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Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der CPR (Corporate Political Responsibility) für das gesellschaftliche Zusammenleben
No full textMit diesem Artikel wollen wir zum Nachdenken anregen und zur Diskussion einladen. Wir untersuchen Nutzen und Risiken von Corporate Political Responsibility (CPR) in Zeiten multipler Demokratie- und Öffentlichkeitskrisen. Ausgangspunkt ist die Diagnose eines Strukturwandels der Öffentlichkeit mit wachsender Polarisierung. Daraus ergibt sich die Frage nach der Rolle von Unternehmen als politischen Akteuren. In zehn Thesen beleuchten wir Chancen wie Legitimitätssicherung und Stabilisierung demokratischer Rahmenbedingungen, aber auch Risiken wie Ambivalenzen zwischen Demokratie und Kapitalismus oder den Verdacht illegitimer Machtaneignung. Unsere Empfehlungen be- tonen Transparenz, Zurückhaltung gegenüber Parteipolitik und konstruktive Beiträge zur Bewältigung gesellschaftlicher Ordnungsprobleme. CPR erscheint damit notwendig, paradox und diskussionswürdig.With this article, we aim to stimulate reflection and invite discussion. We examine the benefits and risks of Corporate Political Responsibility (CPR) in times of multiple crises of democracy and the public sphere. Our starting point is the diagnosis of a structural transformation of the public sphere accompanied by growing polarization. This raises the question of the role of corporations as political actors. In ten propositions, we highlight opportunities such as securing legitimacy and stabilizing democratic frameworks, but also risks such as ambivalences between democracy and capitalism or the suspicion of illegitimate power appropriation. Our recommendations emphasize transparency, restraint from partisan politics, and constructive contributions to addressing societal challenges. CPR thus appears necessary, paradoxical, and worthy of debate
Do G-SIBs engage in window-dressing behavior? An empirical analysis
No full textThis paper examines whether global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) engage in window-dressing behavior to circumvent or reduce regulatory requirements, increasing vul- nerability to economic shocks. Using a comprehensive global bank sample, we uncover ev- idence of such practices: G-SIBs reduce year-end exposures used for G-SIB capital buffer calculations, by roughly twice the magnitude of non-G-SIBs, and reverse these cuts early the next year. This pattern is strongest among G-SIBs that are near bucket thresholds or subject to high G-SIB capital surcharges
Racial disparities in human capital: Numeracy in South Africa, 1850-1980
No full textSouth Africa represents a paradigmatic case in international literature on racial discrimination, illustrating a deeply institutionalised system that affected all aspects of daily life. Black, Coloured, and Asian populations were systematically relegated to a subordinate status compared to the dominant White minority. Drawing on direct statistical sources such as censuses and national budgets-despite certain limitations-this study explores long-term disparities through the lens of numeracy, a proxy for basic arithmetic skills. We analyse numeracy levels by race across cohorts born between the 1850s and the 1980s, with a particular focus on the Black population, given its demographic predominance. A key contribution of this research is the inclusion of province of residence as a control variable, alongside gender, birth decade, and literacy. Our results show clear and persistent gaps in numeracy by race and gender, with Black individuals and women consistently disadvantaged. Notably, numeracy levels indicative of full numerical literacy were not attained by the Black population until the 1960s cohort, more than a century after White individuals had reached that threshold. Strikingly, we also find unexpectedly high numeracy levels in the "homelands", suggesting a strong valuation of education by Black communities in these self-governed areas, a dynamic we refer to as "African Agency"
Das chinesische Afrika-Engagement – und die Folgen für die deutsche Wirtschaft und Politik
No full textChina hat durch das Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) und die Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) seine wirtschaftlichen und politischen Beziehungen zu Afrika in den vergangenen 25 Jahren erheblich ausgeweitet. Unternehmen spielen in Chinas AfrikaEngagement eine zentrale Rolle zur Verwirklichung der geopolitischen Ziele. Für den deutschen und europäischen Privatsektor verschärft sich dadurch die Wettbewerbssituation in afrikanischen Märkten, wobei sich durchaus auch Geschäftschancen als Kooperationspartner chinesischer Unternehmen bieten. Die Bundesregierung und die Europäische Kommission sollten diese Potenziale fördern, zum Beispiel durch institutionalisierte Kooperationen und das Erstellen von Kriterien für die Finanzierung von Projekten in Afrika.China has significantly expanded its economic and political relations with Africa through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) over the past 25 years. Companies play a central role in China's engagement with Africa in helping to realise its geopolitical goals. For the German private sector, this is intensifying the competitive in African markets, although there are also business opportunities as a co-operation partner for Chinese companies. The German government and the European Commission should promote this potential, e.g. through institutionalised cooperation and the application of certain criteria when financing projects in Africa
Analysing the impact of entrepreneurship education on early-stage entrepreneurship: Focusing on the transitional countries of Central and Eastern Europe
