An Evaluation of a Parenting Payment Intervention Program

This paper analyses the effect of a pilot program to assist single parent claimants to lessen their dependence on social security benefits. A sample of about 5000 persons was randomly assigned to one control and two treatment groups. Those in the treatment groups were asked to attend an initial interview to help them plan for the future and were then referred to other forms of assistance that might help them to realise their plans. Using different estimators and several indicators of outcomes, the evidence for the program having a positive effect on outcomes is very weak. The reason for this result is explored by an analysis of the relationships between the plans participants formulated, the barriers they faced and whether they left benefits. It is found that while the program encouraged claimants to plan for moving into paid work, the assistance offered did not reduce the barriers they faced.     

Doxastic Conditions for Backward Induction

The problem of finding sufficient doxastic conditions for backward induction in games of perfect information is analyzed in a syntactic framework with subjunctive conditionals. This allows to describe the structure of the game by a logical formula and consequently to treat beliefs about this structure in the same way as beliefs about rationality. A backward induction and a non-Nash equilibrium result based on higher level belief in rationality and the structure of the game are derived.     

Wie den strukturell bedingten Herausforderungen des Internen Coachings begegnet werden kann

Out of strategic considerations, companies offer their employees coaching as an internal method of personnel development. A wide range of organizational forms can be taken into consideration for those internal coaching offers. As coach and client belong to the same organization, specific areas of conflict can arise in the coaching process. Those will be briefly described. Thereafter it will be discussed how the anticipated conflicts arising during the phase of contract formation can be dealt with. Furthermore it is shown how organizational implementation of internal coaching offers can mitigate the assumed conflicts.     

Kapitalmarktreaktionen auf Personalabbauprogramme: Welchen Einfluss haben Motiv,Umfang und Freiwilligkeit?

This study examines the effects of layoff announcements on the market value of German listed companies. Analyzing 136 announcements being published between 2000 and 2009, the results show marginal abnormal returns but high variance indicating that the market reaction might depend on specific characteristics. As potential determinants we particularly discuss the reasons for layoff, the size of layoff and the voluntariness of layoff. We find that reactive reasons like plant closures have a negative impact on shareholder value whilst active reasons like cost improvements enhance shareholder value. The size of layoff tends to induce negative effects. A voluntary layoff announcement however increases the value of a firm. Furthermore, we find a positive relationship between abnormal returns and human capital intensity and a negative one with both the manufacturing industry membership and financial leverage. In addition, the regression model extends prior literature since its coefficient of determination exceeds those in Anglo-American studies.     

On Robustness of Model-Based Bootstrap Schemes in Nonparametric Time Series Analysis

Theory in time series analysis is often developed under the assumption of finite-dimensional models for the data generating process. Whereas corresponding estimators such as those of a conditional mean function are reasonable even if the true dependence mechanism is more complex, it is usually necessary to capture the whole dependence structure asymptotically for the bootstrap to be valid. In contrast, we show that certain simplified bootstrap schemes which imitate only some aspects of the time series are consistent for quantities arising in nonparametric statistics. To this end, we generalize the well-known "whitening by windowing" principle to joint distributions of nonparametric estimators of the autoregression function. Consequently, we obtain that model-based nonparametric bootstrap schemes remain valid for supremum-type functionals as long as they mimic those finite-dimensional joint distributions consistently which determine the quantity of interest. As an application, we show that simple regression-type bootstrap schemes can be applied for the determination of critical values for nonparametric tests of parametric or semiparametric hypotheses on the autoregression function in the context of a general process.     

How Long Is a Spell of Unemployment? Illusions and Biases in the Use of CPS Data

Most data used to study the durations of unemployment spells come from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which is a point-in-time survey and gives an incomplete picture of the underlying duration distribution. We introduce a new sample of completed unemployment spells obtained from panel data and apply CPS sampling and reporting techniques to replicate the type of data used by other researchers. Predicted duration distributions derived from this CPS-like data are then compared to the actual distribution. We conclude that the best inferences that can be made about unemployment durations by using CPS-like data are seriously biased.     

Doppelspitzen in der öffentlichen Verwaltung – Unterstützung durch Coaching

In this article I describe aspects of coaching concerning dual leadership in public administration. I will discuss organisational culture in public administration. Afterwards I emphasize on challenges for leaders and managers who will deal with change of corporate culture. At last I present a map of concepts dealing with coaching of dual leadership which will create insight for the clients for the challenges of their daily work.