Provision Of Collective Goods Research Articles

Resilient or declining? An institutional analysis of employer associations and their implications for companies in the European Union

Institutional transformations in recent decades have limited the weight and power of collective actors. Notwithstanding this, literature on employer associations (EAs) has argued a resilient performance in terms of affiliation. In this paper, we use comparative institutional analysis to evaluate the actual scope of these associations in terms of membership and the share of workforce employed by their members. Moreover, by utilising a logistic regression approach we delve into the drivers of the choice to join these organisations. Our results show a general decline of EAs, and point to large manufacturing companies as the great reservoirs of affiliation. However, institutional variations across Europe cause significant differences between countries. We thus demonstrate how membership is strongly influenced by the institutional framework, the relevance of the variables related to the provision of collective goods as a counterbalance to trade union activity and adherence to collective bargaining schemes.

Gemeinschaft versus Gesellschaft: Cooperatives and the problem of free-riding in the provision of collective goods

Background: Cooperatives are unique entities that combine both non-profit and business attributes, reflecting the dual nature of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.
 Research objectives: This article aims to explore the hybrid nature of cooperatives and the tension between community and business aspects in the context of the provision of collective goods. Specifically, we focused on the free-riding problem, which can harm the viability of cooperatives.
 Research design and methods: We based the article on critical analysis and discussion of the literature. The research questions were as follows: What is the inherent nature of cooperatives? What is the essence of the free-rider problem in cooperatives? How could the dual nature of cooperatives help deal with the problem of free-riding?
 Results: We discussed different Gemeinschaft-based approaches to mitigate free riding, such as kinship selection, direct reciprocity, and indirect reciprocity, which, however, create limitations on the size of the group of cooperators. There is tension between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, as increasing membership for economic growth can lead to the erosion of social capital. We discussed three possible solutions, including massification, privatization, and leveraging the possibilities of online communities.
 Conclusions: Only the last approach, namely leveraging possibilities of online communities offers the solution to the difficult situation caused by the tension between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft as it does not violate the cooperative identity while still allowing for increased scale of the operations.

The role of corporations in addressing non-market institutional voids during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of an emerging economy

International business scholars have been urged to investigate how multinationals respond to grand challenges, one of which has been the COVID-19 pandemic. We provide insights into how corporations have mitigated social and economic externalities triggered by the pandemic in the presence of non-market institutional voids – policy failures in the provision of collective goods. We distinguish between corporate responses to long-term chronic voids and to acute voids that are contingent on crisis situations. We identify six categories of initiatives undertaken in Brazil by 55 Brazilian and foreign-owned multinationals. Due to their international experience, foreign multinationals appear to be better equipped than local ones to pursue standardized non-market initiatives, based on their technical capabilities and their established trust-based relationships with international foundations. This issue merits further investigation. We suggest that our analytical framework for understanding events and corporate responses in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic can be applied to many other emerging countries, and hence could be useful to policymakers, businesses, and other types of organizations in confronting acute crises in contexts where institutional failures are persistent. The ability of multinationals to alleviate sources of socio-economic disruption also advances the ongoing debate over the future role of the corporation in society.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s42214-022-00141-0.

Orchestrators of coordination: Towards a new role of the state in coordinated capitalism?

Liberalization poses significant challenges for the continued provision of collective goods within coordinated market economies (CME). Extant scholarship suggests two dominant sets of responses. Either CMEs continue to rely on employer coordination, but only for a privileged core, leading to dualization. Or, in cases where the state enjoys high capacity, the state instead compensates for liberalization but ends up crowding out employer coordination. In both cases, the result is decreasing employer coordination. We argue that in CMEs, the state may also play the role of “orchestrator” by supporting the revitalization of employer coordination. It does so through the deployment of ideational and institutional resources that mobilize employers’ associations on a voluntary basis. Applying our framework to a core area of coordinated capitalism, vocational education and training, we show that in both Germany and Switzerland, this indirect and soft form of state intervention was instrumental for turning around their crisis-stricken vocational training systems.

Incentivizing provision of collective goods: Allocation rules

AbstractIn a laboratory experiment, we study the voluntary provision of a divisible collective good. Allocations of the collective good to group members are determined by a third party “allocator” who benefits from increased provision of the collective good, but is rewarded externally. The allocator may resolve the free‐rider problem inherent in provision by assigning shares of the collective good to incentivize cooperation. The flexibility in allocations available to the allocator is varied across three treatment conditions. The highest level of collective good provision is observed within some groups in the mechanism that allows the allocator the greatest flexibility. However, greater flexibility comes at the cost of higher variance in allocation decisions by some allocators, leading to lower levels of provision in some groups.

