Making sense of the self: an integrative framework for moral agency

The self is conceptualized in a multitude of ways in different scholarly fields; at the same time moral agency appears to presuppose a unitary conception of the self. This paper explores this tension by introducing ‘moral senses’ which inform the normative evaluations of a person. The moral senses are featured as innate dispositions, but they inevitably recruit discursive categorizations in order to function. These senses forward both an ‘individual self’, by experiencing a unitary body, mind and character, and a ‘social self’, that is similarly experienced as a body, a mind, and a character. This social self is enabled by the capacity to internalize other people's feelings and intentions and the need to have otherworldly explanations for observable reality. This integrative framework of moral senses provides an understanding that helps to address the challenge of moral heterogeneity and plurality.     

Distribution-neutral provision of public goods

The paper describes a normative approach to budget incidence, given the provision of a public good. The objective is to balance the budget by an income tax such that the budget is distribution-neutral. This property requires that every consumer’s net welfare gain, i.e. the benefit from consuming the public good and the tax burden in financing it, does not change the inequality inherent in the income distribution. The properties of the distribution-neutral tax are investigated and completely determined. The marginal willingness to pay for the public good is decisive for the degree of progression of the tax schedule. My co-author Georg Tillmann passed away in March 2006, much too soon. He was my friend, more than a colleague. I dedicate this paper to his memory.     

Editorial: Die Soziologie der Cultural Studies

Ohne Zusammenfassung Udo G?ttlich PD Dr., M. A., Vertretung einer Professur am Institut für Medien-und Theaterwissenschaft im Fachbereich II — Kulturwissenschaften und ?sthetische Kommunikation — der Universit?t Hildesheim im WS 2007/08. Leiter der Forschungsgruppe „Politik und Kommunikation“ am Rhein-Ruhr-Institut für Sozialforschung und Politikberatung der Universit?t Duisburg-Essen. Arbeits-und Forschungsschwerpunkte: Allgemeine Soziologie, Medien-, Kommunikations-und Kultursoziologie, Cultural Studies Approach, Theorie und Analytik der Medien-und der Popul?rkultur. Aktuelle Publikation: Die Kreativit?t des Handelns in der Medienaneignung, Konstanz 2006.     

Random Convex Combinations of m-Generalized Order Statistics

The situation of identical distributions of a single m-generalized order statistic and a random convex combination of two neighboring m-generalized order statistics with beta-distributed weights is studied, and related characterizations of generalized Pareto distributions are shown.     

Multivariate extreme value analysis and its relevance in a metallographical application

Motivated from extreme value (EV) analysis for large non-metallic inclusions in engineering steels and a real data set, the benefit of choosing a multivariate EV approach is discussed. An extensive simulation study shows that the common univariate setup may lead to a high proportion of mis-specifications of the true EV distribution, as well as that the statistical analysis is considerably improved when being based on the respective data of r largest observations, with r appropriately chosen. Results for several underlying distributions and various values of r are presented along with effects on estimators for the parameters of the generalized EV family of distributions.     

A Fig Leaf for The Naked Corporation

The implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States and the German Law of transparency and disclosure (TransPuG) lead to a claim for more disclosure of information with the goal of a “naked corporation” such that all information is available to the (potential) investors. In this article we pick up this debate and present arguments that the “naked corporation” does not offer an efficient degree of disclosure, as we have to distinguish between more and better information. Concerning the latter the new regulations are critical. Cognitive limitations and bounded rationality highlight the risk of information overload. Asymmetric information illustrates that self induced disclosure can do better than a mandatory one. Therefore the legislator should not be asked for specific informational contents but for regulations on the way of information provision.JEL Codes: K22, G34, D82     

Stochastic approximation results for variational inequality problem using random-type iterative schemes

Real world problems are embedded with uncertainties. Therefore, to tackle these problems, one must consider probabilistic nature of the problems both in modeling and solution. In this work, concepts of convergence of the solution of variational inequality in classical functional analysis are extended to a stochastic domain for a random Mann-type iterative and Ishikawa-type iterative schemes in a Banach space. A mean square convergence result is proved for this extension.