Die Perspektive der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung in der gesundheitsökonomischen Evaluation

The economic evaluation of health technologies from the perspective of the Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) gains increasing importance. But so far there is no systematic presentation of this perspective in the literature. The article at first develops the sickness funds perspective from the target system of SHI, which is distinguished into (1) a normative level, (2) a positive target system of each single sickness fund and (3) a positive target system of the collective SHI-system, in which the normative level is used as gauge. Subsequently the cost valuation of the main healthcare services from the viewpoint of sickness funds are derived from the target systems: (1) physician care, (2) pharmaceuticals, (3) medical remedies and ancillary equipment, (4) in-patient care, (5) rehabilitation care and (6) sick pay. Additionally alternative calculation schemes of healthcare costs from the perspective of the sickness funds are developed which account for different data access in health economic evaluation projects. Finally the SHI-perspective is compared to the societal perspective.     

‘Gentrification Without Displacement' and the Consequent Loss of Place: The Effects of Class Transition on Low‐income Residents of Secure Housing in Gentrifying Areas

The increasingly disputed concept of gentrification‐induced displacement is combining with the argument that the poor benefit from social mix to produce a theoretical case for ‘positive gentrification'. The notion that new middle‐class residents not only attract more investment but bring opportunities for ‘upward social mobility' to low‐income people who manage to stay in gentrifying areas has become policy orthodoxy. While there are scholarly challenges to the extent of these benefits, the disadvantages of imposed social mix on low‐income communities even where they are not physically displaced remain under‐researched. This article helps to fill this gap by reporting on research into the experience of long‐term low‐income residents of gentrifying neighbourhoods who managed to stay put. The research explores notions of social mix, place and displacement among residents of secure community housing in Melbourne, Australia (the equivalent of small‐scale social housing in Europe and North America) with the object of establishing whether the absence of physical displacement is sufficient to ameliorate gentrification's negative impacts. The findings demonstrate that transformations in shops and meeting places, and in the nature of local social structure and government interventions, cause a sense of loss of place even without physical displacement.     

Combined influence of selective focus and decision involvement on attitude–behavior consistency in a context of memory‐based decision making

Marketers often use salient stimuli to draw consumers' attention to a specific brand in the hope that a selective focus on the brand increases the sales of this brand. However, previous studies are inconsistent concerning the impact that selectively focusing on a specific brand has on final brand choice. To offer an explanation for these inconsistent results, this paper introduces decision involvement as a moderator of the relation between selective focus and attitude–decision consistency. Two studies indicate that selectively focusing on a not preferred alternative indeed alters choice decisions, but only when decision involvement is low. Study 1 further shows that this interaction effect between selective focus and involvement takes place in the selection rather than the brand consideration stage. By introducing level of processing along with decision involvement, Study 2 shows that the interaction effect emerges even in limited processing conditions. The study also reconciles different explanations for the negative effect of selective focus on attitude–behavior consistency. Selectively focusing on a not preferred choice option when consumers are low involved and use limited processing seems to lead to inconsistent choices because of an increased accessibility of the focal option, whereas selective focus on a not preferred option when consumers are low involved and use deep processing lead to inconsistent choices because of attitude polarization. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

SAVINGS AND WEALTH ACCUMULATION: MEASUREMENT,INFLUENCES AND INSTITUTIONS

Savings and wealth accumulation are important dimensions of policy and research debates. This special issue comprises a collection of survey articles on topical issues ranging from the effects of access to credit, the rise of Islamic finance and sovereign wealth funds, the measurement of wealth inequality and genuine savings, the distribution of wealth across generations and retirement savings.     

How do firm characteristics affect behavioural additionalities of public R&D subsidies? Evidence for the Austrian transport sector

Interest of STI policies to influence the innovation behaviour of firms has been increased considerably. This gives rise to the notion of behavioural additionality, broadening traditional evaluation concepts of input and output additionality. Though there is empirical work measuring behavioural additionalities, we know little about what role distinct firm characteristics play for their occurrence. The objective is to estimate how distinct firm characteristics influence the realisation of behavioural additionalities. We use survey data on 155 firms, considering the behavioural additionalities stimulated by the Austrian R&D funding scheme in the field of intelligent transport systems in 2006. We focus on three different forms of behavioural additionality—project additionality, scale additionality and cooperation additionality—and employ binary regression models to address this question. Results indicate that R&D related firm characteristics significantly affect the realisation of behavioural additionality. R&D intensive firms are less likely to substantiate behavioural additionalities, while small, young and technologically specialised firms more likely realise behavioural additionalities. From a policy perspective, it may be concluded that direct R&D promotion of firms with a high R&D intensity may be misallocated. Attention of public support should be shifted to smaller, technologically specialised firms with lower R&D experience. The findings deliver important insights into interactions of public R&D support and R&D behaviour of firms operating in the Austrian transport sector, bearing significant implications for future policy designs.     

