Research

This research project revisits the question of gender bias in financial markets. Using theories from sociology, social psychology, and finance, we develop an interdisciplinary framework to explain how investor perception of future firm performance may be skewed by gender stereotypes, leading to a gender bias in market reaction to CEO announcements.  

In this project, we develop and test a rigorous framework of gender bias in financial markets, where the relative proportion of female CEOs and the amount of information about them affect investor perception: due only to their relative paucity, female CEOs remain tokens, which leads to disproportionate visibility and the double-bind of gender stereotypes. As investors rely on precious information to evaluate future firm performance, they are likely to employ mental heuristics for the assessment of female CEOs, especially when announcements contain little background information.

Based on this framework, we empirically investigate whether the market reacts differently to male and female CEO announcements over time and by firm size.

Researcher: Kylie Braegelmann

Selected Publications:

• Braegelmann, K / Ujah, N. (2020). “Gender Matters: Market Perception of Future Performance”, Managerial Finance,  Vol. 46 No. 10, pp. 1247-1262. available here

The Economy of Obesity

The rise of obesity is a serious public health concern in most countries around the world. Our research focuses of various aspects associated with the socio-economic determinants of obesity, both among adults and children. Studies have been conducted in Europe, China and Cuba.

Researchers:

Alfonso Sousa-Poza, Wencke Gwozdz, Peng Nie

 

 

Selected Publications:

• Nie, P./Ding, L.Sousa-Poza, A. (2019), “Decomposing adult obesity trends in China (1991–2011)”, Economics & Human Biology (forthcoming).
• Gwozdz, W./Nie, P./Sousa‐Poza, A. et al. (2019) “Peer Effects on Weight Status, Dietary Behaviour and Physical Activity among Adolescents in Europe: Findings from the I. Family Study”, Kyklos 72 (2), 270-296.
• Nie, P./Gwozdz, W./Reisch, L./Sousa-Poza, A. (2017), "Values, Norms, and Peer Effects on Weight Status", Journal of Obesity.
• Nie, P./Sousa-Poza, A./He, X. (2015), "Peer effects on childhood and adolescent obesity in China", China Economic Review, 35:47-69.
• Gwozdz, W./Sousa-Poza, A. et al. (2015), "Peer Effects on Obesity in a Sample of European Children", Economics and Human Biology, 18:139-152.
• Nie, P./Sousa-Poza, A. (2014), "Maternal employment and childhood obesity in China: evidence from the China Health and Nutrition Survey", Applied Economics, 46(20):2418-2428.
• Gwozdz, W./Sousa-Poza, A. et al.(2013), "Maternal Employment and Child Obesity: A European Perspective", Journal of Health Economics.

Participation in social life through human-machine-interaction with smart urban objects (UrbanLife+)

With increasing age, health deteriorates and mobility, physical fitness, and mental abilities also decline. Thus, aging often leads to lower participation in social life. The increasing share of elderly living in urban cities challenges municipalities to provide public infrastructures and services that are "elderly-friendly". The goal is to develop city districts in which older adults live safely and participate actively in social life. This goal can be addressed by technology-based assistance for outdoor mobility such that older adults remain independent and can pursue errands and leisure activities of their own. An innovative approach is "smartification" defined as using Internet-of-Things technology to advance the public infrastructures and provide assistive services tailored to the needs of older adults. Smartification allows for interactions between older adults and so called "smart urban objects", e.g., street lights, bus stops, benches. Older adults can then use smart urban objects and the underlying information services to navigate in the urban environment, overcome actual and perceived barriers, and call for individual support. In the five-year project UrbanLife+, we are taking part in developing such novel solutions and evaluating their usefulness, efficacy, and acceptance through field studies and experiments in the city of Mönchengladbach (Germany).

Researcher: Marvin Hubl, Stefan Kirn, Jörg Leukel, Barbara Schehl

Selected Publications:

