Showing papers on "Dilemma published in 2004"

What do people bring into the game? Experiments in the field about cooperation in the commons

Abstract: The study of collective action requires an understanding of the individual incentives and of the institutional constraints that guide people in making choices about cooperating or defecting on the group facing the dilemma. The use of local ecosystems by groups of individuals is just one example where individual extraction increases well-being, but aggregate extraction decreases it. The use of economic experiments has enhanced the already diverse knowledge from theoretical and field sources of when and how groups can solve the problem through selfgoverning mechanisms. These studies have identified several factors that promote and limit collective action, associated with the nature of the production system that allows groups to benefit from a joint-access local ecosystem, and associated with the institutional incentives and constraints from both self-governed and externally imposed rules. In general, there is widespread agreement that cooperation can happen and be chosen by individuals as a rational strategy, beyond the "tragedy of the commons" prediction. A first step in this paper is to propose a set of layers of information that the individuals might be using to decide over their level of cooperation. The layers range from the material incentives that the specific production function imposes, to the dynamics of the game, to the composition of the group and the individual characteristics of the player. We next expand the experimental literature by analyzing data from a set of experiments conducted in the field with actual ecosystem users in three rural villages of Colombia using this framework. We find that repetition brings reciprocity motives into the decision making. Further, prior experience of the participants, their perception of external regulation, or the composition of the group in terms of their wealth and social position in the village, influence decisions to cooperate or defect in the experiment. The results suggest that understanding the multiple levels of the game, in terms of the incentives, the group and individual characteristics or the context, can help understand and therefore explore the potentials for solving the collective-action dilemma.

Empirical evidence regarding the tension between knowledge sharing and knowledge expropriation in collaborations

Abstract: Interfirm collaborations can raise a fundamental dilemma. To create value, collaborators may have to adopt a variety of practices to facilitate knowledge transfer. Deploying these practices may increase the likelihood that economically valuable knowledge, which is (1) beyond the scope of the collaboration, and (2) difficult to legally protect, is expropriated. How can firms manage this dilemma? The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the veracity of a chain of propositions addressing this dilemma based on a novel joint knowledge-based view/transaction cost economics framework. A plausible chain of relationships is briefly summarized and explored in detail empirically using unrelated datasets. The chain links two knowledge-based attributes of collaboration—knowledge tacitness and problem-solving complexity—to the use of knowledge management practices—high-bandwidth communication channels and co-specialized communication codes. These practices are economic responses to knowledge-sharing difficulties as measured by tacitness and complexity. Increasing knowledge transparency via knowledge management practices, however, gives rise to opportunism hazards, which are safeguarded against via economizing governance choice. Our empirical effort examines the effects that two knowledge attributes of collaborations have on governance choice, first directly and then indirectly through the intervening linkages. Empirical results from both datasets indicate substantial support for the proposed chain of relationships. The results are provocative in that they offer the first preliminary evidence for a plausible reconciliation of two perspectives previously treated exclusively as adversaries. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Young, Selfish and Male: Field Evidence of Social Preferences

Abstract: This study examines social preferences in three distinct field environments. In the first field setting, I allow consumers of all age and education levels to participate in one-shot and multiple-shot public goods games in a well-functioning marketplace. The second field study, an actual university capital campaign, gathers data from mail solicitations sent to 2,000 Central Florida residents. In the third field experiment, I examine data from an uncontrolled environment, a television gameshow, which closely resembles the classic prisoner's dilemma game. Several insights emerge; perhaps the most provocative is that age and social preferences appear linked.

The Dilemma of Ethics in Engineering Education

Abstract: This paper briefly summarizes current thinking in engineering ethics education, argues that much of that ethical instruction runs the risk of being only superficially effective, and explores some of the underlying systemic barriers within academia that contribute to this result. This is not to criticize or discourage efforts to improve ethics instruction. Rather it is to point to some more fundamental problems that still must be addressed in order to realize the full potential of enhanced ethics instruction. Issues discussed will include: intellectual engagement versus emotional engagement; the gravitational pull of curricular structures; the nature of engineering faculty; and the “engineer-ization” of ethics.

