Publikationen

This paper examines pricing efficiency of cryptocurrencies and some traditional assets measuring the level of market efficiency with Adjusted Market Inefficiency Measure. The patterns of several cryptocurrencies’ price dynamics over the last 4 years are compared with those of traditional assets. Correlation and mutual information matrices for AMIM are obtained using different estimation intervals. The results across different time scales are tested for noise using permutation entropy technique, empirical estimations are represented in statistical complexity plane to show the structure of efficiency links. Usage of AMIM in short window estimation is justified. Efficiency levels seem to be closely connected if judged from the standpoint of information theory at all time frames. Efficiency linkages become more linear at larger analysis periods. Cryptocurrencies seem to be more closely connected to equities, especially S&P500. Bursts of inefficiency on cryptocurrencies markets spread to equity markets and are possibly mediated in bank system. Commodities seem to be more independently priced.

COVID-19 vaccination rates slowed in many countries during the second half of 2021, along with the emergence of vocal opposition, particularly to mandated vaccinations. Who are those resisting vaccination? Under what conditions do they change their minds? Our three-wave representative panel survey from Germany allows us to estimate the dynamics of vaccine opposition, providing the following answers. Without mandates, it may be difficult to reach and to sustain the near-universal level of repeated vaccinations apparently required to contain the Delta, Omicron, and likely subsequent variants. But mandates substantially increase opposition to vaccination. We find that few were opposed to voluntary vaccination in all three waves of the survey. They are just 3.3% of our panel, a number that we demonstrate is unlikely to be the result of response error. In contrast, the fraction consistently opposed to enforced vaccinations is 16.5%. Under both policies, those consistently opposed and those switching from opposition to supporting vaccination are sociodemographically virtually indistinguishable from other Germans. Thus, the mechanisms accounting for the dynamics of vaccine attitudes may apply generally across societal groups. What differentiates them from others are their beliefs about vaccination effectiveness, their trust in public institutions, and whether they perceive enforced vaccination as a restriction on their freedom. We find that changing these beliefs is both possible and necessary to increase vaccine willingness, even in the case of mandates. An inference is that well-designed policies of persuasion and enforcement will be complementary, not alternatives.

In a randomized controlled trial, a large retail chain’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) sets new goals for the managers of the treated stores by asking them to “do what they can” to reduce the employee quit rate. The treatment decreases the quit rate by a fifth to a quarter, lasting nine months before petering out, but reappearing after a reminder. There is no treatment effect on sales. Further analysis reveals that treated store managers spend more time on human resources (HR) and less on customer service. Our findings show that middle managers are instrumental in reducing personnel turnover, but they face a trade-off between investing in different activities in a multitasking environment with limited resources. The treatment does produce efficiency gains. However, these occur only at the firm level.

Distinguishing between status spillovers and status ripples, we argue that sudden positive status shifts create status ripples when the social actors experiencing the status shifts are more constrained from exploiting their higher status than the social actors to whom they are affiliated. Specifically, we examine the status ripple paradox that the status effects experienced by the affiliated actors sometimes are as strong, or even stronger, as the direct status effects experienced by the ascending actors themselves. Focusing empirically on prestigious CEO awards from U.S. news magazines, we examine the consequences of positive status shifts for the awarded CEOs and the CEOs who are on the boards of directors of the awarded CEOs’ firms. We find evidence of status ripples in CEO compensation by showing that awarded CEOs have relatively greater immediate but smaller subsequent increases in compensation, which results in lower overall compensation effects for the awarded CEOs. Moreover, we provide empirical evidence of the theoretical mechanisms behind the status ripple paradox by showing that external constraints in the form of increased media and analyst attention and increased expectations affect the status ripple effect.

