Vienna University of Economics and Business
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Apologists for growth: passive revolutionaries in a passive revolution
Get PDFPopular authors and international organizations recommend transformation to "new economy". However, this is misleadingly interpreted as radical orrevolutionary. Two problematic positions are revealed: being pro-growth while seeking to change the current form of capitalism (e.g. Ha-Joon Chang), and being anti-growth on environmental grounds but promoting growth for poverty alleviation and due to agnosticism about growth (e.g. Tim Jacksonand Kate Raworth). Both positions involve contradictions and an evident failure to address, or perhaps even a denial of, the actual operations ofcapital accumulating economies. Thus, economists ostensibly critical ofcapitalism turn out to be apologists for growth who conform to the requirements of a top-down passive revolution, that leaves power relations undisturbed and the economic structure fundamentally unchanged. The growth economy is shown to include technocracy, productivism associated with eugenics, inequity disguised as meritocracy, competition concealing militarism and imperialism, imposition of development as progress, and financialization and commodification of Nature
The Efficiency Gap
Get PDFParameter estimation via M- and Z-estimation is broadly considered to be equally powerful in semiparametric models for one-dimensional functionals. This is due to the fact that, under sufficient regularity conditions, there is a one-to-one relation between the corresponding objective functions - strictly consistent loss functions and oriented strict identification functions - via integration and differentiation. When dealing with multivariate functionals such as multiple moments, quantiles, or the pair (Value at Risk, Expected Shortfall), this one-to-one relation fails due to integrability conditions: Not every identification function possesses an antiderivative. The most important implication of this failure is an efficiency gap: The most efficient Z-estimator often outperforms the most efficient M-estimator, implying that the semiparametric efficiency bound cannot be attained by the M-estimator in these cases. We show that this phenomenon arises for pairs of quantiles at different levels and for the pair (Value at Risk, Expected Shortfall), where we illustrate the gap through extensive simulations
Forward to the Past: Short-Term Effects of the Rent Freeze in Berlin
Get PDFIn 2020, Berlin enacted a rigorous rent-control policy: the “Mietendeckel” (rent freeze), aiming to stop rapidly growing rental prices. We evaluate this newly enacted but old-fashionably designed policy by analyzing its immediate supply-side effects. Using a rich pool of rent advertisements reporting asking rents and comprehensive dwelling characteristics, we perform hedonic-style Difference-in-Difference analyses comparing trajectories of dwellings inside and outside the policy’s scope. We find no immediate effect upon announcement of the policy. Yet advertised rents drop significantly upon the policy’s enactment. Additionally, we document a substitution effect affecting the rental markets of Berlin’s (unregulated) satellite city Potsdam and adjacent smaller municipalities. On top, the supplemental quantity analyses reveal a stark reduction of the number of advertised rental units hampering a successful housing search for newcomers, (young) first-time renters and tenants aiming for a different housing opportunity.Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Serie
No need to hide: Acknowledging the researcher’s intuition in empirical organizational research
Get PDFExperts on organizational research methods have begun to highlight the importance of researchers’ intuition (i.e. ‘direct knowing’) and have called for more genuine method sections that acknowledge its use. However, using intuition contradicts established research standards of traceability. Hence, when intuition was involved in the research process, researchers must choose between reporting its role, thereby risking the impression of lacking scholarly rigor, and downplaying its role, thereby writing less-than-honest research reports. This article aims to provide a solution to this dilemma by conceptually exploring how intuition can be integrated in research such that scholarly rigor is maintained. Building on Weick’s distinction of creative imagination and validation, it argues that intuition can be legitimately seized if its functioning principles are taken into account and its outcomes are later validated through analytical procedures. The article synthesizes theoretical assumptions and empirical findings on characteristics of intuition with discussions of organizational research methods to derive implications on (1) points in the research process where researchers’ intuitions may be legitimately included and (2) possible types of intuitive outcomes that may be reported. This may contribute to both more genuine method sections and more rigorous research that systematically validates intuition, instead of hiding it
Process Mining Supported Process Redesign: Matching Problems with Solutions
Get PDFProcess mining is a widely used technique to understand and analyze business process
executions through event data. It offers insights into process problems but leaves analysts
barehanded to translate these problems into concrete solutions. Research on business process
management discusses both process mining and improvement patterns in isolation. In this
paper, we address this research gap. More specifically, we identify six categories of process
problems that can be identified with process mining and map them to applicable best practices
of business processes. We analyze the relevance of our approach using a thematic analysis of
reports that were handed in to the Business Process Intelligence Challenges over recent years,
and observe the dire need for better guidance to translate process problems identified by
process mining into suitable process designs. Conceptually, we position process mining into
the problem and solution space of process redesign and thereby offer a language to describe
