The systems of direct taxes and cash benefits in the Member States of the European Union vary considerably in size and structure. We explore their direct impacts on cross-sectional income inequality (termed for the purpose of this paper) using EUROMOD, a tax-benefit microsimulation model for the European Union. This relies on harmonised household micro-data representative of each national population together with simulations of entitlements to cash benefits and liabilities for taxes and social contributions. It allows us to draw a more comprehensive – and comparable – picture of the combined effects of transfers and taxes than is usually possible. We decompose the redistributive effect of taxbenefit systems to assess and compare the effectiveness of individual policies at reducing income disparities. We derive results for the 15 old members of the European Union and present them for each country separately as well as for the EU-15 as a whole.
This study investigates whether, under what conditions, and how community development-conceived as a form of engagement with secondary stakeholders-affects firms' emissions performance. Specifically, we examine the moderating role of Environmental Management Teams (EMTs) and the mediating role of product responsibility capability. Guided by instrumental stakeholder theory and the dynamic capabilities perspective, this study analyses secondary data from the Refinitiv database, covering 4414 manufacturing firms and 26,089 firm-year observations worldwide between 2016 and 2024. Using a fixed-effects regression model, our analysis reveals that community development enhances emissions performance both directly and indirectly through improved product responsibility. Unexpectedly, we find that the presence of EMTs negatively moderates the relationship between community development and emissions performance. These findings contribute to instrumental stakeholder theory by underscoring the strategic importance of community engagement. They also extend the dynamic capabilities perspective by identifying product responsibility as a capability that drives environmental improvement.
Public-sector employees frequently need to make difficult decisions that may go against powerful stakeholders. Such choices often involve personal and professional risks and require courage from decision makers. This study operationalizes Kelman and colleagues' (2016) courageous decision-making construct and examines the relationship between ethical leadership and ethically motivated courageous decision making. Courageous decision making is particularly crucial in bureaucratic public organizations that face institutional voids. By analyzing multi-wave and multi-level data from 289 police officers and their 45 direct supervisors in Bangladesh, we found that ethical leadership influences courageous decision making through the mediation effects of ethics-focused dynamic capabilities (DCs). We advance the understanding of ethics-focused DCs by proposing a comprehensive framework aligned with the core dimensions of DCs (i.e., sensing, seizing, and transforming capabilities). We also show that employees' public service motivation moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and ethically motivated courageous decision making.
Mass coral bleaching events, driven by increasingly frequent and intense marine heatwaves, pose a growing threat to coral reefs. While declines in reef fish populations are often associated with bleaching-induced coral mortality, physiological mechanisms underpinning these declines remain poorly understood. We investigated hormonal and energetic responses in three Pomacentrus species with varying dependency on live corals on the northern Great Barrier Reef prior to (2021 and 2023) and during (2024) the Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event. Baseline cortisol and lipid levels (proxies for stress and energy stores, respectively) were measured alongside fine-scale benthic surveys that quantified local habitat composition and the severity of coral bleaching. The obligate coral dweller P. moluccensis exhibited significantly elevated baseline cortisol during the 2024 bleaching event, with concentrations 2.2-fold higher than in 2023, and cortisol concentration positively related to local bleaching severity. Similarly, the rubble-associated P. chrysurus displayed elevated cortisol during the bleaching event, with concentrations 1.9-fold higher than in 2023, although cortisol levels were unrelated to bleaching extent. In contrast, the facultative coral-dwelling P. amboinensis showed no change in baseline cortisol concentration across sampling points or with bleaching extent. Lipid content increased across all three species from 2021 to 2023, with a further significant rise in P. moluccensis during bleaching, that may reflect stress-induced metabolic shifts and/or opportunistic feeding on organic matter from bleached corals. Collectively, these results highlight species-specific physiological responses to bleaching, shaped by coral dependence, and provide a mechanistic insight into differential vulnerability of reef fishes to climate-driven disturbance.
GLP-1 weight loss drugs are receiving an avalanche of positive press. From major media outlets to trade publications, clinical, policy, and lay audiences have been inundated with articles declaring them to be "miracle drugs." This messaging has largely been constructed by the drugs' manufacturers, often supported with quotes from doctors and researchers holding significant, undeclared financial entanglements with the manufacturers. The peer-reviewed research underpinning the efficacy and safety of these drugs also uses misleading reporting practices to obscure less positive findings. As such, this information may not be seen by reviewers, policy makers, clinicians, or the public. This paper will examine and critique the literature on GLP-1 medications for weight loss. We begin by briefly describing the mechanism of action and their evolution from diabetes medications to "weight management." We then provide a narrative review of the efficacy and safety data from the Phase 3, double-blind, randomized controlled trials of the two most popular GLP-1-based drugs currently available for weight loss - semaglutide and tirzepatide, highlighting misleading reporting practices. We also describe conflicts of interest among research authors, media proponents, and "patient advocacy" groups, as well as documented regulatory misconduct in the marketing of these drugs. This analysis will provide readers with more clear, comprehensive, and accurate information than is currently easily accessible, allowing for improved public and healthcare discourse and informed consent around these drugs.