Let Me Talk to My Manager: Haggling in a Competitive Environment

Abstract: Although negotiating over prices with sellers is common in many markets such as automobiles, furniture, services, consumer electronics, etc., it is not clear how a haggling price policy can help a firm gain a strategic advantage or whether it is even sustainable in a competitive market. In this paper, we explore the implications of haggling and fixed prices as pricing policies in a competitive market. We develop a model in which two competing retailers choose between offering either a fixed price or haggling over prices with customers. There are two consumer segments in our analysis. One segment, thehagglers, has a lower opportunity cost of time and a lower haggling cost than the other segment, thenonhagglers. When both retailers follow the same pricing policy, then a haggling policy is more profitable than a fixed-price policy only when the proportion of nonhagglers is sufficiently high. We find two kinds of prisoners' dilemma: under some conditions, a more profitable haggling policy can be broken by a fixed-price policy, and under other conditions, a fixed-price policy can be broken by a haggling policy. Surprisingly, we show that under some conditions, an asymmetric outcome with one retailer haggling and the other offering a fixed price is also an equilibrium.

UK Initiatives on Forced Marriage: Regulation, Dialogue and Exit

Abstract: The literature on feminism and multiculturalism has identified potential conflicts between the recognition of cultural diversity and securing women's equality. Three broad approaches to this dilemma have emerged in the practices of contemporary states: regulation, working with the communities, and exit. Each of these is apparent in current initiatives regarding forced marriage, but the overwhelming emphasis in the UK has been on enabling individuals to exit from the threat or reality of a forced marriage. In assessing these initiatives, this paper highlights the limitations of exit and the danger of moving towards immigration regulation as the preferred solution.

Quality of Information and Oligopolistic Price Discrimination

Abstract: Recent developments in information technology (IT) have resulted in the collection of a vast amount of customer-specific data. As IT advances, the quality of such information improves. We analyze a unifying spatial price discrimination model that encompasses the two most studied paradigms of two-group and perfect discrimination as special cases. Firms use the available information to classify the consumers into different groups. The number of identifiable consumer segments increases with the information quality. Among our findings (1) when the information quality is low, unilateral commitments not to price discriminate arise in equilibrium; (2) after a unique threshold of information precision such a commitment is a dominated strategy, and the game becomes a prisoners' dilemma; and (3) equilibrium profits exhibit a U-shaped relationship with the information quality.

The Standard of Care Debate: Can Research in Developing Countries Be Both Ethical and Responsive to Those Countries’ Health Needs?

Abstract: To avoid exploitation of host communities, many commentators argue that subjects must receive the best methods available worldwide. Others worry that this requirement may block important research intended to improve health care, especially in developing countries. To resolve this dilemma, we propose a framework for the conditions under which it is acceptable to provide subjects with less than the best methods. Specifically, institutional review boards should assume a default of requiring the "worldwide best" methods, meaning the best methods available anywhere in the world, in all cases.However, institutional review boards should be willing to grant exceptions to this default for research studies that satisfy the following 4 conditions: (1) scientific necessity, (2) relevance for the host community, (3) sufficient host community benefit, and (4) subject and host community non-maleficence.

Righteousness and Profitableness: The Moral Choices of Contemporary Confucian Entrepreneurs

Abstract: The present study takes Confucian entrepreneurs as an entry point to portray the dynamics and problems involved in the process of putting moral precepts into practice, a central issue in business ethics. Confucian entrepreneurs are defined as the owners of manufacturing or business firms who harbor the moral values of Confucianism. Other than a brief account of their historical background, 41 subjects from various parts of Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were selected for in-depth interviews. By studying the moral choices they made in the market, it was discovered that, contrary to the prevalent mode of inquiry in economics either to reduce all social phenomena to rational calculations or to consider moral actions in terms of utilitarian values, their economic action cannot be accounted for by the postulate of utility maximization, and that the efforts to do business according to their moral principles can be very costly. The study also attempts to document how these Confucian entrepreneurs reconciled the conflict between the moral values they cherished and the instrumental goals they pursued, and will seek to uncover how they responded when faced with this dilemma.

Path-Dependent Institutions and Strategic Veto Players: National Parliaments in the European Union

Abstract: According to the prevailing concept of 'dual legitimacy', national parliaments constitute an important source of democratic legitimacy in the EU. Reinforced parliamentary scrutiny and control of the national representatives in the Council of Ministers seem to contribute to a more democratic Europe. However, if parliaments tie the hands of their governments when they negotiate at the European level, effectiveness of policy-making is jeopardised and national interests may be defeated. Realising this dilemma, members of national parliaments develop strategies to deal with conflicting requirements of national party politics and European policy-making. These strategies and their implications for democracy are influenced by the path-dependent institutional changes in national parliamentary systems. They therefore vary considerably between member states.

