Irreführende und vergleichende Versicherungswerbung

Nowadays, insurance companies compete with each other in many sectors. In part, there also is competition with companies belonging to other industries, such as in terms of retirement products to banks and financial services providers. In the area of health insurance, the private health insurance companies compete—to varying degrees—not only among themselves, but also partly across sectors, especially in terms of supplementary insurance. Whenever there is competition, the question arises as to the applicability of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) and its actual conduct requirements under Sections 3 to 7 UWG. The following article examines two of the most important practical case groups, namely the misleading and comparative advertising in insurance, in each case under special consideration of the relevant recent jurisprudence.     

The Impact of Surplus Distribution on the Risk Exposure of With Profit Life Insurance Policies Including Interest Rate Guarantees

This article analyzes the numerical impact of different surplus distribution mechanisms on the risk exposure of a life insurance company selling with profit life insurance policies with a cliquet‐style interest rate guarantee. Three representative companies are considered, each using a different type of surplus distribution: a mechanism, where the guaranteed interest rate also applies to surplus that has been credited in the past, a slightly less restrictive type in which a guaranteed rate of interest of 0 percent applies to past surplus, and a third mechanism that allows for the company to use former surplus in order to compensate for underperformance in “bad” years. Although at the outset all contracts offer the same guaranteed benefit at maturity, a distribution mechanism of the third type yields preferable results with respect to the considered risk measure. In particular, throughout the analysis, our representative company 3 faces ceteris paribus a significantly lower shortfall risk than the other two companies. Offering “strong” guarantees puts companies at a significant competitive disadvantage relative to insurers providing only the third type of surplus distribution mechanism.     

Willingness to Pay and the Cost of Commitment: An Empirical Specification and Test

In a static setting, willingness to pay for an environmental improvement is equal to compensating variation. In a dynamic setting, however, willingness to pay may also contain a commitment cost. In this paper we incorporate the dynamic nature of the value formation process into a stated preference study designed to test whether there is an important dynamic component (commitment cost) in stated preference values. The results clearly indicate that stated preference values can contain commitment costs and that these can be quite large: respondents offered the opportunity to delay their purchasing decisions until more information became available were willing to pay significantly less for improved water quality than those facing a now-or-never decision. These results have important consequences for the design and interpretation of stated preference data.     

Models in action: how management models are interpreted in new product development

This paper studies the use of product development management models. Through an interpretive research approach based on in-depth interviews with 22 middle managers in two product development organizations, five ways of conceiving projects, project management and the role of models are identified – administrative, organizing, sense giving, team building and engineering – all representing different perspectives on – and ways of using models. The findings question essentialist views of models, common in the literature, as either normative guides for action or symbolic tools decoupled from action. Instead, the study indicates a large variety in the use of models mediated by the user's conception of the situation and the model. The study highlights the communicative role of models as boundary objects, enabling coordination of and communication about different conceptions of the development task. Rather than contributing to behavioral standardization (an implicit assumption that underlies most formal models), this study suggests that models support cognitive standardization by providing a common set of concepts and a framework that may be drawn upon in making sense of complex product development projects.     

Alternative EFT developments and the quality of life: A theoretical analysis

This article develops a theoretical position for studying the impacts of different electronic funds transfer (EFT) arrangements upon the quality of life. A conception of quality of life is defined which emphasizes the relative power of participants in a social setting as well as their personal resources and sentiments. A ‘design space’ for characterizing alternative EFT designs is then set up, and the social textures of different EFT arrangements are examined.     

Models for the social accountability of computing

This article examines the social dilemmas of computer use and strategies for ensuring the accountability of computing to the public. Improving the social accountability of computing means finding ways to organize groups that develop, manufacture, sell or use computer-based systems, and their markets, so that the broader public is well served. Six public policy strategies for social accountability of computing are commonly proposed: competitive market arrangements; administrative authority; professional control; regulatory commisions to administer legislative acts; judicial enforcement and review of legislative acts; and citizen action. Inspection shows that each model has problems in either its practical effectiveness or its appropriateness for computing.     

A theory of operational cash holding,endogenous financial constraints,and credit rationing

This paper develops a theory of operational cash holding. Liquidity shocks due to delayed payments must be financed using cash or short-term debt. Debt holders provide an irrevocable credit line given a firm's expected insolvency risk, and equity holders select optimum cash holding. The model demonstrates the trade-off between cash holding and investing in fixed assets. Introducing uncertain cash flows leads to precautionary cash holding if debt holders impose financial constraints. Precautionary cash holding, in turn, reduces insolvency risk enhancing access to short-term finance. The theory shows that credit rationing can occur in the absence of market frictions. Using U.S. data from 1998 to 2012, empirical findings suggest that the decline in credit lines has contributed to the increase in cash holding in line with theoretical predictions.     

How are Scope and Adding up Relevant for Benefits Transfer?

In this paper, we explore ways in which the theoretical constructs of scope and adding up can inform and improve the practice of benefit transfer. Specifically, we examine how the stated preference literature on scope and adding up can inform three critical steps in benefits transfer: study site selection, including studies to select for use in a meta-regression; calibrating benefit functions; and assessing transfer validity.