Aktuelle Publikationen
-
dc.title:
dc.contributor.author: Bao, Yongping
-
(2023): Mystery Shopping as a Strategic Management Practice in Multi-Site Service Firms Academy of Management Proceedings. Academy of Management. 2023(1). ISSN 0065-0668. eISSN 2151-6561. Available under: doi: 10.5465/amproc.2023.15600abstract
Anonymous and unannounced worksite inspections known as ``Mystery Shopping'' (MS) are common in multi-site service firms, but little is known about the strategic importance of this practice. We conceptualize MS as a monitoring tool firms use to implement the optimal allocation of site resources between sales- and service-related activities in the presence of cross-site reputation spillovers, which is to maximize sales while maintaining service standards. Consistent with this view, data from three retail chains reveal (i) low variation in MS scores, (ii) little correlation of MS scores with sales, and iii) high correlation of sites' MS scores with the likelihood of their supervisors receiving incentive bonuses. Our findings are robust to different model specifications, and shed new light on a ubiquitous yet little-studied management practice.
-
(2023): Social mobility and education policy : a district-level analysis of legislative behavior Socio-Economic Review. Oxford University Press (OUP). ISSN 1475-1461. eISSN 1475-147X. Available under: doi: 10.1093/ser/mwad038
A vast literature has examined how perceptions of mobility shape demand for redistribution. These studies generally refer to contemporaneous tax policies demanded by those directly impacted. But social mobility is often measured as changes across generations. To account for these intergenerational effects, our analysis focuses on educational policies. We examine how social mobility at the district level explains legislative support for inclusive education policies. We first develop an electoral competition model where voters are altruistic parents, politicians are office seeking and the future economic status of the children is affected both by the degree of income mobility and by public education policies. We then analyze a newly compiled dataset of roll-call votes on California education legislation matched with electoral district levels of income mobility. In line with the model, our analysis suggests that upward mobility in a district negatively predicts legislative support for redistributive education bills.
-
(2023): Seeking shelter in times of crisis? : unemployment, perceived job insecurity and trade union membership Economica. Wiley. 2023, 90(359), pp. 1041-1088. ISSN 0013-0427. eISSN 1468-0335. Available under: doi: 10.1111/ecca.12480
Do trade unions benefit from economic crises by attracting new members among workers concerned about job security? To address this question, we provide a comprehensive empirical investigation based on panel data from Germany, where workers decide individually on their membership. We analyse whether exogenously manipulated perceptions of job insecurity encourage individuals to join a trade union. Firm-level workforce reductions serve as the first trigger of perceived job insecurity. Regional unemployment rates represent a second source of exogenous variation. Third, we propose a novel identification approach based on plant-closure-induced job losses of other workers in the same region. In each case, we exploit the longitudinal nature of the data to analyse the implications of changes in labour market conditions for changes in union membership using an instrumental variable approach. We find consistently that perceived job insecurity, as triggered by labour market turmoil, increases the likelihood of individual union membership. Analysing data on media coverage about downsizing in a complementary investigation, we add further evidence to the notion of trade unions as beneficiaries of labour market crises. Finally, we consider workers who lose their jobs and find no evidence of adverse effects on union membership among those affected directly by unemployment.
-
(2023): Development, predictors, and effects of trainees’ organizational identification during their first year of vocational education and training Frontiers in Psychology. Frontiers. 2023, 14, 1148251. eISSN 1664-1078. Available under: doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1148251
The vocational identity of trainees is one component of their professional competence and is considered to be a central goal of vocational education and training (VET) programs. From the numerous identity constructs and conceptualizations, this study focuses on the organizational identification of trainees, that is, the extent to which trainees internalize the values and goals of their training company and perceive themselves as part of this company. We are specifically interested in the development, predictors, and effects of trainees’ organizational identification, as well as the interrelations between organizational identification and social integration. We use longitudinal data of n = 250 trainees in dual VET programs in Germany at the very beginning of their VET program (t1), after 3 months (t2), and after 9 months (t3). A structural equation model was used to analyze the development, predictors, and effects of organizational identification for the first 9 months of training and the cross-lagged effects between organizational identification and social integration. The results showed a high stability of trainees’ organizational identification over the first 9 months. Regarding the predictors, the results indicated positive direct and indirect effects of the formal socialization tactics implemented by the training company, as well as of support by the trainer at the beginning of the training. However, collegial support at the beginning of the training did not seem to play a significant role in organizational identification. Moreover, organizational identification positively affected trainees’ emotional engagement and self-perceived competence while negatively predicting dropout intentions after 9 months of training. Finally, the cross-lagged effects between organizational identification and social integration were not significant, and only at t3 were these constructs positively correlated. However, regarding the development, predictors, and effects, very similar results were found for organizational identification and social integration. The results underline the positive significance of organizational identification for the individual, the company, and society, even at this early stage of training. The results are discussed regarding both their scientific and practical implications.
