This thesis comprises of four research papers on the economics of education and industrial relations, which contribute to the field of empirical economic research. All of the corresponding papers focus on analysing how much time individuals spend on specific activities. The allocation of available time resources is a decision that individuals make throughout their lifetime. In this thesis, we consider individuals at different stages of their lives - students at school, university students, and dependent employees at the workplace. Part I includes two research studies on student's behaviour in secondary and tertiary education. Chapter 2 explores whether students who are relatively younger or older within the school year exhibit differential time allocation. Building on previous findings showing that relatively younger students perform worse in school, the study shows that relatively younger students are aware of their poor performance in school and feel more strain as a result. Nevertheless, there are no clear differences to be found in terms of time spent on homework, while relatively younger students spend more time watching television and less time on sports activities. Thus, the results suggest that the lower learning outcomes are not associated with different time allocations between school-related activities and non-school-related activities. Chapter 3 analyses how individual ability and labour market prospects affect study behaviour. The theoretical modelling predicts that both determinants increase study effort. The empirical investigation is based on cross-sectional data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and includes thousands of students in Germany. The analyses show that more gifted students exhibit lower subjective effort levels and invest less time in self-study. In contrast, very good labour market prospects lead to more effort exerted by the student, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The potential endogeneity problem is taken into account by using regional unemployment data as an instrumental variable. Part II includes two labour economic studies on determinants of overtime. Both studies belong to the field of industrial relations, as they focus on union membership on the one hand and the interplay of works councils and collective bargaining coverage on the other. Chapter 4 shows that union members work less overtime than non-members do. The econometric approach takes the problem of unobserved heterogeneity into account; but provides no evidence that this issue affects the results. Different channels that could lead to this relationship are analysed by examining relevant subgroups separately. For example, this effect of union membership can also be observed in establishments with works councils and for workers who are very likely to be covered by collective bargaining agreements. The study concludes that the observed effect is due to the fact that union membership can protect workers from corresponding increased working time demands by employers. Chapter 5 builds on previous studies showing a negative effect of works councils on overtime. In addition to co-determination by works councils at the firm level, collective bargaining coverage is an important factor in the German industrial relations system. Corresponding data was not available in the SOEP for quite some time. Therefore, the study uses recent SOEP data, which also contains information on collective bargaining coverage. A cross-sectional analysis is conducted to examine the effects of works councils in establishments with and without collective bargaining coverage. Similar to studies analysing other outcome variables, the results show that the effect of works councils exists only for employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

Even though proper research on Cauchy transforms has been done, there are still a lot of open questions. For example, in the case of representation theorems, i.e. the question when a function can be represented as a Cauchy transform, there is 'still no completely satisfactory answer' ([9], p. 84). There are characterizations for measures on the circle as presented in the monograph [7] and for general compactly supported measures on the complex plane as presented in [27]. However, there seems to exist no systematic treatise of the Cauchy transform as an operator on $L_p$ spaces and weighted $L_p$ spaces on the real axis. This is the point where this thesis draws on and we are interested in developing several characterizations for the representability of a function by Cauchy transforms of $L_p$ functions. Moreover, we will attack the issue of integrability of Cauchy transforms of functions and measures, a topic which is only partly explored (see [43]). We will develop different approaches involving Fourier transforms and potential theory and investigate into sufficient conditions and characterizations. For our purposes, we shall need some notation and the concept of Hardy spaces which will be part of the preliminary Chapter 1. Moreover, we introduce Fourier transforms and their complex analogue, namely Fourier-Laplace transforms. This will be of extraordinary usage due to the close connection of Cauchy and Fourier(-Laplace) transforms. In the second chapter we shall begin our research with a discussion of the Cauchy transformation on the classical (unweighted) $L_p$ spaces. Therefore, we start with the boundary behavior of Cauchy transforms including an adapted version of the Sokhotski-Plemelj formula. This result will turn out helpful for the determination of the image of the Cauchy transformation under $L_p(\R)$ for $p\in(1,\infty).$ The cases $p=1$ and $p=\infty$ are playing special roles here which justifies a treatise in separate sections. For $p=1$ we will involve the real Hardy space $H_{1}(\R)$ whereas the case $p=\infty$ shall be attacked by an approach incorporating intersections of Hardy spaces and certain subspaces of $L_{\infty}(\R).$ The third chapter prepares ourselves for the study of the Cauchy transformation on subspaces of $L_{p}(\R).$ We shall give a short overview of the basic facts about Cauchy transforms of measures and then proceed to Cauchy transforms of functions with support in a closed set $X\subset\R.$ Our goal is to build up the main theory on which we can fall back in the subsequent chapters. The fourth chapter deals with Cauchy transforms of functions and measures supported by an unbounded interval which is not the entire real axis. For convenience we restrict ourselves to the interval $[0,\infty).