuals' actions are stimulated by stories that spread within a society. We employ two types of infection models to theoretically investigate how tax avoidance schemes spread over time and vanish eventually consistent with patterns known from epidemiology. We find that general tax avoidance can persist even if its expected outcome is negative, while specific tax avoidance schemes might vanish even though their expected outcome is positive. We find empirical support for the predicted dissemination of narratives related to both general and specific tax avoidance schemes in google n-grams. Finally, we show that dissemination of specific tax avoidance schemes is attenuated by anti-narratives in (social) media. Our findings help to understand how tax avoidance spreads, under what conditions anti-avoidance measures can effectively curb tax avoidance and point towards the crucial role of transparency of enhanced enforcement by visible narratives.Science is increasingly expected to help in solving complex societal problems in collaboration with societal stakeholders. However, it is often unclear under what conditions this can happen, i.e., what kind of challenges occur when science interacts with society and what kind of quality expectations prevail. This is particularly pertinent for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), which are part of the object they study and whose knowledge is always subject to provisionality. Here we discuss how SSH researchers can contribute to adressing societal problems, what challenges might occur when they interact with societal stakeholders, and what quality expectations arise in these arrangements. We base our argumentation on the results of an online consultation among 125 experts in Germany (representatives from SSH, learned societies, stakeholders from different societal groups, and relevant intermediaries).

Mainly driven by big data and artificial intelligence (AI), the health care system is on the cusp of a new era, offering the potential to mitigate today’s imminent challenges. This thesis explores how AI can support decision making in health care with a particular focus on hospitals. The cumulative dissertation consists of four research contributions: 1. A Framework for the Hospital of the Future 2. Predicting ICU Bed Occupancy for Integrated Operating Room Scheduling via Neural Networks 3. Predicting Surgical Durations and Implications at the Operational Level 4. Automated Classification of Airborne Pollen using Neural Networks

We study intra-individual behavioral heterogeneity in an experimental Cournot oligopoly. Previous empirical results in this setting have demonstrated convergence to competitive outcomes, in agreement with theoretical predictions assuming that players imitate successful opponents. We postulate that players sometimes rely on imitation of successful behavior, and sometimes best reply to the actions of others. Testable predictions are obtained from a model allowing for multiple behavioral rules which accounts for differences in the cognitive nature of the underlying decision processes. Those include non-trivial response time interactions depending on whether the rules share a common prescription (alignment) or not (conflict), a classification which is ex ante observable. The results confirm the hypotheses and support the presence of multiple behavioral rules at the individual level. Revised version, July 2020

There is substantial evidence that women tend to support different policies and political candidates than men. Many studies also document gender differences in a variety of important preference dimensions, such as risk-taking, competition and pro-sociality. However, the degree to which differential voting by men and women is related to these gaps in more basic preferences requires an improved understanding. We conduct an experiment in which individuals in small laboratory "societies" repeatedly vote for redistribution policies and engage in production. We find that women vote for more egalitarian redistribution and that this difference persists with experience and in environments with varying degrees of risk. This gender voting gap is accounted for partly by both gender gaps in preferences and by expectations regarding economic circumstances. However, including both these controls in a regression analysis indicates that the latter is the primary driving force. We also observe policy differences between male- and female-controlled groups, though these are substantially smaller than the mean individual differences-a natural consequence of the aggregation of individual preferences into collective outcomes.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10683-021-09741-8.

Poverty involves both low income levels and high income uncertainty. Do both these dimensions of being poor capture attention in ways that distort decision-making and trap people in poverty? We examine these issues using real-life shocks faced by farmers in Brazil: random payday variation affecting income levels, and rainfall shocks that affect income uncertainty. We find that it is income uncertainty that systematically has adverse cognitive effects; low income levels affect only the poorest households. The net adverse impacts on cognitive function prevail even though both dimensions of poverty reallocate attention to scarce-resource tasks. These results broaden our understanding of the impacts of uncertainty by exploring a psychological channel distinct from risk aversion, and help reconcile apparently contradictory evidence on the cognitive impact of poverty in previous studies.

There is vast heterogeneity in the human willingness to weigh others' interests in decision making. This heterogeneity concerns the motivational intricacies as well as the strength of other-regarding behaviors, and raises the question how one can parsimoniously model and characterize heterogeneity across several dimensions of social preferences while still being able to predict behavior over time and across situations. We tackle this task with an experiment and a structural model of preferences that allows us to simultaneously estimate outcome-based and reciprocity-based social preferences. We find that non-selfish preferences are the rule rather than the exception. Neither at the level of the representative agent nor when we allow for several preference types do purely selfish types emerge. Instead, three temporally stable and qualitatively different other-regarding types emerge endogenously, i.e., without pre-specifying assumptions about the characteristics of types. When ahead, all three types value others' payoffs significantly more than when behind. The first type, which we denote as strongly altruistic type, is characterized by a relatively large weight on others' payoffs - even when behind - and moderate levels of reciprocity. The second type, denoted as moderately altruistic type, also puts positive weight on others' payoff, yet at a considerable lower level, and displays no positive reciprocity while the third type is behindness averse, i.e., puts a large negative weight on others' payoffs when behind and behaves selfishly otherwise. We also find that there is an unambiguous and temporally stable assignment of individuals to types. Moreover, the three-type model substantially improves the (out-of-sample) predictions of individuals' behavior across additional games while the information contained in subject-specific parameter estimates leads to no or only minor additional predictive power. This suggests that a parsimonious model with three types captures the bulk of the predictive power contained in the preference estimates.

