New ways of achieving debt sustainability beyond the enhanced HIPC Initiative

In 1996 the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative was launched by the Bretton Woods institutions to reduce the external debt burden of low-income countries (LICs) to sustainable levels in a reasonably short period of time because debt constitutes an obstacle to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. In some HIPCs, however, debt sustainability has been in danger despite debt relief under the HIPC Initiative. Debt relief is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for development. It can do no more than play a catalytic role. The question, then, is how to achieve debt sustainability beyond the HIPC Initiative.     

Chebyshev interpolation for parametric option pricing

Recurrent tasks such as pricing, calibration and risk assessment need to be executed accurately and in real time. We concentrate on parametric option pricing (POP) as a generic instance of parametric conditional expectations and show that polynomial interpolation in the parameter space promises to considerably reduce run-times while maintaining accuracy. The attractive properties of Chebyshev interpolation and its tensorized extension enable us to identify broadly applicable criteria for (sub)exponential convergence and explicit error bounds. The method is most promising when the computation of the prices is most challenging. We therefore investigate its combination with Monte Carlo simulation and analyze the effect of (stochastic) approximations of the interpolation. For a wide and important range of problems, the Chebyshev method turns out to be more efficient than parametric multilevel Monte Carlo. We conclude with a numerical efficiency study.     

Digitale Spaltung im Zeitalter der S?ttigung

Using Bourdieu??s Habitus-Capital theory and a representative dataset this study shows that social position influences internet use. The study is thus connected to the research about thedigital divide. A secondary analysis of the ACTA 2008 (n?=?7.623, representative of Germans between 14 and 64 years who use the internet) shows on the one hand that there are still gaps in internet usage (gender, generation, and education gap). On the other hand the results indicate acapital gap. Since the accumulation of capital in the internet is connected with education as well as economic status, there is a threat of a downward spiral: Those who have less capital (education, money) gather less internet knowledge. Since cultural capital influences a person??s social position, internet use enhances social inequality.     

Hybrid value creation: a systematic review of an evolving research area

This systematic review analyses literature on the work of hybrid value creation, i.e. the process of generating additional value by innovatively combining products (tangible component) and services (intangible component). A state of the art report on hybrid value creation is delivered by first systematically identifying and then analyzing 169 publications focusing on hybrid value creation. The identified publications are clustered into eight categories based on their links and interactions and thus a mapping of this evolving field is suggested. A discussion and reflection of the findings with respect to the pervasiveness of literature and the research methodologies used is provided. The paper concludes by identifying some dominant strategic gaps in the overall research landscape and provides directions for future research.     

高昂的中国减排成本

未来20年中国必须大幅提高在控制温室气体方面的支出,否则自2030年起将面对巨额的减排成本。这一数字相当于中国2030年国内生产总值（GDP）估值的7．5％。     

Do employees reciprocate to intra-firm trainings? An analysis of absenteeism and turnover rates

This article contributes to the debate on the link between reciprocal motives of employees and HRM practices by studying the behavioral effects of intra-firm trainings on absence behavior and turnover probability. We apply the gift-exchange framework and offer a behavioral perspective that helps to explain why firms invest in trainings that provide mainly general skills. We argue that employees may reciprocate the gift of firm-sponsored training with higher levels of costly effort or commitment. We employ a stringent methodological approach based on panel data of a large multinational firm and find that, in contrast to human capital predictions, general trainings lead to a decrease in turnover rates. Most notably, we find the strongest effect for employees with the lowest levels of firm tenure. This is a quite novel result as this group should face the lowest separation costs, for instance, due to the accumulation of firm-specific human capital. Hence, intra-firm trainings are an important retention device, especially for newly or recently hired employees. Furthermore, a short-term decrease in absenteeism indicates a temporary, reciprocal reaction by employees.     

Gleichzeitigkeit als Leistungsgröße: Inter- und Intra-Klassen-Leistung volatiler EE-Einspeiser

The energy transition focuses on the expansion and enhancement of distribution grids and the integration of decentralized renewable generation plants. The integration of decentralized plants presents a major challenge for distribution system operators in particular. The planning and dimensioning of energy grids requires knowledge of all integrated generating units and power consumers, as well as their power ratings. Furthermore, knowledge about the diversity of renewable power plant types enables distribution system operators and scientists to selectively or cumulatively assess the maximum feed-in capacity. This is particularly important for the assessment of case studies or border scenarios. The purpose of this article is the evaluation of the maximum simultaneous feed-in power of PV and wind power plants. Furthermore, the ratio of the installed power to the maximum power generated by renewable power plants is also investigated. The diversity factor describes the ratio of the sum of all individual load’s maximum powers to the number of loads. This simultaneity can also be adapted to renewable power plants. However, it is differentiated here between simultaneous power within one renewable power plant type (intra-class performance) and simultaneous power of different renewable power plant types (inter-class performance). In cooperation with one of the largest national distribution network operator, regression lines are approximated by statistical analyzes, in order to determinate the diversity of the Central German area.     

Modularity in making: simplifying solution space for user innovation

An increasingly popular form of open innovation in the digital age is ‘making,’ where users innovate across multiple disciplines and make products that meet their needs, using mechanical, electronic, and digital components. These users have at their disposal, a wide solution space for innovation through various modular toolkits enabled by digital‐age technologies. This study explores and outlines how these users simplify this wide solution space to innovate and make tangible products. Following a modularity theory perspective, it draws on case studies of users and their innovations: (1) Users with initial prototype product designs based on the Internet of things (IoT) from a maker event and (2) users with established product designs from the online community platform Thingiverse. The studies found that users reused the design in the form of existing off‐the‐shelf products and utilized digital fabrication and low‐cost electronics hardware as a ‘glue’ to create physical and informational interfaces wherever needed, enabling bottom‐up modularity. They iteratively refined their innovations, gradually replacing re‐used designs with own integrated designs, reducing modularity, and reducing wastage. The study contributes to open innovation and modularity with implications on the design of products and toolkits enabled by the digital age.