Guido Mehlkop

Guido Mehlkop
  • Professor (Full) at University of Erfurt

About

56
Publications
10,364
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
998
Citations
Current institution
University of Erfurt
Current position
  • Professor (Full)

Publications

Publications (56)
Article
Full-text available
National governments around the world increasingly acknowledge the possibility of introducing new digital forms of money and implementing policies that trigger their adoption. Knowledge about the acceptance of such measures, however, is rather limited. Next to the regulatory uncertainty about the impact of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) on...
Article
Full-text available
While the nonmedical use of prescription drugs to enhance cognitive performance (NMUPD-CE) has received increasing media attention and provoked ethical debates, the social drivers of misusing this health-related drug remain understudied. Therefore, this study examined how descriptive and injunctive norms as social influences affect decisions to eng...
Article
Criminal action, according to Situational Action Theory (SAT), is a two-stage process consisting of a perception and a choice process. This Germany-wide vignette study (N = 3,088, participants recruited offline) provides an explicit and extensive test of these processes. It experimentally varied the informal moral context, deterrence (sanctions and...
Article
Full-text available
This vignette-based study examined the willingness to feign symptoms to obtain a prescription following an analysis on who might use prescription stimulants to enhance performance ( N = 3,468). It experimentally manipulated three factors: the social disapproval of prescription stimulant use for enhancement purposes, the physicians’ diagnostic effor...
Article
Full-text available
The mechanisms affecting parents’ misuse of prescription stimulant drugs to boost healthy children’s school performance are hardly unknown. Using four web-based factorial vignette surveys (2×2 between-subjects design experiment), we investigated the willingness of U.S. parents with school-aged children to medicate a fictitious 13-year-old child who...
Article
This paper investigates the choices and accompanying biases consumers have when actively deciding between two alternative electricity plans. We follow the perspective that observed choices do not necessarily reflect true preferences over outcomes, but are affected by several behavioral tendencies or biases. Our experiment focusses on framing-effect...
Chapter
Von den Vertreterinnen und Vertretern der weiten Rational Choice Theorie wird sozialen Normen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Analyse sozialer Mechanismen zur Erklärung von kriminellem Handeln zugeschrieben. Es scheint jedoch keine Einigkeit darin zu bestehen, an welcher Stelle in einer prozessorientierten Erklärung die Normen intervenieren und ob sie...
Article
Zusammenfassung Verschiedene theoretische Ansätze versuchen, den Zusammenhang zwischen individuellen Umwelteinstellungen und umweltbezogenem Verhalten bei Alltagsentscheidungen zu erklären. Die Low-Cost-Hypothese wie auch duale Prozessmodelle im Allgemeinen und das Modell der Frame Selektion im Speziellen unterstellen dabei für das Wechselspiel von...
Article
Zusammenfassung Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die Ergebnisse einer in dieser Zeitschrift erschienen Studie von Skarbek-Kozietulska, Preisendörfer & Wolter (2012) über die Validität der Antworten straffällig gewordener Befragter aufgegriffen. Die Autoren stellten einen negativen Effekt der Antwortlatenz fest, demzufolge spät Antwortende eher dazu n...
Conference Paper
Cognitive enhancement (CE) via pharmaceutical agents has been intensively and controversially discussed by scientists and the media. We investigate several drivers of and obstacles to the non-medical use of prescription drugs to augment brain capacity by using an extended version of the Rational Choice Theory (RCT). We conducted a web-based study...
Article
Full-text available
The use of cognitive enhancement (CE) by means of pharmaceutical agents has been the subject of intense debate both among scientists and in the media. This study investigates several drivers of and obstacles to the willingness to use prescription drugs non-medically for augmenting brain capacity. We conducted a web-based study among 2,877 students...
Article
Full-text available
Cognitive enhancement (CE) is the pharmaceutical augmentation of mental abilities (e.g., learning or memory) without medical necessity. This topic has recently attracted widespread attention in scientific and social circles. However, knowledge regarding the mechanisms that underlie the decision to use CE medication is limited. To analyze these deci...
Data
* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001. Table S1 shows the OLS coefficients (and robust standard errors) of the willingness to use CE drugs on the four vignette dimensions, internalized norms, and population type. Model 1 contains the vignette dimensions and the norm measure for the student sample. Increasing the probability and strength of cognitive per...
Data
* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001. Table S2 shows the OLS coefficients (and robust standard errors) of the willingness to use CE drugs on the utility of drug use and the norms across university students and teachers study. Model 1 shows the positive effect of utility and the negative effect of internalized norms on students. Model 2 shows similar ef...
