Electoral competition, incentive contracts for politicians and unknown preferences

When reelection is uncertain, the election mechanism may provide insufficient incentives for politicians to implement socially desirable policies. In this paper, we show that threshold contracts that the candidates themselves offer during the campaign can help to alleviate the problem, even if the preferences of the candidates are unknown to the public. A threshold contract stipulates a policy space in which the implemented policy must lie for an elected candidate to have the right to stand for reelection.     

South Tyrol: the importance of boundaries for immigrant integration

ABSTRACT

Using South Tyrol as a case study, this article analyses how boundaries between groups and their institutionalisation through power-sharing arrangements affect the politics of immigrant integration. Through a longitudinal qualitative analysis of party manifestos, the article focuses on the period between 1993 and 2013 to evaluate the immigration and integration discourses of political parties, claiming to represent the German and Ladin minorities. It is argued that these parties have deliberately framed immigration as a challenge to the strength of their respective cultures and languages, as well as the array of institutions that support the separate but equal coexistence of South Tyrol's linguistic groups. The consequence of this tendency to ‘think in groups’ is that the main political parties of the German and Ladin minorities are shoring up group boundaries and advancing an assimilationist model of immigrant integration.     

Making Rural and Remote Communities More Age-Friendly: Experts’ Perspectives on Issues,Challenges, and Priorities

With the growing interest worldwide in making communities more age-friendly, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the factors that help or hinder communities in attaining this goal. In this article, we focus on rural and remote communities and present perspectives of 42 experts in the areas of aging, rural and remote issues, and policy who participated in a consensus conference on age-friendly rural and remote communities. Discussions highlighted that strengths in rural and remote communities, such as easy access to local leaders and existing partnerships, can help to further age-friendly goals; however, addressing major challenges, such as lack of infrastructure and limited availability of social and health services, requires regional or national government buy-in and funding opportunities. Age-friendly work in rural and remote communities is, therefore, ideally embedded in larger age-friendly initiatives and supported by regional or national policies, programs, and funding sources.     

How does verbal non-diagnostic information affect product evaluation?

This study examines the interaction effect of the dilution effect and the connotation transfer effect on product evaluation. We start our investigation with the finding that advertisements often contain verbal non-diagnostic information. For instance, using embellished labels or fancy names, referring to completely unknown or unneeded attributes, and providing information on sponsorships usually does not transmit information on product benefits the consumer is interested in. Thus, the consumer can not rely on this information to evaluate the product. This is a typical case where a dilution effect is expected to occur. However, this kind of information additionally could evoke positive connotations that are transferred to the advertised product. Until now, there is no systematic research on the interplay of both effects. In three experiments, we manipulate diagnostic information and the valence of verbal non-diagnostic information and analyze which effect overweighs. We found that a positive connotation transfer effect (i.e., spill-over effect) proved to dominate the negative dilution effect in the positive diagnostic information condition.     

Welche Coaching-Themen ergeben sich für Mitarbeiter in Fachlaufbahnen?

Organizations establish special hierarchies for experts as an alternative to management careers. They are meant for employees with valuable expertise and extraordinary professional responsibility. Nevertheless they are not granted managerial responsibility or budgetary control. This article shows how to coach professionals, who are embedded in such organizational environments and who serve as experts, main contacts and promoters. Coaching influences and enhances personal, social and methodological competences.     

„In Freud und Leid,in guten wie in bösen Tagen“

This article raises the question how elderly female caregivers experience their double role as partners and caregivers. To answer this question a multidimensional role model has been developed and applied. This novel approach examines the subjective burden of spousal caregivers, considering individual and social dimensions. Results of a qualitative study show role expectations, strategies of role playing and role management as well as role-conflicts of female spousal caregivers. The study underlines the analytic potential of sociological role-theory for the examination of concrete empirical problems and critically discusses the applicability of theoretical role-concepts for applied research.     

Performance of unit root tests in unbalanced panels: experimental evidence

This paper is about the validity of established panel unit root tests applied to panels in which the individual time series are of different lengths, a case often encountered in practice. Most of the tests considered work well under various types of cross-correlation which is true for both, their application in balanced as well as in unbalanced panels. A Monte Carlo study reveals that in unbalanced panels, procedures involving the computation of individual $p$ -values for each cross-section unit (or the combination thereof) are mostly superior to those relying on a pooled Dickey–Fuller regression framework. As the former are able to consider each unit separately, they do not require cutting back the “longer” time series so as to obtain the smallest “balanced” quadrangle which in turn means that no potentially valuable information is lost.     

End-of-Life Conversations and Hospice Placement: Association with Less Aggressive Care Desired in the Nursing Home

Education about end-of-life care and treatment options, communication between family and health care providers, and having advance directives and medical orders in place are important for older adults with chronic, progressive decline and end-stage disease who spend their last days in the nursing home. This study used retrospective data (6 months before death) of long-stay nursing home decedents (N?=?300) taken from electronic health records to capture the end-of-life experience. Findings showed for almost all decedents, Do Not Resuscitate and Do Not Intubate orders were in place, and just over one-half had Do Not Hospitalize and No Artificial Feeding orders in place. A small proportion had No Artificial Hydration or No Antibiotic orders in place. Overall, there was congruence between documented medical orders and treatment received. Findings showed that use of hospice and discussions about particular life-sustaining treatments each had significant associations with having less aggressive medical orders in place. These results can inform best practice development to promote high quality, person-directed, end-of-life care for nursing home residents.     

Handle with care! How majority cues can reduce the negative effects of warnings of foreseeable product failures

Review of Managerial Science - To ensure full effectiveness of several goods, suppliers have to instruct consumers to handle these products in a careful way. In other words, they have to warn of...