Pub Date : 2010-12-13DOI: 10.1108/S2043-9059(2010)0000001012
Robert J. Rhee
This chapter discusses the legal issues of rescue and corporate social responsibility during times of public crisis. It analyzes a corporate board’s fiduciary duty related to the management of a public crisis and the provision of aid to government and the public. The thesis is that American corporate law adequately provides corporate boards authority to assume broad principles of corporate social responsibility, and that during a public crisis this authority is specially recognized in the enabling statutes of corporate law and should be broadened even further to pursue the public good in exigent circumstances.
{"title":"Crisis, Rescue and Corporate Social Responsibility Under American Corporate Law","authors":"Robert J. Rhee","doi":"10.1108/S2043-9059(2010)0000001012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/S2043-9059(2010)0000001012","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses the legal issues of rescue and corporate social responsibility during times of public crisis. It analyzes a corporate board’s fiduciary duty related to the management of a public crisis and the provision of aid to government and the public. The thesis is that American corporate law adequately provides corporate boards authority to assume broad principles of corporate social responsibility, and that during a public crisis this authority is specially recognized in the enabling statutes of corporate law and should be broadened even further to pursue the public good in exigent circumstances.","PeriodicalId":245576,"journal":{"name":"CSR & Management Practice eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125860099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tradable permit regulations have recently been implemented for climate change policy in many countries. One of the first mandatory markets was the EU Emission Trading System, whose first phase ran from 2005-07. Unlike taxes, permits expose firms to volatility in regulatory costs, but are typically accompanied by property rights in the form of grandfathered permits. In this paper, we examine the effect of this type of environmental regulation on profits. In particular, changes in permit prices affect: (1) the direct and indirect input costs, (2) output revenue, and (3) the carbon permit asset value. Depending on abatement costs, output price sensitivity, and permit allocation, these effects may vary considerably across industries and firms. We run an event study of the carbon price crash on April 25, 2006 by examining the daily stock returns for 90 stocks from carbon intensive industries and approximately 600 stocks in the broad EUROSTOXX index. In general, firms in industries that tended to be either carbon intensive, or electricity intensive, but not involved in international trade, were hurt by the decline in permit prices. In industries that were known to be net short of permits, the cleanest firms saw the largest declines in share value. In industries known to be long in permits, firms granted the largest allocations were most harmed.
{"title":"Profiting from Regulation: An Event Study of the EU Carbon Market","authors":"J. Bushnell, Howard Chong, E. Mansur","doi":"10.3386/w15572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3386/w15572","url":null,"abstract":"Tradable permit regulations have recently been implemented for climate change policy in many countries. One of the first mandatory markets was the EU Emission Trading System, whose first phase ran from 2005-07. Unlike taxes, permits expose firms to volatility in regulatory costs, but are typically accompanied by property rights in the form of grandfathered permits. In this paper, we examine the effect of this type of environmental regulation on profits. In particular, changes in permit prices affect: (1) the direct and indirect input costs, (2) output revenue, and (3) the carbon permit asset value. Depending on abatement costs, output price sensitivity, and permit allocation, these effects may vary considerably across industries and firms. We run an event study of the carbon price crash on April 25, 2006 by examining the daily stock returns for 90 stocks from carbon intensive industries and approximately 600 stocks in the broad EUROSTOXX index. In general, firms in industries that tended to be either carbon intensive, or electricity intensive, but not involved in international trade, were hurt by the decline in permit prices. In industries that were known to be net short of permits, the cleanest firms saw the largest declines in share value. In industries known to be long in permits, firms granted the largest allocations were most harmed.","PeriodicalId":245576,"journal":{"name":"CSR & Management Practice eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129958039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper examines how governance and regulatory reforms surrounding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 and the Global Settlement (GS) affect the analysts’ information environment, specifically the quality of financial analysts’ common and private information. Our information quality measures are based on characteristics of financial analyst forecasts as developed in Barron, Kim, Lim and Stevens (1998). We find that the passage of SOX and the concurrent analyst regulations are associated with a temporary increase in the quality of common information upon their adoption, but the increase is not maintained. By one year after the introduction of the reforms both common and private information quality decline and continue to stay below their pre-SOX/GS levels. This decline is clearly seen in firms with high information quality prior to the reforms, but firms with moderate or low prior information quality experience little if any improvement. These results suggest that overall, financial analysts have not experienced an increase in their information quality as measured by the characteristics of their forecasts.
