Justice Failure: Efficiency and Equality in Business Ethics

This paper offers the concept of “justice failure,” as a counterpart to the familiar idea of market failure, in order to better understand managers’ ethical obligations. This paper takes the “market failures approach” (MFA) to business ethics as its point of departure. The success of the MFA, I argue, lies in its close proximity with economic theory, particularly in the idea that, within a larger scheme of social cooperation, markets ought to pursue efficiency and leave the pursuit of equality to the welfare state. As a result, the core ethical responsibility of business actors is to avoid profiting off of market failure. After reviewing this approach I challenge its emphasis on efficiency. I argue that just as we note the suboptimal efficiency of actual markets (market failure), we should also take seriously the suboptimal equality of actual welfare states (what I call “justice failure”). Taking this idea seriously results in a whole other set of ethical responsibilities for businesses to take into account; in addition to market imperfections and regulatory lacunae, managers should also avoid profiting from, and exacerbating, structural inequalities and injustices. I offer an outline of the kinds of injustices and inequalities that would have bearing on business ethics, and the kinds of ethical responsibilities that this approach suggests that business actors should take into account.     

Governmental versus self-regulation of derivative markets: examining the U.S. and Brazilian experience

This paper contributes to the discussion on the choice between governmental regulation and self-regulation of derivative markets (i.e., by financial exchanges) by analyzing in a comparative manner these two alternative regulatory mechanisms and by focusing on regulatory, instead of market, failures. Four types of failures are discussed in the case of governmental regulation: (1) the costs to run regulation bureaus, collect information and monitor the markets, (2) the credibility of the proposed mechanism, (3) rent seeking behavior by constituencies directly or indirectly affected by the regulation, and (4) constraints on financial innovation. Regarding self-regulation, three failures are discussed: (1) lack of competition between exchanges and alternative suppliers of derivative contracts, (2) agency problems in the organizational structure of the exchange, and (3) nonsocially optimal provision of goods. To illustrate this analysis, we contrast the regulation of derivative markets in the U.S. and Brazil. The former is as an example of strong governmental regulation, whereas the latter is an example of how self-regulation can function without strong governmental support (and, sometimes, with governmental actions that apparently run against market efficiency).     

农村金融市场四大问题及其演化逻辑

融资困境是影响农村实现效率和公平目标的最大金融瓶颈，需要一个合适的农村金融体系去解除这一瓶颈。但为何已有成熟的城市工商金融体系，不能自然而然地延伸到农村地区，而需要一个单独的农村金融安排呢？笔者认为，原因在于农村金融市场存在四大基本问题：严重的信息不对称、抵押物缺乏、特质性成本与风险、非生产性借贷为主。四大问题的存在，使农村金融市场自然发育状态下出现“市场失灵”和“负外部性”，需要政府介入。但政府介入后，又往往以正式金融制度取代非正式金融制度，进一步恶化农村融资环境，又带来了“政府失灵”。两大“失灵”，使得农村资金的非农化成为常态。若不改变涉农基本制度，缓解两大“失灵”的关键，在于放弃单纯依赖正式金融部门的幻想，构建并运行正式和非正式金融两部门垂直合作型农村金融体系。若要从根本上解决农村融资难题。则需跳出金融去看农村金融问题，突破市场逻辑，改善基本涉农制度。     

我国对外贸易制度寻租初探

对外贸易政策的制定和实施会产生大量的寻租机会和寻租活动,外贸关税壁垒和非关税壁垒寻租活动产生的垄断会对社会福利产生不同的影响。外贸制度寻租产生的原因有政府保护和"经济人"本质,克服对外贸易制度寻租的方法有创建有限政府、法制化和加强监督。     

Efficiency and Ethically Responsible Management

One common justification for the pursuit of profit by business firms within a market economy is that profit is not an end in itself but a means to more efficiently produce and allocate resources. Profit, in short, is a mechanism that serves the market’s purpose of producing Pareto superior outcomes for society. This discussion examines whether such a justification, if correct, requires business managers to remain attentive to how their firm’s operation impacts the market’s purpose. In particular, it is argued that the value of efficiency, despite views to the contrary, cannot be fully separated from the planning and intentions of business managers as long as those managers direct their firms in an ethically responsible fashion. This position is inspired by, and serves as a supportive clarification of Joseph Heath’s so-called “market failures approach” to business ethics.     

A Positive Theory of Social Entrepreneurship

I propose a theory aimed at advancing scholarly research in social entrepreneurship. By highlighting the key trade-off between value creation and value capture and explaining when situations of simultaneous market and government failure may arise, I suggest that social entrepreneurship is the pursuit of sustainable solutions to neglected problems with positive externalities. I further discuss the situations in which problems with externalities are likely to be neglected and derive the central goal and logic of action of social entrepreneurs, in contrast to commercial entrepreneurs. Overall, this article provides a conceptual framework that allows understanding the growing phenomena of social entrepreneurship and its role in the functioning of modern society.     

