Solving,Estimating, and Selecting Nonlinear Dynamic Models Without the Curse of Dimensionality

We present a comprehensive framework for Bayesian estimation of structural nonlinear dynamic economic models on sparse grids to overcome the curse of dimensionality for approximations. We apply sparse grids to a global polynomial approximation of the model solution, to the quadrature of integrals arising as rational expectations, and to three new nonlinear state space filters which speed up the sequential importance resampling particle filter. The posterior of the structural parameters is estimated by a new Metropolis–Hastings algorithm with mixing parallel sequences. The parallel extension improves the global maximization property of the algorithm, simplifies the parameterization for an appropriate acceptance ratio, and allows a simple implementation of the estimation on parallel computers. Finally, we provide all algorithms in the open source software JBendge for the solution and estimation of a general class of models.     

„Analysis of Categorical Data and Discrete Choices“ 30. Frühjahrsseminar des Zentralarchivs für Empirische Sozialforschung Universität zu Köln, 5.–23. März 2001

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Philosophie des coaching

The philosophy of coaching. Anthropological, hermeneutical and ethical implicationsCounselling and coaching can be understood as modern means to foster human autonomy, following the normative idea of the enlightenment. This anthropology must be completed with the Heideggerian concept of care, which clears misunderstandings of an asymmetry between coach and client. The hermeneutical dimension of coaching is analysed as creative and perspectival understanding on the basis of a fundamental questionability. With this innovative philosophical interpretation of coaching, its ethical values are adequately grounded.     

Developing an immigration policy for Germany on the basis of a nonparametric labor market classification

Summary: Based on a nonparametrically estimated model of labor market classifications, this paper makes suggestions for immigration policy using data from West Germany of the 1990s. It is demonstrated that nonparametric regression is feasible in higher dimensions with only a few thousand observations. In sum, labor markets are able to absorb immigrants are characterized by above average age and by professional occupations. On the other hand, labor markets for young workers in service occupations exhibit rising unemployment due to wage rigidities and are therefore not recommended for immigration. This raises a potential conflict between financing Germanys ailing social security system and protecting decreasing or rigid labor markets by immigration control.*We are grateful to Daron Acemoglu, Joshua Angrist, Herbert S. Buscher, Lars P. Feld, Simon Gächter, Ira Gang, Mark Killingsworth, Gebhardt Kirchgässner, Roger Klein, John Landon-Lane, Michael Lechner, Stephen Machin, Ruth Miquel, Michael Piore, Winfried Pohlmeier, Hans-Joachim Voth, two anonymous referees and seminar participants at Rutgers University, MIT, University of Konstanz, and University of St. Gallen for helpful comments. Markus Frölich gratefully acknowledges financial support by the Swiss National Science Foundation (NSF 4043-058311). Patrick Puhani gratefully acknowledges financial support by the Volkswagen Foundation, Hannover. We thank the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, for letting us work with the full sample of the German Socio-Economic Panel. All remaining errors are our own.     

Coaching — Performanceorientierung und Managererwartung

Coaching — orientation on performance and expectations of managersThe author discusses the up to now controversial question what managers are thinking about coaching. The inquiry, developed in the Free University of Amsterdam, asks also for the expectations on coaching. The author finds out, that issues of leading take priority and that not only crises and conflicts are reasons to ask for a coaching, but also desires to improve the personal performance.     

Strategy Formation Across Organizational Boundaries: An Interorganizational Process Model

Strategic decision‐makers today face complex environments with meta‐problems that cut across multiple industries. Single organizations cannot address these meta‐problems. As a result, organizations collaborate with partners, among them also competitors, and commonly work together in multi‐partner initiatives (MPIs). How these organizations jointly form an interorganizational strategy (IOS), however, is not well understood. In this paper, we extend the current strategy process conceptualizations from an intraorganizational focus of a single firm to an interorganizational process of multiple strategy‐making entities working together. We selected the eMobility sector as our research context to develop such an IOS process model. We first developed 25 cases on MPIs in the German‐speaking area based on interviews and desk research, before we focused on the eMobility ecology in the southern part of Germany. We identified 291 MPIs, conducted interviews with 19 central actors, held several workshops and informal gatherings, and complemented these data with an analysis of publicly accessible documents. Using an inductive research design, we developed a process model that unfolds in three phases: initiation, negotiation and execution. We reveal specific process dynamics in MPIs to be critical in the formation and manifestation of IOS.     

The governance of free/open source software projects: monolithic, multidimensional, or configurational?

This paper presents the results of a qualitative review and synthesis of the literature on open source governance, addressing four key questions: (1) How has open source software (OSS) governance been defined? (2) Has the phenomenon of OSS governance been conceptualized as a monolithic or multidimensional phenomenon? (3) What purposes is OSS governance hypothesized to serve? and (4) What are the dimensions of OSS governance, and how are these dimensions related to each other? The results of the review suggest a framework for future comparative and case study research on OSS governance, and they provide a basis for comparison with research on the governance of other distributed, community-based forms of content and creation.     

Issues in the assessment of non-inferiority: perspectives drawn from case studies

Superiority claims for improved efficacy are the backbone of clinical development of new therapies. However, not every new therapy in development allows for such a claim. Some therapies per se do not try to improve efficacy further but concentrate on important aspects in safety or convenience. Such improvements can be equally important to patients, and development strategies should be available for such compounds. A three-arm design with placebo, active control and experimental treatment may be viewed as the golden standard for such compounds; however, it may be difficult if not impossible to add a placebo arm in certain diseases. In such situations, non-inferiority designs are the only development option left. This paper will highlight some of the key issues with such designs in practice and will report experience from two studies from different therapeutic areas intended for regulatory submission.