Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

The Efficiency Of U.S. Public Space Utilization During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Seth G. Benzell, Avinash Collis, Christos Nicolaides

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has called for and generated massive novel government regulations to increase social distancing for the purpose of reducing disease transmission. A number of studies have attempted to guide and measure the effectiveness of these policies, but there has been less focus on the overall efficiency of these policies. Efficient social distancing requires implementing stricter restrictions during periods of high viral prevalence and rationing social contact to disproportionately preserve gatherings that produce a good ratio of benefits to transmission risk. To evaluate whether U.S. social distancing policy actually produced an efficient social distancing regime, we tracked consumer preferences …

Rationing Social Contact During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Transmission Risk And Social Benefits Of Us Locations, Seth G. Benzell, Avinash Collis, Christos Nicolaides

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

To prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), some types of public spaces have been shut down while others remain open. These decisions constitute a judgment about the relative danger and benefits of those locations. Using mobility data from a large sample of smartphones, nationally representative consumer preference surveys, and economic statistics, we measure the relative transmission reduction benefit and social cost of closing 26 categories of US locations. Our categories include types of shops, entertainments, and service providers. We rank categories by their trade-off of social benefits and transmission risk via dominance across 13 dimensions of risk and …

How Social Media Communications Can Mitigate Negative Impacts Of Corporate Social Irresponsibility On Corporate Financial Performance?, Saad A. Alhoqail, Hyun Young Cho, Kristopher Floyd

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Previous research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has focused on corporate reputation (CR) and corporate financial performance (CFP), showing a high correlation between both. While most researchers primarily focus on CSR, our research examines the other side of the coin; corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) and provides findings that counter previous thought. We contribute to the existing literature by showing that CSI has a non-significant impact on corporate financial performance, as measured by market value, while concurrently being negatively correlated to corporate reputation. Further, we show social media, as measured by the Social Media Sustainability Index (SMSI), a measure studied infrequently …

Ideological Diversity In Standard Setting, Jivas Chakravarthy

Accounting Faculty Articles and Research

I explore whether the level of ideological diversity among Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) members has declined since the emergence of their conceptual framework. I analyze votes made by FASB members on Statements of Financial Accounting Standards and compare them to comment letters submitted by constituent sponsoring organizations. I demonstrate that, relative to the Pre-CF regime (1973–1986), FASB members’ voting positions in the CF regime (1987–2007) are (i) less like their constituent sponsors and (ii) more like one another. The former result is primarily attributable to differences between FASB members with auditor and preparer backgrounds and those groups’ sponsors. Both …

Corporate Governance Roles Of Information Quality And Corporate Takeovers, Jing Li, Lin Nan, Ran Zhao

Accounting Faculty Articles and Research

We examine the corporate governance roles of information quality and the takeover market with asymmetric information regarding the value of the target firm. Increasing information quality improves the takeover efficiency however, a highly efficient takeover market also discourages the manager from exerting effort. We find that perfect information quality is not optimal for either current shareholders’ expected payoff maximization or expected firm value maximization. Furthermore, current shareholders prefer a lower level of information quality than the level that maximizes expected firm value, because of a misalignment between current shareholders’ value and total firm value. We also analyze the impact of …

Property And Business, Bas Van Der Vossen

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"This chapter gives an overview of the main foundational theories of property. As I will show, there are two major families of justification for property (with each family, of course, having many different members). After laying out those two families and their potential problems, I will then consider some of the issues that reside in intellectual property, turning subsequently to explore one way in which a theory of business ethics may either be in tension or fit with such a justification of property. In particular, I will look at the tensions that stakeholder theory, on at least one version of …

The Financial Services Industry And Society: The Role Of Incentives/Punishments, Moral Hazard, And Conflicts Of Interests In The 2008 Financial Crisis, Noel Murray, Ajay K. Manrai, Lalita Ajay Manrai

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose

This paper aims to present an analysis of the role of financial incentives, moral hazard and conflicts of interests leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

The study’s analysis has identified common structural flaws throughout the securitization food chain. These structural flaws include inappropriate incentives, the absence of punishment, moral hazard and conflicts of interest. This research sees the full impact of these structural flaws when considering their co-occurrence throughout the financial system. The authors address systemic defects in the securitization food chain and examine the inter-relationships among homeowners, mortgage originators, investment banks and investors. The authors also …