Linguistic Polarization and Conflict in the Basque Country

This paper investigates the relationship between linguistic polarization and conflict in the Basque Country. During the 40 years of Franco’s dictatorship the use of the Basque language was banned. Therefore, there may be some linguistic roots underlying the conflict in the Basque Country. We show that at the municipality level, linguistic polarization reduces the level of conflict. This finding is robust to various ways of measuring linguistic and ideological polarization and the inclusion of other covariates. In addition, we find that a high level of the stock of human capital is beneficial for reducing conflict intensity.

Methods for Measuring Aggregate Costs of Conflict

This paper reviews the methods for measuring the economic cost of conflict. Estimating the economic costs of conflict requires a counterfactual calculation, which makes this a very difficult task. Social researchers have resorted to different estimation methods depending on the particular effect in question. The method used in each case depends on the units being analyzed (firms, sectors, regions or countries), the outcome variable under study (aggregate output, market valuation of firms, market shares, etc.) and data availability (a single cross-section, time series or panel data). This paper reviews existing methods used in the literature to assess the economic impact of conflict: cost accounting, cross-section methods, time series methods, panel data methods, gravity models, event studies, natural experiments and comparative case studies. The paper ends with a discussion of cost estimates and directions for further research.

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.

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".