„Aber es gibt keine Antisemiten mehr“: Eine experimentelle Studie zur Kommunikationslatenz antisemitischer Einstellungen

Since the public sanctioning of anti-Semitism after 1945 has mostly prevented the articulation of anti-Semitic attitudes in public they outlast in private. This development was taken into account by the theory of anti-Semitism, in particular by the concept of communication latency, but had almost no impact on the data collection process. For the sensitive character of anti-Semitic attitudes it is uncertain whether they are reported truthfully in surveys. Respondents are assumed to answer in a socially desirable manner. Using an experimental setting, we demonstrate that the cognitive activation of an anti-Semitic primary group norm increases the prevalence of self-reported anti-Semitism. In addition, we show that under statistical control of this communication mechanism the explanatory power of established determinants of anti-Semitic attitudes such as education, political attitudes, and political interest decreases.     

In memorian Aage B. Sørensen (13.5.1941–18.4.2001)

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Idea Generation and the Role of Feedback: Evidence from Field Experiments with Innovation Tournaments

In many innovation settings, ideas are generated over time and managers face a decision about if and how to provide in‐process feedback to the idea generators about the quality of submissions. In this article, we use design contests allowing repeated entry to examine the effect of in‐process feedback on idea generation. We report on a set of field experiments using two online contest websites to compare the performance of three different feedback treatments—no feedback, random feedback, and directed feedback (i.e., in‐process feedback highly correlated with the final quality rating of the entry). We posted six logo design contests for consumer products and accepted submissions for 1 week. We provided daily feedback during the contest period using one of the three treatments. We then used a panel of target consumers to rate the quality of each idea. We find that directed feedback is associated positively with agent participation. For outcome, while directed feedback benefits the average quality of entries submitted, we don't find that relationship for the best entries—indeed, no feedback or random feedback may produce better top‐end entry quality. We also find that, under directed feedback, the variance in quality declines as the contest progresses.     

What determines wage differentials across the EU?

We analyse determinants of the wage differentials observed between thirteen European countries using the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The empirical decomposition is based on a proportional hazards model. The approach based on rank invariant estimators is borrowed from the literature on failure time data and has been adapted by Donald et al. (Rev Econ Stud 67:609–633, 2000) to analyse differences in wage distributions. Extending this approach and using natural splines to allow for nonlinear regression effects we isolate three different underlying forces for wage differentials: differences in characteristics, differences in weights of characteristics and differences in the returns-to-skill functions. The analysis reveals that country differences in returns-to-skill functions contribute most to observed wage differences while differences in observed characteristics contribute surprisingly little.     

Predictive distributions in the presence of measurement error

Suppose a characteristic E, varies throughout a population, and the probability is needed that E, exceeds a given threshold value, L. This paper covers the situation where there is measurement error, i.e., only x - ξ + ? can be observed, and it is assumed that both ξ and e have normal distributions. The paper treats two cases, (i) where the ratio of the variances of ξ, and ? is known, and (ii) where it is unknown. An example illustrates the results.     

On the speed of convergence of the kiefer-wolfowitz stochastic approximation procedure

In this article the speed of convergence of the Kiefer-wolfowitz procedure of stochastic approximation is scudied. This is done in Section 2 for two classes of regression functions in the unconstrained case. In Section 3 constrained problems are examined, on the one hand by transforming them into unconstrained ones and making use of the results of Section 2 and on the other hand by applying a projection method. Finally a problem from economic theory is formalized as a stochastic approximation problem and a solution is given oy means of the proceding theorems.