A Pyramid Scheme: Economic and Ethical Aspects of Customers’ Decisions
Piotr MASIUKIEWICZ
SGH Warsaw School of Economics , PolandAbstract
This article presents an analysis of retail demand for products of a pyramid scheme types. Despite many negative experiences the problem of pyramid schemes has not been resolved on the international level. The schemes in question are about finding naive customers who agree to deposit their cash in an unregulated financial company (shadow banking) in order to achieve a high rate of return. The paper presents the scale of the functioning of pyramid schemes in the world, and it points to three group of factors relevant to the creation of such schemes. Bankruptcies of pyramid schemes have had serious social implications and involved bankruptcy costs as well as losses on the part of the depositors, among them households. Pyramid schemes weaken public trust in the financial sector. Despite the pressure of public opinion no measures have been taken on the international level to prevent the creation or operation of such schemes. The article also presents the results of the author’s own research (survey made by means of the Delphi method).
Keywords:
client, ethics, deposits, losses, pyramid schemeSGH Warsaw School of Economics
