Cognitive psychologists as expert witnesses

The first part of this paper defines a central problem for professional ethics: whether agents in professional roles are to act on their own moral perceptions or rather defer to those with special authority to make decisions within particular institutional settings. Specifically, should the psychologist decide for himself whether and how to testify as an expert witness, or should he allow the judge and lawyer to settle these questions for him? I argue that he must decide for himself and attempt to control the nature of his testimony. Given this preliminary conclusion, the second part of the paper argues on direct moral grounds first for a general presumption in favor of psychologists' testimony on the accuracy of eyewitnesses. Such testimony fits the legal criterion of reasonable doubt, if the psychologists' information is more accurate than that of the average juror and lawyer. Second, it is argued that the expert witness must resist intense adversarial pressures and present his testimony as impartially and objectively as possible.     

Public sector think tanks in interagency policy-making: designing enhanced governance capacity

Abstract: Since World War Two, the role of non profit think tanks in the United States has grown and diversified. Today, the United States' government and Congress is advised on many matters of policy-making and implementation by such think tanks. The Westminster system of parliament, as practised in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, has rarely provided a fertile ground for the creation and sustained existence of such privately operated institutions. Despite limited links with similar United States' organizations, the seeds have never really flourished outside the United States of America. Australian Commonwealth governments have been most antagonistic in this regard. On the other hand, management consulting companies, many of which have headquarters in the United States, lobbyists, and corporate representation flourish in the quasi-corporatist political environment carefully constructed by the Australian Labor party (ALP) government since 1983. Policy-related research divisions and statutory authorities have likewise grown in size and importance within the departmental agencies of government itself. Energy, agriculture, immigration, and social service research “arms” have been encouraged within the ministerial arena of policy analysis and advice. Especially important has been micro and macro-economic research, urban and infrastructural planning, the Industry Commission, and the Bureau of Industry Economics, respectively. This paper will analyse the growth of these specialized forms of government think tanks, study the range of their ministerial advice, and speculate about their changing role in an increasingly “managerialist” type of Westminster-style parliamentary setting. Sommaire: Aux États-Unis, depuis la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, le rôle des groupes de réflexion à but non lucratif, ou think tanks, a pris de l'ampleur et s'est diversifié. Aujourd'hui, ces groupes prodiguent des conseils au gouvernement et au Congrès des États-Unis sur de nombreuses questions de définition et de mise en oeuvre de politiques. Le système parlementaire de Westminster, tel que pratiqué au Royaume-Uni, au Canada, en Nouvelle-Zélande et en Australie, a rarement favorisé la création et l'existence de telles institutions exploitées par le secteur privé. Malgré certains liens limités avec des organisations américaines similaires, elles ne se sont jamais vraiement épanouies à l'extérieur des États-Unis.     

Facing the Giant: A Framework to Undo Sex-Based Discrimination in Academia

In 2019, American workers reported 26,221 claims of workplace harassment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Nearly half of those claims represented sex-based harassment. The #MeToo movement has shined a spotlight on the pervasiveness of harassment across sectors and institutions. A 2018 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine indicates that 58 percent of women in academic institutions, for instance, have experienced some form of sexual harassment. In this article, the authors propose a three-part framework to establish a culture of zero tolerance of sexual harassment. The framework helps academic and other institutions prevent sexual harassment, protect victims from risks of reporting harassment, and set accountability measures to demand justice. The utility of the framework is twofold. First, administrators can apply it as a tool to audit institutional attitudes toward sexual harassment. Second, leaders can apply it as a corrective tool to prevent permissive organizational climates that allow sexual harassment to be perpetuated.     

On the relation between savings,distribution and inflation

A model of inflation, distribution and savings analysed by Thirlwall is evaluated. We replace the Kaldor saving function, instead following Pasinetti, where capitalists’ and workers’ savings are assumed proportional to their respective incomes. With this formulation, estimates of the inflation required to change the overall savings rate are generally larger than Thirlwall's. The magnitude of the difference is related, inter alia, to the share of capitalists’ profits in total income. Alternative estimates are presented, and it is shown that in general very large inflation changes are required to raise savings through redistribution. We also discuss the empirical evidence on the value of the wage adjustment parameter in the models.