Artificial intelligence is at the heart of current debates related to ethical, social and political issues of technological innovation. This briefing refocuses attention from the techno-ethical challenges of AI to artificial decision-making (ADM) and the questions related to delegating human decisions to ADM. It is argued that (a) from a socio-ethical point of view the delegation is more relevant than the actual ethical problems of AI systems; (b) instead of traditional responsible AI approaches focusing on accountability, responsibility and transparency (ART) we should direct our attention to trustworthiness in the delegation process; and (c) trustworthiness as a socio-communicational challenge leads to questions that may be guided by a responsible research and innovation framework of anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, and responsiveness. This may lead to different questions policymakers and other interested publics may ask as well as novel approaches, including regulatory sandboxes and other measures to foster a more inclusive, open and democratic culture of human-ADM relations.

Wird durch einen Stromausfall der kontinuierliche Betrieb von so genannten Kritischen Infrastrukturen wie Krankenhäuser, Trinkwasserwerke oder Dialysekliniken gefährdet, drohen dramatische Konsequenzen für die Bevölkerung. Entsprechend bedarf es an einer effektiven Katastrophenvorsorge. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird für diesen Zweck eine spatial-temporale Vulnerabilitätsanalyse entwickelt, mit der eine sachgerechte Beurteilung der Dringlichkeit und der Erheblichkeit von stromausfallbedingten Gefahren für einen beliebigen Landkreis oder eine beliebige kreisfreie Stadt samt einer Priorisierung der dort verorteten Kritischen Infrastrukturen bzw. ihrer Stadtteile oder Gemeinden für verschiedene Szenarios möglich wird. Grundlage der Vulnerabilitätsanalyse ist ein indikatorenbasierter Ansatz mit modifizierten multiattributiven Analysen. Hierfür wurden Indikatoren entwickelt, mithilfe derer auf die Kritikalität und die Bewältigungskapazität von den in einem Landkreis oder einer kreisfreien Stadt befindlichen Kritischen Infrastrukturen und damit auf das raumzeitliche Gefahrenpotential eines Stromausfalls geschlossen wird. Zur Abschätzung des Gefahrenpotentials anhand dieser Indikatoren wurden Workshops mit Entscheidungsträgern der Gefahrenabwehr und des Katastrophenschutzes durchgeführt. Die in den Ergebnissen anhaftende Subjektivität der Abschätzungen und die sich daraus ergebene Parameterunschärfe wird mithilfe einer Monte-Carlo-Simulation als Streuung im Ergebnis berücksichtigt. Darüber hinaus wurde für eine zeitliche Differenzierung einzelne Indikatoren dynamisiert und ein modifiziertes Delphi-Verfahren entwickelt, mit dem Gruppenentscheide in Führungs- und Verwaltungsstäben unterstützt werden. Die Vulnerabilitätsanalyse wurde in die Entscheidungsprozesse der Bedarfsplanung und der akuten Krisenbewältigung in Deutschland eingebettet. Für die Beurteilung stromausfallbedingter Gefahren in einem Landkreis oder einer kreisfreien Stadt werden mehrere Vulnerabilitätsaggregationen und Bewertungsverfahren verwendet. Hierdurch ergeben sich verschiedenartige raum-zeitliche Auflösungen der Gefahrenpotentiale und der örtlich individuellen Stromausfallfolgen, die Rückschlüsse über die Bedeutung von einzelnen Kritischen Infrastrukturen und Stadtteilen bzw. Gemeinden für die lebensnotwendige Versorgung der Bevölkerung, den schwerwiegendsten und den mildesten Stromausfallverlauf, die Erfüllung von Schutzzielansprüchen, örtliche Vulnerabilitätsdichten und die potentiellen Wirkung von zu erwägenden Maßnahmen ermöglichen. Hierdurch wird der Handlungsbedarf unterhalb der Ebene der Landkreise und kreisfreien Städten identifiziert, was ebenso die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Behörden und Betreibern Kritischer Infrastrukturen als auch die Bildung eines einheitlichen Gefahrenverständnisses im Rahmen von Sicherheitspartnerschaften fördert. Beispielhaft wurde das Verfahren unter Verwendung realitätsnaher Daten auf die Stadtkreise Mannheim und Karlsruhe angewendet. Neben der Bedarfsplanung und der akuten Krisenbewältigung kann die Anwendung des Analyseverfahrens und seine Ergebnisse die Erfüllung der strategischen Ziele des Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, denen sich die Bundesregierung verpflichtet hat, unterstützen. Ebenso kann die sachgerechte Priorisierung und prioritäre Versorgung von Kritischen Infrastrukturen oder Gebietskörperschaften anhand eines objektiven Vulnerabilitätsmaßes sowohl bei der Umsetzung des Gesamtkonzeptes Notstrom der Konzeption Zivile Verteidigung als auch im Kaskadeprinzip der VDE-AR-N 4140 bei kritischen Netzsituationen Anwendung finden. Der methodischen Entwicklung einer solchen präskriptiven Entscheidungsunterstützung gingen grundlegende entscheidungsnormative Auseinandersetzungen voraus, in deren Ergebnis nicht nur die Grundlagen des Risiko- und Krisenmanagements betrachtet wurden, sondern auch stromausfallbedingte Gefahren schutzgutorientiert spezifiziert, plausible Stromausfallszenarien systematisch reflektiert, Lokale Kritischen Infrastrukturen definiert, Standards für KRITIS-Kataster erstellt, ein Bemessungsstromausfall als auslegungsrelevanter kritischer Stromausfall festgelegt und Schutzziele zur bedarfsorientierten Dimensionierung von Vorsorge- und Bewältigungsmaßnahmen betrachtet wurden. Da hierdurch bisherige Lücken in der Debatte zum Schutz Kritischer Infrastrukturen und in der sachgerechten Entscheidungsfindung bei der Vorbereitung auf Stromausfälle auf kommunaler Ebene geschlossen werden konnten, bilden diese Ergebnisse, neben der entwickelten Vulnerabilitätsanalyse, einen wertvollen Beitrag in der normativen Entscheidungsunterstützung.

