Moral hazard in a mutual health-insurance system: German Knappschaften, 1867-1914

This paper studies moral hazard in a sickness-insurance fund that provided the model for social-insurance schemes around the world. The German Knappschaften were formed in the medieval period to provide sickness, accident, and death benefits for miners. By the mid-nineteenth century, participation in the Knappschaft was compulsory for workers in mines and related occupations, and the range and generosity of benefits had expanded considerably. Each Knappschaft was locally controlled and self-funded, and their admirers saw in them the ability to use local knowledge and good incentives to deliver benefits at low cost. The Knappschaft underlies Bismarck’s sickness and accident insurance legislation (1883 and 1884), which in turn forms the basis of the German social-insurance system today and, indirectly, many social-insurance systems around the world. This paper focuses on a problem central to any insurance system, and one that plagued the Knappschaften as they grew larger in the later nineteenth century: the problem of moral hazard. Replacement pay for sick miners made it attractive, on the margin, for miners to invent or exaggerate conditions that made it impossible for them to work. Here we outline the moral hazard problem the Knappschaften faced as well as the internal mechanisms they devised to control it. We then use econometric models to demonstrate that those mechanisms were at best imperfect.sickness insurance, moral hazard, Knappschaft, social insurance

Making sense of the city : representing the multi-modality of urban space

This project emerged from a previous multidisciplinary Designing for the 21st Century project - Design Imaging. The original project explored ways in which the full range of our senses would be exploited to assist with the design process. Discussions on multisensory and multimodal design led to a number of avenues being identified for further research. One in particular, that of representing urban space in multisensory manner was the subject of a successful second-round grant application from the Departments of Architecture and Design, Manufacture, and Engineering Management at the University of Strathclyde. The urban environment is experienced through each of our senses. Despite this, urban design practices and urban representation have focused their attention on the visual. This project posits the thesis that a fuller urban environment can be designed by attending multiple sensory modalities, by giving equal weight to the aural, the tactile, the olfactory, the gustatory, the haptic, the kinetic and the thermal

Moral Hazard in a Mutual Health-Insurance System: German Knappschaften, 1867–1914

The Knappschaft underlies Bismarck’s sickness and accident insurance legislation (1883 and 1884), which in turn forms the basis of the German social-insurance system today and, indirectly, many social-insurance systems around the world. The Knappschaften were formed in the medieval period to provide sickness, accident, and death benefi ts for miners. By the mid-nineteenth century, participation in the Knappschaft was compulsory for workers in mines and related occupations, and the range and generosity of benefi ts had expanded considerably. Each Knappschaft was locally controlled and self-funded, and their admirers saw in them the ability to use local knowledge and good incentives to deliver benefi ts at low cost. This paper focuses on a problem central to any insurance system, and one that plagued the Knappschaften as they grew larger in the later nineteenth century: the problem of moral hazard. Replacement pay for sick miners made it attractive, on the margin, for miners to invent or exaggerate conditions that made it impossible for them to work. Here we outline the moral hazard problem the Knappschaften faced as well as the internal mechanisms they devised to control it. We then use econometric models to demonstrate that those mechanisms were at best imperfect.Sickness insurance; moral hazard; malingering; Knappschaft; social insurance

Social-cultural aspects of the functioning of an institutional network, which is the base for the regional pro-innovating strategy implementation

A technology transfer is a key to an efficient innovating strategy implementation process. The institutional network should support this process. The aim of the paper is to point out the 'soft' circumstances which appear when institutions start to co-operate in such network. Furthermore some directions will be given how to face with negative circumstances. In the first part of the paper the social cultural aspects of cooperation between institutions within the network will be presented. The analyse will be mainly focused on processes of autonomisation and enclosing on an external cooperation in these institutions. The second part of the paper is a case study. A creation process of technological parks at the Silesian region will be analysed. Using this example the methods of dealing with difficulties which are discussed will be demonstrated.

Subsidence resulting from mining

Illinois coal mining investigations, cooperative agreement. (This report was prepared under a cooperative agreement between the Engineering Experiment Station of the University of Illinois, the Illinois State Geological survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines)Bibliography: p. [180]-205

Saxony's capital Dresden: On the way to become Eastern Germany's first Innovative Milieu?

