Agents as Empirical Macroeconomists: Thomas J. Sargent’s Contribution to Economics*

Thomas J. Sargent has fundamentally changed and, in the words of Art Rolnick, who interviewed him in 2010, “irrevocably transformed” the field of macroeconomics—whether as sole author, as co‐author with collaborators, as an author influenced by others, or as a teacher of the profession, influencing others. This paper is about his contribution to our field. The Nobel Memorial prize to Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims has been awarded for the “empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy” or, more broadly, for macroeconometrics. One often likes to distinguish between theorists, on the one hand, and empiricists and econometricians, on the other. Thomas J. Sargent holds a unique position in between. A key theme in a large part of his work has been to put the agents in his model on equal footing with the econometrician who is observing data from the model (i.e., to assume that agents are themselves empirical macroeconomists or macroeconometricians). In this paper, I use this theme to examine his work and his contributions to the study of economics.     

Expert labour as a differentiated category: power,knowledge and organisation

The idea of ‘expert labour’ as a category uniting many kinds of knowledge‐based work has long been of interest. At the same time, existing models often do not differentiate between the many forms of ‘new’ expertise in the main business and technological groups. These tend to be consolidated in single categories of ‘entrepreneurial’, ‘organisational’ or ‘commercial’ professions. This paper built on Reed's seminal account of the expert division of labour. It used his analytic dimensions of power, knowledge and organisation to develop a new framework comparing clusters of expert labour in professional services, business services and knowledge work. It offered a more detailed classification and a comparative view that throws fresh light on key debates around new professionalism and emergent technologically defined occupations.     

企业知识型员工激励措施探讨

本文介绍了知识型员工的概念和特点,对我国企业知识型员工激励的现状做了分析,指出其存在的问题并进行了原因分析,提出了相应的激励对策:塑造良好的企业文化,创造学习型组织;构建合理的薪酬激励模式;建立合适的绩效考核制度;突出工作激励和个体需求差异激励。     

跨国零售企业母子公司知识转移机制——以沃尔玛为例

零售企业在跨国扩张过程中必然伴随母国知识的转移活动,而由于国情不同,在母公司发展起来的优势知识到了海外市场可能无法适应,知识的内隐程度和地区嵌入程度将影响零售知识的跨国转移效果。本文以沃尔玛为对象,通过研究其在华经营活动,从知识特性的角度分析了母子公司间的知识转移机制。研究发现:知识内隐程度的高低可以影响转移的媒介,地区嵌入程度的高低能够影响知识转移的深度及本土化程度。内隐程度高的知识倾向以人员作为转移媒介,通过人员媒介可以使隐性知识显性化,并逐渐固化成标准化的物件范式;内隐程度低的知识则倾向以物件作为转移媒介。地区嵌入程度高的知识,母公司仅转移知识架构,在华子公司自行建构知识具体内容,以本土化为主;地区嵌入程度低的知识,母公司同时转移知识架构和具体内容,以标准化为主;对那些地区嵌入程度正在降低的知识,可以在初步本土化探索的同时,实施收缩等待战略,待时机成熟再实施与母国相同的标准化转移策略。     

工程硕士知识体系构建与创新思维

本文分析在新的软件技术环境下对人才的需求与培养以及如何通过创新的思维模式和平台设计,建立符合工程硕士培养的通道,提升工程硕士的实践应用能力,体现人才优势和社会价值。     

The relationship between knowledge sourcing and fear of imitation

When firms tap external knowledge sources, they risk spillovers of their own internal knowledge. If the value of this potential loss and the imitation capabilities of neighboring organizations are high, fear of imitation might overshadow the benefits of openness. In such situations, firms might voluntarily reduce their use of external sources, relative to knowledge available internally. Data pertaining to 4,623 European inventions and direct information about the use of knowledge sources confirm that firms reduce their use of external, relative to internal, knowledge when they conduct costly research projects in locations characterized by high levels of absorptive capacity in a specific technology. This study also reveals fear of imitation as a mediating factor of this behavior. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unsettling Neoliberal Rationalities: Engaged Ethnography and the Meanings of Responsibility in the Dominican Republic and Mexico

Neoliberal urban environmental governance is premised in part on the development of collaborative arrangements between state and non‐state actors through which residents in informal settlements are encouraged to participate in their own governance. The neoliberal rationality of participation is implemented through governmental techniques such as responsibilization, whereby residents are rendered responsible for provision of basic environmental services previously seen as the responsibility of government authorities. However, neoliberal urban governance is incomplete, fragmented and fractured, affording room for maneuvering and innovative social agency, whereby residents mimic, reinterpret, negotiate and contest neoliberal subject formations. In this article, we discuss how engaged scholarship can facilitate such alternative productions of neoliberal subjectivities through the development of ‘knowledge encounters'. We draw on cases of solid waste management and environmental risk governance in the informal settlements of Los Platanitos, Santo Domingo Norte, Dominican Republic, and Gaviotas Sur, Villahermosa, Mexico, to suggest that knowledge encounters facilitated through engaged ethnography furnish stages for alternative conceptions of responsibility, whereby residents negotiate neoliberal techniques of governance through diverse forms of acquiescence, reconfiguration and contestation.     

The mediating roles of governance mechanisms and knowledge transfer on the relationship between specific investments and cooperative innovation performance

This study seeks to understand the influence of specific investments (SIs) to cooperative innovation performance (CIP) by examining the mediating roles of knowledge transfer (KT) and governance mechanisms (GMs), including formal contracts (FCs) and relational trust (RT). A sample of 238 projects is used to test the proposed model through structural equation modelling. The results show SIs act indirectly through RT to influence CIP. KT plays a mediating role between the two GMs and CIP. Moreover, the results suggest that the mediating effect of KT between FCs and performance is full; however its effect between RT and performance is only partial, and the mediating effect of RT between SIs and performance is also partial.     

关于股票期现货市场T+0和T+1交易机制的思考

本文从T+0交易与信用交易的内在联系、T+0对投资者的影响、T+0对市场的影响、交易机制改革的出发点四个方面对期现货交易机制进行分析。结论是:T+0是证券市场信用交易的必然产物,T+0和T+1交易机制的制度套利来自于信用交易,而不是股指期货;是否需要取消T+1,从而消除这一制度套利,不能单纯从维护散户交易权利的角度出发,而应当综合考虑对市场和投资者的影响;交易机制改革可行的方法是实行T+0并辅以配套的风险管理措施。     

知识创新与组织结构形式

本文提出一个分类框架,用以解释知识创新和组织结构形式如何交互作用,从而形成组织的学习和知识创新的能力。作者认为,组织的知识蕴藏于组织之中,植根于各个组织的协作机制,而后者则深受组织结构形式的影响。指出,组织学习和知识创新模式与组织结构形式密切相关。