Produktdiversifizierung und Unternehmenserfolg: Nutzung der Forschungsdatenzentren der Statistischen ?mter

Zusammenfassung: Im Rahmen seiner industrie?konomischen Forschung beabsichtigt das DIW Berlin das Verhalten von Unternehmen auf den Produktm?rkten intensiver zu analysieren. In einem ersten Schritt soll der Zusammenhang zwischen Produktdiversifizierung, der Einführung neuer Produkte und dem Erfolg von Unternehmen im verarbeitenden Gewerbe untersucht werden. Dies soll mit Hilfe einer ?konometrischen Panelanalyse auf der Grundlage von Mikrodaten von Unternehmen erfolgen. Statt des in der Arbeitsmarktforschung üblichen Employer-Employee Datensatzes wird für diesen Zweck ein Producer-Product Datensatz ben?tigt. Erstmals sollen diese Mikrodaten im Rahmen einer Panelanalyse durch die Forschung ausgewertet werden. Dabei werden zwei getrennt durchgeführte Erhebungen, die Kostenstrukturerhebung und die Produktionserhebung, für einzelne Unternehmen zusammengefasst. M?glich wird dieses Forschungsvorhaben durch die Nutzung des auf Empfehlung der Kommission zur Verbesserung der informationellen Infrastruktur neu eingerichteten Forschungsdatenzentrums (FDZ). Das vorliegende Papier berichtet über das Forschungskonzept und die bisher erfolgten Schritte bei der Nutzung der Forschungsdatenzentren des Bundes und der L?nder am regionalen Standort Berlin.

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Summary: For a better understanding of the strategies of firms on their product markets, the DIW Berlin intends to intensify the analysis on the relationship between product diversification, including the introduction of new products and the success of firms. It is planned to do this by applying econometric panel methods on micro level data for German manufacturing enterprises. For this objective, it is necessary to create a producer-product database. This affords the merging of two different datasets of the system of surveys in manufacturing for Germany. The cost structure survey supplies information on the operating surplus of individual firms, while the production survey supplies the information on the goods produced by these firms. Conducting such an ambitious project has now been made possible in using the newly installed Research Data Centres (FDZ) for Germany. This paper gives an overview on the research project and on first experiences with the use of the local Research Data Centre in Berlin.

     

Arbeitsmarkt und Statistik: Chancen und Herausforderungen für die empirische Arbeitsmarktforschung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

A Note On Impossibility Theorems and Seniority Rules

We characterize seniority rules, also known as lexical dictatorships, under weak consistency constraints on the groups choice function. These constraints are base triple-acyclicity in the case of binary choices and rationalizability (although not rationality) in the case of choices between an arbitrary number of alternatives. Existing results on these weakened constraints remain silent on the treatment of the groups most junior individuals and therefore do not yield a complete characterization of seniority rules. We also impose a universal domain, binary strict Pareto optimality, binary Pareto indifference, binary independence of irrelevant alternatives, and the newly introduced condition of conflict resolution. The latter condition requires a social choice rules not to remain indecisive between alternatives for which individuals have conflicting preferences.JEL CLASSIFICATIONS: D63, D71This revised version was published online in May 2005 with a corrected article title.     

Framing,Switching and Preference Reversals

An explicitly frame related interpretation of a very general more for less result is used to establish a correspondingly general class of frame related switching results. These are used in turn to show how preference reversals of kinds found by Allais and others may not only be essentially non-paradoxical in character, but can be expected to be frequently observed, even under conditions of certainty and of complete information.     

Finite Horizon Bargaining With Outside Options And Threat Points

We characterize equilibrium behavior in a finite horizon multiple-pie alternating offer bargaining game in which both agents have outside options and threat points. In contrast to the infinite horizon case the strength of the threat to delay agreement is non-stationary and decreases over time. Typically the delay threat determines equilibrium proposals in early periods, while the threat to opt out characterizes those in later ones. Owing to this non-stationarity both threats may appear in the equilibrium shares immediately agreed upon in the first period. When the threat to opt out is empty for both agents, the outcome corresponds exactly with the (generalized) Nash bargaining solution. The latter observation may prove useful for designing experiments that are meant to test economic models that include a bargaining stage.JEL CLASSIFICATION CODES: C78, C91.The useful remarks of an anonymous referee greatly improved the presentation of the material and are gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Evidence for Learning to Learn Behavior in Normal Form Games

Evidence presented in Salmon (2001; Econometrica 69(6) 1597) indicates that typical tests to identify learning behavior in experiments involving normal form games possess little power to reject incorrect models. This paper begins by presenting results from an experiment designed to gather alternative data to overcome this problem. The results from these experiments indicate support for a learning-to-learn or rule learning hypothesis in which subjects change their decision rule over time. These results are then used to construct an adaptive learning model which is intended to mimic more accurately the behavior observed. The final section of the paper presents results from a simple simulation based analysis comparing the performance of this adaptive learning model with that of several standard decision rules in reproducing the choice patterns observed in the experiment.JEL Classification: C92, C72     

Increases in Female Labour Force Participation in Europe: Similarities and Differences

Low educational levels and the effect of children are recognized as the most important factors for low female participation rates. Over the last decades female labour supply in Europe has shown a large increase. This may be related to changes in the level of education or fertility. It is also possible that it is due to changes in behaviour, as influenced by the social and institutional context. Our results show that increases in the participation rates cannot be explained by changes in either educational level nor in the number and timing of children. Female labour supply increases at all educational levels for women with and without children. In other words, it is mainly changes in behaviour that drive the increase in participation rates over the last decades.     

Does Modern Organization and Governance Threat Solidarity?

This article focuses on solidarity behaviours of employees to team members (horizontal solidarity behaviour) and to their manager (vertical solidarity behaviour). The question is asked to what extend and how are both types of solidarity related to three aspects of modern organization and governance: dual earner families, flexible labour contracts, and formal and informal governance structures. Survey data of 17 Dutch organizations (N = 1347) show in relation to dual-earner families that having children has a positive relationship with horizontal solidarity behaviour, and working overtime has a positive relationship with vertical solidarity behaviour. Related to the flexible labour contracts, no relationship was found with type of labour contract and expected years within the organization. Finally, some traits of informal and formal governance structures, namely information on rules and the presence of explicit fair play rules are fond to be positively related to solidarity.She worked on this article during a visit at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.     

Implementierung von Coaching für Schulleitung und Schulaufsicht

Implementation of coaching for principals and supervisory school authorityGerman schools will have to improve the quality of their work to be able to compete on an international level. School development is also personnel development. Establishing professionalism of school executives (among others by coaching) plays a major role in this matter. First of all the author describes the implementation process of internal coaching for principals and thereafter for officers of the supervisory school authority. In doing so, he also points out problems that can arise during such a project. The evaluations of surveys prove the acceptance and importance of coaching for this target group. Finally, possible future coaching offers for school executives are addressed.     

Dialog als kreativer Denkraum in lernenden Organisationen

Dialogue — a space for creative thinking in learning organisationsToday almost every enterprise or institution has to face growing pressure, has to deal with unexpected unusual problems which cannot be solved by conventional standard strategies. New creative ways to diagnose and solve expected problems are to be found and integrated. Thus can dialogue be a useful instrument? And if this is the case, how can this unusual form of discussion be integrated into the daily fully-organized life? Can dialogue essentially change culture and communication in an enterprise? An empirical study carried out at two international companies allows us the gain an insight into the companies and shows us possible ways.