The introduction of new information and communication technology (ICT) in the company is often associated with the need for new qualifications and skills as well as different fields of activity and responsibility for the employees. Studies have shown a skill-biased digital divide in certain fields of ICT. In this study, trend scenarios of qualification requirements of workers using decision-support-systems (DSS) were evaluated in four different sectors: civil protection, energy management, plant maintenance, hospital- and operating room management. The results show either an increase in complex tasks or a shift to distinctively different areas of activity for workers affected by the use of DSS, especially in cases where management decisions lead to the reorganization of workers., Weizenbaum Conference

Context: Aiming at gaining knowledge about students' thoughts and actions in deciding to stay in or drop out of an educational programme, an empirical study was conducted on dropout among 18-24-year-old students in VET and basic general adult learning. Approach: In order to pursue this aim, the study combined two sets of data: weekly student surveys and interviews with these same students. While the surveys provide a weekly snapshot of the students' thoughts regarding the probability of them continuing in the programme, their satisfaction with the educational programme as a whole, the specific lessons they attend, and the atmosphere at the school, the interviews contribute with detailed descriptions of the students' thoughts on the same matters.Findings: Based on the students' answers over an eight-week period, it was possible to trace a graph illustrating changes in the students' attitudes. These graphs can be placed within four categories of development: the stable, the positive, the unstable, and the negative. The latter can furthermore be differentiated as reflecting a stable decline, a fluctuating decline, or a sudden decline. In the interviews, the aim was to elicit the individual students' thoughts and actions at the points when their graphs took a turn. Conclusions: The findings show that the students' thoughts and actions concern matters both inside and outside the school. Furthermore, seemingly trivial matters in the students' lives are shown to have a potentially decisive influence on the students' thoughts about staying in or dropping out of a programme. These findings confirm the importance of focusing on students' decision-making processes in research on dropout. However, further research is needed to increase understanding of processes leading to decisions to drop out of education, including the qualification of methods to capture these processes.

Since the 1970s, economics has emerged as a global profession, with economists becoming main characters of the intellectual and political life in many countries. Inspired by Bourdieu, several analyses faced the challenge of “theorizing fields beyond the nation-state” (Buchholz 2016). Some scholars emphasized that internationalization entailed a growing asymmetry between dominant and dominated participants: the former acting as “exporters” and the latter as “importers” of ideas (Dezalay and Garth 2002). Others pointed out the process of “creative destruction” that accompanied the globalization of local fields (Fourcade 2006). Finally, still others noted the emergence of a new field of globalized experts and think tanks (Medvetz 2012). Through a socio-historical depiction of economists in Argentina, we problematize the subordinated role of peripheral economists. Rather than a dominant-dominated logic, we identify a new international division of labor. Based on more than 60 interviews with economists, archival research, and statistical analyses, this paper shows that while a dependent position in the global academic field reduced Argentinian economists’ theoretical autonomy, it gave them the scientific authority that in turn paved the road to access very well-paid work as consultants and high-level public servants.

Vor dem Hintergrund heterogener, teils widersprüchlicher experimenteller Befunde zum prosozialen Entscheidungsverhalten in großen Gruppen wird die Forschungsfrage gestellt, welchen Einfluss die finanzielle Schlechterstellung von unterschiedlich großen Subgruppen auf das Verhalten von Individu-en hat. Hierzu werden Daten aus neun Varianten eines spieltheoretischen Social-Good-Großgruppen-experiments (Spiel 1: Hörsaalexperiment Uni Köln mit N=99, Laborexperiment im Kölner Laboratorium für Wirtschaftsforschung [CLER] mit N=162) mit 33 bzw. 27 Gruppenmitgliedern erhoben. Die Ver-suchspersonen müssen sich per Mehrheitsentscheid zwischen Gruppeninteresse und Eigeninteresse entscheiden. Die Messung behavioraler Komponenten wird kombiniert mit einer Erhebung der Ent-scheidungsgründe anhand von schriftlichen Survey-Fragen und qualitativen Interviews. Die Messung wird zudem um die Erhebung einer Spendenoption (Spiel 2; N=162) ergänzt. Es zeigen sich folgende Effekte: Akteure verhalten sich mehrheitlich eigennutzmaximierend. Jedoch wählen viele Individuen auch in großen Gruppen die distributiv faire Alternative im Rahmen der spezifischen Low-Cost-Hypothese. Nur wenn eine sehr kleine Minderheit stark benachteiligt wird, kommt es hochsignifikant zur Hilfe für die Benachteiligten im Sinne des Identifiable-Victim-Effekts. Das Modell der Frame-Selektion (MFS) erweist sich als aussagekräftig für die Erklärung, unter welchen Bedingungen Individu-en ein bestimmtes der konkurrierenden Gerechtigkeitsprinzipien auswählen. Jedoch kann die Annahme situationenüberspannender sozialer Präferenzen nicht bestätigt werden., Previous experimental findings about the decision-making behavior of individuals interacting in large groups tend to be contradictory. This essay focusses on the question how (monetary) discrimination of various subgroups influence the individual decision-making process in large groups. For this purpose, data from nine variants of a game-theoretical social good group experiment with 33 respectively 27 group members were analyzed. Participants had to decide between group interest and self-interest by majority vote. The quantitative analysis of individual decision-making is complemented by a written survey and a qualitative interview. Furthermore, individuals have the opportunity to donate some of their post-game funds to a charity. The results are as follows: The majority of individuals act self-maximizing. However, a significant amount of individuals, even in large groups, choose the concept of equality as principle of justice within the framework of the specific low-cost hypothesis. Only if a very small minority is heavily disadvantaged, it is highly significant to help the disadvantaged group mem-bers in the sense of the identifiable victim effect. The model of frame selection (MFS) proves successful in explaining when individuals select one of several competing justice principles. However, it was not possible to confirm the assumption of social preference across situations., GESIS Papers