本文考察了围绕2002年萨班斯-奥克斯利法案(SOX)和全球结算(GS)的治理和监管改革如何影响分析师的信息环境,特别是金融分析师的公共和私人信息的质量。我们的信息质量测量是基于Barron, Kim, Lim和Stevens(1998)开发的金融分析师预测的特征。我们发现SOX的通过和并发的分析师规则与公共信息质量的临时增加有关,但是这种增加并没有保持下去。改革实施一年后,公共信息和私人信息的质量都有所下降,并继续低于sox /GS之前的水平。这种下降在改革前具有高信息质量的企业中明显可见,但具有中等或较低先验信息质量的企业几乎没有任何改善。这些结果表明,总体而言,金融分析师的预测特征并没有提高他们的信息质量。
{"title":"Changes in Analysts’ Information Environment Following Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Global Settlement","authors":"Joy Begley, Yanmin Gao, Q. Cheng","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1008986","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1008986","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines how governance and regulatory reforms surrounding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 and the Global Settlement (GS) affect the analysts’ information environment, specifically the quality of financial analysts’ common and private information. Our information quality measures are based on characteristics of financial analyst forecasts as developed in Barron, Kim, Lim and Stevens (1998). We find that the passage of SOX and the concurrent analyst regulations are associated with a temporary increase in the quality of common information upon their adoption, but the increase is not maintained. By one year after the introduction of the reforms both common and private information quality decline and continue to stay below their pre-SOX/GS levels. This decline is clearly seen in firms with high information quality prior to the reforms, but firms with moderate or low prior information quality experience little if any improvement. These results suggest that overall, financial analysts have not experienced an increase in their information quality as measured by the characteristics of their forecasts.","PeriodicalId":245576,"journal":{"name":"CSR & Management Practice eJournal","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121083107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-07-01DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2338.2009.00531.x
Paul M. Smith
The assumptions and values of neoliberalism came to dominate the Conservative governments, 1979–97, inspiring a range of policies that included industrial relations and employment law. Inasmuch as New Labour has adopted many of these policies then it can be presumed to have accepted their neoliberal underpinnings. Moreover, New Labour's policies owe much to neoliberalism. Wedderburn's exposition of the relationship between the writings of Hayek and the policy of Conservative governments, 1979–88, is utilised and extended to display the continuity and distinctiveness of New Labour's policy on industrial relations and employment law in relation to its Conservative predecessors. New Labour's neoliberal assumptions and values are evaluated. The conclusion argues for a fundamental rebuttal of New Labour's values as an integral component of a campaign to re-establish trade union rights and liberties, and effective employment protection.
{"title":"New Labour and the Commonsense of Neoliberalism: Trade Unionism, Collective Bargaining and Workers' Rights","authors":"Paul M. Smith","doi":"10.1111/j.1468-2338.2009.00531.x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2338.2009.00531.x","url":null,"abstract":"The assumptions and values of neoliberalism came to dominate the Conservative governments, 1979–97, inspiring a range of policies that included industrial relations and employment law. Inasmuch as New Labour has adopted many of these policies then it can be presumed to have accepted their neoliberal underpinnings. Moreover, New Labour's policies owe much to neoliberalism. Wedderburn's exposition of the relationship between the writings of Hayek and the policy of Conservative governments, 1979–88, is utilised and extended to display the continuity and distinctiveness of New Labour's policy on industrial relations and employment law in relation to its Conservative predecessors. New Labour's neoliberal assumptions and values are evaluated. The conclusion argues for a fundamental rebuttal of New Labour's values as an integral component of a campaign to re-establish trade union rights and liberties, and effective employment protection.","PeriodicalId":245576,"journal":{"name":"CSR & Management Practice eJournal","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115481510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The financial crisis which started in the United States in 2007 and which has spread throughout the world has many causes, one of which is the abundance of unethical behavior on the part of many of those who made the financial decisions, such as regulators, supervisors, managers and employees, and also on the part of a not insignificant number of their customers. In this paper, we will seek to shed light on the crisis's ethical content and show how the generalized practice of corporate social responsibility within financial institutions could have helped reduce the magnitude of the crisis, perhaps not systemically but definitely in some of the organizations that have been most affected by the crisis. For this to happen, however, a particular concept of social responsibility would have to have been applied, a responsibility with an ethical basis - or, more specifically, a voluntarily assumed ethics that was capable of giving rise to self-generated duties among financial decision-makers.
