Intra‐household Allocation of Time to Household Production Activities: Evidence from Swedish Household Data

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to study the intra‐household allocation of time to different household production activities using Swedish cross‐sectional household data. The Tobit model is rejected in favor of the Cragg model, suggesting that an empirical model has to take into consideration that allocation of time within the household is determined by two separate processes. Moreover, the results indicate that valuable information concerning the intra‐household allocation of time may be missing when household production is defined as the sum of different household activities, but there is no indication that statistically significant effects are wiped out in an aggregated analysis.     

Reconstruction of post‐war social work: Experience from former Yugoslavia as an inspiration

Immediately after the civil war among the nations of former Yugoslavia that took place 1992–1995, Swedish members of the social work faculty were recruited by UNICEF to support the organising of foster homes for war‐orphaned children. Around 20 projects, some initiated by UNICEF and others by SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) were also organised with Sarajevo University as the main location of the administration. At the request of the Parliament of Republika Srpska, a new school of social work was established at the University of Banja Luka. This was a successful project thanks to network collaboration among the faculties of social work in the former Yugoslavian nations and with academic contributions from universities from Sweden and Berlin. In this article, the two social welfare projects based in Sarajevo and Banja Luka are presented. Together with an accompanying group of experts, I found that an explorative mindset and an abductive approach were helpful tools in dialogues with our partners in the developing world.     

Antecedents and effects of individual ambidexterity – A cross-level investigation of exploration and exploitation activities at the employee level

For long-term success, companies need to adapt to technological and environmental change. Organizational ambidexterity, which balances the exploration of new opportunities with the exploitation of existing capabilities, is increasingly viewed as a promising approach to tackle this challenge. However, despite the important role of individuals for firms' ambidexterity and performance, evidence on how exploration of new opportunities and exploitation of existing capabilities are triggered at an individual level and on their subsequent effects on overall performance is still lacking. Accordingly, the present research shifts the focus from organizational ambidexterity to individual ambidexterity. Based on data from 415 employees, the results of structural equation modeling show that both organizational architecture and organizational context can be used to induce individual ambidexterity. Furthermore, positive performance effects of individual ambidexterity across different organizational levels, namely the team and department levels, are confirmed.     

Non-minimization of source taxes on labor income: empirical evidence from Germany

The present paper analyzes the choice of tax classes by married couples under the German withholding tax on wage income. Making use of micro data from official tax returns for the year 1998 and conducting simulation analysis, it is shown that more than 20 percent of the observed households do not choose the tax class combination that minimizes withholding. In the second part of the paper, several explanations for this result are discussed. Among those explanations, transaction costs and Pareto-inefficient intrahousehold-decision-making are the most likely.     

Is Risk Analysis Scientific?

This article discusses to what extent risk analysis is scientific in view of a set of commonly used definitions and criteria. We consider scientific knowledge to be characterized by its subject matter, its success in developing the best available knowledge in its fields of study, and the epistemic norms and values that guide scientific investigations. We proceed to assess the field of risk analysis according to these criteria. For this purpose, we use a model for risk analysis in which science is used as a base for decision making on risks, which covers the five elements evidence, knowledge base, broad risk evaluation, managerial review and judgment, and the decision; and that relates these elements to the domains experts and decisionmakers, and to the domains fact‐based or value‐based. We conclude that risk analysis is a scientific field of study, when understood as consisting primarily of (i) knowledge about risk‐related phenomena, processes, events, etc., and (ii) concepts, theories, frameworks, approaches, principles, methods and models to understand, assess, characterize, communicate, and manage risk, in general and for specific applications (the instrumental part).