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Towards a European Health Union: Time to Level Up
No full textThe European response to COVID-19 has revealed an inconvenient truth. Despite having integrated public health concerns across all its policies – be it agriculture, consumer protection, or security –, the Union cannot directly act to save people’s lives. Only member states can do so. Yet when they adopted unilateral measures to counter the spread of the virus, those proved not only ineffective but also disruptive on vital supply chains, by ultimately preventing the flow of essential goods and people across the Union. These fragmented efforts in tackling cross-border health threats have almost immediately prompted political calls for the urgent creation of a European Health Union. Yet this call raises more questions than answers. With the aim to offer a rigorous and timely blueprint to decision-makers and the public at large, this Special Issue of the European Journal of Risk Regulation contextualizes such a new political project within the broader constitutional and institutional framework of EU public health law and policy. By introducing the Special, this paper argues that unless the envisaged Health Union will tackle the root causes of what prevented the Union from effectively responding to COVID19 – the divergent health capacity across the Union –, it might fall short of its declared objective of strengthening the EU’resilience for cross-border health threats
Le rôle des labels dans la finance verte : construction et régulation d’un marché des labels en France
No full textA dozen of green and sustainable labels have emerged on the financial markets of the Member States of the European Union since the creation of a first label in 1997 in France, allocated to nearly 1,360 financial products, demonstrating a quantitative success, especially in France. This article analyzes the development of such green and socially responsible labels in Europe over the past decades , their construction dynamics, and questions the real benefits of a proliferation of labels in this industry. Does the multiplicity of factors contributing to the development of labels achieve the desired end or does it encumber the market with loud but uncertain signals? While household savings are at their highest and there is a demand for financing the ecological transition, does the proliferation of labels not complicate the readability of the market ? We show that, instead of simplifying the choice of agents, the multiplication of labels tends to increase the noise provided by each of the quality signals and deteriorate confidence. Economic agents have less interest in benefiting from a generic label but are looking for less demanding labeling at a lower cost. The whole system can therefore play in a counterproductive way, each actor minimizing the intrinsic effort provided. As the number of labels grows, the information asymmetry grows and end investors may therefore turn away from labeled products. Only regulator can counter this trend.Une dizaine de labels verts et durables ont vu le jour sur les marchés financiers des États membres de l'Union européenne depuis la création d'un premier label en 1997 en France, attribués à près de 1360 produits financiers, démontrant un succès quantitatif, notamment en France. Cet article analyse l'évolution de ces labels verts et durables en Europe au cours des dernières décennies, leur dynamique de construction, et s'interroge sur les réels bénéfices d'une prolifération de labels dans ce secteur. La multiplicité des facteurs contribuant au développement des labels atteint-elle le but recherché ou encombre-t-elle le marché de signaux forts mais incertains? Alors que l'épargne des ménages est au plus haut et qu'il existe une demande de financement de la transition écologique, la multiplication des labels ne complique-t-elle pas la lisibilité du marché? Nous montrons que, au lieu de simplifier le choix des agents, la mutliplication des labels tend à accroître le bruit fourni par chacun des signaux de qualité et détériorer la confiance. Les agents économiques ont moins intérêt à bénéficier d’un label générique mais recherchent à moindre coût une labelisation moins exigeante. L’ensemble du système peut donc jouer de façon contreproductive, chaque acteur minimisant l’effort intrinsèque fourni. L’asymmétrie d’information s’accroît à mesure que le nombre de labels grandit et les investisseurs finaux risquent donc de se détourner in fine des produits labelisés. Seul le regulateur peut contrer cet effet
Target Search in Product Displays: A Visual Crowding Perspective
No full textConsumers often arrive at the point of purchase with a particular product to purchase in mind and must search for this target product in the product display. Drawing on visual crowding theory, we suggest that an individual’s ability to find a target product in a display varies according to the embeddedness of the target, which depends on the locations of the target and non-target products in the display. We refer to the visual impact of non-target products on target products that results in an inability to differentiate and recognize the target product as “target visual crowdedness (TVC).” Across five experimental studies, we manipulate TVC and show that as TVC increases the duration of the visual search increases. Eye-tracking data provide evidence of how TVC affects attention and information processing in target product search tasks. We develop a visual crowdedness metric that quantifies TVC and can be used by researchers and practitioners to estimate the visual search effort needed to find a product in a display
Ranking for Good? A Comparative Assessment of the Performance of French Corporations in Human Rights Rankings
No full textIn recent years, greater attention has been given to developing metrics that measure more than a country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Similarly, greater consideration has been given to more than just the financial performance of commercial enterprises; corporations are now expected to conduct business in ways that are responsible and sustainable, giving attention to a triple bottom line where the planet and people are prioritized along with profits. Taking French government policy and the performance of French multinational corporations as a case in point, this article explores the ways in which emerging indicators and instruments on business and human rights are relevant to the impact of business on well-being. This article examines which reporting frameworks and ranking systems best capture human rights and sustainability risks that could compromise well-being. Specifically, the article analyzes the frameworks and indicators used to measure human rights performance and the impact of rights rankings on business management. It also reviews responses by corporations to rights rankings as indicia of how measurements might be perceived as likely to result in changes in investor and consumer behavior or place brand reputation at risk
COVID-19 as a Deal-Killer in Mergers and Acquisitions: A Case Study
No full textThis article offers an original case study of the failed sale of Victoria’s Secret’s business to examine the deep consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of M&A transactions. After presenting the case, it draws two lessons from it by: (1) proposing a multi-layered analysis of the effects of covid-19 depending on the type of event considered and on the contract language, and (2) exploring the possible reshaping of the termination right in connection with the dramatic variations of the target’s value during the interim period caused by COVID-19
Are People Willing to Pay for Reduced Inequality?
