|
on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | David Laidler (University of Western Ontario) |
| Abstract: | The Fisher relation played a very different role in debates surrounding the Great Depression and the more recent Great Recession. This paper explores some of these differences, and suggests an explanation for them derived from a sketch of the idea’s evolution between the two events, thus providing a brief case study of the interaction of economic ideas and economic events that is a central feature of the History of Economic Thought. |
| Keywords: | Interest rates, nominal vs. real, Inflation, deflation, expectations, depression, recession, Keynesian Economics; Monetarism; Monetary Policy |
| JEL: | B22 B26 E31 E32 E43 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:epuwoc:20132&r=hpe |
| By: | Albers, Scott |
| Abstract: | This set of three volumes argues that the mind – human consciousness – may be measured by considering mathematically the aggregate of that consciousness, i.e. social history. From this beginning theme of discussion three questions must arise. 1. How might this measurement be made? 2. Of what value is this measurement? and 3. How does this measurement affect our present understanding of the reality in which we live? Each of these three volumes attempts to provide answers to one of these questions. |
| Keywords: | Fifth dimension, Zeno’s Paradox, Russell’s Paradox, Parmenides, consciousness, unemployment, Okun’s Law, real GNP, crisis, prediction, mathematics, economic history, cycle, Kondratiev wave, long wave, Golden Mean, phi, pi, mathematic ratio, octave, music, political economy wave, Great Pyramid, Giza, Khufu, theory of everything, Kaluza, General Theory of Relativity, complexity, Parmenides |
| JEL: | B41 B5 B59 C53 C6 C69 E39 N00 N40 |
| Date: | 2013–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44413&r=hpe |
| By: | Brendan Markey-Towler (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); John Foster (School of Economics, The University of Queensland) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we discuss and critique the theory (and lack thereof) on inequality in economics. We suggest that the discipline is uncomfortable on the whole with analysing the phenomenon and that those theorists who have asked how inequality arises and what its economic consequences are do so without analytical depth. This, we hazard, is because of a fundamental constraint on what phenomena standard economic theory can address, stemming from the core assumption that the economy can be studied as if it functions like a classical mechanical system, not a complex adaptive system. |
| Date: | 2013–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:476&r=hpe |
| By: | Pillai N., Vijayamohanan |
| Abstract: | This constitutes a chapter of a book on ‘Poverty of Communism: The Game of Filling in the Marxian Blanks’. Dialectical materialism is the world outlook of Marxism; it is so called, because its approach to the phenomena of nature is dialectical, and its interpretation of these phenomena, its theory, is materialistic. Though the term ‘dialectical materialism’ owes its origin to Plekhanov and Lenin, its first expositor was Engels, who simply called it ‘modern materialism’ and asserted that it was essentially connected with the name of Marx. The present paper traces out the historical development of dialectical materialism, starting with its Greek philosophical origin in Heraclitus, who stressed the unity of opposites in a world of change, and passing through the dialogues of Socrates, and logic of Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Chalybäus (famous for his exegetical characterization of Hegel’s dialectics in terms of thesis-antithesis-synthesis triad) and Feuerbach, all culminating in Marxism. The paper also discusses the experimental games of Lenin and his followers in filling in the Marxian blanks in dialectical materialism. |
| Keywords: | Dialectical materialism; Marxism; Philosophy; Change; Unity |
| JEL: | B1 B14 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45011&r=hpe |
| By: | Michael D. Bordo; Hugh Rockoff |
| Abstract: | A Monetary History of the United States 1867 to 1960 published in 1963 was written as part of an extensive NBER research project on Money and Business Cycles started in the 1950s. The project resulted in three more books and many important articles. A Monetary History was designed to provide historical evidence for the modern quantity theory of money. The principal lessons of the modern quantity theory of the long-run neutrality of money, the transitory effects of monetary policy on real economic activity, and the importance of stable money and of monetary rules have all been absorbed in modern macro models. A Monetary History , unlike the other books, has endured the test of time and has become a classic whose reputation has grown with age. It succeeded because it was based on narrative and not an explicit model. The narrative methodology pioneered by Friedman and Schwartz and the beautifully written story still captures the imaginations of new generations of economists. |
| JEL: | B22 N1 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18828&r=hpe |
| By: | Albers, Scott |
| Abstract: | "Oppositional Analysis" - the name I give to the metaphysics presented in this volume - proposes a number of dichotomies through which one may analyze and understand systematically the structure of every level of reality. Macroeconomic theory, as well as social research, are two excellent stages upon which we may search for clues and insights to the interaction of oppositions. This is so particularly in connection with an analysis of the precepts of the "Austrian School" of macroeconomics as presented by Ludwig von Mises in his well-known and highly influential book Human Action. Based upon the circuit given for a musical note (see the Apologia and the Introduction to Volume 2, as well as the more extensive treatment herein) and the "Circuit of Being" which will be introduced in this final volume, I propose a model of economics which may correlate with a view of the physical universe of five dimensions as suggested by Theodor Kaluza. I suggest that these dichotomies may underlie the unity created by Kaluza’s work between General Relativity and Maxwell’s equations for electro-magnetism. If this is so, Oppositional Analysis and the economic and social history of the United States may provide a starting point from which we may learn important insights as to the inner workings of these economic and social oppositions as well oppositions of a more physical nature. |
