Ethics,Income and Religion

This paper investigates the relationship between ethics and income among individuals of different religions in the HKSAR of China. The presence of both traditional Chinese religion and Christianity from the West makes our study particularly interesting. The content of ethical beliefs varies with religion and thus the effect of ethics on income may also vary across religion. Furthermore, a reverse causal relationship may run from income to ethics. Since culture and taste affect the consumption behavior of a person, depending on the religion of the person, a person with a higher income may or may not like to ‘acquire’ more ethics. Our empirical results find that there is indeed a simultaneous relationship between income and being ethical so that a single equation estimation of income on ethics and vice versa generates biased estimates. Using a two-stage instrumental variable estimation, our study finds that being ethical contributes to higher income for Christians and the non-religious group, but lowers it for people of traditional Chinese religion. On the other hand, an increase in income increases the likelihood of a person’s being ethical for both Christians and the people of traditional Chinese religion, but reduces it for the non-religious group. Dr. Kit-Chun LAM is Professor in Economics Department of the Hong Kong Baptist University. She is also Guest Professor in the Centre for Business Ethics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Comparative Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economica and Labour Economics. Dr. Bill Hung is Associate Professor in Economics Department of the Hong Kong Baptist University. His work has appeared in the Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Atlantic Economic Journal, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, etc.     

On the choice of functional form in stochastic frontier modeling

This paper examines the effect of functional form specification on the estimation of technical efficiency using a panel data set of 125 olive-growing farms in Greece for the period 1987–93. The generalized quadratic Box-Cox transformation is used to test the relative performance of alternative, widely used, functional forms and to examine the effect of prior choice on final efficiency estimates. Other than the functional specifications nested within the Box-Cox transformation, the comparative analysis includes the minflex Laurent translog and generalized Leontief that possess desirable approximation properties. The results indicate that technical efficiency measures are very sensitive to the choice of functional specification. Perhaps most importantly, the choice of functional form affects the identification of the factors affecting individual performance – the sources of technical inefficiency. The analysis also shows that while specification searches do narrow down the set of feasible alternatives, the identification of the most appropriate functional specification might not always be (statistically) feasible. First version received: November 1999/Final version received: July 2001 RID="*" ID="*"  The authors wish to thank Almas Heshmati, Robert Romain, and an anonymous referee for insightful comments and suggestions. Special thanks go to the associate editor who handled the paper, and whose careful reading and suggestions have improved the paper substantially. The second author wishes to acknowledge the financial support from “President SSHRC” from the University of Saskatchewan. The usual caveats with respect to opinions expressed in the paper apply. Senior authorship is shared. This is University of Nebraska-Lincoln Agricultural Research Division Article No. 13270.     

Breaking with Dogma: Unorthodox Consumption Patterns and Women's Labor Market Outcomes in Turkey

Using information about household consumption data from TURKSTAT's Household Surveys for 2007–13 as a sign of religious unorthodoxy, this study explores the effect of religion on women's labor force and educational participation in a Muslim-majority country, Turkey. A household is categorized as “unorthodox” if its members report that they consume goods that contradict conservative Sunni practices, such as alcohol. This information is then used in female labor force participation estimations. Results show that living in an unorthodox household has a positive and highly significant effect on the probability of married women's labor market participation. For single women, the estimations provide weaker evidence regarding the positive effect of unorthodoxy on the probability of participation in education and the labor force. The study concludes that protection of the rights to follow unorthodox practices in society may bear positive implications with regard to women's agency.     

Thresholds: A model of religious governance and evolution

Religious organizations set thresholds of belief and behavior required of their members. In a simple model of individual religious behavior, this paper shows that if a religion denies the benefits of membership to those who fall short of the threshold, it stands to gain an increase in compliance with its rules by forcing members to the edge of defection, hence the incentive to set the thresholds strategically. When members’ compliance costs are private information, the model yields several regimes: a pooling contract if costs are close enough to each other, a separating contract if costs are different enough, and an expulsion solution if the proportion of high-cost types in the total membership is too low. Changes in costs and in membership composition trigger changes in thresholds and switches between regimes, thus providing a model of religious governance and evolution. We then review the history of sectarianism in the three monotheistic religions and show that the model can help account for the basic differences between them as well as explain the historical evolution of dogmas and behavioral rules within each of them. A specialized case study focuses on the evolution of Catholic religious orders.     

