Modeling Lung Carcinogenesis in Radon‐Exposed Miner Cohorts: Accounting for Missing Information on Smoking

Epidemiological miner cohort data used to estimate lung cancer risks related to occupational radon exposure often lack cohort‐wide information on exposure to tobacco smoke, a potential confounder and important effect modifier. We have developed a method to project data on smoking habits from a case‐control study onto an entire cohort by means of a Monte Carlo resampling technique. As a proof of principle, this method is tested on a subcohort of 35,084 former uranium miners employed at the WISMUT company (Germany), with 461 lung cancer deaths in the follow‐up period 1955–1998. After applying the proposed imputation technique, a biologically‐based carcinogenesis model is employed to analyze the cohort's lung cancer mortality data. A sensitivity analysis based on a set of 200 independent projections with subsequent model analyses yields narrow distributions of the free model parameters, indicating that parameter values are relatively stable and independent of individual projections. This technique thus offers a possibility to account for unknown smoking habits, enabling us to unravel risks related to radon, to smoking, and to the combination of both.     

Anerkennung der beruflichen Kompetenzen von Flüchtlingen – Ein Beitrag zur IntegrationRecognition of professional competences of refuges – a contribution to their integration

In the coming years the integration of refugees in Germany will be a major challenge. The paper initially employs psychological theories, such as the self-determination theory, social identity theory and latent functions of employment, to reveal why the integration of refugees into the national labor market is an important factor for their integration into society as a whole. The labor market, confronting a shortage of skilled professionals caused by demographic change, shows a high potential for the integration of refugees. However, it appears that formal requirements in the current recognition process of occupational qualifications, for example in the craft industry, are still very high. The paper describes – on the basis of case studies – an optimized recognition process of occupational qualifications, in which, in addition to the mere checking of documents, the professional competences among the refugees are assessed on site at the business.     

Understanding disabling barriers: a fruitful partnership between Disability Studies and social practices?

Disabled people are regularly denied their human rights, since policies and laws are hard to translate literally into practice. This article aims to make connections between social practice theories and Disability Studies, in order to understand the problems faced by disabled people, using different methods to look in detail at how practices are shaped and how disabled people get excluded. Disabled people are active agents in making change, both informally on an everyday basis and through formal actions. Thus we also suggest that the insights of disabled people could bring a fresh perspective to social practice theories, by troubling the taken-for-granted in our everyday lives.     

The returns to continuous training in Germany: new evidence from propensity score matching estimators

The present paper examines the wage effects of continuous training programs using individual-level data from the German Socio Economic Panel (GSOEP). In order to account for selectivity in training participation we estimate average treatment effects (ATE and ATT) of general and firm-specific continuous training programs using several state-of-the-art propensity score matching (PSM) estimators. Additionally, we also apply a combined matching difference-in-differences (MDiD) estimator to account for unobserved individual characteristics (e.g. motivation, ability). While the estimated ATE and ATT for general training are significant ranging between about 4 and 7.5%, the corresponding wage effects of firm-specific training are mostly insignificant. Using the more appropriate MDiD estimator, however, we find a more precise and highly significant wage effect of about 5–6%, though only for general training and not for firm-specific training. These results are consistent with standard human capital theory insofar as general training is associated with larger wage increases than firm-specific training. Furthermore, we conclude that firms may intend to use specific training to adjust to new job requirements, while career-relevant changes may be conditioned to general training.

Transformational leadership climate: Performance linkages, mechanisms, and boundary conditions at the organizational level

Transformational leadership (TFL) climate describes the degree to which leaders throughout an organization engage in TFL behaviors. In this study, we investigate performance linkages, mechanisms, and boundary conditions of TFL climate at the organizational level of analysis. In a sample of 158 independent organizations, 18,094 employees provided data on TFL climate, positive affective climate, trust climate, and employees' task performance behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, human resource managers rated overall employee productivity. Study results yielded a pattern of moderated mediation for overall employee productivity and employees' aggregate task performance behavior, in that an organization's TFL climate was indirectly (through positive affective climate) related with these outcome variables under conditions of high trust climate, but not under conditions of low trust climate. Further, we found an organization's TFL climate to indirectly relate with employees' aggregate organizational citizenship behavior through positive affective climate, largely independent of the level of trust climate.     