Governance and Business-Society Relations in Areas of Limited Statehood: An Introduction

In this introductory article we explore the relationship between statehood and governance, examining in more detail how non-state actors like MNCs, international NGOs, and indigenous authorities, often under conditions of extreme economic scarcity, ethnic diversity, social inequality and violence, take part in the making of rules and the provision of collective goods. Conceptually, we focus on the literature on Areas of Limited Statehood and discuss its usefulness in exploring how business-society relations are governed in the global South, and beyond. Building on insights from this literature, among others, the four articles included in this special issue provide rich illustrations and critical reflections on the multiple, complex and often ambiguous roles of state and non-state actors operating in contemporary Syria, Nigeria, India and Palestine, with implications for conventional understandings of CSR, stakeholders, and related conceptualizations.

Дискуссия о коллективных благах в контексте современных вопросов глобального управления

This article is dedicated to three interconnected concepts – “collective goods”, “free rider” and “hegemony” in the context of modern politics. We analyze three theoretical approaches to the problem of provision of collective goods by hegemonic states. These approaches are: neoliberal, (neo) realist and World-System Theory. Basing on these theoretical premises, we analyze the debate about free-ridng in the Western political discourse (especially among US allies) and we point out that particular interests of US can be disguised as “collective goods”. Basing on this, we analyze discussions about free-riding both in the Western world (among NATO and EU members) and among US allies in the Pacific region (Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand). We point out that in fact US can use the concept of collective goods to push their own agenda. Than we move to popular in western political science idea that China is a global free rider – for instance in the sphere of sea lane security and global energy security. Basing on A. Kennedy works, we demonstrate that China in fact does not wish to make western powers pay the costs of collective goods. China is rather afraid that western powers will exploit his resources. This idea is supported with the evidence, gathered during in-depth interview with Chinese diplomats and foreign policy experts. Having said that, paper points out that mentioned cases mark the importance of the concept of trust. Trust is well-studied in the field of behavioral economics, but IR theory doesn`t usually takes the concept of trust into account. Also this paper raises a question about including historical and cultural topics in the theory of international relations. Basing on analysis of different ways to incorporate economic arguments in IR theory, authors point out that modern IR theory lacks economic argumentation. Paper concludes with the idea that IR theory should capitalize on behavioral economics. Acknowledgements. This paper is a part of MGIMO University research program no. 1921-01-02.

Unconstrained Capital? Multinational companies, structural power, and collective goods provision in dual VET

Abstract Collective goods provision, most prominent in coordinated market economies, depends on certain institutional conditions that constrain employer behavior and trigger cooperation. Increased capital mobility, characterized by new exit opportunities for business and an influx of multinational companies not anchored in their new home-countries’ institutional environment, loosens those ‘beneficial constraints’. I argue that these challenges do not lead to convergence between globalized locations as the structural power of business depends on the type of firms attracted by local institutional comparative advantages. Comparing collective skill formation in two heavily globalized cantons of Switzerland, I show that a region fundamentally relying on low-tax policies sees its hands increasingly tied in the face of globalization. It must accordingly reshape collective goods provision around policies favored by business. In contrast, a location with more diverse comparative advantages is able to implement more compelling policy elements that punish uncooperative firms.

Diversity and prosocial behavior.

Immigration and globalization have spurred interest in the effects of ethnic diversity in Western societies. Most scholars focus on whether diversity undermines trust, social capital, and collective goods provision. However, the type of prosociality that helps heterogeneous societies function is different from the in-group solidarity that glues homogeneous communities together. Social cohesion in multiethnic societies depends on whether prosocial behavior extends beyond close-knit networks and in-group boundaries. We identify two features of modern societies-social differentiation and economic interdependence-that can set the stage for constructive interactions with dissimilar others. Whether societal adaptations to diversity lead toward integration or division depends on the positions occupied by minorities and immigrants in the social structure and economic system, along with the institutional arrangements that determine their political inclusion.

The provision of collective goods through a social division of labour

We develop a general equilibrium framework in which a wide range of collective economic configurations are provided through specialised professionals as part of an endogenously emerging social division of labour. We extend the theory of value to this setting bringing together a model of an economy with collective goods with the model of a private-goods market economy with an endogenously emerging social division of labour. Natural applications are the presence of non-tradables in production, the effects of education on productive abilities, and the market system itself as an implementation of the price mechanism.For an appropriately generalised notion of valuation equilibrium, we prove the two fundamental theorems of welfare economics under very general conditions, notably allowing for incomplete, non-monotonic, and non-transitive preferences. We also incorporate Adam Smith’s principle of increasing returns to specialisation and establish that there emerge well-structured social divisions of labour in equilibrium.

