Vienna University of Economics and Business
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The impact of an unequal distribution of education on inequalities in life expectancy
Get PDFPrior research has found socio-economic determinants such as education to affect health outcomes. Yet, education is not distributed equally among the population. This article attempts to quantify the impact of unequal distribution of education on inequalities in life expectancy. We calculate a Gini coefficient of longevity from the life tables provided by the Human Mortality Database and a Gini coefficient of education using data on educational attainment from Barro and Lee (2013). We estimate linear regression models to examine the relationship between inequality in education and inequality in life expectancy at the country level for up to 31 European countries between 1970 and 2010. Results provide empirical evidence for a statistically significant positive association between educational inequality and inequalities of longevity. Confounding factors reflecting individual health behaviour such as cigarette or alcohol consumption do not exert a separate statistically significant effect on inequality in life expectancy. Findings are robust to alternative calculation of key variables, dropping a potential outlier, and an alternative estimation approach. These findings suggest that not only education, but also equality in education is a crucial factor for health outcomes. Continuing efforts should be directed towards the reduction of educational inequality in order to reduce inequality in longevity within a country
Agile Content Management: Strategic Communication in Corporate Newsrooms
Get PDFCorporate communication increasingly evolves into newsroom-like forms. In
such structures, traditional approaches of functional differentiation (i.e.,
internal coms, media relations, public affairs, etc.) give way to topic- and
content-centered approaches to corporate communication. Megatrends like
globalization, digitalization, mediatization, and the decline of journalism
have facilitated these developments. This study provides insights on agile
content management gathered from 32 semi-structured expert interviews
with communication professionals working in 13 business organizations in
Germany and Austria. Results indicate that on the strategic level, communication
management reacts to rising communicative demands in organizational
environments by implementing agile-like concepts in communication
departments, which are content-driven and not based on departmentalized
specialization. Accordingly, the importance of competent and largely autonomous
content managers increases, with these experts subsequently serving
as conductors of inclusive, collective storytelling that reaches far beyond the
communication department, into every relevant stakeholder group. Thereby,
business organizations cope with the challenges of increasing complexity in
the information society of the 21st century
The Values of Nature
Get PDFThe values of Nature are today ever more contested in attempts to reduce them to a narroweconomics calculus and financial metrics. The crisis of modernity is evident is that the concept ofNature itself has been subject to post-modern deconstruction as archaic Romanticism whilesimultaneously being made into a modernist capital form by economists, bankers and financiers. Inthis paper we start by defining the meaning of Nature before moving to its values, the two beinginseparable. Nature is seen as combining three aspect: (i) being ‘other’ than human, (ii) abiophysical structure and (iii) a quality which humans commonly and intuitively reference butstruggle to specify. When turning to the values of Nature we describe the three major meta-ethicalsystems of Western philosophy—utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics. The contestationespecially between utilitarian and rights-based approaches is explored. The role of intrinsic value inthese systems is outlined. Modern mainstream economic valuation is then placed in context of theforgoing discussion and critically reviewed as a misguided but hegemonic approach to valuingNature. The terrain of debate is laid out, briefly covering recent developments of rights to Natureand Nature’s contribution to people. That Nature cannot be dismissed as a concept (somethingattempted by some post-modernists and strong constructionists), but remains importantly contestedin terms of its values, is central to understanding the on-going social-ecological conflicts created by.Series: SRE - Discussion Paper
Economists in public discourses. The case of wealth and inheritance taxation in the German press
Get PDFChallenges of maintaining and diffusing grassroots innovations in alternative food networks: A systems thinking approach
Get PDFSustainability transitions of food systems are at the core of several of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In many regions, grassroots initiatives (i.e., community-led bottom-up initiatives) have emerged to experiment with alternative food networks and change the dominant food regimes. While grassroots initiatives can play a crucial role in sustainability transitions, it is known that actors usually face challenges related to (1) building and maintaining an initiative, and (2) diffusing it to the mainstream. However, the systemic mechanisms underlying these two types of challenges in food systems are still underspecified. Building on previous empirical research, the paper uses systems thinking (qualitative causal loop diagrams) to detail (1) the systemic mechanisms underlying the emergence and maintenance of an alternative food network; and (2) the feedback loops related to organizational and logistics issues that pose limits to scaling. It explains the paradox of diffusion in alternative food networks and concludes that diffusion of alternative food networks to mainstream may be achieved through replication and translation strategies, rather than scaling-up
Gender Budgeting in Public Financial Management: A Literature Review and Research Agenda
Get PDFGender budgeting calls for including a gender perspective at all levels of governmental
budgetary processes. While the literature on gender budgeting is interdisciplinary and
covers a wide geographical range, it remains fragmented. This study uses a literature
review to examine the current discourse on gender budgeting and to elicit avenues for
future research. Our review shows that studies focus either on emerging economies,
such as India or South Africa, or on countries in Europe. Drawing on an analytical
framework, we find that most studies scrutinize the ex ante stages of gender budgeting, whereas less is known about the concurrent and ex post stages. Moreover,
because little is known about the outcome and impact of gender budgeting, governments do not know what instruments function best in different settings. Given their
ex ante focus, most studies on gender budgeting often either remain descriptive or
analyse secondary data. Despite scholars from different disciplines contributing to
the field of gender budgeting, several "blank spots" remain, particularly in public sector
accounting
On the Heterogeneity of Preferences for Disability Services
Get PDFThis paper investigates heterogeneity of preferences for disability services within the theoretical framework of consumption
values. We conducted interviews with people with a disability
and disability service providers to develop survey items, then
conducted a survey with 2000 adult Australian residents who
either had a disability or were carers of a person with a disability.
