Social norms,cooperation and inequality

This paper analyzes the outcomes that can be supported by social norms in a society of infinitely lived and patient agents that are randomly matched in pairs every period to play a given game. I find that any mutually beneficial outcome can be supported by a self-enforcing social norm under both perfect information and a simple local information system. These Folk Theorem results explain not only how social norms can provide incentives that support cooperation in a community, providing support to the concepts of social capital and corporate culture, but also how they can support inequality and discrimination.I am grateful to David Levine for invaluable guidance and ideas. I also thank Anna Aizer, Hongbin Cai, Walter Cont, Ernesto Dal Bó, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, Federico Weinschelbaun, William Zame, anonymous referees and seminar participants at Universidad de Buenos Aires, UCLA, Universidad T. Di Tella, Harvard Business School and Stockholm School of Economics for very useful comments and discussions     

The law-making power of enterprises and the Protection of Consumers in Spanish contract law

The paper informs about the development which has taken place in the Spanish law of general contract conditions. The first part is concerned with an analysis of the factual law-making power of enterprises in modern market economies and its regulation by legislation, court practice, and doctrine. The second part gives a critical account of the new approach towards general contract conditions taken by the newly adopted General Act for the Protection of Consumers and Users of 1984. The author points to the insufficiencies of this Act, most notably the lack of effective procedures to control abuses in general contract conditions. The author refers to the draft of a new act concerning general contract conditions which has been inspired by the most advanced statutes in this area and by the proposals developed by the Council of Europe and by the European Economic Community. The enactment of this proposal would — according to the author — fill the lacunae in the existing legislation.

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Die Gesetzgebungsbefugnis von Unternehmen und der Schutz der Verbraucher im Spanischen Recht

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag informiert über die Entwicklung des spanischen Rechts der Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen. Der erste Teil beschäftigt sich mit einer Analyse der faktischen Gesetzgebungsbefugnis von Großunternehmen in modernen Marktwirtschaften durch das Instrumentarium der Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen und mit den bisherigen Kontrollversuchen in Gesetzgebung, Rechtsprechung und Lehre.Der zweite Teil enthält eine kritische Analyse des durch das spanische Verbraucherschutzgesetz von 1984 versuchten neuen Regelungszugriffs. Der Autor hebt die Mängel dieses Gesetzgebungswerkes in bezug auf Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen hervor, die im Fehlen effizienter Verfahren zur Beseitigung mißbräuchlicher Vertragsklauseln begründet sind. Er verweist auf einen Gesetzgebungsvorschlag des spanischen Justizministeriums über ein besonderes Gesetz zur Regelung des Rechts der Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen, das nicht nur Verbrauchern, sondern auch (kleinen) Kaufleuten zugute käme. Seine verfassungsrechtlichen Vorschriften sehen nach dem Vorbild neuerer Gesetzgebungsakte und der Vorschläge des Europarates und der EWG die Einführung einer Verbandsklage vor, was nach Meinung des Autors die durch das Gesetz von 1984 gelassene Schutzlücke schließen würde.

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Manuel-Angel López Sánchez is an Assistant Lecturer in Commercial Law at the University of Zaragoza, Faculty of Law, E-50009 Zaragoza, Spain.     

The Influence of Riparian Protection Measures on Residential Property Values: The Case of the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds

The Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds encourages residential property owners to plant riparian buffers in an effort to reduce stream temperature and thus improve fish habitat. This study estimates the change in the value of streamside residential properties in response to planting a treed riparian buffer. A hedonic pricing analysis suggests that treed riparian buffers reduce the market value of stream-front residential property in the study area.     

Dini derivatives in optimization — Part I

This paper, published in two parts, is mainly concerned with general properties of Dini derivatives of functions of one and several variables and with some applications of this topic to the study of generalized convexity and generalized optimality conditions for mathematical programming problems.In part I the basic definitions and properties are given, with reference both to functions of one real variable and to functions of several real variables. In this part special attention is given to the restatement of the basic theorems of the classical analysis to nondifferentiable functions, in terms of Dini derivatives.In part II we use these derivatives in order to define some classes of nondifferentiable generalized convex functions and the class of generalized upper quasidifferentiable functions. This part concludes with the development of optimality conditions for a nonsmooth programming problem, expressed in terms of the tools prevously introduced.

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Riassunto Il presente lavoro, pubblicato in due parti, riguarda le principali proprietà dei numeri derivati di Dini (o derivate direzioni di Dini), sia di funzioni di una variablile che di più variabili, nonché alcune loro applicazioni allo studio della convessità generalizzata ed a problemi di ottimizzazione vincolata.Nella prima parte del lavoro si forniscono le definizioni e le proprietà fondamentali dei numeri derivati di Dini e vengono riformulati alcuni classici teoremi dell'an alisi, con riferimento a funzioni non differenziabili.Nella seconda parte tali derivate direzionali vengono applicate nello studio di alcune classi di funzioni convesse generalizzate non differenziabili e nell'ottenimento di condizioni di ottimalità per problemi (non differenziabili) di programmazione matematica.

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This research was supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Research and by the National Science Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Arts (grant OTKA 354/86). The authors have shared their work as follows: Chapters 1 and 3 are attributed to the first author, whereas Chapters 2 and 4 are attributed to the second author. The Introduction and Chapter 5 is common.     

Behavioral rules in the distribution of sectoral investments in Hungary, 1951–1980

An attempt is made to determine empirically the basic criteria for the distribution of the available investment funds among claimants, i.e., among firms or sectors of the Hungarian economy. Time series of investments in the 1951–1980 period and behavioral equations show that investments were determined by two simple rules that were applied at the same time in virtually all sectors: (a) investments were adjusted instantaneously and unconditionally to macroeconomic tensions; (b) the sectoral distribution of investments remained relatively stable.     

Some Difficulties in Sacconi's View about Corporate Ethics

Lorenzo Sacconi's The Social Contract of the Firm (Berlin, Springer, 2000) is a major contribution to the normative theory of the firm. It contains a full-fledged contractarian explanation of the role of Corporate Codes of Ethics. Sacconi proposes a game-theoretical model of the normative structure of the firm, including explicit and implicit contracts binding the members of the organisation, and the so-called constitutional contract: the hypothetical agreement that sets the basic co-operative structure in which the organisation consists. While Sacconi's theory is sound and full of suggestions, it is doubtful whether it completely grasps the nature of organisational ethics. In presenting organisations as the product of an agreement among self-interested individuals, the model does not account for the social and systemic embeddedness of business institutions. This paper points to several shortcomings of Sacconi's view, and explores alternative understandings of a contractarian morality as applied to business ethics.     

Fuel taxation,emissions policy,and competitive advantage in the diffusion of European diesel automobiles

Economic integration agreements have significantly decreased import tariffs. We investigate whether national policies can be an effective replacement for tariffs to protect domestic industry. We show that (a) European fuel taxes and vehicle emissions policy favored diesel vehicles, a technology popular with European consumers but largely offered only by domestic automakers; (b) European automakers benefited from pro‐diesel fuel taxes and a lenient NO_x emissions policy to earn significant profits from diesel cars; and (c) that both policies amounted to significant nontariff trade policies equivalent to an import tariff between two to three times the official rate.