Moral Systems in the Regulations of Nonprofits: How Value Commitments Matter

This essay explores how three behavior-shaping systems - legal, market, and moral - influence the fundamental tasks of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including organizational goal-setting; motivation of participants; and deterring and reducing abuse of power. After identifying key features of these normative systems and their characteristic differences, the author argues that the influence of moral systems on nonprofit organizations may be underestimated, especially in view of their potentially unifying role with respect to all of the fundamental tasks. He suggests that the prospects for effective reform of nonprofit governance and accountability regimes are improved when the mechanisms and effects of these moral systems are taken into account.This publication is Hauser Center Working Paper No. 33.6. Hauser Working Paper Series Nos. 33.1-33.9 were prepared as background papers for the Nonprofit Governance and Accountability Symposium October 3-4, 2006

Advertising Restrictions and Competition in the Children's Breakfast Cereal Industry / Restrictions et compétition publicitaire dans l’industrie des céréales pour enfants

This paper takes advantage of the ban on advertising directed at children in the province of Quebec to study the effect of advertising in the children's breakfast cereal industry. Advertising is viewed alternatively as anti-competitive, if it increases brand loyalty, or as pro-competitive, if it acts a substitute for brand recognition. I construct a model of established and non-established brands in which advertising serves to inform consumers about the existence of brands. The model predicts that the effect of prohibiting advertising is to permit established brands to enjoy greater market share at the expense of newer and less well-known brands. This prediction is supported by the data: older, better-known brands have higher market share in Quebec than in regions where advertising is permitted and the opposite is true for non-established brands. This result suggests that in this market the effect of advertising cannot be to increase perceived product differentiation and reduce competition. Nous prenons avantage de l'interdiction de diffuser de la publicité à l'intention des enfants au Québec pour étudier l'effet de la publicité dans l'industrie des céréales. La publicité est considérée comme étant anti-concurrentielle si elle augmente la loyauté envers la marque, alors qu'elle est vue comme étant bénéfique pour la concurrence si elle agit comme un substitut à la reconnaissance de la marque. Nous construisons un modèle de marques établies et non-établies sur le marché où la publicité a pour but d'informer les consommateurs sur l'existence des marques. Le modèle prédit que toute prohibition de la publicité a pour conséquence de permettre aux marques établies d'augmenter leur part de marché au détriment de celles qui sont nouvelles et moins connues. Ce résultat est validé par les données. En effet, les marques les plus anciennes et les mieux connues ont des parts de marché plus élevées au Québec que dans les régions où la publicité est permise. L'inverse est vrai pour les marques non-établies. Notre résultat suggère que dans ce marché, la publicité ne peut pas augmenter la différenciation de produit et réduire la concurrence.advertising restrictions, market concentration, established brands, Réglementation de la publicité, concurrence, marques établies

Technology in the Great Divergence

In this paper, we examine the changes in per-capita income and productivity from 1700 to modern times, and show four things: (1) that incomes per capita diverged more around the world after 1800 than before; (2) that the source of this divergence was increasing differences in the efficiency of economies; (3) that these differences in efficiency were not due to problems of poor countries in getting access to the new technologies of the Industrial Revolution; (4) that the pattern of trade from the late nineteenth century between the poor and the rich economies suggests that the problem of the poor economies was peculiarly a problem of employing labor effectively. This continues to be true today.

Technology transfer to the broader economy

Approaches to the transfer of government-funded civil space technology to the broader commercial economy were addressed by Working Panel no. 4. Some of the problems related to current strategies for technology transfer and recommendations for new approaches are described in outline form

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INDICATORS OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT FROM AN ECONOMIC VIEWPOINT

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

The Effectiveness of Anti-Smoking Campaigns over the Life-Cycle and the Role of Information

Our study documents the effectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns on various age groups and attempts to shed some light on the mechanism by which community interventions operate and affect smokers. We re-examine evidence from a large scale National Cancer Institute community-wide intervention study entitled `The Community Intervention Trial for Smoking Cessation' (COMMIT). Our empirical results show that this intervention has differential effects on the quit rates of smokers. This variation has not been observed in the earlier literature on anti-smoking campaigns and was not noticed by previous studies using the COMMIT data. The quit rates in the intervention group are found to be significantly higher for individuals aged 30 to 37 and those aged 60 and up, but lower for those younger than 30. The various channels of the COMMIT study were developed to create an awareness and recognition that smoking is a public health problem, and to change the social acceptability of smoking. In light of the age variation uncovered, we argue that the public information channel may play a crucial role in affecting change. In particular, public awareness about the negative health consequences of smoking is likely to be responsible for the increased quits among older smokers in the treatment group.Anti-Smoking Campaigns, Smoking, Tobacco, Tobacco Control