声誉能解决医疗保险的“双刃剑”难题吗？——来自实验的证据

医疗保险虽然有利于提高医疗卫生服务的可及性和公平性，但也滋生了严重的道德风险问题。文章基于医疗服务的信任品属性，利用实验方法刻画了商业保险和社会保险两种保险形式，并通过对比私人信息和公开信息探究了加强声誉建设对解决医疗保险“双刃剑”难题的作用。实验结果表明，首先，商业保险和社会保险均会导致医患双方的道德风险问题，且商业保险更严重。其次，声誉加强有利于缓解保险的道德风险，其作用机制在不同保险条件下有所不同。在商业保险条件下，声誉通过弥补患者的信息劣势，加大了对医生欺骗行为的约束；而在社会保险条件下，声誉在提振患者对市场的初始信心的同时，降低了患者因保险依赖而盲目交易的可能性。最后，综合医疗市场的经济效益和社会效益来看，公开信息商业保险和公开信息社会保险是两种相对高效的政策组合。     

Money in a “Safe” place: Money anthropomorphism increases saving behavior

Saving has an important impact on consumers’ lives and life satisfaction. However, various indices indicate that consumers do not save enough. This research shows that a simple change in the perception of money by imposing humanlike characteristics (i.e., money anthropomorphism) can significantly increase savings. Specifically, we posit that imbuing money with humanlike characteristics can enhance both saving intention and real saving behavior because humanized money is considered to be capable of experiences such as pain or joy (perception of experiences) and, as a result, is more vulnerable and in need of protection (perception of vulnerability). By inserting money clipart or using first-perception language to describe money, we manipulate money anthropomorphism in six studies. In behavioral studies, we show that these money anthropomorphism manipulations increase real saving behavior by 18%. In addition, several alternative accounts, including warmth perception of money, autonomy toward money, perceived control over money, feeling guilty about spending money, and perceived importance of money, are ruled out. Furthermore, the results show that when the target account to keep money is considered risky, the positive money anthropomorphism on saving disappears. The findings provide important and practical implications for increasing personal savings.     

Consumer rights or unethical behaviors: Exploring the impacts of retailer return policies

While a product return guarantee plays an important role in reducing perceived risk, a liberal product return policy may generate a moral crisis in consumers and induce unethical post-consumption behaviors. Situational questionnaires with two return policies, liberal and rigorous, are used to investigate how such policies influence consumers' moral reasoning and fraudulent return activities. This study finds that a return policy with different attributes results in differing consumer moral recognition, moral judgment, moral intensity, and intentions toward fraudulent return. Among these constructs, evidence of a strong correlation between moral judgment and unethical returning behaviors was found. Social consensus has a greater impact on moral recognition, moral judgment, and fraudulent return intention than on the magnitude of consequences and probability of effect. These findings from consumers' moral perspectives address gaps in the literature in which most studies take the retailer point of view in examining the effects of return policy. Understanding consumers’ moral decision-making is helpful for retailers who seek to avoid consumer abuse of return policies.     

Surety bonds and moral hazard in banking

We examine a policy in which owners of banks provide funds in the form of a surety bond in addition to equity capital. This policy would require banks to provide the regulator with funds that could be invested in marketable securities. Investors in the bank receive the income from the surety bond as long as the bank is in business. The capital value could be used by bank regulators to pay off the banks’ liabilities in case of bank failure. After paying depositors, investors would receive the remaining funds, if any. Analytically, this instrument is a way of creating charter value but, as opposed to Keeley (1990) and Hellman, Murdock and Stiglitz (2000), restrictions on competition are not necessary to generate positive rents. We demonstrate that capital requirements alone cannot prevent the moral hazard problem arising from deposit insurance.     

Differentiated consumer forgiveness for different corporate social irresponsibility domains: The moderating role of corporate reputation and patriotism

The extant literature has generally overlooked the differentiated consumer forgiveness regarding corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). Motivated by this, we introduce the construct of patriotism and propose a model (applicable to domestic enterprises in China) to investigate the moderating effect of patriotism and corporate reputation on the relationship between CSI domains (must-be and attractive) and consumer forgiveness; and such effect is mediated by moral judgment. An experiment that uses 483 actual consumers in China as participants was conducted. We find that the must-be CSI has a greater negative impact on consumers than the attractive CSI, and consumers are less likely to forgive the must-be CSI. Meanwhile, moral judgment plays a mediating role in the differential effects of different CSI domains on consumer forgiveness. In addition, high corporate reputation has a buffer effect on both CSI domains for consumers with high patriotism, and has a boomerang effect on the must-be CSI and a buffer effect on the attractive CSI for consumers with low patriotism.     

中国网贷市场平台触雷和恶性退出原因与机制研究——透析平台运营中的道德风险

本文从理论分析、实证检验和案例分析三个维度,创新地将经营状况与道德风险放到一个系统中来研究中国网贷市场平台触雷和恶性退出的原因和机制。研究发现,国内网贷市场平台以民营资本为主,公司治理结构简单,经营时间不长,借款期限短且利率高,监管环境不严。但经营状况不是其水土不服的主因。平台无论触雷还是恶性退出,其原因均有超过50%是道德风险。具体而言,触雷来自经营状况的解释率为40%,而恶性退出来自经营状况的解释率则有26%。经营时间越长的平台,触雷和恶性退出的概率越小。银行存管降低了平台触雷概率,而恶性退出概率上升的理由不是恶性退出平台之前银行存管造假,就是之后有钱不还。国资背景的平台有助于降低触雷概率;而出资人身份(风投)、高管人数、标的利率和债权转让有道德风险倾向的指标对触雷无影响,反而对恶性退出有助推作用。可见,触雷中的道德风险仅来自其过程,而恶性退出过程不仅自身道德风险更大,而且还受之前经营中道德风险倾向的影响。该风险的存在不仅是对网贷市场的践踏,而且会殃及到其他普惠金融的稳健发展。这种劣币驱逐良币的现象如果不加以根治,将严重降低小微企业通过健康的普惠金融市场自救的可能性。     

Adam Smith's moral foundations of self-interest and ethical social order

This article draws on textual evidence from The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations to address mistaken interpretations of Adam Smith's fundamental concept of self-interest as greed that has been said to have had a corrosive influence on markets, commercial behaviour, and widening inequality. To the contrary, Smith's complex set of human motivations, including self-interest, his economic system that is based on free markets, and institutional frameworks governing productive property rights and the rule of law are argued to increase aggregate wealth, improve the position of those least well off, and maintain ethical social order.     

The moral hazard of Lax FCC land use oversight for advanced network infrastructure

This article discusses issues that arise when service providers place network equipment on publicly owned lands in the United States. Based on land use policy at the Federal Communications Commission, this paper theorizes that the use of public lands for 5G network development will create a moral hazard, as service providers may be tempted to take risks in the way they use public lands. Per economic theory the firm could behave recklessly when knowing that the costs will be borne by someone else – in this case local citizens. This is an example of the moral hazard problem in economics.