The world economy still at risk

Following the prolonged upswing in the world economy during the eighties, the subsequent downturn is proving to be more persistent than expected. It looks as if the USA is now at last on the road to recovery but Japan and Western Europe are still having a tangible dampening effect at the turn of the year. Are there prospects for an improvement in the world economy for 1993?     

The disposition effect: a survey

The disposition effect is a well-recognized behavioral economic phenomenon which has been studied in numerous papers during the last three decades. Besides a literature review of the major theoretical, empirical, and experimental papers, the body of academic literature is subjected to a bibliometric analysis where all papers are taken into account which can be found via the search engine “EBSCOhost” (589 hits). This paper not only extensively describes the state of the art of research on the topic of the disposition effect. The combination of insights from a content analysis as well as a bibliometric analysis serves as a case study on the pattern of diffusion of research hypotheses and research methods. For example, it can be shown that the number of publications per year on the disposition effect remained relatively low subsequent to its discovery and only later started to substantially grow over time. On the other hand, the quality of papers, as approximated by the share of “A” journal articles per year, decreased over time.     

Beyond Profitability of Energy-Saving Measures—Attitudes Towards Energy Saving

Private homeowners can save considerable amounts of energy and money, if they retrofit their homes according to up-to-date energy efficiency standards. From an expert point of view, many of these technical measures are profitable in relatively short payback times, if only additional costs are considered. Apparently, many homeowners do not follow this type of rationality and do solely not regard their refurbishment as an investment. Drawing on the results of an empirical survey of retrofit activities among 1,008 homeowners in Germany, it is argued that refurbishments are the outcome of a broader decision which is shaped by an alliance of economic and non-economic motives and goals. Energy-saving measures is expected to lower the burden of operating costs in a perceptible way and secure the value of the house, but they must also correspond to needs like comfort, convenience or belonging in order to be realized.     

We do not measure what we aim to measure: Testing Three Measurement Models for Nationalism and Patriotism

The measurement models for both nationalism and patriotism originally developed by Blank and Schmidt are broadly established. Despite their widespread usage in Germany and beyond, concerns have been voiced about the operationalisation of these nation-related concepts. However, in previous scholarship little attention has been devoted to systematically reviewing the models’ validity. This paper’s major goal is to contribute substantially to research on operationalising national attitudes by thoroughly examining how both nationalism and patriotism are measured and how valid the predominant measurement models really are. By running a confirmatory factor analysis, three measurement models based on the ISSP data of 2003 are replicated and empirically reviewed. By conducting a single-country analysis, the models are tested for the German case, including the evaluation of measurement invariance for both Eastern and Western Germany. Although the selected measurement models yield satisfying results, the paper identifies considerable shortcomings with regard to the way both nationalism and patriotism are empirically approached. It calls for a reconceptualising of the prevailing concept of pride and thus challenges the predominant operationalisation.