In Search of Workers' Real Effort Reciprocity - A Field and a Laboratory Experiment

updated version of paper no 5

In Search of Workers' Real Effort Reciprocity - A Field and a Laboratory Experiment

We present a field experiment to assess the effect of own and peer wage variations on actual work effort of employees with hourly wages. Work effort neither reacts to an increase of the own wage, nor to a positive or negative peer comparison. This result seems at odds with numerous laboratory experiments that show a clear own wage sensitivity on effort. In an additional real-effort laboratory experiment we show that explicit cost and surplus information that enables to exactly calculate employer’s surplus from the work contract is a crucial pre-requisite for a positive wage-effort relation. This demonstrates that employee’s reciprocity requires a clear assessment of the surplus at stake

Spirit Mediumship in Brazil: The Controversy about Semi-Conscious Mediums

This article focuses on spirit mediumship in Brazil. The term mediumship refers to the communication between humans the spirit world which is the core of Spiritism. In anthropological literature it is often categorised as altered states of consciousness, however, people experiencing it reject these categorizations. This article presents excerpts from interviews with Brazilian spiritists in order to illustrate the different ways people explain mediumship to an outsider, an anthropologist from Europe. The article then discusses their interpretation within the wider academic discourse surrounding this kind of experience. The intention is that Brazilian Spiritism and the wider discourse surrounding mediumship will serve as a case study to present the complexity of this form of religious experience

In Search of Workers' Real Effort Reciprocity - A Field and a Laboratory Experiment

updated version of paper no 55efficiency wage; reciprocity; fairness; field experiment; real effort

In Search of Worker's Real Effort Reciprocity - A Field and a Laboratory Experiment

We present a field experiment to assess the effect of own and peer wage variations on actual work effort of employees with hourly wages. Work effort neither reacts to an increase of the own wage, nor to a positive or negative peer comparison. This result seems at odds with numerous laboratory experiments that show a clear own wage sensitivity on effort. In an additional real-effort laboratory experiment we show that explicit cost and surplus information that enables to exactly calculate employer's surplus from the work contract is a crucial pre-requisite for a positive wage-effort relation. This demonstrates that employee's reciprocity requires a clear assessment of the surplus at stake.efficiency wage, reciprocity, fairness, feild experiment, real effort

In Search of Workers' Real Effort Reciprocity - A Field and a Laboratory Experiment

We present a field experiment to assess the effect of own and peer wage variations on actual work effort of employees with hourly wages. Work effort neither reacts to an increase of the own wage, nor to a positive or negative peer comparison. This result seems at odds with numerous laboratory experiments that show a clear own wage sensitivity on effort. In an additional real-effort laboratory experiment we show that explicit cost and surplus information that enables to exactly calculate employer’s surplus from the work contract is a crucial pre-requisite for a positive wage-effort relation. This demonstrates that employee’s reciprocity requires a clear assessment of the surplus at stake.efficiency wage; reciprocity; fairness; field experiment; real effort

Incomplete and Asymmetric Surplus Information in Labor Relations

Numerous laboratory experiments show that workers reciprocate to high wages with high effort, when there is perfect information on the surplus created. Recent field experiments, however, suggest that trust and reciprocity may be lower or absent when the information is incomplete. We report a laboratory experiment with symmetric and asymmetric incomplete surplus information in a “bilateral gift exchange” setting. We find that trust and reciprocity have a significant positive effect on wages, effort and efficiency. But, all three are substantially lower under incomplete than under complete information. The negative impact on wages and efficiency is even greater with information asymmetry.trust, reciprocity, efficiency, incomplete information, asymmetric information

Peggy the Tutor, Mentor, Colleague and Friend.

Introduction to the Festschrift - Essays in Honour of Peggy Morga

Immunmodulatorische Funktion der Surfactant-assoziierten Proteine A und D im Rahmen der lokalen Immunabwehr in der Lunge

Die hydrophilen pulmonalen Surfactantproteine A und D (SP-A, SP-D) gehören zur Gruppe der C-Typ Lektine und spielen bei der angeborenen, primären Immunantwort der Lunge eine Rolle. In mehreren Studien wurde gezeigt, dass SP-A und SP-D mit einer Reihe von Mikroorganismen und pulmonalen Entzündungszellen interagieren. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Funktion von SP-A und SP-D bei der Immunabwehr Mukoviszidose-assoziierter Keime wie Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Xanthomonas maltophilia, Burgholderia cepacia und Staphylococcus aureus untersucht. Hierzu wurden zunächst insgesamt 57 klinische Isolate der Bakterien, darunter 35 P. aeruginosa Stämme, durch Sero- beziehungsweise Pyozintypisierung, Alginatbildung oder Kollagenase-aktivität charakterisiert. Wir untersuchten, inwiefern Agglutination und Proliferation der Bakterien sowie die Phagozytose speziell von P. aeruginosa durch SP-A und SP-D beeinflusst werden können. Die hier gezeigten Ergebnisse demonstrieren, dass SP-A und SP-D an P. aeruginosa binden. Die Interaktion mit den Bakterien ist kalziumabhängig, wird durch einfache Kohlehydrate gehemmt und somit über die Lektin/Kohlehydrat-Bindungsstellen der Surfactantproteine vermittelt. Trotz Bindung an plastikadhärente P. aeruginosa induziert SP-A keine Agglutination der Bakterien. SP-D hingegen agglutiniert P. aeruginosa. Darüber hinaus hemmt SP-D unabhängig von der Agglutination konzentrationsabhängig das Wachstum von P. aeruginosa. SP-D stimuliert die Phagozytose von Bakterien, indem es als Opsonin die Aufnahme der Keime durch eine humane Makrophagen Zelllinie verstärkt. SP-A beeinflusste die Phagozytose der untersuchten Keime dagegen nicht. Zusammenfassend konnte gezeigt werden, dass SP-A und SP-D unterschiedliche immunmodulatorische Funktionen haben. SP-D stimuliert durch verstärkte Phagozytose unabhängig vom LPS Serotyp die Abwehr Mukoviszidose-assoziierter Keime, speziell nicht mukoider P. aeruginosa. Beide Surfactantproteine binden spezifisch P. aeruginosa, aber nur SP-D induziert deren Agglutination und führt durch die Bildung von größeren Aggregaten möglicherweise zur Steigerung der pulmonalen Clearance der Bakterien