Schlägt Wissen Funken? Zu den Effekten des politischen Steuerungsinstruments Sparkling Science

Although knowledge is attributed a high societal value, its traditional ‘production’ in academia as well as its traditional ‘consumption’ in education have increasingly become problematic. Austrian politics have launched a rather unconventional political steering instrument to solve this problem: Sparkling Science. Based on the equal involvement of pupils and scientists in research projects, this program aims to create ‘sparks of enthusiasm’ as well as ‘sparks of innovation’ between academia and education. We inquire into the effects of this political steering instrument on the level of individual actors. Drawing on qualitative data from a case study, our analyses identify a structural composition that alters the two explicit objectives, which are: To increase pupil’s enthusiasm for science and to stimulate innovative research based on multiple perspectives.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Editorial

     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Editorial

     

Nutrition,lactation, and birth spacing in filipino women

The Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey is used to examine the roles of women’s nutrition and infant feeding in determining time from birth to menses and time from menses to conception. The analysis sample includes 2,648 Filipino women followed for 24 months postpartum. Recently devised statistical estimation techniques to control for unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity are employed in estimating a two-state hazard model. Low body mass index and lower dietary fat intake are associated with increased duration of postpartum amenorrhea. Contraceptive use, high dietary fat consumption, higher parity, and absence of spouse predict a longer waiting time to conception once menses have returned. Simulation of the hazard model is used to examine the effects of the key nutrition and lactation factors.     

Corporation taxes and the debt policy of multinational firms

This paper analyzes the impact of corporate taxes on the capital structure of foreign subsidiaries of multinational firms. The empirical investigation employs a large micro-level panel dataset of German multinationals covering 31 countries over a 10-year period. A special feature of this dataset is that it allows us to distinguish between internal and external debt financing. Our results confirm a positive effect of local tax rates on both types of debt. Moreover, while adverse local credit market conditions are found to reduce external borrowing, internal debt is increasing, supporting the view that the two channels of debt finance are substitutes. Our findings suggest that internal credit markets give rise to significant advantages and enhance multinationals?? opportunities to use debt as a tax shield.     

Disintegration, recognition, and violence: a theoretical perspective

The literature explaining deviance, criminality, or violence offers a broad spectrum of approaches in criminology and sociology. Mostly the theories focus on specific levels of explanation like the macrolevel (for example, strain theories) or the microlevel (for example, self-control theory).This article presents a relatively new theoretical approach combining different levels and focusing on three dimensions associated with specific kinds of recognition: social-structural, institutional, and socioemotional. The social-structural dimension refers to access to the functional systems of society and the accompanying recognition of position, status, and so on. The institutional dimension concentrates on the opportunity to participate in public affairs with the aim of getting moral recognition. The socioemotional dimension emphasizes the quantity and quality of integration in and social support from families, friends, partners, and so on, which provide emotional recognition.The underlying idea is that lack of access, participation, and belonging causes a lack of recognition. When this happens, social and individual problems increase. Thus, deviant and violent behavior can be seen as one potential reaction to a lack of recognition and as a way to gain status and recognition in a different manner (for example, with a delinquent peer group or other gang).     

Capitalized investments with entry and exit options and paradoxical tax effects

Investment decisions are often characterized by uncertainty, irreversibility, and timing flexibility. We use a binomial model to investigate the interdependencies of effects from profit taxation and both an option to delay and an option to abandon on investment decisions. We show that increasing the tax rate can lead to paradoxical tax effects, i.e. it may foster an investor’s willingness to invest. By contrast, if we abstract from the abandonment option, such paradoxical effects cannot be identified. Hence, we show that paradoxical tax effects can be caused by an abandonment option. Our results are helpful for investors facing risky investment opportunities and for improving typical valuation approaches.     

Impact of the EU Structural Funds on Financial Capacities of Non-profit Organizations

To fulfil their role, non-profit organizations (NPOs) need sufficient capacities. These include, first and foremost, financial capacity. EU Cohesion Policy commands financial resources of 351.8 bn. EUR. The EU is also willing to support NPOs from this source. With such considerable funding, the research questions arise: How much money have NPOs received? What are the effects of such assistance on the financial capacities of NPOs? On a sample of 2715 non-profit organizations in the Czech Republic, we have found that EU subsidies have a positive impact on financial capacities, measured as real assets. It is caused by using EU funds for investment. We have not proved an effect on short-term financial capacities measured on revenues. Moreover, the distribution of financial support among PBOs is unequal as 4% of NPOs collected 80% of subsidies due to differences in skills among NPOs’ managers.