Old Times, Better Times? German Miners’ Knappschaften, Pay-as-you-go Pensions, and Implicit Rates of Return, 1854–1913

This paper contributes to the literature on the weakness of modern pay-as-you-go social security systems in financing pensions by taking a business and economic historical perspective on the issue. It focuses on Prussian Knappschaften (plural of Knappschaft), which provided miners with compulsory invalidity and implicit old-age insurance, and studies the period from 1854 to 1913. Knappschaften used the pay-as-you-go mechanism, and, in the long-term, came under financial pressure by the rising number of pensioners. The question to be answered is whether Knappschaften were able to off er cohorts of miners entering the system at diff erent times the same implicit rates of return. Did Knappschaften provide an intergenerationally sustainable policy, or did adjustments of contributions and other parameters decrease the dividend for insured miners over time?Insurance; implicit rates of return; Knappschaft; mining; pay-as-you-go; pensions; Prussia; welfare state

The Hazard of Merger by Absorption – Why Some Knappschaften Merged and Others Did not: 1861–1920

By the mid-19th century, following the Prussian mining reform, German miners‘ combined mutual health and pension funds took on the characteristics of social insurance and underwent a concentration process driven by mergers, liquidations, and unequal internal growth. This paper investigates the determinants of mergers by absorption among Prussian funds combined with quantitative evidence from a regression model, provides new insights into the first social-insurance merger wave in Germany. While most contemporary sources convey the impression that funds were merged to stabilize the entire insurance scheme by sorting out actuarially unviable and financially distressed funds, statistical evidence suggests that funds were absorbed over time primarily because they offered advantages to the absorbing fund and, hence, were quite attractive targets.Competing risk; financial distress; insurance; Knappschaft; liquidation; merger; mining

On the historical roots of the modern welfare state: the Knappschaft statistics of 1861 to 1920 as a source for quantitative historical social research

"This article introduces the Knappschaft statistics as a basic source for quantitative data on a very important topic in historical social research, namely the rise of the welfare state. Scholars who seek to embark upon historical social research in that direction require both qualitative and quantitative data. Exploring data sources and making data available for general use thus is crucial to systematic research and scholarly discourse. For the period 1861 to 1920, the Knappschaft statistics document the operation of the various German Knappschaftsvereine as the carriers of miners' occupational social insurance at the time. Data on the various Knappschaften are quite rich enabling us to use them as a 'historical laboratory' not merely to study the welfare positions of and social relations in a particular societal class in a particular period, but to explore more general questions related to the roots of modern welfare states, their functioning, and the challenges they face. To stress this point, the author combines the concise overview of the Knappschaft statistics with a straightforward application to the question of the consequences of aging in a pay-as-you-go pension system." (author's abstract

The welfare state evolves: German Knappschaften, 1854 - 1923

This paper reviews the German miners' model of mutual insurance from its introduction in 1854 to its basic reformation in 1923. Its core feature was the provision of cash benefits for compensation of income losses due to temporary sickness and permanent invalidity or death of the bread-winner. The carriers of the insurance scheme, the Knappschaften, date back to medieval times, and the Knappschaft is still present today as the second pillar of the German statutory old-age insurance. This paper aims to establish the Knappschaft insurance's main characteristics in the period under consideration. These include, for example, compulsory membership, shared financing between employed miners and entrepreneurs, selfmanagement, financing based on earnings-related social insurance contributions, a strong emphasis of the insurance principle, and application of the pay-as-you-go mechanism. The organisational analysis is complemented quantitatively, on the one hand, by evidence on increasing generosity and, on the other hand, evidence on increasing financial distress substantiating the shadow side of a maturing pay-as-you-go based scheme. In particular, Knappschaften experienced all trends we commonly associate with today's systems in the second half of the 20th century as early as in the 19th century, even before the Bismarckian insurance was installed from 1883 on: Increasing social security spending, rising pensioners-tocontributors ratios, concentration and pressure on finances forcing Knappschaften to adjust their fiscal policy according to the mechanics of pay-as-you-go. --Bismarck,mining,pay-as-you-go,social security,welfare state

Burnout After Patient Death: Challenges for Direct Care Workers.

