A Comparison of Construction Contract Prices for Traditionally Procured Roads and Public–Private Partnerships

Theoretical literature suggests higher asset construction costs in a public-private partnership (PPP) than in traditional public procurement, due to the bundling of construction and operation and the transfer of construction risk, among other factors. Data on ex ante road construction prices in Europe suggest a PPP road to be 24% more expensive than a traditionally procured road, ceteris paribus. This estimate resembles reported ex post cost overruns in traditionally procured roads. Thus, the public sector seems to pay a premium on ex ante PPP construction contract prices mostly to cover construction risk transfer. Other reported sources of higher PPP road construction costs, including bundling, seem on average of lesser importance.     

Industry Specific Sustainability Benchmarks: An ECSF Pilot Bridging Corporate Sustainability with Social Responsible Investments

This paper investigates the state of the art with respect to sustainability reporting, its linkages with the corporations, internal measurement and monitoring systems and their combined impact on the quality of contemporary sustainability benchmarks, developed by SRI analysts and so-called rating and screening agencies. This research originated from the EU-funded research initiative to create a new generation management framework for corporate sustainability and responsibility (CS-R). The aim of it is to develop a coherent set of assessment –, measurement – and monitoring tools. The sustainability benchmark tool should align the interests of corporations implementing CS-R and various organizations supporting SRI, such as fund managers, analysts and screening agencies. This paper show the essentials features of an actual sustainability benchmark which is currently under construction. This approach will have significance impact on the further development of SRI and CS-R practices, as well as support the development of sustainability reporting standards.     

IS THERE A CURSE OF RELOCATION? ANALYSING THE CAUSAL LINK BETWEEN OFFSHORING AND THE INNOVATION PERFORMANCE OF (SMALL) FIRMS

We analyse the empirical link between offshoring activities and different dimensions of innovation performance at the firm‐level. In order to identify causal effects running from offshoring to innovation, we use a quasi‐experimental comparison group approach by means of (conditional) difference‐in‐difference estimations applied to German establishment‐level data for firms that conducted offshoring activities in the period 2007–13. We find that the international relocation of business functions has a negative impact on the firms’ propensity to be innovative in terms of product and process innovations as well as product improvements. While for larger firms the reduction in process innovations is most striking, potentially due to a lack of resources, stagnation in expertise and a reduction in intra‐organizational learning‐by‐doing associated with the relocation of some business activities, for small and medium‐sized enterprises we particularly observe a reduction in product innovations after the offshoring activity has taken place. When interpreting this ‘pessimistic’ picture on the link between offshoring and the innovation performance of firms, the reader should note that our findings for German establishments have to be assessed through the lens of a global economy in economic recession after 2008, which may have intensified the negative impact of offshoring on the firms’ innovation performance.     

A Personality‐Competence Model of Opinion Leadership

Opinion leaders constitute a central consumer segment for targeted marketing strategies. By separating opinion leadership into a generalized and domain‐specific component, this study examines the psychological profile of N = 417 consumers from Germany and incorporates opinion leadership into a hierarchical framework of human personality. Results emphasize two major sources of domain‐specific opinion leadership (DSOL): personality in the form of a general, domain‐independent influencer trait and competencies in terms of product‐specific knowledge. Moreover, the study highlights a number of traits including the Big Five of personality, typical intellectual engagement, and general self‐efficacy that form a distinct personality profile of DSOL. The effects of these personality traits on DSOL are partially mediated by generalized opinion leadership and objective knowledge.     

Subsidizing unit donations: matches,rebates, and discounts compared

Experimental Economics - An influential result in the literature on charitable giving is that matching subsidies dominate rebate subsidies in raising funds. We investigate whether this result...     

Gemeinschaftsdiagnose: Pandemie verzögert Aufschwung — Demografie bremst Wachstum

Wirtschaftsdienst - Das erste Jahr der Corona-Pandemie stand in Deutschland im Zeichen extremer Schwankungen der ökonomischen Aktivität und einer massiv gelähmten Binnenwirtschaft....     

Gemeinschaftsdiagnose: Ohne russisches Gas droht eine scharfe Rezession in Deutschland

Wirtschaftsdienst - Die deutsche Wirtschaft steuert durch schwieriges Fahrwasser. Die Auftriebskräfte durch den Wegfall der Pandemiebeschränkungen, die Nachwehen der Coronakrise und die...     

Underestimation of mean square error matrix in misspecified linear models

In this paper a necessary and sufficient condition is derived for the mean square error matrix to be overestimated on average by the covariance matrix of the OLS estimator when the linear model is misspecified by omitting at least one independent variable. A sufficient condition for this is also considered and the situation is illustrated by simple examples showing, as previously noted by Gupta and Maasoumi (1979), that underestimation is the prevailing case in practice.