Tax Incentives, Bequest Motives, and the Demand for Life Insurance: Evidence from two Natural Experiments in Germany

Whole life insurance plays an important role in household saving. However, empirical evidence on its determinants is scarce. This paper studies two natural experiments to identify the effects of tax incentives and bequest motives on life-insurance demand. An unanticipated tax reform in 2000 halved the tax exemption limit for capital income in Germany. We document that the demand for life insurance reacted strongly to this change. With regard to bequest motives, we analyze the demand for life insurance in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Relative to market-based economies, the socialist GDR can be viewed as an experimental institutional setting where life-insurance demand was not influenced by tax considerations which allows us to isolate bequest motives while controlling for life-cycle and precautionary motives. We find a significantly higher ownership probability among households with children and a high regard for the family, confirming bequest motives in life-insurance demand.savings, life insurance, capital income taxation, bequests

Eignung unterschiedlicher Applikationsköpfe für die Ampferbekämpfung mit Heißwasser

As already shown in former investigations, thermal treatment with a hot water/steam mixture can be an appropriate method to control dock plants (Rumex obtusifolius). Thereb,y the application method can be a key technique to acquire both good treatment effects and low working time and energy requirements. Five application techniques were compared in this investigation. A nozzle with rotating pencil jet was identified as the one with the best performance. This variant requires 1.6 l of 90 °C hot water per plant, applied at mean 15 seconds. The average fuel consumption to heat the water came up to 0.016 l Diesel per plant

Erd-Wurzel-Separation nach dem maschinellen Ausstechen von Ampfer (Rumex obtusifolius)

Labour-intensive manual digging with various sorts of spades or forks is the most common technique to control broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius). Machines for removing roots exist, but are not in use. The process leaves undesired holes in the ground and large quantities of soil have to be removed. An invention for separating the fertile soil from the roots directly in the field and refilling the holes thus created would represent a significant advance. Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART has developed a separation unit to improve the mechanical weeding process. The separator unit consists of three paired rotary brushes (d = 200 mm,l = 250 mm) and an oscillating sieve (surface: 200 x 500 mm, gaps: 15 x 500 mm). In the summer 2011 a self-propelled unit dug out 174 Rumex obtusifolius plants on grassland on the experimental farm in Tänikon. The cleaned soil was used in situ to refill the holes created. The weight of both the excavated and cleaned soil was recorded. A RTK-GPS device enabled the exact position of plants to be located. Three months after treatment, the treaded places had been evaluated. In 160 cases (92 %) where Rumex plants had been removed at the same positions no plants regrew. The used standard adjustment could separate 55 to 80 % of the total excavation, depend on field condition. Disadvantages are the transport of 1.2 kg of soil and root material per plant in average and high efforts on machine construction

Ampferkontrolle mittels Heissdampfinjektion

A control method for broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) with hot steam was tested in grasslands in Switzerland. More than 700 plants were treated with a mixture of hot water and steam at a temperature of 120°C and a pressure of 30 bar. The aim was to identify an optimum heating time, so that the plant mortality rate was more than 80 %. The necessary diesel and water consumption for the heating were measured. The success of the method is strongly related to the soil moisture. The results show, that the intended mortality rate of 80 % at a soil moisture of 30 % can be realized at a calculated heating time of 30 seconds. For this treatment 2.4 litre of water and 0.046 litre of diesel were needed

Ergebnisse zur Ampferbekämpfung mittels Mikrowellentechnologie

The results of field trials on controlling broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) by means of microwave technology are presented. Two microwave prototypes of differing output levels were used in the tests under different site and weather conditions. In general, microwave technology is suitable for causing long-term damage to the roots of dock plants and preventing resprouting. The required length of treatment, and hence the energy to be applied, were revealed as problematic. With increasing heat output, the heating time evidently decreases linearly, which harbours optimisation potential. For an 18 kW-heat-output microwave device, the current required heating time to achieve an 80 % mortality rate is approx. 25 seconds, corresponding to a calculated exclusive diesel consumption of 0,09 litres/dock plant, or 0.18 CHF/dock plant

Tax incentives, bequest motives, and the demand for life insurance: evidence from a natural experiment in Germany

This paper studies the role of taxation and bequest motives in households’ demand for life insurance. We develop a stylized three-period life cycle model of life insurance demand and test its predictions regarding tax changes and bequests motives. An unexpected halving of the tax exemption limit for interest and dividend income in Germany allows us to identify the impact of changes in taxation on the demand for life insurance in a difference-in-differences setting. In line with our theoretical predictions, we document that ownership of life insurance products increased significantly among households affected by the reform. We also find some evidence of a more pronounced response among households with stronger bequest motives

Early transcriptional events in the udder and teat after intra-mammary Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus challenge

