Experimental analysis of the effect of standards on compliance and performance

Legal directives – whether laws, regulations, or contractual provisions – can be written along a spectrum of specificity, about which behavioral and legal scholarship present conflicting views. We hypothesized that the combination of specificity and monitoring promotes compliance but harms performance and trust, whereas the combination of specificity and good faith enhances both the informative goal‐setting aspects of specificity and people's sense of commitment. To test these hypotheses, we used a 2x2x2 experimental design in which participants were instructed to edit a document with either general or detailed instructions, with a reference to good faith or without it, and with a review of the work or without it. Participants could engage in various levels and kinds of editing, allowing us to distinctly measure both compliance and performance. When participants require information and guidance, as in the case of editing, we found that specificity increases performance relative to the vague standard condition. We discuss the characteristics of the regulatory frameworks in which our findings are especially relevant.     

Ethics as an Enabler of Public Policy

Ethics constrains us. But ethics can also act as an ‘enabler’, helping to secure compliance with public policies. Basing policies on ethical principles helps the public know what is required of them by public policies. Framing policies in those ways also primes people to think in terms of their own ethically based reasons for action. Basing policies on ethical principles can assist in securing the cooperation of potential veto players by creating cooperative norms and a culture of trust.     

Public sector audit and influence the investment institutional background during a pandemic

The study purpose was to assess the impact of public sector audit on investment climate formation under the COVID-19 pandemic and to develop recommendations to improve its effectiveness. For this purpose, a multistage research project was developed with the participation of auditors from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. The project was based on the primary information obtained in the course of expert interviews. Testing the methodological approach with experts from these countries allowed proving the main study hypotheses, according to which the public sector audit has an indirect positive impact on investment climate formation. Such an audit influences the main impact factors through improving public administration efficiency, the fight against corruption, and the provision of the regulatory framework. During the testing, the main directions for improving public audit for a more favorable investment climate were formulated. The developed methodological approach makes it possible to obtain an expert assessment of the impact of the public audit on investment climate formation. At the same time, partial use of statistical methods makes it possible to replicate the study in the form of an expert interview, which increases its attractiveness for researchers in conditions of shortage of qualified interviewers.     

Caught in quicksand? Compliance and legitimacy challenges in using regulatory sandboxes to manage emerging technologies

Regulatory sandboxes have become the latest development in regulatory reform, starting first in financial regulation and now expanding to other sectors. While sandboxes offer notable potential benefits for managing emerging technologies, achieving desirable policy outcomes with this novel regulatory instrument also comes with technical and political challenges. This article offers a framework to characterize regulatory sandboxes in any sector, involving a blend of (1) approval regulation with broad-based standards, (2) restricted discretion by the regulator for specific norms, (3) process-oriented regulation, (4) an outcomes-orientation, and (5) structured regulator–regulatee information sharing or dialogue. Using this model, the article outlines issues in compliance and legitimacy, including in trust and accountability, responsive enforcement, the politics of participation, and post-sandbox oversight. The article concludes by calling for greater scrutiny when considering implementing a sandbox instrument, with attention to sector-specific concerns, and offering directions for empirical evaluation of regulatory sandboxes.     

The Behavioral Effects of Environmental Regimes: Collective-Action vs. Social-Practice Models

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Most observers agree that institutions play significant roles both in causing and in confronting large scale environmental...     

孟子"守约"及其在宋明理学诠释中的分歧与流变

“守约”是孟子提出的一个概念，“守约”就是“守心”。和孔子的“心性”之学相比，“守约”过分地强调了“仁”，而忽视了“礼”，有“重内轻外”的特点。孟子认为，只要能“守约”、“发明本心”，就有了成圣成贤的可能性，“守约”开启了“心学”传统。在宋明理学中，朱、陆在解释“守约”时产生了分歧，反映了理学与心学在经典诠释上的差异，陆象山还把“守约”发展成“易简之学”。阳明心学也继承了“守约”，但其“致良知”学说，更加丰富完善了这一理论。     

Domestic Institutions,Capacity Limitations,and Compliance Costs: Host Country Determinants of Investment Treaty Arbitrations, 1987–2007

The number of investment treaty arbitrations has exploded in recent years. However, the distribution of known arbitral claims varies among states. Some states have had multiple claims brought against them, while others appear not to have experienced any. This article represents the first study to seek causal explanations for this variation. My principal hypothesis is that a country's institutional capacity for protecting investor rights should be negatively correlated with the number of treaty-based arbitral claims brought against it. A panel analysis suggests that, after controlling for other determinants, countries with greater institutional capacity experience fewer disputes than those with lower capacity. This finding reveals an important truth about investment treaties: while they may be designed to help developing countries compensate for domestic-level institutional deficiencies in order to attract more foreign investment, it is precisely those countries with the weakest institutions for which the costs of treaty compliance are likely to be the highest.     

The Social Side of Sanctions: Personal and Social Norms as Moderators of Deterrence

In a survey of Australian citizens (valid N = 1,406), personal and social norms were found to moderate effects of deterrence on tax evasion. Personal, internalized norms of tax honesty were negatively related to tax evasion and moderated the effects of deterrence variables (i.e., sanction severity), suggesting deterrence effects only when individual ethics were weak. Perceived social norms, beyond those internalized as personal norms, were not directly related to tax evasion but moderated the effects of sanction severity. Only when social norms were seen as strongly in favor of tax honesty was sanction severity negatively related to tax evasion. This result held only for respondents who did not identify strongly as Australians. Hence, when internalized, norms delimit effects of deterrence; when considered external to one's self norms boost deterrence effects, giving social meaning to formal sanctions.     

Trust and Tax Compliance Among Malaysian Working Youth

A high level of tax morale is necessary in promoting tax compliance among the public, including youth who tend to have a low sense of responsibility. The current tax system and working youth segment of Malaysia are first explained. Based on the relevant literature on taxation, important factors that influence trust and the resulting tax compliance are conceptualized in a research model. An online survey was administered on youth throughout Malaysia that resulted in 2,030 usable responses, of which 500 were used in testing the model. The empirical results from using partial least squares analysis show that one of the two trust variables and tax knowledge are significant determinants of tax compliance. In addition, youth in the registered taxpayers group exhibited a greater level of compliance intention than non-registered youth.     

The problem of interviewing drug addicts in custody: A study of interrogative suggestibility and compliance

Abstract

The interrogation of drug addicts in custody presents a problem. The reliability of confessions made either under the influence of drugs or during drug withdrawal may be adversely affected. This study explores the effect of drug use and drug withdrawal on interrogative suggestibility and compliance. These two psychological factors are relevant to erroneous testimony. The interrogative suggestibility and compliance of heroin addicts on an inpatient drug unit were measured on opiates, whilst withdrawing from opiates and drug free. The interrogative suggestibility and compliance of the group of subjects as a whole did not differ significantly in these three conditions. However the results did suggest that a subgroup of vulnerable individuals may have been more suggestible when under the influence of opiates. Further work is needed to clarify these results and to aid professionals assessing fitness for interview and cases of retracted confessions.