potentials and limitations of the technique
A Polanyi-inspired perspective on social-ecological transformations of cities
Get PDFBased on a Polanyi-inspired research program, we analyze urban transformations as interrelations between infrastructural configurations, i.e. context-dependent material infrastructures and their multi-scalar political-economic regulations, and socio-cultural modes of living. Describing different modes of infrastructure provisioning in Vienna between 1890 and today, we illustrate how political-economic processes of commodification and decommodification have co-evolved with socio-culturally specific modes of living, grounded in different classes and milieus. We show how, today, two modes of living—“traditional,” established during postwar welfare capitalism, and “liberal,” formed during neoliberal capitalism—co-exist. In the current conjuncture of rising inequality, neoliberal urban regeneration, and accelerating climate crisis, these modes of living are not only increasingly polarized and antagonistic, but also increasingly unable to satisfy needs and self-defined aspirations. Therefore, we explore the potential of social-ecological infrastructural configurations as an alliance-building project for a systemic social-ecological transformation, potentially linking different classes, social segments and forces around a common eco-social endeavor
Limiting food waste via grassroots initiatives as a potential for climate change mitigation: a systematic review
Get PDFAn estimated 30 to 50 % of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted each year. These global food loss and waste (FLW) annually generate 4.4 Gt CO2-eq, or about 8 % of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and thus present a still underestimated driver of climate change. To date, little is known about grassroots initiatives dedicated to reducing and preventing FLW and their actual potential to prevent FLW and thus contribution to mitigate GHG emissions. This paper presents a systematic review that examined the peer-reviewed evidence on grassroots initiatives’ potential to limit food waste and GHG emissions. We found 15 relevant studies which represent a small but recent and growing interest in the topic. The findings of the studies are mostly of a qualitative nature, exploring the initiatives’ organizational structure, goals and available resources. This systematic review highlights a pressing need for further research and impact measurement to better assess the role of grassroots initiatives in FLW reduction and climate change mitigation. It raises main directions for future research
Caught between two fronts: successful aging in the time of COVID-19
Get PDFPurpose–The COVID-19 pandemic poses a great challenge for older people both in terms of the severity of the disease and the negative consequences of social distancing. Assumptions about negative effects on the lives of the elderly, affecting dimensions of successful aging (such as the preservation of social relationships), have thus far been hypothetical and have lacked empirical evidence. The aim of this paper is to shed empirical light on the effects of COVID-19 on the everyday life of older people against the background of the concept of successful aging. Design/methodology/approach– Data of a standardized, representative telephone survey with residents of Lower Austria, a county of Austria, were used for this secondary analysis. The sample included 521 persons of 60 years of age and older. For this paper, contingency analyses (x2coefficients,z-tests using Bonferroni correction) and unidimensional correlational analyses were calculated. Findings–The empirical data show that successful aging along the three dimensions of successful aging is a challenge in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic–leaving the elderly caught between twofronts. Originality/value– The present work focusses on a unique moment in time, describing the changes tot he lives of Austrian elderly because of the social distancing measures imposed to protect against the spread of COVID-19. These changes are discussed in the theoretical framework of successful aging
The relation between income and donations as a proportion of income revisited: literature review and empirical application
Get PDFPrevious research addressing the relation between income and donations as a proportion of income has revealed predominantly inconsistent results. In this article, we argue that this can partly be explained by the great variance of methodological approaches. Providing a literature review covering 26 studies, we systematically identify how methodological issues such as data, variables, and methods have affected former findings. In addition, we apply different methodological approaches to Austrian income tax data (n= 20,000), demonstrating how different methods lead to a variation in results. Overall, we show that existing studies are hardly comparable as their designs vary strongly. We point out that it is particularly important to use samples with sufficient cases of all income groups and methods that adequately account for the non-linear relation between the two variables, not restricting it to a U-shape. Our findings enable a better understanding and interpretation of diverging findings in philanthropic research
(BSF4)ooRexx and Java Web Servers
Get PDFBSF4ooRexx is a bi-directional Java bridge for the dynamic scripting language ooRexx which implements the Java scripting framework and can therefore be employed as a scripting language in many Java contexts. Java based web servers like Apache Tomcat implement the Java2EE/JakartaEE JSP (Java server pages) specifications which allow among other things to extend the JSP's functionality by providing tag libraries ("taglibs"). This article introduces such a taglib ("ScriptTagLibs") that allows any Java scripting language – in this article ooRexx [12] – to be employed for servlet programming and creating HTML content that gets returned as a result of a client's request and how to deploy it on Java based web servers in form of a war ("web application archive") file