Erklärungsansätze für vertragswidriges Verhalten Versicherungsnehmern aus Sicht der ökonomischen Theorie

The two main purposes of this paper are an introduction to the economic analysis of insurance fraud and furthermore a derivation of factors that determine fraudulent behavior of policyholders on insurance markets. Consequently, we analyze the strategic decision problems of insurance companies and the policyholders and identify some factors that can help to reduce fraudulent behavior. In this context we evaluate two derived starting points for the combat against insurance fraud: fraud detection systems and a consequent charge policy of detected defrauders. We illustrate that both points can help to reduce the cost of fraud. Furthermore, we enhance our earlier analysis with respect to the empirical fact that some individuals care about fairness or — in the insurance fraud context — the legitimacy of their actions. Surprisingly, in some market situations these concerns of some policyholders do not lead to a lower fraud probability. Finally, we discuss how and to what extent insurance companies can influence such ethical concerns of policyholders. On that score, we distinguish insurance specific and insurance unspecific factors and their impact on the consumers attitudes towards insurance fraud.     

Langlebigkeit und Altern: Gene oder Umwelt?

Aging is defined as loss of homeostasis which affects all metabolic systems, including DNA. Interspecies comparisons and lessons from the human genetic instability syndromes suggest a correlation between DNA-homeostasis and maximum lifespan, whereas average lifespan depends mainly on environmental factors. Current demographic data suggest a maximum lifespan in humans of 110–115. The average life expectancy at birth has reached 80 years in the wealthy nations and may exceed, at least in females, 90 years by the year 2050. Genetic and biological reasons, but also lifestyle factors, account for the greater longevity of women. Attempt to define a ?longevity“ genotype so far have not been met with success, but carriers of the ApoE4-Allele appear to have a disadvantage. Unlike the situation in model organisms, aging and longevity in humans seem to be influenced by numerous genes and environmental interactions. Most people do not die of old age but of age-related diseases which are frequent because of lack of natural selection against genetic defects that cause late-onset diseases. Moreover, genes causing late-onset diseases show evidence of antagonistic pleiotropy, rendering these genes resistant to removal from our genome. Likewise, thermoinstability of DNA and generation of reactive oxygen species during oxidative phosphorylation are two endogenous sources of genomic instability that limit our lifespan and cannot be overcome without fundamentally altering the biological make-up of our species. Genomic instability causes cancer and accelerates the aging process, as evidenced by the human caretaker gene syndromes which typically show progeroid features. From a genetic point of view, cancer and aging may be moderately delayed and / or mitigated by lifestyle and medical / environmental interventions, but given the constraints of our biological make-up, they cannot be eradicated.     

Term Structures in the Office Rental Market in Stockholm

This paper contains an empirical study of the rental term structure in a property market that included a dramatic boom and bust cycle. The study is applied to office leases in commercial properties located in Stockholm CBD, Sweden. The time period under study is 1977–1991. The number of observations (lease contracts) that we were able to make full use of in the regression analyses is n=861. For seven out of fifteen years studied, a significant term structure was observed. The estimated hedonic rent equation was also used to construct an office rental index.     

Dortmunder Institut für Zeitungsforschung wird 80 Jahre alt / Gabriele Toepser-Ziegert leitet das Haus in die Zukunft

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Testing for Vertical Fiscal Externalities

The purpose of this paper is to design a test of whether the vertical external effects associated with tax base sharing among local and regional governments have become internalized via the intergovernmental transfer system. Such tests are important in the sense that the income tax rates chosen by different levels of government will generally be correlated, even if the resource allocation is optimal from society's point of view. By using panel data for the Swedish local and regional public sectors, the results imply that an increase in the regional income tax rate induces the municipalities in the region to decrease their income tax rates. In addition, we are able to reject the null hypothesis that the vertical external effects have become internalized.     

Traumberuf oder Verlegenheitslösung?

So far relatively little is known about the situation of Ph.D. students in media and communication research. The main purpose of this study is, therefore, to shed light on the employment and working conditions for young scholars on their way to their doctoral degrees. We conducted a survey of 281 Ph.D. students in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The results show that, on the one hand, young scholars are intrinsically highly motivated to do their jobs. On the other hand, they perceive an academic career as a very uncertain venture with many obstacles. Furthermore, several types of Ph.D. students can be distinguished: idealists, careerists and waverers. It is shown that only the idealists conform to the concept of a productive and interested scholar. The results are discussed in terms of their importance for the future development of the field.     

Enterprise Risk Management and the Cost of Capital

Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a process that manages all risks in an integrated, holistic fashion by controlling and coordinating any offsetting risks across the enterprise. This research investigates whether the adoption of the ERM approach affects firms' cost of equity capital. We restrict our analysis to the U.S. insurance industry to control for unobservable differences in business models and risk exposures across industries. We simultaneously model firms' adoption of ERM and the effect of ERM on the cost of capital. We find that ERM adoption significantly reduces firm's cost of capital. Our results suggest that cost of capital benefits are one answer to the question how ERM can create value.     

What Causes the Positive Price-Turnover Correlation in European Housing Markets?

This paper examines what determines the correlation between prices and turnover in European housing markets. Using a panel vector autoregressive model, we find that there is a particularly strong feedback mechanism between prices and turnover. Momentum effects are another important reason why prices and turnover are correlated. Common underlying factors, such as GDP and interest rates, also explain part of the price-turnover correlation. The results in this paper imply that, to understand price and turnover dynamics, it is important to model prices and turnover as two interdependent processes. There is a considerable bias in the coefficient estimates of standard house price models if this dependency is not explicitly taken into account.