No full textEntrepreneurship is deeply rooted in tradition and culture in many countries; however, transitional market economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) underwent 40-45 years of socialism, which disrupted these traditions by collectivising private property. Education is recognised as a key tool for regional development and restoring entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, potentially enhancing entrepreneurial intentions within society. This paper investigates the impact of entrepreneurial education on entrepreneurial activity in transitional CEE countries. Pearson's correlation analysis was conducted using a combined national-level dataset from the Annual Population Survey (APS) and the National Expert Survey of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) spanning 2021-2023. Results reveal inconsistent findings across the years. In 2021 and 2022, there was a significant moderate correlation between total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) and an indicator of entrepreneurial education at primary and secondary levels in CEE countries. In contrast, no such relationship was observed in other regions. In 2023, however, no significant correlations were identified for any country group. These results highlight the temporal variability of education's influence on entrepreneurship in transitional economies
Navigating uncertainty in sustainability assurance: Challenges of the corporate sustainability reporting directive in Romania and Austria
No full textThe implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires assurance on sustainability reports for numerous companies, has reached different implementation stages throughout the EU. This study investigated the key uncertainties and challenges arising from the new assurance obligations, focusing on auditors in Romania and Austria. We explored auditors' perceptions of legal uncertainties, the integration of financial and sustainability reporting, and the need for additional resources and competencies, by means of a questionnaire-based survey. The results indicated that auditors that had already provided sustainability assurance were better informed about CSRD implementation, with significant differences in their perception of specific matters. Country-specific variations were identified, to a small extent. Legal uncertainties and the need for technical expertise were highlighted as major challenges. The study provides valuable insights into the current state of sustainability assurance in the context of the CSRD, and contributes to the literature by including perspectives from both Big4 and Non-Big4 audit firms
Guidance Counseling Can Reduce Inequality in University Enrollment in Germany: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial
No full textGuidance counseling is well known to foster enrollment in higher education among students from low social origins in the United States and Canada. However, because students in these North American countries face obstacles that do not exist in many European countries, generalizing previous findings to the European context is difficult. Against this background, we use a randomized controlled trial to investigate guidance counseling in Germany. Our results reveal that individuals from low social origins are more likely to enroll in higher education due to the program. Furthermore, we find substantial effect heterogeneity across social origin groups. Due to the program, individuals from high social origins enroll less frequently in higher education and more frequently in vocational training. Based on these opposing effects across social origin groups, we find that the program reduces inequality in higher education enrollment by approximately 70 percent
An Econometric Analysis of the Impact of Telecare on the Length of Stay in Hospital
No full textIn this paper, we develop a theoretical model that links the demand for telecare to the length of stay in hospital and formulate three models that can be used to derive the treatment effect by making various assumptions about the probability distribution of the outcome measure. We then fit the models to data and estimate them using a strategy that controls for the effects of confounding variables and unobservable factors, and compare the treatment effects with that of the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) technique which adopts a quasi-experimental study design. To ensure comparability, the covariates are kept identical in all cases. An important finding that emerges from our analysis is that the treatment effects derived from our econometric models of interest are better than that obtained from an experimental study design as the latter does not account for all the relevant unobservable factors. In particular, the results show that estimating the treatment effect of telecare in the way that an experimental study design entails fails to account for the systematic variations in individuals' health production functions within each experimental arm.Revised Version: August 202
Wholesale Pricing with Asymmetric Information About the Quality of a Private Label
No full textThis article derives the optimal wholesale tariff that is proposed by the monopolistic manufacturer of a branded product to a monopolistic retailer if the retailer also sells a private label whose quality is unobserved by the brand manufacturer. The focus is on market-share contracts where the manufacturer controls the quantities of both products. To learn the quality of the private label and diminish the retailer’s information rent, it distorts the quantity of the branded product downwards and that of the private label upwards. The manufacturer can control the quantity of the private label if it combines an excess payment with an end-of-year repayment
A modal logic translation of the AGM axioms for belief revision
No full textBuilding on the analysis of Bonanno (2025) we introduce a simple modal logic containing three modal operators: a unimodal belief operator B, a bimodal conditional operator > and the unimodal global operator □. For each AGM axiom for belief revision, we provide a corresponding modal axiom. The correspondence is as follows: each AGM axiom is characterized by a property of the Kripke-Lewis frames considered in Bonanno (2025) and, in turn, that property characterizes the proposed modal axiom