-
(2023): Promoting VET by Implementing a "Dual System" in Ukraine TŪTLYS, Vidmantas, ed., Lina VAITKUTĖ, ed., Christof NÄGELE, ed.. Vocational Education and Training Transformations for Digital, Sustainable and Socially Fair Future. Proceedings of the 5th Crossing Boundaries Conference in Vocational Education and Training. Kaunas: Vytautas Magnus University Institute of Educational Research, 2023, pp. 70-78. ISBN 9798390503386. Available under: doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7808278
In the course of recent history, the Ukrainian vocational education and training system (VET) system has evolved from a system with a large share of work-based learning to a school-based model. Both models struggle(ed) with a lack of appreciation among the population and in companies (Braun, 2022; Melnyk, 2021). Currently, attempts are being made to upgrade marginalised VET by moving work-based learning back to the centre of it. Specifically, Ukraine implemented a dual VET system in a pilot project in 2015, which has since expanded. While three VET institutions were involved in 2015, 217 were recorded in 2021 (MES & Institute of Educational Analytics, 2021). This is not only associated with hopes for demand-oriented, recognised VET, but also with challenges such as creating a working legal framework for the dual forms of education, encouraging and creating incentives for all actors to participate and contribute to the development of the skill formation and overcoming long-established stereotypes about VET in Ukraine (e. g. Boichevska & Veremiuk, 2020; Deissinger & Melnyk, 2019). The aim of the paper is to analyse these issues and come to an up-to-date assessment of the reform implementation, its possible prospects and pitfalls. To achieve this goal, it is first necessary to consider why it is important to promote VET in Ukraine in the first place and where its low esteem results from. This is primarily due to historical-political developments and cultural causes (Braun, 2022; Melnyk, 2021). Finally, the dual system approach is analysed in concrete terms, taking into account the previously explained background, and the challenges are worked out. For example, it is difficult to convince employers to participate in VET, which they usually see as the sole responsibility of the state (cf. Prytomanov et al., 2018). The results present a summary of the diverse research activities of the authors connected with VET in Ukraine conducted during 2018-2021.
-
(2023): What Do Employee Referral Programs Do? : Measuring the Direct and Overall Effects of a Management Practice Journal of Political Economy. University of Chicago Press. 2023, 313(3), pp. 633-686. ISSN 0022-3808. eISSN 1537-534X. Available under: doi: 10.1086/721735
Employee referral programs (ERPs) are randomly introduced in a grocery chain. On direct effects, larger referral bonuses increase referral quantity but decrease quality, though the increase in referrals from ERPs is modest. However, the overall effect of having an ERP is substantial, reducing attrition by 15% and significantly decreasing labor costs. This occurs, partly, because referrals stay longer than nonreferrals, but, mainly, from indirect effects: nonreferrals stay longer in treated than in control stores. The most supported mechanism for these indirect effects is workers value being involved in hiring. Attrition impacts are larger in higher performing stores and better local labor markets.
-
(2023): Principal’s distributive preferences and the incentivization of agents Experimental Economics. Springer. ISSN 1386-4157. eISSN 1573-6938. Available under: doi: 10.1007/s10683-023-09791-0
Do principals' distributive preferences affect the allocation of incentives within firms? We run a Principal-Agent lab experiment, framed as a firm setting. In the experiment, subjects are randomized in the principal or worker position. Principals must choose piece rate wage contracts for two workers that differ in terms of ability. Workers have to choose an effort level that is non-contractible. Principals are either paid in proportion to the output produced (Stakeholder treatment) or paid a fixed wage (Spectator treatment). We study how principals make trade-offs between incentive concerns (motivating workers to maximize output) and their own normative distributive preferences. We find that, despite the firm-frame and the moral hazard situation, principals do hold egalitarian concerns, as principals are on average willing to trade off their firm's performance (and so their own income) for more wage equality among their workers. The willingness to reduce inequality among workers is sensitive to both extensive and intensive margin incentives, which shows that principals' choices are shaped by incentives that they face themselves.