Governments,Exports and Growth: Responding to the Challenges and Opportunities of Globalisation

We live in an increasingly globalised world. Trade has consistently grown faster than GDP and has been an important driver of world growth. What role should government play in this process? This paper considers the rationale for government action and the merits of various policies focusing on the UKs experience: the benefits of openness to trade and overseas investment and the merits of tackling barriers that discourage greater participation by firms in international markets. It also considers whether this approach needs to be adapted given current trends in globalisation, concluding that a continued emphasis on openness and addressing market failures will be welfare enhancing.     

新就业职工的居住现状与住房保障政策优化思路--基于武汉市新就业职工的调查研究

基于武汉市的实地调查资料发现,新就业职工面临安居困境,其原因在于：房价与房租持续飙升;收入水平低且增长缓慢;住房保障政策存在缺位与错位;现有非正规的住房解决方案面临争议;廉价居所不断流失。解决新就业职工居住困难需要在公租房持续放量的同时,优化项目选址和设计方案,切实降低居住成本;有效利用市场存量房源,加强市场调控,增加小面积廉价商品租屋供给,着力提高新就业职工付租能力;谨慎推进城中村改造,明确城中村改造应予担负的住房保障义务;通过政府扶助、社会合力、分流引导,多渠道化解新就业职工的生计难题。     

国际造法过程中的竞争中立规则——兼论中国的对策

自2011年美国副国务卿提出竞争中立概念后,美国及以其为首的TPP、OECD都将竞争中立规则的制定作为重要的议题推出。本文对竞争中立概念的起源、规则的内涵、在TPP谈判中的地位以及在OECD语境下的涵义进行了梳理。在分析了竞争中立规则的国际造法过程后,本文对中国政府在国际投资法的新一轮国际造法中的立场以及对竞争中立具体问题的对策做出若干分析。中国政府应当尽早参与谈判,掌握话语权和规则制定权,对国际投资法领域的新一轮国际规则制定占据主导和主动的地位。     

从市场准入角度看《行政许可法》的意义与局限

本文认为,我国目前的市场准入制度面临一系列的困境,而政府官员在市场准入过程中的寻租行为及政府调控经济过程中的盲目性等是造成这些困境的重要原因。《行政许可法》的制度安排有利于减少寻租行为,实现对市场准入的良好调控。一方面,《行政许可法》对于整个市场准入制度的改革有示范意义,对于建立适应WTO规则的市场准入制度有导向意义;另一方面,《行政许可法》也存在概括性强而操作性差,与其他法律法规缺乏衔接以及程序保障不够充分等方面的局限,亟需进一步完善。     

浅析会计寻租

会计寻租是一种负和博弈,其本质是利用会计信息来取得非公平的财富转移和资源的不平等配置。通过探究会计寻租含义、会计寻租行为和会计寻租的预防措施等,优化会计行为,提高会计信息质量,促进资本市场的健康发展,为我国的经济建设服务。     

Vulnerability and the Basis of Business Ethics: From Fiduciary Duties to Professionalism

This paper examines the role of vulnerability in the basis of business ethics by criticizing its role in giving a moral substantial character to fiduciary duties to shareholders. The target is Marcoux’s (Bus Ethics Q 13(1):1–24, 2003) argument for morally substantial fiduciary duties vis-à-vis the multifiduciary stakeholder theory. Rather than proceed to support the stakeholder paradigm, a conception of vulnerability is combined with Heath’s 2004) “market failure” view of the ethical obligations of managers as falling out of their roles as professionals involved in the institution of the market. The result is the core of a theoretically defensible and managerially motivating and deployable ethic.     

政府在企业并购中的干预行为比较研究

市场失灵等问题的存在使得并购不单纯是一种企业行为,也是政府实现其经济、社会管理等职能的一种重要手段。在总结中外企业并购历程及政府干预行为特点的基础上,本文分析了政府干预企业并购的动机,从国有企业委托代理关系的视角阐述了我国政府干预企业并购的实质,并针对我国政府这种直接行政干预的缺陷以及国企中现存的委托代理问题,提出相应的政策建议。     

国有企业集团内部资本市场效率的影响因素分析

经济转型时期,国有企业集团有着区别于一般企业集团的产权特性和政治特性,政府对国有企业集团内部资本市场的形成具有推动和强化作用。而寻租、预算软约束会制约内部资本市场的效率;控股股东对中小股东的利益掠夺,会异化内部资本市场的功能。此外,内部资本市场的规模会强化以上因素,制约内部资本市场的边际收益与边际成本。由此,根据影响内部资本效率的因素,构建了影响国有企业集团内部资本市场效率因素的综合模型。     

