Contemporary Capitalism as a New Monetary Economy of Production: The Logic of Conventions,M&A,and LBOs

Social interaction models, i.e. the changing sequence of actions between individuals who modify their behavior under the influence of their peers, have rarely enjoyed as high a profile in economic analysis as they do today. However, the literature growth has not been accompanied by a process of academic consolidation. The difficulties encountered in research are largely but not entirely the result of data constraints. The main argument of this article is that the source of problems may be traceable to the lack of a complementary approach between economics and other disciplines. The difficulties presented by the deficit in academic exchange among social scientists are compounded by the current analytical framework, which still concentrates on the fundamental, but mutually exclusive, traditions of thought: homo oeconomicus and homo sociologicus. In spotlighting these ideas, this article reviews the economic body of literature on social interactions and their effect on individual unemployment status. Two directions in current research are analyzed: the impact of social (work) norms on unemployment and the role of social networks in the job search process. The theoretical and methodological challenges encountered in research suggest that the future of social interactions models might be found at the crossroads of economics and other social sciences.     

The Economics of Social Interactions: An Interdisciplinary Ground for Social Scientists?

Social interaction models, i.e. the changing sequence of actions between individuals who modify their behavior under the influence of their peers, have rarely enjoyed as high a profile in economic analysis as they do today. However, the literature growth has not been accompanied by a process of academic consolidation. The difficulties encountered in research are largely but not entirely the result of data constraints. The main argument of this article is that the source of problems may be traceable to the lack of a complementary approach between economics and other disciplines. The difficulties presented by the deficit in academic exchange among social scientists are compounded by the current analytical framework, which still concentrates on the fundamental, but mutually exclusive, traditions of thought: homo oeconomicus and homo sociologicus. In spotlighting these ideas, this article reviews the economic body of literature on social interactions and their effect on individual unemployment status. Two directions in current research are analyzed: the impact of social (work) norms on unemployment and the role of social networks in the job search process. The theoretical and methodological challenges encountered in research suggest that the future of social interactions models might be found at the crossroads of economics and other social sciences.     

Growth,fertility and human capital: A survey

This paper surveys recent work on endogenous fertility and endogenous growth. These models provide the building blocks for a theory of development. They are capable of explaining income and fertility differentials between rich and poor countries. They can produce switching behavior, countries that transform themselves from no growth economies into high growth economies. The fertility and growth effects of social security programs are also examined. Finally models with increasing returns to population are presented. They are capable of reproducing very long term relationships between human capital, fertility and economic growth.     

Social Economics and Evolutionary Learning

The major premise of this paper is that social and individual well-being depends significantly on people's capacity to learn and unlearn in communication with each other. This paper builds on social economic traditions that see communication and conversation as evolutionary generative and adaptive mechanisms through which individual and social learning occurs. Drawing on educational psychology and organizational behavior scholarship, five dynamic processes of conversational learning are introduced with the contention that they can help social economists understand at a micro level more deeply and more concretely how learning happens in the give-and-take of conversation. The paper explores the role of the state, organizations, and communities in fostering individual freedom and dignity, human rights, and economic democracy and concludes that the investment of value in people and their capability for purposeful action as social economic stakeholders can be enhanced through conversation as learning.     

An economic theory of altruism based on rankings in a stable social hierarchy

In order to fully understand the interaction between selfish and non-selfish actors, social scientists need rigorous formal models of other-regarding preferences. While the current models clearly present progress relative to the self-interest approach, the evidence also makes it clear that further theoretical progress is warranted. There is ample opportunity for improving our understanding of other-regarding behavior. This paper develops a theory of economic altruism entirely compatible with self-interest utility maximization by rational individuals. Sympathy arises when someone is interested in improving somebody else’s condition, and this will also enhance the utility of the one who acts. Construed in that way, sympathetic behavior is essentially self-interested behavior. A question addressed in this paper is whether a sympathetic population of individuals will exert their income-producing labor differently than a population of egoistic individuals. Two parameters suffice to characterize the altruistic conduct of an individual: a parameter governing the individual’s ranking in a social hierarchy and a parameter determining the sensitivity of an individual’s sympathy for others at different social ranks. The main testable implication of the theory is that in a large population, where each individual has a concave utility function embodying sympathy, the altruistic behavior of any specific individual is determined by his rank in the social hierarchy. A second implication is that in a horizontal social hierarchy, the most altruistic people in the population are those in the middle of it.     

