The skill balancing act: when does broad expertise pay off?

We compare skill sets of employees working in businesses of different size to the skill sets of entrepreneurs. Employees in large businesses tend to have a lower skill balance than those working in small businesses; yet, the skill balance of entrepreneurs remains the largest. Our evidence suggests that the skill level and skill scope matter for balance and increase with formal education levels but decrease with the number of previous occupations. We find a positive relationship between skill balance and income that is strongest for entrepreneurs. For employees, the relationship remains positive but the magnitude of the association decreases when business size increases.     

Growth‐Friendly Tax Structures: An Indicator‐Based Approach

This paper designs a horizontal indicator‐based assessment methodology aimed at identifying those EU countries presenting a potential need and scope for shifting taxation away from labour to other tax bases less detrimental to growth. The assessment methodology, as a first step, selects a set of indicators measuring specific aspects of tax policy. Subsequently, for each individual indicator, performance thresholds are calculated based on a benchmarking approach. Finally, a screening algorithm based on commonly accepted findings from the relevant economic literature is used to assess the overall performance of a country in two policy areas, namely the need for a tax shift and the scope for it. Various robustness checks are performed.     

Price and its Relation to Objective and Subjective Product Quality: Evidence from the Austrian Market

The correlation between price and product quality is usually found to be low, but still, consumers use a rule of thumb that higher prices indicate higher quality. In the present study, data from the Austrian consumer magazine Konsument from 2004 to 2007 were analysed, and price–quality correlations were computed. Results confirm former studies as the overall price–quality relation was positive and statistically significant but small (r = .30). It was especially small in the food and beverages sector as well as for cosmetics and for inexpensive products generally. Consumers' subjective beliefs about a price–quality link and product complexity were also analysed. Results show that consumers believe that a high price signals high quality, but that these beliefs are not well calibrated, i.e., not corresponding to the product categories where actually higher price–quality correlations can be found. In sum, the results confirm for the Austrian market that price is a poor signal of quality, and that consumers are hardly aware of the particular product sectors where this signal is more valid.     

Customer Touchpoints im stationären Einzelhandel — Potenzial von Pervasive Computing

Je mehr individuelle Leistungen die Kunden verlangen, desto mehr Informationen ben?tigen die Anbieter. W?hrend die H?ndler im Distanzgesch?ft über personalisierte Daten ihrer Kunden und vor allem im Online-Shop über Bewegungsdaten verfügen, hat der station?re Einzelhandel noch erhebliche Datenlücken. Diese Lücken kann man mit einer Pervasive-Computing-Umgebung schlie?en. Neue Customer Touchpoints liefern Informationen darüber, wer bei ihm einkauft und wie der Einkauf durchgeführt wird.     

Accounting and the ‘Insoluble’ Problem of Health-Care Costs

Health service accounting reforms are frequently promoted, explained or justified with reference to aging populations, expensive medical technologies and their purported implications for the cost of health care. Drawing on Foucault’s genealogical method, we examine the emergence of concerns regarding health expenditure in the wake of the creation of the British National Health Service in 1948, and their relationship with health service accounting practices. We argue that concerns regarding the cost of health care are historically contingent rather than inescapable consequences of demographic and technological change, and that health service accounting practices are both constitutive and reflective of such concerns. We conclude by relating our analysis to current attempts to control costs and increase efficiency in the health services.     

The Zollverein and the Sequence of a Customs Union

The Zollverein was the first international customs union, essentially defining these particular trade agreements. This article utilizes the predictions of a game theoretic model to explain the observed sequence of accessions into this union. Coalition externalities, the effects the accession of one state has on states remaining on the outside, are the central mechanisms shaping the negotiations between Prussia, the agenda setter, and other German states. This is demonstrated by detailing these financial, strategic, and political externalities, and demonstrating their influence on trade policy decisions.     

Decision time and steps of reasoning in a competitive market entry game

Entry decisions in market entry games usually depend on the belief about how many others are entering the market, the belief about the own rank in a real effort task, and subjects’ risk preferences. In this paper I am able to replicate these basic results and examine two further dimensions: (i) the level of strategic sophistication, which has a positive impact on entry decisions, and (ii) the impact of time pressure, which has a (partly) negative influence on entry rates. Furthermore, when ranks are determined using a real effort task, differences in entry rates are explainable by higher competitiveness of males. Additionally, I show that individual characteristics are more important for the entry decision in more competitive environments.     

Episodes of unemployment reduction in rich,middle-income and transition economies

This paper studies the incidence and determinants of episodes of drastic unemployment reduction, defined as swift, substantial, and sustained declines in unemployment. We identify 43 episodes over a period of nearly 3 decades in 94 rich, middle-income and transition countries. Unemployment reductions often coincide with an acceleration of growth and an improvement in macroeconomic conditions. Episodes are much more prevalent in countries with higher levels of unemployment and, given unemployment, are more likely in countries with better regulation. An efficient legal system that enforces contracts expeditiously is particularly important for reducing unemployment. The results imply that while employment is largely related to the business cycle, better regulation reduces likelihood of high unemployment and facilitates a more rapid recovery in the event unemployment builds up.