Debt Relief as a Last Resort for the Lender of Last Resort?

The coronavirus crisis has led to a sharp increase in the debt-to-GDP ratios of the euro area member states. Without external support, access to the capital market could be seriously threatened in the medium term for Italy, but also for other member states. While the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme, which is designed as a monetary policy instrument, is regarded by some as a violation of the prohibition of monetary financing, the Next Generation EU recovery fund is likely to direct the fundamental structures of the European Union towards a fiscal union with considerable redistribution elements. This article analyses an alternative strategy, namely debt relief by the European System of Central Banks through an EU debt agency. Such a scheme would be possible without amending the EU treaties and would avoid negative equity at the central banks. The question is under what circumstances would this approach be suitable and proportionate?

     

Is it Efficient to Impose Costs on Small-Volume Equity Traders?

A securities market that imposes higher trading costs on small-volume traders may reduce free-riding on information generated by large-volume traders. The reduction in free-riding increases the probability that large-volume traders will invest in socially beneficial information and engage in costly monitoring of managers of firms in their portfolio.V arious mechanisms can be used to impose costs on small-volume traders.We argue that Nasdaq's former treatment of limit orders was one such mechanism. Depending on the market's structure and the nature of the securities traded in the market, a reduction in freeriding activity may improve overall market efficiency despite a potentially negative impact on information dissemination.     

Shopping for fun or shopping to buy: Is it different online and offline?

Consumers can shop both online and offline, either for fun or for needs. We investigate the consequences of shopping for fun or for need on word-of-mouth (WOM), intentional loyalty, and price consciousness directly comparing the offline and online settings. We find differences in the relationships among the considered variables, with the offline context being characterized by a simplified structure of causalities, greater maturity, and fewer but stronger ties among the considered constructs, compared with the online context. Furthermore, the content of WOM changes: consumers share experiential issues when they shop for fun, and efficiency issues when their shopping is goal-oriented     

Umpire and batsman: Is it cricket to be both?

The paper is a response to Richard De George's essay, Theological Ethics and Business Ethics. It defends the possibility of theologically oriented approaches to business ethics by pointing out certain deficiencies in business ethics narrowly based on the premisses of analytic moral philosophy. In particular it argues, in a manner consistent with Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue (1981), that such a program of business ethics is insufficiently critical of its own roots in the social fiction of bureaucratic rationality. After showing how this ideology governs De George's negative judgments on theological approaches to business ethics, the author outlines a program of critical reflection that would draw from the intellectual traditions of both theology and philosophy in order to facilitate a dialogue in business ethics that no longer is captive in the Iron Cage of bureaucratic rationality. Dennis P. McCann is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at De Paul University. He has served on the faculties of Reed College and Lewis and Clark College. He is the author of Christian Realism and Liberation Theology (1981) and a co-author of Polity and Praxis: A Program for American Practical Theology (1985).     

Is Augmented Reality Technology an Effective Tool for E-commerce? An Interactivity and Vividness Perspective

This study evaluates the effectiveness of augmented reality (AR) as an e-commerce tool using two products — sunglasses and watches. Study 1 explores the effectiveness of AR by comparing it to a conventional website. The results show that AR provides effective communication benefits by generating greater novelty, immersion, enjoyment, and usefulness, resulting in positive attitudes toward medium and purchase intention, compared to the web-based product presentations. Study 2 compares the paths by which consumers evaluate products through AR versus web with a focus on interactivity and vividness. It is revealed that immersion mediates the relationship between interactivity/vividness and two outcome variables — usefulness and enjoyment in the AR condition compared to the web condition where no significant paths between interactivity and immersion and between previous media experience and media novelty are found. Participants' subjective opinions about AR are examined through opinion mining to better understand consumer responses to AR.     

How Can Globalization Affect Income Distribution? Evidence from Developing Countries

ABSTRACT

The standard Hecksher-Ohlin-Samuelson framework claimed that foreign trade benefits developing countries, but many empirical studies suggest otherwise. After analyzing data on income deciles from the World Income Distribution Database for 66 developing countries, we found that trade openness benefits underprivileged people in affluent countries but not in developing countries. Also, external financial flows and democracy in conjunction do not exert significant effects, suggesting that these variables might affect income distribution through different channels. Finally, we reinforce the Kuznets inverted-U hypothesis; namely, the presence of an economic development threshold beyond which low-income deciles would increase.     

Pay Inversion at Universities: Is it Ethical?

This paper examines an important issue facing academia-pay inversion. It discusses how inversion is accompanied by ethical issues including secrecy, moral dilemmas for faculty, honesty, and keeping promises. It then examines this issue from five ethical viewpoints: a legalistic perspective, ethical egoism, utilitarianism, distributive justice, and Kants deontological approach. As part of the discussion, the effect of the moral philosophy on the universitys corporate culture is examined, with attention given to morale and productivity. Finally, alternatives to pay inversion that universities may want to consider are discussed.     

Is Infrastructure Spending an Effective Fiscal Policy?

The impact of expansionary fiscal policy intended to increase economic growth by using infrastructure‐focused stimulus packages is analyzed by considering the debt to GDP ratio dynamics model. It is shown that for the data characterizing the current state of the US economy the government investment in infrastructure cannot decrease the debt to GDP ratio. The paper contributes to the ongoing fiscal policy debate whether government investment in infrastructure is an effective approach to boost the economy.     

Is Background Music Effective On Retail Websites?

