ZEU - Zentrum für internationale Entwicklungs- und Umweltforschung

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Auflistung ZEU - Zentrum für internationale Entwicklungs- und Umweltforschung nach Autor:in "Bredl, Sebastian"

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    A statistical approach to detect cheating interviewers
    (2008) Bredl, Sebastian; Winker, Peter; Kötschau, Kerstin
    Survey data are potentially affected by cheating interviewers. Even a small number of fabricated interviews might seriously impair the results of further empirical analysis. Besides reinterviews some statistical approaches have been proposed for identifying fabrication of interviews. As a novel tool in this context, cluster and discriminant analysis are used. Several indicators are combined to classify "at risk" interviewers based solely on the collected data. An application to a dataset with known cases of cheating interviewers demonstrates that the methods are able to identify the cheating interviewers with a high probability. The multivariate classification is superior to the application of a single indicator such as Benford's law.
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    Advertisements or friends? : Formal and informal recruitment methods in Tanzania
    (2009) Egbert, Henrik; Fischer, Gundula; Bredl, Sebastian
    The findings of our study in Mwanza can be interpreted on two different levels. Firstly, they can be read in the light of actors and managers who take decisions in a specific micro-setting influenced, e.g., by the legal form, the age, the size of their respective company. Secondly, results can be analyzed in connection with the general conditions of the labour market in Tanzania. The latter includes a reflection on how different recruitment methods relate to the make up of the supply side. In what follows we will first focus on the micro-setting and then conclude the paper with thoughts related to the labour market in Tanzania. In contrast to data for industrialized countries our investigation shows that in Tanzania formal methods are more often applied for high-ranking positions. Considering the size and legal form of the companies studied several interpretations are possible. A first interpretation is related to the observation that larger companies are significantly more often registered as limited companies. In limited companies managers are employed. They need to justify their decisions to capital owners. The use of formal recruitment methods - it can be assumed - is a managerial strategy to achieve (at least superficial) transparency in decision-making processes. Thus, the organizational structure of the company may relate to the choice of recruitment methods. In the case of large private companies external accountability is added to internal accountability. Advertising for personnel on a national level and therefore adhering to the rules of equal opportunities (as laid down in the Tanzanian labour law) may influence the public image of the company (and its products) positively. A second interpretation refers to small companies which are significantly more often run as sole proprietorships. In case of bankruptcy owners of these companies (unlike managers) are at risk to be liable with private capital. As a result they must have a vital interest in preserving their company´s existence. The employment of people who are trusted, e.g., friends or kin (cf. Trulsson 1997; Egbert 2001) can be seen as an attempt at reducing the risk of fraud. Moreover, informal recruitment channels may be cheaper for the company (cf. De Soto 1989). In case of less qualified positions they allow to scan and reduce the vast pool of job seekers with low or average education to a manageable group which fits the company requirements. Thus the vacancy period is shortened. If we analyze the results on the macro level we have to ask what we can learn about the make up of the Tanzanian labour market. In our study companies seek to fill highranking positions by newspaper advertisements on the national level. This is anindicator that regional labour markets do not provide sufficient or sufficiently qualified personnel. A lack of well-trained professionals in, e.g., management, IT, health and educational sectors is persistent and due to severe inadequacies in training institutions from the primary up to the tertiary level (United Republic of Tanzania 2000). These inadequacies include, among others, understaffing and low salaries, facilitators who in many cases have not received appropriate training themselves, large classes and insufficient infrastructure and equipment. In spite of government efforts to improve training and the mushrooming of private training institutions, only few graduates enter the job market with acceptable skills and knowledge (see also Byemelwa 2009). The placement of advertisements is thus an attempt to attract more applicants from a small pool which is not accessible by social networks only. Comparing vacancy periods for high- and low-ranking positions the patterns found in Tanzania are similar to those in industrialized countries. High-ranking positions are vacant for a significantly longer period than low-ranking positions. The acceptance of longer vacancy periods for high-ranking positions may be related to what has been revealed in recent fake certificate scandals in Tanzania. In some areas of the labour market (e.g., education) large numbers of applicants gained employment through forged documents. In 2008 the National Examinations Council of Tanzania warned private and public organizations to be wary of forgeries and to screen certificates carefully when hiring staff (Machira 2008). A longer vacancy period could then be the outcome of intensified processes of screening the submitted documents. As a consequence, transaction costs (information, search and screening costs) increase. Linking our results to the labour market discussions initially mentioned, different degrees and forms of segmentation become visible. Mobility between the primary and secondary tier of the labour market seems to be extremely restricted due to low standards at national educational institutions. The lack of well-trained workers in the primary sector weakens the impact social capital could have as a criterion for further segmentation. In the secondary sector, however, the state of being unemployed or employed is frequently determined by who you know. Social networks which often rely on stratifying criteria such as ethnicity, gender and religion contribute to the rise of further divisions within the lower tier. A combination of insights from labour market theory and human resource management prepares the avenue for an understanding of these fragmentations.
