Risikoberichterstattung von Versicherungsunternehmen — Analyse der Risikoberichte im Zeitablauf

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study of the development of risk reports of German insurance companies from 1999 until 2003. The empirical study is based on formal aspects and a detailed content analysis of risk reports which companies have to publish by German Commercial Law (HGB). The analysis is based on generally accepted accounting principles for management reports in annual financial statements and GAS 5-20. The goal is to collect formal and qualitative information about changes in risk reports and their performance in terms of fulfilling industry-specific supervisory risk regulations over time. The sample shows a significant continuous improvement of risk reports from 1999 until 2003. The results of the paper lead to further implications regarding the specification of Solvency II: Improvements have to be made especially in terms of specifying and quantifying company risk. Finally the paper offers suggestions for improvements in risk reporting which should be considered in the development of european standards.     

Participation in Micro Life Insurance and the Use of Other Financial Services in Ghana

This article investigates households’ decisions to take up micro life insurance and to use other financial services. It estimates a multivariate probit model based on Ghanaian household survey data. The results suggest a mutually reinforcing relationship between the use of insurance and the use of other formal financial services. Risk‐averse households and households who consider themselves more exposed to risk than others are found to be less likely to participate in insurance. This suggests that insurance is considered to be risky. There is indicative evidence for adverse selection and a life‐cycle effect in the uptake of insurance.     

Financing UK democracy: a stocktake of 20 years of political donations disclosure

Political donations in the UK have been subject to comprehensive disclosure since 2001. We study the data produced as part of this disclosure policy to evaluate the role of private and public political finance over time. Total political donations have grown by nearly 250 per cent since 2001, reaching over £100 million in real terms for the first time in 2019. This increase has been driven by donations from private individuals, who now account for approximately 60 per cent of donations in election years compared to 40–50 per cent up to the late 2010s. Furthermore, ‘super-donors’ (those contributing more than £100,000) have been a prominent driver of the rise, increasing their own share from approximately 31 per cent in 2017 to 45 per cent in 2019. We also show that private donations to the Labour Party fell sharply in the final stages of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. These trends have benefited the Conservative Party, leading to a historic donation gap between the two main parties emerging circa 2019. We calculate that this gap between parties now stands at approximately £27 million compared to a historic average of £8–£10 million. This gap remains even after considering publicly funded ‘Short’ money provided to the opposition, which aims to increase competitive balance in the UK's democratic system.     

Megatrends und Strukturwandel — welche Regionen werden profitieren?

Wirtschaftsdienst - Gesellschaftliche und wirtschaftliche Dynamiken führen zu einem stetigen Wandel von Wirtschaftsstrukturen. Abhängig von der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur verlaufen...     

European Technological Sovereignty: An Emerging Framework for Policy Strategy

Intereconomics - The COVID-19 crisis has revealed the deep technological and production dependencies of the EU on third countries in sectors deemed as particularly strategic and has thus fuelled...     

The effect of CEO incentives on deviations from institutional norms in foreign market expansion decisions: Behavioral agency and cross-border acquisitions

CEO incentives have been the subject of great interest for human resource scholars. We explore the institutional context within which the CEO makes sense of their incentives. Our theory suggests that CEO equity incentives interact with institutional norms to influence foreign market entry choices. Specifically, we argue that CEOs will weigh the risk bearing created by equity incentives, along with the consequences of legitimacy loss, when deciding whether to deviate from institutional norms when internationalizing. In doing so, we advance human resource literature by demonstrating that CEO responses to incentives are influenced by institutional norms and that CEOs' decisions to deviate from institutional norms are shaped by their incentives. We find support for our framework in the analysis of the stake taken by acquirers in 4,184 cross-border acquisitions.     

Gross Fixed Capital Formation in the Euro Area During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Intereconomics - This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gross fixed capital formation across the euro area. The empirical analysis suggests that the intensity of the lockdown...     

The model of risk assessment of greywater discharges from the Danube River ships

Having in mind the immense value of the Danube River and knowing that risk assessment of its pollution is one of the key elements for ecology and the health of people in its region, in this paper we emphasized the importance of risk assessment of ship-generated wastewater – particularly in the case of greywater discharges. Although, a number of methods for measuring and analysing different environmental risks have been developed, previous research shows that the failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) method is applicable in solving environmental issues. Therefore, we conducted our research with the main purpose to develop a model of FMEA method application for assessing the risks of ship-generated greywater discharges based on estimated data for total quantity of greywater, the size of the exposed population to the pollution of greywater and the possibilities of this pollution detection. Risk analysis was performed on official data for nine ports on the Danube River on inland waterways of the Republic of Serbia. Based on the obtained results, we concluded that measures, recommendations and risk prevention strategies for ship-generated greywater discharges should go into two major directions: (1) decreasing the pollution caused by greywater discharges; (2) increasing the number of water quality monitoring stations.     

Managing in Disorderly Times

Abstract

The management of cities has to address new risks, insecurities and emergencies. In this article we analyse the management of the aftermath of two crises – a tornado that hit a part of Birmingham in the UK, and a fireworks explosion that hit a part of the city of Enschede in The Netherlands – in order to understand how local institutions and communities deal with (sudden) disorder and how they restore social order. We do not see this as ‘crisis management’, however, as the management of disorder and renewal will be related to the capacity of public management in everyday and orderly circumstances. Cities have to manage dispersed public and private acts, and these may be the sources of both problems and solutions in the face of disorder, depending on how they are inflected. We therefore wonder whether and how cities help constitute public spaces through which publics can be effectively engaged in the process of restoration and renewal. Managerial templates must be made meaningful not only after, but also before, emergencies. This can be done, the case studies show, by investing in local cultures, and by using ‘political’ intermediaries.     

Barriers to Mobility in Europe's Civil Aviation Markets: Theory and New Evidence

A questionnaire-based survey is applied to investigate the perception of mobilitybarriers by European airline managers. Whilst the liberalisation of Europe's airline markets removed regulatory mobility barriers, we find that mobility impediments still appear to exist. Potential entrants moreover, perceive some mobility barriers as significantly more effective than others. The perceived effectiveness of a particular mobility barrier varies considerably among airline managers. We also provide an overview of previous studies on the contestability hypothesis and the effectiveness of endogenous (strategic) mobility barriers. Our results support earlier findings for the U.S. to the effect that barriers to mobility are perceived to exist and matter. Whilst our results are clearly subjective, as they are based on the perceptions of managers, we believe such perceptions matter as they inform managerial actions. In this sensewe believe our results are of value.