Governance & Sustainability: Does Democracy Beggar thy Future?

Findings: An increase in political stability: Higher levels of natural resource depletion Higher levels of adjusted net savings (ANS) i.e. contributes positively to sustainable growth Increase in democracy: Lower levels of natural resource depletion Impact on sustainability is conditional on the economic and political contex

Does Business Education Promote Unscrupulous Behavior?

This study seeks to determine factors that contribute to individual’s honesty in the marketplace and willingness to exploit market power. In order to identify these factors a survey was administered to undergraduate students enrolled in institutions across the United States. We find that perception of others has a multifaceted relationship with honesty and exploiting market power. Respondents that believe others are likely to be honest are more likely to be honest themselves. But the relationship is symmetrical, believing others are dishonest leads to dishonest behavior. An increase in the perception of firm’s taking advantage of market power leads to respondents being more likely to do so themselves. In terms of expressing market power, individuals that believe raising the price of a good in response to a demand shock is fair will do so. Business education is found to lead to more honest behavior but does not influence an individual’s propensity to exploit market power. Individuals that believe others are altruistic are more likely to forego self-interested behavior. Lastly, religiosity is found to increase honesty but not the use of market power. These findings suggest that educators ought to pay attention to the ways in which students form their perceptions of how individuals behave in the marketplace

A Cross-Country Analysis of Unbanked Within the OECD

Financial inclusion has been extensively researched on a nation-by-nation basis. The recently released Global Findex data set from the World Bank allows for this literature to be extended because it creates universal measures of relevant data. Because data are universal, it allows multiple nations to be analyzed simultaneously. Using a set of thirty-one countries from the OECD, we find that social factors are an important part of highly banked populations. Higher levels of trust in government and formal financial institutions increase the level of financial inclusion. Increases in income inequality are predicted to decrease the banked population within a nation. Our results suggest that in OECD nations the consideration of non-financial factors yields important insight into the determinants of financial inclusion

Open-Space Under Threat

Public budgets are becoming increasingly strained and manipulated due to economic and political factors. If the ability and/or willingness of government to fund, protect, and manage our open-space continues to deteriorate there will be profound environmental and social consequences. This inability or unwillingness will likely result in decreased protection and access to open-space and parks