Ethics and Exemplary Narrative in Chaucer and Gower

Abstract: Mitchell has an ambitious triple agenda in this engaging study: redeeming medieval morality generally from the charge that it is merely prescriptive and authoritarian (an accusation most often voiced by those who also find it inherently suspect); to offer a poetic of exemplary literature that transcends the assumption that narrative is inevitably hostile to moral principle; and to demonstrate the centrality, and also the consciousness of the potential complexity, both of exemplary rhetoric and of moral practice in Gower and Chaucer. Mitchell's central propositions are first that narrative is necessary to give meaning to moral principle, and that in an exemplum there is therefore a "reciprocal movement between narrativity and normativity" (17); and second, that reception is integral to the exemplary process: that exempla by their very nature are addressed to the reader's future action. For that reason, they must be applied to particular circumstances, and they are thus open to a diversity of responses. "The end of exemplary rhetoric is not to find a determinate moralization or thematic closure," Mitchell declares, "but to discover how to live a moral life" (13-14). He lays out the background to his analysis in his first two chapters. In chapter 1, "Reading for the Moral: Controversies and Trajectories," he responds to what he sees as the modern misreading of medieval exemplary rhetoric, and he cites both medieval and modern theorists in defense of his pragmatic emphasis on reader choice and on moral practice. In chapter 2, "Rhetorical Reason: Cases, Conscience, and Circumstances," he traces the ancestry of the case-based rhetoric of the exempla to its roots in Aristotelian thought, and he cites other medieval examples of a similar flexibility in the application of moral principle, for instance the emphasis laid in the confessional manuals on examining closely the circumstances both of the sinner and of the sin. The remainder of his book explores the adoption of the rhetoric of exemplarity in works of poetry, in two chapters on Gower and three on Chaucer. The first of the chapters on Gower, "Gower for Example: Confessio Amantis and the Measure of the Case," has already appeared, in somewhat revised form and with a slightly different title, as an article in Exemplaria (see JGN 23, no. 2). In it, Mitchell argues that the poem is "comprehensive" but not "coherent": that in its vastness, it offers a wide array of lessons on moral practices in love that are sometimes confusing and even contradictory, and the burden is thus placed upon every reader, as it is upon Amans, to discover the application of each lesson that is most relevant to his own behavior. Genius participates in that effort by the way in which he adapts his lessons to the practices of lovers; Amans participates, for instance, in the way in which he rejects the lessons that seem to have no application whatever to his case. "The exemplary array constitutes something like a horizon of possible outcomes, a taxonomy of cases, a repertoire useful for orienting the moral subject without predetermining final ethical positions in practice" (59). In the end, therefore, "Amans himself must reach his own judgement, find the measure, make meaning – by moving in and among contrastive exempla representing cases in extremis – if he is to figure out what it is good for him to do with his love" (58). Similarly (to borrow a formulation from the next chapter), whatever good the poem itself achieves "will occur outside the poem in the conscience of the reader" (65): "Gower's is an art that provokes the audience to proceed without the promise of coherence. To adapt what has become a favorite medieval motto: Gower provokes us to doubt, so that by doubting we come to questioning, whereby we might arrive at answers. The moral mean-ing rests as much on what readers do as on what the text means" (66). In that next chapter, "All that is Written for our Doctrine: Proof, Remembrance, Conscience," Mitchell first situates his argument with reference to recent discussions of Gower's poetical "authority," which he notes need to be "reconceptualized to include the potentialities of reader response" (63). He then goes on to discuss some of the problems inherent in the key terms of Gower's "ethical poetic" (66). Both "remembrance" and "evidence" occur repeatedly in the poem, and as the exempla themselves demonstrate, each can be either incomplete or misleading. The solution for Gower, Mitchell argues, resides in the notion of "conscience," which in the poet's "ethical empiricism" (78) still bears the burden of moral judgment. When he comes to Chaucer, in his last three chapters, Mitchell is obviously less concerned with dispelling the poet's reputation for moral sententiousness than he is in Gower's case. He argues instead the very importance of the ethical dimension of Chaucer's work and of the poet's engagement with, rather than dismissal of, the impact of his tales upon the ethical choices of his readers. After surveying the pervasiveness of the exemplary mode in CT, including but certainly not limited to such instances as 2NT and Mel, he focuses on what he calls the "problematic cases" (84) – the tales of the Wife of Bath, Friar, Summoner, Pardoner, and Clerk – in order to examine how Chaucer both explores and exemplifies exemplary practice. The Wife of Bath confronts the antifeminist exempla of her husband's book of "wicked wives" with an exemplary rhetoric of her own that is grounded in a literalist hermeneutic, drawn from her own experience. "By trading on the inherent flexibility of the rhetoric[,] the Wife of Bath effectively reminds us that exempla are amenable to diverse applications. An applied ethics, exemplary morality exists to be reinvented in practice" (93). The Friar, Summoner, and Pardoner are each shown abusing exemplary morality for personal and private ends, and each is also guilty of the sins that he preaches against (and in the first two cases, attributes to another). As studies in the abuse of exemplary rhetoric, each reaffirms rather than undermines the value of exemplary instruction since we perceive their faults ironically by means of their own exempla. "Chaucer creates figures who become . . . their own best worst examples" (111). "At last, these pilgrims are 'bad' only because their exempla are 'good'" (110). In that respect, Mitchell suggests, the Pardoner's performance – in which he himself serves as exemplum – may be more effective than the Parson's. ClT, finally, problematizes exemplary instruction by offering too many, often conflicting, moral lessons. The necessity of choosing a single moral for the tale, Mitchell argues, is itself a moral decision. The tale itself is thus a "parable of exemplarity" (129): in forcing us to choose one reading to the exclusion of others, "the tale draws its audience to a pointed recognition of what is at stake, in the face of the dilemma, every time moral application is sought in the futurity of decision" (ibid.). The tale's "undecidability" is thus "a call to responsibility" (130). Mitchell is both subtle and refreshingly iconoclastic, and even if one does not accept every detail of his readings, he offers a persuasive demonstration of a rich range of possibilities in what might all too easily be seen as a limited and transparent form. Much of what he says has implications reaching far beyond Chaucer and Gower, and his examination of CA opens up some interesting new ways of seeing the work. [PN Copyright The John Gower Society: JGN 24.1]