CGE模型与微观模型连接方法* ——基于宏观冲击与微观效应整合分析框架的综述

宏观经济学与微观经济学这两个领域一度界限分明,但是近年来两个子学科已经逐渐融合,从微观层面经济当事人的行为出发来解释宏观经济现象的研究屡见不鲜。考察宏观经济环境变迁所产生的微观主体行为的变化是实证研究中关于宏观经济学与微观经济学相联系的另一类典型,而CGE模型是有效连接两个领域的重要手段。国外相关研究在21世纪开始盛行。本文将梳理和总结现有宏观-微观模型结合分析的相关方法并通过一个例子来解释该类方法的具体实践。     

马克思阶级理论的方法论归属探究

笔者分析了马克思的个人观念和阶级观念,认为马克思眼中的个人是自利和理性的,并结成相互依赖、相互制约的社会关系;他眼中的阶级是阶级成员间关系的总和,是阶级关系的承担者.马克思强调阶级成员间的关系及阶级关系产生自个人行为选择,个人利益和个人行为是阶级利益和阶级行为的基础,他是从个人入手构建阶级理论的.如果除去西方主流思想孤立的个人观念的教条,把方法论个人主义理解为从个人入手解释经济现象的原则,那么马克思阶级理论,符合方法论个人主义原则的本意.     

ENERGY UTILITIES, CONSERVATION, AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY

Academic and policy debate has centered around an apparent "underinvestment in conservation." This paper outlines traditional explanations for underinvestment and presents a prospect theory analysis of individual conservation behavior. On the basis of investment criteria, individuals seem to discriminate against conservation investments. While these decisions might appear rational as life style decisions, individual choice across different household appliances shows little consistency. For policymaking purposes, understanding and modeling actual behavior is crucial to maximizing social welfare. The insight of certain positive models of human behavior supports economic efficiency arguments for marketplace intervention. This paper argues that because individuals making conservation investment decisions apparently do not act according to the dictates of utilitarian economics, utility sponsored conservation programs are justified on economic efficiency grounds. Finally, in light of prospect theory considerations, the paper suggests marketing guidelines for conservation investments sponsored by electric utilities.     

The sceptic as an economist's philosopher? Humean utility as a positive principle

Whereas in philosophy David Hume was long regarded as a negative thinker to be criticized rather than read, many thinkers interested in social and economic theory from Adam Smith onwards found key concepts, distinctions and problems as developed by Hume useful and inspiring. This applies not only to his seminal contributions to technical problems in economics. It is argued that the way in which Hume employed ‘utility as a positive principle’ (most notably in his ‘experimental’ moral theory) is of pivotal importance in this context. It allows for:

a. distinguishing between internal motifs and external circumstances and constraints; and for

b. making explicit the abstract logic of social interaction structures, mechanisms and processes.

Both are necessary conditions for employing the logic of social situations and mechanisms in the explanation of social institutions and economic processes. It moreover prepares the ground for the use of simplified or cartoon-like models of individual agency in economic and social theory, but also for its critique. On this basis, Hume's influence on various strands of social and economic thought, but also the specific differences with regard to more ‘rationalistic’ approaches (such as Hobbesianism or important versions of neoclassical economics) can be assessed more clearly.     

Neuroeconomics as a Natural Extension of Bioeconomics: The Shifting Scope of Standard Economic Theory

Synopsis Neuroeconomics rightly has been claimed to be a natural extension of bioeconomics. One of the things bioeconomics investigates is what behavioral dispositions and what behavioral patterns evolutionary processes have produced. Neuroeconomics extends this to the study of evolved mechanisms that are at work in decision-making at the neural level of the brain. The paper argues that in another respect neuroeconomics and bioeconomics are discontinuous, however. Bioeconomics maintains that the applicability of standard economic theory’s constrained maximization framework is not confined to human behavior. The constrained maximization framework is believed to be suitable to describe behavior throughout the animal kingdom. By contrast, despite some minor internal disagreements all neuroeconomists seem to agree that human behavior is predicted poorly by standard economic theory in several social and economic situations. Neuroscience is believed to hold out the hope of an advanced understanding of when and why this is the case.      

