A Dilemma for Saulish Skepticism: Either Self-Defeating or Not Even Skepticism

Jennifer Saul argues that the evidence from the literature on implicit biases entails a form of skepticism. In this paper, I argue that Saul faces a dilemma: her argument is either self-defeating, or it does not yield a skeptical conclusion. For Saul, both results are unacceptable; thus, her argument fails

The irresponsible director

To improve the position of one creditor for a company in insolvency is nearly always at another creditor’s expense. However, if directors could be held liable for their irresponsible behaviour, this may allow liquidators further opportunities to make directors to make good the loss to their companies or their companies’ creditors. This could be done by revisiting s.172 of the Companies Act 2006 which has not, so far, been particularly effective in improving directorial decision-making. Lessons may be learned from the wording of directors’ duties in other jurisdictions, in particular Ireland

Organic Farming and food quality chains in Europe

Out from the evolutions of the European agro food systems since the 80’ and besides Organic Farming, several other modes of production developed in parallel to the main stream system. This gave rise, during the last decades, to different research agendas and networks, which in general – and unfortunately - ignore each others. This paper intends to give some outlines to account for the diversity of those ap-proaches and give some path of convergence for the future. In the frame of the new European agricultural policy, those research networks could gain credibility and power through improving connections with each others and make their relations more intense

Director Confidentiality

The Corporate Directors Guidebook contains the bare proposition that a director must keep confidential all matters involving the corporation that have not been disclosed to the public. Moscow explores the need to modify the flat recitation of a rule of director confidentiality in light of the limited authority for a blanket restriction, and the necessary exceptions in the business contexts in which the issue arises. In particular, many situations do not involve damage to the corporation, or there is express or implied consent to the sharing of information

Staff Pay Levels for Selected Positions in Senators’ Offices, FY2009-FY2013

[Excerpt] This report provides pay data for 16 staff position titles that are typically deployed in Senators’ offices. The positions include the following: Administrative Director; Casework Supervisor; Caseworker; Chief of Staff; Communications Director; Counsel; Executive Assistant; Field Representative; Legislative Assistant; Legislative Correspondent; Legislative Director; Press Secretary; Scheduler; “Specials Director,” a combined category that includes the job titles Director of Projects, Director of Special Projects, Director of Federal Projects, Director of Grants, Projects Director, or Grants Director; Staff Assistant; and State Director. Senators’ staff pay data for the years FY2009-FY2013 were derived from a random sampling of Senators’ offices in which at least one staff member worked in a position in each year

The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2001: The Longest Decade: Canada in the 1990s

In this chapter, Pierre Fortin provides a critique of the conduct of Canadian monetary policy in the 1990s, a critique that he developed throughout the decade. While not denying that the US economic slowdown in the early 1990s reduced growth in Canada, Fortin lays the blame for the inferior economic performance of the Canadian economy relative to the U.S. economy squarely on the back of the Bank of Canada, and dismisses structural explanations of the recession as lacking an empirical basis.Monetary Policy, Inflation, Inflation Reduction, Inflation Policy, Growth, Recession, Well-being, Wellbeing, Well Being, Unemployment, NAIRU, Phillips Curve, Canada

The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2001: The Longest Decade: Canada in the 1990s

In this chapter, Jim Stanford agrees that measures were needed to eliminate the deficit. But he argues that Paul Martin's program spending cuts were larger than necessary and caused real pain in many areas of Canadian life. He shows that a strategy in which program spending was frozen in nominal terms, but not cut, would have produced more growth and employment and still yielded almost the same deficit by 1999 (although slightly higher debt levels) as the program-cutting path actually followed.Deficit, Debt, Program Spending, Expenditure, Fiscal Policy, Growth, Unemployment, Deficit Reduction, Canada

The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2002: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity

In this chapter, William Scarth examines the relationship between population aging, productivity and growth in living standards and reaches a more optimistic conclusion about the effects of aging on productivity. Indeed, he finding that aging may in fact lead to increases in productivity, even if no policy initiative is taken. He argues that our economy possesses at least three adjustment mechanisms that insulate living standards from the adverse effects of an aging population.Aging, Ageing, Population Aging, Demography, Demographic Shift, Baby Boomers, Baby Boom, Dependence, Indebtedness, Debt, Investment, Productivity, Simulation, Growth, Consumption

The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2002: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity

In this chapter, Joseph Heath argues that we tend to overestimate the contribution that further productivity growth will make to the welfare of Canadians. Traditionally, productivity growth was thought to contribute to increased leisure time, greater consumer satisfaction, the elimination of poverty and greater public support for redistributive efforts to narrow social inequality. While accepting that such benefits have flowed in the past, Heath argues that in the last 25 years, productivity growth has contributed less and less to the well-being of Canadians. The key puzzle for Heath is why further economic growth does not lead to greater happiness. In attempting to solve this puzzle, he canvasses three currents of thought in the literature. One possible explanation is that increased consumption does not generate lasting increments in welfare because the process of satisfying our desires generates new desires. A second explanation, which Heath describes contends that consumption not only satisfies needs but also communicates status, class, upbringing and tastes. A third possible explanation draws on the work of Fred Hirsch, who argued that the supply of some goods such as waterfront property, which he labels positional goods, is fixed.Social Priority, Productivity, Social, Labour Productivity, Labor Productivity, Growth, Free Lunch, Redistribution, Poverty, Consumption, Happiness, Competitive Consumption, Positional Goods, Externalities, Leisure, Welfare, Satisfaction, Living Standards, Quality of Life, Public Goods, Wants, Needs

The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2002: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity

In this chapter, Peter Dungan investigates the sensitivity of Canadian government fiscal balances to alternative long-run productivity growth rates using elements of the FOCUS macroeconometric model to conduct simulations on a 'base-case' projection of the Canadian economy, and of its fiscal detail, through the year 2030. The simulation strategy employed here in part parallels the technique used by the Department of Finance in recent budgets and fiscal statements to estimate the implicit size of the 'fiscal dividend'. A total of five alternative growth paths and sensitivity tests are presented. As Dungan points out changes in productivity growth rates can occur for a variety of reasons and can have many different possible effects on the economy. Therefore, these types of simulation exercises inevitably require a number of simplifying assumptions which must be taken into account in interpreting the results.Productivity, Fiscal Balances, Fiscal Policy, Revenues, Government Revenues, Taxes, Tax, Taxation, Social Programs, Social Spending, Social Policy, Expenditures, Government Expenditures, Government, Econometric Forecasting, Forecasting, FOCUS, Macroeconometric, Macro-econometric, Econometric Modeling