Web designers often advise online retailers against incorporating background music on websites. However, the effect of music in brick-and-mortar retail settings has generally been found to be favorable. The research on the effects of music has been mixed. Our study aims to examine whether congruent music on the website homepage influences online consumers. Using the responses of 290 visitors to two different commercial websites, we test the influence of background music on consumers’ arousal and pleasure perceptions. The results indicate congruent background music on a website's homepage will generate positive affective responses of arousal and pleasure within users, and will enhance users’ perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment as well. The findings reveal the effects of respondent’ affective responses to the music differed by gender. Website music produces significant affective and cognitive responses in high web skill/low web challenge users and explains more of website enjoyment.     

Is the Fed Funds Rate Still Effective?

Both the depth and length of the Great Recession create the impression that the economy proved impervious to monetary policy. Policy rates, such as the federal funds rate (fed funds rate), were set at record lows, but the recovery in housing, employment, and GDP were subpar at best. Now with a self-sustaining expansion, the FOMC began rolling back its asset purchases program and, at some point in the future, it will start increasing its target for the fed funds rate. This raises the questions of whether the fed funds rate remains an effective tool and what effect an altered Federal Reserve balance sheet will have on inflation and the unemployment rate in the post-Great Recession world. Our econometric analysis suggests that since the 1990s, the traditional tools of monetary policy (such as the fed funds rate) may have influenced the unemployment rate but that it did not influence inflation. Thus, the effect a change in the fed funds rate may not be as straightforward as suggested by the conventional economic theory and the traditional link between interest rates and inflation and unemployment may have broken down.     

Is it all about consumer engagement? Explaining continuance intention for utilitarian and hedonic service consumption

This paper compares the explanatory power of consumer engagement (CE) regarding service continuance intention with the variables of attitude (utilitarian and hedonic) and satisfaction. Survey data were collected from users of mobile music (n = 596) and mobile parking (n = 297) services. The partial least squares method was applied to analyze the data. In line with expectations, the findings show that attitude and satisfaction are superior drivers of service continuance intention compared to CE when service is used for utilitarian reasons. In contrast, when service consumption is driven by hedonic reasons, CE is a stronger driver than satisfaction. However, no evidence for the superiority of CE over attitude was found in the hedonic context.     

Making Drones to Kill Civilians: Is it Ethical?

A drone industry has emerged in the US, initially funded almost exclusively for military applications. There are now also other uses both governmental and commercial (in the US and abroad). Many military drones are still being made, however, especially for surveillance and targeted killings. Regarding the latter, this essay calls into question their legality and morality. It recognizes that the issues are complex and controversial, but less so as to the killing of non-combatant civilians. The government using drones for targeted killings maintains secrecy and appeals to non-traditional justifications. Most scholars who assess these killer drone practices support citizen immunity, either by favoring a modified just war theory that prioritizes civilians’ right to life or by challenging official deviations from applicable laws. They accordingly declare such killing immoral if not a war crime. The manufacturers of these killer drones are not themselves the killers, but they are abetters, i.e., sine qua non facilitators. So, I argue that any company concerned about its corporate social responsibility should cease manufacturing them.     

How Effective Is Government Support for Korean Women Entrepreneurs in Small and Medium Enterprises?*

Women entrepreneurs are not as involved in economic activities as should be expected, despite the growing number of women entrepreneurs and increased government support in Korea. This study aims to investigate how effective the government is in terms of boosting the satisfaction of women entrepreneurs using the structural equation model. We investigated causal effect of government support policy and government support process on women entrepreneurs' satisfaction along with many other personal factors such as individual capacity, family life, social network, and business environment. The empirical results show that the government support process has the highest effect on the improvement of the satisfaction of women entrepreneurs. However, the current level of government support process is relatively low and therefore needs to be improved. It is interesting to note that the government support policy has the least effect on the satisfaction of women entrepreneurs. That is, women entrepreneurs are not sensitive to the support scale, support program, and gender‐sensitive policies currently employed in Korea. Also, we obtain the satisfaction index of women entrepreneurs according to their marital status, presence of children, age, education level, and business type. Finally, we propose improvement plans that can effectively be activated for each business type in which women entrepreneurs are involved.     

Corporate social and environmental responsibility in services: Will consumers pay for it?

Two studies investigate consumer awareness of and response toward socially and environmentally responsible practices in the hospitality industry. Results suggest that consumers exhibit more positive response toward establishments exhibiting higher levels of social responsibility, although many are uninformed of the extent to which the organizations they patronize engage in such practices. Most consumers are willing to incur a modest price increase while patronizing an organization that behaves in an environmentally and socially responsible fashion, but that willingness declines dramatically as the price premium escalates. Consumers with high involvement in and positive attitudes toward corporate social responsibility practices are most willing to pay a premium.     

The Intersection of Law and Ethics – at 600 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA: Is it Ethical to Assert a Legal Technicality to Avoid Liability for a Debt Created by Fraud?

A considerable literature exists regard-ing the moral obligation to keep one's promises. Several authors have focused on the exceptional circumstances which may or should excuse this moral duty. Less frequently discussed is the question of how this general moral obligation and its possible exceptions play out in the context of negotiable written promises to pay money, i.e., so-called "commercial paper."This paper focuses on the application of the legal rules governing commercial paper, and on the ethical implications involved in the application of those rules. More specifically, it asks whether the assertion of the technical doctrine known as "holder in due course," and the denial of that status in some cases, promotes ethical behavior in the marketplace. By examining the circumstances of one case, involving a substantial investment and a large bank, I hope to shed some light on how the legal and ethical rules do in fact "intersect."