We conduct a representative dictator game in which students and random members of the community choose both what charity to support and how much to donate to the charity. We find systematic differences between the choices of students and community members. Community members are much more likely to write in their own charity, community members donate significantly more ($17), on average, and community members are much more likely (32%) to donate the entire $100 endowment. Based on this evidence, it does not appear that student behavior is very representative in the context of the charitable donations and the dictator game.

This report explores key considerations in relation to adopting a dynamic discount rate funding approach and the impacts of doing so in a range of areas, including funding volatility, investment strategy and end game objectives. It considers the advantages and disadvantages of this approach from the perspective of a range of stakeholders and the challenges that need overcoming in order to fully implement and support the approach, for example data challenges and the new skills required in the industry. The report includes sample modelling to highlight the practical issues that arise when adopting this approach. It describes a step-by-step approach for assessing the risks to be considered when determining an appropriate level of assets to provide funding for a sample set of pension scheme cash flows, as summarised in the table below.

It also considers how a dynamic discount rate approach fits within the proposed future funding regulations. Finally, the report puts forward recommendations for the IFoA, Scheme Actuaries and TPR.

Consequences of schemes adopting a dynamic discount rate approach could include very different investment strategies with investment in a wider pool of assets, less use of leveraged Liability Driven Investment, fewer schemes targeting buy-out as their end game strategy and an increase in technical work for actuaries in advising on the optimisation of asset and liability cash flows.

This article examines the role of legal argument in late eighteenth-century antislavery thought by subjecting Granville Sharp’s legal writing to detailed scrutiny. Much scholarship on law and antislavery in the British context justifiably focuses on the meaning of Lord Mansfield’s 1772 ruling in Somerset’s Case. Adopting a different approach, this article reads Sharp’s antislavery jurisprudence expansively, as an effort to fashion legal and political ideals. In so doing, it shows that Sharp’s legal writing was part of a broader project aimed at associating antislavery with a particular conception of national identity. Examining Sharp’s wide-ranging analysis of statute and common law, the article further argues that Sharp developed a form of natural-rights constitutionalism, melding the radical cause of abolition with the notion of tradition. Finally, the article explains how Sharp’s jurisprudence promoted an ideologically important vision of abolitionism as a distinctively modern form of progress. In short, the article argues that Sharp’s legal writing should be read not only in relation to Somerset but also as a means of understanding the character of antislavery thought and its relation to wider currents in eighteenth-century radicalism.

This paper investigates the impact of corporate expansion in the alcohol retail industry on small-scale retailers. Our empirical approach exploits the timing of corporate entries across U.S. states that do not have a state monopoly to examine entry effects based on proximity to incumbent retailers. The analysis, drawing on a comprehensive dataset of U.S. alcohol retailers from 2000 to 2020, reveals that corporate entries within a 1-mile radius positively impact the employment and revenue of nearby small-scale retailers, with these effects intensifying over time and being more pronounced in metropolitan markets. Despite these localized impacts, the overall market structure and firm behavior remain largely unaffected.

We have previously argued thatbehavioral scientists have been testing and advocating individualistic (i-frame) solutions to policy problems that have systemic (s-frame) causes and require systemic solutions. Here, we consider the implications of adopting an s-frame approach for research. We argue that an s-frame approach will involve addressing different types of questions, which will, in turn, require a different toolbox of research methods.

Successful employment outcomes are often beyond the reach of people with disabilities, but relatively little is known about the factors that best enable the achievement of this goal. Using survey data from 803 people with and without disabilities, we examine the association of eight factors with successful employment outcomes. Using regression tree analysis, five factors emerged as statistically significant predictors of successful employment outcomes for people with disabilities: corporate culture and climate, job characteristics, government support, employer attitudes, and societal attitudes. Key interrelationships between factors include: (1) government support linking with corporate culture and climate; and (2) job characteristics linking with corporate culture and climate. Findings are relevant to organisations and governments to inform policy and practice to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities.