Corporate environmental policy and abnormal stock price returns: An empirical investigation

This paper examines the correlation between the excess stock market returns and the adoption of an environmental protocol by companies. The underlying hypothesis that I test is whether evidence of the adoption of environmental policy, prosecution by an environmental agency or the routinized training of staff in environmental protocols, which proxies for the willingness of managers to invest for the long term, is associated with superior economic returns to shareholders. I find that both the adoption of an environmental policy and prosecution for breach of environment standards have significant explanatory power in an analysis of excess returns. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment     

Culture,consumption and choice: towards a conceptual relationship

Abstract Manufacturers and retailers are continually extending the geographical scope of their activities, and the degree of acceptance by local consumer cultures is integral to the success or failure of their operations. It is, therefore, important that cultural influences on consumption behaviour are fully conceptualized and understood. Central to this understanding is a need to address how consumers prioritize their own principles and set them against other criteria, bringing these to bear in the process of choosing particular products. This paper attempts to address the paucity of research in this respect by attempting to integrate areas of literature on culture, consumption and product choice. These relationships are explored through a simple conceptual framework, which is then used to discuss the influence of culture on one particular type of behaviour —‘ethical consumption’— the degree to which consumers prioritize their own ethical concerns when making product choices. The paper concludes by highlighting the general implications of the framework for research.     

A review of empirical studies of aggregate marketing costs and productivity in the United States

This article reviews empirical studies of aggregate marketing cost and aggregate marketing productivity in the United States. A methodological comparison is made of five cost studies for 1929 and seven productivity studies covering a period from 1869 to 1968. The cost studies do not clarify—one way or the other—if marketing costs too much or too little. The productivity studies, on the other hand, despite a variety of methodologies, reveal a rising secular trend over the past century. Thus, it may be concluded that irrespective of changes in cost, marketing is becoming more productive.     

Business ethics today: A survey

This essay surveys the state of business ethics in North America. It describes the distinctive features of business ethics as an academic sub-discipline and as a pedagogical topic, and compares and contrasts three rival models of business ethics current among philosophers. William H. Shaw is professor of philosophy and chair of the philosophy department at San Jose State University. Among other writings, he is the author of Business Ethics (Wadsworth 1991) and, with Vincent Barry, of Moral Issues in Business, 6th ed. (Wadsworth 1995).     

Banks’ deferred tax assets during the financial crisis

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Prior studies have demonstrated that the net deferred tax liabilities of industrial firms are valued by market participants in a manner consistent...     

Has Devolution Injured American Workers? State and Federal Enforcement of Construction Safety

Although the issue of regulatory devolution has received muchscholarly scrutiny, rigorous empirical studies of its effectson important policy outcomes are scarce. This article exploresthe effects of partial regulatory devolution in the occupationalsafety arena by exploiting a unique historical anomaly wherebysome US states enforce protective labor regulations that areenforced elsewhere by the federal Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration. Analyzing data from the construction industry,this article contains several important findings. First, stateinspectors use traditional enforcement tools more sparinglythan their federal counterparts, typically citing fewer violationsand collecting lower fines per violation. Second, although federalenforcement significantly lowers the estimated frequency ofnonfatal construction injuries, it also predicts a significantincrease in occupational fatalities. I suggest that althoughhigher underreporting of nonfatal injuries in federally regulatedstates could explain this puzzling finding, it is equally possiblethat different regulatory styles have different "comparativeadvantages" in deterring nonfatal injuries on one hand and occupationalfatalities on the other. (JEL D73, D78, H73, I18, J08, J28,J88, K00, K23, K31, K32, L51, and L74)