Second modernity as a research agenda: theoretical and empirical explorations in the 'meta-change' of modern society

In this article we are reformulating the theory of reflexive modernization as an empirical research programme and summarize some of the most recent findings which have been produced by a research consortium in Munich (integrating four universities, funded by the German Research Society (DFG)). On this basis we reject the idea that Western societies at the beginning of the twenty-first century move from the modern to the post-modern. We argue that there has been no clear break with the basic principles of modernity but rather a transformation of basic institutions of modernity such as the nation-state and the nuclear family. We would suggest, therefore, that what we are witnessing is a second modernity. Finally, we reform the theory of reflexive modernization in reaction to three uttered objections.     

Risk aversion over finite domains

We investigate risk attitudes when the underlying domain of payoffs is finite and the payoffs are, in general, not numerical. In such cases, the traditional notions of absolute risk attitudes, that are designed for convex domains of numerical payoffs, are not applicable. We introduce comparative notions of weak and strong risk attitudes that remain applicable. We examine how they are characterized within the rank-dependent utility model, thus including expected utility as a special case. In particular, we characterize strong comparative risk aversion under rank-dependent utility. This is our main result. From this and other findings, we draw two novel conclusions. First, under expected utility, weak and strong comparative risk aversion are characterized by the same condition over finite domains. By contrast, such is not the case under non-expected utility. Second, under expected utility, weak (respectively: strong) comparative risk aversion is characterized by the same condition when the utility functions have finite range and when they have convex range (alternatively, when the payoffs are numerical and their domain is finite or convex, respectively). By contrast, such is not the case under non-expected utility. Thus, considering comparative risk aversion over finite domains leads to a better understanding of the divide between expected and non-expected utility, more generally, the structural properties of the main models of decision-making under risk.

     

Socio-economic patterns of sport demand and ageing

Due to the demographic situation in nowadays societies, physical activity, and sport expenditure have to be analysed from a demographic as well as socio-economical perspective. This means that determinants such as age, gender, nationality/ethnicity, income, time, educational level, profession, and social status have to be taken into account. However, when comparing the various studies, the different methods of analysis and different operationalisation of variables have to be considered. This is in particular vital investigating age. Whilst cross-sectional studies point out that physical activity generally decreases with increasing age, longitudinal analyses come to different results. Previous studies indicate that pertaining to gender more men take part in sports than women. However, considering period and cohort effects, recent longitudinal studies showed that women participate more in sport than in the past. Besides, it was found out that men generally tend to spend more money on sports than women do. A further finding is that the educational level influences physical activity positively. Research revealed that income had a positive impact on both, physical activity and sport expenditure.     

The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860–1914

David Gaunt, Familjeliv i Norden (1983), 327 (Gidlunds, Malmo, n.p.). (Family Life in the Nordic Countries.)

Peter Clark, The English Alehouse: A Social History 1200–1830 (1983), xiv+353 (Longman, paperback, £9.95).

Mary Fulbrook, Piety and Politics: Religion and the Rise of Absolutism in England, Württemberg and Prussia (1983), viii+215 (Cambridge University Press, £20.00, paperback £7.95.)

Ira Berlin and Ronald Hoffman (eds), Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution (1983), xxviii+314 (University Press of Virginia, Char‐lottesville, $15.95).

John Bohstedt, Riots and Community Politics in England and Wales 1790–1810 (1983), x+310 (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., £25.50).

Karen Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middleclass Culture in America, 1830–1870 (1983), xviii + 262 (Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, £15.50).

David Englander, Landlord and Tenant in Urban Britain, 1838–1918 (1983), xviii+342 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, £22.50).

Konrad H. Jarausch, Students, Society and Politics in Imperial Germany: The Rise of Academic Illiberalism (1982), viii+448 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, $40.00, paperback $16.50).

Joseph Buckman, Immigrants and the Class Struggle: The Jewish Immigrant in Leeds 1880–1914 (1983), xii + 183 (Manchester University Press, £17.50). Harold Pollins, Economic History of the Jews in England (1983), 339 (Associated University Presses, £20.00).