Beschäftigungspolitik in Deutschland: Fine-Tuning statt Globalsteuerung

Until 2005 unemployment rates in Germany jumped after every recession to ever-higher levels. Neoclassical micro-economists interpreted this trend as market failure and consequently narrowed the debate to labour market policies intended to improve the assumed malfunctioning of labour markets. Macroeconomic relations were largely ignored or even negated, which also characterises the current approach of the federal German government towards European economic policy. This approach has contributed to high unemployment in the eurozone. The economic trends in the US show that monetary and fiscal policies that do not exclusively focus on low inflation but that also aim to improve growth and employment will be much more promising for Germany and Europe.     

Antitrust and Liberalization in developing countries

A number of developing countries around the world have recently liberalized once highly protected regimes through privatization programs and by reducing impediments to market trade. Many of these countries have adopted an antitrust policy as an integral component of their market reforms. Recent assessments of trade liberalization programs show disappointing results. Such outcomes contradict long-held beliefs that free trade is sufficient to generate competitive outcomes in small economies. Antitrust advocates view these underwhelming achievements as further justification for extensive antitrust enforcement. We argue instead that the failure of liberalization suggests not the correctness but the inappropriateness of the enactment of antitrust policies. The continuance of market power after liberalization is due primarily to lobbying activities by producer interest groups to establish nontariff barriers rather than to collusive practices among producers. Interest groups find cartelization and rent seeking as substitutes in raising prices above competitive levels. Accordingly, the establishment of antitrust serves to improve the relative attractiveness of seeking nontariff barriers. Antitrust policies are ineffective in challenging the emergence of nontariff barriers and thus may have the unintended consequence of promoting anticompetitive activities.     

Buslinienfernverkehr in Deutschland — effiziente Ausgestaltung einer Liberalisierung

Intercity coach traffic in Germany is virtually prohibited, in order to protect the rail network. From an economic perspective, this regulation is not legitimate, as allowing long distance coach transportation would not result in any market failures. A recent draft law from the German government includes a proposal to permit coach transport on longer routes and is therefore considered to be an important step toward a more efficient and competitive transport system. However, the exact set-up of the opening of the market is still being discussed intensely. This paper summarises and critically reviews the current discussion. In addition, the non-availability of coach terminals in most German cities is identified as a major issue with regard to the opening of the market.     

AGOA and Apparel: Who Captures the Tariff Rent in the Presence of Preferential Market Access?

The United States grants preferential (tariff‐ and quota‐free) market access to a list of products from eligible countries in sub‐Saharan Africa through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). We analyse the increase in prices received by apparel exporters who benefited from AGOA preferences. In the presence of competitive markets, export prices should increase as much as the tariff which was previously collected by the US government. We refer to this price increase as the ‘tariff preference rent’ since exporters receive this income as the rent for their preferential status. The results show that exporters receive only one‐third of this rent and smaller exporters receive less than larger and established ones. We then provide evidence that suggests this may be due to the degree of market power enjoyed by US importers when facing African exporters.     

An Adversarial Ethic for Business: or When Sun-Tzu Met the Stakeholder

In the economic literature on the firm, especially in the transaction–cost tradition, a sharp distinction is drawn between so-called “market transactions” and “administered transactions.” This distinction is of enormous importance for business ethics, since market transactions are governed by the competitive logic of the market, whereas administered transactions are subject to the cooperative norms that govern collective action in a bureaucracy. The widespread failure to distinguish between these two types of transactions, and thus to distinguish between adversarial and non-adversarial relations, has led many business ethicists to develop a “uniform” moral code. Yet in market transactions, the checks and balances built into the system of commercial exchange are such as to permit more instrumental forms of behavior. In administered transactions, by contrast, these checks and balances are absent, and thus the institutional context calls for much greater exercise of moral restraint. In this paper, I begin the task of developing an adversarial ethic for business. According to this view, the competitive environment licenses a greater range of “self-interested” behavior, but also imposes its own constraints on the strategies that firms may adopt in the pursuit of their interests. Joseph Heath is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto. He is the author of three books: Communicative Action and Rational Choice (MIT Press, 2001), The Efficient Society (Penguin, 2001), and with Andrew Potter. The Rebel Sell (HarperCollins, 2004). His research focuses on practical rationality, normative economics, and critical theory.     

Disillusionment from Failure as a Source of Successful Learning

In this article I review the literature on organizational learning from failed product launches. I challenge the view that failure is an inevitable part of the “probe and learn” process as well as the view that companies do not learn anything from such failures. I conclude there is no direct link between learning and commercial failures, and highlight many obstacles that hamper the learning process. Finally, even when learning does occur, it will not always result in improved organizational performance. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.