Data
* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001. Table S3 shows the OLS coefficients (and robust standard errors) of the willingness to use CE drugs on utility of drug use, internalized norms, and their interaction across university students and teachers. Model 1 shows the positive effect of utility and the negative effect of internalized norms on students. It al...
Article
Full-text available
In a web-based survey, we presented university students (n = 2,287) with vignettes in which they had to decide whether to abuse the position of student assistant for personal gain. Referring to the existing literature, we tested whether the emergence of corruption increases when benefits from corruption and the probability of the occurrence of thos...
Conference Paper
Precise question: Pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement (CE) – the use of prescription medication to enhance performance without medical necessity – seems to be on the rise. Little is known about the decision process why people take cognitive enhancement medication. In order to fill this research gap, we set up a decision model in accordance with Ra...
Conference Paper
Beside the benefits of social capital for individuals and the society as a whole (such as weak ties for obtaining information or generalized trust) there is also a dark side of social capital, for instance, corruption. Corrupt actors try to veil their illegal actions which points to the fact that most corrupt actions do not occur between strangers,...
Article
Zusammenfassung Bei der Frage nach den Determinanten der Zustimmung zu sozialstaatlichen Maßnahmen seitens der Bevölkerung wird in der Literatur entweder auf die Werterwartungstheorie oder auf die Bedeutung ergebnisunabhängiger Wertorientierungen und Einstellungen zurückgegriffen. In dieser Arbeit werden beide Ansätze am Beispiel inter- generationa...
Article
Explanations of different patterns of preferences for redistribution either highlight the role of the institutional framework in a country or highlight the importance of self-interest and rational expectations. The study introduces a unified approach to explain differences in preferences for redistributive measures for the case of intergenerational...
Article
Effets des incitations monétaires prépayées sur les taux de réponse aux enquêtes par courrier et sur l’auto-déclaration de la délinquance — Les résultats empiriques : Nous avons mené une expérimentation méthodologique afin de déterminer si les taux de réponse aux enquêtes par courrier peuvent être influencés par les incitations monétaires. Avec de...
Article
Rational-Choice (RC) oder Werterwartungstheorien (englisch Subjective Expected Utility, SEU) sind den Theoriefamilien des methodologischen Individualismus zuzuordnen. Es gibt keinen allgemein dominierenden Ansatz (Etzrodt 2000: 762; Green und Shapiro 1994: 13), deswegen wird hier von RC-Ansätzen im Plural gesprochen und zunächst werden diejenigen A...
Article
In diesem Abschnitt sollen aus dem Theorieteil abgeleitet, empirisch prüfbare Hypothesen in prägnanter Form dargestellt werden. Dieses kurze Kapitel soll als inhaltlicher Leitfaden für den folgenden empirischen Teil der Arbeit dienen.
Article
Das in dieser Arbeit vorgeschlagene SEU-Modell kriminellen Verhaltens soll im Folgenden einem empirischen Test unterzogen werden. Als Datenbasis dient eine postalische Befragung von mehr als 2 100 zufällig ausgewählten Dresdnerinnen und Dresdnern. Die abhängige Variable ist die geäußerte Absicht eine kriminelle Handlungsalternative zu ergreifen. Di...
Article
Die hier vorliegende Arbeit verfolgte (neben der Überprüfung eines neuen SEUModells der Kriminalität) das Ziel, mithilfe einer schriftlichen Befragung zuverlässige Daten über die Verbreitung krimineller Handlungen und krimineller Intentionen im Bezug auf Versicherungsbetrug, Unfallflucht, Ladendiebstahl, Schwarzfahren und Steuerbetrug in der Bevölk...
Article
Sind kriminelle Handlungen wie Versicherungsbetrug, Unfallflucht, Schwarzfahren, Ladendiebstahl und Steuerbetrug rationale Wahlhandlungen oder werden Menschen bei ihren Handlungen eher von internalisierten Normvorstellungen geleitet? Mithilfe multivariater Regressionsanalysen auf der Basis einer schriftlichen Befragung von 2200 zufällig ausgewählte...
Article
Full-text available
Referring to classic rational choice models of criminal behaviour (Becker 1968), this paper presents an extended Subjective Expected Utility model that is more in line with the requirements of theorizing and empirical testing than former models. In our model, the decision of an actor is influenced by the expected utility of the crime and the norms...
Article
Rational choice theories (RCTs) of crime assume actors behave in an instrumental, outcome-oriented way. Accordingly, individuals should weight the costs and benefits of criminal acts with subjective probabilities that these outcomes will occur. Previous studies either do not directly test this central hypothesis or else yield inconsistent results....
Article
Many empirical studies are ambiguous about whether good formal institutions are conducive to subjective well-being or not. Possibly, this ambiguity is caused by cross-section models that do not account for unobserved cultural and institutional effects. Using the World Value Survey 1980-2005, this paper supports a positive relation in a country pane...
Article
Full-text available