Socio-economic typologies of bureaucratic corruption and implications

Corruption all over the world is an ancient, but it seems very topical too, concern in politics and in the media. This paper investigates spatial and dynamic aspects of corruption using cellular automata. Although cellular automata are very simple, deterministic machines and thus crude approximations of real, economic situations, they are capable of describing self organization and complex patterns (of corruption). It is shown that neither social pressure nor pure economic incentives allow for complex patterns, although social pressure may lead to clusters of corrupt and uncorrupt segments within a bureaucracy. However, blending both above characteristics is capable explaining complex behavior. Extending the concept of cellular automata through mixing rules – across space (= bureaucrats) and time (accounting for global effects) – does not affect the fundamental properties.     

Social interaction and economic organization: Toward an integrative microeconomic model

In the context of increasingly complex economies, with information more and more complicated to handle, social interaction may allow spontaneous co-operation and be more efficient than market or state regulations to overcome co-ordination and information problems. This article provides a theoretical model that compares three “pure forms” of economic organization: state-controlled production, unregulated market, and voluntary organization. We model the behavior of agents who are embedded in a social structure that is characterized by three parameters: the intensity of socialization, the size of individual social space, and the overall level of trust in society. We then study how social interaction parameters influence the relative efficiency of the three different forms of organization.     

The company you keep: Satisfaction with life,economic freedom,and preference-policy mismatch

We examine the interaction between individual preferences for markets and state-level economic freedom as it relates to Satisfaction with Life (SWL). Fundamental tenets of economic freedom assert that societies free of excessive government involvement are wealthier and, ultimately, happier; individuals who are allowed to pursue self-interest are argued to be more motivated and more productive, and so society as a whole is better off. Though there is substantial empirical evidence that freer societies are wealthier, the evidence connecting economic freedom and happiness is less clear. We explore the relationship between economic freedom and SWL at the individual level. We examine differences between personal preferences for free markets and state policy and how this ‘preference-policy mismatch’ is related to SWL. We then briefly examine the relationship between preference-policy mismatches and individual self-reported voting behavior, including implications for Tiebout sorting. This study is the first to focus on individual economic ideology, i.e. individual level of support for free markets, and SWL in the United States. Combining individual and state level data we offer improvements to prior studies in a number of areas including an enhanced measure of life satisfaction, a richer basis for examining left-right differences than simple political identification, and an examination of the effect of preference-policy mismatches on satisfaction with life. We find significant relationships between SWL and individual support for markets, state-level economic freedom, and preference-policy mismatch. Further, preference-policy mismatch is positively associated with self-reported voting frequency. We find little support for Tiebout sorting.     

Culture sometimes matters: Intra-cultural variation in pro-social behavior among Tsimane Amerindians

Agent-centered models usually consider only individual-level variables in calculations of economic costs and benefits. There has been little consideration of social or cultural history on shaping payoffs in ways that impact decisions. To examine the role of local expectations on economic behavior, we explore whether village affiliation accounts for the variation in dictator game offers among the Tsimane of the Bolivian Amazon independently of other factors that could confound such an effect. Our analysis shows that significant differences in altruistic giving exist among villages, village patterns are recognized by residents, and offers likely reflect variation in social expectations rather than stable differences in norms of fairness.     

