Publications

Providing instructional explanations is a central skill of teachers. Using interactive simulations, we examined the explaining skills of 48 prospective teachers attending a teacher education program for accounting in vocational schools in Germany. We used a performance-based assessment that relies on explanatory quality as an indicator of teacher candidates’ explaining skills. Video analysis was used to assess the quality of prepared and impromptu explanations in respect of different quality aspects. We found that the prepared explanations of prospective teachers were of high quality in terms of student–teacher interaction and language. With respect to the quality of content (e.g., accuracy, multiple approaches to explaining) and representation (e.g., visualization, examples), prospective teachers performed significantly worse. The quality of teacher candidates’ improvised explanations was significantly lower. This was especially true for the quality of representations, the process structure, and the interaction between student and teacher. For four of the five quality criteria examined, no correlation could be found between the quality of prepared and improvised explanations. For the language criterion, however, there was a correlation between the two types of explaining situations. Implications on how to support teacher candidates in developing explaining skills during teacher education are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of the digital transformation of educational organizations. The effects of this transformation process are not limited to the classroom level but extend into various areas of the school, such as Equipment and Technology , Strategy and Leadership , Organization , Employees , and Culture . Against this background, we assessed the status quo of the digital transformation in Swiss vocational schools from the perspective of both school management members and teachers. For this endeavor, two surveys were conducted: the first one in the period from November 2019 to January 2020 (school management members) and the second one between June and September 2020 (teachers). In total, 202 school management members and 1,739 teachers from 62 schools participated in the study. The results of the analyses indicate that the digitization-related dimensions of Strategy and Leadership , as well as Pedagogical IT Support , were perceived better by school management members, whereas teachers considered the areas of Digital Competencies , Attitudes , and Culture to be more advanced. Furthermore, linear regression models show that the dimensions considered important when assessing the status quo of digital transformation differ between the groups. The results emphasize the importance of communication between and the inclusion of all school stakeholders for the successful management of the digital transformation.

Prior studies have examined effectuation and causation as alternative behavioural logics used by entrepreneurs to manage uncertainty, noting a number of antecedents of the tendency to rely on a given logic at different levels of analysis. This study aims to broaden the understanding of individual-level antecedents by examining the role of the so-called dark side of the CEO personality on decision-making processes within small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using the lens of upper echelons theory and trait-activation theory, we focus on three personality characteristics: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. The impact of dark triad traits on the behavioural logic employed by the CEO is argued to be moderated by the perceived level of uncertainty experienced by the firm. A set of hypotheses regarding these relationships are tested with a random sample of CEOs of Russian SMEs. The findings suggest that CEOs scoring higher in psychopathy tend to adopt a causal logic, while Machiavellians rely on an effectual logic. The level of uncertainty shapes these relationships by weakening the links between dark triad traits and behavioural logics.

We propose forecast encompassing tests for the expected shortfall (ES) jointly with the value at risk (VaR) based on flexible link (or combination) functions. Our setup allows testing encompassing for convex forecast combinations and for link functions that preclude crossings of the combined VaR and ES forecasts. As the tests based on these link functions involve parameters that are on the boundary of the parameter space under the null hypothesis, we derive and base our tests on nonstandard asymptotic theory on the boundary. Our simulation study shows that the encompassing tests based on our new link functions outperform tests based on unrestricted linear link functions for one-step and multistep forecasts. We further illustrate the potential of the proposed tests in a real data analysis for forecasting VaR and ES of the S&P 500 index.

This paper demonstrates that, in a large class of linear-quadratic models with rational expectations, losses due to time-inconsistency problems can be avoided, as the commitment solution can be implemented by a policy-maker who acts under discretion. We focus on two approaches. First, we show that a non-Markovian, reputational equilibrium that implements the commitment solution always exists. Second, we show how delegation to a policy-maker with an additional objective for the policy instrument can be used to implement the commitment solution via a standard discretionary Markov equilibrium. Implementation is facilitated by the fact that the commitment outcome can be attained irrespective of the weight that the policy-maker assigns to the additional target. Using the standard new Keynesian model as an example, we study the dynamics of the economy under optimal additional output targets as well as optimal interest-rate targets for central banks.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the youth mental health crisis has reached unprecedented levels. To which extent school closures, one of the most heavily debated pandemic measures, have contributed to or even caused this crisis is largely unknown. We seek to narrow this blind spot, by combining quasi-experimental variation in school closure and reopening strategies across the German federal states at the onset of the pandemic with nationwide, population-based survey data on youth mental health and high-frequency data from the largest crisis helpline. We show that prolonged school closures led to a substantial deterioration in youth health-related quality of life, precipitating early signs of mental health problems. The effects were most severe among boys, younger adolescents, and families with limited living space. We further provide evidence that family problems are a major issue that adolescents were struggling with when denied access to school. Overall, school closures largely explain the deterioration of youth mental health over the first pandemic wave.

Leaks are pervasive in politics. Hence, many committees that nominally operate under secrecy de facto operate under the threat that information might be passed on to outsiders. We study theoretically and experimentally how this possibility affects the behavior of committee members and decision-making accuracy. Our theoretical analysis generates two major predictions. First, a committee operating under the threat of leaks is equivalent to a formally transparent committee in terms of the probability of supporting the adoption of a new policy. Second, the threat of leaks leads to status quo bias. In our experimental analysis of a committee with possible leaks, individual behavior is often less strategic than theoretically predicted, which leads to frequent leaks. However, despite these deviations on the individual level, our experiment confirms the two major theoretical predictions.