Empirical Bayes Age–Period–Cohort Analysis of Retrospective Incidence Data

We analyse the (age, time)-specific incidence of diabetes based on retrospective data obtained from a prevalent cohort only including survivors to a particular date. From underlying point processes with intensities corresponding to the (age, time)-specific incidence rates the observed point pattern is assumed to be generated by an independent thinning process with parameters (assumed known) depending on population density and survival probability to the sampling date. A Bayesian procedure is carried out for the optimal adjustment and comparison of isotropic and anisotropic smoothing priors for the intensity functions, as well as for the decomposition of the intensity on the (time, age) Lexis diagram into the three factors of age, period and cohort.     

Paying More than Necessary? The Wage Cushion in Germany

In Germany, more than 40 per cent of plants covered by collective agreements pay wages above the level stipulated in the agreement, giving rise to a wage cushion between actual and contractual wages. Cross‐sectional and fixed‐effects estimations indicate that the wage cushion mainly varies with the profit situation of the plant and with indicators of labour shortage and the business cycle. Whereas plants bound by multi‐employer agreements seem to pay wage premiums in order to overcome the restrictions imposed by the rather centralized bargaining system in (western) Germany, plants that use single‐employer agreements are significantly less likely to have wage cushions.     

Changing Healthcare System Types

This article classifies 32 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) healthcare systems based on data from 2001 and 2007. It shows that European countries are clustered in different types of healthcare systems and that traditional typologies are only partially represented in the four types of healthcare systems identified in this study. Type 1 represents countries with low total health expenditure (THE), high public financing, and low out‐of‐pocket payment (OOP). In‐patient healthcare is higher and out‐patient healthcare lower than the OECD average. General practitioners (GPs) are paid by capitation, and patients' access to healthcare is strictly regulated. Type 2 represents countries with an average level of THE, high public financing, above‐average OOP, and high in‐patient and out‐patient healthcare. GPs receive a salary, and access regulation is strict. Type 3 is characterized by very low THE, low public financing, and very high OOP. Both in‐patient and out‐patient healthcare is well below average, and GPs are paid a salary. Type 4 includes systems with the highest THE, the highest public financing, and the lowest direct payments by patients. In‐patient healthcare is below the OECD mean and out‐patient healthcare is well above it. GPs are paid by fee‐for‐service, and most countries offer free choice of medical doctors. The clusters for the years 2001 and 2007 are quite robust. During this time period, THE increased, and patients' access to medical doctors has since become more regulated.     

Citizenship in Austria,Germany, and Switzerland: Courts,Legislatures, and Administrators1

A common claim has been that liberalization of citizenship policy depends on making policy behind closed doors. I challenge one variant of this line of argument, which regards courts as the primary “countermajoritarian” champion of the expansion of immigrant rights, through a comparison of citizenship policy in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. In all three countries subnational authorities play a significant role in the administration of naturalization policy. Courts have played more of a “nationalizing” rather than a “countermajoritarian” role. I also show how differences in federal structures affected recent efforts to reform citizenship policy in these countries.     

Der Einfluss von people pattern auf die Präferenz für die Gestaltung innerbetrieblicher Diagramme – eine empirische Studie

This paper proofs the impact of the identity in terms of certain not yet scientifically analysed cognitive filters (people pattern) to graphical and visual preferences of human being. Some items based on a people pattern questionnaire have been extracted in order to build up people pattern profiles that maintain people’s chart-type preference. That approach aims the identity driven prediction of the preferred chart-type, used for special business purposes to ease graphical interaction. This model can be used to include the auditor’s visual preferences already in the design process of business charts.     

THE IMPACT OF ECB MONETARY POLICY DECISIONS AND COMMUNICATION ON THE YIELD CURVE

We use intraday changes in money market rates to construct indicators of news about monetary policy stemming separately from policy decisions and from official communication of the European Central Bank, and study their impact on the yield curve. We show that communication may lead to substantial revisions in expectations of monetary policy and, at the same time, exert a significant impact on interest rates at longer maturities. Thereby, the maturity response pattern to communication is hump‐shaped, whereas that to policy decisions is downward‐sloping. (JEL: E43, E58)     

Having a ball: evaluating scoring streaks and game excitement using in-match trend estimation

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - Many popular sports involve matches between two teams or players where each team have the possibility of scoring points throughout the match. While the...     

Subjectivity in Feminist Science and Technology Studies: Implications and Applications for Sociological Research

Feminist science and technology studies calls the researcher to reconsider subjectivity in three ways. First, who or what has subjectivity? Second, is subjectivity a property of an individual being with sentience, or is it a more diffuse process? Third, who or what acts in meaningful ways to impact social relations (and are thus worthy of sociological study)? According to feminist STS, the conferral of subjectivity has been nationalized, racialized, and sexualized, and the influence of non‐human life and non‐living matter has been underemphasized. We suggest that sociological research could benefit from a more expansive understanding of subjectivity and a more interactive (or “entangled”) notion of social–material relations. Human relations and action need not just be considered in the context of the human and social but can also be considered in relation to the non‐human and material. To make the implications of feminist STS more concrete, we offer specific applications of feminist STS methodologies across a range of sociological methods and topics.