The ability to uncover preferences from choices is fundamental for both positive economics and welfare analysis. Overwhelming evidence shows that choice is stochastic, which has given rise to random utility models as the dominant paradigm in applied microeconomics. However, as is well known, it is not possible to infer the structure of preferences in the absence of assumptions on the structure of noise. This makes it impossible to empirically test the structure of noise independently from the structure of preferences. Here, we show that the difficulty can be bypassed if data sets are enlarged to include response times. A simple condition on response time distributions (a weaker version of first order stochastic dominance) ensures that choices reveal preferences without assumptions on the structure of utility noise. Sharper results are obtained if the analysis is restricted to specific classes of models. Under symmetric noise, response times allow to uncover preferences for choice pairs outside the data set, and if noise is Fechnerian, even choice probabilities can be forecast out of sample. We conclude by showing that standard random utility models from economics and standard drift-diffusion models from psychology necessarily generate data sets fulfilling our sufficient condition on response time distributions.

With the increasing “agencification” of policy making in the European Union (EU), normative questions regarding the legitimacy of EU agencies have become ever more important. This article analyses the role of expertise and legitimacy with regard to the European Chemicals Agency ECHA. Based on the REACH regulation, so-called Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs) are subject to authorisation. The authorisation procedure aims to ensure the good functioning of the internal market, while assuring that risks of SVHCs are properly controlled. Since ECHA has become operational in 2008, recurring decisions on SVHCs have been made. The question posed in this article is: to what extent can decision making in the REACH authorisation procedure be assessed as legitimate? By drawing on the notion of throughput legitimacy, this article argues that decision making processes in the authorisation procedure are characterized by insufficient legitimacy.

The aim of this paper is to apply a power perspective to knowledge transfer in internal succession processes of small family businesses. We argue that knowledge is a source of power. Distilling existing literature on small family businesses, knowledge transfer and power theory, we focus on the role of owner-manager and successor in internal succession. Propositions are formulated, theorizing the influence of (1) expert power, (2) decision-making power, (3) trust, (4) rivalry, and (5) capabilities. First, we conclude, familiness and high levels of trust in small family businesses influence power relationships between successor and predecessor positively. Second, the existence of high power imbalances within familiness can slow progress in knowledge transfer in succession, and particularly negatively impact on tacit knowledge transfer from one generation to the next.

Risk and financial management of construction projects have been widely studied using different approaches and systems. Three basic frontiers underpin project management research in this area: normative; descriptive; and instrumental. The descriptive approach deals with how project managers perceive and represent risks that is, risk analysis. Instrumental approach study’s the impact of risk management on projects and the organisation. This perspective informs the premise in which studies that seek to justify the need for risk management are based. The normative approach identifies the moral and ethical linkages between the individual, organisations and supra system and risk management practice. While a vast of number of studies have been descriptive and instrumental, very few however address systemic issues impacting risk and financial management practice. This paper sets out to reflect on the risk and financial management practice in Nigeria using system approaches. It is a critical appraisal involving SLEEPT, Multiple goal and the GESTALT theories. In reprising the problem, the report assessed the national economy of Nigeria using SLEEPT, with a view to establishing whether it is situated in extremistan or mediocristan. The organisation, a sub-system of the supra system is evaluated to establish its links with the supra system using GESTALT. A refinement is carried out based on these analyses in order to achieve congruence and to establish a baseline upon which risk and financial can be improved. The analysis reveals social, political, environmental and economic context of the supra system are in extremistan while the legal and technology are in mediocristan. The linkage in the different systems is anchored on decision making by the individual. Optimal decision making is therefore formulated using interactive framework.

Present study is an opinion survey of the Dealers of Berger Paints Pvt. Ltd., India and Interior designer of Kolkata, India that reveals the factors affecting the choice of paints of the said respondents of Kolkata. The objective of the study was to understand the factors affecting the recommendation of domestic paints with respect to the dealer and interior designer of BERGER Paints Ltd., Kolkata (India). The result denotes some important auxiliary and ancillary factors having an impact on the choice process of the respondents.

In this paper, we propose a comprehensive Public Choice framework to identify and categorize barriers to efficient public climate adaptation. Specifically, we distinguish three dimensions of public adaptation: extent, structure (form and timing) and organisation (vertical and horizontal). Within each of these dimensions, we investigate how the self-interest of voters, pressure groups, bureaucrats and politicians may bias adaptation decisions. Thus, we indicate specific barriers to efficient public adaptation. Based on this framework, we illustrate how Germany’s response to major flood disasters reflects the incentive structure of concerned stakeholders and their political interaction. The ad-hoc character of some public adaptation measures implies a clear bias from the efficient benchmark. In conclusion, we argue that the propositions of Public Choice theory shed some light on how empirical public adaptation processes unfold.

International audience; Our various studies in the sociology of quantification have convinced us that it is possible to look at social or political philosophies and seemingly technical tools at the same time, considering them as a totality. The works of Alain Desrosières have also demonstrated this. But our recent work on the French State accounting reform has shown that the new accounting system can be used in many different ways, for very different, and even divergent purposes. There seems to be no unequivocal link between a kind of quantification device and a specific social philosophy. This article aims to reconsider the nature and conditions of this link, on the basis of our recent work on state accounting reform.

