Codes of Ethics,Orientation Programs,and the Perceived Importance of Employee Incorruptibility

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which the review of corporate ethics codes is associated with individuals’ perceptions of the importance of virtue ethics, or more specifically, employee incorruptibility. A convenience sample of individuals working for a university or one of several business organizations located in the Mountain West region of the United States was compiled with a self-report questionnaire. A usable sample of 143 persons representing both the public and private industries was secured for use in this study. The results of an analysis of covariance showed that reviewing ethics codes during employee orientation was positively related to individuals’ beliefs that incorruptibility is an important individual virtue. The managerial implications of the findings are discussed along with suggestions for future research.     

A VOLUNTARY POLICY FOR REDUCING EEC MILK PRODUCTION

This paper describes and demonstrates a policy for reducing EEC milk production. The policy is a combination of (real) price pressure for all milk producers coupled with optional direct income support aimed at producers with small to medium herds. The method of calculating and paying the income aid encourages producers with small/medium-sized herds to reduce the size of their herds. If the majority of small-scale producers participate it is estimated that the policy would rapidly improve the balance between Community milk production and demand and lead to considerable budgetary savings.     

Does culture still matter?: The effects of individualism on national innovation rates

Does a society's culture affect its rate of inventive activity? This article analyzes several independent datasets of culture and innovation from 62 countries spanning more than two decades. It finds that most measures of individualism have a strong, significant, and positive effect on innovation, even when controlling for major policy variables. However, the data also suggest that a certain type of collectivism (i.e. patriotism and nationalism) can also foster innovation at the national level. Meanwhile, other types of collectivism (i.e. familism and localism) not only harm innovation rates, but may hurt progress in science worse than technology.     

Ethics Codes and Professionals' Tolerance of Societal Diversity

Companies often develop codes prescribing an ethical organizational environment. However, the ability of ethics codes to increase individuals' tolerance of diversity is not fully considered in the ethics literature. This relationship was explored using a sample of 143 business and legal professionals. After accounting for the impact of several covariates, results indicated that professionals employed in organizations that had an ethics code were more tolerant of societal diversity than were professionals working in organizations that did not have an ethics code. The findings also showed that a traditional orientation toward gender roles was also related to the acceptance of diversity. These findings imply that companies to some degree define societal norms, possibly through training programs that make employees aware of their differences.     

责任投资趋势下的报告发布机遇

据一月份Financial Times报道,几家大型资产管理公司2011年将把部分责任投资团队搬到亚洲地区。不管其在亚洲责任投资团队的大小,该决定的重要意义在于,将会给亚洲企业带来许多新的机会。     

Fat taxes and thin subsidies: Prices, diet, and health outcomes

“Fat taxes” have been proposed as a way of addressing food-related health concerns. In this paper, we investigate the possible effects of “thin subsidies”, consumption subsidies for healthier foods. Empirical simulations, based on data from the Continuing Study of Food Intake by Individuals, are used to calculate the potential health benefits of subsidies on certain classes of fruits and vegetables in the United States. Estimates of the cost per statistical life saved through such subsidies compare favorably with existing U.S. government programs.     

Do Ethical Consumers Care About Price? A Revealed Preference Analysis of Fair Trade Coffee Purchases

The existing literature on socially responsible purchasing relies heavily on stated preference measures elicited through surveys that utilize hypothetical market choices. This paper explores consumers' revealed purchasing behavior with regard to fair trade coffee and is apparently the first to do so in an actual market setting. In a series of experiments, we investigated differences in consumer responsiveness to relative price changes in fair trade and non‐fair trade brewed coffees. In order to minimize the hypothetical bias that may be present in some experimental settings, we conducted our experiments in cooperation with a vendor who allowed us to vary prices in an actual coffee shop. Using a choice model, we found that purchasers of fair trade coffee were much less price responsive than those of other coffee products. The demonstration of low sensitivity to price suggests that the market premiums identified by stated preference studies do indeed exist and are not merely artifacts of hypothetical settings. La littérature existante sur la consommation responsable repose fortement sur les mesures des préférences déclarées recueillies lors d'enquêtes utilisant des choix hypothétiques. Le présent article examine le comportement d'achat révélé des consommateurs concernant le cafééquitable et constitue apparemment le premier article du genre à le faire dans le contexte d'un marché réel. Au cours d'une série d'expériences, nous avons examiné les différentes réactions des consommateurs concernant les changements du prix relatif des cafés infusés équitables et classiques (non équitables). Pour minimiser le biais hypothétique qui pourrait exister dans certaines situations expérimentales, nous avons effectué nos expériences en collaboration avec un fournisseur qui nous a donné la permission de modifier les prix dans un véritable café‐restaurant. À l'aide d'un modèle de choix, nos résultats ont montré que les consommateurs de cafééquitable réagissaient beaucoup moins au prix que les consommateurs de café classique. Cette faible sensibilité au prix donne à penser que les primes de marché identifiées dans les études sur les préférences déclarées existent effectivement et qu'elles ne sont pas de simples phénomènes de situations hypothétiques.     

Productivity Impacts of Veil Nets on UK Crangon Vessels

As with many shrimp fisheries, the North Sea brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) fishery has been characterised by by‐catch and discarding of juvenile fish species that are of value to other fleet segments. To offset this externality, the mandatory use of veil nets or separator panels was introduced in 2003 for all vessels using an aggregate beam length of more than 8 m. Sea trials prior to this date suggested that retained catch might be reduced by between 8% and 35%, depending on the area and season. These studies, however, do not consider the behavioural response by fishers to reduce this impact. In this study, the actual impact of the restrictions on the productivity of UK Crangon vessels was estimated using a production frontier approach. The ex post analysis suggests that a productivity decline of around 14% has been experienced by UK vessels adopting this gear.     

The twilight of the setter? Public school budgets in a time of institutional change

We use a policy change that occurred in Oregon in the late 1980s to re‐visit the budget‐maximizing agenda setter theory of local public expenditure. Prior to 1987, Oregon school districts held operating levy elections with an exogenous, often zero or very low, spending reversion. From 1987 through 1990, districts experienced a “safety net” regime where the reversion was at least the previous year's nominal spending. We find that the “safety net” sharply limited the agenda setter's ability to use the reversion as a threat to obtain voter approval of relatively large expenditures.