Ethical Principles that Make the World and its Economy More Equal

Abstract

No doubt, the global economic (and political) structure is very unequal. The paper begins by demonstrating the various dimensions of this inequality as they relate to economic measures such as per capita GDP, degree of consumption and ownership, health measures, education, and power and influence in various global organizations such as the United Nations (UN), World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and others. Next, the paper, supporting a more equal global economic and political structure, investigates the various instruments in welfare economies and ethics theory that can be utilized to justify a sort of distributional change that could lead to more global equality. Finding various economic and ethical instruments associated with utilitarianism, Pareto Optimality and the Hicks–Kaldor compensation test less than satisfactory in dealing with and advocating sufficient global distributional changes, we will investigate ethical principles developed by John Rawls in both his 1971 The Theory of Justice and his 1999 The Law of Peoples, Sen's capability approach, the debate between Rawls and Sen regarding their ethical principles, and whether or not those ethical principles can justify necessary global distributional changes. As we will argue, although the principles developed by Sen and Rawls can be utilized to justify global distributional changes to a degree, they cannot advocate a global difference principle that can justify sufficient global distributional changes. Attempt is made to develop a global difference principle that can justify and advocate more drastic distributional changes.     

试论明清之际消费伦理观的新变与社会转型——以“士商互动”为视角

明清之际中国社会经济日益繁盛，城市商业强劲发展，加上政治上的波荡起伏，社会各阶层相互间的流动与渗透日益加剧，出现了“士商互动”的社会潮流，这诸多方面共同促成整个社会消费伦理观的变化。这些新变化，既表现在文化消费上的趋新与通俗、物质消费上的尚奢与夸富，又表现为部分有识之士着眼于国民经济的发展，而对奢靡之风进行的冷静反拔。     

浅谈“一课三研”教学模式对幼师生的专业素质培养

幼师生是未来的幼儿教师,她们的专业素质发展水平关系到未来幼儿教育改革和发展的关键和基础。＂一课三研＂是一种探索促进幼师生专业发展的新尝试,它对学校幼师生的培养模式必将带来深刻的影响。     

体现专业特色的德育理念与模型的探索实践

笔者针对学生的思想实际和发展特点,找到体现专业特色的德育理念和模型,构建具有专业特色的工作思路,寻找将德育与专业教育融为一体的特色育人方法,提高德育工作的针对性和实效性。     

The competitive advantage of honesty

We study competitive markets where firms may lie to their workers to reduce costs. Consumers may benefit from firms’ dishonesty through lower market prices. Does firms’ (dis-)honesty affect consumers’ purchasing decisions? Our experiment shows that when honesty is fully transparent, it can provide a competitive advantage: Honest firms sell more and – despite higher costs – achieve higher profits. This finding is in line with our equilibrium predictions when allowing for dishonesty-averse consumers. By identifying circumstances in which consumers – although not the addressee of dishonesty – “punish” firms for their within-firm dishonesty, we contribute both to behavioral ethics and behavioral industrial organization.     

医药企业营销价值取向及营销道德评价指标体系构建

由于医药企业商品独具的特殊性，我国医药企业营销道德建设始终受到全社会的关注，加强医药企业营销道德建设显得非常重要。文章围绕我国医药企业营销道德建设问题，初步构建了医药企业应具备的基本营销价值取向模型，并对医药企业营销道德评价指标体系的构建进行了探索性的研究。     

Transparent Practices: Primary and Secondary Data in Business Ethics Dissertations

We explore the availability and use of data (primary and secondary) in the field of business ethics research. Specifically, we examine an international sample of doctoral dissertations since 1998, categorizing research topics, data collection, and availability of data. Findings suggest that use of only primary data pervades the discipline, despite strong methodological reasons to augment business ethics research with secondary data.     

Preserving Employee Dignity During the Termination Interview: An Empirical Examination

Despite the ongoing need for managers to fire employees and the wide prevalence of downsizing and layoffs, little research has examined how the conduct of termination interviews affects employee reactions. The current research was designed to explore reactions to several commonly used termination interview practices. Two scenario-based experiments examined the effectiveness of having a third party (an HR manager or a security guard) present, mentioning the employee’s positive characteristics and contributions, and using alone, discrete escort, or public escort modes of exit from the interview. Perceptions of being treated with respect and empathy, levels of anger, and the likelihood of complaining to others and taking legal action were assessed. Support for the effectiveness of specific termination interview practices was mixed. Specifically, in Experiment 1, third party presence was viewed as demonstrating a lack of respect, whereas mentioning positive characteristics was generally viewed favorably. Experiment 2 showed the favorable effects of mentioning positive characteristics were eroded by a security guard escort from the interview, and actually reversed and became negative when that escort was public in nature. A public escort also produced the highest levels of anger. These results suggest that multiple aspects of the termination interview process should be considered carefully when developing managerial policies.     

Self-interest, self-restraint and corporate responsibility for nanotechnologies: Emerging dilemmas for modern managers

The recent developments in nanotechnology have simultaneously conjured up visions of utopia and dismal images of technological and biological catastrophes. Interestingly, the world of nanoscales has given rise to larger than life ethical dilemmas, challenging the basic assumptions that we hold about ethics, man-machine interface, adoption of new technologies and, fundamentally, the directions of human development. Given the divergence and uncertainties in the assessment of risks and benefits associated with nanotechnology, regulatory oversight in the future is likely to be partial and fragmented. Even where interests converge, the large time-frame needed for standardization of regulation coupled with the varying propensities of countries of the world to understand, assimilate and respond to risk issues increase the difficulties associated with creating appropriate regulatory regimes. In the absence of such controls, it may be necessary to rely on corporations behaving in a socially responsible manner by self-regulating when dealing with the conceptualization, development, use and disposal of nanoparticles. Caught between the reality and rhetoric, corporate managers need to manage trade-offs between corporate advantage and social responsibility in ways that may have a significant bearing on the survival of their firms and the future development of nanotechnology itself. This paper examines the tensions between the self-interest of corporations in exploiting the technology to bring innovative products to the market and self-restraint in exercising ethical choices to secure wider safety and salubrity in the face of scientific uncertainty and public insecurity     

功夫在法外：关于农产品质量安全法律实施的思考

农产品质量安全法律法规真正得以落实,产生一定法律实效,其功夫不在法律法规本身,而在法律实施所依托的社会环境。这主要涉及农民权益保护、农民专业合作社社会治理功能、安全农产品消费习惯培育和消费渠道理顺几个方面。农产品质量安全法律实施不能过于依赖政府监管,只有将规范农民生产经营行为与农民权益保护结合起来、注重发挥农民专业合作社在法律实施中的依托作用、培育安全农产品消费机制,才能使法律从规范具体化为人们实践行为。