A prime function of many major World Wide Web applications is Online Service Allocation (OSA), the function of matching individual consumers with particular services/goods (which may include loans or jobs as well as products) each with its own producer. In the applications of interest, consumers are free to choose, so OSA usually takes the form of personalized recommendation or search in practice. The performance metrics of recommender and search systems currently tend to focus on just one side of the match, in some cases the consumers (e.g. satisfaction) and in other cases the producers (e.g., profit). However, a sustainable OSA platform needs benefit both consumers and producers; otherwise the neglected party eventually may stop using it. In this paper, we show how to adapt economists' traditional idea of maximizing total surplus (the sum of consumer net benefit and producer profit) to the heterogeneous world of online service allocation, in an effort to promote the web intelligence for social good in online eco-systems. Modifications of traditional personalized recommendation algorithms enable us to apply Total Surplus Maximization (TSM) to three very different types of real-world tasks -- e-commerce, P2P lending and freelancing. The results for all three tasks suggest that TSM compares very favorably to currently popular approaches, to the benefit of both producers and consumers.

Across two studies the hypotheses were tested that stressful situations affect both leadership ethical acting and leaders’ recognition of ethical dilemmas. In the studies, decision makers recruited from 3 sites of a Swedish multinational civil engineering company provided personal data on stressful situations, made ethical decisions, and answered to stress-outcome questions. Stressful situations were observed to have a greater impact on ethical acting than on the recognition of ethical dilemmas. This was particularly true for situations involving punishment and lack of rewards. The results are important for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of an organization, especially with regard to the analysis of the stressors influencing managerial work and its implications for ethical behavior.

Vorliegende Studien belegen eine persistente horizontale Ungleichheit von Studienfachwahlen nach sozialer Herkunft. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird der Frage nachgegangen, warum ein Zusammenhang zwischen sozialer Herkunft und Studienfachwahl besteht. Auf der Datenbasis der sachsischen Abiturientenbefragung seit 2000 kann die Entscheidungsfindung der Abiturientinnen und Abiturienten zu ihren nachschulischen Bildungs- und Berufswegen etwa drei Monate vor dem Abitur modelliert werden. Durch die empirischen Analysen kann nachgewiesen werden, dass die Studienfachwahl in Abhangigkeit von der Schichtzugehorigkeit das Ergebnis von Entscheidungen ist, die durch das Motiv des Statuserhalts, den erwarteten Kosten fur bestimmte Ausbildungen, den individuellen Leistungspotenzialen, dem erwarteten Studienerfolg und der soziokulturellen Distanz zur tertiaren Bildung strukturiert werden. Anhand dieser Determinanten der Studienfachwahl kann der Effekt sozialer Herkunft und damit – im Aggregat gesehen – die persistente soziale Ungleichheit von Studienfachwahlen nach sozialer Herkunft erklart werden.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to clarify how IT managers' decision styles affect their evaluation of information technology.Design/methodology/approachFour different decision styles were assessed in a leadership test directed towards IT managers. Each style included two dimensions: confidence judgment ability and decision heuristic usage. Participants belonging to each style were interviewed and their answers analysed with regard to their reasoning about central areas of IT management.FindingsResults suggest that a decision style combining intuitive and analytical capabilities lead to better evaluations of information technology.Originality/valeThe results of the present study are valuable for the understanding of how decision styles impact on IT management in everyday life.

"To ensure their competitiveness and capability to act in a complex and dynamic environment, enterprises should not only adjust to new situations. Furthermore they must be able to influence their environment actively and avoid degeneration to its match-ball. The answer to this problem will be the development of organisational competence to assure an autonomous, efficient and effective process of decision making. Organisational competence requires flexible and dynamic organisational structures as well as flexible and dynamically acting decision-makers. Organisational competence may be realised by developing the organisation to a dynamic core capability in association with exercising sustainable management. This essay will show the mentioned coherences." (author's abstract)

Understanding and responding to the quintessential customer is the only way marketers will survive high density competition in the market place. Giving the consumer what he needs, when he needs it and where he needs it is the key to smart marketing. Providing consumer solutions in turn require marketers to know their target consumers’ psyche and the sociological influences that bear down on them. This research study uses multiple qualitative tools like personality tests, perception tests, in depth interviews and projective techniques to understand the psyche, social cultural environment and the decision making framework of an individual research subject. The subject chosen for the single individual case study was a student at an MBA program in the metropolitan city of Bangalore. He is in his mid-20s looking to move on to a corporate job after the completion of graduate business program. The research primarily focussed on understanding the influences his social circumstances and his personal psyche had on consumption decision making.

The rapid expansion of the oil palm area in many tropical countries has raised concerns about its negative impact on local communities, food security, and on the environment. While the expansion of oil palm in early stages was mainly driven by large private and public companies, it is expected that smallholders will outnumber large estates in the near future. For policy formulation it is hence important to better understand who these smallholders are and why they have started to cultivate oil palm. In this paper, we used a rich dataset collected in the province of Jambi, which is one of the most important production areas for oil palm, to analyse smallholders’ decision making by combining qualitative, quantitative, and experimental methods. We identified agricultural expertise, lacking flexibility in labour requirements, availability of seedlings, and investment costs as the major constraints for farmers to cultivate oil palm. Important reasons for oil palm cultivation are the higher returns to labour and the shorter immature phase of oil palm. We also showed that oil palm farmers are neither risk-averse nor risk-loving, rather, they appear to be risk-neutral.

