Lanse Minkler

Religious Identity and Consumption

Consumption choices assist in solving the problem of how to convey and recognize religious identities. In the communication of an identity, individuals use the knowledge embedded in consumption norms, which restrict the range of choices to a smaller set and abbreviate the required knowledge for encoding and decoding messages. Using this knowledge as a shared framework for understanding, individuals with religious beliefs can choose consumption to express the intensity of their commitment to these beliefs. Because individuals and societies have different beliefs, norms, commitments, and expressive needs, consumption choice can help to express these differences. Our explanation contrasts with incentive-based approaches that view religious consumption norms as solutions to free-rider problem inherent in clubs.

The Problem with Utility: Toward a Non-Consequentialist/Utility Theory Synthesis

I develop the argument that our current decision-making framework, utility theory, when used by itself, is 1) descriptively incomplete, 2) theoretically flawed, and 3) ethically questionable. In response, I offer an exploratory framework that incorporates both consequentialist and non-consequentialist motivations. Adding a commitment function provides a synthesis which remedies the problems associated with the sole use of utility theory. Finally, I show how philosophers Immanuel Kant, W.D. Ross, and Martin Buber provide an ethical basis for the framework.

Do Constitutions Matter? The Effects of Constitutional Environmental Rights Provisions on Environmental Outcomes

We use a novel data set within an instrumental variables framework to test whether the presence and legal strength of constitutional environmental rights are related to environmental outcomes. The outcome variables include Yale’s Environmental Performance Index and some of its components. The analysis accounts for the possibility that a country which takes steps to protect the environment might also be more likely to constitutionalize environmental rights. Controls include: (1) gross domestic product per capita (2) whether the country is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; (3) rule of law; (4) population density; and (5) exogenous geographic effects. The inclusion of income means that our study is directly related to the Environmental Kuznets Curve literature. We find that constitutions do indeed matter for positive environmental outcomes, which suggests that we should not only pay attention to the incentives confronting polluters and resource users, but also to the incentives and constraints confronting those policymakers who initiate, monitor, and enforce environmental policies.

Economic Rights and Political Decision Making

Economic rights can be instantiated in a variety of ways. This article investigates the problem associated with making economic rights into policy through one source: the political policymaker. By considering the policymaker’s decision problem, we can identify particular decision flaws and possible corrective measures that might prompt economic rights instantiation through “enlightened self-interest.” A complementary approach involves constitutionalizing economic rights as directive principles and enforceable law, which could work somewhat independently of the policymaker’s preferences and/or beliefs. The final part of the article examines a sample of actual constitutions to determine whether government effort toward fulfilling economic rights is related with constitutionalization. The evidence considered here suggests a positive relationship: countries with better economic rights provisions in their constitutions demonstrate greater economic rights effort.

On the Indivisibility and Interdependence of Basic Rights in Developing Countries

The concept of the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights has gained widespread acceptance among advocates and scholars alike. First, this article empirically looks at the degree to which two fundamental basic rights, subsistence and security, are simultaneously respected in developing countries. A modest but significant correlation coefficient of .15 was found. The authors then construct a new composite Basic Rights index to find the determinants behind simultaneous fulfillment of basic rights. The country rankings reveal a high correlation over a five year period, though some ascend significantly (e.g., Chile, Guatemala, Brazil), while others fall (e.g., Botswana, Thailand, China). Regression analysis suggests that a countrys income, degree of trade openness, democratic political institutions, population size, and degree of internal conflict are all important factors in Basic Rights attainment. In contrast, a countrys legal origins and whether it has endorsed international covenants are modest factors, while the degree of foreign direct investment and whether it is involved in an international conflict do not seem to matter much.

Economic Rights: The Terrain

Economic rights are central to the international human rights regime, even if they have received less attention historically (at least in the West). This chapter, and the volume from which it is drawn, investigates the central conceptual, measurement, and policy issues confronting economic rights. While many important aspects remain to be addressed, conceiving problems in terms of economic rights may provide novel, effective ways to reduce world poverty, and to enhance respect for human dignity.

Does constitutionalizing economic and social rights promote their fulfillment

ABSTRACT This article explores whether constitutional provisions promote fulfillment of economic and social rights. This is accomplished by combining unique data on both enforceable law and directive principles with the Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment Index (SERF Index), which measures government fulfillment of such rights. The results indicate that there is a positive and significant correlation between enforceable law provisions and the right to health and education components of the SERF Index. The strongest relationship appears to be for the right to health component where the inclusion of an enforceable law provision on economic and social rights in the constitution is correlated with an increase in the health component by 9.55, or 13.0%, on average. These results support the idea that constitutional provisions may be one way to improve economic and social rights outcomes.

Legal institutions, environmental protection, and the willingness-to-accept measure of value

Abstract This paper looks at the US legal system and negative environmental externalities. I provide a positive explanation for the role of courts in environmental disputes using the willingness-to-accept (WA) measure of value. I further suggest that environmental law has aided courts in attaining a new welfare standard, WA-efficiency. The explanation offered here contrasts with those found in Law and Economics because I propose that courts are not substitutes for markets and, as such, one of their important roles may be to efficiently redistribute entitlements. The analysis is formalized with a model in which the court allows a victim of pollution to exert a credible threat against a polluter, which results in increased social welfare—even beyond what would exist in a zero transaction cost world. I also investigate when legal policy based on WA-efficiency is appropriate, and suggest that the answer may hinge on Rawls notion of primary goods.

Dualism, dialogue and organizations: Reflections on organizational transformation and labor-managed firms

Abstract We suggest that both our social problems and the ineffectiveness of the instituions constructed to deal with them have a common source: dualistic thinking. We further suggest that this problem severely handicaps current approaches to the reform of the modern organizations, including corporations. More specifically, we argue that dualism is a fundamental flaw of both the organizational transformation approach and the labor-managed firm approach to corporate reform. Finally, we argue that the solution to overcomeing the problem of dualism lies in the discovery of new communication processes. We suggest that one such process that shows great prmise is David Bohms dialogue .

On the Cost of Economic Rights in the United States

I estimate that respecting economic rights in the United States would have added