Search Results

An evaluation is made of various ways in which corporate governance can be operationalized as part of a panel data econometric analysis. Corporate governance is not a concept that can be directly observed. Consequently, it is necessary to identify suitable proxy variables. Given the pros and cons of different measures of corporate governance, it is decided to undertake the empirical analysis with three plausible proxies – equity share, value traded, and international equity issuance – rather than to base conclusions on a single measure. Other potential measures of corporate governance – such as ownership concentration, corporate governance ratings, and measures of corporate governance regulation – are not utilized for various conceptual and practical reasons.

The main issues addressed in the book are introduced, starting with discussion of the great diversity in the environmental movement, and making the point that the major groups of the movement in the United States, in taking on the role of interest groups in the liberal pluralist model, have excluded and marginalized many positions. The study to be made is described as focusing on two key concerns: how to acknowledge and recognize, rather than deny, diversity in environmentalism; and how to organize that diversity politically in a manner more inclusive than the liberal, or mainstream, environmental model. Different sections of the chapter discuss: the problems with conventional (liberal) pluralism; the democratic potential of the recognition by grassroots environmentalism of different experiences of the same event; the notion of justice embodied in the environmental justice movement – distributional equity (which can be achieved through procedural equity), recognition of the diversity of participants and experiences, and political participation (the demand for more public participation in the development, implementation, and oversight of environmental policy); and pluralism in theory and practice. The final section of the chapter provides a preview and plan of the book.

Economic and cultural globalization seem to have ushered in an awkward and potentially unstable period of transition for the world. Even if one supposes that free trade and unrestricted capital mobility can eventually result in global factor price equalization and international equality, the transition may take decades if not centuries. At stake are questions of how to distribute the costs incurred, and the benefits to be derived, by cooperative action to create global public goods or minimize global public bads. Questions of equity are also implicated in the origin of the global problems themselves. International negotiations are influenced by unequal economic and bargaining strengths and the diverse stages of development at which nations find themselves.

The basic argument of this chapter is that equity and distributional criteria must be at the core of a global public goods framework for international cooperation. There are several reasons behind this. First, equity and justice promote cooperative behavior, itself needed for the provision of public goods. Second, when the system is perceived to be fair and equitable, nations will participate in it willingly. Third, global equity is itself a public good that, without cooperation or coercion (i.e., in a decentralized setting), may be undersupplied. The undersupply may be because, e.g., there is no private market through which nations or individuals may meet their need to give.

Thus, the first section of this chapter sets the stage by outlining the continuing role of inequality among nations in shaping the world. The second section considers the potential instrumental value of social cohesion in public goods supply (equity for public goods). After that, the chapter considers how distributional factors affect the demand and supply of public goods. Then, it pursues the proposition (originally from Thurow, 1971) that the distribution of income is itself a public good. The final section offers conclusions. The rest of the chapter illustrates the value of equity for the production of public goods, in the distribution of public goods, and as a public good itself.

This chapter discusses the conditions under which brand equity can exist and whether brand equity implies charging high prices. It evaluates the use of standard metrics for measuring brand equity (e.g., Tobin's q-ratio and the multiplier method). Following this, it proposes an integrated marketing-finance fusion method for measuring brand equity that combines behavioral and financial data and allows for competitive effects at different levels in the supply chain and for differential market growth rates.

Traditional analyses of tax justice demand that the distribution of tax burdens satisfy criteria of vertical and horizontal equity–like cases should be treated alike and relevantly different cases should be treated differently. Various criteria for relevant differences have been proposed, drawing on ideas such as ability to pay and taxation in proportion to benefit. All these analyses suffer from the fundamental flaw of treating pretax income as a morally significant baseline. This mistake can partly be traced to a prevailing “everyday libertarianism” according to which our legal property rights simply protect what we are independently morally entitled to; this view is incoherent.