S. A. Smith, Red Petrograd : Revolution in the Factories, 1917—1918 (1983), (Cambridge University Press, £25.00).

Robert J. Waller, The Dukeries Transformed: The Social and Political Development of a Twentieth‐Century Coalfield (1983), ix+319 (Oxford University Press, £22.50).

Ian Kershaw, Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich, Bavaria 1933–1945 (1983), xv+425 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £22.50).

P. Abrams, Historical Sociology (1982), xviii+353 (Open Books, Shepton Mallet, £12.00, paperback £6.00).

D. Smith, Barrington Moore: Violence, Morality and Political Change (1983), viii+195 (Macmillan, £12.95, paperback £4.95).     

Capital structure decisions in family firms: empirical evidence from a bank-based economy

This paper analyzes the question if and how founding families influence the capital structure decision of their firms. By using a unique, partially hand-collected panel dataset of 660 listed German companies (5,135 firm years) over the period 1995–2006, we come up with the following results: German family firms have significantly lower leverage ratios than non-family firms. With respect to the question how families influence the capital structure of their firms, we can show that the family impact is mostly driven via management involvement. In this context, we also detect that the presence of a founder CEO has a strong negative effect on the leverage ratio. Our results prove to be stable against a battery of robustness tests, including the influence of other types of blockholders and the firms’ life cycle. Moreover, we use a propensity-score based matching estimator to alleviate concerns of reverse causality. Overall, our study suggests a strong, negative and causal relationship between family firm characteristics (especially family management) and the level of leverage.     

Overcoming neoliberal globalization: social-ecological transformation from a Polanyian perspective and beyond

ABSTRACT

The ecological crisis has intensified in many respects. Prominent proposals to deal with the crisis are discussed under the header ‘sustainability transformations’ or even ‘Great Transformation’. We argue that most contributions suffer from a narrow analytical approach to transformation ignoring the largely unsustainable dynamics of global capitalism and the power relations involved in it. Thus, a ‘new critical orthodoxy’ of knowledge about transformation is emerging which runs the danger to contribute to a spatially and socially highly uneven green capitalism. This article claims that the current debate on social-ecological transformation can be enriched by a Polanyian understanding but also based on regulation theory. We distinguish between three types of transformation: incremental adaptation of the current institutional systems, institutional change in favour of a new ‘green’ phase of capitalism, and a post-capitalist great transformation that implies a profound structural change of the mode of production and living.     

How much does reducing inequality matter for global poverty?

The Journal of Economic Inequality - The goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and working towards a more equal distribution of incomes are part of the United Nations’ Sustainable...     

Payout policy,taxes, and corporate insiders: evidence from the German Tax Reduction Act 2001

Based on a large panel data set of listed German firms we analyze the corporate payout behavior around the German Tax Reduction Act 2001 (GTRA). The GTRA has considerably changed the tax preference of shareholders and consequently affected the attractiveness of different forms of payout. Using the tax reform as an exogenous source of variation we examine whether payout decisions are driven by corporate insiders or by influential shareholders. We find that the GTRA 2001 reduced both the propensity to pay dividends as well as their size. However, we find that in those firms where management board members hold substantial stakes, dividend payout behavior has not changed in the aftermath of the GTRA. This effect does not depend on the existence of other influential shareholders as for instance institutional shareholders. Hence, we conclude that the dividend policy is strongly driven by the interests of corporate insiders.     

Partial Distributional Policy Effects

In this paper, we propose a method to evaluate the effect of a counterfactual change in the unconditional distribution of a single covariate on the unconditional distribution of an outcome variable of interest. Both fixed and infinitesimal changes are considered. We show that such effects are point identified under general conditions if the covariate affected by the counterfactual change is continuously distributed, but are typically only partially identified if its distribution is discrete. For the latter case, we derive informative bounds, making use of the available information. We also discuss estimation and inference.