$ Bringing once again the Fourier-Laplace transform into play, we deduce complex characterizations for the Cauchy transforms of functions in $L_{2}(0,\infty).$ Moreover, we analyze the behavior of Cauchy transform on several half-planes and shall use these results for a fairly general geometric characterization. In the second section of this chapter, we focus on Cauchy transforms of measures with support in $[0,\infty).$ In this context, we shall derive a reconstruction formula for these Cauchy transforms holding under pretty general conditions as well as results on the behaviur on the left half-plane. We close this chapter by rather technical real-type conditions and characterizations for Cauchy transforms of functions in $L_p(0,\infty)$ basing on an approach in [82]. The most common case of Cauchy transforms, those of compactly supported functions or measures, is the subject of Chapter 5. After complex and geometric characterizations originating from similar ideas as in the fourth chapter, we adapt a functional-analytic approach in [27] to special measures, namely those with densities to a given complex measure $\mu.$ The chapter is closed with a study of the Cauchy transformation on weighted $L_p$ spaces. Here, we choose an ansatz through the finite Hilbert transform on $(-1,1).$ The sixth chapter is devoted to the issue of integrability of Cauchy transforms. Since this topic has no comprehensive treatise in literature yet, we start with an introduction of weighted Bergman spaces and general results on the interaction of the Cauchy transformation in these spaces. Afterwards, we combine the theory of Zen spaces with Cauchy transforms by using once again their connection with Fourier transforms. Here, we shall encounter general Paley-Wiener theorems of the recent past. Lastly, we attack the issue of integrability of Cauchy transforms by means of potential theory. Therefore, we derive a Fourier integral formula for the logarithmic energy in one and multiple dimensions and give applications to Fourier and hence Cauchy transforms. Two appendices are annexed to this thesis. The first one covers important definitions and results from measure theory with a special focus on complex measures. The second appendix contains Cauchy transforms of frequently used measures and functions with detailed calculations.

Traditional workflow management systems support process participants in fulfilling business tasks through guidance along a predefined workflow model. Flexibility has gained a lot of attention in recent decades through a shift from mass production to customization. Various approaches to workflow flexibility exist that either require extensive knowledge acquisition and modelling effort or an active intervention during execution and re-modelling of deviating behaviour. The pursuit of flexibility by deviation is to compensate both of these disadvantages through allowing alternative unforeseen execution paths at run time without demanding the process participant to adapt the workflow model. However, the implementation of this approach has been little researched so far. This work proposes a novel approach to flexibility by deviation. The approach aims at supporting process participants during the execution of a workflow through suggesting work items based on predefined strategies or experiential knowledge even in case of deviations. The developed concepts combine two renowned methods from the field of artificial intelligence - constraint satisfaction problem solving with process-oriented case-based reasoning. This mainly consists of a constraint-based workflow engine in combination with a case-based deviation management. The declarative representation of workflows through constraints allows for implicit flexibility and a simple possibility to restore consistency in case of deviations. Furthermore, the combined model, integrating procedural with declarative structures through a transformation function, increases the capabilities for flexibility. For an adequate handling of deviations the methodology of case-based reasoning fits perfectly, through its approach that similar problems have similar solutions. Thus, previous made experiences are transferred to currently regarded problems, under the assumption that a similar deviation has been handled successfully in the past. Necessary foundations from the field of workflow management with a focus on flexibility are presented first. As formal foundation, a constraint-based workflow model was developed that allows for a declarative specification of foremost sequential dependencies of tasks. Procedural and declarative models can be combined in the approach, as a transformation function was specified that converts procedural workflow models to declarative constraints. One main component of the approach is the constraint-based workflow engine that utilizes this declarative model as input for a constraint solving algorithm. This algorithm computes the worklist, which is proposed to the process participant during workflow execution. With predefined deviation handling strategies that determine how the constraint model is modified in order to restore consistency, the support is continuous even in case of deviations. The second major component of the proposed approach constitutes the case-based deviation management, which aims at improving the support of process participants on the basis of experiential knowledge. For the retrieve phase, a sophisticated similarity measure was developed that integrates specific characteristics of deviating workflows and combines several sequence similarity measures. Two alternative methods for the reuse phase were developed, a null adaptation and a generative adaptation. The null adaptation simply proposes tasks from the most similar workflow as work items, whereas the generative adaptation modifies the constraint-based workflow model based on the most similar workflow in order to re-enable the constraint-based workflow engine to suggest work items. The experimental evaluation of the approach consisted of a simulation of several types of process participants in the exemplary domain of deficiency management in construction. The results showed high utility values and a promising potential for an investigation of the transfer on other domains and the applicability in practice, which is part of future work. Concluding, the contributions are summarized and research perspectives are pointed out.

