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Under the auspices of the Volkswagen Foundation’s “Bridging the Gap” programme the project will bring important questions of social policy into the scientific discussion and establish a dialogue between scientists and relevant social policy organisations. The project will also examine the impact of the 2003/4 statutory health insurance and welfare reforms on seriously and chronically ill persons on low incomes and discuss alternative models for addressing their needs. Secondary analyses of social data will be used to define more closely the above-mentioned set of circumstances and to identify as precisely as possible the groups of people affected.

Kooperationsprojekt der Arbeitsgruppe Public Health des Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung und des Zentrums für Sozialpolitik der Universität Bremen.

WAMP

Wandel von Medizin und Pflege im DRG-System

Sozialwissenschaftliche Längsschnittsanalyse der Auswirkungen des DRG-Systems auf den pflegerischen und medizinischen Dienstleistungsprozess und
die Versorgungsqualität im Krankenhaus

The health systems of Germany and Switzerland are among the most expensive in the world. Yet they yield only average health outcomes. In some respect they fail to make efficient use of resources and potential. In both countries the separation of different care sectors from one another– a situation that goes hand in hand with integration problems in the health-care process – is regarded as a major cause of these inefficiencies. The lack of integration manifests itself as inadequate communication and coordination between the actors involved, leading to segmentation of health-care procedures and to all kinds of gaps and overlaps in treatment and care. Continuous seamless care and monitoring of patients as required for adequate management of chronic diseases is missing..

The approach to Health Promotion in the Workplace developed by the WZB as participatory organisational development is today considered a model for modern prevention following the setting approach developed by the WHO. An essential requirement for it to function is smooth cooperation between actors within and outside the organisation. Research into the possibilities for and limits to involving the statutory work accident insurance (Unfallversicherungsträger,  Berufsgenossenschaften) in this task fills an important gap. In Germany these professional association are the bodies responsible for statutory accident insurance, so they are also the chief actors for prevention and health promotion in the workplace.

Structures to strengthen quality assurance and evaluation in the primary prevention work of AIDS SERVICE organisations have been developed at the national level. The main channels were: workshops on quality assurance and evaluation methods, an internet handbook on resources for quality assurance and evaluation, support in using epidemiological data and a peer review process. Parallel to this, researchers provided local consulting to twelve organisations on the development and realisation of quality assurance and evaluation measures. A further goal is to establish a national network for participatory health research.

Community-based approaches hold promise for improving the health of the population, particularly in the case of socially disadvantaged groups. Conventional forms of quality assurance are inadequate for such approaches due to the complexity and discoursive nature of the work. In this project internationally recognized methods of participatory data collection and interpretation were applied to develop a new framework and new methods for achieving quality assurance in community settings. The project included developing an internet-based handbook for community groups.

This project focuses on various aspects of innovation and technological progress.  New technologies and products are introduced in markets through entry and exit of firms, and investments by existing firms.  These mechanisms of technological progress are important for economic growth and prosperity.  The effects of innovation on markets, markets for innovations, innovation incentives in imperfectly competitive markets, and cooperation incentives among innovative firms are studied.  Both theoretical and empirical research is done in this project.

Our research analyzes the relationship between labor market institutions (i.e. collective bargaining) and competition in oligopolistic industries.  From a theoretical perspective, this project contributes to the understanding of bargaining in bilateral oligopoly markets; that is markets in which a few sellers face a few buyers. In addition, from a more applied perspective, our work contributes to the understanding of how specific labor market institutions effect the behavior of firms.  For example, what is the effect of exempting labor market organizations from antitrust laws?  What is the effect of making collective wage agreements generally binding?

This research focuses on the impact of various types of infrastructures on firm-level competitiveness and economic performance in general.  In particular, it investigates the role of modern regional and supra-regional infrastructure in economic growth, the competitiveness of firms, and employment.  The most important issue addressed is therefore to establish, and possibly quantify, the link between various types of infrastructure investments and economic performance or development.

Many decisions that affect economic life are not made in markets but in political processes. The research in this project aims at improving our understanding of how these processes work. In particular we investigate how the institutional environment in which policy is made shapes the outcome of the political processes. In doing this, we consider formal influence channels (such as elections and referenda) as well as informal ones (such as lobbying). The project also studies the related issue of how different political institutions can handle credibility problems in economic policy. Both theoretical and empirical approaches are employed. In the theoretical work, special emphasis is put on the role of information. Among the specific issues that are investigated are: