Sustainable development revisited

Before one can talk about “sustainability”, economic development has to have occurred, and the traditional motor for development has always been economic growth, says Professor Karl Heinrich Oppenländer, President of the ifo Institute for Economic Research. He poses the questions, Is growth policy the best social policy? Has the social market economy failed because of its ties to economic growth, or has this growth simply been too small? What would a strict adherence to the concept of sustainable development mean? This paper was originally presented at the IIPS 10th Anniversary Symposium, “Transforming the Global Order for the 21st Century,” held in Tokyo on 18–19 May 1998.     

Outcomes–Based Performance Management in the Public Sector: Implications for Government Accountability and Effectiveness

Requirements for outcomes–based performance management are increasing performance–evaluation activities at all government levels. Research on public–sector performance management, however, points to problems in the design and management of these systems and questions their effectiveness as policy tools for increasing governmental accountability. In this article, I analyze experimental data and the performance–management experiences of federal job–training programs to estimate the influence of public management and system–design factors on program outcomes and impacts. I assess whether relying on administrative data to measure program (rather than impacts) produces information that might misdirect program managers in their performance–management activities. While the results of empirical analyses confirm that the use of administrative data in performance management is unlikely to produce accurate estimates of true program impacts, they also suggest these data can still generate useful information for public managers about policy levers that can be manipulated to improve organizational performance.     

Social structure of the Jewish quarter in Vienna during the liberal era (1850–1900)

The article examines the nature of residential and coresidential patterns in the second half of the 19th century in a district of Vienna known as Leopoldstadt, which had a large Jewish population. Analysis of a database from this district, paying attention to occupation and class variables, suggests that the Jewish population therein was more mixed than traditional interpretations suggest, and that the concentration of Jews there can plausibly be explained mainly by reference to residential choices made by Jews to live near an economic infrastructure that catered to their religious and cultural needs. The patterns identified in the data suggest further that in interpreting the residential patterns of the city it is necessary to conceptualize the problem as one of interaction between religion, economics, and residential choice.     

Die Interzedentenwarnung nach § 25c KSchG

§ 25c KSchG legt in Satz 1 eine Informationsobliegenheit des Unternehmers gegenüber dem Verbraucher im Fall einer Interzession fest. Danach hat der Unternehmer den interzedierenden Verbraucher auf die wirtschaftliche Lage des Schuldners hinzuweisen, wenn er erkennt oder erkennen muss, dass der Schuldner seine Verbindlichkeit voraussichtlich nicht oder nicht vollst?ndig erfüllen wird. Unterl?sst der Unternehmer diese Information, haftet der Interzedent nur, wenn er seine Verpflichtung trotz einer solchen Information übernommen h?tte (§ 25c S 2 KSchG). Der folgende Beitrag besch?ftigt sich unter intensiver Berücksichtigung der jüngeren Judikatur mit den vielf?ltigen Aspekten der Interzedentenschutzvorschrift des § 25c KSchG, nicht zuletzt auch mit dem Mysterium der "echten Mitschuld".     

Weltanschauung und ihre soziale Basis im Spiegel eidgenössischer Volksabstimmungen

Dank regelmässigen Volksbefragungen sind in der Schweiz detaillierte Rückschlüsse auf die Wertkonflikte in der Gesellschaft und die diesen Wertkonflikten zu Grunde liegenden Weltanschauungen möglich. Das Aufdecken der weltanschaulichen Differenzierung und ihrer sozialen Hintergründe ist das Ziel dieses Beitrags. Der hierzu neu entwickelte induktive Ansatz besteht aus der Verbindung einer quantitativen Aggregatanalyse auf Gemeindebasis mit einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse aller 158 eidgenössischen Abstimmungsvorlagen zwischen 1981 und 1999. Die aufgedeckte Struktur der Weltanschauung setzt sich aus den drei Komponenten Links gegen Rechts, Liberal gegen Konservativ und Ökologisch gegen Technokratisch zusammen. Durch die konsequente mehrdimensionale Betrachtung sind wichtige aktuelle politische Auseinandersetzungen als Zusammenspiel dieser drei Komponenten erkennbar. Der so gebildete Raum der Weltanschauungen dient als geschlossenes Modell zur Analyse der Entwicklungen und Interdependenzen von sozialen Gräben und politischen Konflikten. Die analytische Trennung der materiellen gesellschaftlichen Ebene von der ideellen weltanschaulichen Ebene, lässt Schlüsse von politischem Wandel auf sozialen Wandel und umgekehrt von sozialem Wandel auf politischen Wandel zu.     

A positive theory of the earnings relationship of unemployment benefits

In a wage bargaining model, a stronger earnings relationship of unemployment benefits may reduce wages. Therefore, the benefit structure significantly influences profits and trade union utility, raising the question as to how the benefit structure is determined in the political process. We consider a government that chooses the earnings relationship in order to maximize its political support. Our model predicts a strong earnings relationship under right-wing governments and a weak relationship when unions are influential. Using panel data for 19 OECD countries, we find support for these theoretical predictions. Moreover, we show that the earnings relationship varies negatively with openness.     

Incentives and their dynamics in public sector performance management systems

We use the principal‐agent model as a focal theoretical frame for synthesizing what we know, both theoretically and empirically, about the design and dynamics of the implementation of performance management systems in the public sector. In this context, we review the growing body of evidence about how performance measurement and incentive systems function in practice and how individuals and organizations respond and adapt to them over time, drawing primarily on examples from performance measurement systems in public education and social welfare programs. We also describe a dynamic framework for performance measurement systems that takes into account strategic behavior of individuals over time, learning about production functions and individual responses, accountability pressures, and the use of information about the relationship of measured performance to value added. Implications are discussed and recommendations derived for improving public sector performance measurement systems. © 2010 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

The Treatment Engagement Rating scale (TER) for forensic outpatient treatment: Description,psychometric properties,and norms

Abstract

The Treatment Engagement Rating scale (TER) is a Dutch therapist rating instrument for treatment engagement (TE) of forensic outpatients. It yields scores for nine components of TE, which are aggregated in a total score. Following an analysis of the concept of TE, the TER is described, and various psychometric analyses of data from a forensic outpatient sample are reported. The nine component scores were found to constitute a homogeneous scale with good internal consistency (α=0.93, n=328) and adequate inter-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)=0.76, n=99). The validity of the TER is supported by correlations of 0.47, 0.66, and 0.91 (n=328) with measures for the motivation to engage in treatment. Applications for the TER in clinical practice and research are suggested.     

Social structure of the Jewish quarter in Vienna during the liberal era (1850–1900)

The article examines the nature of residential and coresidential patterns in the second half of the 19th century in a district of Vienna known as Leopoldstadt, which had a large Jewish population. Analysis of a database from this district, paying attention to occupation and class variables, suggests that the Jewish population therein was more mixed than traditional interpretations suggest, and that the concentration of Jews there can plausibly be explained mainly by reference to residential choices made by Jews to live near an economic infrastructure that catered to their religious and cultural needs. The patterns identified in the data suggest further that in interpreting the residential patterns of the city it is necessary to conceptualize the problem as one of interaction between religion, economics, and residential choice.