Tobacco and alcohol: complements or substitutes?

The question of whether alcohol and tobacco are consumed as complements or substitutes is crucial for determining the side-effects of anti-smoking policies. Numerous papers have empirically addressed this issue by estimating demand systems for alcohol and tobacco, and subsequently calculating cross-price effects. However, this traditional approach is often seriously hampered by insufficient price variation observed in survey data. We, therefore, suggest an alternative instrumental variables approach that statistically mimics an experimental study and does not rely on prices as explanatory variables. This approach is applied by means of German survey data. Our estimation results suggest that a reduction in tobacco consumption results in a moderate reduction in alcohol consumption. It is demonstrated that this implies that alcohol and tobacco are complements. Hence, we conclude that successful anti-smoking policies will not result in the unintended side-effect of an increased (ab)use of alcohol.     

Argumente gegen die Reform des Stabilitätsgesetzes wenig überzeugend — eine Replik

In their reply, Dullien and van Treeck criticise the argument of Michaelis, Elstner and Schmidt that the German Stability and Growth law (StabG) from the 1960s must not be reformed. They claim that Michaelis et al. neglect that the concept of sustainability has changed over the past 50 years and that nowadays issues such as social and ecological sustainability should be included. Moreover, the claim by Michaelis et al. that the StabG provides important tools for business cycle management is hardly convincing, given that these tools have not been used since the 1970s and stimulus packages have been passed on other legal grounds. / In their response Michaelis et al. stress that economic policy has to consider equally aspects of economic, social and ecological sustainability. The StabG, however, is a completely inappropriate basis for attempts to address aspects of social and ecological sustainability. The main use of the StabG consists in the possibility to quickly implement fiscal measures that could mitigate the consequences of severe economic downturns. Proposals of Dullien and van Treeck that various dimensions of sustainability are controllable by a predetermined set of instruments neglect the complexity of the social market economy.     

Die Debatte um die deutsche Exportorientierung

Die in vielen L?ndern gewachsene Einkommensungleichheit wird international zunehmend als eine wesentliche Ursache für die Weltwirtschaftskrise und die globalen Ungleichgewichte im Au?enhandel hervorgehoben. Hingegen ist die Debatte in Deutschland teilweise noch immer durch die Forderung nach weiterer Lohnzurückhaltung und sozialpolitischen Einschnitten gekennzeichnet. Welche Rolle kann die Lohn- und Verteilungspolitik zur mittelfristigen überwindung der deutschen Exportlastigkeit und zur Stabilisierung der deutschen und globalen Wirtschaft spielen?     

Advertising Creativity: The Role of Divergence Versus Meaningfulness

Creativity is seen as an essential component of advertising and is continuing to attract research interest. While there is widespread agreement on the value of creativity, there are two different perspectives on the key components of creativity. One perspective sees creativity as primarily divergence, containing elements of novelty, aesthetic representation, newness, and difference. The second includes, in addition to divergence, the concept of meaningfulness (or appropriateness or connectedness) to the consumer. This view argues that if an advertisement is not meaningful then it simply is not creative. We attempt to find some empirical resolution to this issue. Our findings indicate that divergence is indeed an important element of creativity. Meaningfulness, however, while certainly very important to ad effectiveness, appears to be a distinct and separate construct from creativity.     

Bond yields and debt supply: new evidence through the lens of a preferred-habitat model

This paper examines the responsiveness of bond yields to changes in debt supply. The preferred-habitat theory predicts a positive relation between the term spread and relative supply of longer term debt, and that this relation is stronger when risk aversion is high. To capture this effect, a time-varying coefficient model is introduced and applied to German bond data. The results support the theoretical predictions and indicate substantial time variation: under high risk aversion, yield spreads react about three times more strongly than when risk aversion is low. The accumulated response of term spreads to a one standard deviation change in debt supply ranges between 4 and 46 basis points.     

Stimulus generalization in classical conditioning: An initial investigation and extension

Conditioning as a mechanism for attitude change has received much attention over the past 10 years. This research examines stimulus generalization, the extent to which a response conditioned to one stimulus transfers to similar stimuli. Stimulus generalization relates to both brand extension and private‐label imitations of national brands. Two studies collectively provide evidence that attitudes which are conditioned to a particular brand can be transferred to a product with a similar name in the same category, as well as a product with the same name in a different category. Study Two suggests that stimulus generalization effects may be relatively transitory. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Reciprocity and Giving in a Consecutive Three‐Person Dictator Game with Social Interaction

We study pure indirect reciprocity by setting up a modified dictator game with three players A, B, and C acting sequentially. Subject A takes a share of a pie and passes the rest to subject B, while B divides the rest between herself and C. We find that this consecutive three‐person dictator game increases generosity compared with the traditional two‐person dictator game. We analyze the influence of social interaction and uncertainty. In treatments with certainty we observe pure indirect reciprocity: B indirectly reciprocates for A's behavior in the decision on how generous to be to C.     

Auf dem Weg zu einem Urheberrecht für das 21. Jahrhundert

The article describes the challenges of copyright protection in the digital world. Starting from the observation that copyright is one of the most disputed regulative systems in the 21st century, it analyses the reasons for the intensity of the public and political debate. The analysis comes to the conclusion that the main reason for this is the radical change of impact copyright law has undergone since computers and Internet access found their way into almost every household. What was designed as a regulative system for professional market players became a statutory code of conduct for the general public. However, the necessary steps to acknowledge this elementary change were never taken by the legislators. The article concludes that a copyright that affects professional authors, rights holders, prosumers and consumers alike needs significant conceptual modifications. Several proposals for short-, middle- and long-term changes of the copyright systems are offered.     

Corporate governance and IPO underpricing in a cross‐national sample: A multilevel knowledge‐based view

Prior studies of IPO underpricing, mostly using agency theory and single‐country samples, have generally fallen short. In this study, we employ the knowledge‐based view (KBV) to explore underpricing across 17 countries. We find that agency indicators are insignificant predictors, board of director knowledge limits underpricing, and external knowledge both substitutes for and complements internal board knowledge. This third finding suggests that future KBV studies should consider how internal and external knowledge states interact with each other. Our study offers new insights into the antecedents of underpricing and extends our understanding of comparative governance and the KBV of the firm. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sampling Procedures for Coordinating Stratified Samples: Methods Based on Microstrata

The aim of sampling coordination is to maximize or minimize the overlap between several samples drawn successively in a population that changes over time. Therefore, the selection of a new sample will depend on the samples previously drawn. In order to obtain a larger (or smaller) overlap of the samples than the one obtained by independent selection of samples, a dependence between the samples must be introduced. This dependence will emphasize (or limit) the number of common units in the selected samples. Several methods for coordinating stratified samples, such as the Kish & Scott method, the Cotton & Hesse method, and the Rivière method, have already been developed. Using simulations, we compare the optimality of these methods and their quality of coordination. We present six new methods based on permanent random numbers (PRNs) and microstrata. These new methods have the advantage of allowing us to choose between positive or negative coordination with each of the previous samples. Simulations are run to test the validity of each of them.