The social construction of genetic abnormality: Ethical implications for managerial decisions in the workplace

This paper examines moral issues concerning a firm's use of genetic information about a prospective employee's predisposition to contract occupational and other illnesses. It critically reviews leading social construction literature on genetic abnormality and genetic screening, and it examines the relevance of arguments from justice and meritocratic principles. It concludes that there is a strong moral presumption against genetic screening in employment.Alan Strudler is Research Scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has taught philosophy at Stanford University and California Institute of Technology. His recent writing on professional and corporate responsibility appears inMichigan Law Review andLaw and Philosophy.     

Head-heart disparity among future managers: Implications for ethical conduct

An examination of the ethical perceptions of business students using Macobby's head/heart traits and a comparison to earlier studies of managers, accountants, and business students is made. The data were collected at three universities that are similar in size, enrollment and degree programs within the College of Business. Results indicate that present day business students are no less ethically inclined than are their business counterparts in previous eras. In general head traits dominated over heart traits, an indication that business schools continued to do a good job emphasizing and developing analytical skills but a poor job of developing the qualities of the heart that are generally associated with ethical behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Models for which the MLE and the conditional MLE coincide

The MLE, CMLE and MMLE coincide in a linear regression model with fixed individual effects. In this case, there is no incidental parameters problem and the MLE is consistent. The equivalence of these estimators is important because CMLE=MLE implies both the consistency of the MLE and the efficiency of the CMLE. In general, we cannot expect to find a CMLE or MMLE, since there may be no fixed-dimension sufficient statistic for the effects, nor an appropriate transformation of the data whose distribution does not depend on the effects. However, we show that the MLE, CMLE and MMLE do coincide in systems of seemingly unrelated regressions and in systems of simultaneous equations. We establish this result for systems in which (exogenous) variables in addition to (or other than) the intercept may have coefficients which vary over individuals, provided that the set of such variables is the same in every equation.The financial support of the National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.     

DISCOUNT RATES AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Empirical studies provide compelling evidence that economic agents do not adopt the complete range of energy-efficient technologies that are cost-effective under prevailing prices and market conditions. Analysts commonly attribute this anomaly to the use of high discount rates in energy-related decisions-an interpretation that is difficult to reconcile with standard models of rational choice. This paper recasts the controversy from the perspective of economic theory and finds that market failures related to asymmetric information, bounded rationality, and transaction costs are major contributors to the so-called "efficiency gap."     

Exchange Rate Pass‐through: The Role of Regime Changes

We consider the effect on the degree of exchange rate pass‐through of the exchange rate regime in operation. We test the hypothesis that pass‐through will be lower under a float as firms may be reluctant to pass appreciations or depreciations on to their customers when there is a strong chance that they will be subsequently reversed. Taylor’s hypothesis that pass‐through will be lower in a low‐inflation environment is also considered. Both hypotheses are assessed in relation to the price of manufactured imports into New Zealand and we find that, whereas the shift to a float dramatically lowered the degree of pass‐through, the later shift to a low‐inflation regime has no significant additional effect on the pass‐through relationship.     

Multilateral Reforms of Trade and Environmental Policy

The paper analyzes environmental tax policy reform using a competitive model of world trade that includes production‐generated environmental damage (pollution) and trade tariffs. The authors examine the feasibility of Pareto‐improving multilateral reforms of environmental taxes, and show that any environmental tax reform that is mutually welfare‐improving when compensating lump‐sum transfers are assumed is also welfare‐improving when a suitable tariff reform (but no transfers) is combined with the tax changes. Several specific reform proposals are developed. These results expand the feasible set of mutually improving policy proposals for international policy initiatives.     

A Proposed Arbitration Mechanism to Ensure Free Trade in Livestock Products

Trade negotiations between Canada and the United States are to begin in the near future. For there to be an ongoing free movement of commodities the question of nontariff barriers must be addressed in the negotiations. Livestock commodities are particularly prone to nontariff barriers due to the public health aspects of domestic regulations and the perishability of the products. Potential nontariff barriers in livestock and meat products are identified and the problems of normal negotiation procedures outlined. A proposal for an arbitration mechanism for the settlement of disputes is developed. It's essential elements are pre-approval of changes to regulations, extremely short arbitration periods and decentralized adjudication.
Les négociations de commerce entre le Canada et les États-Unis commenceront bientôt. Pour avoir un mouvement continuel des denrées, la question des barrières nontarifaires doit être adressée dans les négotiations. Les denrées bestiaux sont particulièrement portées aux barrières nontarifaires à cause des aspects de la santé publique dans les régulations domestiques et la nature périssable des produits. On identifie les barrières nontarifaires potentielles en des produits bestiaux et de viande. On indique aussi les problèmes avec les processus de négotiation normale. Une proposition pour un mécanisme d'arbitrage pour la résolution des disputes est developpée. Les elements essentiels de cette proposition sont l'approbation en avance des changements aux régulations, les périodes d'arbitration très courtes et les prononcements de jugements décentralisés.     

Varietal Licensing Standards and Canadian Wheat Exports

Canada's wheat grading system is largely based on visual criteria and it is based on relatively high quality standards. A strict varieties licensing system exists to maintain the integrity of the grade standards. One of the consequences of the licensing system is that higher yielding, lower or different quality wheats have not been grown in Canada until recently. The basic objective of this paper is to examine some of the consequences of the regulatory strategy of limiting wheat production to the traditional high quality wheats. This question is analyzed in the context of important changes in the international grain markets. Using a partial equilibrium trade model this paper estimates that if higher yielding wheats were permitted to be grown, annual producer gains would be 5 to 17 percent of current net farm income.
Le classement des blés au Canada est basé sur des critères visuels qui sont de hautes qualités. Le système actuel d'homologation des variétés est tel que l'intégrité de ce système est maintenue. En conséquent, ce système n'a pas encouragé la cultivation des blés de hauts rendements ou des varietés différentes que tout récemment. L'objectif principal de cette étude est d'examiner quelques unes des conséquences de la stratégic de la réglementation visant à limiter la production du blé aux variétés de hautes qualités. Cette question est adressée dans le contexte des changements importants qui ont eu lieu dans le marché international des grains. A l'aide d'un modèle d'équilibre partiel des échanges, la présente étude démontre gu'en permettant la production des blés de hauts rendements, le gain annuel aux producteurs serait de 5 à 17 pourcent du revenue agricole net.