Advancing Public Health Through Tax-Exempt Hospitals: Nonprofits’ Revenue Streams and Provision of Collective Goods

Nonprofit organizations play an essential role in the provision of collective goods. Focusing on a unique subsector in the United States, this study examines the extent to which nonprofit hospitals’ provision of community benefits is related to their revenue streams. Building on existing theories, we postulate that as the proportion of a certain revenue source (i.e., government grants, private contributions, and program fees) increases, its corresponding benefits also increase. Using data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 990 filed by tax-exempt hospitals nationwide, we performed panel data analysis with year and id fixed effects using robust standard errors. The findings show that the proportion of private donations is positively associated with community benefits, whereas that of program income is negatively related to community benefits. Overall, nonprofits’ decision to serve disadvantaged groups and larger communities is associated with their income sources. The study raises implications that are pertinent to nonprofit management, public administration, and health administration.

Non-discriminatory donation relief and strategic commitment under political competition

Tax relief for private donations towards the provision of collective goods can protect minorities from majority-driven outcomes in which tax revenues are exclusively used to finance the provision of public goods that are only valued by the majority. In this paper we show that non-discriminatory tax relief for private donations can arise in political equilibrium as a strategic commitment device aimed at creating and supporting political alliances that would not otherwise be able to coalesce.

Multinational Enterprises and the Provision of Collective Goods in Developing Countries under Formal and Informal Institutional Voids. The Case of Electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Despite their unprecedented growth, developing countries still face severe problems in the provision of collective goods. Electricity, whose provision is scarce or unreliable in most developing regions, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, is an emblematic case. The reason for this shortage is not only imputable to the lack of effective formal institutions, but also to the inefficacy of informal institutions in enabling alternative solutions for the production, transmission and distribution of electricity. We claim that in this context of “double institutional void”, foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational enterprises (MNEs) can play a decisive role. However, their effectiveness depends on both the formal and informal institutional proximity between the home and the host countries. Our empirical analysis relies on panel data models run on a sample of pairs of home-host countries, the latter of which are all from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), observed from 2005 to 2011.

Adapting to survive: The case of Danish employers' organisations

AbstractScholars often characterise Danish employers' organisations (EOs) as relatively stable, with a continuing role in the coordination of industrial relations and corporatist policymaking. This article shows that, beneath surface stability, Danish EOs have significantly adapted structurally and functionally to survive environmental pressures. However, rather than converging onto a liberal market trajectory, we find that Danish EOs have layered new functions onto traditional collective functions. We also find significant variations in functional adaptation depending on the employer constituencies' exposure to international competition and position in value chains. We argue that these adaptations imply that the provision of collective goods, especially in collective bargaining, is no longer sufficient for the survival of EOs.

Why Refugee Burden‐Sharing Initiatives Fail: Public Goods, Free‐Riding and Symbolic Solidarity in the EU

AbstractTraditionally, differences in states’ refugee protection contributions have been attributed to the variation in countries’ structural pull‐factors such as their geographic location. However, policy choices, such as Germany's decision to open its borders for Syrian refugees in 2015, can also have a significant impact on the number of arrivals and constitute a puzzle that traditional approaches struggle to explain. This paper demonstrates that viewing refugee burden‐sharing through the lens of public goods theory can provide significant insights about refugee protection dynamics in the EU, in particular in the context of a sudden mass influx of migrants that threatens internal security. By highlighting how free‐riding and burden‐shifting dynamics can undermine the provision of collective goods during a refugee crisis, a public goods approach can advance our understanding of why countries sometimes accept disproportionate responsibilities for forced migrants and how the effectiveness of EU refugee burden‐sharing instruments can, and should, be strengthened.

“Making It Happen”: Deciphering Government Branding in Light of the Sydney Building Boom

“Making It Happen”: Deciphering Government Branding in Light of the Sydney Building Boom

“And of course our major contribution remains to run a decent business.” Making sense of Shell's sense-making in Nigeria during the 1990s

AbstractThe intellectual engagement with multinational enterprises in International Relations has found a new home within the narratives of global governance and corporate social responsibility. Both narratives seem to agree that the role of business has changed as state capacities to provide governance assumingly have diminished and, based on broader social and political responsibilities, enterprises began to participate more actively in the provision of collective goods. Increased participation alone, however, does not reveal how corporate actors define and make sense of their responsibilities and their roles within global governance. In fact, focusing on corporate responsibilities and corporate governance contributions does not consider enterprises as actorsin their own rightwho actively interpret and respond to changes in their normative environments. To fill this gap, the article proposes a framework that conceptualizes corporate agency as inherently social and creative. This framework, which can be applied to different contexts, is illustrated by reconstructing interpretative frames and self-understandings advanced by Shell in response to its crisis in Nigeria during the 1990s. Based on this reconstruction, Shell failed to develop and communicate a clear understanding of its social responsibilities, and its overall integration into global governance is likely to remain an ambiguous process in which uncertainty and indeterminacy prevail.