Intra-mammary bacterial infections can result in harmful clinical mastitis or subclinical mastitis with persistent infections. Research during the last decades closely examined the pathophysiology of inflamed udders. Initial events after pathogen perception but before the onset of mastitis have not been examined invivo. The objective of this study was to develop a mastitis model in cows by monitoring initial transcriptional pathogen-specific host response before clinical signs occur. We applied a short-term infection model to analyse transcripts encoding chemokines, cytokines and antimicrobial molecules in the teat cistern (TC) and lobulo-alveolar parenchyma (LP) up to 3h after challenge with E. and Staphylococcus aureus. Both pathogens elicited an immune reaction by 1h after challenge. Escherichia coli induced all analysed factors (CCL20, CXCL8, TNF, IL6, IL12B, IL10, LAP, S100A9);however, S. aureus failed to induce IL12B, IL10, LAP and S100A9 expression. The E. coli-induced up-regulation was 25-105 times greater than that after S. aureus challenge. Almost all the responses were restricted to the TC. The short-term mastitis model demonstrates that a divergent pathogen-specific response is generated during the first h. It confirms that the first transcripts are generated in the TC prior to a response in the LP

Computertomographische Untersuchungen und Druckversuche an Robinienrundholz (KIT Scientific Reports ; 7610)

Robinienholz eignet sich wegen seiner hohen Festigkeit und ausgezeichneten Dauerhaftigkeit für tragende frei bewitterte Bauteile. Die natürliche Stammform mit ihren teilweise zahlreichen Krümmungen erschwert jedoch die Abschätzung der Tragfähigkeit. In dieser Arbeit wird auf der Grundlage der Ergebnisse von computertomographischen Untersuchungen und von Druckversuchen an natürlich gewachsenen Robinienstammabschnitten ein Modell zur Berechnung der Tragfähigkeit entwickelt

Patterns of HER-2/neu Amplification and Overexpression in Primary and Metastatic Breast Cancer

Background: Only 25% of patients with HER-2/neu-positive metastatic breast tumors respond favorably to trastuzamab (Herceptin) treatment. We hypothesized that a high failure rate of patients on trastuzamab could result if some of the metastases were HER-2 negative and these metastases ultimately determine the course of the disease. Methods: We used tissue microarrays (TMAs) containing four samples each from 196 lymph node-negative primary tumors, 196 lymph node-positive primary tumors, and three different lymph node metastases from each lymph node-positive tumor to estimate HER-2 gene amplification by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and Her-2 protein overexpression by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Results: FISH and IHC analyses gave the same result with respect to HER-2 status for 93.7% of the tissues contained in the TMAs. Tissue samples were, therefore, considered to be HER-2 positive if they were positive for either HER-2 DNA amplification or Her-2 protein expression and HER-2 negative if both FISH and IHC gave a negative result. The HER-2 status of lymph node-positive primary tumors was maintained in the majority of their metastases. For HER-2-positive primary tumors, 77% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 59% to 90%) had entirely HER-2-positive metastases, 6.5% (95% CI = 8% to 21%) had entirely HER-2-negative metastases, and 16.3% (95% CI = 5% to 34%) had a mixture of HER-2-positive and HER-2-negative metastases. For HER-2-negative primary tumors, 95% (95% CI = 88% to 98%) had metastases that were entirely negative for HER-2. Conclusions: Our data suggest that differences in HER-2 expression between primary tumors and their lymph node metastases cannot explain the high fraction of nonresponders to trastuzamab therap

Detecting Activation of Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinase by Complementary DNA and Tissue Microarray Analysis

Background: Studies by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) have shown that chromosomal region 17q23 is amplified in up to 20% of primary breast cancers. We used microarray analyses to measure the expression levels of genes in this region and to explore their prognostic importance. Methods: A microarray that contained 4209 complementary DNA (cDNA) clones was used to identify genes that are overexpressed in the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line as compared with normal mammary tissue. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was used to analyze the copy number of one overexpressed gene, ribosomal protein S6 kinase (S6K), and to localize it to the 17q23 region. Northern and western blot analyses were used to measure S6K gene and protein expression, and an enzymatic assay was used to measure S6K activity. Tumor tissue microarray analysis was used to study amplification of S6K and the HER-2 oncogene, another 17q-linked gene, and the relationship between amplification and prognosis was analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier method was used for data analysis, and the log-rank test was used for statistical analysis. All P values are two-sided. Results: S6K was amplified and highly overexpressed in MCF-7 cells relative to normal mammary epithelium, and protein expression and enzyme activity were increased. S6K was amplified in 59 (8.8%) of 668 primary breast tumors, and a statistically significant association between amplification and poor prognosis (P = .0021) was observed. Amplification of both S6K and HER-2 implied particularly poor survival (P = .0001). Conclusions: The combination of CGH information with cDNA and tissue microarray analyses can be used to identify amplified and overexpressed genes and to evaluate the clinical implications of such genes and genomic rearrangements. S6K is likely to be one of the genes at 17q23 that is amplified during oncogenesis and may adversely affect the prognosis of patients with this amplificatio