The Ethics of Swearing: The Implications of Moral Theories for Oath-Breaking in Economic Contexts

Many readers will share the judgement that, having made an oath, there is something morally worse about consequently performing the immoral action, such as embezzling, that one swore not to do. Why would it be worse? To answer this question, I consider three moral-theoretic accounts of why it is ‘extra’ wrong to violate oaths not to perform wrong actions, with special attention paid to those made in economic contexts. Specifically, I address what the moral theories of utilitarianism, Kantianism and a new communitarian-relational principle entail for the wrongness of oath-breaking. I argue that the former two do not adequately capture why it is extra wrong to perform an immoral action that one swore not to do, but that the latter appeal to a morality of communal relationship offers a promising account.     

Film-induced tourist motivations. The case of Seville (Spain)

Tourists' attraction to filmed sites has increased destination marketing organisations (DMOs) interest in film-induced tourism. Seville, Spain, has been the setting of many national and international film productions. Film tourism research has focused on impacts, travel preferences and destination choice, but there is a lack of research on motivations of film tourism. As a consequence, DMO actions in film tourism are often developed ad hoc, in an unplanned and opportunistic way without understanding the phenomenon. This research tries to fill this gap by focusing on film tourism in Seville in order to identify film tourists' motivations. Results identify film tourism activity and find five motivations of the film-induced tourist in Seville: film site experiences, fantasy, novelty, touring the film and personal film-location connection. Results show films add something valuable to destination experience (as a secondary or tertiary attraction). Destination managers should consider novelty factor as an element to enhance tourist experience, especially for non-European ones as well as for female tourists and tourist above 25 years, to motivate a slightly positive site experience.     

Tests of investor learning models using earnings innovations and implied volatilities

This paper investigates alternative models of learning to explain changes in uncertainty surrounding earnings innovations. As a proxy for investor uncertainty, we use model-free implied volatilities; as a proxy for earnings innovations, representing signals of firm performance likely to drive investor perceptions of uncertainty, we use quarterly unexpected earnings benchmarked to the consensus forecast. We document that uncertainty declines on average after the release of quarterly earnings announcements and this decline is attenuated by the magnitude of the earnings innovation. This latter result is consistent with models that incorporate signal magnitude as a factor driving changes in uncertainty. Most important, we document that signals deviating sufficiently from expectations lead to net increases in uncertainty. Critically, this result suggests that models allowing for posterior variance to be greater than prior variance even after signal revelation [e.g., regime shifts in Pastor and Veronesi (Annu Rev Financ Econ 1:361–381, 2009)] better describe how investors incorporate new information.     

Past managerial guidance and returns to variance trading around earnings announcements

I investigate the relationship between past managerial guidance and realized variance risk premiums (VRPs) – i.e., the difference between implied and realized variance – in equity options around earnings announcements. I find that implied variances are lower before earnings announcements but VRPs are higher when firms provide guidance. I also find higher option-implied jump risk when firms issue surprising guidance. Further tests suggest a portion of the higher VRPs are due to changes in perceived higher-order risks, but traders also underreact to the precision of information in short-term guidance. These results are attenuated for firms with a better information environment.     

Robert Browne and the Caucus of Black Economics

Robert S. Browne the founder of the Black Economic Research Center (BERC) and the Review of Black Political Economy was a charter founder of the Caucus of Black Economists. He played an important role in the leadership of the Caucus and its efforts to increase the supply of black economists, to expand research efforts on issues of relevance to black constituencies in urban and rural America. His entrepreneurial efforts have left an indelible record of achievements which continue to influence research by black economists and practical results for economic development institutions in black communities.