Publish or perish? The increasing importance of publications for prospective economics professors in Austria, Germany and Switzerland

Tenure decisions depend, among other factors, on a candidate�s career age and publication record. We measure publications in units of both Top 5 journals and of the European Economic Review (EER), associating publication output with journals indexed in EconLit. We find that the average age of a professor in the year of his/her first appointment is 38, i.e. approximately 8 years after completing the PhD. Between 1970 and 2006, the average publication record at the time of the first appointment is equivalent to 1.5 standardized Top 5 articles (one co-author, 20 pages) or 2.3 standardized EER articles. Publication records vary across sub fields and improve over time. We predict that someone running for a tenured job after 2011 should (average of all fields) aim at an average equivalent of 4 standardized Top 5 articles or 6 standardized EER articles

Partisan veto players in Australia, Denmark, Finland and Germany: Government status and legislative behavior

In parliamentary systems, parties compete for votes and offices in the electoral arena but in many systems they also cooperate in the legislative arena. This paper examines the question of whether the government status of parties affects their legislative behaviour and, hence, policy outcomes. We develop a simple veto player model that includes parties' positional goals (vote, office, etc.) to formalize the notion of accommodating legislative behaviour. The model predicts that government parties are most accommodating while opposition parties are least accommodating. The hypothesis is then tested by comparing two pairs of most similar political systems: Danish and Finnish coalition governments, as well as German and Australian bicameralism. The case studies support the main hypothesis that government status systematically affects parties' level of accommodation. We conclude that this has important implications for the two major approaches in comparative institutional analysis advanced by Lijphart (1999) and Tsebelis (2002). Whilst Lijphart's distinction between joint and divided responsibility cannot provide a consistent theoretical rationale of his twodimensional map of democracies, Tsebelis' conception of purely policy-seeking actors may be insufficient to adequately identify veto players in comparative research. -- In parlamentarischen Systemen konkurrieren Parteien um Wählerstimmen und Ämter, aber in vielen Systemen kooperieren sie auch in der legislativen Arena. Das Papier untersucht die Frage, ob der Regierungs- versus Oppositionsstatus von Parteien ihr legislatives Verhalten und somit Politikergebnisse beeinflusst. Wir entwickeln ein einfaches Vetospielermodell, das positionale, das heißt auf Wählerstimmen oder Ämter bezogene, Erwägungen in den Politikpräferenzen von Parteien berücksichtigt und damit die verbreitete Vorstellung von (nicht-)akkommodierendem legislativem Verhalten formalisiert. Das Modell impliziert, dass Regierungsparteien am stärksten akkommodierend sind, Oppositionsparteien am wenigsten. Die Hypothese wird mit Hilfe zweier Vergleiche in einem most similar case Design getestet. Der erste Vergleich stellt dänische und finnische Koalitionsregierungen einander gegenüber, der zweite das deutsche und das australische Zweikammersystem. Die Fallvergleiche stützen die Hypothese, dass der Regierungsstatus von Parteien beeinflusst, wie akkommodierend sie sich verhalten. Das Ergebnis hat wichtige Implikationen für zwei bedeutende Ansätze in der vergleichenden Analyse politischer Institutionen: Lijpharts' Unterscheidung von Mehrheitsund Konsensdemokratien und Tsebelis' Vetospielertheorie. Lijpharts theoretische Gegenüberstellung von 'gemeinsamer' und 'getrennter' Verantwortung für Politikergebnisse liefert keine konsistente theoretische Begründung für seine zweidimensionale Messung moderner Demokratien; Tsebelis' Konzeption von Akteuren, die nur an Verbesserungen im Policy-Raum interessiert sind, scheint nicht hinreichend, um in vergleichenden Studien Vetospieler angemessen zu identifizieren.

Konjunkturschlaglicht: Leicht höhere Steuereinnahmen

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Large-scale BN tunnel barriers for graphene spintronics

We have fabricated graphene spin-valve devices utilizing scalable materials made from chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Both the spin-transporting graphene and the tunnel barrier material are CVD-grown. The tunnel barrier is realized by h-BN, used either as a monolayer or bilayer and placed over the graphene. Spin transport experiments were performed using ferromagnetic contacts deposited onto the barrier. We find that spin injection is still greatly suppressed in devices with a monolayer tunneling barrier due to resistance mismatch. This is, however, not the case for devices with bilayer barriers. For those devices, a spin relaxation time of 260 ps intrinsic to the CVD graphene material is deduced. This time scale is comparable to those reported for exfoliated graphene, suggesting that this CVD approach is promising for spintronic applications which require scalable materials.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Kleine Schritte auf einem langen Weg

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Low-Energy Spin Dynamics in geometrically frustrated 3d-Magnets and Single-Ion Spin Systems: µ+SR studies on BaTi0:5Mn0:5O3 and NaCaCo2F7 and 57Fe-Mössbauer spectroscopy on Fe-diluted Li2(Li1-xFex)N