Protecting Strategic Knowledge: Insights from Collaborative Agreements in the Aerospace Sector

Abstract: This paper explores the dilemma that firms face with respect to knowledge sharing in strategic alliances. On the one hand, alliance success is associated with high levels of interaction and co-operation between partners. On the other hand, full and open co-operation exposes a firm’s distinctive knowledge and skills and makes it vulnerable to opportunistic moves by alliance partners. Hence firms experience a fundamental paradox: to gain the greatest benefits they must exchange information and knowledge with external parties yet, at the same time, they must protect themselves against knowledge appropriation. This dilemma is particularly acute in the aerospace sector where political imperatives strongly influence partner choice and collaborators are often strong rivals in other contexts. In this paper we use data drawn from four collaborative agreements in the aerospace sector to explore the ways in which a focal firm has sought to protect its strategic knowledge and manage knowledge flows in alliance relati...

The Multi-Center Dilemma Project: an investigation on the role of cognitive conflicts in health.

Abstract: The Multi-Center Dilemma Project is a collaborative research endeavour aimed at determining the role of dilemmas —a kind of cognitive conflict, detected by using an adaptation of Kelly’s Repertory Grid Technique— in a variety of clinical conditions. Implicative dilemmas appear in one third of the non-clinical group ( n = 321) and in about half of the clinical group ( n = 286), the latter having a proportion of dilemmas that doubles that of the non-clinical sample. Within the clinical group, we studied 87 subjects, after completing a psychotherapy process, and found that therapy helps to dissolve those dilemmas. We also studied, independently, a group of subjects diagnosed with social phobia (n = 13) and a group diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome ( n = 13) in comparison to non-clinical groups. In both health related problems, dilemmas seem to be quite relevant. Altogether, these studies, though preliminary (and with a small group size in some cases), yield a promising perspective to the unexplored area of the role of cognitive conflicts as an issue to consider when trying to understand some clinical conditions, as well as a focus to be dealt with in psychotherapy when dilemmas are identified.