The causal effect of religious piety on shareholder wealth: evidence from acquirer returns and historical religious identification

Prior research shows that religion promotes honesty. Honesty in turn motivates managers to view an expropriation from shareholders as self-serving, opportunistic and unethical, thereby alleviating the agency conflict. Religious piety is thus expected to discourage agency-driven acquisitions that reduce shareholder wealth. We exploit the variation in religious piety across US counties (and states) and show that firms located in a more religious environment are indeed less likely to make poor acquisitions, measured by the stock market reactions to the acquisition announcement. To draw a causal inference, we use historical religious piety as far back as 1952 as our instrument. The two-stage least squares (2SLS) analysis confirms that religious piety induces firms to make better acquisitions. Our analysis based on propensity score matching also corroborates the conclusion.     

A Universal Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants： Religious Restrictions

The International Federation of Accountants （IFAC） has emerged as a worldwide organization to help bring about international convergence with regard to professional standards, including standards governing ethics. The IFAC has issued a Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants for use by accountants members of the IFAC around the world. This study extends prior research about the variables that could block the possibility of adopting the universal single code of ethics proposed by the IFAC. In particular, this study analyses the influence of the dominant religious affiliation of the country to which the accounting organization belongs on the decision to adopt the IFAC Code. Data about 165 accounting bodies, members of IFAC, from 125 countries has been obtained from the IFAC Member Body Compliance Program. The results of our study show that to date, not all the accounting organizations members of the IFAC have adopted the Code. Further, results reveal that religion is a significant factor in the decision to adopt IFAC Code of Ethics. In particular, the study demonstrates that the national accounting organizations belonging to countries where the predominant religion is Christianity are more prone to adopt the IFAC Code of Ethics as their own. This paper contributes to the knowledge of the current state of ethical harmonization for the accounting profession. Moreover, an understanding of the religious restrictions provides guidelines to the international accounting organizations for an effective implementation of the ethical standards worldwide.     

Periodicals Received

Chapter 7 is designed for debtors who do not have the ability to pay their existing debts and many times leads to a legal release of most debt. Chapter 13 is designed for debtors who have the ability to pay all or part of their debts in installments over a period of time. Bankruptcy research finds that the southern region of the USA has a significantly higher portion of Chapter 13 filings than the rest of the country, unexplainable by quantifiable demographic, legal, or economic differences. Our results suggest that religion is the driving force behind the abnormally high Chapter 13 filings in the southern USA.     

Management Accounting in the Hotel Business

Abstract

This article reports on a study investigating Management Accounting (MA) applications and practices in Greek hotels. Relevant bibliography indicates the way in which MA supports management decision-making: Costing systems aim to analyze revenue centers, and are structured according to marginal costing principals. MA makes extensive use of budget and performance measurement techniques to support operational and strategic decisions. In the present study, a sample survey was carried out by means of a structured questionnaire. The findings indicate that Greek hotels make use of MA techniques in all of the above ways, but also reveal a number of differences, such as the application of full costing methods. This in turn has implications for the criteria used to evaluate managers' performance, as well as for the information used in making pricing decisions. Moreover, budget design is more flexible than that used in other fields, while benchmarking is not so popular. The study's findings reveal that hotel size and sales mix structure affect some MA practices, while the use of specific MA methods and techniques determines the emphasis placed on the application of others.     

The legacy of the past: ancient economic thought on wealth and development

Ancient economic thought was in general hostile to enrichment and saw wealth as inner wealth. This attitude was coherent with an economy mainly closed and static, based on agriculture and on slave work. But also it greatly contributed to restrain economic development in ancient societies. Ancient economic thought had an enormous influence on early modern thought. The latter borrowed its hostility from enrichment, which contradicted the real tendency of the new society. Thus, from the beginning, modern economy could not enjoy the support of a high economic theory. It could not legitimate enrichment and the increase in consumption.     

Tourism: a sacred journey? The case of ashram tourism,India

Religious tourism — tourism that is motivated by faith or religious reasons — has been in evidence for centuries. In more recent times, however, it has been suggested that modern tourism has become the functional and symbolic equivalent of more traditional religious practices, such as festivals and pilgrimages. In other words, it is claimed by some that tourism is a sacred journey. To date, however, little work has been undertaken to explore this position; the purpose of this paper, therefore, is to contribute to this debate. Based on an exploratory study, it considers the motivations and experiences of Western tourists visiting the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the nearby utopian township of Auroville in Pondicherry, south east India. It identifies two principal groups of visitors, namely ‘permanent tourists’ who have immersed themselves indefinitely in a spiritual ‘Other’, and temporary visitors. The latter are categorised into sub‐groups which point to a variety of spiritual and non‐spiritual motives. The paper concludes that there is a continuum of spirituality inherent in tourism, though this is related to tourists' experience rather than initial motivation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.