Direct care workers in long-term care can develop close relationships with their patients and subsequently experience significant grief after patient death. Consequences of this experience for employment outcomes have received little attention. To investigate staff, institutional, patient, and grief factors as predictors of burnout dimensions among direct care workers who had experienced recent patient death; determine which specific aspects of these factors are of particular importance; and establish grief as an independent predictor of burnout dimensions. Participants were 140 certified nursing assistants and 80 homecare workers who recently experienced patient death. Data collection involved comprehensive semistructured in-person interviews. Standardized assessments and structured questions addressed staff, patient, and institutional characteristics, grief symptoms and grief avoidance, as well as burnout dimensions (depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and personal accomplishment). Hierarchical regressions revealed that grief factors accounted for unique variance in depersonalization, over and above staff, patient, and institutional factors. Supervisor support and caregiving benefits were consistently associated with higher levels on burnout dimensions. In contrast, coworker support was associated with a higher likelihood of depersonalization and emotional exhaustion. Findings suggest that grief over patient death plays an overlooked role in direct care worker burnout. High supervisor support and caregiving benefits may have protective effects with respect to burnout, whereas high coworker support may constitute a reflection of burnout

Applications of technology in visitor attractions: Revisiting Stipanuk\u27s perspective of the tourism/technology interface

In the face of an increasingly sophisticated consumer base, attractions of all types are embracing technology as a means of \u27creating\u27 or enhancing the visitor experience (Neuhofer, Buhalis & Ladkin, 2014). Perhaps because they represent the most obvious example of technological application in attractions, theme parks have been the primary focus of contemporary literature as it relates to the tourism/technology nexus. However, it is suggested that this perspective is too narrow as it neglects the myriad of uses of technologies across the entire spectrum of attractions. This paper revisits the seminal work of Stipanuk (1993) which called for a broader view, postulating applications ranging from technology as creator/enhancer, to technology as protector, focal point, and even, potentially, destroyer of attractions. A conceptual model is then advanced which depicts technology as having an eclectic set of applications across a broad spectrum of attractions

Choose your own adventure: understanding why students prefer certain types of assessment

Empowering students with choice when it comes to assessment is shown to have a positive impact on student satisfaction and success, with previous studies finding a more flexible approach to assessment can promote engagement and performance. However, very little is known about why students choose certain types of assessment. Building on previous research, this study examines the many factors that influence student choice of assessment in an undergraduate business unit. Leveraging data collected over two semesters, our study found that student choice of assessment was primarily influenced by whether students thought the assessment was interesting, with 46% of overall respondents stating that this strongly influenced their decision. Requirements easy to understand (41%) and Better schedule fit (39%) rounded out the top three reasons for choosing an assessment. In contrast, only 22% of students were strongly influenced by the relevance of the assessment to their current career and 23% to the relevance to their future career. This raises some critical questions for educators, and the higher education sector more broadly, given the apparent focus on the creation of career-ready graduates. As such, our results can help higher education institutes determine the best possible mix of assessment tasks, by better understanding the wants and needs of students in order to provide a high quality learner experience

Loneliness during COVID-19: Development and influencing factors

In early pandemic waves, when vaccination against COVID-19 was not yet an option, distancing and reduced social contact were the most effective measures to slow down the pandemic. Changes in frequency and forms of social contact have reduced the spread of the COVID-19 virus and thus saved lives, yet there is increasing evidence for negative side effects such as mental health issues. In the present study, we investigate the development of loneliness and its predictors to examine the role of changes in social networks due to social distancing and other COVID-19-related life changes. A total of 737 participants (age range = 18–81 years) completed an online survey in three waves during the last quarter of 2020 at one-month intervals. Latent growth and multilevel modeling revealed that emotional loneliness increased over time, while social loneliness remained stable. Moreover, socially lonely individuals were likely to also develop emotional loneliness over time. Increased social distancing and sanitary measures were accompanied by decreased social interactions and loss of individuals considered SOS contacts and confidants. Changes in specific social network indicators were differentially associated with changes in emotional vs social loneliness: Loss of friends considered confidants was associated with increasing emotional loneliness, whereas loss of friends considered SOS contacts and reduced overall social interactions were related to increasing social loneliness. Lastly, individuals with more family-and-friend SOS contacts, more friends as confidants and an overall higher number of social interactions were more protected from feeling socially or emotionally lonely. Study findings enhance the understanding of underlying mechanisms differentially contributing to social and emotional loneliness and offer practical suggestions to reduce mental-health side effects of social distancing