员工企业社会责任感知影响人力资源管理效能？—基于领导行为的协同中介

通过对贵州、广东和福建3个省80家企业1148名员工进行调研,基于员工对企业社会责任、领导行为感知对人力资源管理效能带来积极影响为研究问题构建了一个中介模型。企业社会责任在组织微观层面的内涵越来越得到企业的重视,实现了员工的企业社会责任由产出需求转向投资视角,成为企业满足员工工作需要和工作资源的参照标准体系,有利于提升企业人力资源管理效能。本文研究发现:企业社会责任分别从企业经济责任、法律责任、伦理责任和自行裁量责任影响人力资源管理效能;变革型领导和交易型领导对企业社会责任和人力资源管理效能具有协同中介作用。研究结论对于企业社会责任、领导行为和人力资源管理三者匹配具有重要的理论和现实意义。     

Macroeconomic determinants of growth: new measurement and evidence on the effect of political freedom

Empirical results based on the re-examination of the data and models offered by Kormendi and Meguire (1985) and Gupta (1988) suggest that the impact of political freedom on economic growth is positive and significant. In particular, the replacement of their civil liberties variable by a new varible representing social capabilities improves the magnitude and significance of the estimated parameters and explanatory power of the regressions. The marginal contribution of social capabilities to explaining the percentage variations in the mean rate of income growth is the third highest among all determinants of growth, suggesting that the effect of freedom on growth is more pronounced than previously measured. It is argued that freedom will enable individuals to expand the range of socio-economic opportunities and to establish greater control over the human environment in order to improve material well-being.     

Social Norms and the Time Allocation of Women's Labor in Burkina Faso

This paper proposes that major determinants of allocation of women's time are social norms that regulate the economic activities of women. The emphasis on norms contrasts with approaches that view time allocation as determined by household-level economic variables. Using data from Burkina Faso, it is shown that social norms significantly explain differences in patterns of time allocation between two ethnic groups: Mossi and Bwa. Econometric results show women from the two groups exhibiting different responses to changes in farm capital. Implications are that policies changing social norms may have more permanent effects on altering women's behavior.     

Altruism and Spite in a Selfish Gene Model of Endogenous Preferences

Economists and biologists have long grappled with the apparent contradiction of altruism in a naturally-selected world. Standard economic models are built upon an assumption of material self-interest where agents maximize individual outcomes without regard for the effects on others. This paper begins with a brief discussion of the evidence that human behavior deviates from the economic assumption. With the goal of more accurately describing human nature, the interpersonal components of preferences are derived in a genetic model. This model predicts a variety of behaviors that are considered paradoxical within the standard economic framework. The optimal attitude towards others is parameterized by the genetic relationship between individuals and by the population size. For interactions between ‘average’ individuals, the standard economic assumption is the limiting case of the genetic model as the population becomes arbitrarily large. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

跨层次研究视角下的社会资本与创新绩效——理论框架与实证模型

如何强化员工的知识分享和创新绩效来建立企业的核心竞争优势并维持较高的创新水平,是企业面临的重要挑战。本文对社会资本的基本理论及其与个体创新绩效相关的文献进行了回顾,同时就知识分享和组织学习型文化相关的文献进行综述发现,组织环境因素能够对个体创新绩效产生直接影响,但更重要的是通过其与个体因素的交互作用,共同对个体创新绩效产生影响。因此,推导出一个跨层次研究模型,建立了个体层次的知识分享与组织层次的学习型文化对个体层次社会资本与创新绩效交互作用的影响模型与假设。本研究拟使用社会网络分析软件UCINET、统计软件SPSS以及多层线性模型分析软件HLM对实证模型进行分析。以期验证组织层次的学习型文化通过组织共有的思维模式和行为规范来影响个体层次的个体成员的知识分享和创新绩效,使个体和组织得到共同的成长与发展。     

助推力还是绊脚石？工作不安全感对个体创新行为的“双刃剑”影响

根据压力交互理论和调节焦点理论,构建工作不安全感对个体创新行为的“双刃剑”影响理论模型,探讨挑战性压力和阻碍性压力的中介作用、促进型焦点和防御型焦点的调节作用。选取12家高新技术企业60个团队414份领导和员工的两时间点配对调查问卷进行实证检验。研究发现：一方面,工作不安全感会通过挑战性压力认知和促进型焦点的调节导向对个体创新行为产生积极影响,成为个体创新行为的“动力”和“助推力”;另一方面,工作不安全感会通过阻碍性压力认知和防御型焦点的调节导向对个体创新行为产生消极影响,成为个体创新行为的“负担”和“绊脚石”。