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If the future market wage is uncertain, engaging in long-term employment is risky, with the risk depending on how regulated the labor market is. In our experiment long-term employment can result either from offering long-term contracts or from repeatedly and mutually opting for rematching. Treatments differ in how regulations restrict the employer's flexibility in adapting the employment contract. All treatments allow for longer contract duration as well as for mutually opting to be rematched. Effort is chosen by employees after a contract is concluded. Treatments vary from no contract flexibility to no restriction at all. Will more (downward) flexibility be used in ongoing employment but reduce labor market efficiency? And will regulation crowd out long-term employment, in the form of long-term contracts or voluntary rematching? (JEL C72, C90, F16, J21, J24, L10), I. INTRODUCTION When little is known about the future market conditions, offering an employment contract that regulates working conditions for many periods can be dangerous. If market wages drastically decline, [...]

Abstract Background Traumatization in childhood can result in lifelong health impairment and may have a negative impact on other areas of life such as education, social contacts and employment as well. Despite the frequent occurrence of traumatization, which is reflected in a 14.5 percent prevalence rate of severe child abuse and neglect, the economic burden of the consequences is hardly known. The objective of this prevalence-based cost-of-illness study is to show how impairment of the individual is reflected in economic trauma follow-up costs borne by society as a whole in Germany and to compare the results with other countries’ costs. Methods From a societal perspective trauma follow-up costs were estimated using a bottom-up approach. The literature-based prevalence rate includes emotional, physical and sexual abuse as well as physical and emotional neglect in Germany. Costs are derived from individual case scenarios of child endangerment presented in a German cost-benefit-analysis. A comparison with trauma follow-up costs in Australia, Canada and the USA is based on purchasing power parity. Results The annual trauma follow-up costs total to a margin of EUR 11.1 billion for the lower bound and to EUR 29.8 billion for the upper bound. This equals EUR 134.84 and EUR 363.58, respectively, per capita for the German population. These results conform to the ones obtained from cost studies conducted in Australia (lower bound) and Canada (upper bound), whereas the result for the United States is much lower. Conclusion Child abuse and neglect result in trauma follow-up costs of economically relevant magnitude for the German society. Although the result is well in line with other countries’ costs, the general lack of data should be fought in order to enable more detailed future studies. Creating a reliable cost data basis in the first place can pave the way for long-term cost savings.

New legislation in the financing of psychiatric hospitals in Germany stipulates the introduction of a new reimbursement system for psychiatric child and adolescent psychiatric and psychosomatic hospitals in Germany by 2013. In several steps norms are to be empirically defined and services to be documented, and the current per diem system of hospital charges has to be replaced by a more specific system reflecting differences in the level of distinct patient groups. This discussion paper gives an overview of the legal framework as well as the risks and chances of the new system. An increased effort in documentation will be one of the clear consequences of the new system («much ado» ...). Psychiatric inpatient treatment will be much more transparent in detail, though it is not yet clear whether there will be a real improvement for patients (... «about nothing»). The new system also offers the chance to introduce modern treatment concepts like home treatment. Such chances for innovation should be implemented to the benefit of patients.