Zu den Auswirkungen von Arbeitszeitmodellen im ärztlichen Dienst von Krankenhäusern

In 2004 a new working time law for physicians in hospitals was introduced, which has up until now been rarely researched in theory and is implemented in practice partially in form of new working time models, partially by relying on allowed variation rules within the law. Meanwhile, there are new discussions about changes of working time directives on the European level. This article aims to analyze the desired effects of the new working time law to decrease the workload, improve the possibilities of patient care and increase the working time satisfaction of physicians. To this end, a primary data collection is conducted in 15 hospitals and 35 hospital departments, generating 261 questionnaires, in order to empirically assess the theoretical model with the constructs working time model, workload, working time satisfaction, and possibilities of patient care using regression analyses. It can be shown that the new working time models decrease workload and enhance working time satisfaction of hospital physicians, but have no significant influence on the possibilities of patient care. These results are consistent for different ownerships and sizes of hospitals as well as for most services. No significant differences in the answers between various physician groups exist either.     

Unemployment,Vacancies and Unfair Dismissals

In most West European economies the annual number of grievance procedures settling individual complaints against unfair dismissals has been increasing since the 1960s. This development has very often been attributed to the enactment of legal regulations restricting the dismissal behaviour of firms. Econometric analyses using data from Germany and Great Britain show that labour market developments, namely the flow into unemployment and the vacancy rate, have a much stronger influence on the cyclical demand for grievance procedures than changes in the “legal infrastructure” of the labour market. Without denying the importance of institutional differences it appears that the individual costs of unemployment (which, ceteris paribus, rise as the flow into unemployment increases and the vacancy rate decreases) are superior predictors of the demand for grievance procedures than institutional changes strengthening or weakening employees' rights.     

Construction of stationary state distributions for loss systems

A stationary state distribution will be constructed for a loss system G/G/m/0 without additional restrictive conditions. It will be shown by examples that for a given input there may exist several stationary state distributions. A sufficient and necessary criterion for the uniqueness will be formulated.     

Model Selection,Transformations and Variance Estimation in Nonlinear Regression

The results of analyzing experimental data using a parametric model may heavily depend on the chosen model for regression and variance functions, moreover also on a possibly underlying preliminary transformation of the variables. In this paper we propose and discuss a complex procedure which consists in a simultaneous selection of parametric regression and variance models from a relatively rich model class and of Box-Cox variable transformations by minimization of a cross-validation criterion. For this it is essential to introduce modifications of the standard cross-validation criterion adapted to each of the following objectives: 1. estimation of the unknown regression function, 2. prediction of future values of the response variable, 3. calibration or 4. estimation of some parameter with a certain meaning in the corresponding field of application. Our idea of a criterion oriented combination of procedures (which usually if applied, then in an independent or sequential way) is expected to lead to more accurate results. We show how the accuracy of the parameter estimators can be assessed by a “moment oriented bootstrap procedure", which is an essential modification of the “wild bootstrap” of Härdle and Mammen by use of more accurate variance estimates. This new procedure and its refinement by a bootstrap based pivot (“double bootstrap”) is also used for the construction of confidence, prediction and calibration intervals. Programs written in Splus which realize our strategy for nonlinear regression modelling and parameter estimation are described as well. The performance of the selected model is discussed, and the behaviour of the procedures is illustrated, e.g., by an application in radioimmunological assay.     

Arbeitsmarkt und Statistik: Chancen und Herausforderungen für die empirische Arbeitsmarktforschung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

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.

     

Innere Bilder und beruflicher Lebensweg

This article gives an introduction into working with inner images. In the background of professional work and career there are inner images at work. They trigger which roles we take and which plays on which stages we choose or accept as meaningful. A Case study elaborately illustrates working with inner background images. Simple questions lead to relevant images, which influence professional life. A guide for interviewing and practical approaches can be found in the supplement.