The empirical evidence examined in this book is highly supportive of the idea that economic rents play a key role in determining the degree of association between partisanship and corporate governance change in nonliberal market economies. Economic rents are the key factor that mould the preferences of political parties vis‐à‐vis corporate governance policy, and determine the ability of such policy to translate into changes in firm‐level corporate governance outcomes.

Private equity funds contribute heavily to the performance of the firms in which they invest beyond the provision of capital. Through detailed examination of seven case studies of private equity funds and portfolio companies, this chapter shows how private equity funds provide ‘commercial savvy’ and international connections to the companies in which they invest, as well as sector-specific knowledge. The funds may involve themselves in areas traditionally considered as matters of concern to investors, such as corporate strategy, and in matters normally considered the province of managers, such as innovation and employee skill development.

This chapter examines the definitions of justice by both academics of, and groups within, the environmental justice movement in the US. After a brief description of the types of groups and organizations that make up the environmental justice movement in the US, the chapter goes into detail describing equity-based, recognition-focused, procedural, and capability-oriented frames of justice from both the movement itself and the literature about it.

This chapter examines the use of the concept of environmental justice in various global movements, including the anti-globalization, food security, indigenous rights, and climate justice movements. In each of these movements' use of the discourse of environmental justice, there are elements of equity and distribution, individual and cultural recognition, political participation, and individual and community functioning.

This essay examines the role of targeted transfers in poor countries in the light of the new theories on the social costs of unmitigated inequalities and uninsured risks. Recognizing that the policy implications depend crucially on whether there is good empirical evidence to support the theoretical arguments, the bulk of the first half of the essay discusses the evidence. The essay then takes up a key question for policy: Can the potential for efficient redistribution be realized in practice using targeted transfers, given the constraints faced in poor countries? It is argued that there can be too much uninsured risk and inequality, when judged solely from the viewpoint of aggregate output. For example, credit market failures can mean that it is the poor who are unable to exploit new economic opportunities; the more poor people, the fewer the opportunities that get exploited, and thus the lower the rate of growth. Persistent concentrations of poverty in poor environments can also arise from market failures, given geographic externalities whereby living in a poor area is a cause of poverty. This body of theory and evidence offers a new perspective on social protection policies in poor countries, suggesting that there is scope for using these policies to compensate for the market failures that help perpetuate poverty, particularly in high-inequality settings.

This chapter shows how the firm should coordinate its advertising message, branding, and product positioning strategies. It distinguishs between the short and long runs, single-product and multiproduct firms, established and new products, durable and nondurable products, and whether the firm is a market leader or not.

This chapter shows how the firm can use marketing-finance fusion to evaluate mergers and acquisition strategies. It examines the potential gains from mergers, the history of mergers and acquisitions, the effect of private equity firms and hedge funds on merger activity and merger performance, and the special problems posed by international mergers. In particular, it shows how buying and selling firms can objectively value brands by combining game theory and data from choice-based experiments.

This chapter documents the trends in the life-cycle profiles of net worth and housing equity of older persons. During the 1993-2004 period, older households' net worth rose significantly, yet net worth grew by more than housing equity, in part because other assets also appreciated at the same time. Moreover, the younger elderly offset rising house prices by increasing their housing debt and used some of the proceeds to invest in other assets. The chapter considers how much of their housing equity older households could actually tap using reverse mortgages. It shows that this fraction is lower at younger ages, such that young retirees can consume less than half of their housing equity. Their results imply that consumable net worth is smaller than standard calculations of net worth.

This chapter examines the nature of justice as a normative ideal that captures part of the offense of anthropogenic climate change and might serve as the basis for a remedial global climate regime that aims to reduce the problem's causes and rectify its damaging effects through compensation and adaptation transfers. After a brief observation about climate change as exploitation, the declared commitments to justice from within climate treaties are considered, along with reasons for thinking such aims to be important for successfully responding to the threat of climate change. The fairness of the Kyoto Protocol is considered by treating justice as concerned with two primary components: equity and responsibility. Finally, a primer on egalitarian justice theory from contemporary political theory and philosophy is offered in order to establish the groundwork for later inquiries into international and intergenerational justice.