Does labor contract completeness drive unionization? Experimental evidence

Flynn (2005) proposes that the degree to which labor contracts are complete may be a major driving force behind the propensity of employees to unionize. We find behavior consistent with this hypothesis in an experimental production game in which subjects are assigned to playing either employers or employees. The rate at which employees opt for a proxy for unionization more than triples when the labor-contracting regime under which they are working shifts from incomplete to complete labor contracts. Complete labor contracts drive out positive reciprocity, anger workers, and increase their desire to unionize.     

What affects customer success when bargaining for a new car? Some empirical evidence

Data about 233 new car models were collected, and a measure of customer success in bargaining for a new car (alpha) was created by computing the ratio between the discount received on the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) and the negotiable range (MSRP − dealer's car cost). One hypothesis was that customers who purchase more expensive cars succeed less in bargaining because of their higher time value. A second hypothesis was that a positive correlation between the negotiable range and alpha should exist, because of either customer incentives to bargain or dealer's bargaining strategy. Both hypotheses were supported by the data.     

Effects of family planning and health services on women��s welfare: evidence on dowries and intra-household bargaining in Bangladesh

This paper demonstrates how the availability of family planning and maternal and child health services alters the structure of intra-household bargaining. The overall welfare gains from such programs are likely to be large, but when women obtain access to services only through marriage, some of these gains may be partially offset by changes in their bargaining power and in the dowries that they pay their husbands. I examine these marriage market effects using a family planning and health services program in rural Bangladesh, finding that compared to women without program access, women in the treatment area are 35% less likely to be able to make purchases without permission from their husbands or another household member. Moreover, a difference-in-difference specification confirms that women pay 14% higher dowries in order to obtain husbands with access to the program. The fact that adjustments are made both before and within marriage suggests that marital contracts in rural Bangladesh are negotiated along multiple margins.     

Strategic Planning in the ‘Empire of Speed’

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the latest wave of the social acceleration of time on the capacity for long-term strategic planning within contemporary global justice movements. Drawing upon the interdisciplinary body of literature on time and temporality, the article begins by delineating the changes to the future time perspective wrought by the shift from the modern ‘age of progress’ ruled by ‘clock time', to a global ‘network society’ characterized by speed, risk, and uncertainty. In the second, substantive part, the article draws upon several dozen semi-structured interviews with social activists in order to shed light upon the challenges to contemporary social justice movements posed by the pervasive sense of precarity and futurelessness associated with life in high-speed, global risk society.     

Replication: Do women shy away from competition? Experimental evidence from China

We investigate gender differences in competitiveness using a lab-in-the-field experiment and a subject pool consisting of Chinese adults following the design by Niederle and Vesterlund (2007). China provides an interesting environment to study since the country has promoted gender equality for a long time and the gender gap in earnings is small in cross-country comparisons. However, in many respects, China is still a patriarchal society. Our results show that women perform equally well as men in a piece-rate task and significantly better in a competitive payment environment. Despite this, men are more than twice as likely to choose a competitive environment. This gender difference cannot be explained by differences in confidence or risk preferences.     

Are economists overconfident? Ideology and uncertainty in expert opinion

Economics frequently serves as an advisory discipline to policymakers, bolstered in part by its claims to a unified intellectual framework and high disciplinary consensus. Recent research challenges this perspective, providing empirical evidence that economists' professional opinions are divided by ideological commitments to either free markets on one hand or state intervention on the other. We investigate the influence of ideology in economics by examining the relation between economists' ideological commitments and the certainty with which they express their expert opinions. To examine this relationship, we analyze data from the Initiative on Global Markets Economic Experts Panel, a unique survey of 51 economists at seven elite American universities. Our results suggest that economists with ideologically patterned views report higher levels of certainty in their opinions than their less ideologically consistent peers, but this boost in confidence is limited to topics that closely pertain to the free market versus interventionism divide.     

Child protection under Swedish law—legal duality and uncertainty

Society's responsibility to protect children from harm as prescribed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child raises complex questions about the fundamental rights of both children and parents, as well as when and how authorities are to intervene in order to protect children from maltreatment. Many child protection systems around the world attract considerable criticism, due in part to how the law responds to child protection matters. This article examines the Swedish child protection system from a critical legal perspective with the ideas conveyed within Therapeutic Jurisprudence as a theoretical starting point. The aim is to describe and analyze the legal challenges and dilemmas that meet this system. A legal ambiguity about when and how responsible authorities are to intervene, leading to significant uncertainty for both children and parents, is identified. Furthermore, the strong focus by Swedish authorities on voluntary measures to resolve child protection matters can lead to vulnerable children not receiving the protection to which they are entitled. Certain of the challenges and dilemmas described here are specific to the Swedish system due to its legal context and family support approach. However, other aspects resonate across legal systems and, therefore, may be of a more general interest.     

Do buyers and sellers evaluate air pollution reduction differently? Experimental evidence from China

This paper is the first study to investigate the good dealness account of the endowment effect in non-market goods. We designed a within-subjects experiment to measure the value of air pollution reduction through the evaluation of a market good, PM 2.5 filters. We divided the subjects into buyers and sellers and asked them to trade four PM 2.5 filters using the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak auction under two treatments: a) a drop in air quality, which served to increase the market price of the filters; and b) the receipt of information on the relationship between death rates and air pollution, which served to increase the intrinsic value of the filters. Our results show that buyers’ willingness to pay for pollution reduction did not increase when air pollution worsened but did increase when informed of the possibility of health damage from air pollution. Sellers’ willingness to accept for air quality deterioration increased when pollution worsened but remained the same upon receiving information about health damage. We conclude that sellers are more sensitive to changes in market price, while buyers are more sensitive to changes in intrinsic value. Our findings support the theory of seeking a good deal in explaining the endowment effect.     

