Government activity and economic growth – one size fits All?

This study investigates the role of government activity in economic growth, arguing that economic systems are important and that, therefore, one size of government does not fit all countries. Taking a panel of 111 countries over the years from 1971 to 2010, we consider clusters of economic systems as predicted by an extended Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) approach. The empirical growth impact of government activity is positive but u-shaped and depends on both the quality of institutions and the institutional setting. For the polar cases of liberal economies and Scandinavian coordinated market economies, the potential growth impact is quite similar and superior to other clusters of countries. However, the maximum growth effect is realized for above-average levels of government activity in the Scandinavian countries, while this would be detrimental to growth in liberal countries. Hence, high levels of government activity are consistent with growth but only in economic systems consistently rooted in a high level of government activity.     

奥地利有机农业发展的经验与启示

一、奥地利有机农业发展的历史与现状 20世纪中叶,人类开始了环境意识的觉醒,人们的食品安全意识也随之提高,消费者对纯天然、无污染的健康食品的需求逐渐增加.     

Assessing empirical research on value-based management: Guidelines for improved hypothesis testing

The claims that value-based management (VBM) increases corporate performance have attracted considerable interest among researchers and organizations over the last three decades. Even though many studies have been conducted, the evidence on whether users outperform non-users is inconsistent. This paper attempts to place these diverse findings into perspective, and provide venues for future research. For that purpose, we drafted a framework to analyze 120 empirical studies on VBM. We concluded that meaningful hypothesis tests have been impaired by the narrow scope of data sets as well as methodological misspecifications. Based on this analysis, we categorized studies into four streams of research, employing factor analysis and cluster analysis. We then suggested that the most sophisticated studies identified positive performance effects of VBM. Lastly, we derived guidelines to improve the hypothesis testing of future studies on VBM.     

Bounds for median and 50 percetage point of binomial and negative binomial distribution

Inequalities for comparing the binomial distribution function/operating characteristic function with value 0.5 have been established long ago. It is a trivial task to infer from these inequalities bounds for the 50 percentage point of the binomial operating characteristic function. However, it is also possible to use these inequalities to establish good bounds for the median of the binomial distribution function. By a relation of binomial distribution function/operating characteristic function and negative binomial distribution function/operating characteristic function we can get bounds for the respective parameters of negative binomial distribution, too.     

The Effect of Implicit Moral Attitudes on Managerial Decision-Making: An Implicit Social Cognition Approach

This article concerns itself with the relationship between implicit moral cognitions and decisions in the realm of business ethics. Traditionally, business ethics research emphasized the effects of overt or␣explicit attitudes on ethical decision-making and neglected intuitive or implicit attitudes. Therefore, based on an implicit social cognition approach it is important to␣know whether implicit moral attitudes may have a substantial impact on managerial ethical decision-making processes. To test this thesis, a study with 50 participants was conducted. In this study the participants were asked to work on a deliberative managerial ethical decision-making task, in which they had to decide on one of two options. Implicit moral attitudes towards the two options were measured using the implicit association test (IAT). A semantic differential scale was used to diagnose explicit moral attitudes towards the two options. Each step taken within the deliberative decision-making process, as well the decision itself, was assessed using a scoring model-based decision analysis and a decision-making questionnaire. The results of this study show that implicit moral attitude has a great influence on the deliberative ethical decision-making process. The derived conclusion is that complex and deliberative decision-making processes in the context of business ethics can be affected by implicit social cognitions such as implicit moral attitudes.