Big business and small states: Unilever and Norway in the interwar years1

In 1930, Unilever tried to take control of Lilleborg, Norway's most important producer of soap and vegetable oil, with the aim of wiping out most of Norway's independent margarine and soap industry. However, as the purchase was dependent on government concession, Unilever became embroiled in a power struggle with the Norwegian political authorities. The company was strongly criticized by Norwegian nationalists. The question of whether or not to let Unilever go forward became one of the most contested questions in Norwegian politics in the period. In the end, Unilever was allowed to go ahead with the purchase, but in return the company was forced to make substantial concessions. Expanding on Jones's framework for understanding the balance of power between multinationals and host governments, in this article it is argued that we must look beyond firm specific assets and a cost‐benefit oriented analysis of the relationship between multinationals and host countries to understand the end result. In this case, nationalism had a decisive impact. Unilever's acquisition of Lilleborg and the Norwegian response thus contributes to our understanding of the nature of multinational enterprise in the interwar period and of the political economy of foreign direct investment in general.     

Why Does Poor Performance Get So Much Attention in Public Policy?

Abstract: This article explores why information on poor performance often gets most of the attention in public policy. In order to illustrate the discussion this paper analyses the case of educational policy for secondary schools in Norway, and in particular the policy of participating in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which measures educational outcomes for 15‐year old pupils regarding reading, mathematics and science. Governments, researchers, interest groups and the media await the regular release of the PISA results every third year with great interest, and participate in the strategy of ‘naming and blaming’ based on the relative national performances. The practice of identifying poor performance and the subsequent public discourses has become an institution. Despite the negativity‐bias the strategic use of information associated with these processes may have positive impacts on decision making, policy innovation and democratic accountability.     

Rewarding effort

According to liberal egalitarian ethics, individuals should be rewarded for factors under their control (the principle of responsibility), but not for factors outside their control (the principle of equalization). The paper analyses the effects of two requirements on how to reward effort within a liberal egalitarian framework: the requirement of equal reward and the requirement of solidarity. We show that it is impossible to establish a framework that satisfies the principle of equalization in all respects, and that a generalized version of the egalitarian equivalent mechanism is a very plausible liberal egalitarian approach. We should like to thank Aanund Hylland, Dirk Van de Gaer and two anonymous referees for extremely valuable comments.     

Einzelbesprechungen

Ohne ZusammenfassungÜbersetzt von Erich AllinaÜbersetzt von Dr. Erich Schiff, Wien.Aus dem Russischen übersetzt von Dr. Alexander Gerschenkron.Übersetzt von Paul Brüll, Wien.Deutsche Übersetzung von Erich Allina.     

Einzelbesprechungen

Ohne ZusammenfassungÜbersetzt von Erich Schiff, Wien.Übersetzt von Paul Brüll, Wien     

An experimental study of prosocial motivation among criminals

The fact that criminal behavior typically has negative consequences for others provides a compelling reason to think that criminals lack prosocial motivation. This paper reports the results from two dictator game experiments designed to study the prosocial motivation of criminals. In a lab experiment involving prisoners, we find a striking similarity in the prosocial behavior of criminals and non-criminals, both when they interact with criminals and when they interact with non-criminals. Similarly, in an Internet experiment on a large sample from the general population, we find no difference in the prosocial behavior of individuals with and without a criminal record. We argue that our findings provide evidence of criminals being as prosocially motivated as non-criminals in an important type of distributive situations.     

Conceptualizing dysfunctional consequences of performance measurement in the public sector

ABSTRACT

Performance measurement (PM) has become increasingly popular in the management of public sector organizations (PSOs). This is somewhat paradoxical considering that PM has been criticized for having dysfunctional consequences. Although there are reasons to believe that PM may have dysfunctional consequences, when they occur has not been clarified. The aim of this research is to conceptualize the dysfunctional consequences of PM in PSOs. Based on complementarity theory and contingency theory we conclude that dysfunctional consequences of PM are a matter of interactions between PM design and PM use, between control practices in the control system and between PM and context.     

About FairTax

Intereconomics - Our research shows that in the ongoing discussion concerning ‘the social dimension of Europe’, it appears that there is much to gain if the tax policy interaction...     

Recreational Conflict Is Affective: The Case of Cross-Country Skiers and Snowmobiles

The authors conducted a field experiment to test the assumption that subjective feelings are important in recreation conflict. During a weekend, cross-country skiers in a popular recreation area were assigned randomly to an experimental group who were exposed to an operating snowmobile, and a control group who were not exposed. Both groups completed a self-report questionnaire to provide information on their subjective experiences during their outing. The experimental group answered the questions five to ten minutes after encountering a snowmobile. Participants were not informed about the connection between the snowmobile and the investigation, and the questions regarding effects were answered before any clues were given about snowmobiles being an issue. Results showed that relative to the control group, skiers who encountered a snowmobile had their affective quality significantly reduced. Moreover, encountering a single snowmobile had an effect on participants' beliefs about the extent to which noise from snowmobiles disturbed the quality of ski-touring in general.