Which Is the Fairest One of All? A Positive Analysis of Justice Theories

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: James Konow (Cappelen, A.W. and Tungodden, B. (eds.), 2019 The Economics of Fairness, MA: Edward Elgar (reprinted from the Journal of Economic Literature, 2003): Northampton, 68-119)

This paper evaluates numerous positive and normative theories of justice in positive terms, i.e., in terms of how accurately they describe the impartial fairness preferences of real people. In addition, the paper proposes and defends an integrated justice theory based on[…]

Is Fairness in the Eye of the Beholder? An Impartial Spectator Analysis of Justice

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: James Konow (Bauer, A.M. and Meyerhuber, M. (eds), Empirical Research and Normative Theory: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Two Methodological Traditions between Separation and Interdependence, De Gruyter 2020, 237-272 (reprinted from Social Choice and Welfare, 2009): Berlin)

A popular sentiment is that fairness is inexorably subjective and incapable of being determined by objective standards. This study, on the other hand, seeks to establish evidence on unbiased justice and to propose and demonstrate a general approach for measuring impartial views empirically. Most normative justice theories associate impartiality with limited information and with consensus, i.e., a high level of agreement about what is right. In both the normative and positive literature[…]

Equity versus Equality: Spectators, Stakeholders and Groups

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: James Konow, Tatsuyoshi Saijo and Kenju Akai (Journal of Economic Psychology, 2020, Vol. 77, 102171)

Justice figures prominently in a wide variety of economically important contexts that involve both third parties and involved parties, e.g., in environmental regulation, international trade, and legal proceedings. The primary rivals for fairness rules over the distribution of a fixed good are equality and equity (i.e., allocations that are proportional to contributions). This paper reports the results of a dictator experiment in relation to a large variety of factors that might affect these rules[…]

Research Trends in Environmental and Resource Economics: Insights from four Decades of JEEM

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Roland Kube, Andreas Löschel, Henrik Mertens and Till Requate (Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2018, Vol. 92, 433-464)

This paper provides a contemporary analysis of how research issues have developed in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (JEEM) over the four decades of its existence. We have classified the articles in the journal along five dimensions: content, methods, environmental media, the regional dimension of studies[…]

Do Climate Engineering Experts Display Moral-Hazard Behaviour?

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Christine Merk, Gert Pönitzsch and Katrin Rehdanz (Climate Policy, 2019, Vol. 19(2), 231-243)

Discourse analyses and expert interviews about climate engineering (CE) report high levels of reflectivity about the technologies’ risks and challenges, implying that CE experts are unlikely to display moral hazard behaviour, i.e. a reduced focus on mitigation[…]

Tell the Truth or not? The Montero Mechanism for Emissions Control at Work

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Till Requate, Eva Camacho-Cuena, Kean Siang Ch’ng and Israel Waichman (Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2019, Vol. 95, 133-152)

We experimentally test the truth-telling mechanism proposed by Montero (2008) for eliciting firms’ abatement costs. We compare this mechanism with two well-known alternative allocation mechanisms, free and costly allocation of permits at the Pigouvian price[…]

Quantifying the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Gabriel Felbermayr, Fukunari Kimura, Toshihiro Okubo and Marina Steininger (Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 2019, Vol. 51, 110-128.)

This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the new EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the biggest bilateral deal that both the EU and Japan have concluded so far. It employs a generalized variant of the Eaton-Kortum[…]

Zur Rückkehr der Machtpolitik in Handelsfragen: Theoretische Überlegungen und politische Empfehlungen

12th November 2019
KCG Secretary
Authors: Gabriel Felbermayr (Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, 2019, Vol. 19(3), 232-244)

Opportunistische Regierungen haben vielfache Anreize, unilateral vom Freihandel abzuweichen, zum Beispiel um ihre Terms of trade zu verbessern. Doch was individuell rational sein mag, führt kollektiv in eine Situation, in der alle Länder schlechter gestellt sind[…]