Opportunity is not everything

We experimentally investigate in village India how belief systems that hierarchize social groups affect the groups’ responses to economic opportunities. Earlier we found that making caste salient hurt low caste performance both absolutely and relative to the high caste's. To examine the possible role of mistrust, we manipulate the scope for discretion in rewarding performance. When offered a gamble in which success mechanically triggers rewards, making caste salient has no significant effect. Instead, it is in the case with scope for discretion that making caste salient creates a large caste gap in the proportion of subjects who refuse the gamble.     

建筑企业系统内部工程整体分包行为研究

论文主要针对我国的大型建筑企业或者企业集团在承包的项目中出现的内部分包行为进行分析，对各种具体行为进行了归纳与定性。文中分析了其产生的背景与原因，以及可能导致的问题。希望能够有助于企业正确认识这种行为及其后果，及时调整企业经营策略。同时有助于有关主管部门的调控和管理。     

CHOQUET PRICING FOR FINANCIAL MARKETS WITH FRICTIONS1

In markets where dealers play a central role, bid-ask spreads inhibit asset valuation as defined by the formation cost of a replicating portfolio. We introduce a nonlinear valuation formula similar to the usual expectation with respect to the risk-adjusted probability measure. This formula expresses the asset's selling and buying prices set by dealers as the Choquet integrals of their random payoffs We investigate several price puzzles: the violation of the put-call parity and the fact that the components of a security can sell at a premium to the underlying security (primes and scores).     

Development,distribution and the future

The distribution of world output between countries, and between social groups within countries, is central to long-term development prospects. Unequal shares mean unequal influence over the future direction of world affairs. The level and structure of demand are conditioned by the distribution of financial resources; while the power to influence the course of development is itself tied to the resources that can be marshalled in support of one's objectives. Two forecasting techniques, scenario construction and global modelling, are used to assess these relationships and explore the consequences of one possible ‘future history’ in which distribution worldwide does eventually begin to improve. Striking limitations to most development strategies are identified; without a wide-ranging set of changes, the prospects for improved distribution—and relief of poverty—are bleak.     

Mean,Median, Mode III*

Abstract Recently, Van Zwet (1979) has discussed several conditions under which the celebrated mean-median-mode inequality holds. This note points out that Van Zwet's basic condition and its variants have a simple interpretation in terms of a well-known stochastic ordering. The results are slightly more general than Van Zwet's because the definition of unimodality used here (due to Khintchine ) requires neither the existence of a density nor the uniqueness of the mode.     

The Great Compression of the 1940s: The Public versus the Private Sector

Between 1940 and 1950 wage differentials narrowed substantially, a phenomenon that economic historians have called the “Great Compression.” This paper dis-aggregates the Great Compression into changes within and between the public and private sectors. We show that wage differentials declined in the public sector as well as in the private sector; had the public sector decline not taken place, the Great Compression would have been substantially smaller. In this regard, the experience of the 1940s stands in stark contrast with that of the past two decades, during which a relatively rigid public sector wage structure has dampened overall increases in wage inequality.     

Trend and Comparative Analysis of Inequality of Social Opportunity

This article sets out a new method for the analysis of inequality of social opportunity. The shortcomings of the previous concepts and measures attempting to assess the degree of openness of the mobility process independently of marginal effects are displayed. The suggested new approach refers to relative opportunity distributions of individuals according to their social origin. Starting from the premise that these distributions underlying the observed allocation of social positions are continuous, it is assumed that it is possible to compare them using straight lines. The various slopes of the lines represent inequality of social opportunity coefficients which permit trend and comparative analysis of the mobility process net results.     

Keeping Up With the Joneses: Analyzing the Effect of Income Inequality on Consumer Borrowing

Household debt relative to disposable income increased from 60% in 1980 to 104% at the end of 2003. ‘Buying on credit’ has become so popular that an increasing number of firms generate more profit from financing than from selling their products. In this paper, we show that rising income inequality has substantially contributed to increased consumer borrowing. Income inequality affects all components of total household debt, but the impact is strongest on non-revolving debt (installment loans), which is used to finance the purchase of consumer durables. We argue and provide evidence that the income inequality effect on consumer borrowing is a result of conspicuous consumption. Rising income inequality has forced households with smaller income gains to use debt to keep up their consumption level relative to households with larger income gains.JEL Classification: D12, G29, J31, M30     

Exponential inequalities for tail probabilities of generalized order statistics

We establish exponential bounds for the probability that a generalized order statistic exceeds a given threshold or falls below a given threshold. As a main tool we apply the Bernstein inequality for sums of independent random variables.Received May 2003     

The Fundamental Character of Socioeconomic Exploitation: Human Nature,Technology, Social Institutions,and Ideology

Abstract:

Although the concept of socioeconomic exploitation often appears in heterodox economics, its use varies considerably and it is seldom given a well-developed conceptual foundation. The project of this article is to propose a foundation by drawing upon our species’ history to uncover exploitation’s causes and dynamics. Socioeconomic exploitation exists where political or economic power is used by some to gain advantage at others’ expense. Its root force is found in human biology, the fact that as a socially-reproducing species, humans compete for mates, and exploitation of others can generate a competitive advantage. Social institutions direct and channel this competitiveness. Accordingly, during 97–98 percent of our species’ existence, competitiveness was not expressed by accumulating material wealth and political power, but by being good warriors and foragers, being cooperative, and being generous. Socioeconomic exploitation accompanied the rise of civilization and the state, when metal-based weaponry enabled a few to gain control over society and ownership and control over the means of production, subjugating all others and appropriating their surplus. Although violence stood behind this exploitation, ideology served as the principal political tool for its maintenance. It is the force of ideology that clarifies why, even with free speech, free press, free assembly, and the franchise, exploitation continues to exist.