{"title":"Can Corporate Social Responsibility Help Us Understand the Credit Crisis?","authors":"Antonio Argandoña","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1392762","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1392762","url":null,"abstract":"The financial crisis which started in the United States in 2007 and which has spread throughout the world has many causes, one of which is the abundance of unethical behavior on the part of many of those who made the financial decisions, such as regulators, supervisors, managers and employees, and also on the part of a not insignificant number of their customers. In this paper, we will seek to shed light on the crisis's ethical content and show how the generalized practice of corporate social responsibility within financial institutions could have helped reduce the magnitude of the crisis, perhaps not systemically but definitely in some of the organizations that have been most affected by the crisis. For this to happen, however, a particular concept of social responsibility would have to have been applied, a responsibility with an ethical basis - or, more specifically, a voluntarily assumed ethics that was capable of giving rise to self-generated duties among financial decision-makers.","PeriodicalId":245576,"journal":{"name":"CSR & Management Practice eJournal","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126669715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper I consider the issue of corporate responsibility though a discussion of the types of reasons that may be given for a firm’s actions and outcomes. These reasons may variously be given by the firm as explanation or justification, or by persons affected by the firm as endorsement or critique, or as part of the public policy debate about the scope and limits of a firm’s activities. To provide a structure for this analysis I outline a model that seeks to describe the possible extent of a firm’s responsibility for the outcomes of its activities through an idea of four dimensions of value. This locates firms along a minimal-maximal spectrum of corporate responsibility, without assuming where this location might be for any particular firm. I then discuss the question of reasons. This starts with some thoughts about agency and responsibility, and then considers the distinction between various types of reasons. I use the minimal-maximal spectrum to map out the various arguments. I group the arguments under the following headings: four dimensions of value; a minimal-maximal spectrum of corporate responsibility; reasons and agency: individual responsibility; reasons and agency: corporate responsibility; minimal corporate responsibility; formal and informal reasons; internal and external reasons; reasons and minimal responsibility: four examples of an appeal to ethical significance; wide and narrow instrumentalism; instrumentalism and self interest; further issues; concluding comments.This arguments presented in this paper are part of an attempt to analyse the conceptual issues that arise from corporate responsibility. Many of these arguments are suggestions, others are more fully developed. I have included both. I hope these ideas stimulate further discussion.
{"title":"Corporate Responsibility and a Firm's Reasons for Acting","authors":"Laurence Cranmer","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2665933","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2665933","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper I consider the issue of corporate responsibility though a discussion of the types of reasons that may be given for a firm’s actions and outcomes. These reasons may variously be given by the firm as explanation or justification, or by persons affected by the firm as endorsement or critique, or as part of the public policy debate about the scope and limits of a firm’s activities. To provide a structure for this analysis I outline a model that seeks to describe the possible extent of a firm’s responsibility for the outcomes of its activities through an idea of four dimensions of value. This locates firms along a minimal-maximal spectrum of corporate responsibility, without assuming where this location might be for any particular firm. I then discuss the question of reasons. This starts with some thoughts about agency and responsibility, and then considers the distinction between various types of reasons. I use the minimal-maximal spectrum to map out the various arguments. I group the arguments under the following headings: four dimensions of value; a minimal-maximal spectrum of corporate responsibility; reasons and agency: individual responsibility; reasons and agency: corporate responsibility; minimal corporate responsibility; formal and informal reasons; internal and external reasons; reasons and minimal responsibility: four examples of an appeal to ethical significance; wide and narrow instrumentalism; instrumentalism and self interest; further issues; concluding comments.This arguments presented in this paper are part of an attempt to analyse the conceptual issues that arise from corporate responsibility. Many of these arguments are suggestions, others are more fully developed. I have included both. I hope these ideas stimulate further discussion.","PeriodicalId":245576,"journal":{"name":"CSR & Management Practice eJournal","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116602110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nicholas E. Powers, A. Blackman, Thomas P. Lyon, Urvashi Narain
Public disclosure programs that collect and disseminate information about firms’ environmental performance are increasingly popular in both developed and developing countries. Yet little is known about whether they actually improve environmental performance, particularly in the latter setting. We use detailed plant-level survey data to evaluate the impact of India’s Green Rating Project (GRP) on the environmental performance of the country’s largest pulp and paper plants. We find that the GRP drove significant reductions in pollution loadings among dirty plants but not among cleaner ones. This result comports with statistical and anecdotal evaluations of similar disclosure programs. We also find that plants located in wealthier communities were more responsive to GRP ratings, as were single-plant firms.
