330 Wirtschaft
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- Digitalisierung (3)
- Arbeitszufriedenheit (2)
- Digitale Transformation (2)
- Mindestlohn (2)
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- digitalization (2)
- job satisfaction (2)
- minimum wage (2)
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The present dissertation conducts empirical research on the relationship between urban life and its economic costs, especially for the environment. On the one hand, existing gaps in research on the influence of population density on air quality are closed and, on the other hand, innovative policy measures in the transport sector are examined that are intended to make metropolitan areas more sustainable. The focus is on air pollution, congestion and traffic accidents, which are important for general welfare issues and represent significant cost factors for urban life. They affect a significant proportion of the world's population. While 55% of the world's people already lived in cities in 2018, this share is expected to reach approximately 68% by 2050.
The four self-contained chapters of this thesis can be divided into two sections: Chapters 2 and 3 provide new causal insights into the complex interplay between urban structures and air pollution. Chapters 4 and 5 then examine policy measures to promote non-motorised transport and their influence on air quality as well as congestion and traffic accidents.
Moderne Technologien befähigen die beteiligten Akteure eines Produktionsprozesses die Informationsaufnahme, Entscheidungsfindung und -ausführung selbstständig auszuführen. Hierarchische Kontrollbeziehungen werden aufgelöst und die Entscheidungsfindung auf eine Vielzahl von Akteuren verteilt. Positive Folgen sind unter anderem die Nutzung lokaler Kompetenzen und ein schnelles Handeln vor Ort ohne (zeit-)aufwändige prozessübergreifende Planungsläufe durch eine zentrale Steuerungsinstanz. Die Bewertung der Dezentralität des Prozesses hilft beim Vergleich verschiedener Steuerungsstrategien und trägt so zur Beherrschung komplexerer Produktionsprozesse bei.
Obwohl die Kommunikationsstruktur der an der Entscheidungsfindung beteiligten Akteure zunehmend an Bedeutung gewinnt, existiert keine Methode, welche diese als Grundlage für die Operationalisierung der Dezentralität verwendet. Hier setzt diese Arbeit an. Es wird ein dreistufiges Bewertungsmodell entwickelt, dass die Dezentralität eines Produktionsprozesses auf Basis der Kommunikations- und Entscheidungsstruktur der am Prozess beteiligten, autonomen Akteure ermittelt.
Aufbauend auf einer Definition von Dezentralität von Produktionsprozessen werden Anforderungen an eine Kennzahl erhoben und - auf Basis der Kommunikationsstruktur - eine die strukturelle Autonomie der Akteure bestimmenden Kenngröße der sozialen Netzwerkanalyse ermittelt. Die Notwendigkeit der zusätzlichen Berücksichtigung der Entscheidungsstruktur wird basierend auf der Möglichkeit der Integration von Entscheidungsfindung und -ausführung begründet.
Die Differenzierung beider Faktoren bildet die Grundlage für die Klassifikation der Akteure; die Multiplikation beider Werte resultiert in dem die Autonomie eines Akteurs beschreibenden Kennwert tatsächliche Autonomie, welcher das Ergebnis der ersten Stufe des Modells darstellt. Homogene Akteurswerte charakterisieren eine hohe Dezentralität des Prozessschrittes, welcher Betrachtungsobjekt der zweiten Stufe ist. Durch einen Vergleich der vorhandenen mit der maximal möglichen Dezentralität der Prozessschritte wird auf der dritten Stufe der Autonomie Index ermittelt, welcher die Dezentralität des Prozesses operationalisiert.
Das erstellte Bewertungsmodell wird anhand einer Simulationsstudie im Zentrum Industrie 4.0 validiert. Dafür wird das Modell auf zwei Simulationsexperimente - einmal mit einer zentralen und einmal mit einer dezentralen Steuerung - angewendet und die Ergebnisse verglichen. Zusätzlich wird es auf einen umfangreichen Produktionsprozess aus der Praxis angewendet.
