Neuroscience and Ethics

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Matthew Liao
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Joshua Greene

Abstract. A number of people believe that results from neuroscience have the potential to settle seemingly intractable debates concerning the nature, practice, and reliability of moral judgments. In particular, Joshua Greene has argued that evidence from neuroscience can be used to advance the long-standing debate between consequentialism and deontology. This paper first argues that charitably interpreted, Greene’s neuroscientific evidence can contribute to substantive ethical discussions by being part of an epistemic debunking argument. It then argues that taken as an epistemic debunking argument, Greene’s argument falls short in undermining deontological judgments. Lastly, it proposes that accepting Greene’s methodology at face value, neuroimaging results may in fact call into question the reliability of consequentialist judgments. The upshot is that Greene’s empirical results do not undermine deontology and that Greene’s project points toward a way by which empirical evidence such as neuroscientific evidence can play a role in normative debates.

scholarly journals Determinants of in-court settlements: empirical evidence from a German trial court

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL BERLEMANN ◽  
ROBIN CHRISTMANN
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Trial Court ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Legal Policies ◽  
Unique Dataset

AbstractBecause verdicts are typically the more costly resolution of legal disputes, most governments are interested in high settlement rates. In this paper, we use a unique dataset of 860 case records from a German trial court to explore which institutional factors have a significant impact on the decision to settle in civil law litigation. We find that procedural aspects and individual characteristics of the involved judge have a significant impact on in-court settlement probability. We also find that judge-specific aspects such as the judge's gender may have an impact on settlement probabilities in certain subfields of law. Based on our empirical results, we derive some conclusions for legal policies that aim at increasing settlement rates.

Adoption of Information Technology Governance in the Electronics Manufacturing Sector in Malaysia

2011 ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wil Ly Teo ◽  
Khong Sin Tan
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
It Governance ◽  
Electronics Manufacturing ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Technology Governance ◽  
Information Technology Governance ◽  
The Right ◽  
Expected Outcomes

Past studies and surveys of top management in business and information technology (IT) have shown the importance of strong IT governance in delivering results to the business. This research investigates the extent to which empirical results from past studies is applicable to the electronics manufacturing sector in Malaysia. Empirical evidence from 33 organisations in this sector indicates that having the right decision owners making appropriate decision types lead to better IT governance performance. Organisations with growth as their primary goal demonstrate marginally higher IT governance performance, contrary to expected outcomes. The research also shows that awareness of industry IT governance frameworks is not related to IT governance performance. We conclude that adoption of IT governance is on track, though familiarity with technicalities of the available frameworks should be improved.

On the Squeezing of the Middle Class: Overview and Prospects for the EU-15

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-342
Author(s):  
Olga Salido ◽  
Julio Carabaña
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Member States ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Income Share ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Eu

This article was inspired by Atkinson and Brandolini’s work on the economic middle classes and deals with the evolution of the income share of the middle class compared with that of the extreme classes in the EU-15 (the EU’s first 15 member states) over the last two decades. Our research draws on the paradox of the EU officially assuming dominant ideas about rising inequalities and the squeezing of middle-class income produced by globalization and technological change while at the same time producing and disseminating empirical evidence contrary to this view. We first synthesize this evidence, also contributing some additional analyses of Eurostat data, confirming that the income share of the middle class has not changed in the past two decades, as could be expected from the invariance in income inequality. We finally put forward some considerations about the theoretical implications of these empirical results and the interaction between ideas and empirical evidence in political societies and organizations.

scholarly journals An Experimental Comparison of Risky and Riskless Choice—Limitations of Prospect Theory and Expected Utility Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui-Kuan Chung ◽  
Paul Glimcher ◽  
Agnieszka Tymula
Keyword(s):  
Prospect Theory ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Expected Utility ◽  
Utility Theory ◽  
Expected Utility Theory ◽  
Experimental Comparison ◽  
Reference Dependence ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Incentive Compatible ◽  
Gain Loss

