Publications

Abstract Décédé le 25 août 2015, Yûichi Shionoya avait acquis une stature internationale en développant en particulier le champ de la philosophie économique. Nous consacrons une partie documentaire à cet économiste soucieux de la réflexivité au sein de sa discipline dans le présent numéro spécial « Philosophie économique au Japon ». Cet hommage est l’occasion de présenter au public de la Revue de philosophie économique/ Review of Economic Philosophy deux de ses textes inédits en toute autre langue que le japonais. Afin de mieux les situer, nous proposons cette courte présentation en français accompagnée d’une nécrologie en anglais. Nous remercions le professeur émérite Bertram Schefold, qui avait présidé une « table-ronde » d’hommage à Shionoya tenue en 2016 ; son texte constitue également un précieux témoignage de l’interaction entre chercheurs européens et japonais dans notre discipline et de l’influence forte exercée, en l’occurrence dans le cas de Shionoya, par la pensée de langue allemande. Les textes de Shionoya présentés en traduction française dans le présent numéro thématique sont tirés de son ouvrage Économie et éthique : philosophie de l’État-providence. Le premier texte constitue l’introduction du volume original, le second son appendice de nature historique et philosophique à la fois. Dans ce texte qui sert à la fois de conclusion au volume, la dernière phrase exprime tout l’esprit de la quête de Shionoya, dans ses propres termes : « dans ce livre, nous avons tenté de remplir consciencieusement et méthodiquement notre devoir consistant à rapporter la dimension des idées à celle des systèmes »…
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Abstract Why do people pay taxes? Rational choice theory has fallen short in answering this question. Another explanation, called “tax morale”, has been promoted. Tax morale captures the behavioral idea that non-monetary preferences (like norm-submission, moral emotions and moral judgments) might be better determinants of tax compliance than monetary trade-offs. Herein we report on two lab experiments designed to assess whether norm-submission, moral emotions (e.g. affective empathy, cognitive empathy, propensity to feel guilt and shame) or moral judgments (e.g. ethics principles, integrity, and moralization of everyday life) can help explain compliance behavior. Although we find statistically significant correlations of tax compliance behavior with empathy and shame, the economic significance of these correlations are low–—more than 80% of the variability in compliance remains unexplained. These results suggest that tax authorities should focus on the institutional context, rather than individual preference characteristics, to handle tax evasion.
Keywords Tax evasion, Tax morale, Morality, Personality traits, Psychometrics
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Abstract Bilateral bargaining between a multiple-worker firm and individual employees leads to overhiring. With a concave production function, the firm can reduce the marginal product by hiring an additional worker, thereby reducing the bargaining wage paid to all existing employees. We show that this externality is amplified when firms can adjust hours per worker as well as employment. Firms keep down workers’ wage demands by reducing the number of hours per worker and the resulting labor disutility. Our finding is particularly relevant for European economies where hours adjustment plays an important role.
Keywords Intrafirm bargaining, Hours, Employment, Overhiring
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Abstract In 2013, Québec implemented a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading system (QC ETS), despite opposition from industry, which feared loss of competitiveness and warned about job destruction. This article assesses the impact of that carbon regulation on industrial facilities in Québec. Conditional difference-in-differences ordinary least squares regressions show that regulated plants reduced their GHG emissions by about 9.8%, employment by about 6.8% and carbon intensity by about 3.7% more compared to non-regulated plants in the rest of Canada during the period 2013–2015. This suggests that facilities adapted to the new program by improving their technology, but first and foremost by scaling down their activity, which raises questions about the ability of the QC ETS to induce enough environmental investment and innovation in industrial facilities. The results, in terms of employment effects, contrast with the findings of similar studies on the early stages of the European ETS and the British Columbia carbon tax scheme, and this information challenges the initial allocation scheme for permits, in particular, with a view to a green fiscal reform.
Keywords Climate policy, Employment, Carbon market, Environmental Regulation
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Abstract How does neighbors' income affect individual well‐being? Our analysis is based on rich U.S. local data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which contains information on where respondents live and their self‐reported well‐being. We find that the effect of neighbors' income on individuals' self‐reported well‐being varies with the size of the neighborhood included. In smaller areas such as ZIP codes, we find a positive relationship between median income and individuals' life satisfaction, whereas it is the opposite at the county, MSA, and state levels. We provide evidence that local public goods and local area characteristics such as unemployment, criminality, and poverty rates drive the association between satisfaction and neighbors' income at the ZIP code level. The neighbors' income effects are mainly concentrated among poorer individuals and are as large as one quarter of the effect of own income on self‐reported well‐being.
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Abstract This paper provides evidence that the external debt-to-fiscal revenue ratio in emerging countries follows a power-law distribution. Such a distribution reflects the fact that external debt distress or debt crises correspond to extreme events that have been found to happen fairly often. We formally test the hypothesis of a power-law, going further than the usual visual inspection of the distribution of the variable of interest on a doubly logarithmic scale. We also show that such a distribution can be derived from a theoretical model in which uncertainty comes from tax evasion and corruption. Using the framework of an optimal stochastic growth model, we model the external debt-to-fiscal revenue ratio as a diffusion process for which the stochastic steady state distribution is derived using the properties of Itô diffusion processes.
Keywords Power-law Stochastic growth External debt Emerging countries
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Abstract Purpose To describe: (i) patterns of self-employment and social welfare provisions for self-employed and salaried workers in several European countries; (ii) work-related outcomes after cancer in self-employed people and to compare these with the work-related outcomes of salaried survivors within each sample; and (iii) work-related outcomes for self-employed cancer survivors across countries. Methods Data from 11 samples from seven European countries were included. All samples had cross-sectional survey data on work outcomes in self-employed and salaried cancer survivors who were working at time of diagnosis (n = 22–261 self-employed/101–1871 salaried). The samples included different cancers and assessed different outcomes at different times post-diagnosis. Results Fewer self-employed cancer survivors took time off work due to cancer compared to salaried survivors. More self-employed than salaried survivors worked post-diagnosis in almost all countries. Among those working at the time of survey, self-employed survivors had made a larger reduction in working hours compared to pre-diagnosis, but they still worked more hours per week post-diagnosis than salaried survivors. The self-employed had received less financial compensation when absent from work post-cancer, and more self-employed, than salaried, survivors reported a negative financial change due to the cancer. There were differences between self-employed and salaried survivors in physical job demands, work ability and quality-of-life but the direction and magnitude of the differences differed across countries. Conclusion Despite sample differences, self-employed survivors more often continued working during treatment and had, in general, worse financial outcomes than salaried cancer survivors. Other work-related outcomes differed in different directions across countries.
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