A tale of minorities: evidence on religious ethics and entrepreneurship

Does Protestantism favour entrepreneurship more than Catholicism does? We provide a novel way to answer this question by comparing Protestant and Catholic minorities using Swiss census data. Exploiting the strong adhesion of religious minorities to their denomination’ ethical principles and the historical determination of the geographical distribution of denominations across Swiss cantons, we find that Protestantism is associated with a significantly higher propensity for entrepreneurship. The estimated difference ranges between 1.5 and 3.2 % points, it is larger the smaller the size of the religious minority, it is mainly driven by prime age male entrepreneurs and it stands up to a number of robustness checks. No effects are found when comparing religious majorities, suggesting that the implications of religious ethical norms on economic outcomes emerge only when such norms are fully internalized.     

The Use and Abuse of Environmental Knowledge: A Bloomington School Interpretation of the Canadian Fisheries Act of 1868

This paper will focus on the ambitious plan for regulation embodied in the Dominion Fisheries Act of 1868, a law passed by the Canadian federal parliament in its very first year of existence. The 1868 law was intended to bring the nation's fisheries firmly under the control of officials employed by the new federal government. The paper argues that 1868 law, which was designed to address what would today be called Tragedy of the Commons problems, was a product of the hubris identified by Hayek as "the fatal conceit." The centralized and bureaucratic approach to governing fisheries represented by the 1868 Fisheries Act did not work well because the knowledge that would have been required for successful management of fisheries was highly dispersed. Drawing on Hayek and the Bloomington School, this paper argues that the experience of Canada's fisheries sector in the generation after 1868 illustrates the problems with centralized management Common-Pool Resources. In the 1890s, the centralized approach represented by the Fisheries Act of 1868 was replaced by a more flexible and decentralized system Hayek's theory of knowledge would suggest the reversal of centralization over environmental policy in the 1890s was a positive development that helped Canadians to reconcile the goals of economic development and the protection of the environment. The Hayekian paradigm suggests that control over environmental policy should be devolved downwards to the levels of government closest to resource users.     

Cultural Dimension of Corruption: A Cross-Country Survey

This study investigates whether culture plays a major role in determining the corruption levels of countries. The cultural dimensions of Hofstede’s model and the worldwide level of corruption provided by the Corruption Perceptions Index were used. A cross-country survey of 98 countries was conducted using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Three of the six main components of Hofstede’s model were found to have a significant influence on corruption, namely power distance, individualism-collectivism, and long- versus short-term orientation. National culture may explain the level of corruption in each of the countries. About half of the level of corruption in countries is explained by the national culture. Governments must acknowledge the role of culture in order to adopt the most appropriate policy decisions to fight corruption.     

Ownership Unbundling in Electricity Distribution: Empirical Evidence from New Zealand

New Zealand is the only country to date to have implemented forced ownership unbundling of electricity distribution from the rest of the electricity supply industry (in 1998). This paper examines the impact of this policy on electricity prices, quality of service and costs. We find that ownership unbundling did not achieve its objectives of facilitating greater competition in the electricity supply industry but that it did lead to lower costs and higher quality of service. We suggest that this experience indicates the potential benefits of ownership unbundling in Europe but also the danger of unintended consequences.     

The Price Effects of Using Firewalls as an Antitrust Remedy

Antitrust authorities have imposed firewalls between the previously separate divisions of newly vertically integrated firms in several industries, to address concerns that access to horizontal rivals’ proprietary information may reduce competition. This paper evaluates a specific antitrust concern by modeling the price effect of one seller’s learning its rival’s production costs before bidding in a duopoly procurement contest. The results show that imposing a firewall as a condition for permitting a vertical merger actually can lead to higher prices than if the flow of information were unimpeded, and they provide guidance as to when this unintended outcome occurs.