Digital transformation (DT) has not only been a major challenge in recent years, it is also supposed to continue to enormously impact our society and economy in the forthcoming decade. On the one hand, digital technologies have emerged, diffusing and determining our private and professional lives. On the other hand, digital platforms have leveraged the potentials of digital technologies to provide new business models. These dynamics have a massive effect on individuals, companies, and entire ecosystems. Digital technologies and platforms have changed the way persons consume or interact with each other. Moreover, they offer companies new opportunities to conduct their business in terms of value creation (e.g., business processes), value proposition (e.g., business models), or customer interaction (e.g., communication channels), i.e., the three dimensions of DT. However, they also can become a threat for a company's competitiveness or even survival. Eventually, the emergence, diffusion, and employment of digital technologies and platforms bear the potential to transform entire markets and ecosystems.
Against this background, IS research has explored and theorized the phenomena in the context of DT in the past decade, but not to its full extent. This is not surprising, given the complexity and pervasiveness of DT, which still requires far more research to further understand DT with its interdependencies in its entirety and in greater detail, particularly through the IS perspective at the confluence of technology, economy, and society. Consequently, the IS research discipline has determined and emphasized several relevant research gaps for exploring and understanding DT, including empirical data, theories as well as knowledge of the dynamic and transformative capabilities of digital technologies and platforms for both organizations and entire industries.
Hence, this thesis aims to address these research gaps on the IS research agenda and consists of two streams. The first stream of this thesis includes four papers that investigate the impact of digital technologies on organizations. In particular, these papers study the effects of new technologies on firms (paper II.1) and their innovative capabilities (II.2), the nature and characteristics of data-driven business models (II.3), and current developments in research and practice regarding on-demand healthcare (II.4). Consequently, the papers provide novel insights on the dynamic capabilities of digital technologies along the three dimensions of DT. Furthermore, they offer companies some opportunities to systematically explore, employ, and evaluate digital technologies to modify or redesign their organizations or business models.
The second stream comprises three papers that explore and theorize the impact of digital platforms on traditional companies, markets, and the economy and society at large. At this, paper III.1 examines the implications for the business of traditional insurance companies through the emergence and diffusion of multi-sided platforms, particularly in terms of value creation, value proposition, and customer interaction. Paper III.2 approaches the platform impact more holistically and investigates how the ongoing digital transformation and "platformization" in healthcare lastingly transform value creation in the healthcare market. Paper III.3 moves on from the level of single businesses or markets to the regulatory problems that result from the platform economy for economy and society, and proposes appropriate regulatory approaches for addressing these problems. Hence, these papers bring new insights on the table about the transformative capabilities of digital platforms for incumbent companies in particular and entire ecosystems in general.
Altogether, this thesis contributes to the understanding of the impact of DT on organizations and markets through the conduction of multiple-case study analyses that are systematically reflected with the current state of the art in research. On this empirical basis, the thesis also provides conceptual models, taxonomies, and frameworks that help describing, explaining, or predicting the impact of digital technologies and digital platforms on companies, markets and the economy or society at large from an interdisciplinary viewpoint.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung eines Industrie 4.0 Reifegradindex für produzierende Unternehmen (KMU und Mittelstand) mit diskreter Produktion. Die Motivation zu dieser Arbeit entstand aus dem Zögern vieler Unternehmen – insbesondere KMU und Mittelstand – bei der Transformation in Richtung Industrie 4.0. Im Rahmen einer Marktstudie konnte belegt werden, dass 86 Prozent der befragten produzierenden Unternehmen kein für ihr Unternehmen geeignetes Industrie 4.0 Reifegradmodell gefunden haben, mit dem sie ihren Status Quo bewerten und Maßnahmen für einen höheren Grad der Reife ableiten könnten. Die Bewertung bestehender Reifegradmodelle zeigte Defizite hinsichtlich der Industrie 4.0 Abdeckung, der Betrachtung der sozio-technischen Dimensionen Mensch, Technik und Organisation sowie der Betrachtung von Management und Unternehmenskultur. Basierend auf den aktuellen Industrie 4.0 Technologien und Handlungsbereichen wurde ein neues, modular aufgebautes Industrie 4.0 Reifegradmodell entwickelt, das auf einer ganzheitlichen Betrachtung aller sozio-technischen Dimensionen Mensch, Technik und Organisation sowie deren Schnittstellen basiert. Das Modell ermittelt neben dem Overall Industry 4.0 Maturity Index (OI4MI) vier weitere Indizes zur Bewertung der Industrie 4.0 Reife des Unternehmens. Das Modell wurde bei einem Unternehmen validiert und steht nun als Template für darauf aufbauende Forschungsarbeiten zur Verfügung.
