The developmental self-valuing theory: A practical approach for business ethics

Ethics in business has been an increasingly controversial and important topic of discussion over the last decade. Debate continues about whether ethics should be a part of business, but also includes how business can implement ethical theory in day-to-day operations. Most discussions focus on either traditional moral philosophy, which offers little of practical value for the business community, or psychological theories of moral reasoning, which have been shown to be flawed and incomplete. The theory presented here is called the Developmental Self-Valuing Theory, and adapts the general psychological theory of Albert Bandura for ethics in business. In this theory, individuals first learn moral values from associations with others who are significant in their lives. Secondly, self-regulation is learned through a process of self-observation, self-judgment and self-reaction. Thirdly, the individual must believe that he can act ethically. Situational constraints and inducements, as well as positive and negative consequences for specific behaviors, will also affect the level of ethical performance. Each of these elements is examined and combined to achieve a practical method for increasing the level of ethics in corporate activity through selection, training and situational enhancement. Larry Jensen is Professor of Psychology at Brigham Young University. He has published in the areas of moral reasoning, education, and behavior. Steve Wygant is a doctoral candidate in the area of Social Psychology with primary interests in the philosophy of science and personality research.     

A role for a pan-European trade union movement?–possibilities in European IR-regulation

Steps towards internationalisation of the trade union movement are considered in the context of the process of political and economic integration taking place in the EU. The trade unions are trying–partly via the ETUC–to play a role at pan-European level. However, the European trade union movement is not a cohesive entity. Besides, it has no significant transnational power-resources. These factors suggest that any European IR-system will be based primarily on political regulation rather than on a system of collective agreements.     

Distributional Effects of Fiscal Consolidation

If public goods and transfers are relatively more valuable to the poor, the elderly poor stand to lose from public debt reduction achieved through spending cuts. When long–term surpluses produced by debt reduction are recycled into higher provision of public goods and transfers, future generations of poor could gain. If future surpluses are recycled through lower labour taxes, working households in the future would be positively affected. The impact of debt reduction on vertical equity is ambiguous, yet inter– rather than intragenerational equity is likely to pose the greatest obstacle to fiscal consolidation. Based on majority voting by self–interested households, debt reduction is unlikely to occur.
JEL classification : D 91; E 62; H 23; H 63     

Household Participation in Formal and Informal Savings Mechanisms: Evidence from Pakistan

Savings are an important determinant of both individual and national wellbeing. Typically, households employ a wide range of mechanisms for saving, including both formal and informal institutions. The choice of savings instrument has important micro- and macroeconomic implications. However, little is known empirically about the patterns of use of these instruments, or the factors affecting household decisions/ abilities to use them. The authors apply household-level data from a nationally representative survey for Pakistan to explore these issues in detail. In particular, they focus on the choice between banks and bisi , an informal saving committee similar in nature to a rotating-savings-and-credit association.     

Food Expenditures Away From Home by Type of Meal

A nonnormal and heteroscedastic double-hurdle model is used to study household expenditures on breakfast, lunch and dinner away from home in the United States. In the 1992–93 period, nearly 40% of households purchased breakfast, and about three quarters of households purchased lunch or dinner in a two-week period. Wife's employment has a positive effect on the probability and level of lunch and dinner expenditures but not on breakfast expenditures. Income effects are all statistically significant and positive. The role of household composition. other demographics and region are also important.     

Implementation of competitive nonlinear pricing: tariffs with inclusive consumption

The paper studies how the optimal nonlinear quantity-payment allocation can be truthfully implemented by optional tariffs in a differentiated goods duopoly. Consumers choose from a menu of tariffs and are subsequently billed according to this. We find that implementation by simple two part tariffs may not be a feasible strategy in a duopoly because the optimal nonlinear tariff exhibits a convexity for lower quantities. We show that the optimal outcome can be implemented if the firms can use two part tariffs with inclusive consumption. The fixed fee includes a free consumption allowance, whereas subsequent consumption is charged according to a steep unit price. That way the firm is able to secure voluntary participation without violating the incentive constraint. The paper shows some examples from the telecommunications industry where firms offer two part tariffs with free call minutes to low demand segments.     

Trade, Entry Barriers, and Home Market Effects

This paper re‐examines the relationship between entry barriers and home market effects and departs from recent work by using returns to scale as a direct measure of entry barriers as opposed to relying on the level of product differentiation as an indirect proxy for barriers to entry. In contrast to earlier work, results of this study do not indicate a significant relationship between home market effects and entry barriers. In addition, examination of trade costs reveals the importance of these costs in the numéraire sector. These two observations are consistent with the theoretical prediction that home market effects are insignificant in the presence of symmetric trade costs across sectors. Consequently, a more direct measure of barriers to entry and an explicit consideration of trade costs indicate that the link between home market effects and barriers to entry is not as strong as predicted by previous work.     

Scenario probability scaling: an eigenvector analysis of elicited scenario odds ratios

If odds ratios elicited from experts (eg via Delphi) are translated into scenario probabilities by nonsymmetric matrix eigenvector analysis, then such problems as inconsistency between individuals' responses can be conveniently analysed, and revised, more consistent responses can be sought.