• Leukel, J., Schehl, B., & Sugumaran, V. (2021). Digital inequality among older adults: explaining differences in the breadth of Internet use. Information, Communication & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1942951
• Leukel, J., Schehl, B., & Sugumaran, V. (2020). To do or not to do: How socio-demographic characteristics of older adults are associated with online activities. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population (ITAP 2020) (pp. 255-268). Copenhagen, Denmark. LNCS 12209. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50232-4_18
• Schehl, B., & Leukel, J. (2020) Assosiations between individual factors, and outdoor independence in older adults. European Journal of Ageing. doi.org/10.1007/s10433-020-00553-y
• Schehl, B., & Leukel, J. (2020) Assosiations between individual factors, and outdoor independence in older adults. European Journal of Ageing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-020-00553-y
• Schehl, B. (2020). Outdoor activity among older adults: Exploring the role of informational Internet use. Educational Gerontology, 46(1), 36-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2019.1698200
• Schehl, B., Leukel, J., & Sugumaran, V. (2019). Understanding differentiated internet use in older adults: A study of informational, social, and instrumental online activities. Computers in Human Behavior. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2019.03.031
• Hubl, M., Skowron, P., & Aleithe, M. (2018). Towards a supportive city with smart urban objects in the Internet of Things: The case of adaptive park bench and adaptive light. In Position Papers of the 2018 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS 2018). Poznan, Poland.
• Hubl, M. (2018). Adaption rule for simultaneous use of smart urban objects from a fairness perspective. In Proceedings of the 20th IEEE International Conference on Business Informatics (CBI 2018). Vienna, Austria.
• Leukel, J., Schehl, B., Wallrafen, S., & Hubl, M. (2017). Impact of IT use by older adults on their outdoor activities. In Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2017). Seoul, Korea.

The volatility of food prices is relatively higher compared to other goods private consumer usually consume. Food price volatility impacts in particular low-income households in developing and emerging countries. Volatile food prices threaten accessibility to food and thus food security and intensify the risk of poverty as well as the vulnerability towards other types of shocks.

The aim of the project is to develop the theoretical fundamentals for a demand-oriented index-based insurance product to insure households against consumption risks induced by food price volatility. Hence, the project studies will cover analysis on the effect of food price volatility on applied self-insurance strategies, the effect of remittances on self-insurance as well as to develop the fundamentals for an integrated index-based insurance product insuring consumption risks.

Researcher: Julian Hochscherf

Working Paper:

• Hochscherf, J. (2015). Labor Time Allocation of Farm Households: The Case of Volatile Food Prices, Working Paper, verfügbar unter: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2547611
• Hochscherf, J. (2015). Income Heterogeneity and Index Insurance Demand, Working Paper, verfügbar unter: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2604068

As health expenditure have risen, out-of-pocket expenses from copayments and standard benefit exclusions have recently been increasing in the German statutory health insurance (SHI). Hence, private supplementary health insurance policies which enable individuals to reduce or close the widening coverage gaps in the SHI become more and more important. For instance, the demand for supplementary dental and long-term care insurance has increased significantly in recent years. However, a potential problem of this shifting to private supplementary health insurance markets is asymmetric information between the insurance company and the policyholders. If insurers are not able, or not allowed, to fully adjust premiums for individual risk type, adverse selection might occur on the one hand. Thus, particularly high-risk individuals demand policies with comprehensive insurance coverage. On the other hand, multidimensional private information may lead to an advantageous selection for the insurance companies, i.e. comprehensive insurance coverage is particularly demanded by low-risk individuals due to their relatively high risk aversion, for instance. Selection effects may lead to inefficiencies in insurance markets even if they offset each other.

This research project analyzes selection effects in the German market for private supplementary health insurance and for private complementary long-term care insurance.

Researchers: Jan Bauer, Renate Lange, Jörg Schiller, Christopher Schreckenberger, Max-Josef Trautinger

Publication and Working Paper:

• Bauer, J. M., Schiller, J., & Schreckenberger, C. (2017). Heterogeneous Selection in the Market for Private Supplemental Dental Insurance: Evidence from Germany, SSRN Working Paper, available here
• Bauer, J. M., Schiller, J., Schreckenberger, C., & Trautinger, M.-J. (2017). Selection Behavior in the Market for Complementary Long-term Care Insurance in Germany, SSRN Working Paper, verfügbar unter: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2995424
• Lange, R., Schiller, J., & Steinorth, P. (2017): Demand and Selection Effects in Supplemental Health Insurance in Germany, The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issue and Practice, 42(1), 5-30.

 Sustainable human resource and knowledge management plays an increasingly important role for quality assurance, staff development and sustainability in hospitals.

The aim of this research project is to analyse the status of implementation and objective of e-learning applications and so called learning management systems (LMS) in German hospitals. The first phase of the project aimed at presenting the current status. In this context, potentials from literature were compared with the objectives and areas of application in hospitals in 2014. These results were published in “Das Krankenhaus” in 2016.

The follow-up survey about the status of implementation and the beneficial factors of e-learning in German hospitals was conducted in November 2016. A publication of the results is in progress.

Further investigations are planned for 2018.

