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Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

In Germany, the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen (IQWiG)) makes recommendations for reimbursement prices of drugs based on an evaluation of the relationship between incremental costs and effects. In 2009, the German government (“Koalitionsvertrag”) announced its intention to evaluate the transparency and acceptability of IQWiG's work. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a survey of a sample of the German population: to check the acceptance of the IQWiG's decision rule compared to a decision rule used in countries such as England and Wales; and to test if the way the IQWiG's decision rule is presented affects its acceptance.

A questionnaire was developed eliciting acceptability of IQWiG's decision rule and a single cost-effectiveness threshold applying to all diseases (i.e. absolute rule (AR)). To check for a framing effect IQWiG's decision rule was presented in two ways. One version presented it, based on IQWiG's official publication, as a constant ratio between incremental costs and effects within a therapeutic area (proportional rule (PR), Version 1). The other version presented it in terms of a proportional relationship between costs and effects within a therapeutic area (PR, Version 2). χ 2 goodness of fit test and two-proportion z-test tested for differences between acceptance rates of decision rules.

A sample of 108 persons from the general public (average age: 41 years, 48 per cent male) filled out the questionnaire. Acceptance rates for AR, PR Version 1, and PR Version 2 were 33, 48, and 39 per cent, respectively. Direct comparisons show that acceptance of PR Version 1 was significantly higher than acceptance of AR (p=0.026) and that there was a clear trend towards higher acceptance of PR Version 1 compared to Version 2 (p=0.22). The difference between PR Version 2 and AR was not significant (p=0.32).

In our study, different presentations of the IQWiG decision rule did not significantly alter its acceptance, although there was a clear trend towards accepting IQWiG's official version. Furthermore, the acceptance of the IQWiG's official version was significantly higher than AR. Because of the relevance of the research question we recommend additional research for confirmation and explanation of the choices made.

This is one of the few studies on the impact of framing on allocation preferences in health care.

This research paper aims to examine global factors influencing business behaviour in the Russian oil and natural gas sector. The aspect of corporate governance will serve as an indicator for the business behaviour processes under review. It will be investigated whether global factors in the form of internationalization result in the adoption of international norms, standards and business practices, thereby bringing about a change in a company's corporate governance.

Two indices were developed to measure the degree of internationalization and the quality of corporate governance in the individual companies. The correlation between these two factors was tested statistically.

The study indicates that in 1997 there was no statistical correlation between the degree of internationalization and the quality of corporate governance. In 1999 and 2001, however, there was a statistical correlation of 0.75 and 0.90 respectively between both variables, corroborating the hypothesis that since 1999, i.e. since the financial crises, the extent of a company's internationalization has heavily influenced its corporate governance.

This study should encourage future research on this topic. A comparative international research project on global and national factors influencing business behaviour is already planned to test and extend the hypotheses in a broader context.

The main contribution of this paper is the linkage of global influences to firm‐level corporate governance. It can be concluded that global influences affect the business behaviour, i.e. the quality of corporate governance, of Russian oil and gas companies. The greater the extent of a company's internationalization, the greater the pressure to adopt international standards. Thus a high level of internationalization will result in corporate governance conforming with international standards.

This paper aims to investigate the foreclosure discount for the German residential market in the years from 2008 to 2011.

The determinants of the foreclosure discount are estimated in a hedonic price model. The analysis is based on a unique data set compiled from three different data sources with 135,000 foreclosed properties.

The findings reveal that residential units in foreclosures are sold at a discount of 19 per cent compared to residential units with similar characteristics that are not in foreclosure. Second, a regional pattern can be observed, with discounts being negatively correlated to unemployment risk and liquidity. Third, the model with interaction terms shows that foreclosure discounts are linked to specific property characteristics. Fourth, these object-related risks are typically smaller than regional risks or locational risks.

Given the highly fragmented system of Gutachterausschüsse in Germany, who are responsible for collecting transaction data, we were not able to directly analyze transaction data, but only a proxy for this price information.

The results can be important for financial institutions that are trying to assess the risk of lending for a specific object in a specific location. So far, banks primarily try to assess the default risk of private lenders by analyzing the debtor’s financial position and the quality of the property. The analysis provides insights into which characteristics of a property might imply additional risk, and in which region these risks are biggest.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to analyze the foreclosure discount for the German housing market.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the keyhole geometry and acoustic signatures from the backside of a workpiece. It lays a solid foundation for monitoring the penetration state in variable polarity keyhole plasma arc welding.

The experiment system is conducted on 6-mm-thick aluminum alloy plates based on a dual-sensor system including a sound sensor and a charge coupled device (CCD) camera. The first step is to extract the keyhole boundary from the acquired keyhole images based on median filtering and edge extraction. The second step is to process the acquired acoustic signal to obtain some typical time domain features. Finally, a prediction model based on the extreme learning machine (ELM) technique is built to recognize different keyhole geometries through the acoustic signatures and then identify the welding penetration status according to the recognition results.

