Vienna University of Economics and Business
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Vergangene Versprechen der Ersten Republik: Der Zusammenhang sozialer und gleicher Rechte von Minderheiten am Beispiel Kärnten/Koroška
Full text linkNach dem Ersten Weltkrieg zerfielen in Europa Staaten und es stellten sich Fragen der Grenzziehung – so auch in Kärnten/Koroška. Im Oktober 1920 wurde im mehrheitlich slowenischsprachigen Teil über die staatliche Zugehörigkeit abgestimmt. Ausschlaggebend für den Ausgang waren das politische System der Ersten Republik und die damit verbundenen Versprechen sozialer und gleicher Rechte sowie wirtschaftliche Faktoren. Hundert Jahre später zeigt sich, dass nicht alle Versprechen gehalten wurden, und es regt zu Überlegungen an, wie Rechte von Minderheiten in Demokratien eingebunden werden können. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird, mit Fokus auf die Protokolle der provisorischen Kärntner Landesversammlung und des Kärntner Landesrates, beleuchtet, wie Mitbestimmung, soziale Rechte sowie das Verhältnis von Minderheit(en) und Mehrheit(en) Eingang in eine folgenreiche politische Entscheidung gefunden haben. Dabei wird sichtbar, wie soziale Fragen mit Möglichkeiten des Spracherhalts zusammenhängen. Daran anschließend kann die Abhängigkeit von Minderheitenrechten von der Umsetzungsbereitschaft hegemonialer Gruppen diskutiert werden
Computerspiele und ökonomische Modellformen. Auf dem Weg zu transformationskritischen Medien
Full text linkDer vorliegende Text will herausarbeiten, wie sich ökonomische Modellformen zu bestimmten Formen von Computerspielen verhalten. Ausgehend von einer neuartigen interdisziplinären Kooperation zwischen Medienkulturwissenschaft und (heterodoxer) Ökonomik, die in Zukunft zu vertiefen ist, sollen neuartige Perspektiven auf die mögliche Rolle von Computerspielen und -simulationen in gesellschaftlichen Transformationsprozessen entwickelt werden. Basierend auf der systematischen Ausdifferenzierung von Computerspielwelten, vorgeschlagen von Claus Pias, wird erörtert, inwiefern sich Simulation zu einem experimentellen Medium der Kollektivierung gesellschaftlicher Utopien entwickelt, und somit zum Austragungsort politökonomischer Hegemoniekämpfe werden könnte
Does Tax Return Disclosure Affect Information Asymmetry among Investors?
Full text linkTax return information is often complex and difficult to interpret. Whether its public availability benefits unsophisticated users remains an empirical question. This study examines whether public disclosure of tax return information affects information asymmetry among more- and less- sophisticated investors. I investigate the unique setting of mandatory disclosure of three bottom-line income tax items in Australia. Using a difference-in-difference design with an entropy-balanced control group, I find evidence that information asymmetry decreased after the mandatory disclosure. The effect is more pronounced for firms with a poorer information environment, with higher individual ownership, and with lower media attention. The magnitude of the postdisclosure decline in the bid-ask spread correlates with the degree of the absolute book-tax gap of tax expense. This result is concentrated among firms with only mandatory disclosure—without any voluntary commitment or voluntary disclosure. Overall, the results suggest that public disclosure of tax return information does have the potential to reduce information asymmetry among investors.Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Serie
The Impact of Monetary Policy on Yield Curve Expectations
Full text linkA great deal of monetary policy is aimed at steering market expectations but little is known about agents belief formation. This article investigates how US market participants adjust yield curve expectations in response to two shocks related to monetary policy. The results show that in the aggregate, market participants initially underreact to changes in monetary policy. This implies that news are not fully absorbed, which potentially impedes a smooth monetary policy transmission. We further show that these information rigidities could be driven by a lack of information diffusion among individual forecasters. Last, we find that depending on the source of the shock and the maturities of the yields, underre- action is followed by a period of overcompensation a pattern called delayed overshooting. Knowing this allows the central bank to better calibrate their actions in the first place, which could pave the way for more optimal monetary policy
Demystifying Research (Methods): Epistemological Design to Reduce Student Anxiety and Increase Content Enjoyment
Full text linkResearch Methods is a frequently-unloved course for students and instructors alike. However, successful research methods courses are linked to high-value and long-term outcomes such as stronger career preparation and higher information literacy. We propose reimaging Research Methods courses for Information Systems and Information Technology degrees as an epistemic undertaking to reduce student anxiety and increase positive experiences with research. We outline and evaluate one such course in this proof-of-value case study, finding that over half of the students achieved these goals. Those students who did not realize the intended outcomes did not have a worse experience; however, their newfound understanding of research cemented their disinterest in pursuing research careers. We propose reconsidering Research Methods' institutional inclusion in IS curricula as a mechanism supporting diversification of junior researchers
Heterogeneity, asymmetry and applicability of behavioral newsvendor models
Full text linkIn this paper we analyze heterogeneity and asymmetry of ordering behavior in high-profit and low-profit product settings as well as applicability of the reference dependent newsvendor model with different psychological costs of overordering and underordering. Further, we introduce a mean preserving newsvendor model by extending the overconfident newsvendor model to non-negative confidence parameters. For these models we provide simple and intuitive conditions on the operational and behavioral parameters that allow heterogeneity and asymmetry of ordering. We relate the psychological cost parameters of the reference dependent newsvendor model to the confidence parameters of the mean preserving model. Because of heterogeneity in ordering, the descriptive order quantities of an individual are not necessarily compatible with admissible behavioral parameter values of the model under consideration. Therefore, we use an endogenous approach to derive the behavioral parameter values from the descriptive order quantities, if possible. For the reference dependent newsvendor model, this approach enables us to derive constraints of the descriptive order quantities that guarantee admissible and realistic values of the psychological cost parameters. We give managerial interpretations of the analytical findings by a graphical illustration; the two behavioral models cover the whole area of plausible order quantity combinations for the low-profit and high-profit product. We discuss how an executive inventory manager could advice the newsvendor to adapt the behavioral parameters in order to achieve an expected profit target
