Effects of Insurance Adoption and Risk Aversion on Agricultural Production and Technical Efficiency: A Panel Analysis for Italian Grape Growers

This article aims to evaluate the effect of insurance on production, technical efficiency, and input use of Italian specialised-quality grape growers. A panel instrumental variable stochastic frontier approach is applied over the years 2008–2017 using data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network. The results show the requirement to correct for the endogeneity that stems from insurance adoption. Insurance has an enhancing effect on production and efficiency and reduces the use of intermediate inputs. It suggests that insurance helps to diminish the risk-averse farmers’ suboptimal input use due to the presence of uncertainty. Crop insurance leads risk-averse farmers to behave as if they were risk neutral and employs the profit-maximising input vector. Therefore, by reducing the risks linked to the uncertainty of outcomes, crop insurance leads grape growers to go in the direction of profit maximisation.

Reconciling for-profit social service provision with a regulatory framework: Korean long-term care

Korean long-term care was introduced as a national system aimed at a rapid transformation from informal care to universal formal care based on choice and competition. However, it failed to satisfy the prerequisites for such a market model, which resulted in various equity problems. In order to tackle these problems, the government superimposed a regulatory framework on to the market. However, in a situation where providers concentrate on profit maximisation, the enhancement of regulations may partially tackle some problems but new ones are created, such as resistance from providers. This article is a Korean case study which shows that, in a context of low trust, it is difficult to enhance regulations governing the private, for-profit provision of social services to enable the effective operation of choice and competition.

Sustainable Development and Economic Growth: A Reality or an Oxymoron?

The word "sustainable" is on everyone's lips and every publication; however, it is over-and misused as a trend for marketing and profit purposes, sometimes unethically for "greenwashing". This distortion creates an obstacle in creating a more sustainable world and leads authors to describe sustainable development and economic growth as oxymorons. This paper describes the relationship between sustainable development and economic growth and explains how sustainability reporting, particularly management, governance and social disclosures (GRI 100), could effectively stimulate economic growth. However, to reach a sustainable model, the paper recommends a mental and theoretical transformation in economic growth's perception to move from profit maximisation to optimisation. Finally, the manuscript calls to intensify research in this direction for a sustainable transformation of our society.

Corporate social responsibility as an effective promotional tool for the Malaysian halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19

Purpose This paper aims to intend to ascertain whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) can serve as an effective promotional tool for the Malaysian halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. Starting from being nice to do, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought CSR to the forefront of businesses, forcing them to rapidly shift from profit maximisation to business preservation. Thus, it is practically crucial to ascertain whether CSR could be effectively used to promote halal brands in this era. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the stated aim, a survey questionnaire was developed and used to collect data from 295 participants who are familiar with the concepts of CSR and halal in Malaysia. The data collected were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings The findings reveal that the commitment to halal best practices, zakat and charitable donations, environmental responsibility, employee welfare and responsible dealings with clients are the most important CSR activities that can promote halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19. Whilst there is a positive relationship between halal economic responsibility and CSR as a promotional tool, such relationship is not significant. Nevertheless, the relationship between legal responsibility and CSR as a promotional tool is negative and insignificant. Research limitations/implications Limitations are inevitable in any study where a convenient sampling technique is used. Respondents from Klang Valley in Malaysia make up a large proportion of the study’s sample. This may consequently limit the generalisability of the findings of this study. Hence, future research should adequately collect data from other cities in Malaysia. Moreover, this paper does not differentiate between perceptions of Muslims and non-Muslims or between male and female; this might have an effect, as Muslims are likely to favour most of the items in the questionnaire used to collect data for this study. Thus, future research may collect sufficient data to shed more light on this issue. Originality/value The researchers have revealed that CSR is an effective promotional tool for the Malaysian halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. Study of this nature is rare in academic literature.

Equality and Anti-Discrimination Legislation: An Uneasy Relationship

Despite the rhetoric of equality that infuses anti-discrimination legislation, a close analysis reveals that it is in-equality that is invariably privileged. With reference to the Australian example, this introductory article will show how the paradox is played out at multiple sites in terms of both form and substance, such as through the individualism and confidentiality of the complaint-based mechanism. A striking exclusion from the legislation is the attribute of class, the most significant manifestation of social inequality, which remains ineffable even when it significantly shapes other attributes. The prevailing political backdrop of neoliberalism plays a significant role in promoting inequality through competition policy and profit maximisation. Powerful corporations not only endeavour to resist transparency, but they also tend to oppose proactive measures in favour of substantive equality. The contradictions of anti-discrimination legislation thereby sustain in-equality while simultaneously espousing the rhetoric of equality.

‘Green’ managerial delegation theory

This article develops a non-cooperative game with managerial quantity-setting firms in which owners choose whether to delegate output and abatement decisions to managers through a contract based on emissions (conventionally denoted as ‘green’ delegation, GD) instead of sales (sales delegation, SD), and the government levies an emissions tax to incentivise firms’ emissions-reduction actions. First, it compares the Nash equilibrium outcomes between GD and SD and then contrasts them also with profit maximisation (PM). A plethora of Nash equilibria emerges, especially in the case GD versus PM (the ‘green delegation game’), depending on the public awareness toward environmental quality, ranging from the coordination game to the ‘green’ prisoner's dilemma. Second, though the contract under GD incentivises managers for emissions, the environmental damage is lower than under SD. This is because the optimal tax more than compensates the incentive for emissions. These findings suggest that designing GD contracts paradoxically favours environmental quality.

Residential Photovoltaic Profitability with Storage under the New Spanish Regulation: A Multi-Scenario Analysis

In recent years, solar price drops and regulations have helped residential users to invest in grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) facilities. In Spain, a novel law promotes self-consumption by discounting electricity fed into the grid from the utility bill. However, the performance of PV-based facilities depends on diverse factors. The contribution of this paper is to evaluate the techno-economic performance of such installations for different considerations linked to the Spanish law. A simulation model is used to examine different representative cities, load profiles and alternative objectives: maximising profitability and self-sufficiency. For profit maximisation, results show that load profile variations entail PV size changes up to 5 kWp for the same location, together with huge economic and self-sufficiency differences. In contrast, the solar radiation and compensation rate have a more limited influence. For self-sufficiency maximisation, the economic performance drops close to EUR 0, as benefits are used to double the PV size, buy batteries and reach close to 70% self-sufficiency. Finally, a sensitivity analysis shows a limited impact of the utility tariff and the technology cost on the PV size, but a relevant influence on the benefits. These results can help investors and families to quantify the risks and benefits of domestic self-consumption facilities.

Insurance-based inequities in emergency interhospital transfers: an argument for the prioritisation of patient care

Currently there is an inequity in transfer rates of uninsured patients versus their insured counterparts. While this may vary by hospital system, studies indicate that this is a national trend, especially in emergency situations, and represents a prioritisation of profits over ethical obligations. This creates a variety of ethical issues for patients and society that generates a concordance between deontological and utilitarian viewpoints, two generally opposed schools of thought. The prioritisation of profit maximisation in order to provide better care for a select population is insufficient to justify deleterious health outcomes, stress and financial burden on patients. Current policy regarding patient transfers in the emergency department is insufficient to protect the uninsured and must be reevaluated.