The Heavenly Calculus and Socially Responsible Business Conduct: An Explorative Study among Executives

Summary In this paper we present a theoretical economic model, describing the influence of eschatological beliefs of executives on their socially responsible business conduct. The core hypothesis is that the belief that one’s eternal destination depends on how one behaves in business will provide an incentive to socially responsible business conduct. We confront the model with explorative empirical data, collected by in-depth interviews with and questionnaires among twenty Dutch executives. The data provide weak indications that eschatological beliefs influence the executives’ socially responsible business conduct. The authors would like to thank the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the employers’ association VNO-NCW for their financial support. Thanks also to Boaz van Luijk and Aziza Yahia for their assistance in the collection of data used in this paper. We also thank the editor, professor M.M.G. Fase, and two anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions.     

Are Environmental Social Movements Socially Exclusive? An Historical Study from Thailand

Environmental social movements in developing countries are often portrayed as democratizing but may contain important social divisions. This paper presents a new methodology to analyze the social composition and underlying political messages of movements. Nearly 5 000 newspaper reports during 1968–2000 in Thailand are analyzed to indicate the participation of middle and lower classes, and their association with “green” (conservationist) and “red-green” (livelihoods-oriented) environmental values. Results show middle-class “green” activism has dominated forests activism, but lower-class “red-green” activism has grown for forests and pollution. Newspapers, however, portray all environmentalism as “democratization,” suggesting that the possible exclusiveness of some environmental norms is unacknowledged.     

东莞经济社会双转型的理性分析和政策路径

本文介绍了东莞经济社会双转型的主要内容,分析了东莞经济社会双转型的特点,指出了东莞经济社会双转型存在的难点问题,并提出了相应的对策,对于人们了解东莞有一定的帮助。     

转型中的社会养老保险制度:改革与发展

借鉴和吸取国外社会养老保险制度改革的经验与教训,充分考虑中国国情,结合中国的实际情况,探讨在经济转型和人口老龄化背景下,针对中国现行养老保险制度中突出的矛盾和问题,改革和完善我国社会养老保险制度。     

The brain drain, ‘educated unemployment’, human capital formation,and economic betterment1

Extending both the ‘harmful brain drain’ literature and the ‘beneficial brain gain’ literature, this paper analyzes both the negative and the positive impact of migration by skilled individuals in a unified framework. The paper extends the received literature on the ‘harmful brain drain’ by showing that in the short run, international migration can result in ‘educated unemployment’ and overeducation in developing countries, as well as a brain drain from these countries. A simulation suggests that the costs of ‘educated unemployment’ and overeducation can amount to significant losses for the individuals concerned, who may constitute a substantial proportion of the educated individuals. Adopting a dynamic framework, it is then shown that due to the positive externality effect of the prevailing, economy‐wide endowment of human capital on the formation of human capital, a relaxation in migration policy in both the current period and the preceding period can facilitate ‘take‐off’ of a developing country in the current period. Thus, it is suggested that while the migration of some educated individuals may reduce the social welfare of those who stay behind in the short run, it improves it in the long run.     

Corporate Sustainability Performance and Idiosyncratic Risk: A Global Perspective

Does investing in sustainability leaders affect portfolio performance? Analyzing two mutually exclusive leading and lagging global corporate sustainability portfolios (Dow Jones) finds that (1) leading sustainability firms do not underperform the market portfolio, and (2) their lagging counterparts outperform the market portfolio and the leading portfolio. Notably, we find leading (lagging) corporate social performance (CSP) firms exhibit significantly lower (higher) idiosyncratic risk and that idiosyncratic risk might be priced by the broader global equity market. We develop an idiosyncratic risk factor and find that its inclusion significantly reduces the apparent difference in performance between leading and lagging CSP portfolios.     

基于社会责任角度对垄断国企上缴利润的思考

垄断企业得到垄断的超额利润,会导致社会贫富差距进一步分化,造成社会福利的损失。我国垄断企业的超额利润长期稳定存在。从增加社会福利的角度考虑,应加强垄断国有企业对垄断超额利润的上缴,并构建相应的垄断国企上缴利润的制度框架,实现有效的收入再分配。这是基于社会责任对垄断国有企业提出的要求。     

基于场控理论的区域社会经济系统运行管理问题初探

系统科学的产生，使人们对研究对象的认识及研究方法和思路发生了根本性的变化。文章以系统科学为基础，在全面分析系统构成及系统功能势态演化基础上，对系统场及系统场控的作用机理进行了研究，规划和设计了区域社会经济系统运行的系统场控功能，构建了确保地区社会经济系统协调运行的管理机制总体框架，旨在为地区社会经济系统的持续发展和管理监控提供了现实可操作性的参考依据。