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.     

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.     

Who knows it is a game? On strategic awareness and cognitive ability

We examine strategic awareness in experimental games, that is, the question of whether subjects realize they are playing a game and thus have to form beliefs about others’ actions. We conduct a beauty contest game and elicit measures of cognitive ability and beliefs about others’ cognitive ability. We show that the effect of cognitive ability is highly non-linear. Subjects below a certain threshold choose numbers in the whole interval and their behavior does not correlate with beliefs about others’ ability. In contrast, subjects who exceed the threshold avoid choices above 50 and react very sensitively to beliefs about the cognitive ability of others.