An American Health Dilemma

Abstract: New updated! The latest book from a very famous author finally comes out. Book of an american health dilemma, as an amazing reference becomes what you need to get. What's for is this book? Are you still thinking for what the book is? Well, this is what you probably will get. You should have made proper choices for your better life. Book, as a source that may involve the facts, opinion, literature, religion, and many others are the great friends to join with.

Social Values, Subjective Transformations, and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas

Abstract: A persistent anomaly in the social dilemmas literature is the surprisingly high level of cooperation observed in experimental investigations of the one-shot Prisoners' Dilemma (PD).The exchange heu...

The dilemma of repartnering: considerations of older men and women entering new intimate relationships in later life

Abstract: A significant percentage of men and women aged fifty and over attain new partner relationships after divorce or widowhood. Partner relationships investigated in this article include remarriage, unmarried cohabitation, and Living Apart Together (LAT). Drawing on the Dutch NESTOR-LSN survey data (n=4,494) as well as in-depth reinterviewing of repartnered older adults (n=46), this article examines elderly people’s main considerations in the decision making process leading to remarriage, a consensual union, or a LAT relationship.

Parties and unions in the new global economy

Abstract: For much of the twentieth century, unions played a vital role in shaping political regimes and economic development strategies, particularly in Latin America and Europe. However, their influence has waned as political parties with close ties to unions have adopted neoliberal reforms harmful to the interests of workers. What do unions do when confronted with this "loyalty dilemma"? Katrina Burgess compares events in three countries to determine the reasons for widely divergent responses on the part of labor leaders to remarkably similar challenges. She argues that the key to understanding why some labor leaders protest and some acquiesce lies essentially in two domains: the relative power of the party and the workers to punish them, and the party's capacity to act autonomously from its own government.

Learning objects and the e-learning cost dilemma

Abstract: The creation of quality e-learning material creates a cost dilemma for many institutions, since it has both high variable and high fixed costs. This cost dilemma means that economies of scale are difficult to achieve, which may result in a consequent reduction in the quality of the learning material. Based on the experience of creating a masters level course at the UK Open University, the article suggests that the adoption of learning objects represents one possible resolution to this dilemma. They achieve this through the reduction of the fixed costs by four means: reuse, rapid production, ease of updating and cost-effective pedagogy.

Science, Scientism, and Professional Responsibility

Abstract: The integrity of professional service in psychology depends upon its scientific foundation. Continual strengthening of that foundation is therefore essential. The complexities of many conditions that engage practitioners, however, limit the extent to which practice can be based exclusively on scientific knowledge and still provide maximum benefit to the public. Resolution of this dilemma can be advanced by adopting a strong definition of science but acknowledging that some problems confronting practitioners are inaccessible to rigorous scientific inquiry and require alternative, primarily humanistic approaches. Three levels of pragmatically acceptable scientistic confidence are defined, the advantages of constructive dialogue across these levels are discussed, and the view of psychology as a pluralistic rather than monistic discipline is advocated.

Self-Awareness and Constructive Functioning: Revisiting “the Human Dilemma”

Abstract: Self-awareness-the capacity to focus attention on oneself, and thus to self-evaluate-has a bad reputation in social-clinical psychology because of its ties to negative affect, depression, suicide, and dysfunction. Using Rollo May's (1967) analysis of "the human dilemma," we outline self-awareness's beneficial contributions to psychological functioning. Without self-awareness, people could not take the perspectives of others, exercise self-control, produce creative accomplishments, or experience pride and high self-esteem. Research suggests that the positive and negative facets of self-awareness are reconciled when people have reasonable self-standards and when they are optimistic about meeting their standards.

Reconciling the rigor‐relevance dilemma in intellectual capital research

Abstract: This paper raises the issue of research methodology for intellectual capital and other types of management research by focusing on the dilemma of rigour versus relevance. The more traditional explanatory approach to research often leads to rigorous results that are not of much help to solve practical problems. This paper describes an alternative approach of practicing intellectual capital research as a design science. This approach is equally scientific but is able to develop management methods that helps to solve organisational problems. This paper shows strengths and weaknesses of both the approaches and concludes that combining both within the intellectual capital research community can help to reconcile the dilemma of rigour versus relevance.

