The Changing Process of the Quality of Work – 8th Joint Workshop of the IWH and IAB on Labor Market Policy
Herbert S. Buscher
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 11,
2011
Abstract
During October 20th and 21st the 8th workshop on Labor Market Policy in Halle (Saale) took place. The major theme was related to changes in the quality of work. One reason for selecting this topic points out that there is a declining number of unemployed people in the German labor market for now a couple of months. This development is often interpreted as the result of a successful labor market policy. But focusing only on quantitative aspects of labor market developments ignores the important aspect of the quality of work.
Over the last years there was also a contemporary debate about changes in the working world. And within this discussion the focus was not only on aspects like income, certainty of employment, and career opportunities. In addition to these issues and with considerable emphasis on the new aspects, the discussion extended to topics such as sense and meaning of activities, work-life balances, self-realization, autonomy, and job satisfaction. It is the aim of the 8th workshop to present and to discuss the current state of the quality of work-debate in the labor market research to a broad audience of scientists as well as practical women and men, and to shed light on possible further research topics in this area. Besides of the opening lecture given by Dr. Ulrich Walwei (IAB), eleven additional papers have been presented during the two-day’s conference.
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Old Age Poverty and Satisfaction with Living Conditions in East and West Germany, 1995 and 2009
L. J. Zhu, Anja Weißenborn, Herbert S. Buscher
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 7,
2011
Abstract
The current contribution presents poverty indicators for West and East Germany for the years 1995 and 2009. The analysis is based on the two corresponding waves of the GSOEP. We only consider households with at least one senior citizen aged 65 or above. Furthermore, we distinguish between male and female pensioners. In the first part the weighted equivalized household income is calculated as well as various statistical measures such as the 20%- and 80%-percentile, the 80/20-ratio and the 90/10-ratio of the income distribution of senior citizen households. In an additional step we also present and discuss the main sources of income such households have. In the second part of the contribution we focus on social indicators with respect to the satisfaction with income and the current living conditions as well as the expected situation in five years. As the results show, old age poverty has increased in both parts in Germany with East German women being an exception. With respect to the future, most elder people look optimistically into the future.
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The Transition to Post-industrial BMI Values among US Children
Marco Sunder, Ariane Breitfelder, John Komlos
American Journal of Human Biology,
2009
Abstract
The trend in the BMI values of US children has not been estimated very convincingly because of the absence of longitudinal data. Our objective is to estimate time series of BMI values by birth cohorts instead of measurement years. We use five regression models to estimate the BMI trends of non-Hispanic US-born black and white children and adolescents ages 2-19 between 1941 and 2004. The increase in BMIZ values during the period considered was 1.3 (95% CI: 1.16; 1.44) among black girls, 0.8 for black boys, 0.7 for white boys, and 0.6 for white girls. This translates into an increase in BMI values of some 5.6, 3.3, 2.4, and 1.5 units, respectively. While the increase in BMI values started among the birth cohorts of the 1940s among black girls, the rate of increase tended to accelerate among all four ethnic/gender groups born in the mid-1950s to early-1960s. Some regional evidence leads to the conjecture that the spread of automobiles and radios affected the BMI values of boys already in the interwar period. We suppose that the changes in lifestyle associated with the labor saving technological developments of the 20th century are associated with the weight gains observed. The increased popularity of television viewing was most prominently associated with the contemporaneous acceleration in BMI gain. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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Evaluationsbericht: Das Internet strategisch richtig nutzen
Albrecht Kauffmann, P. J. J. Welfens, M. Vogelsang
Diskussionsbeiträge des Europäischen Instituts für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen (EIIW), Universität Potsdam, Nr. 79,
No. 79,
2001
Abstract
Using the internet and internetbased services is now common among medium and large firms in Germany. However, for smaller firms (SMEs) the use of internet application is a new challenge to which they still have to respond – this is crucial for remaining competitive. The project Adapt2 “Using the Internet in an adaquate and strategic way“ looks into the effects of SMEs' basic steps towards the internet. We focus on adequacy of government promotion of SME activities – specifically firms from the sector producing machinery and equipment are analysed. The project was led by ZENIT GmbH, Mülheim a.d. Ruhr; the whole project also involved participation of the European Institute for International Economic Relations (EIIW). As part of a broader evaluation EIIW also conducted surveys – both focussing on firms involved in the project and in other firms from the same sector. It turned out that specific measures of support indeed were helpful for SMEs; obviously, there is additional need for further practical support and research.
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Understanding CSR Champions: A Machine Learning Approach
Alona Bilokha, Mingying Cheng, Mengchuan Fu, Iftekhar Hasan
Annals of Operations Research,
2099
Abstract
In this paper, we study champions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance among the U.S. publicly traded firms and their common characteristics by utilizing machine learning algorithms to identify predictors of firms’ CSR activity. We contribute to the CSR and leadership determinants literature by introducing the first comprehensive framework for analyzing the factors associated with corporate engagement with socially responsible behaviors by grouping all relevant predictors into four broad categories: corporate governance, managerial incentives, leadership, and firm characteristics. We find that strong corporate governance characteristics, as manifested in board member heterogeneity and managerial incentives, are the top predictors of CSR performance. Our results suggest policy implications for providing incentives and fostering characteristics conducive to firms “doing good.”
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