Dying of selfishness

Summary. In this paper, we provide an altruistic interpretation to the Blanchard (1985) perpetual youth model and examine under which conditions such interpretation holds. Unlike the standard model, the modified model essentially requires no insurance and a bequest nonnegativity constraint. Received: March 25, 1999; revised version: May 3, 2000     

企业组织中个体腐败行为的影响因素研究

当前,一些企业组织正在或者已经发生着腐败行为,个体腐败像瘟疫一样到处蔓延。腐败现象愈演愈烈,给经济和社会发展带来了巨大破坏。在此大背景下,探索市场经济主体—企业组织中的个体腐败现象产生的原因,具有十分重要的现实意义。本文在回顾相关文献的基础上,设计了组织中个体腐败行为影响因素的概念模型,使用问卷调查的实证研究方法,对组织中个体腐败行为的影响因素进行具体分析,最终结果显示,公平、诚信、利己/利他主义对组织中个体腐败行为具有显著影响。     

The Importance of Ethics in Environmental Economics with a Focus on Existence Values

The importance of ethics and fundamental value judgments in environmental economics is high-lighted by discussing the controversial concept of existence values. The social value depends crucially on the social objective, which is not necessarily self-evident, e.g., since some individuals tend to value nature intrinsically. It is shown that the motives behind willingness to pay figures matter for the social value, and the conventional view that people respond to CV questions solely in order to maximize their own utility or well-being is questioned. The importance of being explicit about value judgments is emphasized, and it is argued that environmental economics should consider non-conventional assumptions which take the social context into account to a larger degree.     

Capital income taxation when inherited wealth is not observable

This paper extends the Atkinson-Stiglitz model of direct and indirect taxation to a dynamic setting with two unobservable characteristics: productive ability and inherited wealth. Bequests are motivated by the ‘joy of giving’. A child’s inheritance is a random variable with a probability distribution that depends on his parent’s investment in a ‘bequest technology’. Public borrowing is assumed and implies the modified golden rule. We study the optimal tax policy when two instruments are available: a non-linear (wage) income tax and a proportional tax on capital income. We show that the second instrument ought, in general, to be used but that the tax rate is not necessarily positive. However, a positive tax rate is more likely when there is a positive correlation between inherited wealth and innate ability.     

国外家族企业代理理论研究新进展

基于私有产权、两权合一和家族管理特征的考虑,传统代理理论把家族企业视为治理信任和降低代理成本的高效率制度安排。然而,越来越多的研究发现,当父母对子女的不对称的利他主义与私人所有权、所有者管理等特征相互交织时,家族企业凸现自我控制问题,这削弱了正式治理机制的效率。因此,家族企业同样面临逆向选择、道德风险和要挟等代理问题。嵌入在血缘和利他主义中的家族和企业两大系统的相互作用,使家族企业的代理问题更加复杂化,也给家族企业治理提出了难题。     

Consumer versus citizen preferences in contingent valuation: evidence on the role of question framing*

Rather than individual consumer preferences, responses to referendum‐style contingent valuation surveys on environmental goods may express citizen assessments that take into account benefits to others. We reconsider the consumer versus citizen hypothesis with a focus on the role of framing information. Survey data on conservation areas in Ilomantsi, Finland, are used. Different versions of the valuation question were used to encourage the respondents to take the consumer or the citizen role. The citizen version expectedly resulted in substantially fewer zero‐WTP responses and protests and higher mean and median WTP, suggesting that the framing information has a major effect on the preferences expressed. The findings support the idea of multiple preferences. For a more confident interpretation of contingent valuation responses, future studies should recognise their intended use in survey design and gain information about respondents' motives to determine the presence and type of altruistic motives.     

Volunteer tourism: at the crossroads of commercialisation and service?

Volunteer tourism as a phenomenon and as a market has come a long way since its ideologically driven early days. It is now an established and ever commercialised market that meets the demand for a different travel experience for the more morally conscious traveller, while at the same time it provides opportunities for economic gain for the organisations that act as brokers of such experiences. This interaction raises several ethical issues in terms of serving a mission while making economic gains. In general, there is an acceptable relationship between monetary gain and altruistic service, within the context of enlightened self-interest provided that the beneficiary of economic gains diverts profits into serving their mission. This paper examines the supply for volunteer tourism for evidence of commercialisation and profit-driven behaviour and investigates a relationship between monetary gain and serving a mission by creating public goods.     

Dynamic efficiency and intergenerational altruism

Can dynamic inefficiency that may occur in societies populated by non-altruistic agents be removed by introducing intergenerational altruism? Although the answer seems to be negative, this paper shows, by means of a simple example, that the presence of an arbitrarily low proportion of altruists can be sufficient to prevent a society from reaching a non-Pareto optimal equilibrium. Intergenerational transfers from the old to the young can therefore provide an alternative—to public debt, fiat money or money bubbles which transfer goods from the young to the old—solution to the dynamic efficiency problem.     

集体主义的道德思考——利己与利他的反思

社会主义新的时代背景下,完善和发展集体主义,丰富集体主义内涵,对集体主义的道德思考提出了更多的要求。集体主义中存在利己与利他的问题,集体主义是利己与利他的统一。     

Family Transfers Involving Three Generations

Most models of family transfers consider only two generations and focus on two motives: altruism and exchange. They also assume perfect substitution between inter-vivos downward transfers and bequests. Based on French evidence, we show that parent-to-child transfers belong to three distinct categories (investment in child's education, financial assistance, wealth transmission), and advocate a three -generation framework. Thus, transfer behavior of parents toward their children is strongly influenced by the behavior of their own parents. There is also some evidence of the Cox and Stark demonstration effect: parents help their own parents, expecting to receive comparable support from their children. Such behavior can be regarded as indirect reciprocity : the beneficiary does not give back to the initial giver but to a third person of another generation.
JEL classification : D 10; D 31; D 63; D 64