Intensive gamblers on German-style slot-machines

Results of German-style slot-machine gambling are reported, stemming from seven individual surveys in representatively sampled households (N=7,643). The aim of the inquiry was the reexamination of studies of the number of gamblers in the population together with gambling hours spent per week by active gamblers. The results are largely identical with already known data. Of persons of voting age or older, 10.2% are active gamblers (4.6 million; having gambled at least once within the last 3 months). Of the active gamblers 0.7% are intensive gamblers (5 hours and more per week). These persons number approximately 32,000 in the Federal Republic of Germany, or from 12,000 to 71,000 (95% confidence interval). In addition to the frequency distributions, interactions with socio-demographic characteristics were examined, and an estimate was made for the prevalence of intensive gamblers with severe stress.This article was first published in Germany: Bühringer, G. & Konstanty, R., (1989) Vielsspieler an Geldautomaten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Suchtgefahren 35, 1–13.     

Relative efficiency of OLSE and COTE for seasonal autoregressive disturbances

The efficiency of OLSE relative to GLSE and COTE is studied in the case in which regressors are splines used to explain seasonal influences. It is thereby shown that efficiency measured as the ratio of total or generalized variances is independent of the actual design of splines. Furthermore, for positive autocorrelation, COTE is always worse than OLSE.     

Governmentality by Network in English Primary Healthcare

In England, the quality of clinical work is being regulated in new ways following recent developments in “clinical governance” policy and apparent failures in the previous system of medical self‐regulation. Using multiple case studies, this paper examines how these changes are affecting professional governmentality and discipline in general practice. Formal organizational structures play little role in clinical governance there. Clinical quality is managed largely through semi‐formal networks, relying on medical self‐surveillance. Compliance is achieved largely by discursive appeals to the legitimacy of clinical governance, but local GPs’ leaders also argue that governments might otherwise regulate medical practice more actively. As yet the effects of clinical governance activity on service delivery are slight. Professional self‐regulation is replacing permissive exception management with more collegial, directive methods.     

Explaining individual level support for organ procurement policy

The demand for human organs for transplantation – both from live and deceased donors – has become a public health issue in the United States, as thousands of Americans die each year due to the lack of a needed transplant. The current policy basis for organ procurement is voluntarism as federal organ procurement policy, based on the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA), prohibits the exchange of human organs for “valuable consideration.” While an increasing number of policy analysts, including some ethicists, have advocated for financial incentives to induce more donations, a variety of factors – such as the legislative status quo, ongoing ethical concerns, and uncertain public support – have resulted in little use of financial incentives. We argue that a better understanding of public opinion is an important prerequisite for any move toward the use of financial incentives. Consequently, we develop and test a model to explain individual level attitudes toward legalizing and regulating the sale of human organs for transplant. We find that political ideology, gender, age and geographic region are important predictors of support.     

How does consumer age affect the desire for new products and brands? A multi-group causal analysis

Marketing lacks comprehension on the increasingly important segment of mature consumers in regard to their behavior and respective reasons for certain behavior. This study on the desire for alternative products or brands within the domain of fast moving consumer goods was capable of verifying differences among age-groups. While the keenness for cross-buying increases with age, the desire for switching to other familiar brands than the one usually purchased, and the desire for switching to new brand alternatives decrease with age; Thus indicating age-patterns in product category-specific innovativeness and variety seeking. The study also considers a wide range of behavioral determinants such as product satisfaction, product involvement, category experience, perceived purchase risk etc. mediating the effect of age on these desires, giving a fairly good picture of the unveiled causes for the age group differences. Furthermore, the issue of age potentially operating as a moderating variable on the effects of the behavioral determinants on the desires for product and brand alternatives found consideration in this study, but was proven to be of marginal relevance.