Accounting for heterogeneous private risks in the provision of collective goods: Controversial compulsory contracting institutions in horizontal hydrofracturing

Common pool resources are frequently analyzed with a simple template: the problem is the tragedy of the commons, and the solution is political institutions. Thus the tragedy of the commons is resolved by governing the commons. In this paper we argue that there is also the possibility of a tragedy of governing the commons. If political institutions lock participants into a certain pattern of resource use, and then there is an exogenous shock – say, a technological change – that increases the risks to one group, then the situation may no longer be a classic common-pool situation and institutions may actually exacerbate, rather than ameliorate distributional conflict. We develop a general model showing that whenever there is heterogeneity in private risks, some technological innovation could potentially turn a previously stable institution into a source of conflict. We take the compelling recent example of horizontal hydrofracturing changing the welfare implications of the institution of compulsory pooling, and use a new individual-level dataset of landowners affected by compulsory pooling in New York to demonstrate the empirical support for our model.

Christine Desan.Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism.

The engraved picture of President Andrew Jackson on the U.S. twenty-dollar bill will soon be replaced by former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman, a truly dramatic change in the social iconography of American money. But it will still say, “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.” Regardless of whose face is on the front, the note can be used to satisfy all debts, whether to a public entity (like the IRS) or a private one (like a retailer). Fungible money means any person’s twenty-dollar debt can be satisfied with any twenty-dollar bill. All twenty-dollar bills are created equal, so to speak. The debts that need satisfaction mostly arise in the course of market exchange. This connection between markets and money has informed much prior scholarship about money, from neoclassical economics to the critical social science of Karl Marx and Georg Simmel. But debts arise in other settings as well, which Christine Desan addresses in Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism. Taxpayers owe money to the government, an obligation that does not stem from market exchange but which undergirds the political redistribution of resources to support the provision of collective goods. Taxes appear extraneous to the pairing that seems naturally to unite markets with money, but for Desan such public debts were instrumental in the origins of capitalist money. Furthermore, failure to comprehend those origins was itself part of the constitutive process. In questioning its original connection to market exchange, and in recovering what was forgotten, Desan forces us to rethink the social significance of money.

Comparative Study of Child Soldiering on Myanmar–China Border

Although the persistent and widespread use of child soldiers by the Myanmar Army (Tatmadaw Kyi) and ethnic minority militia makes this an important country study, the very conditions of authoritarian control that have protracted the conflicts have also hindered scholars from gaining access to zones of conflict. In his book,Comparative Study of Child Soldiering on Myanmar-China Border: Evolutions, Challenges and Countermeasures, Kai Chen compiles an extensive collection of reports and studies conducted within Myanmar for his analysis that will be welcome to scholars interested in the complexities influencing child soldiering in modern conflicts generally and Myanmar particularly. He also provides an excellent overview of the scholarly debates and tensions regarding the definition of a child soldier as well as the use of the age of 18 years to demarcate the end of childhood within international accords. Overall, however, the book may be somewhat ambitious in its proposed scope. Chen states that the purpose of his book is fourfold: (1) to compare the situation of child soldiers on the Myanmar–China border along several dimensions, including across time and between different regions and actors; (2) to address the structural factors influencing child soldiering; (3) to introduce what Chen refers to as Ba new approach of ‘limited statehood’ into the studies of child soldiering^ (p. 6), which is the basis for his premise that there is no optimal solution to governing child soldiering on the Myanmar–China border; and consequently (4) propose the use of transnational Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as the next best alternative. Chen draws from the work of Schaferhoff et al. (2009) who define PPPs as Bcontinuous and relatively institutionalized trans-boundary interactions between public and private actors that formally strive for the provision of collective goods, whereas private actors can be for-profit and/or civil society organizations (p. 12).^ Chen asserts that Ba proper transnational PPP should be characterized by the following elements: first, non-hierarchical relationships among all and only relevant partners (e.g., civil society organizations, international NGOs, local NGOs and transnational corporations); second, priority given to disadvantaged groups; third, risk allocation between the public and private sectors; fourth, trust building Asian Criminology (2015) 10:303–305 DOI 10.1007/s11417-015-9213-2