Social Workers' Participation in the Resolution of Ethical Dilemmas in Hospice Care

Abstract: A decision to accept hospice care often results only after much emotional turmoil in a family. But does this decision mean that difficult issues concerning end-of-life care cease? Patients, families, and providers may face many ethical issues throughout the provision of palliative care until death occurs. Sensitive management of ethical issues as they arise can ensure a good experience in end-of-life care and go a long way toward influencing the way that people handle future deaths. Social workers, as an integral part of the hospice team, can be valuable resources in the resolution of ethical dilemmas in end-of-life care. Because end-of-life and palliative care often engender strong emotional responses, ethical dilemmas become central to decisions regarding care for the dying person. Ethical dilemmas occur when a choice must be made between two or more relevant but competing ethical directives or values or when, no matter the choice, it results in an undesirable outcome (Loewenberg, Dolgoff, & Harrington, 2000). Thus, it may be important to examine the ethical implications of each decision (Byock, 1994) and discuss inherent dilemmas perceived by the interdisciplinary team members. The hospice team's synergy is important to fulfilling hospice philosophy, which emphasizes care for the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of suffering and healing. Social workers' participation on a hospice ethics committee can help them understand ethical issues and resolve ethical dilemmas. Ethics committees can provide guidance in discussion of specific cases and policies and education regarding ethical issues. However, hospice ethics committees are not widespread (Csikai, 2002; D'Olimpio, 1995; Fife, 1997). In the normal course of daily activities in hospice, decisions that may have ethical implications must be dealt with immediately, and an ethics committee may meet only monthly or quarterly. How then are ethical dilemmas in hospice care addressed? This study explored common ethical issues, especially those that have a potential for producing dilemmas in hospice; methods of resolution; and hospice social workers' participation in "ethics committee-type" activities in their agencies. No earlier empirical studies have investigated this phenomenon. SOCIAL WORK AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN HEALTH CARE SETTINGS Social workers in health care have witnessed advances in medicine and the accompanying ethical issues and dilemmas since the profession was introduced in dispensaries and hospitals in the early 20th century. Since that time social workers have been at the heart of emotional discussions with patients and families faced with making end-of-life care decisions. Social workers develop relationships with patients and families and work with them to resolve problematic psychosocial situations in their lives. In health care, the goals may include discharge to home, placement in a nursing home, provision of home care services, or, as in hospice, promotion of a "good" death. During this process hospital social workers may encounter ethical dilemmas regarding quality-of-life, privacy and confidentiality, interpersonal conflicts, disclosure and truth telling, value conflicts, rationing of health care, and treatment options (Abramson & Black, 1985; Foster, Sharp, Scesny, McLellan, & Cotman, 1993; Reamer 1985). In discharge planning, social workers identify conflicts between fostering maximum patient self-determination and the pursuit of patients' best interest as occurring most frequently (Proctor, Morrow-Howell, & Lott, 1993). Hospital social workers have been asked to discuss euthanasia and assisted suicide (Csikai, 2000), which is particularly challenging because they are illegal in all states except Oregon and are the subject of much public and private ethical debate (Miller, 2000). In home health care, issues of self-determination are prominent. A unique extension of self-determination is seen in the dilemma caused by attempting to balance both patients' and families' rights to self-determination. …

To serve the community or oneself - the public servant's dilemma

Abstract: Embezzlement of resources is hampering public service delivery throughout the developing world. Research on this issue is hindered by problems of measurement. To overcome these problems, the authors use an economic experiment to investigate the determinants of corrupt behavior. They focus on three aspects of behavior: 1) Embezzling by public servants. 2) Monitoring effort by designated monitors. 3) Voting by community members when provided with an opportunity to select a monitor. The experiment allows the authors to study the effect of wages, effort observance, rules for monitor assignment, and professional norms. Their experimental subjects are Ethiopian nursing students. The authors find that service providers who earn more embezzle less, although the effect is small. Embezzlement is also lower when observance (associated with the risk of being caught and sanctioned) is high, and when service providers face an elected, rather than a randomly selected monitor. Monitors put more effort into monitoring when they face reelection, and when the public servant receives a higher wage. Communities reelect monitors who put more effort into exposing embezzlement. Framing-whereby players are referred to as"health workers"and"community members"rather than by abstract labels-affects neither mean embezzlement nor mean monitoring effort, but significantly increases the variance in both. This suggests that different types of experimental subjects respond differently to the framing, possibly because they adhere to different norms.