Survey data can be viewed as incomplete or partially missing from a variety of perspectives and there are different ways of dealing with this kind of data in the prediction and the estimation of economic quantities. In this thesis, we present two selected research contexts in which the prediction or estimation of economic quantities is examined under incomplete survey data. These contexts are first the investigation of composite estimators in the German Microcensus (Chapters 3 and 4) and second extensions of multivariate Fay-Herriot (MFH) models (Chapters 5 and 6), which are applied to small area problems. Composite estimators are estimation methods that take into account the sample overlap in rotating panel surveys such as the German Microcensus in order to stabilise the estimation of the statistics of interest (e.g. employment statistics). Due to the partial sample overlaps, information from previous samples is only available for some of the respondents, so the data are partially missing. MFH models are model-based estimation methods that work with aggregated survey data in order to obtain more precise estimation results for small area problems compared to classical estimation methods. In these models, several variables of interest are modelled simultaneously. The survey estimates of these variables, which are used as input in the MFH models, are often partially missing. If the domains of interest are not explicitly accounted for in a sampling design, the sizes of the samples allocated to them can, by chance, be small. As a result, it can happen that either no estimates can be calculated at all or that the estimated values are not published by statistical offices because their variances are too large.

This thesis focuses on the issues in price measurement and consists of three chapters. Due to outdated weighting information, a Laspeyres-based consumer price index (CPI) is prone to accumulating upward bias. Therefore, chapter 1 introduces and examines simple and transparent revision approaches that retrospectively address the source of the bias. They provide a consistent long-run time series of the CPI and require no additional information. Furthermore, a coherent decomposition of the bias into the contributions of individual product groups is developed. In a case study, the approaches are applied to a Laspeyres-based CPI. The empirical results confirm the theoretical predictions. The proposed revision approaches are adoptable not only to most national CPIs but also to other price-level measures such as the producer price index or the import and export price indices. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the measurement of import and export price indices. Such indices are complicated by the impact of exchange rates. These indices are usually also compiled by some Laspeyres type index. Therefore, substitution bias is an issue. The terms of trade (ratio of export and import price index) are therefore also likely to be distorted. The underlying substitution bias accumulates over time. The present article applies a simple and transparent retroactive correction approach that addresses the source of the substitution bias and produces meaningful long-run time series of import and export price levels and, therefore, of the terms of trade. Furthermore, an empirical case study is conducted that demonstrates the efficacy and versatility of the correction approach. Chapter 3 leaves the field of index revision and studies another issue in price measurement, namely, the economic evaluation of digital products in monetary terms that have zero market prices. This chapter explores different methods of economic valuation and pricing of free digital products and proposes an alternative way to calculate the economic value and a shadow price of free digital products: the Usage Cost Model (UCM). The goal of the chapter is, first of all, to formulate a theoretical framework and incorporate an alternative measure of the value of free digital products. However, an empirical application is also made to show the work of the theoretical model. Some conclusions on applicability are drawn at the end of the chapter.