Power struggles in policy feedback processes: incremental steps towards a circular economy within Dutch wastewater policy

Policy Sciences - Environmental problems are usually not tackled with path-departing policies but rather with incrementally adjusted or unchanged policies. One way to address incremental change is...     

O.J.'s defense: A reductio ad absurdum of the economics of Coase and Posner

A reductio ad absurdum takes the principles of a doctrine, applies them exactly as their creators did only to an entirely different subject and with horrendous results, and thus shows what absurd conclusions are logically compatible with the original thesis. This article applies the tenets of the Chicago law and economics tradition, as adumbrated by two of its most distinguished practitioners, Coase and Posner. It shows that on the basis of this canon a case can be made out for freeing O.J. Simpson—even if he did indeed kill his wife. The article is an attempt to show that the libertarian reliance on personal and private property rights is a much more robust thesis than the Chicago precept of wealth maximization.     

Coase and Bertrand on lighthouses

Coase (Journal of Low and Economics 17(2):185–213, 1974) failed to appreciate that the construction and maintenance of nineteenth-century lighthouses were in part financed by British taxpayers. Bertrand (Cambridge Journal of Economics 30:389–402, 2006) rightly calls him to account. While agreeing with Bertrand’s conclusion, we dispute her reasoning and argue that lighthouses nevertheless could have been supplied by the private sector.     

Conference on Business Crime,Fraud and Corruption England,March/April 1991 Preliminary Call for Papers

Conference on Business Crime, Fraud and Corruption England, March/April 1991 Preliminary Call for Papers     

Preadolescent antecedents of depressive symptomatology at age 18: A prospective study

The purpose of this article is twofold: (1) to summarize the theoretical frame-work, methodological orientation, and gender-differentiated findings of our ongoing study of the personality context, prospective and concurrent, for depressive symptoms at age 18; and (2) to report new longitudinal relations between preadolescent play constructions (at age 11) and depressive tendencies reported seven years later. Eighty-seven 18-year-olds completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Seven years earlier, at age 11, the subjects were observed in a play construction situation. Six psychologically coherent, reliable play composite variables were generated from the codings of videotapes and related longitudinally, in a hierarchical polynomial regression design, to the later CES-D scores. Among preadolescent girls, concern with morality and loss foretold, linearly, depressive experiences. The quadratic regression function explained additional variance: relative to girls receiving intermediate CES-D scores, girls earning loworhigh scores were seen as more overcontrolling of impulse, more angry, and more concerned with loss. Among preadolescent boys, only curvilinear relations were obtained. Relative to boys receiving intermediate CES-D scores, boys earning loworhigh CES-D scores were seen during preadolescence as more undercontrolling of impulse, more angry, and more concerned with loss as theme. The implications of these findings are discussed.This study was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH 16080 to Jack Block.Received Ph.D from University of California at Berkeley in 1984. Major research interests include socio-emotional development in adolescence, developmental psychopathology, and cross cultural perspectives on development.Received Ph.D from Stanford University in 1950. Major research interests include logitudinal analyses of personality and cognitive development, personality theory, and personality assessment.     

Conference on Business Crime,Fraud and Corruption Enland,March / April 1991 Preliminary Call for Papers

Conference on Business Crime, Fraud and Corruption Enland, March / April 1991 Preliminary Call for Papers     

Organized cross-atlantic crime

There is concern about penetration of organized crime in the legitimate business. This penetration can take various forms, ranging from a complete take over to a veritable symbiosis between crime-enterprises and the legitimate industry. This paper describes the interaction between crime-enterprises in the mineral oil market in the Unites States and North-western Europe. It pictures the landscape or moral decay, lack of supervision by law enforcement and the spread of systematic fraud in a branch of industry which has become ripe for infiltration by organized crime. The paper reveals that organized business crime is not just a concern for the United States of Europe alone. If the entrepreneurial landscape has similar features and there are possibilities of personal bridgeheads organized business crime obtains crossborder, transatlantic dimensions. The paper questions the selective attention of law enforcement to easily recognizable crime and the morally dubious attitude of legitimate industry taking advantage of the profitable offers by criminal entrepreneurs.