Essays in labor economics
(2022)
This thesis offers insights into the process of workers decisions to invest into work-related training. Specifically, the role of personality traits and attitudes is analysed. The aim is to understand whether such traits contribute to an under-investment into training. Importantly, general and specific training are distinguished, where the worker’s productivity increases in many firms in the former and only in the current firm in the latter case. Additionally, this thesis contributes to the evaluation of the German minimum wage introduction in 2015, identifying causal effects on wages and working hours.
Chapters two to four focus on the work-related training decision. First, individuals with an internal locus of control see a direct link between their own actions and their labor market success, while external individuals connect their outcomes to fate, luck, and other people. Consequently, it can be expected that internal individuals expect higher returns to training and are, thus, more willing to participate. The results reflect this hypothesis with internal individuals being more likely to participate in general (but not specific) training. Second, training can be viewed either as a risky investment or as an insurance against negative labor income shocks. In both cases, risk attitudes are expected to play a role in the decision process. The data point towards risk seeking individuals being more likely to participate in general (but not specific) training, and thus, training being viewed on average as a risky investment. Third, job satisfaction influences behavioral decisions in the job context, where dissatisfied workers may react by neglecting their duties, improving the situation or quitting the job. In the first case, dissatisfied workers are expected to invest less in training, while the latter two reactions could lead to higher participation rates amongst dissatisfied workers. The results suggest that on average dissatisfied workers are less likely to invest into training than satisfied workers. However, closer inspections of quit intentions and different sources of dissatisfaction paint less clear pictures, pointing towards the complexity of the job satisfaction construct.
Chapters five and six evaluate the introduction of the minimum wage in Germany in 2015. First, in 2015 an increase in the growth of hourly wages can be identified as a causal effect of the minimum wage introduction. However, at the same time, a reduction in the weekly working hours results in an overall unchanged growth in monthly earnings. When considering the effects in 2016, the decrease in weekly working hours disappears, resulting in a significant increase in the growth of monthly earnings due to the minimum wage. Importantly, the analysis suggests that the increase in hourly wages was not sufficient to ensure all workers receiving the minimum wage. This points to non-compliance being an issue in the first years after the minimum wage introduction.
Die Arbeit ist ein Beitrag zu einer grundlegenden Diskussion der Kapitalmarktforschung, dem messbaren Erfolg „aktiver vs. passiver“ Investmentstrategien. Der Autor setzt sich kritisch mit den wesentlichen Anlagestrategien und Modellen für Indexprodukte auseinander und beleuchtet zugleich Closet Indexing bei aktiv gemanagten Investmentfonds. Das Ergebnis zeigt, dass Closet Indexing nicht nur sporadisch auftritt, sondern eine weit verbreitete Anlagestrategie in vielen vermeintlich aktiv gemanagten Aktieninvestmentfonds ist.
Distances affect economic decision-making in numerous situations. The time at which we make a decision about future consumption has an impact on our consumption behavior. The spatial distance to employer, school or university impacts the place where we live and vice versa. The emotional closeness to other individuals influences our willingness to give money to them. This cumulative thesis aims to enrich the literature on the role of distance for economic decision-making. Thereby, each of my research projects sheds light on the impact of one kind of distance for efficient decision-making.
Despite the importance of negotiations in companies and their contribution to strategic corporate planning, researchers have not yet focused on assessing the development of negotiations in the future. To broaden the field of futures research in negotiations and to provide empirical guidance about strategic business decisions to negotiators and managers, this work exploratively investigates the future of negotiations. The impact of trends on negotiations and negotiation behavior, as well as the development of future negotiation scenarios are therefore examined. Moreover, the preparation of negotiators for the future is analyzed and how effective negotiation teaching can be designed to improve negotiation performance.