We propose to exploit stochastic volatility for statistical identification of structural vector autoregressive models (SV-SVAR). We discuss full and partial identification of the model and develop efficient EM algorithms for maximum likelihood inference. Simulation evidence suggests that the SV-SVAR works well in identifying structural parameters also under misspecification of the variance process, particularly if compared to alternative heteroscedastic SVARs. We apply the model to study the importance of oil supply shocks for driving oil prices. Since shocks identified by heteroscedasticity may not be economically meaningful, we exploit the framework to test instrumental variable restrictions which are overidentifying in the heteroscedastic model. Our findings suggest that conventional supply shocks are negligible, while news shocks about future supply account for almost all the variation in oil prices.

Aggregation tools transform multidimensional data into indices. To investigate how the design of an aggregation process affects regression results, we build democracy indices that differ regarding their scale and aggregation function. Using the democracy–growth nexus as a testing ground, we illustrate that the choice of the aggregation procedure significantly affects OLS and 2SLS estimates since different methods produce systematically different index values for observations at the lower and upper end of the autocracy–democracy spectrum. We also illustrate that dichotomous measures produce significantly smaller OLS estimates than continuous measures due to lower discriminating power. Whether continuous and dichotomous indicators create different 2SLS estimates depends on their design. Because of the methodological similarities of democracy indicators and other social science indicators, we expect similar consequences for other empirical analyses.

The teaching of financial literacy through game-based approaches is legitimized by the ability of game-based learning (GBL) to simulate financial decisions that young people have not yet encountered in their lives due to limited legal capacity and economic dependence on the parental home. Although results on the general effectiveness of games are already available, the question about for which students GBL is effective in teaching financial literacy has not yet been researched in depth. Based on pedagogical interest theory, a pre–post design (n = 50; 30 female students) was conducted to investigate the effects of high school students’ individual prerequisites on their game experience and their development of situational interest by playing an analog game and debriefing. The main findings indicate that a higher level of prior motivation for this topic has a positive effect on game experience and situational interest. A high level of prior knowledge and leisure activities concerning finance may have a somewhat negative effect. Such games are particularly suitable for students who are aware of the subjective significance of finance but have not previously had the opportunity to engage with this topic for different reasons.

Die qualitative Studie geht der Frage nach, wie Lehrende in der berufsbezogenen Weiterbildung die Folgen der Corona-Pandemie im Hinblick auf die damit einhergehenden Unsicherheiten und professionellen Anforderungen erlebten und bewältigten. Ausgehend von Kompetenzmodellen für Lehrende in der Weiterbildung wurden die Veränderungen ihrer beruflichen Situation betrachtet, die veränderten Anforderungen mit Blick auf die Digitalisierung sowie ihre Selbstregulations- und Bewältigungsstrategien. Zu diesem Zweck werteten wir 22 textbasierte Beiträge einer Webparade vom Spätsommer 2020 mittels der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse aus. Es zeigte sich, dass die Lehrenden nach anfänglicher Verunsicherung proaktiv und pragmatisch reagierten und die Digitalisierung als Lerngelegenheit annahmen. Für den Erwerb der erforderlichen Kompetenzen scheinen sie sich mittels Online-Trainerausbildungen und auf informellen Wegen fortzubilden. Aus didaktischer Sicht scheint die Digitalisierung Vorteile für bedarfsorientierte und wirksame Weiterbildung zu bieten, bei gleichzeitigen Schwierigkeiten, die aus der physischen Distanz vor allem für die Interaktion und Beziehungsgestaltung resultieren. Implikationen für die individuelle Professionalisierung der Lehrenden unter Pandemiebedingungen werden diskutiert.

We provide a comprehensive overview of the literature on the measurement of democracy and present an extensive update of the Machine Learning indicator of Gründler and Krieger (2016). Four improvements are particularly notable: First, we produce a continuous and a dichotomous version of the Machine Learning democracy indicator. Second, we calculate intervals that reflect the degree of measurement uncertainty. Third, we refine the conceptualization of the Machine Learning Index. Finally, we significantly expand the data coverage by providing democracy indices for 186 countries in the period from 1919 to 2019.