Will die Politik evidenzbasierte Entscheidungen über die Steuerung gesamtgesellschaftlicher Wohlfahrt und Lebensqualität treffen, so bedarf sie statistisch abgesicherter Informationen über die vergangene, aktuelle und auch künftige Entwicklung relevanter Phänomene. Vor dem Diktum einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung sind in den letzten Jahrzehnten zahlreiche neue Ansätze der Wohlfahrtsmessung entstanden . Sie sollen es Politikern, aber auch der Öffentlichkeit erleichtern, mit möglichst geringem Aufwand effektiv Informationen über den gesellschaftlichen Fortschritt zu gewinnen . Dahinter steht die Einsicht, dass das Bruttoinlandsprodukt kein geeigneter, umfassender Wohlfahrtsindikator ist. Eines der jüngsten Beispiele ist der deutsche W3-Indikatorensatz der Enquete-Kommission Wachstum, Wohlstand, Lebensqualität. Das vorliegende Papier führt den Prozess der Konstruktion alternativer Wohlfahrtsmaße (Operationalisierung) einer allgemein en Systematik zu. Darüber hinaus werden anhand eines Drei-Stufen-Modells strukturimmanente Divergenzen zwischen dem politisch Gewünschten und dem statistisch Machbaren gezeigt. Diese Divergenzen werden anhand der Ergebnisse der Enquete-Kommission Wachstum, Wohlstand, Lebensqualität veranschaulicht. Es lässt sich zeigen , dass für evidenzbasierte politische Entscheidungen nicht nur die Konstruktion eines alternativen Wohlfahrtsmaßes erforderlich ist. Vielmehr hat es die Zahl erst dann in die Politik geschafft, wenn dort der Wille zu einer Perspektivenerweiterung bei der Wohlstandsmessung vorhanden ist. Nur dann werden die Ergebnisse der Enquete-Kommission - oder ähnlicher Institutionen - umgesetzt.

...

We investigate the possibility that a decision-maker prefers to avoid making a decision and instead delegates it to an external device, e.g., a coin flip. In a series of experiments our participants often choose a stochastically dominated lottery between outcomes, contradicting most theories of choice such as expected utility. A large data set on university applications in Germany shows a choice pattern that is consistent with a preference for randomization, entailing substantial allocative consequences. The findings are consistent with our theory of responsibility aversion. (author's abstract)

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) calls for cost-effective measures to achieve a "good status" in all European ground, surface and coastal waters. Besides eutrophication, the degradation of hydro-morphology is the main reason for failing the WFD's objectives in Germany. In this paper , we conceptualize the interactive decision support process BASINFORM-M for finding proper locations for river restora tion. The method combines the recently proposed "stepping stone concept" from aquatic ecology with elements from cost-effectiveness analysis, multi-criteria analysis and participatory approaches. BASINFORM-M exemplifies a shift away from the isolated resto ration of single river reaches to wards a consideration of functional relationships within the whole river network. In doing so, it satisfies the WFD's requirement of considering cost-effectiveness without neglecting other important evaluation criteria.

A particular adaptation of Gale's top trading cycles procedure to school choice, the so-called TTC mechanism, has attracted much attention both in theory and practice due to its superior efficiency and incentive features. We discuss and introduce alternative adaptations of Gale's original procedure that can offer improvements over TTC in terms of equity along with various other distributional considerations. Instead of giving all the trading power to those students with the highest priority for a school, we argue for the distribution of the trading rights of all slots of each school among those who are entitled to a slot at that school, allowing them to trade in a thick market where additional constraints can be accommodated. We propose a particular mechanism of this kind, the Equitable Top Trading Cycles (ETTC) mechanism, which is also Pareto efficient and strategy-proof just like TTC and eliminates justified envy due to pairwise exchanges. Both in simulations and in the lab, ETTC generates significantly fewer number of justified envy situations than TTC. (author's abstract)

Ausgangspunkt dieser Dissertation ist, dass mit stabilen Präferenzen unvereinbares Verhalten für die Standardökonomik eine Herausforderung darstellt. Eines der sich stellenden Probleme ist, dass sich wandelnde Präferenzen der normativen Analyse abträglich sind: Wenn nicht vorhersagbar ist, ob und wie Präferenzen abhängig von der Situation und von institutionellen Arrangements variieren, lässt sich keine optimale Wirtschaftspolitik bestimmen. Es wird argumentiert, dass die Ökonomik daher auch in Betracht ziehen muss, wie Präferenzen evolvieren und wie ökonomische Akteure Informationen - z. B. Wahrscheinlichkeiten und Auszahlungen -verarbeiten. In den folgenden Kapiteln werden zwei Studien vorgestellt, die dieses Ziel verfolgen, indem sie den Prozess der Entscheidungsfindung experimentell untersuchen. Die erste Studie, "Kognitive Last erhöht Risikoaversion", zeigt, dass eine spezifische Änderung des Entscheidungsumfelds - nämlich eine Erhöhung der kognitiven Last - einen messbaren Einfluss auf die Risikoeinstellungen der Versuchspersonen hatte. Zudem werden die beobachteten Verhaltensänderungen in Verbindung zu existierenden Mehr-System-Modellen der Entscheidungsfindung gesetzt. Die ebenfalls gemessenen Reaktionszeiten bestätigt die Interpretation, dass die Entscheidungsfindung unter Risiko das Produkt interagierender Systeme im menschlichen Hirn ist. Die zweite Studie, "Soziales Lernen auf Finanzmärkten", verfolgt das Ziel, die normalerweise verborgenen Komponenten Präferenzen und Überzeugungen beobachtbar zu machen. Zu diesem Zweck absolvierten Versuchspersonen ein Experiment, während ihre Hirnaktivierung per funktioneller Magnetresonanztomografie gemessen wurde. Dies erweitert den analysierbaren Datensatz über die getroffenen Entscheidungen hinaus um Maße der Hirnaktivierung. Dadurch trägt diese Studie zur Identifizierung der Faktoren bei, die bestimmen, in welchem Umfang wir aus der Beobachtung der Entscheidungen anderer lernen. The point of departure of this dissertation is that behavior which is inconsistent with stable preferences poses a challenge for mainstream economics. One of the issues that arise is that changing preferences are detrimental to the objective of normative economics: If one cannot predict whether and how people’s preferences vary across situations or institutions, one cannot determine which economic policy would be optimal. Based on this, it is argued that economics has to take into account how preferences evolve and how information - e.g., probabilities and payoffs - is processed by economic agents. In the following two chapters, two experimental studies are presented that pursue this goal by investigating the process by which people make decisions. The first study, "Cognitive load increases risk aversion," shows that a specific change in the environment - in this case, an increase in cognitive load - had a measurable impact on subjects’ risk attitudes. Importantly, it also relates the observed changes to existing dual-system models of decision making. The response times which were recorded in addition to subjects’ choices contribute to the interpretation of the study’s findings, since they support the view that decision making under risk is the product of interacting systems in the human brain. The second study, "Social learning in asset markets," has the objective of making the latent components preferences and beliefs observable. To this end, subjects participated in a social-learning experiment while their brain activation was recorded via functional magnetic-resonance imaging. This enlarges the analyzable dataset through measures of subjects’ brain activation in addition to subjects’ choices. In doing so, the study contributes to identifying the factors that shape to what extent we learn from observing the choices of other human beings.

