Individual Responsibility within Organizational Contexts

Actions within organizational contexts should be understood differently as compared with actions performed outside of such contexts. This is the case due to the agentic shift, as discussed by social psychologist Stanley Milgram, and the role that systemic factors play in shaping the available alternatives from which individuals acting within institutions choose. The analysis stemming from Milgram’s experiments suggests not simply that individuals temporarily abdicate their moral agency on occasion, but that there is an erosion of agency within organizations. The point about the erosion of agency is deepened in the discussion of a case study which illustrates the difficulty of identifying even the bare “ownership” of actions within organizations. While this is the case, explicating these reasons suggests that both individual actors and firms can bear ethical responsibility within organizational contexts. As part of the effort to present the whole picture, business ethics courses should introduce students to the relevant insights from social psychology and human factors research.     

系统性金融风险的度量及其时变经济效应研究

基于TVP-SV-SVAR模型,分析六个不同金融子市场风险对实体经济的实时冲击效应,结合时变脉冲响应方法构建了动态权重系统性金融风险综合指数,并区分高低风险状态探讨其对实体经济的影响。结果表明,银行部门、股票市场和外部金融市场对系统性金融风险的贡献较大;基于对实体经济冲击视角的动态权重系统性金融风险综合指数与样本期内实际金融经济事件的发展趋势一致;不同状态下系统性金融风险对经济增长的冲击效应不同：短期来看,高风险点系统性金融风险抑制经济增长,低风险点系统性金融风险促进经济增长;长期来看,系统性金融风险在高低状态下对经济增长均有负向冲击效应。研究结论对于防范和化解系统性金融风险的宏观审慎政策制定具有重要的参考意义。     

Environmental Sustainability Versus Profit Maximization: Overcoming Systemic Constraints on Implementing Normatively Preferable Alternatives

There is a systemic condition inherent in contemporary markets that compel managers not to pursue more morally preferable initiatives if those initiatives will require actions that conflict with profit maximization. Normative arguments for implementing morally preferable practices within the existing system fail because they are insufficient to counter-act the systemic conditions affecting decision-making that is focused on maximizing profit as the primary operational value. To overcome this constraint we must elevate a more normatively preferable value, ‚ideal environmental sustainability,’ to the level of being the primary filtering value through which other competing values are evaluated, prioritized, and implemented. In order for this to occur in practice, a change must be made relative to the laws, rules, and regulations that define and guide the market. This can be done by suitably defining the epistemic constraint of impartiality utilizing Rawls’ notion of a ‚veil of ignorance’ as a heuristic device. John K. Alexander is an Adjunct at Grand Valley State University (Allendale MI) and Grand Rapids Community College (Grand Rapids MI). Areas of interest include Socratic, philosophy, business/organizational ethics, health care ethics, and philosophy of management. He has published papers in HEC Forum, Teaching Philosophy, Philosophy of Management, Journal of Business Ethics and Business Ethics Quarterly. Prior to becoming a visiting professor at GVSU in 2001, he had thirty-five years experience working and managing in foundries.     

中国省际综合交通发展水平的定量分析

首先选取2005年全国30个省、市、自治区的5个交通运输指标(国家铁路长度,内河航道长度,公路长度以及反映各运输方式灵活度及运送量的货运总量和货物周转5个指标),应用SPSS统计软件对此进行了主成分分析;然后利用聚类分析方法得到了全国综合交通发展水平的区域谱系图;最后在此基础上,探讨了全国省际综合发展水平的区域相似性和差异性。研究结果表明该方法不仅可以克服传统的基于人工选用指标进行综合分析所存在的数据不易处理的缺陷,而且结果准确性高,是对中国交通发展水平进行定量分析的一种新尝试。     

Contingent convertible bonds: Who invests in European CoCos?

Using a comprehensive data set on issuances and holdings of contingent convertible debt instruments (CoCos) issued by European banks, we investigate who invests in European CoCos. The results indicate that most European CoCos are not directly held by euro area investors. Foreign investors outside the euro area and investment funds located in Ireland and Luxembourg hold the large majority. Euro area banks, insurers and pension funds only have very limited direct exposures. Households in the euro area hold almost no direct positions in European CoCos, although there could be indirect holdings through non-euro area entities and euro area investment funds. Concerns for contagion through cross-holdings of CoCos by banks seem to be unwarranted.     

The European Systemic Risk Board – governance and early experience

ABSTRACT

The European Systemic Risk Board is charged with the macroprudential oversight of the financial system in the European Union. We compare and contrast the ESRB with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which some scholars proposed as a role model for systemic risk management. There are parallels and some differences between these organisations. Neither institution has direct regulatory power, which could paradoxically be beneficial as it may help preserve their independence and objectivity in the long run. We also review the ESRB’s activities after it started in 2010 and assess the effect of its first public recommendation.     

系统性金融风险：来源、最新研究进展及方向

本文对系统性金融风险的概念界定、生成原因、传导渠道以及防范等方面具有代表性的文献进行了梳理和述评,总结了系统性金融风险的最新研究进展,指出了今后的研究方向及对中国的启示。