No full textIn the face of rising income inequality (Acemoglu & Autor, 2011; Atkinson, Piketty, & Saez, 2011; Piketty, 2014; World Economic Forum, 2014), one recent proposal is to provide consumers with information about the income inequality across those involved in the production of each good, at the point of purchase. This has been shown to depress overall inequality (Hill, 2020), though its impact depends crucially on whether people are willing to pay more for goods whose production involves less income inequality. Here we investigate this largely unexplored empirical question through an incentivised, behavioural choice experiment on a representative sample of the English population. We find that a large majority are willing to pay significantly more for goods associated with less inequality. How much more people are willing to pay varies with political leaning and increases with the extent of the inequality reduction, but is positive across the political spectrum and for all studied inequality differences. Moreover, it is typically higher when inequality is reported in more intuitive and informa- tive formats. Our results bode well for the effectiveness of product-level inequality information provision as a tool for moderating income inequality, promising impacts even in markets where all goods involve relatively high inequality levels and potential participation across the political spectrum
Consequences of Disclosing Clinical Trial Results: Evidence from the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act
No full textWe examine how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act (FDAAA) of 2007, which requires additional disclosures regarding clinical trial results, impacts information asymmetry between the disclosing pharmaceutical firm and capital market participants, the general public, academics, and practitioners. We document a reduction in information asymmetry in capital markets. We also document an increase in adverse event and product problem complaint reports filed against the pharmaceutical firms to the FDA and a higher number of drug and medical device recalls for affected firms after the FDAAA enactment. Finally, cross-sectional analyses suggest that the increase in FDA complaint reports and recalls after the FDAAA enactment was more prominent in firms with a higher bid-ask spread decrease. Taken together, our results suggest that the FDAAA has some benefits for both investors and consumers
Ups and Downs: The Role of Legitimacy Judgment Cues in Practice Implementation
No full textWe explore the way validity and propriety cues contribute to legitimacy judgments about a practice and explain whether the subunit of a large firm increases or decreases the implementation of this practice. Empirically, we examine the extent to which 65 subsidiaries of a multinational enterprise implemented three corporate social responsibility practices. Adopting a set-theoretic approach, we find that both validity and propriety cues are extremely relevant to the understanding of subunits’ implementation of practices over time. The endorsement of a practice in a subunit’s environment plays a particularly crucial role in the extent to which it is implemented, relative to authorization by the parent firm. Furthermore, subunits strongly rely on the active evaluation of the practice’s propriety, such that the consonance between the two propriety dimensions (strategic importance and value compatibility) is central to implementation increase, while dissonance between them can favor implementation decrease. By advancing our understanding of legitimacy judgment formation and practice implementation patterns, our study enriches explanations of organizational conformity and decoupling, and contributes to our understanding of how firms respond to multiple institutional demands
Business Growth in Knowledge-Based Services: How Relationalism Affects Demand Side Growth Opportunities
No full textThe current paper complements and extends traditional Penrosean theories of firm growth by examining how a (supplier) firm’s relational embeddedness with its portfolio of existing buyers affects its business growth. Our theorizing rests on the foundation that a firm’s business growth stems from its breadth (or volume) of opportunities for creating added value with buyers, which more fully realizes the Penrosean vision that firm growth can be explained by a dynamic interaction between productive resources and demand-side market opportunities. While relational embeddedness may give a supplier some dyadic advantages with focal buyers, we theorize that it may lead to a narrower set of future added value business opportunities with the (supplier) firm’s entire portfolio of buyers. In addition, we hypothesize that this negative effect on business growth is moderated by a set of relational and demand-side attributes. These hypotheses are tested on a panel dataset of patent law firms (suppliers) and their relationships with corporate clients (buyers). Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that greater relational embeddedness is associated with slower supplier business growth, which is alleviated when these firms have greater cross-servicing ability and receive more relational commitment from buyers, but exacerbated when suppliers hold more buyer-specific knowledge and when buyers undertake more (internal) concurrent sourcing. In turn, our research demonstrates how the attributes of a supplier’s relationships with its portfolio of buyers can impact access to new business opportunities, and thus opens up new directions for research on firm growth, demand-side strategy and buyer-supplier relationships
Fame as an Illusion of Creativity: Evidence from the Pioneers of Abstract Art
No full textWe build a social structural model of fame, which departs from the atomistic view of prior literature where creativity is the sole driver of fame in creative markets. We test the model in a significant empirical context: 90 pioneers of the early 20th century (1910–25) abstract art movement. We find that an artist in a brokerage rather than a closure position was likely to become more famous. This effect was not, however, associated with the artist’s creativity, which we measured using both objective computational methods and subjective expert evaluations, and which was not itself related to fame. Rather than creativity, brokerage networks were associated with cosmopolitan identities—broker’s alters were likely to differ more from each other’s nationalities--and this was the key social-structural driver of fame