Beyond Profitability of Energy-Saving Measures—Attitudes Towards Energy Saving

Private homeowners can save considerable amounts of energy and money, if they retrofit their homes according to up-to-date energy efficiency standards. From an expert point of view, many of these technical measures are profitable in relatively short payback times, if only additional costs are considered. Apparently, many homeowners do not follow this type of rationality and do solely not regard their refurbishment as an investment. Drawing on the results of an empirical survey of retrofit activities among 1,008 homeowners in Germany, it is argued that refurbishments are the outcome of a broader decision which is shaped by an alliance of economic and non-economic motives and goals. Energy-saving measures is expected to lower the burden of operating costs in a perceptible way and secure the value of the house, but they must also correspond to needs like comfort, convenience or belonging in order to be realized.     

We do not measure what we aim to measure: Testing Three Measurement Models for Nationalism and Patriotism

The measurement models for both nationalism and patriotism originally developed by Blank and Schmidt are broadly established. Despite their widespread usage in Germany and beyond, concerns have been voiced about the operationalisation of these nation-related concepts. However, in previous scholarship little attention has been devoted to systematically reviewing the models’ validity. This paper’s major goal is to contribute substantially to research on operationalising national attitudes by thoroughly examining how both nationalism and patriotism are measured and how valid the predominant measurement models really are. By running a confirmatory factor analysis, three measurement models based on the ISSP data of 2003 are replicated and empirically reviewed. By conducting a single-country analysis, the models are tested for the German case, including the evaluation of measurement invariance for both Eastern and Western Germany. Although the selected measurement models yield satisfying results, the paper identifies considerable shortcomings with regard to the way both nationalism and patriotism are empirically approached. It calls for a reconceptualising of the prevailing concept of pride and thus challenges the predominant operationalisation.

     

Publication bias in the German social sciences: an application of the caliper test to three top-tier German social science journals

Systematic research reviews have become essential in all empirical sciences. However, the validity of research syntheses is threatened if the preparation, submission or publication of research findings depends on the statistical significance of these findings. The present study investigates publication bias in three top-tier journals in the German social sciences, utilizing the caliper test. For the period between 2001 and 2010, we have collected 156 articles that appeared in the Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie (KZfSS), the Zeitschrift für Soziologie (ZfS) and the Politische Vierteljahresschrift (PVS). In all three journals, we found empirical evidence for the existence of publication bias at the 10 % significance level. We also investigated possible causes linked to this bias, including single versus multiple authorship as well as academic degree. We found only weak support for the relationships between individual author characteristics and publication bias.