Evolution of deterrence with costly reputation information
Full text linkDeterrence, a defender’s avoidance of a challenger’s attack based on the threat of retaliation, is a basic ingredient of social cooperation in several animal species and is ubiquitous in human societies. Deterrence theory has recognized that deterrence can only be based on credible threats, but retaliating being costly for the defender rules this out in one-shot interactions. If interactions are repeated and observable, reputation building has been suggested as a way to sustain credibility and enable the evolution of deterrence. But this explanation ignores both the source and the costs of obtaining information on reputation. Even for small information costs successful deterrence is never evolutionarily stable. Here we use game-theoretic modelling and agent-based simulations to resolve this puzzle and to clarify under which conditions deterrence can nevertheless evolve and when it is bound to fail. Paradoxically, rich information on defenders’ past actions leads to a breakdown of deterrence, while with only minimal information deterrence can be highly successful. We argue that reputation-based deterrence sheds light on phenomena such as costly punishment and fairness, and might serve as a possible explanation for the evolution of informal property rights
The Corona Warning App of the German Federal Government – How perceived data protection issues hindered any effectiveness
Full text linkSince June 17th, 2020 the Corona Warn App of the German Federal Government has been available for download. After a sharp increase downloads stagnate around a total of 20 million, which is roughly one fourth of the population. Whether everyone who downloaded it actually uses it, is questionable. ObjectivesWe want to show that the underlying concept of an app is questionable, even if each inhabitant with a smartphone downloads and uses it, it would cover barely half of each encounter where COVID-19 could actually be transmitted. Prior workThis work is the scientific, extended version of a short article we published in the September 2020 issue of the “Behördenspiegel”, a monthly magazine covering German public administration issues. ApproachWe use statistical methods to show that, (i) even in the very best case with a perfectly working app the coverage would have been roughly half of all relevant encounters (ii) and that the voluntary usage of this app as well as the free decision of the infected individual to publish its (anonymized) data to warn others in fact reduces any effectiveness considerably. In addition we show that (iii) due to the design of the app there is a likely limit where the app will not be able to warn its users for mathematical and cryptographical reasons. ResultsWe demonstrate by statistical means that this app could never have worked and why similar apps neither would work, let aside probably the “Trace Together” initiative of Singapore, which is based on a combination of an app plus physical tokens for those who do not own nor use smartphones (https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg/). We define some requirements a successful COVID-19 tracing solution must fulfill. ImplicationsWe show that such apps arenot a solution for the problem, rather an obstacle to a real solution, because they lull their (few) users into a false sense of security which is obviously wrong, based on real figures. Value The paper contributes to transparency of government action during the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that other ways of contact tracing must be pursued in order to be effective and hinder the pandemic from escalating rather than providing a false feeling of safety
Forced Rating Systems from Employee and Supervisor Perspectives
Full text linkMany firms use forced rating systems in which supervisors must evaluate employees according to a predefined distribution. We develop new theory suggesting that forced ratings are less likely to enhance performance when supervisors assess subjective dimensions of employee performance (e.g., creativity), but can have some harmful side effects. In a laboratory experiment, employees work on a creative task, and supervisors rate their performance. We do not find any difference in the employees’ performance or effort in a creative task setting between forced and free ratings. We do, however, find that forced ratings create higher stress for employees (ex post stress scales and biomarkers). Higher stress in turn mitigates the positive effect of effort on creativity. Furthermore, we find that actual creativity explains less of supervisors’ ratings of employees’ performance under forced ratings. Instead, factors that are unrelated to actual creativity, such as eloquent writing and strategic gaming behavior, matter more. Results of an additional online experiment confirm that forced ratings work differently in tasks where performance needs to be evaluated subjectively compared to tasks where objective measures are available
Treading New Ground in Household Sector Innovation Research: Scope, Emergence, Business Implications, and Diffusion
Full text linkIndividual consumers in the household sector increasingly develop products, services and processes, in their discretionary time without payment. Household sector innovation is becoming a pervasive phenomenon, representing a significant share of the innovation activity in any economy. Such innovation emerges from personal needs or self-rewards, and is distinct from and complementary to producer innovations motivated by commercial gains. In this introductory paper to the special issue on household sector innovation, we take stock of emerging research on the topic. We categorize the research into four areas: scope, emergence, implications for business, and diffusion. We develop a conceptual basis for the phenomenon, introduce the articles in the special issue, and show how each article contributes new insights. We end by offering a research agenda for scholars interested in the salient phenomenon of household sector innovation