 Researchers: Vanessa-Emily Schoch, Christian Ernst

 Selected Publications:

• V.-E. Schoch mit A. Pangerl (2018). Digitalisierung im Krankenhaus: E-Learning auf dem Vormarsch. Das Krankenhaus.
• Prof. Dr. Christian Ernst, Martin Richter, Carola Mönch, Fabian Baerwigg, Andrea Beck (2016). Wissensmanagement und Personalentwicklung durch E-Learning in deutschen Krankenhäusern. Das Krankenhaus.
• M. Holderried, S. Vosskuehler, F. Holderried und V.-E. Schoch (2015). How EHealth can Improve Quality and Safety of Intersectoral Care? A Survey Based Study. ISQUA15-1255.

 Costs per minute of provided OR time amount up to US$ 20. After the change of hospital reimbursement in 2004 to DRGs associated with economic risk for hospitals, it is not surprising that an optimization of this resource-intensive area is getting more attention in the recent years. In order to ensure efficient use of hospitals limited resources, measures to increase efficiency of OR processes are implemented. In this context, performance measurement and the selection of appropriate performance measures are highly important.

The aim of the project is to identify influencing factors on relevant OR performance metrics and the development of appropriate measures to set incentives in OR. The project aims to identify success factors for effective management in the OR, to reduce risk factors of process and patient safety as well as to improve reporting and strategic management.

 Researchers: Christian Ernst, Martin Richter, Tanja Wollensak, Jörg Schiller, Katharina Seck, Robert Jung, Alexander Schmidt 

Selected Publications:

• Szczesny, Andrea und Ernst, Christian (2016). The Role of Performance Reporting System Characteristics for the Coordination of High-Cost Areas in Hospitals. European Accounting Review.
• Ernst C, Szczesny A, Soderstrom N, Siegmund F, Schleppers A. (2012). Success of commonly used operating room management tools in reducing tardiness of first case of the day starts: evidence from German hospitals. Anesthesia & Analgesia.

Operating rooms (ORs) are often focal organizational islands in the hospital, which require a strong alignment of hospital processes with the OR processes. This focal role can lead to considerable deficiencies in quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of the upstream and downstream processes. In particular, logistics processes are often managed locally withouth taken the actors, resources, and tasks of other units into account. A novel approach to improve process performance is intelligent, data-driven process management within and beyond the operating room. In the three-year project InnOPlan, we developed data-driven models and tools that can assist the management of logistics processes around the OR. Specifically, we focused on process representation, data-driven process analysis, and intelligent prediction models. We evaluated their usefulness and efficacy in simulation experiments complemented by extensive field work.

Researcher: Stefan Kirn, Achim Klein, Marc Premm, Martin Riekert

Selected Publications:

• Riekert, M., Premm, M., Klein, A., Kirilov, L., Kenngott, H., Apitz, M., Wagner, M., & Ternes, L. (2017). Predicting the duration of surgeries to improve process efficiency in hospitals. In Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2017). Guimaraes, Portugal.
• Premm, M., Riekert, M., Klein, A., & Kirn, S. (2017). Modelling processes in fractalized hospitals with multiagent systems and data analytics. In Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on eHealth Services and Technology (EHST 2015). Rhodos, Greece.
• Wagner, M., Ternes, L. M., Apitz, M., Rempel, R., Schneider, G., Riekert, M., Klein, A., Bergh, B., Müller-Stich, B. P., & Kenngott, H. G. (2015)- Towards data-driven analysis of perioperative surgical treatment processes. In Proceedings der 14. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Computer- und Roboterassistierte Chirurgie (CURAC 2015). Bremen, Germany.

The various studies focus on the German nursing market and its nursing staff, whose employment relationships are analysed in terms of job satisfaction, job stickiness and working hour constraints. The studies are based on data from the socio-economic panel collected over a period of more than 20 years. The studies come to the conclusion that job satisfaction among German nurses has fallen sharply, even though job stickiness increases. Against this background, deteriorating working conditions and legal changes as well as restructuring play an important role. The study also examines the extent to which the discrepancy between the contractual, desired and actual working hours of nursing staff can explain this trend.

Researchers: Alfonso Sousa-Poza, Steffen Otterbach, Mohamad Alameddine, Bayan Rafii, Jan Michael Bauer, Martin Richter

Selected publications:

• Alameddine, M. / Otterbach, S. / Rafii, B. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2018). “Work hour constraints in the German nursing workforce: A quarter of a century in review”, Health Policy
• Alameddine, M. / Bauer, J.M. / Richter, M. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2017). “The paradox of falling job satisfaction with rising job stickiness in the German nursing workforce between 1990 and 2013”, Human Resources for Health, 15(1):55
• Alameddine, M. / Bauer, J.M. / Richter, M. / Sousa-Poza, A. (2016). “Trends in job satisfaction among German nurses from 1990 to 2012“, Journal of Helath Services Research & Policy, 21(2): 101-108.