Publications

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dc.contributor.author: Feld, Lars P.; Reil, Lisa

Die Fähigkeit einer Lehrkraft, Schülerfehler im Unterricht als solche zu diagnostizieren und im Unterricht konstruktiv, d.h. lernwirksam mit Fehlersituationen umzugehen, gilt gemeinhin als eine der zentralen Kompetenzen von Lehrkräften. Während sich die Mathematikdidaktik oder die Fachdidaktik verschiedener Fremdsprachen seit geraumer Zeit mit der Fehlerproblematik auseinandersetzen, lassen sich für den wirtschaftskundlichen Bereich deutlich weniger Forschungsaktivitäten ausmachen. Dies ist bedauerlich, denn die Auseinandersetzung mit Schülerfehlern im kaufmännischen Unterricht setzt gesichertes Wissen über Fehler in der jeweiligen Domäne voraus. Im vorliegenden Beitrag berichten wir über die Ergebnisse einer Interviewstudie zur Identifizierung und Klassifizierung von 'typischen' Schülerfehlern bzw. Fehlerarten im Rechnungswesen.

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dc.contributor.author: Ritzberger, Klaus

Using data for the EU-15 countries from 1975 to 2001, we find that globalization has especially increased the subjective well-being of high-skilled workers, right-wing voters, high-income earners, and of respondents that trust the WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF.

American options on the S&P 500 index futures that violate the stochastic dominance bounds of Constantinides and Perrakis (2009) from 1983 to 2006 are identified as potentially profitable trades. Call bid prices more frequently violate their upper bound than put bid prices do, while violations of the lower bounds by ask prices are infrequent. In out-of-sample tests of stochastic dominance, the writing of options that violate the upper bound increases the expected utility of any risk-averse investor holding the market and cash, net of transaction costs and bid-ask spreads. The results are economically significant and robust.

The population in the developed world has experienced a significant increase in life expectancy over the last 50 years. Simultaneously, while the onset of comorbidities has been deferred to older age groups, health-care expenditure has grown dramatically, primarily owing to the advancement of medical technology and the expansion of individual income levels, along with population ageing in the wake of increased longevity. However, the contribution of population ageing to health expenditure growth is subject to some theoretical and empirical scrutiny. This paper takes the question of ageing and health and health care to the data to evaluate the net impact of ageing. We focus on two main questions, namely the welfare valuation of longevity improvements for various OECD countries, along with the ‘red herring’ hypothesis which suggests that population ageing has a small and almost negligible impact on health-care expenditure. Our estimates lead us to suggest an average gain in longevity of 4.5 years since 1980, corresponding to about 13.5 per cent of lifetime income of a 20-year-old in 2000. Furthermore, we confirm a weak red-herring claim, that is, that population ageing accounts for only a 0.5 per cent annual growth rate of health-care expenditure. Finally, we find that the rise in longevity leads to a further demand for life-prolonging medical care.

We examine whether central banks should complement their inflation forecasts with interest rate projections. Introducing a central bank loss function that accounts for deviations from announcements, we incorporate the publication of policy inclinations into a dynamic monetary model. We show that in the presence of cost-push shocks, the publication of interest rate forecasts tends to improve welfare.

Das duale System ist die dominierende Organisationsform der Berufsausbidung in der Schweiz. Der Anteil der vollzeitschulischen Ausbildung liegt schweizweit bei unter 20 Prozent, wobei diese Lernform in der französischen und italienischen Schweiz deutlich häufiger anzutreffen ist als in der Deutschschweiz. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird der empirische Forschungsstand zu Qualitätsmerkmalen der dualen und vollzeitschulischen Berufsausbildung in der Schweiz anhand eines Kriterienkatalogs komparativ analysiert. Aufgrund des Mangels an empirischen Studien haben die dabei zusammengetragenen Befunde zumeist Vorläufigkeitscharakter. Dennovh geben sie wertvolle Hinweise für die Formulierung von Forschungsfragen an den Gegenstand. In diesem Sinne werden abschließend der Forschungsbedarf und Forschungsperspektiven präzisiert.

This paper starts from the premise that liability is incomplete and establishes that firms may nevertheless invest excessively in care. This may justify a (further) reduction in the level of liability from a social standpoint, thereby arguing against seeking to approach full compensation as close as possible. In our framework, firms are liable under product liability, but also invest in care to prevent consumers’ switching to competitors. Affecting the partition of consumers by means of care-taking is not desirable from a social standpoint. Consequently, it may be optimal to reduce liability below a given level of incomplete compensation in order to adjust firms’ care incentives.

This paper argues that the strong member states of the European Currency Union are hostages of a financially distressed member state so that they are compelled to provide financial support. Moreover, due to the dynamics of the interaction game, a debt relief is a free lunch for the distressed country. This fosters moral hazard of distressed countries. In the absence of capital market control, European politics do not effectively monitor fiscal politics of member states. The lack of a long term strategy of the European Currency Union to deal with distressed states has undermined the credibility of politics. This lack is also explained by a lack of a European Insolvency Charter. A viable Union requires such a charter with rules for handling distress. Moreover, politics should determine a mechanism to coordinate politics and capital markets in their monitoring of fiscal and economic policy of member states.

This paper analyzes equilibrium R&D in pollution control and equilibrium pollution abatement by polluters who are subject to environmental liability law when the level of compensation differs from the level of environmental harm. We contrast the performance of strict liability with that of the negligence rule. Privately optimal levels necessarily deviate from socially optimal ones under strict liability, whereas private decisions are first-best under negligence unless compensation is much smaller than harm. It is established that the way in which privately optimal R&D deviates from the first-best level depends on the kind of technical change in pollution abatement. Counterintuitively polluters might overinvest into R&D in pollution control if compensation falls short of harm, and may underinvest if compensation exceeds harm.