Democracy's Dilemma: Environment, Social Equity, and the Global Economy

Abstract: The realities of global economic integration are far more complex than many of its supporters or detractors acknowledge. One consequence of simplistic thinking about globalization, claims Robert Paehlke, is that we tend to focus on economic prosperity to the neglect of other important considerations such as environmental and social well-being. A first step toward righting this imbalance is the recognition that economic gains do not guarantee better lives or better communities and societies. Democratic societies face a dilemma. Global economic integration produces a need for global political integration. Without it, national, state and local governments are under pressure to forego environmental protection and social programmes in order to be competitive. At the same time, global governance presents problems because of its scale and its inaccessibility to citizens. This book describes the consequences of this dilemma - such as political cynicism and lack of democratic participation - and proposes ways of dealing with it. Paehlke seeks a middle ground between those who reject globalization and those who claim that it will create the best of all possible worlds. Because there is no returning to a world that is less economically, culturally and politically integrated, he argues, we should make every effort to advance global cooperation and equity. He suggests specific interventions that could be built into international trade agreements, such as global minimum wages and agreements that natural commodities from developing economies, such as energy and forest cuttings, not be allowed to decline in price relative to the manufactured goods of more advanced economies. He also suggests ways to improve domestic democratic effectiveness.

Water commodification and decommodification narratives: pricing and policy debates from Johannesburg to Kyoto to Cancun and back

Abstract: The Economist magazine's influential mid-2003 survey on water declared the central dilemma: “Throughout history, and especially over the past century, [water] has been ill-governed and, above all, ...

Contract arrangements in the Nordic countries - solving the efficiency/effectiveness dilemma?

Abstract: Steering higher education through the establishment of a “contract” between the state and the individual higher education institution is becoming an increasingly popular way of regulating the relationship between the two actors in the Nordic countries. This article addresses some theoretical foundations for this approach derived from principal/agent theory and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of established contract arrangements in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The article discusses the potential of using such arrangements in relation to the efficiency/effectiveness dilemma. It is emphasized that trust is vital in solving this dilemma and that the balance between the need for public accountability, the efficient regulation of higher education, and institutional change must be given high priority in refining existing contractual arrangements.

Is honesty always the best policy? Ethical aspects of truth telling.

Abstract: Physicians have not always believed that patients should be told of their diagnosis. Modern, western medical practice places a high value on providing accurate, truthful information to patients. This is heavily influenced by the commitment to patient autonomy and participation in decision-making. However, situations arise where truth telling is difficult to achieve, creating a dilemma for the treating doctor. This article discusses aspects of truth telling in a multicultural society.

People, parking, and cities

Abstract: People, Parking, and Cities BY MICHAEL MANVILLE AND DONALD SHOUP T H E P O P C U L T U R E I M A G E of Los Angeles is an ocean of malls, cars, and exit ramps; of humorless tract homes and isolated individuals whose only solace is aimless driving on endless freeways. From Joan Didion to the Sierra Club, LA has been held up as a poster child of sprawl. This is an arresting and romantic narrative, but also largely untrue. To the extent that anyone has a definition of sprawl, it usually revolves around the absence of density, and Los Angeles has since the 1980s been the densest urbanized area in the United States. This would make it the least sprawling city in America. Compared to other US cities, LA also does not have inordinately high rates of automobile ownership. These facts strike some as hard to believe, or perhaps false, and they haven’t made much of a dent in the LA-as-sprawl idea. Cliches about Los Angeles-style sprawl die hard, partly because the definition of sprawl is so malleable (urbanist William Fulton now simply calls LA “dense sprawl”), and partly because the anti-urban stereo- type about LA contains its own kernels of truth. After all, if density is a barometer for healthy urbanism, and Los Angeles is denser than cities like New York or San Francisco, then why are Manhattan and downtown San Francisco such vibrant places, and why is downtown LA comparatively lifeless? Obviously there’s no single answer to that question (and the question itself is rather prejudicial). But we think the differences between Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco stem in part from the different ways they regulate downtown development, and in particular the way they regulate parking. Los Angeles is an example of density as a dilemma rather than a solution. Planners and urban critics who regularly call for increased density as a salve for city life should realize that without corresponding changes in parking requirements, increased density will compound, rather than solve, the problems we associate with sprawl. ➢ Michael Manville is a PhD student (mmanvill@ucla.edu) and Donald Shoup is professor in the Department of Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles (shoup@ucla.edu). A C C E S S