-
(2023): Identity breeds inequality : Evidence from a laboratory experiment on redistribution Journal of Public Economics. Elsevier. 2023, 222, 104866. ISSN 0047-2727. eISSN 1879-2316. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104866
Politics is increasingly driven by identity cleavages, which also affect the discussion about inequality and redistribution. Typically, redistribution is meant to reduce inequality, implying that redistribution neither makes the rich richer nor the former poor the new rich. However, if identity affects redistribution, these limits might no longer be binding, and redistribution could further increase existing inequalities (making the rich richer) or reverse the income ordering to favor the once-poor (which can even be inequality increasing if redistribution is strong). In a laboratory experiment, we investigate redistribution via a novel smooth one-dimensional distribution mechanism that also allows for an increase or reversal of inequality. Decision-makers receive information about the recipients' political orientation, nationality, or seat number during the experiment, and we vary the structure and source of income inequality (income is either earned, random, or unfair). We find most choices of the decision-makers involve redistribution, with only 8 % of choices sticking with the status quo. While most redistribution choices reduce inequality, a larger share—(18 %)—increase inequality by making the rich richer, 13 % of choices reduce overall inequality but make the poor the new rich, and 9 % increase inequality by making the poor very rich. Thus, 40 % of decisions are redistributions that are typically unobserved in common redistribution designs. Ingroup favoritism is a strong motive for redistribution in general, and it is the most important motive for redistribution to increase or reverse inequality. Indeed, 85 % of the inequality-increasing or reversing decisions favor the ingroup. Complementary eye-tracking data show that decision-makers’ attention to information about the recipients’ groups and to poor outliers are related to higher levels of redistribution.
-
(2023): Explaining skills of prospective teachers : Findings from a simulation study Vocations and Learning. Springer. ISSN 1874-785X. eISSN 1874-7868. Available under: doi: 10.1007/s12186-023-09319-w
Providing instructional explanations is a central skill of teachers. Using interactive simulations, we examined the explaining skills of 48 prospective teachers attending a teacher education program for accounting in vocational schools in Germany. We used a performance-based assessment that relies on explanatory quality as an indicator of teacher candidates’ explaining skills. Video analysis was used to assess the quality of prepared and impromptu explanations in respect of different quality aspects. We found that the prepared explanations of prospective teachers were of high quality in terms of student–teacher interaction and language. With respect to the quality of content (e.g., accuracy, multiple approaches to explaining) and representation (e.g., visualization, examples), prospective teachers performed significantly worse. The quality of teacher candidates’ improvised explanations was significantly lower. This was especially true for the quality of representations, the process structure, and the interaction between student and teacher. For four of the five quality criteria examined, no correlation could be found between the quality of prepared and improvised explanations. For the language criterion, however, there was a correlation between the two types of explaining situations. Implications on how to support teacher candidates in developing explaining skills during teacher education are discussed.
-
dc.title:
dc.contributor.author: Mücher, Christian
-
This paper studies how distributional and electoral concerns shape sovereign default incentives within a quantitative model of sovereign debt with heterogeneous agents and non-linear income taxation. The small open economy is characterized by a two-party system in which the left-wing party has a larger preference for redistribution than the right-wing party. Political turnover is the endogenous outcome of the electoral process. Fiscal policy faces a tradeoff: On the one hand, the government has incentives to finance redistribution via external debt to avoid distortionary income taxation. On the other hand, the accumulation of external debt raises the cost of borrowing. Quantitative findings suggest that the left-wing party implements a more progressive income tax, is more prone to default, and has a lower electoral support than the right-wing party due to worse borrowing conditions and the distortionary effects of income taxation. In equilibrium, electoral uncertainty raises sovereign default risk.
-
(2023): Same, but Different? : Digital Transformation in Swiss Vocational Schools from the Perspectives of School Management and Teachers Technology, Knowledge and Learning. Springer. 2023, 28, pp. 407-427. ISSN 2211-1662. eISSN 2211-1670. Available under: doi: 10.1007/s10758-022-09631-9
The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of the digital transformation of educational organizations. The effects of this transformation process are not limited to the classroom level but extend into various areas of the school, such as Equipment and Technology , Strategy and Leadership , Organization , Employees , and Culture . Against this background, we assessed the status quo of the digital transformation in Swiss vocational schools from the perspective of both school management members and teachers. For this endeavor, two surveys were conducted: the first one in the period from November 2019 to January 2020 (school management members) and the second one between June and September 2020 (teachers). In total, 202 school management members and 1,739 teachers from 62 schools participated in the study. The results of the analyses indicate that the digitization-related dimensions of Strategy and Leadership , as well as Pedagogical IT Support , were perceived better by school management members, whereas teachers considered the areas of Digital Competencies , Attitudes , and Culture to be more advanced. Furthermore, linear regression models show that the dimensions considered important when assessing the status quo of digital transformation differ between the groups. The results emphasize the importance of communication between and the inclusion of all school stakeholders for the successful management of the digital transformation.
