To trust or not to trust smart consumer products: a literature review of trust-building factors

Management Review Quarterly - Numerous “smart” consumer products are already available on the market, and the diversity of such smart products is expected to increase considerably in...     

Freie (grenzüberschreitende) Radikale in Münster Siegfried J. Schmidt: 60

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Auswirkungen einer Lohnsteuerzerlegung nach Arbeitsort im Länderfinanzausgleich

In Germany the payroll tax revenue owed to the federal states is distributed exclusively according to the taxpayer’s residence. Many finance experts have long called for this revenue to be distributed at least partially based on the location where the work was done. Model calculations to estimate the financial consequences of such a redesign of the payroll tax distribution should be a useful contribution to the current negotiations on the reorganisation of federal-state financial relations in Germany.     

Jörg Tropp

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

A myopic adjustment process leading to best-reply matching

We analyze a myopic strategy adjustment process in strategic-form games. It is shown that the steady states of the continuous time limit, which is constructed assuming frequent play and slow adjustment of strategies, are exactly the best-reply matching equilibria, as discussed by Droste, Kosfeld, and Voorneveld (2000. Mimeo, Tilburg University). In a best-reply matching equilibrium every player ‘matches’ the probability of playing a pure strategy to the probability that this pure strategy is a best reply to the pure-strategy profile played by his opponents. We derive stability results for the steady states of the continuous time limit in 2×2 bimatrix games and coordination games. Analyzing the asymptotic behavior of the stochastic adjustment process in discrete time shows convergence to minimal curb sets of the game. Moreover, absorbing states of the process correspond to best-reply matching equilibria of the game.     

Competition,cooperation, and corporate culture

Cooperation between workers can be of substantial value to a firm, yet its level often varies substantially between firms. We show that these differences can unfold in a competitive labor market if workers have heterogeneous social preferences and preferences are private information. In our model, workers differ in their willingness to cooperate voluntarily. We show that there always exists a separating equilibrium in which workers self‐select into firms that differ in their monetary incentives as well as their level of worker cooperation. Our model highlights the role of sorting and worker heterogeneity in the emergence of heterogeneous corporate cultures. It also provides a new explanation for the coexistence of nonprofit and for‐profit firms.

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Das Rentenpaket 2014 — eine ökonomische Beurteilung

The 2014 pension reform has three main components. First disability pensions have been increased by about two earnings points, an average monthly gain of 40 euros. In addition low wages in the four years preceding disability-related retirement will now be disregarded. However, since these new rules only apply to retirement after July 2014 they fail to fight poverty among current disability-related retirees. Second an additional credit for all births before 1992 (“mothers’ pension”) is extremely costly and unnecessary. Poverty prevention is weak due to a strict income test in the welfare system for the elderly. Third early retirement at age 63 without actuarial adjustment has been reintroduced This is a costly measure with negative effects on both equality and efficiency. The additional child credit and early retirement provisions reduce the financial and social sustainability of the German public pension system.     

The effects of commercial advertising on children

This paper examines recent published research into the effects of advertising on children in the light of public concern. It states a series of hypotheses on which much public criticism appears to be based and demonstrates that they are not supported by the evidence of researchers into child psychology and advertising. It argues that undesirable and anti-social behaviour by children is not the result of some simple stimulus-response mechanism. Up till now, no serious study has been able to prove a direct and exclusive link between advertising and juvenile purchasing or other forms of behaviour. However, a number of studies have shown that the most important influences on a wide range of children's attitudes and behaviour are parental, family, peer-group and other social factors. This paper first appeared in Commercial Communications, January 1999, and we are grateful to the author for permission to reprint.