Contributions in Merlin

We present results of a negative binomial model on the determinants of the number of days of absence in a given year for a sample of 2049 workers drawn from three factories. We find evidence of the terms of the remuneration contract being important and we offer an interpretation of the differential effect of the company sickpay scheme on the behaviour of workers contracted to work four or five days a week.

This contribution purports to come up with reform proposals that promise to improve the benefit-cost ratio in health from the point of view of taxpayers and (potential) patients. It starts by noting that a high and increasing share of health care expenditure in the GDP does not per se indicate a need for reform. Rather, the guiding idea is that decisions in the health care sector should be tied more closely to the preferences of consumers, who must obtain more ways to express their willingness-to-pay. The 10 proposals are directed to health insurers, physicians and medical associations, hospital management, and policy makers proper. Moreover, initial steps for implementing them are sketched, such as abolishing the division of lines in the regulation of (private) insurance, freeing health insurers from any-willing-provider clauses, refraining from imposing uniform nationwide fee schedules, and directly subsidizing poor consumers for buying health insurance rather than institutions such as hospitals and homes for long-term care.

We analyze a model of oligopolistic competition with ongoing investment. Special cases include incremental investment, patent races, learning by doing, and network externalities. We investigate circumstances under which a firm with low costs or high quality will extend its initial lead through investments. To this end, we derive a new comparative statics result for general games with strategic substitutes, which applies to our investment game. Finally, we highlight plausible countervailing effects that arise when investments of leaders are less effective than those of laggards, or in dynamic games when firms are sufficiently patient.

This article is concerned with the analysis of correlated count data. A class of models is proposed in which the correlation among the counts is represented by correlated latent effects. Special cases of the model are discussed and a tuned and efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is developed to estimate the model under both multivariate normal and multivariate-t assumptions on the latent effects. The methods are illustrated with two real data examples of six and sixteen variate correlated counts.

This paper presents a model with flexible wages in which unemployment of low-skilled labor is possible in equilibrium, whereas high-skilled workers are fully employed. Thus, the model can explain why even in countries with flexible labor markets and full employment of skilled labor an employment problem exists at the bottom of the skill spectrum. The model is used to evaluate the impact of technological change and increased skill supply on the employment of low-skilled workers. It is shown that a switch to technologies with higher skill requirements unambiguously leads to a rise in unemployment of low-skilled workers. An increase in the supply of high-skilled labor has a positive effect on the employment level of low-skilled labor.

With the recent advances in mobile computing, distributed organizations are facing a growing need for advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that support mobile working. The ability to use information effectively anywhere and anytime has become a key business success factor: Although many Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) systems have been introduced to date, technologies and architectures that support the collaboration of nomadic workers on a wide range of mobile devices, notebooks and personal computers is still a challenge. The Mobile Teamwork Infrastructure for Organizations Networking (MOTION) project is aiming to design a highlyjexible, open and scalable ICT architecture for mobile collaboration. In this papeq we present the mobile collaboration requirements of two MOTION industry case studies, and highlight the advantages of a Web-based peer-to-peer architecture and for nomadic working.

Effiziente, konstruktive und zielgerichtete kooperative Zusammenarbeit spielt in einer Zeit immer schnellerer Entwicklungszyklen die entscheidende Rolle im Kampf um Marktvorteile. Hier, wie auch in vielen anderen Arbeits- und Lebensbereichen, eröffnet der Einsatz von Informationstechnologie neue, faszinierende Perspektiven, die zu entscheidenden Veränderungen in der menschlichen Zusammenarbeit in Unternehmen und im Privatbereich geführt haben und noch führen werden. Dieses Buch liefert einen umfassenden, kompetenten und auch für den Nicht-Fachmann verständlichen Einblick in die Grundlagen, Methoden und Konzepte, die Werkzeuge und Anwendungen und die Potenziale, Wirkungen und Perspektiven computerunterstützter kooperativer Zusammenarbeit. Das von international anerkannten Autoren geschriebene Buch eignet sich als einführendes Lehrbuch für Studierende an Universitäten und FHs und als Handbuch für Entwickler und Praktiker.