Social communication and discrimination: a video experiment

We report on an experiment using video technology to study effects of communication on donations to and discrimination between potential receivers. The experimental design eliminates strategic factors by allowing two receivers to unilaterally communicate with an anonymous dictator before the latter decides on her gifts. Through the use of three communication setups (none, audio, and audio-visual) we analyze purely social effects of communication. A silent video channel leads to discrimination between potential receivers based on impression formation, but does not affect average levels of donations. When the auditory channel is added, average donations increase. The social processes invoked by the visual and audio channels are heterogeneous and communicator-specific but not unsystematic.     

A conceptual model of how people adopt recreation activities

This paper reports an investigation of the process which mediates between preoccupations and interests and the point at which a specific recreational activity is adopted. In conceptualizing this process, a phenomenological approach is utilized with three series of interviews. The practical application of the model was also explored, using a written questionnaire. Four necessary and sufficient conditions: opportunity, knowledge, favourable social milieu and receptiveness, are identified. The concept of a key event is used to explain how these are integrated, often being modified in the process, so as to result in adoption when a satisfying experience is anticipated.     

Poverty in South Africa – a statistical analysis

Poverty is one of the major challenges facing democratic South Africa. This article focuses on poverty in South Africa, using the Income and Expenditure Survey conducted in 1995 by Statistics South Africa (formerly the Central Statistical Service). In the first part, different approaches that can be followed in the measurement of poverty are discussed. In the second part, Sen's approach to the measurement of poverty and the Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) technique have been used to analyse the above data. CHAID is used to explore the relationship between the poverty status of the household (ie poor or non-poor) and other household characteristics. These variables can then be used as predictors of poverty status.     

Endogenous growth through externalities of investment: A different approach

One strand of endogenous growth theory deals with models where investment in physical capital shows positive externalities leading to increasing returns in the aggregate production function. Most of these models, however, assume that investment in physical capital influences the stock of human capital and physical capital to the same extent so that those two variables can be merged into one single-state variable [Sheshinski, 1967; Romer, 1986]. This paper points to some implications if this assumption is abandoned and underlines the consequences if human and physical capital are treated as two separate variables.     

Tarifpartnerschaft — ein altes,aber gefährdetes Bündnis?

100 years ago, in November 1918, the Stinnes Legien Agreement was drawn up between various employers’ associations and trade unions. It included collective bargaining autonomy and collective agreements, the eight-hour work day and work councils. It soon failed, but served as a model for the legal regulation of collective bargaining relations after the Second World War. In the meantime, however, collective bargaining has declined significantly. Many employers are members of their associations without a collective agreement. At the same time, union memberships are declining. In view of increasingly precarious forms of employment, the government apparently needs to implement stronger regulations on collective bargaining relations again, such as the Minimum Wage Act. Finally, a look back: In 1918, editorial member Alfred Schmidt-Essen commented on the agreement from a current perspective. We document the article.     

Optimal transportation and the falsifiability of incompletely specified economic models

A general framework is given to analyze the falsifiability of economic models based on a sample of their observable components. It is shown that, when the restrictions implied by the economic theory are insufficient to identify the unknown quantities of the structure, the duality of optimal transportation with zero–one cost function delivers interpretable and operational formulations of the hypothesis of specification correctness from which tests can be constructed to falsify the model.     

Quotas May Beat Taxes in a Global Emission Game

Economists have persistently argued that market-based instruments are better suited than command and control instruments (CAC) to achieve pollution abatement targets cost-effectively. However, this advice has not yet fallen on fertile soil. CAC is the predominant instrument in practical environmental policy. The paper attempts to give an explanation for this observation by analyzing two countries negotiating emission reductions in a world with typical institutional restrictions. Negotiations are assumed to be either on a uniform emission reduction quota or a uniform emission tax. Counterintuitively, it turns out that in such a second-best world an agreement under a cost-inefficient quota regime may be superior to an efficient tax agreement with respect to ecological and welfare criteria. Moreover, in contrast to a quota agreement, a tax agreement may not be feasible and stable if countries exhibit asymmetric cost-benefit structures.     

Economic growth, skill-biased technical change and wage inequality: A model and estimations for the US and Europe

In recent literature skill-biased technical change has been viewed as a major cause for wage inequality. Some modelling and presentation of stylized facts have been undertaken for US time series data. A preliminary study of wage inequality in a model with knowledge as input in an aggregate production function has been presented by Riddell and Romer [General Purpose Technologies and Economic Growth, 1998, MIT Press]. Although some important forces determining wage inequality are widely accepted we know little about the quantitative impact of each source and differences across countries. We present a growth model of the Romer type with innovation-based technical change and two skill groups where the growth of knowledge, the relative supply of the two skill groups, externalities and substitution effects among the two groups are the driving forces for wage inequality. We undertake estimates for US time series data and contrast those estimates with results from some European countries. In particular, we compare parameter estimations for US and German time series data. The paper concludes that there is less wage inequality across skills in Europe in contrast to the US on the macroeconomic level. But, considering disaggregated data we observe some increases in inequality for Germany, too. Although our model reveals important variables for the explanation of wage inequality there may, however, also be other factors, such as trade unions, which have impacted the wage spread.