After conducting descriptive analyses and data-driven market
segmentation, findings revealed that, at the aggregate level,
basic or functional benefits of disability services are most important. However, when accounting for heterogeneity, very distinct
benefit patterns emerge, pointing to the substantial potential
for improving disability services by catering to distinct market
segment needs. These insights have the potential to improve
disability service provision, thus maximally harvesting the
opportunities from disability service models that now often
include commercial providers, and enabling people with disabilities to make optimal choices in relation to both services and
providers
Die soziale Gestaltung einer ökologischen Steuerreform?: Das Beste aus mehreren Welten.
Get PDFDie Herausforderung einer ökosozialen Steuerreform ist einerseits über die Erhöhung der Preise von
CO2-Emissionen, Anreize für ein umweltfreundlicheres Verhalten zu setzen und andererseits die soziale
Sicherung aller betroffenen Personen sicherzustellen. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrages analysieren wir die
Effekte der Einführung einer CO2-Steuer in der Höhe von 50€/tCO2 auf fossile Treib- und Heizstoffe
im österreichischen, privaten Haushaltssektor. Zudem werden potentielle Rückvergütungsmaßnahmen
diskutiert. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf der Analyse von drei unterschiedlichen Varianten des Ökobonus in
Hinblick auf die Bereiche Verteilungswirkung, praktische Durchführbarkeit und Armutsvermeidung. Die
statische Simulation der Reform erfolgt auf Basis des Mikrosimulationsmodells TAXSIM. Unsere Ergebnisse
zeigen, dass durch die Einführung einer CO2-Steuer reichere Haushalte, aufgrund ihrer höheren
Konsumausgaben auch höhere Steuerbeträge zahlen müssen. Betrachtet man die Verteilungswirkungen
jedoch im Verhältnis zum Einkommen zeigt sich eine stark regressive Wirkung, da ärmere Haushalte
einen höheren Anteil ihres Einkommens für Heiz- und Treibstoffe aufwenden müssen. Die Einführung
eines pauschalen Ökobonus kann der regressiven Wirkung einer CO2-Steuer nur begrenzt gegensteuern,
während eine einkommensabhängige Variante auf Basis des äquivalisierten Haushaltseinkommens am besten
Armut vermeiden kann. Aufgrund der schwierigen Durchführbarkeit in der Praxis, erscheint jedoch
eine einkommensabhängige Version auf Basis des individuellen Einkommens am geeignetsten, da diese
einfacher mit dem österreichischen Steuersystem vereinbar ist. Um zudem Anreize so zu gestalten,
dass besonders auch armutsgefährdete Personen zu umweltfreundlichen Alternativen umsteigen können,
müssen zusätzliche Maßnahmen, wie etwa Investitionen im Bereich Heizen und Mobilität durchgeführt
werden
Human-centricity in a Sustainable Digital Economy
Get PDFHuman-centricity is arguably one of the fundamental aspects of a sustainable digital economy. The goal of this minitrack is to advance the level of understanding of what human-centricity and sustainable digital economy are, to identify the main interdisciplinary challenges for the realization of human-centricity in a sustainable digital economy, and to provide the best-practice case studies on how human-centricity and sustainability may be achieved in specific domains
Does crowdfunding really foster innovation? Evidence from the board game industry
Get PDFCrowdfunding offers inventors and entrepreneurs alternative access to resources with which they can develop and realize their ideas. Besides helping to secure capital, crowdfunding also connects creators with engaged early supporters who provide public feedback. But does this process foster truly innovative outcomes? Does the proliferation of crowdfunding in an industry make it more innovative overall? Prior studies investigating the link between crowdfunding and innovation do not compare traditional and crowdfunded products and so while claims that crowdfunding supports innovation are theoretically sound, they lack empirical backing. We address this gap using a unique dataset of board games, an industry with significant crowdfunding activity in recent years. Each game is described by how it combines fundamental mechanisms such as dice-rolling, negotiation, and resource-management, from which we develop quantitative measures of innovation in game design. Using these measures to compare games, we find that crowdfunded games tend to be more distinctive from previous games than their traditionally published counterparts. They are also significantly more likely to implement novel combinations of mechanisms. Crowdfunded games are not just transient experiments: subsequent games imitate their novel ideas. These results hold in regression models controlling for game and designer-level confounders. Our findings demonstrate that the innovative potential of crowdfunding goes beyond individual products to entire industries, as new ideas spill over to traditionally funded products