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    Different background - similar strategies : recruitment in Tanzanian-African and Tanzanian-Asian companies
    (2010) Egbert, Henrik; Fischer, Gundula; Bredl, Sebastian
    The literature on enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa provides evidence that there are significant differences between companies run by members of the majority population and those run by members of minorities. Differences are frequently related to size, age, and certain success indicators. However, it remains unclear whether decisions concerning the acquisition of personnel also diverge. This paper outlines results of a questionnaire survey on recruitment methods of enterprises in Tanzania. The authors tried to discover differences in the recruitment strategies of Tanzanian-African and Tanzanian-Asian companies but found none. The interpretation is that companies operate in similar business environments and face comparable, exogenously given institutional restrictions. Thus, strategies of personnel recruitment seem to be alike.
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    A literature review of methods to detect fabricated survey data
    (2011) Bredl, Sebastian; Storfinger, Nina; Menold, Natalja
    This paper reviews literature dealing with the issue of detecting interviewers who falsify survey data. The most reliable method of detecting falsifiers is through face-to-face reinterviewing of survey participants. However, only a limited number of participants can usually be reinterviewed. A review of the present literature clearly indicates that reinterviewing is more effective if the reinterview sample is put together according to some indicators that might be based on metadata, survey data or interviewer characteristics. We examine existing literature with regard to the suitability of different types of indicators that have been used in this context.
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    Migration, remittances and educational outcomes : the case of Haiti
    (2009) Bredl, Sebastian
    Using data from three Haitian communities the present paper investigates the effects of migration and remittances on educational outcomes. From a theoretical point of view, remittances can be supposed to have positive effects in poor households, as they alleviate budget constraints. Given the dominance of private facilities in the Haitian educational system and the high poverty rate prevailing in the country, budget constraints are likely to play an important role for educational outcomes. Migration in turn is associated with rising duties for children in the household and the loss of parental role models as well as with declining returns to schooling. Thus, migration is expected to affect educational outcomes negatively. The fact that the number of households in the LAMP dataset reporting to receive remittances is considerably higher than the number of migrant households, allows to disentangle the impacts of both phenomena in the empirical model. The results suggest a positive impact of remittances that is restricted to poorer households as predicted by theory. In contrast, no impact of the household head´s absence can be detected. The idea that budget constraints are an important factor concerning educational outcomes due to high poverty and a mainly not-for-free schooling system is supported by the strong influence of the asset index. However, considering the results of the estimate one also has to be aware of problems connected to the chosen empirical approach and the dataset. First of all, the imprecision in the measurement of the schooling variable as well as the relatively small number of observations in the sample lead to extremely vast confidence intervals of the estimators. Furthermore, it is questionable whether the condition of time invariance - that is crucial if the Cox model is applied - holds for all covariates included in the estimations. Especially assuming time invariance of the remittances recipient status seems problematic, albeit remittances flows to Haiti have been found to be relatively stable sources of income. The collection of panel data might be an appropriate way to overcome those difficulties, at least partially. It would allow for the verification of the time invariance assumption and - if the assumption does not hold - for the use of more advanced empirical approaches like a Cox model with time varying covariates as well as the inclusion of fixed household effects. However, collecting such data is supposedly an ambitious undertaking in the Haitian environment. Alternatively, one might collect data that includes the "remittances receipt history" of each household, similar to the migration and life history already included in the LAMP dataset. Finally, besides all concerns linked to the empirical approach, it is important to keep in mind that this paper focuses on the impacts of migration and remittances on the generation following the one of the migrants and the remittances senders. It does not consider the effects of those persons´ exit on the productivity and stock of human capital in their own generation, i.e. the effect of the so-called "brain drain". Thus, one must be aware that the issue this paper deals with only covers one of the multiple aspects playing a role when it comes to assessing whether migration and remittance.