Contributions in Merlin

WikiWebs sind software-basierte Plattformen, die kollaborative Kommunikation erleichtern. Sie erlauben ihren Nutzern, eigene und fremdverfasste Beiträge auf einfache Weise zu editie-ren, und archivieren zugleich die Veränderungshistorie der Beiträge. Zunehmend finden Wikis in Unternehmen Verwendung, um den Wissens- und Erfahrungsaustausch zwischen Mitarbei-tern zu befördern. Hergeleitet aus Luhmanns Theorie sozialer Systeme sowie aktuellen Theorien der Organi-sationskommunikation ist zu vermuten, dass der Einsatz von Wikis das Konstitutionsverhältnis zwischen Organisation und Entscheidungskommunikation in dreierlei Hinsicht prägt: (1) Wikis befördern die Beobachtbarkeit von Entscheidungskommunikation und damit die Fähigkeit der Organisation zur Selbst-Beobachtung, (2) durch das Vorhalten der Verände-rungshistorie kommunizierter Entscheidungen verhindern sie Vergessen und verändern so das Verhältnis der Organisation zur eigenen Geschichtlichkeit, (3) schließlich verstärken sie den Druck zur Legitimation von Entscheidungen – all dies mit noch ungeklärten Folgen für die Selbstverfertigung der Organisation aus Kommunikation. Diesem Zusammenhang wird auf Grundlage einer vergleichenden Fallstudie zwischen Wi-kis in organisationsinternem und öffentlichem Einsatz nachgegangen. Hierzu bedient sich die Studie der sogenannten History Flow-Analyse, um empirisch nachzuzeichnen, wie die Verän-derungshistorie der Beiträge und die Entscheidungskommunikation auf Diskussionsseiten in-einander greifen.

Applying stochastic frontier analysis, we estimate distance to frontier of countries in the production of success at the Summer Olympic Games since the 1950s. Our measures of success are medal shares and a broader concept including Olympic diplomas. Following Bernard and Busse (2004), population and GDP are used as inputs. While the impact of GDP is always positive, we show that the sign of the population effect depends on wealth and population size of a country. The results show that the spread of distance to frontier is very wide over time, across countries, gender, and sports: not only resource endowment matters, but also utilization of resources. These differences can be seen as caused by differences in financial support, training methods, organization, or culture. Using the method proposed by Battese and Coelli (1995), we build on well documented results in the literature and identify the channels through which planned economies and host countries generate Olympic success. The method allows to shed light on aspects of recent history such as the consequences of the breakdown of the former Soviet Union.

This paper examines the interplay of endogenous vertical integration and cost-reducing downstream investment in successive oligopoly. Analyzing a linear Cournot model, we establish the following key results: (i) Vertical integration increases own investment and decreases competitor investment (intimidation effect). (ii) Asymmetric integration is a non-degenerate equilibrium outcome. (iii) Compared to a benchmark model without investment, complete vertical separation is a less likely outcome. We argue that these findings generalize beyond the linear Cournot model under reasonable assumptions.

This article evaluates the effects of Swiss active labour market programmes on the job chances of unemployed workers. The main innovation is a comparison of two important dynamic evaluation estimators: the ‘matching’ estimator and the ‘timing-of-events’ estimator. We find that both estimators generate different treatment effects. According to the matching estimator temporary subsidised jobs shorten unemployment duration whereas training programmes and employment programmes do not. In contrast, the timing-of-events estimator suggests that none of the Swiss active labour market programmes shortens unemployment duration.

This paper examines the cyclical interactions between the remittances of Turkish workers in Germany and output in both Turkey and Germany. Our analysis introduces a new data set covering 1962 to 2004, never used before in the research literature and considered to be a more reliable source than the data sets used in other studies. By dividing the original sample into recruitment, family reunification, and naturalization periods, we show that the duration of migrants' stay in the host country affects the direction and strength of the relation between remittances and the host and home countries' business cycles.

Awards in the form of orders, decorations, prizes, and titles are ubiquitous in monarchies and republics, private organizations, not-for-profit, and profit-oriented firms. This paper argues that awards present a unique combination of different stimuli and that they are distinct and unlike other monetary and non-monetary rewards. Despite their relevance in all areas of life awards have not received much scientific attention. Employing a unique data set, we demonstrate that there are substantial differences in the intensity of usage of awards across countries. Moreover, we present results on a vignette experiment that quantifies and isolates the effects of different award characteristics such as the publicity associated with winning an award.

Most economic models are limited to analyzing the behavior of a representative agent and, consequently, make the implicit assumption that either individuals are homogeneous or that individual heterogeneity does not matter for the aggregate outcome. However, recent empirical evidence in experimental economics indicates that under strategic complementarity a minority of irrational agents may, indeed, drive the market's outcome. To avoid potential aggregation bias, researchers in empirical economics should take individual heterogeneity into account, which results in the following trade-off: on the one hand, a representative agent approach, which is parsimonious and easy to interpret, completely neglects heterogeneity, but on the other hand, estimating economic behavior at the individual level, which requires a lot of parameters and results in a plethora of estimates, may demand too much from the data. To escape this dilemma, empirical economists may apply finite mixture models, which offer a compromise between completely ignoring individual heterogeneity and running into difficulties when estimating individual by individual. This thesis comprises four independent applications of finite mixture regression models. The first three experimental studies are part of a comprehensive research project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, and discuss the identification and stability of two different behavioral types of decision makers in the domain of risk. The last essay applies a finite mixture model to the German Socio-Economic Panel to segregate the share of altruists from the rest of the population which is assumed to be selfish. Deutsche Zusammenfassung: Die in der experimentellen Wirtschaftsforschung gängigen ökonometrischen Modelle schätzen häufig das Verhalten eines repräsentativen Individuums. Dem liegt die implizite Annahme zu Grunde, dass sich die Individuen entweder homogen verhalten, oder aber individuelle Heterogenität keinen Einfluss auf das aggregierte Verhalten ausübt. Neuere empirische und theoretische Evidenz zeigt jedoch, dass in imperfekten Märkten - insbesondere unter strategischer Komplementarität - eine Minderheit irrationaler Agenten das Marktgleichgewicht stark beeinflussen kann. Um Verzerrungen bei der Aggregation zu vermeiden, sollten in solchen Situationen individuelle Unterschiede zwingend berücksichtigt werden. Typischerweise stehen aber bei Experimentaldaten zu wenige Beobachtungen pro Individuum zur Verfügung, um komplexe Verhaltensmodelle auf individueller Ebene schätzen zu können. Finite Mixture Modelle bieten hier einen guten Kompromiss zwischen einem Repräsentativen Agenten Modell und einer Schätzung auf individueller Ebene: Sie erlauben es eine bestimmte Anzahl Verhaltenstypen zu identifizieren und jedes einzelne Individuum endogen einem dieser Verhaltenstypen zuzuordnen. Damit erfassen sie einerseits den entscheidenden Teil der individuellen Heterogenität, nämlich die Existenz verschiedener Verhaltenstypen, und benötigen andererseits deutliche weniger Parameter als eine Schätzung auf individueller Ebene. Diese Arbeit umfasst vier unabhängige Anwendungen von Finite Mixture Modellen. Die ersten drei experimentellen Studien sind Teil eines vom Schweizerischen Nationalfonds unterstützten Forschungsprojekts zur Charakterisierung verschiedener Verhaltenstypen bei Entscheidungen unter Risiko. In der vierten Studie wird mit einem Finite Mixture Modell der Anteil an Altruisten in einer Teilstichprobe des Deutschen Haushaltspanels identifiziert.

Question under study: Affected by individual life style, total cholesterol serum level is a major morbidity and mortality risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). We present total cholesterol values and possible etiological factors of young Swiss conscripts. Particularly, we focus on the varying impact of such a component depending on different levels of individual cholesterol. Methods: Male conscripts (n=19’272) of the 2005 census of the conscripts have been examined, reflecting ca. 59% of a total Swiss male citizen birth cohort. Quantile regression allows us to analyze the reagibility of arbitrary quantiles with respect to variables of interest. Results: Eleven percent of all conscripts show an increased total cholesterol level. A major association of high individual cholesterol level is with French mother tongue. The largest socio-economic subsample – agricultural and construction sectors – show significantly higher individual cholesterol levels than employees in the industry sector and students, respectively. Conclusions: We were able to find and exclude various as yet unstudied factors influencing individual total cholesterol levels. Such a screening programme offers a unique opportunity to target persons at high-risk for CVD morbidity and mortality already early in life.