Publications

We construct a panel of S&P 500 Index call and put option portfolios, daily adjusted to maintain targeted maturity, moneyness, and unit market beta, and test multi-factor pricing models. The standard linear factor methodology is applicable because the monthly portfolio returns have low skewness and are close to normal. We hypothesize that any one of crisis-related factors incorporating price jumps, volatility jumps, and liquidity (along with the market) explains the cross-sectional variation in returns. Our hypothesis is not rejected, even when the factor premia are constrained to equal the corresponding premia in the cross-section of equities. The alphas of short-maturity out-of-the-money puts become economically and statistically insignificant.

Achieving accurate judgment (‘judgmental achievement’) is of utmost importance in daily life across multiple domains. The lens model and the lens model equation provide useful frameworks for modeling components of judgmental achievement and for creating tools to help decision makers (e.g., physicians, teachers) reach better judgments (e.g., a correct diagnosis, an accurate estimation of intelligence). Previous meta-analyses of judgment and decision-making studies have attempted to evaluate overall judgmental achievement and have provided the basis for evaluating the success of bootstrapping (i.e., replacing judges by linear models that guide decision making). However, previous meta-analyses have failed to appropriately correct for a number of study design artifacts (e.g., measurement error, dichotomization), which may have potentially biased estimations (e.g., of the variability between studies) and led to erroneous interpretations (e.g., with regards to moderator variables). In the current study we therefore conduct the first psychometric meta-analysis of judgmental achievement studies that corrects for a number of study design artifacts. We identified 31 lens model studies (N = 1,151, k = 49) that met our inclusion criteria. We evaluated overall judgmental achievement as well as whether judgmental achievement depended on decision domain (e.g., medicine, education) and/or the level of expertise (expert vs. novice). We also evaluated whether using corrected estimates affected conclusions with regards to the success of bootstrapping with psychometrically-corrected models. Further, we introduce a new psychometric trim-and-fill method to estimate the effect sizes of potentially missing studies correct psychometric meta-analyses for effects of publication bias. Comparison of the results of the psychometric meta-analysis with the results of a traditional meta-analysis (which only corrected for sampling error) indicated that artifact correction leads to a) an increase in values of the lens model components, b) reduced heterogeneity between studies, and c) increases the success of bootstrapping. We argue that psychometric meta-analysis is useful for accurately evaluating human judgment and show the success of bootstrapping.

dc.title:

Der Wettbewerb im Gesundheitswesen ist kein Selbstzweck, sondern dient der Verbesserung der Versorgung der Versicherten. Im Rahmen der GKV sollte er in einem Preiswettbewerb zwischen Krankenkassen und einem Preis- und Qualitätswettbewerb der Leistungsanbieter um Verträge mit den Kassen bestehen. Der Staat muss aber die Rahmenbedingungen dafür schaffen. Momentan sind diese nicht erfüllt, da die Zuweisungen aus dem Gesundheitsfonds zu hoch und die Freiräume zur Vertragsgestaltung zu gering sind.

dc.title:

dc.contributor.author: Wößmann, Ludger

To improve the application and transfer of troubleshooting skills when diagnosing faults in complex automated production units, we developed and implemented an “anchored instruction” learning module in the context of a computer based simulation environment. The effects of the instructional module were evaluated in a quasi-experimental evaluation study. During the study 42 mechatronic apprentices were trained in two parallel experimental groups with and without the anchored instruction module. We assessed success related training outcomes using measures of performance in several different transfer tasks. It could be shown that participants who trained with the anchored instruction module improved performance and strategic behavior especially in similar and new tasks in the learning environment.

dc.title:

dc.contributor.author: Eberle, Franz

We provide experimental evidence on how unequal access to performance enhancing education affects demand for redistribution. People earn money in a real effort experiment andcan then decide how to distribute it among themselves and another subjects. We comparesituations in which randomly chosen people get access to performance enhancing education with situations in which either only luck or only performance determines outcome. Wefind that unequal opportunities evoke a preference for redistribution that is comparable tothe situation when luck alone determines the allocation. However, people with unequalaccess to education are more likely to disagree about the appropriate distribution.

dc.title:

Trade liberalization under GATT/World Trade Organization (WTO) has been partly offset by an increase in antidumping protection, possibly due to the inclusion of sales below cost in the definition of dumping. This article investigates the domestic government's antidumping duty choice in an asymmetric information framework, in which the foreign firm's cost is observed by the domestic firm, but not by the government. We show that by designing a tariff schedule contingent on firms' cost reports and accompanied by a threat to collect additional information for report verification, the domestic government may not only be able to extract the true cost information, but also succeed in implementing the full-information, governmental welfare-maximizing duty. The antidumping framework within GATT/WTO may thus not only offer the means to pursue strategic trade policy disguised as fair trade policy, but it also helps overcome informational problems with regard to correctly determining the optimal strategic trade policy.

dc.title: