Can We Compare Life Satisfaction Between Nationalities? Evaluating Actual and Imagined Situations

Do differences in reported life satisfaction between societies reflect real differences or do they reflect cultural differences in the way people rate their experiences? Study 1 showed that imagining better or worse life situations affected student respondents’ ratings of their own life satisfaction, as predicted by range–frequency theory. Study 2 investigated how German and Polish students rated their actual life satisfaction and how satisfied they would be under three imagined scenarios. Study 3 similarly compared Danish and Hungarian students. Both studies found significant differences in the rating of the hypothetical situations, and moderate correlations between ratings of satisfaction in the hypothetical situations and reality, but in neither study were national differences in actual satisfaction predicted by differences in hypothetical satisfaction. Overall, the results suggest that national differences in rated life satisfaction are real rather than reflecting differences in how satisfaction is rated.     

A note on interdependent happiness

Based on two models of interdependent utilities [Becker, G., 1974. A theory of social interaction, Journal of Political Economy 82, 1064–1093; Fehr, E., Schmidt, K., 1999. A theory of fairness, competition, and cooperation, Quarterly Journal of Economics 114, 817–868] we derive a functional relationship between average happiness and the standard deviation of happiness within a country. This hypothesis is supported by an empirical investigation of 71 countries which shows that the average happiness in these countries depends only on income and on the standard deviation of happiness σ. The latter may be partly based on influences beyond income, for which no data are available. Income has the expected positive influence and σ has the expected negative influence, i.e. large differences in “autonomous” happiness have a dampening influence on “effective” happiness which also takes into account the happiness of others.     

On the Relative Strengths of Altruism and Fairness

Some researchers have attributed deviations from selfish behavior to fairness. Violations of fairness theories, however, are observed in experimental dictator games with transfer rates greater than 1 (a transfer of x from the dictator yields an income of tx for the beneficiary, where x < tx): the dictator’s final income is less than the beneficiary’s. We theoretically propose that dictator giving also involves altruism, further supporting our claim with empirical evidence from four separate samples of dictator game experiments. Our nonlinear specification allows the relative measurement of the independent motives in dictator behavior.     

Why to Buy Your Darling Flowers: On Cooperation and Exploitation

Trusting in someone's cooperation is often connected with the danger of being exploited. So it is important that signals are exchanged which make it probable enough that the potential partner is reliable. Such signals must be too expensive for partners who are planning to abuse the trust they are given but cheap enough for those who wish to initiate a long-term cooperation. In a game theoretical model, it is shown that such signals could consist of presents given before the partnership starts. These presents must be more expensive than the advantage of a one-period exploitation but smaller than the profit from a long-term partnership. In order to prevent that the receiver only collects presents, and that she is not interested in a firm partnership, these gifts should be of low value for her. Flowers are the prototype of such presents but usually not the only and not the most important signal of this kind. Nor is the partnership between men and women the only example of cooperative relations which are endangered by exploitation – but of all exploitation stories this one is most often narrated.     

Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe im betrieblichen Alltag von Frauen

Support of self-support in the workplace of women. Examples of the work of the gender equality unit of the City of Munich The structures of organizations and of co-operation in the workplace are gendered. To plan successfully their career advancement, women should analyze the gendered framework of their workplace and include the facts in their strategic considerations. Women who visit the gender equality unit of the City of Munich with problems in the workplace are oriented in this direction. This paper gives a short introduction in the idea of counselling. The implementation is illustrated by four examples. Case work is complementary to a strategic approach developing employment equality for women.     

Experimenters’ choices of trust experiments and their consequence for meta-studies

Experimenters often like to place their subjects in real dilemma situations where decisions are difficult and where, therefore, non-uniform results are expected. On the one hand, it is rational not to choose the parameters of an experiment at random because we can learn much more from behaviour in or close to the situation of Buridan's donkey. But on the other hand, there are also dangers involved in this habit: first, overlooking general regularities, second, the danger of detecting non-existent phenomena, and third, the danger of a false impression of a wide-spread lack of rationality in human decisions. Meta-studies based on “non-representative” experimental treatments may therefore be severely misleading.     

Effects of corporate equity ownership on firm value

We investigate the valuation effects related to corporate minority block purchases for a European sample of 113 purchases over 1993–2006. We argue that corporate block ownership, as opposed to institutional or individual block ownership, has several unique characteristics and can create significant short- and long-term wealth for target and acquiring firm shareholders. Because target firms that exhibit signs of inefficient monitoring or agency problems benefit the most, we conclude that corporate block ownerships can align incentives and mitigate information problems in corporate business relationships.     

Rewarding Trust: An Experimental Study

The issue of trust has recently attracted growing attention in research on work relations, capital – owner relations, cultural influences on the economic structures of different countries, and other topics. This paper analyzes a simple experiment on trust and the reward of trust. Mr A is endowed with DM 80. He decides to trust Ms B (and give her his money) or not. Ms B is able to double the sum of money (if she gets it) and can then decide to give back as much as she likes. In an experiment, 76% of subjects A decided to trust. The average reward they received was DM 79.2 which is not significantly different from DM 80, the value of mistrust; nor was the average reward different from the average expectations of subjects A, i.e. a weak variant of the Rational Expectations Hypothesis is supported. In the paper we also look for differences between trusting and mistrusting A-subjects, for behavioral norms, and other determinants of rewards.     

Multiple motives of pro-social behavior: evidence from the solidarity game

The article analyses experimental “solidarity games” with two benefactors and one beneficiary. Depending on their motive for giving—e.g., warm glow, altruism, or guilt—the benefactors’ response functions are either constant, decreasing, or increasing. If motives interact, or if envy is a concern, then more complex (unimodal) shapes may emerge. Controlling for random utility perturbations, we determine which and how many motives affect individual decision making. The main findings are that the motives of about 75% of the subjects can be identified fairly sharply, that all of the motives discussed in the literature co-exist in the population, and that for any given individual no more than two motives (out of six motives considered overall) are identified. We conclude that a unifying motive for solidarity cannot be derived even when we allow for individually heterogeneous parameterization: different subjects give for different reasons and all existing social preference theories are partially correct.     

(Not so) crude text and images: staging Native in ‘big oil’ advertising

Transnational energy companies' representations of Indigenous bodies and landscape in corporate advertising and social responsibility reporting can be thought of as staged and operating on more than one level of meaning. Understanding these representations as performative makes clear these are ongoing social and cultural constructs embedded in a body of discourse that is marked by White culture's own desire for permanence and fixity in relation to a privileged positioning. The staging of Native bodies and landscapes, in part intended to allay growing public concerns about environmental impacts associated with fossil fuel production, is achieved through the strategic use of images and text. Semiological analysis helps to make explicit the manner in which oil and gas transnationals' displaying of a racialised Native subject in the context of ‘partnership’ serves as a greenwashing strategy consistent with Canada's own dominant national narratives. Recognising advertisements and corporate social responsibility reports not as neutral knowledge but as sites of knowledge production reveals myths and stereotypes that serve to prevent, rather than encourage, true sustainability.