While estimated numbers of past and future climate migrants are alarming, the growing empirical evidence suggests that the association between adverse climate-related events and migration is not universally positive. This dissertation seeks to advance our understanding of when and how climate migration emerges by analyzing heterogeneous climatic influences on migration in low- and middle-income countries. To this end, it draws on established economic theories of migration, datasets from physical and social sciences, causal inference techniques and approaches from systematic literature review. In three of its five chapters, I estimate causal effects of processes of climate change on inequality and migration in India and Sub-Saharan Africa. By employing interaction terms and by analyzing sub-samples of data, I explore how these relationships differ for various segments of the population. In the remaining two chapters, I present two systematic literature reviews. First, I undertake a comprehensive meta-regression analysis of the econometric climate migration literature to summarize general climate migration patterns and explain the conflicting findings. Second, motivated by the broad range of approaches in the field, I examine the literature from a methodological perspective to provide best practice guidelines for studying climate migration empirically. Overall, the evidence from this dissertation shows that climatic influences on human migration are highly heterogeneous. Whether adverse climate-related impacts materialize in migration depends on the socio-economic characteristics of the individual households, such as wealth, level of education, agricultural dependence or access to adaptation technologies and insurance. For instance, I show that while adverse climatic shocks are generally associated with an increase in migration in rural India, they reduce migration in the agricultural context of Sub-Saharan Africa, where the average wealth levels are much lower so that households largely cannot afford the upfront costs of moving. I find that unlike local climatic shocks which primarily enhance internal migration to cities and hence accelerate urbanization, shocks transmitted via agricultural producer prices increase migration to neighboring countries, likely due to the simultaneous decrease in real income in nearby urban areas. These findings advance our current understanding by showing when and how economic agents respond to climatic events, thus providing explicit contexts and mechanisms of climate change effects on migration in the future. The resulting collection of findings can guide policy interventions to avoid or mitigate any present and future welfare losses from climate change-related migration choices.
On January 1, 2015, Germany introduced a general statutory minimum wage of €8.50 gross per hour. This thesis analyses the effects of the minimum wage introduction in Germany as well as wage floors in the European context, contributing to national and international research.
The second chapter of this dissertation summarizes the short-run effects of the minimum wage reform found in previous studies.
We show that the introduction of the minimum wage had a positive effect on wages at the bottom of the distribution. Yet, there was still a significant amount of non-compliance shortly after the reform. Additionally, previous evidence points to small negative employment effects mainly driven by a reduction in mini-jobs. Contrary to expectations, though, there were no effects on poverty and general inequality found in the short run. This is mostly due to the fact that working hours were reduced and the increase of hourly wages was therefore not reflected in monthly wages.
The third chapter identifies whether the job losses predicted in ex-ante studies materialized in the short run and, if so, which type of employment was affected the most. To identify the effects, this chapter (as well as chapter four) uses a regional difference-in-difference approach to estimate the effects on regular employment (part- and full-time) and mini-jobs.
Our results suggest that the minimum wage has slightly reduced overall employment, mainly due to a decline in mini-jobs.
The fourth chapter has the same methodological approach as the previous one. Its motivated by the fact that women are often overrepresented among low-wage employees. Thus, the primary research question in this chapter is whether the minimum wage has led to a narrowing of the gender wage gap. In order to answer that, we identify the effects on the wage gap at the 10th and 25th percentiles and at the mean of the underlying gender-specific wage distributions. Our results imply that for eligible employees the gender wage gap at the 10th percentile decreased by 4.6 percentage points between 2014 and 2018 in high-bite regions compared to low-bite regions. We estimate this to be a reduction of 32% compared to 2014. Higher up the distribution – i.e. at the 25th percentile and the mean – the effects are smaller and not as robust.
The fifth chapter keeps the gender-specific emphasis on minimum wage effects. However, in contrast to the rest of the dissertation, it widens the scope to other European Union countries. Following the rationale of the previous chapter, women could potentially benefit particularly from a minimum wage. However, they could also be more prone to suffer from the possibly induced job losses or reductions in working hours. Therefore, this chapter summarizes existing evidence from EU member states dealing with the relationship between wage floors and the gender wage gap. In addition, it provides a systematic summary of studies that examine the impact of minimum wages on employment losses or changes in working hours that particularly affect women. The evidence shows that higher wage floors are often associated with smaller gender wage gaps. With respect to employment, women do not appear to experience greater employment losses than men per se. However, studies show that the minimum wage has a particular impact on part-time workers. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the negative correlation between the minimum wage and the gender wage gap is related to the job losses of these lower-paid, often female, part-time workers. This working arrangement should therefore be specially focused on in the context of minimum wages.