|
on Collective Decision-Making |
| By: | Nicolas Querou (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - FRE2010 - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UM - Université de Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier) |
| Abstract: | We consider a setting where agents are subject to two types of collective action problems, any group user's individual extraction inducing an externality on others in the same group (intra-group problem), while aggregate extraction in one group induces an externality on each agent in other groups (intergroup problem). One illustrative example of such a setting corresponds to a case where a common-pool resource is jointly extracted in local areas, which are managed by separate groups of individuals extracting the resource in their respective location. The interplay between both types of externality is shown to affect the results obtained in classical models of common-pool resources. We show how the fundamentals affect the individual strategies and welfare compared to the benchmark commons problems. Finally, different initiatives (local cooperation, inter-area agreements) are analyzed to assess whether they may alleviate the problems, and to understand the conditions under which they do so. |
| Keywords: | externalities,common-pool resource,collective action |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01936007&r=all |
| By: | Öhrvall, Richard (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Oskarsson, Sven (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | Student mock elections are carried out in schools around the world in an effort to increase political interest and efficacy among students. There is, however, a lack of research on whether mock elections in schools enhance voter turnout in real elections. In this paper, we examine whether the propensity to vote in Swedish elections is higher among young people who have previously experienced a student mock election. The analysis is based on unique administrative population-wide data on turnout in the Swedish 2010 parliamentary election and the 2009 European Parliament election. Our results show that having experienced a mock election as a student does not increase the likelihood of voting in subsequent real elections. This result holds when we study both short- and long-term effects, and when we divide our sample into different parts depending on their socio-economic status and study each part separately. |
| Keywords: | Political inequality; Student mock elections; Voter turnout; Education |
| JEL: | D10 D72 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2018–12–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1258&r=all |
| By: | Berliant, Marcus; Gouveia, Miguel |
| Abstract: | The literatures dealing with voting, optimal income taxation, implementation, and pure public goods are integrated here to address the problem of voting over income taxes and public goods. In contrast with previous articles, general nonlinear income taxes that affect the labor-leisure decisions of consumers who work and vote are allowed. Uncertainty plays an important role in that the government does not know the true realizations of the abilities of consumers drawn from a known distribution, but must meet the realization-dependent budget. Even though the space of alternatives is infinite dimensional, conditions on primitives are found to assure existence of a majority rule equilibrium when agents vote over both a public good and income taxes to finance it. |
| Keywords: | Voting; Income taxation; Public good |
| JEL: | D72 D82 H21 H41 |
| Date: | 2018–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90488&r=all |
| By: | Samuel Bazzi (Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts) (BU)); Gabriel Koehler-Derrick (Harvard University); Benjamin Marx |
| Abstract: | Why do religious politics thrive in some societies but not others? This paper explores the institutional foundations of this process in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim democracy. We show that a major Islamic institution, the waqf, fostered the entrenchment of political Islam at a critical historical juncture. In the early 1960s, rural elites transferred large amounts of land into waqf—a type of inalienable charitable trust—to avoid expropriation by the government as part of a major land reform effort. Although the land reform was later undone, the waqf properties remained. We show that greater intensity of the planned reform led to more prevalent waqf land and Islamic institutions endowed as such, including religious schools, which are strongholds of the Islamist movement. We identify lasting effects of the reform on electoral support for Islamist parties, preferences for religious candidates, and the adoption of Islamic legal regulations (sharia). Overall, the land reform contributed to the resilience and eventual rise of political Islam by helping to spread religious institutions, thereby solidifying the alliance between local elites and Islamist groups. These findings shed new light on how religious institutions may shape politics in modern democracies. |
| JEL: | D72 D74 P16 P26 Z12 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/71lh5oncqk84tbb1d1a8gujtq6&r=all |
| By: | Antoine Mandel (Paris School of Economics - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne); Xavier Venel (Paris School of Economics - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | There exists a wide gap between the predictions of strategic models of network formation and empirical observations of the characteristics of socio-economic networks. Empirical observations underline a complex structure characterized by fat-tailed degree distribution, short average distance, large clustering coefficient and positive assortativity. Game theoretic models offer a detailed representation of individuals' incentives but they predict the emergence of much simpler structures than these observed empirically. Random network formation processes, such as preferential attachment, provide a much better fit to empirical observations but generally lack micro-foundations. in order to bridge this gap, we propose to model network formation as extensive games and investigate under which conditions equilibria of these games are observationally equivalent with random network formation process. In particular, we introduce a class of games in which players compete with their predecessors and their successors for the utility induced by the links they form with another node in the network. Such sequential competition games can represent a number of strategic economic interactions such as oligopolistic competition in supply networks or diffusion of influence in opinion networks. we show that the focal equilibrium that emerge in this setting is one where players use probability distributions with full support and target the whole network with probabilities inversely proportional to the utility of each node. Notably, when the utility of a node is inversely proportional to its degree, equilibrium play induces a preferential attachment process |
| Keywords: | Socio-economic networks; endogenous network formation; game theory |
| JEL: | C71 D85 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:18035&r=all |
