Varieties of paternalism and the heterogeneity of utility structures

A principal source of interest in behavioral economics has been its advertised contributions to policies aimed at ‘nudging’ people away from allegedly natural but self-defeating behavior toward patterns of response thought more likely to improve their welfare. This has occasioned controversies among economists and philosophers around the normative limits of paternalism, especially by technical policy advisors. One recent suggestion has been that ‘boosting,’ in which interventions aim to enhance people’s general cognitive skills and representational repertoires instead of manipulating their choice environments behind their backs, avoids the main normative challenges. A limitation in most of this literature is that it has focused on relatively sweeping policy recommendations and consequently on strong polar alternatives of general paternalism and strict laissez faire. We review a real instance, drawn from a consulting project we conducted for an investment bank, of a proposed intervention that is more typical of the kind that economists are more often actually called upon to offer. In this example, the sophistication of current tools for preference attribution, combined with philosophical externalism about the semantics of preferences that makes it less plausible to attribute their literal self-conscious representation to people as propositional attitude content becomes more tightly refined, blocks applicability of the distinction between nudging and boosting. This seems to call for irreducible, context-specific ethical judgment in assessing the appropriateness of the forms of paternalism that economists must actually wrestle with in going about their everyday business.     

民办本科院校经济管理专业实践性教学初探

分析了本科院校的教育定位和经济管理类专业的教学模式;探讨以信息和信息技术完美的结合为实践型教育的支撑点,倡导学校具体教学单位与专业软件开发商共同研究开发出经济管理专业的应用型教学模拟软件并用于教学的问题。     

我国会计学专业本科教育培养目标研究

会计教育培养目标作为会计教育实践的逻辑起点，对会计教育的发展方向和会计人才的培养起着制约作用，对会计教育实践活动起着支配、调节和控制作用。本文在对我国会计教育培养目标现状分析的基础上，从纵向（历史）和横向（国际）的角度探究了影响会计教育培养目标形成的因素和规律性，提出了构建会计教育培养目标的原则和我国会计教育培养目标的基本架构。     

Can Business Ethics be Trained? A Study of the Ethical Decision-making Process in Business Students

The purpose of this paper is to examine the various guidelines presented in the literature for instituting an ethics curriculum and to empirically study their effectiveness. Three questions are addressed concerning the trainability of ethics material and the proper integration and implementation of an ethics curriculum. An empirical study then tested the effect of ethics training on moral awareness and reasoning. The sample consisted of two business classes, one exposed to additional ethics curriculum (experimental), and one not exposed (control). For the experimental group, ethics exercises and discussion relevant to each topic were completed. Findings suggested gender differences such that, relative to other groups, women in the experimental group showed significantly improved moral awareness and decision-making processes. An explanation of the underlying cognitive processes is presented to explain the gender effect.     

Estimating the Impact of Transgenic Bt Cotton on West and Central Africa: A General Equilibrium Approach

West and Central Africa (WCA)’s cotton sector is experiencing rising production costs and lower yields, reversing decades of growth. Declining input use, soil fertility and inefficient chemical pest controls are contributing factors. We evaluate the potential impact of Bt cotton on WCA using a multiregion general equilibrium model and multicountry estimates of Bt-induced productivity. We find that Bt cotton raises growers’ returns, land value and welfare. Released labor from cotton is shifted to food crops hence reducing labor shortage constraints. Overall, results indicate that potential gross benefits from Bt cotton are substantial for WCA cotton sector, and that the economic costs of nonadoption are equally significant.     

导游专业计算机教学中任务性学习的研究与实践

素质教育的一个重要部分就是学生综合应用能力及探究能力的培养。笔者针对导游专业的特点,在计算机基础教学中引入任务性学习方式,改善了教学效果,提高了该专业学生的计算机综合应用能力及自主探究能力。     

Why I am a Psychology Major: An Empirical Analysis of Student Motivations

The underlying “architecture of the decision to pursue a degree in psychology was quantified using the Method of Sorting technique to identifying the critical issues necessary to make this choice. Multidimentsional scaling procedures were employed to construct a three-dimensional map representing the relationships between reasons for selecting psychology as a major. Freshman and senior psychology majors (N = 165) from a regional university and a large research-based institution rated the relative importance of items in their decision-making process. Hierarchical clustering procedures revealed seven different groups of students. Although significant differences associated with class standing were not found, institutional affiliation did influence cluster composition. Reflecting local emphases, students at the regional institution had a greater interest in Counseling Psychology, whereas those at the research-based school focused on Clinical Psychology. This semantic map and the associated item clusters arising from psychology student data provides an empirical basis for, amongst other things, course selection, faculty-initiated program design or revision, strategic niche marketing, and student retention.     

饭店员工"360度绩效考核方法"研究

全面地分析了360度绩效考核方法在饭店应用的意义、可能产生的风险，并系统地阐述了饭店采用360度绩效考核方法的设计原则、技术路线、评价项目及标准设计、考核操作方法设计、反馈设计等。     

广西新建本科院校的办学定位与发展思路探析

新建本科院校是我国高等教育体制改革的产物.新建本科院校的定位应是立足本地,为地方经济服务,培养应用型人才.随着广西经济社会的发展,广西新建本科院校将为培养大量对口专业的应用型人才、促进我国与东盟国家经济共同发展与友好往来做出贡献,在区域经济的发展与合作中大有作为.     

大学经贸英语课程教学改革探索

探讨了现阶段大学经贸英语课程教学所存在的几个问题，指出了大学经贸英语课程教学必须整合课程设置、编写更实用的教材、建立高素质的师资、改革教学方法等，从而有效地培养大学生经贸英语的交际能力和应用能力。