This paper delivers a step toward a naturalistic foundation of the social contract. While mainstream social contract theory is based on an original position model that is defined in an aprioristic way, we endogenize its key elements, i.e., develop them out of the individuals' moral common sense....

This paper estimates the relationship between various sub-indicators of economic freedom and life satisfaction for 122 countries. The estimation results show that life satisfaction is positively related to the quality of the legal system and protection of property rights. For poor countries,...

During the past decade, Corporate Responsibility – the voluntary engagement of business for social and environmental ends above legally mandated minimum standards – has risen to prominence, if not pre-eminence in global economic governance. However, Corporate Responsibility is not uniformly...

What drives European Union (EU) policy change in a sensitive and contentious area? To answer this question, this article tells the story of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the EU from its beginnings until the present. The EU's role in EU CSR has changed from social-liberal...

I establish a positive relationship between family ties and civic virtues, as captured by disapproval of tax and benefit cheating, corruption, and a range of other dimensions of exploiting others for personal gain. I find that family ties are a complement to social capital, using within country...

The lack of anticipation of a worldwide disruptive event such as the spread of the COVID-19 combined with the breakdown of market mechanisms for the most essential products needed to fight the disease left the governments of many countries unsure of how to react and, often, constrained their...

This paper aims to contribute to the analysis of expectations and belief reversals in an evolutionary and complexity economics framework. It formulates its analysis in terms of the concept of reflexivity, drawing on the ideas regarding reflexivity in financial markets of George Soros, and lays...

I use Walmart's decision to discontinue sales of certain gun ammunition, ban open carry in stores, and encourage enactment of gun control policy as a setting to study how stakeholders respond when firms make political statements. Using smartphone-location data to measure foot traffic, I find...

This chapter provides an overview of empirical developments and scholarly debates concerning global CSR standards. Although global CSR standards are by no means the totality of CSR, they are arguably its most prominent, visible and well-recognized manifestations. These standards include the UN...