Durkheim's theory of suicide was among the first attempts within sociology to combine theoretical and empirical approaches. Empirical evidence has not yet produced cohesive results. In our opinion, this is due to inappropriate operationalization in previous studies. According to Durkheim's theory, ‘normal’ country-specific suicide levels and pathol...
Article
Full-text available
'Um Antwortverweigerungen bei postalischen Befragungen zu minimieren, wird zunehmend empfohlen, materielle Anreize in Form von geldwerten Geschenken für die Befragten einzusetzen. Aus Sicht der Austauschtheorie und eines aufgeklärten Rational Choice-Ansatzes sollten diese Geschenke den Nutzen aus einer Teilnahme für die Befragten erhöhen, die Koste...
Article
'Um Antwortverweigerungen bei postalischen Befragungen zu minimieren, wird zunehmend empfohlen, materielle Anreize in Form von geldwerten Geschenken für die Befragten einzusetzen. Aus Sicht der Austauschtheorie und eines aufgeklärten Rational Choice-Ansatzes sollten diese Geschenke den Nutzen aus einer Teilnahme für die Befragten erhöhen, die Koste...
Article
Andreski (1968) and Lenski (1984) argued that high military participation ratios (MPR) decrease (income) inequality within a society. While former empirical studies come up with ambiguous conclusions about this effect, this study finds a strong and robust equalizing influence of MPR on income inequality, controlled for level of development, populat...
Article
Full-text available
The frequently predicted relationship between social class and criminal behavior is theoretically vacillating and empirically exiguous. We present an extended rational choice model which inte- grates the effects of an individual's social status on his or her subjec- tive evaluations of (1) costs, (2) utility, (3) the probability of apprehension, (4...
Article
The frequently posited relationship between social class and criminal behaviour is dubious in theory and lacking empirical evidence. Based upon the economic theory of crime by Gary S. Becker we present an extended model which integrates the effects of the individuals’ class position on their subjective evaluations of costs, utility, and the probabi...
Article
The frequently posited relationship between social class and criminal behaviour is dubious in theory and lacking empirical evidence. Based upon the economic theory of crime by Gary S. Becker we present an extended model which integrates the effects of the individuals' class position on their subjective evaluations of costs, utility, and the probabi...
Article
What accounts for different levels of military forces between countries and over time? Payne (1989) found in cross country regressions cultural influences to be the most important determinant. In contrast to Payne, we will show that the mechanisms of why nations arm can only be fully discovered by time series analysis and – going beyond Payne's mod...
Article
Full-text available
Corruption in the public sector erodes tax compliance and leads to higher tax evasion. Moreover, corrupt public officials abuse their public power to extort bribes from the private agents. In both types of interaction with the public sector, the private agents are bound to face uncertainty with respect to their disposable incomes. To analyse effect...
Chapter
Der Zusammenhang zwischen wirtschaftlicher Freiheit und der Einkommensverteilung ist weder eindeutig noch unumstritten. Während eine Denkrichtung die Kluft zwischen Arm und Reich mit Eingriffen in den Markt verringern will und davon ausgeht, dass wirtschaftliche Freiheit nur den wohlhabenden Gruppen der Bevölkerung dient (etwa durch Steuersenkungen...
Chapter
In der bisherigen Diskussion hat sich implizit eine dritte Hypothese herauskristallisiert, die besagt, dass ein hohes Niveau der wirtschaftlichen Freiheit positive Effekte auf wirtschaftliches Wachstum ausübt. Wenngleich diese Hypothese in der hier vorliegenden Arbeit nicht in eigenen Berechnungen empirisch überprüft werden soll, werden in den folg...
Chapter
In der hier vorliegenden Arbeit wird in international vergleichenden multivariaten Regressionsanalysen der Zusammenhang zwischen wirtschaftlicher Freiheit (erfasst durch den Index der wirtschaftlichen Freiheit des Fraser Institutes) und Einkommensungleichheit (erfasst über den Ginikoeffizienten und die Einkommensanteile der vier unteren Einkommensg...
Article
Ronald Inglehart (1997) examines the impact on economic growth in the period 1960-1989 of the need for achievement and postmaterialism in 1990 by multiple regression analysis and compares the results to those of a standard econometric model. He finds a significant and positive effect of need for achievement. Inglehart's results are questionable, ho...
Article
Zusammenfassung Inglehart (1997) überprüft in multivariaten Regressionsanalysen den Einfluss von Leistungsbedürfnis und Postmaterialismus 1990 auf das Wirtschaftswachstum in der Periode 1960-1989 und vergleicht die Effekte mit denen ökonomischer Einflussfaktoren. Er stellt einen signifikanten positiven Effekt des Leistungsbedürfnisses fest. Ingleha...
Article
Ronald Inglehart (1997) examines the impact on economic growth in the period 1960-1989 of the need for achievement and postmaterialism in 1990 by multiple regression analysis and compares the results of those of a standard econometric model. He finds a significant and positive effect of need for achievement. Inglehart's results are questionable, ho...

Network

Cited By