Moral Hazard and the Internal Organization of Joint Research

Revised 2006-06

Endogenous Formation of Competing Partnership with Moral Hazard

Published as an article in: Games and Economic Behavior, 2003, vol. 44, issue 1, pages 183-194.

Morals in business organizations: an approach based on strategic value and strength for business management

[EN] In the last decades, the topic of business ethics has attracted great interest at the academic and professional levels. Nowadays business ethics is being increasingly implemented as a necessary discipline in universities’ study plans on business management. Moreover, its importance is also evident according to the worldwide increase of organizations and/or institutions that have implemented ethics systems. However, some approaches thoroughly do not consider the importance and the need of an ethical behaviour and are still guiding the actions and the way of thinking of many academics and professionals led to consider that the only responsibility of business is limited just to profit maximization.

Moral cleansing and moral licenses: experimental evidence

Research on moral cleansing and moral self-licensing has introduced dynamic considerations in the theory of moral behavior. Past bad actions trigger negative feelings that make people more likely to engage in future moral behavior to offset them. Symmetrically, past good deeds favor a positive self-perception that creates licensing effects, leading people to engage in behavior that is less likely to be moral. In short, a deviation from a “normal state of being” is balanced with a subsequent action that compensates the prior behavior. We model the decision of an individual trying to reach the optimal level of moral self-worth over time and show that under certain conditions the optimal sequence of actions follows a regular pattern which combines good and bad actions. We conduct an economic experiment where subjects play a sequence of giving decisions (dictator games) to explore this phenomenon. We find that donation in the previous period affects present decisions and the sign is negative: participants’ behavior in every round is negatively correlated to what they did in the past. Hence donations over time seem to be the result of a regular pattern of self-regulation: moral licensing (being selfish after altruist) and cleansing (altruistic after selfish).

International Support of Climate Change Policies in Developing Countries: Strategic, Moral and Fairness Aspects

33 p.

La ética y el riesgo moral de las entidades financieras

[ES] Actualmente nos econtramos sumergidos en una de las mayores crisis económicas conocidas hasta el momento, la cual ha dado lugar a diversos debates sobre las posibles causas de la misma. Entre ellas, últimamente, han tomado cierta relevancia términos como la ética bancaria y el riesgo moral, los cuales permiten establecer una concordancia entre las actitudes de la banca en los años previos al año 2007 y el estallido de la crisis económica. Es necesario, por tanto, el análisis de casos concretos como Bankia, CAM y BBVA para conocer con exactitud las buenas y malas gestiones desarrolladas por las entidades financieras de nuestro entorno en los citados años. Asimismo, conviene mostrar las consecuencias de aquellas actitudes, como la pérdida de la confianza por parte de la clientela, para determinar las medidas adoptadas con objeto de reconducir el sistema financiero español, lo cual permite evaluar su grado de efectividad.

Sobre el carácter y el objeto de la crítica moral en la sátira 2.5 de Horacio

El presente artículo es una ampliación y reelaboración de la comunicación presentada en el II Encuentro Interdisciplinar sobre Retórica, Texto y Comunicación (Cádiz, 7-10 de diciembre de 1994) titulada: "El valor del diálogo en la sátira de Horacio: el ejemplo de 2.5".

Analysis of the Response Speed of Musculature of the Knee in Professional Male and Female Volleyball Players

The aim of this study was to evaluate the normalized response speed (Vrn) of the knee musculature (flexor and extensor) in high competitive level volleyball players using tensiomyography (TMG) and to analyze the muscular response of the vastus medialis (VM), rectus femoris (RF), vastus lateralis (VL), and biceps femoris (BF) in accordance with the specific position they play in their teams. One hundred and sixty-six players (83 women and 83 men) were evaluated. They belonged to eight teams in the Spanish women's superleague and eight in the Spanish men's superleague. The use of Vrn allows avoiding possible sample imbalances due to anatomical and functional differences and demands. We found differences between Vrn in each of the muscles responsible for extension (VM, RF, and VL) and flexion (BF) regardless of the sex. Normalized response speed differences seem to be larger in setters, liberos and outside players compared to middle blockers and larger in males when compared to females. These results of Vrn might respond to the differences in the physical and technical demands of each specific position, showing an improved balance response of the knee extensor and flexor musculature in male professional volleyball players.