The keyhole geometry and acoustic features after processing can be closely related to dynamic change information of keyhole. These acoustic features can predict the keyhole geometry accurately based on the ELM model. Meanwhile, the predict results also can identify different welding penetration status.

This paper tries to make a foundation work to achieve the monitoring of keyhole condition and penetration status through image and acoustic signals. A useful model, ELM, is built based on these features for predicting the keyhole geometry. Compared with back-propagating neural network and support vector machine, this proposed model is faster and has better generalization performance in the case studied in this paper.

Economics, as one of the cultural and historical sciences, is responsible for the investigation of the meaningful relation between the whole and the parts, based on organic linking and not on the mechanical‐causal relationship. The relevant contributions of the leading holistic school of thought – universalism – is thus described, focusing on the fundamental concepts and methods of understanding and on their possible application in economics. The article aims to aid present methodologists of economics and other social sciences, disenchanted with the individualistic and disjointed approaches of their respective disciplines, in building up a body of integrated theory and in suggesting new areas of research.

Following the issuance of the Renewable Energy Directive in 2009, the European Union (EU) is explicitly pushing for member states to cooperate with third countries to meet their EU 2020 targets. So far, no single joint project is planned or in place yet. This paper aims to look at the opportunities for and barriers to possible RE exports from North Africa into the EU through the concept of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis.

Thus, the SWOT for a possible implementation of Article 9 projects are analyzed using expert and stakeholder knowledge. A qualitative assessment was undertaken using data collected through one stakeholder workshop in North Africa, in-depth interviews and a qualitative literature review. The analysis was structured within a three-tier analyzing concept distinguishing between macro, micro and acceptance parameters.

From the SWOT analysis, some lessons are drawn, future possible measures are identified and conclusions for policymakers are discussed. The authors find that no easy solutions exist as most parameters can be both a strength and a weakness or a threat and an opportunity at the same time depending on future developments and the specific ideological perspective.

This paper provides new information and analysis of renewable energy sources projects in North Africa – application of the SWOT method on Article 9 cooperation projects – application of a three-tier analysis to cope with the complexity of the topic – taking into account often neglected socio-political aspects such as public acceptance.

After some introductory words about the preeminence of German accounting research during the first half of the 20th century, the paper offers a survey of the most important theories of accounts classes that still prevailed during the first two decades or longer. Following World War I, the issue of hyperinflation in Austria and Germany stimulated a considerable amount of original accounting research. After the inflationary period, a series of competing Bilanztheorien, discussed in the text, dominated the scene. Two figures emerged supremely from this struggle. The first was Eugen Schmalenbach, with his “dynamic accounting”, a series of further important contributions to inflation accounting, to the master chart of accounts, to cost accounting, and to other areas of business economics. The other scholar was Fritz Schmidt, with his organic accounting theory that promoted replacement values and his emphasis on the profit and loss account, no less than the balance sheet. The gamut of further eminent personalities, listed in chronological order, contains the following names: Schär, Penndorf, Leitner, Gomberg, Nicklisch, Rieger, Prion, Osbahr, Passow, Dörfel, Sganzini, Walb, Calmes, Kalveram, Meithner, Lion, Töndury, Mahlberg, le Coutre, Geldmacher, Max Lehmann, Leopold Mayer, Karl Seidel, Alfred Isaac, Mellerowicz, Seyffert, Beste, Gutenberg, Käfer, Seischab, Kosiol, Münstermann, and others. Separate Sections or Sub‐Sections are devoted to charts and master charts of accounts in German accounting theory, as well as to cost accounting and the writing of accounting history.

Digitally intermediated peer-to-peer exchanges have accelerated in occurrence, and as a consequence, they have introduced an increased pluralism of connotations. Accordingly, this paper aims to assess user perceptions of the interplay between the sharing, access, platform, and community-based economies.

The sharing, access, platform, and community-based economies have been systematically tracked in the social media landscape using Social Media Analytics (SMA). In doing so, a total material of 62,855 publicly posted user-generated content concerning the four respective economies were collected and analyzed.

Even though the sharing economy has been conceptually argued to be interlinked with the access, platform, and community-based economies, the empirical results of the study do not validate this interlinkage. Instead, the results regarding user perceptions in social media show that the sharing, access, platform, and community-based economies manifest as clearly separated.

This paper contributes to existing literature by offering an empirical validation, as well as an in-depth understanding, of the sharing economy's interlinkage to other economies, along with the extent to which the overlaps between these economies manifest in social media.