In this paper, the chances of Saxonys capital city Dresden to become Eastern Germanys first high-tech-region is discussed. A presentation of the theoretical background of innovative milieux is followed by an overview of the regions universities, R&D institutes and other facilities relevant for milieu formation. Afterwards, the establishment of high-tech enterprises in the Dresden area is analyzed. The paper concludes giving a view of the regions further development potential. --

Age-Friendly Development of a District from the 1950s – the Südstadt in Hattingen

The central questions of the study are: Which adaptation strategies need to be taken in order to achieve integrated urban planning in German residential districts from the 1950s and to allow the elderly a self-determined and independent life within these neighborhoods, and which conceptual approaches arise in the three fields of action “dwelling”, “residential environment” and “social”. The empirical study area is Hattingen’s Südstadt, a typical district from the 1950s. Hattingen is a mid-sized city in Germany’s Ruhr region. The analysis of this neighborhood takes into account both challenges to the built structure and the residential environment as well as future social tasks. The intent is to show the responsible actors (municipalities and the housing industry) which possibilities exist to sustainably adapt the built stock in districts from the 1950s to the evolving demands of their inhabitants. Regarding changing demographic and social trends, these districts represent a housing stock that must be strengthened for the purpose of preserving the built structure and fostering development in the cores of cities

The Shift of Techno-Economic Paradigm and Its Effects on Regional Disparities

During the 1900?s we first lived thorough shift from the agricultural era to the industrial era. Nowadays, we are in the middle of the shift from the industrial era to the information era. The new era has several definitions based on different theories. At the same time, we talk about information society (knowledge is forming the main productivity factor), network society (new communication technology is connecting people), post-industrial society (change in production paradigm), service society (emphasis on services instead of production), expert society (increasing importance of skilled people and experts), learning society (learning ability becomes a critical factor), postmodern society (modernisation leads to individualism), innovation society (innovation is the driving force of economic growth), risk society (risks and uncertainty are increasing in society) and consumer society (consumer needs steer economic activities) These definitions reflect the different points of view of assessing the development we have been experiencing during the recent years. Each of these definitions emphasises different phenomena embedded in the change of present techno-economic paradigm, and each of them builds a basis for the assessment of the requirements of the changing environment. Although the definitions and theories describing the present change are mostly very abstract, some concrete indicators can be determined to describe the phase of the trajectory in the changing process of the society. The changes in the society should be assessed at regional level, especially as regional dimension is gaining importance in the development policies at the European level. In the regional context the question to rise first is, how the shift of techno-economic paradigm appears in the regional level and what its effect is on emerging regional disparities. Secondly, is it possible to evaluate, how the region?s adaptability to the shift of techno-economic paradigm correlates to its economical success. In the current study, an indicator is created to describe a regions? adaptability to the shift of techno-economic paradigm. The variables included in the adaptability indicator are derived from the theories describing the present society. The Finnish urban regions are used as the source of empirical data in this study. All Finnish urban regions are assessed based on the adaptability indicator and further on, the values of the adaptability indicator are compared to the respective values of indicators describing the economic success of the same regions.. Admittedly, the adaptability indicator does not describe the studied phenomenon completely, it might even be considered provocative. However, it gives some interesting results about the different kinds of development trajectories of urban regions, and gives valuable information for regional decision-making.

It’s All in Marshall: The Impact of External Economies on Regional Dynamics

Marshall's student Pigou noted: “It’s all in Marshall.” From a static point of view, this seems rather bold in a constantly changing world. However, this statement becomes more plausible in a dynamic context, where principles are subject to change. Indeed, over time, Marshall's concept of external economies gained fresh perspective as new concepts of regional characteristics and agglomeration evolved. This paper focuses on the impact of region and industry on dynamics and growth, distinguishing between industrial districts, industrial agglomerations and urban agglomerations. Based on these three types, we use a comprehensive large dataset on German regions to test the following: (1) these regions can be characterized by given location variables describing geographic location, firm structure, and surrounding location factors and (2) every region's locational variables affects its potential for dynamics.regional and urban development, agglomeration, industrial districts, location factors, external economies