{"title":"Does Disclosure Reduce Pollution? Evidence from India's Green Rating Project","authors":"Nicholas E. Powers, A. Blackman, Thomas P. Lyon, Urvashi Narain","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1288654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1288654","url":null,"abstract":"Public disclosure programs that collect and disseminate information about firms’ environmental performance are increasingly popular in both developed and developing countries. Yet little is known about whether they actually improve environmental performance, particularly in the latter setting. We use detailed plant-level survey data to evaluate the impact of India’s Green Rating Project (GRP) on the environmental performance of the country’s largest pulp and paper plants. We find that the GRP drove significant reductions in pollution loadings among dirty plants but not among cleaner ones. This result comports with statistical and anecdotal evaluations of similar disclosure programs. We also find that plants located in wealthier communities were more responsive to GRP ratings, as were single-plant firms.","PeriodicalId":245576,"journal":{"name":"CSR & Management Practice eJournal","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116406127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This essay deals with two issues. First, it tries to delineate, via the concept of enlarged fiduciary proviso, the contribution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to the implementation of the EU Sustainability Strategy. The primary aim of the European institutions in delineating such strategy was to promote a concern for the environment, interpreted here as a proxy for the welfare of future generations of stakeholders. Progresses towards sustainable development can be made if we interpret CSR as a governance framework that extends fiduciary protection from a mono-stakeholder perspective, in which the sole relevant constituency for the design of corporate policy is the shareholdersi?½, to a multi-stakeholder perspective, in which legitimate claims are held by a variety of constituencies, possibly operating at different times. Secondly, the essay tries to establish an organic link between the concept of sustainability and a Social Contract account of the business enterprise. The Social Contract of the stakeholders, an ideal reference point for corporate policy-makers, is formed behind a veil of ignorance, resulting in an agreement that is both impartial and nonhistorical.
{"title":"The Sustainable Enterprise: The Multi-Fiduciary Perspective to the EU Sustainability Strategy","authors":"G. Danese","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1026667","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1026667","url":null,"abstract":"This essay deals with two issues. First, it tries to delineate, via the concept of enlarged fiduciary proviso, the contribution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to the implementation of the EU Sustainability Strategy. The primary aim of the European institutions in delineating such strategy was to promote a concern for the environment, interpreted here as a proxy for the welfare of future generations of stakeholders. Progresses towards sustainable development can be made if we interpret CSR as a governance framework that extends fiduciary protection from a mono-stakeholder perspective, in which the sole relevant constituency for the design of corporate policy is the shareholdersi?½, to a multi-stakeholder perspective, in which legitimate claims are held by a variety of constituencies, possibly operating at different times. Secondly, the essay tries to establish an organic link between the concept of sustainability and a Social Contract account of the business enterprise. The Social Contract of the stakeholders, an ideal reference point for corporate policy-makers, is formed behind a veil of ignorance, resulting in an agreement that is both impartial and nonhistorical.","PeriodicalId":245576,"journal":{"name":"CSR & Management Practice eJournal","volume":"248 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121225266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}