In this work, I present nuclear probe spectroscopy studies, in detail, µ+SR and 57Fe-Mössbauer spectroscopy on solid-state systems with localized magnetic moments of 3d transition-metal ions supported by density functional theory calculations. Local probes are able to extract local quantities, e.g. the spin dynamics of the 57Fe site or the local, mostly interstitial µ+ site to distinguish between di_erent magnetic phases. The density functional theory calculations help to identify the muon site position from which the local quantity depends. My µ+SR studies on frustrated 3d magnets with quenched disorder concern the physics of phase transitions, avoided order-by-disorder, quantum uctuations or the appearance of spin-liquid-by-disorder. µ+SR is able to identify quantum spinliquid-like ground states without symmetry breaking or static magnetic order by the magnetic field at the muon site. BaTi0.5Mn0.5O3 is a magnetically highly-frustrated double perovskite with quenched disorder.It shows no freezing temperature or no frequency dependence of x1as expected for a spin glass. Microscopically, it is proposed that local interactions between magnetic orphan spins, dimers, and magnetic trimers of Mn4+ play an important role. The µ+SR experiment on BaTi0.5Mn0.5O3 shows an increase of the dynamical muon spin relaxation rate below 3 K which saturates down to 0.019 K coexisting with residual short-range magnetic order (<20% of the signal). A clear difference is observed in comparison with the classical cluster-spin glass SrTi0.5Mn0.5O3 which shows a peak of the zero-field muon spin relaxation rate: a persistent low-energy spin dynamics is present in BaTi0.5Mn0.5O3 down to 20 K. My DFT calculations propose a positive muon site insight the Ba plane close to O atoms. Here, a slight preference of the muon site close to Mn4+ is possible which could put the muon close the orphan spins, dimers, and magnetic trimers, respectively, avoiding the nonmagnetic Ti4+ face-sharing octahedra. Theoretically, a specific ground state of BaTi0.5Mn0.5O3 is not proposed. A clear discrimination between a quantum spin liquid ground state and a mimicry state with the appearance of spin-liquid-by-disorder is not possible from the existing data. I present a µ+SR study on the bond-disordered magnetically highly frustrated pyrochlore fluoride NaCaCo2F7. Neutron spectroscopy studies on NaCaCo2F7 revealed static short-range order consistent with a continuous manifold of cluster-like states being a superposition of noncoplanar ψ2(m3z2-r2) and coplanar ψ3(mx2-y2) states with a correlation length of around 16Å. No evidence for static magnetic long-range order is found in NaCaCo2F7 probed by µ+SR confirming the absence of an order-by-disorder mechanism. The experimental results are not consistent with a classical local-planar XY cluster-spin glassiness. In these µSR experiments, two muon sites are observed. The relative occupancy of both muon sites is nearly temperature independent. Muon site I is a collinear diamagnetic F-µ+-F bound state pulling two F- close towards the muon revealed by the muon spin time evolution. To investigate the pure F-µ+-F bound state in a broad temperature range I have performed an additional µ+SR study on CaF2. This study solved open questions of muon diffusion around 290 K which was observed in NaCaCo2F7 as well. The F-µ+-F spin relaxation indicates the slowing down of the magnetic Co2+ spin fluctuations upon cooling towards the NMR spin freezing temperature Tf≈ 2.4 K. The relaxation rate saturates below 800 mK and remains constant down to 20 mK. The dominant part of the magnetic short-range relaxation signal is a dynamical relaxation as probed by longitudinal magnetic-field experiments. Muon site II exhibits a strong dynamical relaxation rate at 290 K and below and shows persistent µ+ spin dynamics down to 20 mK. Qualitatively, muon site II shows persistent µ+ spin dynamics with one order of magnitude higher dynamical relaxation rates compared to muon site I. DFT calculations of a comparison of the unperturbed unit cells of NaCaCo2F7 and NaCaNi2F7, which has shown just one muon site experimentally, are consistent with a decrease of the energy differences of energy minima and support the experimentally observed muon site ambivalence. In summary, the µ+SR studies propose NaCaCo2F7 as a quantum cluster-spin glass candidate. I present a systematic 57Fe-Mössbauer study on highly diluted Fe centers in Li2(Li1-xFex)N as a function of temperature and magnetic field applied transverse and longitudinal with respect to the single-ion anisotropy axis. Here, Fe is embedded in an α-Li3N matrix. The oxidation state of Fe and possible ferromagnetic nature are in controversial discussions in the literature. Below 30 K the Fe centers exhibit a giant magnetic hyperfine field of BA=70.25(2) T parallel to the axis of strongest electric field gradient Vzz=-154.0(1) V / Å 2. This observation is consistent with a Fe1+d7 charge state with unquenched orbital moment and J=7/2. Fluctuations of the magnetic hyperfine field are observed between 50 K and 300 K and described by the Blume two-level relaxation model consistent with single-atomic magnetism as proven by the invariance of Blume relaxation parameters for the concentration tuning x< 0.025 excluding a ferromagnetic nature. From the temperature dependence of the fluctuation rate an Orbach spin-lattice relaxation process is deduced. An Arrhenius analysis yields a single thermal-activation barrier of EA=570(6) K and an attempt frequency v0=309(10) GHz. Mössbauer spectroscopy studies with applied transverse magnetic fields up to 5 T reveal a large increase of the fluctuation rate by two orders of magnitude. In longitudinal magnetic fields a splitting of the fluctuation rate into two branches is observed. The experimental observations are qualitatively reproduced by a single-ion spin Hamiltonian analysis. It demonstrates that for dominant magnetic quantum tunneling relaxation processes a weak axial single-ion anisotropy D of the order of a few Kelvin can cause a two orders of magnitude larger energy barrier for longitudinal spin fluctuations