Prospect theory, used descriptively for decisions under both risk and certainty, presumes concave utility over gains and convex utility over losses; a pattern widely seen in lottery tasks. Although such discontinuous gain-loss reference-dependence is also used to model riskless choices, only limited empirical evidence supports this use. In incentive-compatible experiments, we find that gain-loss reflection effects are not observed under riskless choice as predicted by prospect theory, even while in the same subjects gain-loss reflection effects are observed under risk. Our empirical results challenge the application of choice models across both risky and riskless domains. (JEL C91, D12, D81)

Neighborhood Associations, Political Repertoires and Neighborhood Exits

1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.S. Oropesa
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Residential Mobility ◽  
Neighborhood Associations ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Empirical Relationships ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Neighborhood Problems

The ways in which residents can respond to neighborhood problems are well understood. Residents can act politically, move or stay put and remain inactive. Less understood are the temporal and empirical relationships between these different strategies. Social scientists and policy makers currently believe, with little empirical evidence, that the decision to move from the community is a function of one's political experiences and involvement in institutions that resolve conflicts. Using survey data collected in Seattle, Washington during the late 1970s, the empirical results are initially more consistent with this view for residential mobility than thoughts about moving. Subsequent analysis reveals that the results for residential mobility are questionable as well. Mobility is also related to perceptions about specific sets of issues in the community, including neighborhood decline and service delivery.

BENEFITS AND BARRIERS OF CROWDSOURCING IN B2B FIRMS: GENERATING IDEAS WITH INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CROWDS

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (06) ◽  
pp. 1240011 ◽  
Author(s):  
HENRI SIMULA ◽  
MERVI VUORI
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Wisdom Of Crowds ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Business To Business ◽  
Theoretical Conceptualization ◽  
The Wisdom Of Crowds

In recent years crowdsourcing has increased in popularity as a method for gathering ideas for new innovations and providing solutions to existing problems. This means that firms apply the wisdom of crowds to certain tasks and challenges. Various crowdsourcing initiatives and platforms seem to provide new channels and ways to enable this in practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine how business-to-business (B2B) firms can interact with different groups of contributors in order to receive new ideas, feedback and solutions for improving their products and services. Based on theoretical conceptualization, combined with empirical evidence, we propose a layered framework for approaching crowdsourcing in a B2B context. The empirical results of this paper reveal benefits but also practical challenges to overcome before crowdsourcing can be effectively utilized in the B2B sector.

scholarly journals The Different Changes Of Value Relevance Of Earnings Between SOEs And NSOEs After Adoption Of IFRS: Evidence From China

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 765-776
Author(s):  
Wanli Li ◽  
Hong Guo
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Value Relevance ◽  
Accounting Standards ◽  
The State ◽  
Accounting Standard ◽  
Accounting Earnings ◽  
Financial Report ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Mandatory Adoption

This article studies changes of value relevance of earnings after mandatory adoption of new CAS (the Chinese Accounting Standards) which is substantially convergent with IFRS (the International Financial Report Standards) in China’s listed enterprises. We extend the previous research by examining the different impact on value relevance of earnings between SOEs (the State-Owned Enterprises) and NSOEs (the Non-State-Owned Enterprises) after adoption of new CAS, which is based on the samples consisting of 836 companies listed on A-shares market of China. The empirical results show that the value-relevance of accounting earnings significantly increased after 2007, and represent that value relevance of earnings increased significantly in SOEs while there are no significant changes in NSOEs after adoption of the new CAS. Our research has implications for China’s Accounting Standard setters who desire to reach expected consequences of convergence with IFRS, and provide empirical evidence for adoption of IFRS in different countries which have both SOEs and NSOEs.