Changes in Union Membership Over Time: A Panel Analysis for West Germany

Abstract. Despite the apparent stability of the wage bargaining institutions in West Germany, aggregate union membership has been declining dramatically since the early 1990s. However, aggregate gross membership numbers do not distinguish between employment status and it is impossible to disaggregate these sufficiently. This paper uses four waves of the German Socio‐economic Panel in 1985, 1989, 1993, and 1998 to perform a panel analysis of net union membership among employees. We estimate a correlated random‐effects probit model suggested by Chamberlain (Handbook of Econometrics, Vol. II, Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1984) to take proper account of individual‐specific effects. Our results suggest that at the individual level the propensity to be a union member has not changed considerably over time. Thus, the aggregate decline in membership is due to composition effects. We also use the estimates to predict net union density at the industry level based on the IAB employment subsample for the time period 1985–97.     

How to reconsider risk management in SMEs? An Advanced,Reasoned and Organised Literature Review

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to reconsider the fundamental role of risk management (RM) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by identifying and critically analysing the most important international works; and to define opportunities for further studies by suggesting a different approach to study the topic. This research is based on a new hybrid method developed by the authors, called Advanced, Reasoned and Organised (ARO) literature review, which improves the quality of literature reviews by integrating the systematic review for quantitative papers, the meta-synthesis for qualitative research and the critical interpretative analysis. Forty-eight articles were included in the literature review. Bibliometric and cluster analyses were carried out. Two hypotheses were applied as filters in the interpretative synthesis of the content and guided the analysis to answer two research questions. The findings underline that RM in SMEs is still a ‘spot’ subject as they put little effort into the risk identification, assessment and monitoring. The lack of procedures and strategies is due to the lack of risk mindfulness and knowledge, and it is related to the managers’ and owners’ risk attitudes. It is fundamental to understand why risk procedures are not implemented and to find a way to raise awareness of the potential benefits of risk and control measures. The topic is current, and the multidisciplinary perspective and mixed-method approach enhance both theoretical and practical contributions for academics and SME owners.     

Determinants of Citizen Usage Intentions in e-Government: An Empirical Analysis

Local governments have implemented official websites, making e-Government a holistic access platform for modern public administration service provision. However, academic and managerial knowledge about the success of e-Government remains limited. Given that citizen needs have become a focus of interest, it is reasonable to investigate its success factors from a user-oriented perspective. Existing scientific knowledge does not comprehensively explain the usage intentions of today’s heterogeneous e-Government city portal users. Hence, this study conceptualizes important determinants of local e-Government portals identifying key factors that determine intention to use from a citizen viewpoint.     

Using quantile regression for duration analysis

Summary Quantile regression methods are emerging as a popular technique in econometrics and biometrics for exploring the distribution of duration data. This paper discusses quantile regression for duration analysis allowing for a flexible specification of the functional relationship and of the error distribution. Censored quantile regression addresses the issue of right censoring of the response variable which is common in duration analysis. We compare quantile regression to standard duration models. Quantile regression does not impose a proportional effect of the covariates on the hazard over the duration time. However, the method cannot take account of time-varying covariates and it has not been extended so far to allow for unobserved heterogeneity and competing risks. We also discuss how hazard rates can be estimated using quantile regression methods. This paper benefitted from the helpful comments by an anonymous referee. Due to space constraints, we had to omit the details of the empirical application. These can be found in the long version of this paper, Fitzenberger and Wilke (2005). We gratefully acknowledge financial support by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the research project ‘Microeconometric modelling of unemployment durations under consideration of the macroeconomic situation’. Thanks are due to Xuan Zhang for excellent research assistance. All errors are our sole responsibility.