| By: | Claude Meidinger (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Whether there is a pre-existing common “language” that ties down the literal meanings of cheap talk messages or not is a distinction plainly important in practice. But it is assumed irrelevant in traditional game theory because it affects neither the payoff structure nor the theoretical possibilities for signaling. And when in experiments the “common-language” assumption is simplicitly implemented, such situations ignore the meta-coordination problem created by communication. Players must coordinate their beliefs on what various messages mean before they can use messages to coordinate on what to do. Using simulations with populations of artificial agents, the paper investigates the way according to which a common meaning can be constituted through a collective process of learning and compares the results thus obtained with those available in some experiments |
| Keywords: | Experimental Economics; Computational Economics; Signaling games |
| JEL: | C73 C91 D03 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:18036&r=all |
| By: | Catherine Closson; Estelle Fourat; Laurence Holzemer; Marek Hudon |
| Abstract: | This paper explores challenges a consumer food cooperative must address to combine social inclusion and embeddedness in its urban environment with the food quality standards it targets. While the difficulty in making alternative food networks (AFNs) socially accessible is well documented, little is known about organizational practices that foster inclusion in AFNs. Our research—based on over 100 participant observations of meetings held at the cooperative and on food activities with members of community organizations—has generated insight on how a participative process—through collective decisions, knowledge exchanges and workslot commitments—could facilitate or restrain social inclusion. Our results suggest that promotion of the value of equality for the largest number is hindered by differences in food, material and consumer cultures between cooperative members and non-members. The value of equality for the largest number is pragmatically applied through social inclusion regarding food supply and voluntary work participation. |
| Keywords: | Alternative food network; Participatory action research; Consumer food cooperative; Social inclusion; Accessibility; Food democracy |
| JEL: | Q18 Q01 M10 |
| Date: | 2019–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/280933&r=all |
| By: | Alabrese, Eleonora (University of Warwick); Fetzer, Thiemo (University of Warwick and CAGE) |
| Abstract: | Using estimates of support for Leave across UK local authority areas constructed from a comprehensive 20,000 strong survey, we show that both the level and the geographic variation capturing differential degrees of support for Leave have changed significantly since the 2016 EU referendum. A lot of area characteristics, many of which were previously associated with higher levels of support for Leave, are now significant correlates capturing a swing towards Remain. They include, for example, the degree to which local authorities receive transfers from the EU or the extent to which their economies rely on trade with the EU, along with past electoral support for UKIP (and the BNP) and exposure to immigration from Eastern Europe. Lastly, exposure to austerity since 2010 is among the strongest individual correlates weakening the support for Leave. The evidence is consistent with the argument that the small margin of victory of Leave in 2016 was, to a significant extent, carried by protest voters, who used the EU referendum to voice their discontent with domestic social and economic developments, particularly, austerity. Lastly, we present some evidence suggesting that the UK public, even in Leave supporting areas, would be much more willing to make compromises on free movement and aspects of single market membership compared to what appears to be the UK governments negotiation objective. |
| Keywords: | Brexit, protest voting, globalization, European Union JEL Classification: D72, F5, F6, H3, H5 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:394&r=all |
| By: | Gazi Islam (MC - Management et Comportement - Grenoble École de Management (GEM), IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc); Marie Holm (ESCEM - Ecole supérieure de commerce et de management); Mira Karjalainen (University of Helsinki [Helsinki]) |
| Abstract: | The rapid emergence of mindfulness programs within organizational settings reflects an amalgam of humanistic, spiritual, and managerial perspectives. While impact studies have focused on effects of mindfulness programs on employees, how such programs are implemented by trainers, managers, and employees and how the mindfulness concept operates within organizations are not well understood. In this study, we draw upon Laclau's notion of the 'empty signifier' to argue that mindfulness programs work to encode oppositional organizational elements, drawing on competing discourses that shape, in practice, how mindfulness evolves within organizations. Through an empirical qualitative study of organizational mindfulness practitioners, we show how practitioners leverage heterogeneous meanings to represent oppositions within organizations, and that in the course of mindfulness programs, these oppositions are framed to align with dominant managerial perspectives. We discuss the ramifications of these findings to understanding the uses of mindfulness for ideological purposes while speculating on the emancipatory possibilities of mindfulness as a solidaristic and collective practice. |
| Keywords: | Appropriation,hegemony,Laclau,mindfulness,power,signifier,workplace spirituality |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemptp:halshs-01958800&r=all |
| By: | Virpi Sorsa (Hanken School of Economics - Hanken School of Economics); Heini Merkkiniemi; Nada Endrissat (BFH - Bern University of Applied Sciences); Gazi Islam (MC - Management et Comportement - Grenoble École de Management (GEM), IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc) |
| Abstract: | While interest in art-based interventions is growing rapidly, little is known about the aesthetic, material, and interpersonal mechanisms by which art interventions, and musical interventions in particular, operate. We address this gap by drawing from an in-depth case study of a musical intervention in a professional ice-hockey team in Finland. At the time of the study, the organization faced a serious crisis, having lost 11 sequential games, leading its managers to search for "alternative" means for promoting social cohesion, and subsequently engaging in an arts-based musical intervention. Our findings examine how material objects and collective synchronization rhythms grounded the interpersonal interactions of team members and mediated members' attempts to transform personal subjective experiences into collective collaboration. We draw out the conceptual implications of our findings for understanding, on the one hand, the collective nature of aesthetic processes, and on the other hand, the materially mediated processes of communication. In terms of practical implication, we contribute to understanding the social dynamics and transformative organizational possibilities of artistic interventions that generate value for the organization and its members. |
| Keywords: | arts-based intervention,musical intervention,aesthetics,embodied communication,materiality,organizational communication |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemptp:halshs-01959027&r=all |