Volunteers in Brazilian Hospitals: Good Citizens or Strategic Agents?

Volunteers are recognized as people devoting significant time to provide unpaid services to social organizations. In nonprofit hospitals, volunteers play three essential roles. First, they provide assistance and care to patients. Secondly, they generate strategic value through fundraising, marketing, and community relations’ activities. Third, they generate financial benefits for the institution by reducing hospital costs. This article examines such roles and contributions of volunteers at two Brazilian nonprofit hospitals. Managers at these organizations consider volunteers valuable for the psycho-social service they provide, the strategic actions they develop, the cost savings they generate, the goodwill they create, and the funds they raise. In conclusion, volunteers at both hospitals are key stakeholders whose altruistic motives as good citizens motivate them to join either of the organizations, help humanize their services, and assist with the development of strategies that make significant contributions to the improvement of performance at both locales.     

Stronger women,better men? Family bargaining and public policy in contemporary Russia

Review of Economics of the Household - The paper investigates the effects of Russia’s 2007 ‘Maternal Capital Law’, a non-cash subsidy awarded to mothers with the birth of their...     

We are not in control—embrace uncertainty and trust in what emerges. Peter Senge on the legacy and future of Change Management

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) - Peter Senge is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and founder of...     

The voluntary sector in ‘the information society’: a study in division and uncertainty

At a time of rapid social, political and economic change in Britain, voluntary and community groups are being encouraged to assume a more prominent role in general welfare provision. Accordingly, their need to know has never been more acute. Yet the information environment of the voluntary sector is also in a state of flux and transition. Profound changes in the institutional world of information provision hold significant implications for the way voluntary and community groups seek and disseminate information. In this paper these structural changes are outlined and the findings presented of an extensive investigation into information needs and usage in the voluntary sector.     

Efficiency,equality, positionality: What do people maximize? Experimental vs. hypothetical evidence from Tunisia

We experimentally test in a developing country whether people prefer a situation where individual and social interests coincide, a situation promoting equality or another one promoting a better relative position. We also investigate whether incentive compatible choices are consistent with results obtained by hypothetical surveys and whether results remain robust when higher stakes are considered. Our results show when stakes are low, a similar proportion of individuals (about 40%) choose the option that maximizes self-interest and social good and the option that promotes equality. Our findings suggest that hypothetical surveys may lead individuals to overestimate positional concerns and to be insensitive to stakes. In presence of higher stakes, egalitarian concerns prevail in incentive compatible experiments.     

Handing down the farm? The increasing uncertainty of irrigated farm succession in Australia

Farming is still primarily a family concern in Australia. Having a farm successor in place is important as it is associated with the likelihood of the current farmer adapting to external conditions and hence may have long-term implications for the structure and profitability of agriculture. We used current and historical surveys across a number of irrigation districts in the southern Murray-Darling Basin to study the changing nature of farm succession. Irrigation farms with (and without) a named successor have decreased over time, while uncertainty about succession has increased rapidly. There was strong evidence that the identification of a successor is positively associated with the current and future management of farms. Those with no successor in place are more likely to go into a period of stagnation (such as selling land, not adopting efficient irrigation infrastructure and not increasing irrigated area). One key finding is that increasing uncertainty about succession among irrigated farmers in recent years has been influenced by issues surrounding water security in the Murray-Darling Basin.     

Does patience matter in marriage stability? Some evidence from Italy

Time preferences can affect divorce probability by both affecting the quality of the match and affecting the spouses’ reactions to negative shocks. We analyse the relationship between time preferences and divorce decisions using data from the Italian Survey on Household Income and Wealth, which provides a measure of time preferences based on a hypothetical financial situation in which individuals have to decide how much money to give up in order to receive a certain amount of money immediately rather than in one year’s time. By controlling for a number of individual and family characteristics, we find that impatient individuals are more likely to experience divorce. The effect is robust to different specifications of our model and is not affected by reverse causality problems. We also find that the more risk averse individuals are, the less likely they are to experience divorce.     

In Whose Interest? The UN's Strategic Rapprochement with Business in the Sustainable Development Agenda

Following the Rio+20 conference and in anticipation of the end of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations is at the centre of debates on the future of sustainable development. In these debates, the UN Secretariat has positioned transnational corporations as essential and legitimate actors for new sustainable development goals. This policy does not follow a direct mandate from member states. Rather, the UN's rapprochement with business in the ‘Post-2015’ process should be seen as an example of independent decision-making by the organization within the constraints of the current world order. This strategy dates back to the late 1990s and is meant to increase the UN's authority and legitimacy and expand its mandate by making it more relevant to powerful actors in the international arena. The article questions whether the organization's strategy vis-à-vis business is producing the anticipated effects, or rather reveals institutional dysfunction.     

Social Support Expectations and Strategic Ambiguity in Parent–Young Adult Child Divorce-Related Stressor Conversations

With communication privacy management and the divorce disclosure model as guiding frameworks, this study identified the stressors postdivorce families discussed as they mature, elucidated the types of social support parents and young adult children expected regarding divorce-related stress, and tested whether motivational and contextual factors prompted parents' use of strategic ambiguity while discussing stressors. By examining parent–child divorce-related stressor conversations in a controlled lab setting, results indicated that a decade after parental divorce, families continued to manage a variety of stressors. Additionally, parents and young adults had strong expectations for nurturant, informational, and tangible support from one another. Yet, social support expectations did not affect parents' self-reported use of strategic ambiguity nor children's perceptions of parents' communication.