The effect of individual uncertainty on the specificity of human capital: empirical evidence from career developments in professional soccer

This study looks at careers in professional soccer to investigate the determinants of human capital (HC) specificity. Inspired by labour market research, we formulate three hypotheses on how uncertainty about the usefulness of individuals’ (more productive) specific skills affects their investment in (more flexible) general skills. The empirical analysis is based on unique panel data on school grades, soccer evaluations, and sociodemographic characteristics of 90 elite players from the youth academy of a German Bundesliga club. We find that senior and long-serving players, who are comparably certain that their (soccer) specific capital will be sufficient to pursue a lucrative professional career, invest less in general HC at school. Expected soccer performance, in contrast, has a counterintuitive positive effect. Our results expand knowledge on the factors influencing HC specificity from the macro to the subject level and highlight practical implications for institutions that train gifted individuals.     

Uncertainty and the Great Recession

Has heightened uncertainty been a major contributor to the Great Recession and the slow recovery in the United States? To answer this question, we identify exogenous changes in six uncertainty proxies and quantify their contributions to GDP growth and the unemployment rate. The answer is no. In total we find that increased macroeconomic and financial uncertainty can explain up to 10% of the drop in GDP at the height of the recession and up to 0.6 percentage points of the increased unemployment rates in 2009 through 2011. Our calculations further suggest that only a minor part of the rise in popular uncertainty measures during the Great Recession was driven by exogenous uncertainty shocks.     

European Green Mutual Fund Performance: A Comparative Analysis with their Conventional and Black Peers

In recent years, several countries have enacted guidelines and/or mandatory laws to increase the presence of women on the boards of companies. Through these regulatory interventions, the aim is to eradicate the social and labor grievances that women have traditionally experienced and which has relegated them to smaller-scale jobs. Nevertheless, and despite the advances achieved, the female representation in the boardroom remains far from the desired levels. In this context, it is now necessary to enhance the advantages of board gender diversity from both ethical and economic points of view. This article examines the relation between board gender diversity and economic results in Spain: the second country in the world to legally require gender quotas in boardrooms and historically characterized by a minimal female participation in the workforce. Based on a sample of 125 non-financial firms listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2009, our findings show that in the period analyzed the increase of the number of women on boards was over 98 %. This suggests that compulsory legislation offers an efficient framework to execute the recommendation of Spanish codes of good governance by means of the increase in the number of women in the boards of firms. Furthermore, we find that the increase in the number of women on the boards is positively related to higher economic results. Therefore, both results suggest that gender diversity in boardrooms should be incremented, mandatory laws being a key factor to do so.     

Cultural differences affect interactive television advertising

Comparing results from the UK and the USA, this study shows that even subtle cultural differences between two very similar countries can affect new forms of advertising such as interactive television (iTV) commercials. The UK pioneered the mainstream use of iTV advertising, and now it is a mainstream advertising option in the USA on cable networks and online TV networks like Hulu. This study tests whether effective iTV-ad execution factors identified by a previous study of 500 UK iTV campaigns are similarly effective in the USA based on data from 257 iTV campaigns run on the experimental Wink platform between 1998 and 2004. It finds that specific cultural differences make iTV advertising in the USA unique, but also identifies potential globally effective universals for iTV ads. The results of this study allow advertisers to predict the most effective alternative ideas for iTV advertising campaigns run in the USA and potentially in other countries around the world.     

Deregulation of the labor market and chances of employment in Great Britain

This paper examines labor market mobility from an historical perspective, using the United Kingdom as a case study. Movements into and out of employment are related to the institutional developments of the last two decades. In Great Britain, the dynamics of transitions in the labor market have increased over the last two decades, but individual path dependency, that is, the transmission of risks along the life course, seems to have decreased. Women in particular have benefitted from a more flexible labor market while men's employment opportunities have decreased. Employment has also been increasingly tied to economic development.     

Zur Methodik von Effizienzbewertungen im energiewirtschaftlichen Kontext

In discussions concerning sustainability, climate change and the efficient use of resources, the terms energy efficiency, rational use of energy and resource efficiency are widely used. Each of those three terms corresponds to an assessment method. However, the terms and assessment methods are often used differently without an explicit definition of the actual approach. Therefore the major contribution of this article is the development of a framework of methodological characteristics to classify the three assessment methods.The three methodological characteristics of assessment methods are the definition of the object of investigation, the type of statement and the assessment setting. The assessment setting is specified by three criteria: balance boundary, aggregation level and measuring units.All three assessment methods rely on the concept of efficiency, defined as a utility-effort-ratio. The object of investigation influences the utility, which is formalized by a measuring unit. The balance boundary for the utility determines to what extent the utility is considered. The balance boundary for the effort describes which resources are captured for which upstream and downstream processes. The aggregation level describes the extent to which different resources are aggregated as one measuring unit. Monetary, physical or self-designed units are commonly used as measuring units.The plurality of possible manifestations of the balance boundary, the aggregation level and the measuring unit does not allow for a universally valid, precise definition of the three investigated assessment methods. Therefore the recommendations are: Firstly, when using an assessment method, the criteria of the framework should be used to document the approach. Secondly, the identification of the adequate assessment method should be based on a thorough discussion of goals and hierarchy of goals in politics.