Konjunkturschlaglicht: mehr Steuereinnahmen

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Partisan veto players in Australia, Denmark, Finland and Germany: government status and legislative behavior

"In parlamentarischen Systemen konkurrieren Parteien um Wählerstimmen und Ämter, aber in vielen Systemen kooperieren sie auch in der legislativen Arena. Das Papier untersucht die Frage, ob der Regierungs- versus Oppositionsstatus von Parteien ihr legislatives Verhalten und somit Politikergebnisse beeinflusst. Wir entwickeln ein einfaches Vetospielermodell, das positionale, das heißt auf Wählerstimmen oder Ämter bezogene, Erwägungen in den Politikpräferenzen von Parteien berücksichtigt und damit die verbreitete Vorstellung von (nicht-)akkommodierendem legislativem Verhalten formalisiert. Das Modell impliziert, dass Regierungsparteien am stärksten akkommodierend sind, Oppositionsparteien am wenigsten. Die Hypothese wird mit Hilfe zweier Vergleiche in einem most similar case Design getestet. Der erste Vergleich stellt dänische und finnische Koalitionsregierungen einander gegenüber, der zweite das deutsche und das australische Zweikammersystem. Die Fallvergleiche stützen die Hypothese, dass der Regierungsstatus von Parteien beeinflusst, wie akkommodierend sie sich verhalten. Das Ergebnis hat wichtige Implikationen für zwei bedeutende Ansätze in der vergleichenden Analyse politischer Institutionen: Lijpharts’ Unterscheidung von Mehrheitsund Konsensdemokratien und Tsebelis’ Vetospielertheorie. Lijpharts theoretische Gegenüberstellung von „gemeinsamer“ und „getrennter“ Verantwortung für Politikergebnisse liefert keine konsistente theoretische Begründung für seine zweidimensionale Messung moderner Demokratien; Tsebelis’ Konzeption von Akteuren, die nur an Verbesserungen im Policy-Raum interessiert sind, scheint nicht hinreichend, um in vergleichenden Studien Vetospieler angemessen zu identifizieren." [Autorenreferat]"In parliamentary systems, parties compete for votes and offices in the electoral arena but in many systems they also cooperate in the legislative arena. This paper examines the question of whether the government status of parties affects their legislative behaviour and, hence, policy outcomes. We develop a simple veto player model that includes parties’ positional goals (vote, office, etc.) to formalize the notion of accommodating legislative behaviour. The model predicts that government parties are most accommodating while opposition parties are least accommodating. The hypothesis is then tested by comparing two pairs of most similar political systems: Danish and Finnish coalition governments, as well as German and Australian bicameralism. The case studies support the main hypothesis that government status systematically affects parties’ level of accommodation. We conclude that this has important implications for the two major approaches in comparative institutional analysis advanced by Lijphart (1999) and Tsebelis (2002). Whilst Lijphart’s distinction between joint and divided responsibility cannot provide a consistent theoretical rationale of his twodimensional map of democracies, Tsebelis’ conception of purely policy-seeking actors may be insufficient to adequately identify veto players in comparative research." [author´s abstract

Ökonomische Konsequenzen des Konsums von nicht in Deutschland versteuerten Zigaretten

Die deutsche Zigarettenindustrie lässt seit August 2004 die Zahl der nicht in Deutschland versteuerten Zigaretten durch das Marktforschungsinstitut Ipsos schätzen (Ipsos-Studie). Diese Studie basiert auf einer Auswertung von monatlich 12.000 an Verwertungsstellen des Dualen Systems gesammelten leeren Zigarettenschachtel und stellt eine repräsentative Abbildung des Zigarettenkonsums in Deutschland dar (siehe auch Überprüfung der Methodik zu Schätzung der nicht versteuerten Zigaretten in Deutschland, Bräuninger&Schulze). Diese Analyse zeigt, dass mit rund 20% ein erheblicher Anteil der in Deutschland konsumierten Zigaretten nicht in Deutschland versteuert wurde. Ziel dieser Untersuchung ist es, Ausmaß und Bedeutung des Konsums nicht in Deutschland versteuerter Zigaretten darzustellen, um anschließend die Ursachen und die Folgen dieses Konsums zu untersuchen. --