his study asks the question, “Is Black Economic Empowerment a South African growth catalyst?” It addresses the question with reference to the theoretical literature on economic and organizational structures. This literature argues that structures reflect values and influence patterns of...

Authenticity has become a central concept in leadership studies, but the question of how followers assess the authenticity of their political leaders has not been addressed. With few exceptions, the literature on authenticity and leadership has focused on normative arguments rather than...

We examine privacy-enhancing technologies based on the consistency of the business plans, technology, stated objectives, and the concept of privacy as embedded in the technologies. Three distinct trust models result from the three distinct concepts of privacy: a right of autonomy, a right to...

The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) represents a novel tax expenditure program that employs “investable” tax credits to spur production of low-income rental housing. While it has grown into the largest source of new affordable housing in the U.S. and its structure is now being...

Two central ideas in economic sociology are embeddedness and the social construction of economic institutions. Based on data from women’s thrift cooperatives established in villages in Andhra Pradesh, India, the paper identifies a paradox in the creation of new economic institutions. Such...

The United States now enjoys a position of preponderance unseen since the Roman Empire. Not surprisingly, the past decade has produced a lively debate on U.S. grand strategy, with different authors offering sharply contrasting advice on how the United States should respond to its position as the...

This paper examines whether involvement with religious organizations insures an individual’s stream of consumption and of happiness. Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), we examine whether households who contribute to a religious organization are able to insure their...

We estimate how the marginal utility of consumption varies with health. To do so, we develop a simple model in which the impact of health on the marginal utility of consumption can be estimated from data on permanent income, health, and utility proxies. We estimate the model using the Health and...

We develop a simple, n-country model to consider the costs and benefits of joining a monetary union. Our factor-OCA framework encompasses different approaches and allows us to consider the optimal composition of a monetary union for all the potential members. We illustrate the model in practice...

The nation-state system, democratic politics, and full economic integration are mutually incompatible. Of the three, at most two can be had together. The Bretton Woods/GATT regime was successful because its architects subjugated international economic integration to the needs and demands of...