Three essays on trade credit theory and empirical evidence from agro-food firms in Africa and United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Stanley Kojo Dary
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Trade Credit ◽  
The United States ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Firm Profitability ◽  
Credit Contracts ◽  
Benefits And Costs

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] In a quest to understand the motives for use of trade credit in inter-firm trade, many theories have been put forward. The empirical literature on trade credit are largely focused on understanding firms' motives for use of trade credit, by testing these theories with micro- and macro-level data. Against the background that the extent and motives for use of trade credit in the agro-food industry is less understood, this dissertation extends the frontiers of knowledge on trade credit use by examining trade credit theories and empirical evidence from agro-food firms in Africa and the United States. The dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay examines trade credit contracts, trade credit theories and empirical evidence in support of or otherwise of the theories via review and analysis of the theoretical and empirical trade credit literature. The second essay examines the motives for trade credit supply in the African agro-food manufacturing industry, employing survey data from eight African countries -- Burundi, Malawi, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan and Sudan. Premised on the fact that there are benefits and costs of investing in trade credit, the third essay examines investment in trade credit and firm profitability, using a panel of listed agro-food firms in the United States for the period 2001-2014. The review in essay one revealed a high use of trade credit in inter-firm trade, with variations across countries and industries. It is revealed that trade credit contracts are simple in nature and factors such as the shortness of credit periods, frequency of transactions, close proximity and interaction between suppliers and customers, and effective informal enforcement mechanisms may account for the simplified nature of trade credit contracts. However, the use of trade credit is a multidimensional phenomenon, driven by varied yet interconnected motives, thus making it complex to put forward a single theory to explain the use of trade credit in interfirm trade. Contrary to a long-held notion that trade credit is expensive relative to bank credit, evidence from the empirical literature suggests the opposite. In general, there is more empirical support for the theories of trade credit. The empirical results show a high participation of agro-food firms in trade credit activity in African countries and the United States. While within-industry variability in trade credit activity is not statistically significant in the African agro-food industry, there is significant within-industry variability in the United States. However, there is statistically significant variability in trade credit activity across agro-food firms in the African countries studied. The empirical results from essay two show that the level of trade credit supply increases with manager experience, degree of product diversification, overdraft availability from banks, trade credit from input suppliers and location in capital city. The results provide evidence in support of financing (particularly liquidity and redistribution) and commercial (particularly marketing and quality guarantee) theories of trade credit. Essay three found evidence of a non-linear (inverted U) relationship between trade credit investment and firm profitability, reflecting benefits and costs of trade credit investment. This finding suggest that agro-food firms should be guided by benefit-costs off in their trade credit investment decisions. The study found the threshold of trade credit investment beyond which the relationship between trade credit investment and firm profitability transition from positive to negative. In general, the empirical results show that trade credit is an important source of short-term financing for agro-food firms in African countries and the United States, and should be facilitated through policy.

Efficiency in Cooperative Banks and Savings Banks

2019 ◽  
pp. 49-69
Keyword(s):  
Gross Domestic Product ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Cost Efficiency ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Stochastic Frontier Model ◽  
Empirical Results ◽  
Savings Banks ◽  
Cooperative Banks ◽  
The Cost

This chapter provides additional empirical evidence on the efficiency in cooperative banks and savings banks by applying a stochastic frontier model to estimate the cost efficiency from nine countries over the period 2005 to 2011. The empirical results suggested that a higher rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) growth implies an increase in the inefficiency level, while smaller cooperative and savings banks are more efficient in managing costs compared to larger banks.

Moralities are a Sign-Language of the Affects

2019 ◽  
pp. 67-83
Author(s):  
Brian Leiter
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Affective Responses ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
States Of Affairs ◽  
Cognitive Component ◽  
The World ◽  
Rule Out

Nietzsche is a sentimentalist about moral judgment, in the manner of Hume and, in the German tradition, Herder: the best explanation of our moral judgments is in terms of our emotional or affective responses to states of affairs in the world, responses that are, themselves, explicable in terms of psychological facts about the judger. Nietzsche understands our basic emotional or affective responses as brute artifacts of our psychological constitution, though there is nothing in Nietzsche’s view to rule out the possibility that more complicated feelings (e.g. “guilt”) might not involve a cognitive component added to the non-cognitive one, even if that is explanatorily otiose. The chapter concludes with a consideration of empirical evidence in support of sentimentalism.

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