In diesem Artikel wird ein ausgearbeitetes Modell zu Migrationsentscheidungen und Migrationsverhalten verwendet, um den Einfluss individuell erlebter Arbeitslosigkeit und Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiken zu analysieren. Mithilfe eines Kontrast-Gruppen-Designs werden Befragte aus zwei deutschen Stadten mit unterschiedlichem okonomischem Wohlstandsniveau verglichen, mittels Ereignisdaten-Analyse auf Grundlage einer masgeschneiderten Panelstudie. Gemas mikrookonomischen Modellen der Migration ist zu erwarten, dass sich Befragte aus einer okonomisch deprivierten Stadt eher als solche aus einer prosperierenden Stadt fur einen Wegzug entscheiden und tatsachlich migrieren, weil sie ihre Moglichkeiten haufiger andernorts als besser einstufen als an ihrem aktuellen Wohnort. Daruber hinaus kann man erwarten, dass das antizipierte Risiko, in naher Zukunft arbeitslos zu werden, einen Wohnortwechsel eher in deprivierten Wohnregionen forciert, da Schwierigkeiten bei der Arbeitsplatzsuche am derzeitigen Wohnort antizipiert werden. Andererseits betonen die Neue Haushaltsokonomie und die Theorie sozialer Netzwerke die Bedeutsamkeit des Mesolevels. Individuen entscheiden sich nur selten allein fur oder gegen eine Migration; diese Entscheidungen werden eher gemeinschaftlich von der Familie getroffen. Die bisherige Forschung hat gezeigt, dass soziale Netzwerke fur Arbeitslose eine Hauptquelle sozialer Unterstutzung und daher besonders wichtig sind. Es gibt empirische Hinweise darauf, dass soziale Netzwerke Personen in deprivierten Regionen starker vom Wandern abhalten als in anderen Regionen. Diese theoretischen Uberlegungen und Erkenntnisse fuhren zu der Erwartung, dass Menschen, die in einer deprivierten Region bereits arbeitslos sind, diese selten verlassen – was im Gegensatz zu den Erwartungen der mikrookonomischen Theorie steht. Die Analyse zeigt, dass ein wahrgenommenes Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiko in der deprivierten Stadt tatsachlich die Entscheidung zugunsten eines Wohnortwechsels forciert, wohingegen Personen, die bereits arbeitslos sind, einen Wohnortwechsel nicht haufiger in Betracht ziehen oder planen als Beschaftigte. Nichtsdestotrotz konnen Paarbeziehung oder Familie am Wohnort den Effekt eines wahrgenommenen Arbeitslosigkeitsrisikos auf die Entscheidung zugunsten eines Wegzugs deutlich verringern. Wenn es darum geht, Migrationsplane in die Tat umzusetzen, zeigt sich, dass dies Arbeitslosen in der deprivierten Stadt deutlich seltener gelingt als Arbeitslosen, die in der prosperierenden Stadt leben. Die Analyse legt nahe, dass dies hauptsachlich in einer raumlichen Konzentration sozialer Netzwerke am Wohnort begrundet ist.

A review of the research literature on participation and organizational commitment during change is conducted. It is argued that the research field as a whole is moving from a rather utopian to a more realistic stance.

"In diesem Artikel wird ein ausgearbeitetes Modell zu Migrationsentscheidungen und Migrationsverhalten verwendet, um den Einfluss individuell erlebter Arbeitslosigkeit und Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiken zu analysieren. Mithilfe eines Kontrast-Gruppen-Designs werden Befragte aus zwei deutschen Städten mit unterschiedlichem ökonomischem Wohlstandsniveau verglichen, mittels Ereignisdaten-Analyse auf Grundlage einer maßgeschneiderten Panelstudie. Gemäß mikroökonomischen Modellen der Migration ist zu erwarten, dass sich Befragte aus einer ökonomisch deprivierten Stadt eher als solche aus einer prosperierenden Stadt für einen Wegzug entscheiden und tatsächlich migrieren, weil sie ihre Möglichkeiten häufiger andernorts als besser einstufen als an ihrem aktuellen Wohnort. Darüber hinaus kann man erwarten, dass das antizipierte Risiko, in naher Zukunft arbeitslos zu werden, einen Wohnortwechsel eher in deprivierten Wohnregionen forciert, da Schwierigkeiten bei der Arbeitsplatzsuche am derzeitigen Wohnort antizipiert werden. Andererseits betonen die Neue Haushaltsökonomie und die Theorie sozialer Netzwerke die Bedeutsamkeit des Mesolevels. Individuen entscheiden sich nur selten allein für oder gegen eine Migration; diese Entscheidungen werden eher gemeinschaftlich von der Familie getroffen. Die bisherige Forschung hat gezeigt, dass soziale Netzwerke für Arbeitslose eine Hauptquelle sozialer Unterstützung und daher besonders wichtig sind. Es gibt empirische Hinweise darauf, dass soziale Netzwerke Personen in deprivierten Regionen stärker vom Wandern abhalten als in anderen Regionen. Diese theoretischen Überlegungen und Erkenntnisse führen zu der Erwartung, dass Menschen, die in einer deprivierten Region bereits arbeitslos sind, diese selten verlassen - was im Gegensatz zu den Erwartungen der mikroökonomischen Theorie steht. Die Analyse zeigt, dass ein wahrgenommenes Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiko in der deprivierten Stadt tatsächlich die Entscheidung zugunsten eines Wohnortwechsels forciert, wohingegen Personen, die bereits arbeitslos sind, einen Wohnortwechsel nicht häufiger in Betracht ziehen oder planen als Beschäftigte. Nichtsdestotrotz können Paarbeziehung oder Familie am Wohnort den Effekt eines wahrgenommenen Arbeitslosigkeitsrisikos auf die Entscheidung zugunsten eines Wegzugs deutlich verringern. Wenn es darum geht, Migrationspläne in die Tat umzusetzen, zeigt sich, dass dies Arbeitslosen in der deprivierten Stadt deutlich seltener gelingt als Arbeitslosen, die in der prosperierenden Stadt leben. Die Analyse legt nahe, dass dies hauptsächlich in einer räumlichen Konzentration sozialer Netzwerke am Wohnort begründet ist." (Autorenreferat)

