Information revelation in competitive markets

This paper analyzes a market with multiple sellers and horizontally differentiated products. We investigate the sellers’ incentives to reveal product relevant information that affects the buyer’s private valuation. The main finding is that if the number of sellers is sufficiently large, there is a unique symmetric equilibrium with full information disclosure. Thus, unlike the results by Lewis and Sappington (Int Econ Rev 35:309–327, 1994) and Johnson and Myatt (Am Econ Rev 93:756–784, 2006) for monopoly, which state that the monopolist reveals either full information or no information, intense competition results in a single extreme with respect to information disclosure. We show that the market is always inefficient, but the magnitude of inefficiency converges to zero at a high rate as competition intensifies.     

Income differences and poverty: Problems facing Russia and the international experience of dealing with them

The topicality of income difference and poverty issues has greatly increased in post-Soviet Russia. Solutions to these problems are considered key goals of the country’s socioeconomic development. Factors behind the current situation are identified to develop specific measures for reducing the existing income differences and poverty level. The foreign experience in solving this problem is analyzed.     

Bereitschaftsdienst: Arbeits- oder Ruhezeit?

Streitpunkte im Arbeitszeitgesetz - Immer wieder werfen die Regelungen zum Bereitsschaftsdienst in Kliniken und Pflegeeinrichtungen Fragen auf. Nicht alles, was sich in der Praxis eingebürgert hat, ist rechtlich haltbar. Was ist erlaubt, was nicht?     

Journalistische Qualität – eine empirische Untersuchung des Konstrukts mithilfe der Concept Map Methode

Journalistic quality is one of the most important and at the same time most complex constructs in communication science. In particular, the dependencies between the diverse number of quality criteria has barely been investigated empirically. Based on the normative definition of journalistic quality according to democracy theory and employing the concept map method, this article attempts to determine the composition of the journalistic quality construct and contribute to a clearer understanding and a more reliable operationalization of the construct. The empirical data was collected from leading editors and journalistic quality scholars who displayed their understanding of the construct in the form of concept maps. Following the procedure suggested by Roedder John et al. (2006), the individual concept maps were then converted into one consensus map—a single map that represents all concept maps. The results show high levels of reliability and face validity. Central quality criteria are found to be credibility, relevancy, and professionalism. Further criteria that significantly determine the main criteria are impartiality, correctness/accuracy, objectivity, neutrality, and immediacy.     

Individual characteristics and behavior in repeated games: an experimental study

Using a laboratory experiment, we investigate whether a variety of behaviors in repeated games are related to an array of individual characteristics that are popular in economics: risk attitude, time preference, trust, trustworthiness, altruism, strategic skills in one-shot matrix games, compliance with first-order stochastic dominance, ability to plan ahead, and gender. We do find some systematic relationships. A subject’s compliance with first-order stochastic dominance as well as, possibly, patience, gender, and altruism have some systematic effects on her behavior in repeated games. At the level of a pair of subjects who are playing a repeated game, each subject’s gender as well as, possibly, patience and ability to choose an available dominant strategy in a one-shot matrix game systematically affect the frequency of the cooperate–cooperate outcome. However, overall, the number of systematic relationships is surprisingly small.     

The defence industry as a locomotive for technological renewal in Russia: are the conditions in place?

This article examines the extent to which the conditions for successful military to civilian technological spin-offs are in place in Russia. This is important because Russian authorities use the potential for such spin-offs as one of several arguments for justifying large defence expenditure. Six conditions are identified, all of which are derived from the theoretical literature on the transfer of technology from the military to civilian sector. We conclude that despite some government efforts to generate spin-offs by providing technology brokering, and despite some joint military–civilian technological development taking place within defence industry enterprises, most of the conditions required to generate substantial technology transfer from the military to civilian sector are not present in Russia.     

Does foreign ownership matter?

The paper both compares productivity of Russian firms that have foreign direct investments with productivity of fully domestically owned firms and analyses spillovers from foreign‐owned firms to domestic firms. Foreign firms are found to be more productive than domestic ones, but productivity of the former is negatively affected by slow progress of reforms in the regions where they operate. It is also found that there are positive spillovers from foreign‐owned firms to domestic firms in the same industry, but negative effects on domestic firms that are vertically related to foreign‐owned firms. The stock of human capital in regions where foreign firms operate is one of the factors which help domestic firms to benefit from the entry of foreign firms.