Verfassungsrechtliche Vorgaben für Sozialversicherungsreformen

German social insurance is to adapt to societal changes and requires reforms if it is not to fail in its protective purpose. The Constitution sets framework conditions for such reforms: It allows for further development and changes in existing structures, yet it also postulates consistency, protects acquired rights and urges existing social security systems to be effective. The legislator may not completely dispense with risk protection. At the same time, the Constitution grants the legislator sufficient scope for action, since he may lay down the type and level of security. However, the Constitution also ensures a certain continuity through the protection of confidence, as drastic restructuring measures may entail great costs with respect to the transition of protected rights.     

Book Reviews

This paper examines factors affecting the owner-manager's voluntary decision to hire an auditor in small firms. Using a random sample of 412 small private companies in Finland responding to an Internet survey, we first probe the institutional boundaries of a prior UK study [Collis, J., Jarvis, R., and Skerratt, L., 2004. The demand for the audit in small companies in the UK. Accounting and business research, 34 (2), 87–100] and conclude that its main findings can be generalised to a different regulatory setting (Finland) typical of many Continental European countries. Second, we broaden the prior research by testing new hypotheses regarding the drivers of an audit among small companies. We hypothesise and find evidence that outsourcing of critical accounting functions creates information asymmetry between the owner-manager and the external accountant, which may arouse the need for monitoring the external accountant through a voluntary audit. In addition, we find, as hypothesised, that tax advisory services provided by the external accountant reduce the likelihood of a voluntary audit. Moreover, we hypothesise that receiving a qualified opinion from the auditor reduces the likelihood of hiring an auditor voluntarily, whereas firms experiencing financial distress would be more willing to have their financial statements audited. We find evidence consistent with these hypotheses.     

Online Teaching Resources: A New Journal Section

Most economics departments use end-of-term student evaluations of teaching, but the relationship between instructors' assessments of their own teaching and their students' assessments is unknown. The background survey for the nationally normed Test of Understanding in College Economics asked students and instructors to evaluate the instructor on five identical items. Using these data, the authors found that for instructors who speak English as their native language, speaking ability and enthusiasm are closely linked to self-ratings of teaching effectiveness. Students also value these traits but care more about instructors' preparation for class. Grading rigor is more important to students of instructors who speak English as a second language.     

Measuring the Chinese business cycle

This article documents the business cycle characteristics of the Chinese economy by adopting both nonparametric and parametric methodologies. The two approaches are applied to relevant macroeconomics indicators – Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Industrial Production (IP) indices – aiming to investigate the growth cycle (deviation cycle). We provide a clear chronology of the Chinese growth cycle. One significant characteristic of the Chinese growth cycle is the relatively direct influence of government policies. However, recently these policy effects have become less significant when compared to global economic influences. Our study provides an enhanced understanding of the properties of business cycle dating algorithms and as such contributes to future Chinese business cycle research.     

An empirical analysis of mean reversion of the S&P 500’s P/E ratios

Numerous authors have suggested that the price-earnings (P/E) ratio can be used to predict the future movement of stock prices. Such arguments are based on the belief that P/E ratios are mean-reverting. However, are the S&P P/E ratios really mean reverting? A review of the literature finds arguments on both sides, but the issue of mean reversion has not been tested adequately. Using unit roots and multiple structural breaks, we explicitly show that the P/E ratio is stationary around multiple breaks, which means that it will eventually revert to some long-run means. This result supports evidence that high P/E ratios relative to the current long-run mean will be followed by slow growth in stock prices and/or high earnings growth.     

The concept of routines: some clarifications

The concept of an ‘organisational routine’ is centralto the evolutionary theory of the firm. However, the conceptitself is still unclear. There is not much consensus in theliterature regarding its dimensions, its characteristics andits functions. Despite increasing use of the concept, not muchconceptual progress has been made in recent years, as remarkedby several of the leading writers on the topic. The objectiveof this paper is to contribute to further theoretical developmentof the concept of ‘organisational routine’, andto elaborate the research agenda on organisational routines.Both of these measures contribute to clarifying the conceptand enabling its application in empirical research in the socialsciences, thereby unlocking its potential for understandingorganisations and organisational change. Several problems forconceptual progress are identified. Implications for the conceptualisationof ‘organisational routines’, and for the researchagenda on organisational routines are drawn.