Ein Risikoausgleichsmodell für den Wettbewerb um Bestandskunden in der PKV

The capital funded health insurance system in Germany (the PKV) is afflicted with a lack of competition because insurants lose their ageing provisions if they switch their insurer. So far an adequate model for the transfer of ageing provisions regarding economic as well as actuarial aspects is missing. In this paper we develop a model for the transfer of ageing provisions in the German PKV, which is consequently based on the existing calculation methods. We show the necessity of a new risk adjustment reserve providing a signal for the the risk level of health insurance collectives. From a calculative point of view, the risk adjustment reserve is connected with the basis for actuarial calculation of the PKV collectives. Further studies should concentrate on quantifications of the derived model components.     

Relations with the People’s Republic of China

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has, from the point of view of the big powers, become an important factor in the balance of power struggle. Political as well as economic reasons seem to suggest closer relations with the People’s Republic of China.     

Glaubwürdigkeitsverlust durch programmintegrierte Werbung?

This study investigates the effects of the frequency of product placements on the credibility and evaluation of the program context. In two experiments, we varied the frequency of product placements in a TV magazine report and measured persuasion recognition, involvement, as well as global evaluation and perceived credibility of the TV reports. Results show that subjects do indeed recognize the persuasive intent of the embedded product placements. However, as long as viewers watch the report with high involvement, product placements exert no feeling of annoyance. There is also no effect of the frequency of placements on the perceived credibility of the TV reports. It can be concluded that product placements do less harm to the program context than commonly assumed.     

Empathie und Medienempathie

Empathy is the capacity and tendency of a person to recognize, understand, and be sensitive to other people’s emotions. The roots of this construct go back to the psychology of emotions and personality psychology. Communication science frequently makes use of it to describe the experiences and emotions during media reception. However, the question can be asked whether empathy and media empathy are two different constructs requiring different measuring instruments. To begin with, this question will be discussed theoretically with important arguments being presented both in favor of and against the thesis of congruent constructs. Subsequently, a measuring instrument for media empathy will be introduced which is constructed following precisely the tried-and-tested operationalization of empathy. It was employed in two studies, and their findings will be compared with one another. The results display both similarities and marked differences, especially with regard to reception variables. Since communication science uses media empathy to explain the effects of reception, different references to reception variables represent a particularly apt argument for the broad independence of the construct and thus for a separate measuring instrument. The present measuring instrument, developed in the context of a pilot study, will be suggested as a provisionally valid operationalization.     

Bidding behavior in asymmetric auctions: An experimental study

We review an asymmetric auction experiment. Based on Plum (Int. J. Game Theory 20 (1992) 393) private valuations of the two bidders are independently drawn from distinct but commonly known distributions, one of which first-order stochastically dominates the other. We test the qualitative properties of that model of asymmetric auctions, in particular whether the weak bidder behaves more aggressively than the strong, and then test bidders’ preference for first- vs. second-price auctions.     

Effects of prevailing wage laws on municipal government wages

A number of authors have suggested that prevailing wage laws tend to raise the wages of covered employees. Yet, no one has previously tested this hypothesis directly. In OLS regressions the prevailing wage law is found to have a negative effect that is not statistically significant. In a two-stage procedure the effect is found to be positive and statistically significant in the preferred formulation. Further tests provide additional evidence that the existence of prevailing wage laws is responsive to economic conditions.     

Das Kalkulationssystem INTRA der Deutschen Telekom AG

Die Deutsche Telekom AG musste in ihrem Rechnungswesen den ver?nderten wettbewerblichen Rahmenbedingungen Rechnung tragen.     

Transformation of smallholder beef cattle production in Vietnam

This research describes and analyses how smallholder crop livestock farmers in rural Ea Kar, Vietnam, were able to take advantage of the rising demand for meat in urban centres and transform cattle production from a traditional, extensive grazing system to a more intensive, stall-fed system that supplied quality meat to urban markets. The traditional grazing system produced low-quality animals that could only be sold for local consumption. Introduction of the concept of farm-grown fodder production enabled farmers to produce fatter animals, achieving higher sale prices, and reduce labour inputs by moving from grazing to stall-feeding. These benefits convinced farmers, traders and local government that smallholder cattle production could be a viable enterprise and so stimulated stakeholder interest. Within 10 years, the way that cattle were produced and marketed changed considerably. By 2010, more than 3,000 smallholders had adopted farm-grown forages and stall-feeding, and many produced high-quality beef cattle. Traders had been able to develop access to urban markets as farmers were able to produce animals that satisfied the stringent quality requirements of urban markets. In addition to the underlying driver of strong market demand for quality meat, several factors contributed to this transition: (i) a convincing innovation – the use of farm-grown fodder – that provided immediate benefits to farmers and provided a vision for local stakeholders; (ii) a participatory, systems-oriented innovation process that emphasised capacity strengthening; (iii) a value chain approach that linked farmers and local traders to markets; (iv) the formation of a loosely structured coalition of local stakeholders that facilitated and managed the innovation process; and (v) technical support over a sufficiently long time period to allow innovation processes to become sustainable.