-
(2023): Projection Estimators for Structural Impulse Responses Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. Wiley. ISSN 0305-9049. eISSN 1468-0084. Available under: doi: 10.1111/obes.12562
In this paper we provide a general two-step framework for linear projection estimators of impulse responses in structural vector autoregressions (SVARs). This framework is particularly useful for situations when structural shocks are identified from information outside the VAR (e.g. narrative shocks). We provide asymptotic results for statistical inference and discuss situations when standard inference is valid without adjustment for generated regressors, autocorrelated errors or non-stationary variables. We illustrate how various popular SVAR models fit into our framework. Furthermore, we provide a local projection framework for invertible SVAR models that are estimated by instrumental variables (IV). This class of models results in a set of quadratic moment conditions used to obtain the asymptotic distribution of the estimator. Moreover, we analyse generalized least squares (GLS) versions of the projections to improve the efficiency of the projection estimators. We also compare the finite sample properties of various estimators in simulations. Two highlights of the Monte Carlo results are (i) for invertible VARs our two-step IV projection estimator is more efficient compared to existing projection estimators and (ii) using the GLS projection variant with residual augmentation leads to substantial efficiency gains relative to standard OLS/IV projection estimators.
-
(2023): Gemeinsam für den Beruf lernen : Studierende der Wirtschaftspädagogik unterstützen Auszubildende mit Fluchthintergrund DIEDERICHS, Tamara, ed., Anna Katharina DESOYE, ed.. Transfer in Pädagogik und Erziehungswissenschaft : zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa, 2023, pp. 262-276. ISBN 978-3-7799-6979-2
dc.title:
dc.contributor.author: Maué, Elisabeth; Schumann, Stephan
-
(2023): Do Role Models Matter in Large Classes? : New Evidence on Gender Match Effects in Higher Education
We study whether female students benefit from being taught by female professors, and whether such gender match effects differ by class size. We use administrative records of a German public university, covering all programs and courses between 2006 and 2018. We find that gender match effects on student performance are sizable in smaller classes, but do not exist in larger classes. This difference suggests that direct and frequent interactions between students and professors are important for the emergence of gender match effects. Instead, the mere fact that one’s professor is female is not sufficient to increase performance of female students.
-
(2023): Board overconfidence in mergers and acquisitions Journal of Business Research. Elsevier. 2023, 165, 114026. ISSN 0148-2963. eISSN 1873-7978. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114026
Past research has shown that CEOs become overconfident through biased self-attribution in previous M&A transactions, which negatively affects subsequent M&A deals. However, M&A decisions are de jure and de facto not only influenced by a single person, the CEO, but by a group of individuals, namely the board of directors. In this study, we investigate whether and to what extent the overconfidence of board directors affects key acquisition outcomes. Building on the overconfidence literature, we argue that board directors become overconfident through biased self-attribution in recent M&A deals and hypothesize that their overconfidence leads to poorer subsequent M&A outcomes. By studying investor reactions and premiums paid for a broad set of public acquisitions carried out by large U.S. companies, we find strong support for our predictions.
-
dc.title:
dc.contributor.author: Maurer, Stephan E.
-
dc.title:
dc.contributor.author: Alasalmi, Juho Antti Iivari
-
(2023): Does wealth inequality affect the transmission of monetary policy? Journal of Macroeconomics. Elsevier. 2023, 75, 103474. ISSN 0164-0704. eISSN 1873-152X. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2022.103474
We provide evidence that higher wealth inequality between households is associated with stronger real effects of monetary policy. First, we use state-dependent local projections to show that the US and the UK exhibited stronger real effects of monetary policy in times of higher wealth inequality. Second, we measure wealth inequality within US states and document that economic activity responds more strongly to interest rate changes in states where wealth is distributed more unequally. Third, we show that ECB monetary policy has stronger real effects in Euro Area countries with higher wealth inequality.