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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Economic Effects Of Smoking Bans On Restaurants And Pubs, Barrie Craven, Michael L. Marlow
Economic Effects Of Smoking Bans On Restaurants And Pubs, Barrie Craven, Michael L. Marlow
Economics
The United Kingdom has recently enacted smoking bans in public places such as restaurants and pubs. Public health advocates argue that bans are necessary because non-smokers need protection from second-hand smoke. Advocates also claim that bans do not exert harm on owners because of a vast empirical literature showing that restaurants and bars in the United States never suffer harm following bans. This paper examines whether these claims are true by developing a model within the Coasian framework whereby owners of businesses have incentives to deal with smoking disputes between smokers and non-smokers. Our model demonstrates that it is incorrect …
What Explains The Increased Utilization Of Powder River Basin Coal In Electric Power Generation?, Shelby Gerking, Stephen F. Hamilton
What Explains The Increased Utilization Of Powder River Basin Coal In Electric Power Generation?, Shelby Gerking, Stephen F. Hamilton
Economics
This article examines possible explanations for increased utilization of Powder River Basin (PRB) coal in electric power generation that occurred over the last two decades. Did more stringent environmental policy motivate electric power plants to switch to less polluting fuels? Or, did greater use of PRB coal occur because relative price changes altered input markets in favor of this fuel. A key finding is that factors other than environmental policy such as the decline in railroad freight rates together with elastic demand by power plants were major contributors to the increased utilization of this fuel.
Experiments With Arbitrage Across Assets, Eric O'N. Fisher
Experiments With Arbitrage Across Assets, Eric O'N. Fisher
Economics
No abstract provided.
Expected Utility Inequalities: Theory And Applications, Eduardo Zambrano
Expected Utility Inequalities: Theory And Applications, Eduardo Zambrano
Economics
Suppose we know the utility function of a risk averse decision maker who values a risky prospect X at a price CE. Based on this information alone I develop upper bounds for the tails of the probabilistic belief about X of the decision maker. In the paper I also illustrate how to use these expected utility bounds in a variety of applications, which include the estimation of risk measures from observed data, option valuation, and the study of credit risk.
Epistemic Conditions For Rationalizability, Eduardo Zambrano
Epistemic Conditions For Rationalizability, Eduardo Zambrano
Economics
In this paper I present conditions, not involving common knowledge of rationality, that lead to (correlated) rationalizability. The basic observation is that, if the actual world belongs to a set of states where the set Z of action profiles is played, everyone is rational and it is mutual knowledge that the action profiles played are in Z, then the actions played at the actual world are rationalizable actions. Alternatively, if at the actual world the support of the conjecture of player i is Di, there is mutual knowledge of: (i) the game being played, (ii) that …
Honestly, Who Else Would Fund Such Research? Reflections Of A Non-Smoking Scholar, Michael L. Marlow
Honestly, Who Else Would Fund Such Research? Reflections Of A Non-Smoking Scholar, Michael L. Marlow
Economics
Many public-health researchers are quick to raise charges of bias to explain away the few studies that reach politically incorrect conclusions. Claims of bias are often thrown at researchers who are funded by the industries targeted for aggressive intervention. This paper discusses whether it makes sense that bias is a relevant issue only when researchers have connections to private industry or find fault with government intervention. I focus on the issue of whether smoking bans harm any restaurant or bar owners. This area of research has experienced a large number of claims of bias and deception, leveled against research that …
Do Smoking Bans Reduce Heart Attacks?, Michael L. Marlow
Do Smoking Bans Reduce Heart Attacks?, Michael L. Marlow
Economics
Recent newspaper articles have heralded studies concluding that smoking bans lead to dramatic decreases in the annual incidence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Coupled with studies concluding that bans never harm businesses and that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) significantly endangers health of nonsmokers, studies claiming AMI reduction have provided governments with additional evidence to support bans in the name of public health. Some communities have expanded bans from workplaces to include parks, beaches, and other open areas, based on this growing body of evidence. This commentary argues that, as with distorted claims regarding economic harm and ETS, recent studies concluding …
Utopia Reconsidered: The Modern Firm As Institutional Ideal, John Dobson
Utopia Reconsidered: The Modern Firm As Institutional Ideal, John Dobson
Finance
This paper challenges Alasdair MacIntyre's assertion that the modern firm -such as Google, Unilever, or Microsoft -is inimical to human flourishing within an Aristotelian framework. The paper begins by questioning MacIntyre's rendering of utopian communities. It then addresses four specific criticisms of the modern firm to be found throughout MacIntyre's oeuvre, namely compartmentalisation, myopia, inequality, and loss of community. Arguments are made to the effect that these criticisms do not vitiate the institutional role of the modern firm in an Aristotelian context. The paper concludes with an invocation of the modern firm as institutional ideal within an evolving utopian vision …
Introducing Ethics Into The Finance Curriculum: A Simple Three Level Guide, John Dobson
Introducing Ethics Into The Finance Curriculum: A Simple Three Level Guide, John Dobson
Finance
Ethics has arrived in the business school curriculum. But what about the curriculum of finance? Can ethics be integrated in any meaningful way into the theory and pedagogy of finance? Given the ever-broader array of topics in finance, should ethics be included at the inevitable expense of something else? Are finance instructors qualified to teach ethics any more than ethicists are qualified to teach finance? In short, are finance educators doing students a service or disservice by devoting class time to ethics? These are the questions addressed here. A menu of three different levels of integration is supplied;each level requiring …