To examine relationships between teachers’ experienced classroom demands and autonomic stress reactions, we report the results of a pilot study. Based on an integrative literature review, we identified and described the following situational classroom demands: time and work pressure (including missing rest periods, time pressure, and pressure to get through the subject matter), vocal strain, uncertainty concerning the subject matter, uncertainty concerning didactical decisions, achievement-related diversity in class, lack of social appreciation, disquietude in class, classroom disturbances, behavioral problems of students, insufficient skills and concentration of students, and insufficient motivation of students.

One way to limit the emissions from fossil fuel combustion that underlie global climate change and air pollution is to nudge people away from commuting alone in their vehicles—that is, to gently encourage people (without limiting their freedom of choice) to replace single-occupancy-vehicle commutes with environmentally friendlier options. Abundant research has focused on the influence of external factors—for example, urban design, the availability of roadways and bicycle lanes, and the costs of using one's chosen means of transportation—on commuters’ transportation decisions. Much less is known about the psychological factors that influence which commuting modes people use. The field of behavioral science is therefore overdue to focus on transportation. In this article, we—a multidisciplinary team consisting of academics, applied researchers, and a transportation-management consultant—present a framework for designing and testing interventions informed by behavioral theory. We hope that this framework will help policymakers in government and the private sector identify nudges that can encourage commuters to adopt eco-friendlier modes of transportation. We also describe several studies we have designed on the basis of this framework and present the results collected so far.

We analyze evidence production in merger control as a delegation problem in an inquisitorial competition policy system. The antitrust agency’s incentives to produce evidence on the efficiency of a merger proposal depend critically on its action set. Allowing for a compromising remedy solution reduces information acquisition incentives, and could therefore reduce consumer welfare. The effort-frustrating effect of the remedy solution can be eliminated if a remedy solution can be implemented only after evidence on the efficiency of a merger proposal has been produced.

Hintergrund und Zielstellung
Ausgehend von einem mittels Selbstauskunft erfassten Resilienzkonstrukt, welches die Verhaltensweisen beschreibt, (1) dynamisch Veränderungen gestalten zu können, (2) flexibel auf Erfordernisse reagieren zu können sowie (3) sich angemessen von den Erwartungen anderer abgrenzen zu können, setzt sich der Beitrag das Ziel, Zusammenhänge mit kardialen Indikatoren des autonomen Nervensystems (ANS) zu ermitteln.

Methodik
Wir greifen auf Daten von insgesamt 150 Mitarbeiter/-innen (MA) eines deutschen Industrieunternehmens zurück, von welchen sowohl entsprechende Selbstauskunftsdaten als auch Messdaten der Aktivität des ANS erfasst wurden.

Ergebnisse
In den Ergebnissen zeigen sich signifikante Korrelationen der Resilienzfacette „Dynamik“ mit parasympathischen Messparametern des ANS. Weiterhin zeigt sich, dass die Facette „Dynamik“ in signifikant negativem Zusammenhang mit verschiedenen Skalen des „Trierer Inventars zum chronischen Stress“ steht. Ältere MA weisen bei der Facette „Dynamik“ verglichen mit jüngeren MA tendenziell geringere Werte auf. MA, welche eine Führungsaufgabe mit disziplinarischer und/oder fachlicher Funktion innehaben, zeigen höhere Werte in dieser Facette, verglichen mit MA ohne entsprechende Führungsverantwortung.

Diskussion
Messbare Daten für eine wissenschaftlich gestützte Prävention und Resilienzunterstützung sind ein innovativer und vielversprechender Ansatz. Die Anwendung geprüfter Messverfahren kann auch für Leistungsfähigkeit, Erfolg und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit eines Unternehmens wichtig sein. Aus den Strukturähnlichkeiten der verhaltensbezogenen und somatischen Resilienzfacetten ergeben sich gezielte Implikationen für die Resilienzerfassung in Arbeitskontexten. Entsprechende Anschlussfragen hinsichtlich personen- und organisationsspezifischer Trainings zur Resilienzförderung müssen in Folgestudien geklärt werden.