The Elasticity of Taxable Income in New Zealand*

This paper reports estimates of the elasticity of taxable income with respect to the net‐of‐tax rate for New Zealand taxpayers. The relative stability of the New Zealand personal income tax system, in terms of marginal rates, thresholds and the tax base, provides helpful conditions for deriving these estimates. The elasticity of taxable income was estimated to be substantially higher for the highest income groups. Changes in the timing of income flows for the higher income recipients were found to be an important response to the announcement of a new higher rate bracket. The marginal welfare costs of personal income taxation were consistent across years, being relatively small for all but the higher tax brackets. For the top marginal rate bracket of 39 per cent, the welfare cost of raising an extra dollar of tax revenue was estimated to be well in excess of a dollar. Implications of the findings are that: disincentive effects of high top marginal rates can be substantial even when labour supply responses are small; the welfare costs of increases in top marginal tax rates can be high; and announcement effects of tax policy changes can lead to considerable income shifting between time periods.     

A Comparative Study of Performance Between Operators With Work Discontinuity and Without Work Discontinuity

In situations where discontinuity in operation occurs, specifically in a country where coontractualization has an increasing trend, the performance level of operators after the work break is of great interest. Existing studies have found that the performance of an operator declines after her operation is completely stopped. However, when the operator performed other tasks （may it be similar or not from her previous task） during the work break, the performance after the work break seems to be affected at different level. Contractual and regular operators from a semiconductor and textile company were considered to replicate a discontinuous and continuous operation. The processing times of contractual workers before and after several months of work break were compared. Two types of work break were seen to have significant effect on an operator＇s performance after the work break, Type 1： 0% to 40% similarity from previous task and Type 2： 40% to 97% similarity from previous task. One can find that when 21% of tasks performed during the work break are similar to the operator＇s previous task, there would be no change in her performance upon returning. On the other hand, a 5% decline in performance was observed after work break type 1 and an 8.54% improvement after work break type 2. Also, a remission rate of 18% from end of stint 1 to start of stint 2 under work break type 1 was seen, while 8% for work break type 2. This may also be true to other industries. Thus, further study is suggested.     

Modelling as a Tool for Cross‐border Analysis of the Position of Insolvency Office Holders

This paper presents a framework and a model applied to make a cross‐border analysis of the position of Insolvency Office Holders. Both the framework and the model were developed in the course of an assignment to design Principles and Best Practices for Insolvency Office Holders for INSOL Europe. The framework is developed by induction from a variety of sources of rules and regulations regarding Insolvency Office Holders, while the model subsequently has been derived by deduction from the framework. Finally, the paper shows how this method assisted in determining the issues to be covered by Principles and Best Practices. The authors argue that commencing international legal comparison with abstract reasoning and modelling may lessen the effect of researcher's academic or professional blind spots and cultural bias and has the potential to enhance the value of cross‐border analysis in terms of coherence, consistency and completeness. Copyright © 2016 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd     

Critical and strategic factors for scenario development and discontinuity tracing

This paper discusses the contribution of critical and strategic factors to three open questions in scenario development and futures research: discontinuities, multi-dimensionality in scenarios, and communicating and learning about change and complexity. It is observed that discontinuities do not necessarily take the form of rapid breaks within one single field. The term “hidden discontinuity” is employed to describe developments that arise from (a) the combination of several trends that may each be unspectacular or (b) gradual, long-term processes. The second open question concerns the tension between the need to work in multi-dimensional spaces while also keeping complexity manageable and selecting “representative” futures. The third problem concerns difficulties to recognize, accept and communicate the above two effects (a) and (b). After discussing these questions, two examples of recent scenario studies are used to illustrate how the identification of critical factors can contribute to identifying meaningful discontinuities and meaningful subsets within the multidimensional space of possibilities, and to learning about the scale and scope dimensions of long-term change processes and the impact of the interplay between different fields.