"Der Ausgangspunkt unserer Analyse ist der Rat der Enquete-Kommission „Wachstum, Wohlstand, Lebensqualität“ des Deutschen Bundestags, „das bestehende Berichts- und Sachverständigenwesen der Bundesregierung im Wege einer Evaluierung auf Redundanzen und Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten hin zu überprüfen“. Nach unserer Besichtigung und Bewertung der Gremien und Berichtslandschaft lassen sich einige Reformideen formulieren. Ausgangspunkt unserer Empfehlungen sind vier Überlegungen: (1) Sachliche Informationen sollten möglichst von unabhängigen Experten erarbeitet werden, (2) Relevanz sollte durch die Verpflichtung der Bundesregierung hergestellt werden, zu sachverständigen Berichten Stellung zu nehmen, (3) zwischen der Vorlage von Berichten und der Stellungnahme der Bundesregierung sollten die Organisationen der Zivilgesellschaft ausreichend (zeitliche) Gelegenheit zur Auseinandersetzung mit den Berichten bekommen. Öffentliche Wahrnehmung und verbesserte Legitimation von Beratungsprozessen dienen den Beratenden und Beratenen, und (4) ein effektives Berichtswesens muss auch die Frage beantworten, auf welche Berichte perspektivisch verzichtet werden kann. Wissen, das nicht verarbeitet werden kann, ist überflüssig." [Autorenreferat]

"This paper investigates how Beijing governs its two special administrative regions (SARs) of Hong Kong and Macau through leverages on their local autonomy. First, a conceptual analysis of local autonomy will be provided. Local autonomy is more than a zero-sum game between the central and local authorities over how much power should be granted or taken from the local authorities; it also concerns the space for cultural expression and the use of local customs in public administration. Second, the degree of local autonomy in Hong Kong and Macau will be critically examined. On paper, both SAR governments are able to freely make decisions on a wide range of policies. In practice, however, Beijing has the absolute authority to override the decisions of Hong Kong and Macau. It is argued that the autonomy in cultural expression can compensate for the institutional constraints on the two SARs' decision-making power and is thus able to alleviate public discontent - as long as the constraints do not conflict with the people's core values and ways of life." (author's abstract)

Almost all important decisions in people's lives entail risky and delayed consequences. Regardless of whether we make choices involving health, wealth, love or education, almost every choice involves costs and benefits that are uncertain and materialize over time. Because risk and delay often arise simultaneously, theories of decision making should be capable of explaining how behavior under risk and over time interacts. There is, in fact, a growing body of evidence indicating important interactions between behaviorally revealed risk tolerance and patience. Risk taking behavior is delay dependent, and time discounting is risk dependent. Here we show that the inherent uncertainty of future events conjointly with people's proneness to weight probabilities nonlinearly generates a unifying framework for explaining time-dependent risk taking, risk-dependent time discounting, preferences for late resolution of uncertainty, and several other puzzling interaction effects between risk and time.

We systematically explore decision situations in which a decision maker bears responsibility for somebody else's outcomes as well as for her own in situations of payoff equality. In the gain domain we confirm the intuition that being responsible for somebody else's payoffs increases risk aversion. This is however not attributable to a 'cautious shift' as often thought. Indeed, looking at risk attitudes in the loss domain, we find an increase in risk seeking under responsibility. This raises issues about the nature of various decision biases under risk, and to what extent changed behavior under responsibility may depend on a social norm of caution in situations of responsibility versus naive corrections from perceived biases. To further explore this issue, we designed a second experiment to explore risk-taking behavior for gain prospects offering very small or very large probabilities of winning. For large probabilities, we find increased risk aversion, thus confirming our earlier finding. For small probabilities however, we find an increase of risk seeking under conditions of responsibility. The latter finding thus discredits hypotheses of a social rule dictating caution under responsibility, and can be explained through flexible self-correction models predicting an accentuation of the fourfold pattern of risk attitudes predicted by prospect theory. An additional accountability mechanism does not change risk behavior, except for mixed prospects, in which it reduces loss aversion. This indicates that loss aversion is of a fundamentally different nature than probability weighting or utility curvature. Implications for debiasing are discussed.

In recent years, domestic and foreign outsourcing practice was widespread. In the transition to outsourcing there are difficulties associated with the practical organization of the interaction between the customer and the performer. An algorithm of management of the relationship with the performer (outsourcer). Particular attention is given to the criteria for evaluation of potential contractors.