| Keywords: | Fifth dimension, Zeno’s Paradox, Russell’s Paradox, Parmenides, consciousness, unemployment, Okun’s Law, real GNP, crisis, prediction, mathematics, economic history, cycle, Kondratiev wave, long wave, Golden Mean, phi, pi, mathematic ratio, octave, music, political economy wave, Great Pyramid, Giza, Khufu, theory of everything, Kaluza, General Theory of Relativity, complexity, Parmenides |
| JEL: | A1 A19 A2 A29 B40 B41 B49 B5 B50 B59 C0 C00 C02 C4 C5 C50 C53 C54 P0 P00 P1 P2 P5 Y80 |
| Date: | 2013–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44417&r=hpe |
| By: | Albers, Scott |
| Abstract: | In sum, in these essays I explore the self-similarity between levels, the fractal structure of reality, through an investigation of an inherent and unavoidable uncertainty which is unique to each level. These essays will demonstrate that as each level struggles to resolve its own inherent uncertainty, a new and higher structure is forced to emerge. This new level largely resolves the problems generated by the inherent uncertainty of the lower level, but evolves its own inherent uncertainty, one which is unique to itself as a new and higher level. By identifying and describing clearly these inherent uncertainties we trace the chain of being mentioned above. We may also outline the basic structure of each new level for in the effort to confront inherent uncertainty the new level must and will mimic the structure of lower level which gave it birth. Considering the levels above, we discover therein numerous and random sorts of change. Our question then becomes, “How might evolution be structured throughout all reality? How might the development of each of the ten levels of order be coordinated in a common law, a universal set of principles? And how might this organization be demonstrated as useful?” |
| Keywords: | Fifth dimension, Zeno’s Paradox, Russell’s Paradox, Parmenides, consciousness, unemployment, Okun’s Law, real GNP, crisis, prediction, mathematics, economic history, cycle, Kondratiev wave, long wave, Golden Mean, phi, pi, mathematic ratio, octave, music, political economy wave, Great Pyramid, Giza, Khufu, theory of everything, Kaluza, General Theory of Relativity, complexity, Parmenides |
| JEL: | A1 A10 A12 A19 B5 C02 C7 C70 F5 F59 K0 K00 N0 N00 P0 P00 P4 P5 |
| Date: | 2013–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44416&r=hpe |
| By: | Larbi Alaoui; Alvaro Sandroni |
| Abstract: | This paper shows an equivalence result between the utility functions of secular agents who abide by a moral obligation to accumulate wealth and those of religious agents who believe that salvation is immutable and preordained by God. This result formalizes Weber's renowned thesis on the connection between the worldly asceticism of Protestants and the religious premises of Calvinism. Furthermore, ongoing economies are often modeled with preference relations such as "Keeping up with the Joneses" which are not associated with religion. Our results relate these secular economies of today and economies of the past shaped by religious ideas. |
| JEL: | D0 D8 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:679&r=hpe |
| By: | Pillai N., Vijayamohanan; B. P., Asalatha |
| Abstract: | Wellbeing in general is represented in terms of the quality of life of an individual or group. The different objective and subjective indicators that go into the composition of quality of life leave its definition and measurement elusive, despite its global recognition as a policy goal. Attempts at an objective measure have brought out two basic methodological alternatives. The first, objective, measure has come out as the famous Physical Quality of Life Index, supplanted now by the Human Development Index. The second one, dealing with subjective wellbeing, focuses upon self-reported levels of happiness, pleasure, fulfillment etc. The present study, divided into five sections, is an epistemic enquiry into subjective wellbeing. After the introductory remarks, section 2 presents the recent discussions in the theory of subjective wellbeing, especially in terms of life satisfaction and domain satisfaction and their relationship. Section 3 introduces the concepts of Hedonism and Eudaimonia in the notion of wellbeing; one’s life goes well to the extent that one is contented with it (hedonistic element); at the same time, it is the term wellbeing’, not the term ‘happiness’, that denotes the notion of what makes life good for the individual living that life (eudaimonia). Section 4 traces the development of the concept of wellbeing in terms of Utilitarian philosophy in the 18th century and section 5 discusses wellbeing in the context of the theory of justice. The next section presents the capabilities approach of Sen and Nussbaum in the wellbeing framework. While Rawls limited his analysis of social welfare to the ‘social primary goods’ that rational humans need or desire, and ‘negative freedoms’ that involve the absence of interference, the capabilities approach of Sen and Nussbaum expanded on the base of Rawlsian philosophy to include ‘positive freedoms’ as well, like freedom from being constrained by poverty or a lack of education. |
| Keywords: | Wellbeing; Subjective and Objective; Life satisfaction; Capability;Justice |
| JEL: | B4 D6 I3 |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45004&r=hpe |
| By: | Pillai N., Vijayamohanan |
| Abstract: | This paper is part of a larger study on ‘Poverty of Communism: The Game of Filling in the Marxian Blanks’. As Lenin (1913) remarked, the philosophy of Marxism is materialism. To be more specific, Marxism is both a world view in general and a view of the society and its progress in particular; that world view is dialectical materialism (a term devised by Plekhanov, the Russian Marxist, and first used by him in an article published in 1891) and its application to the study of social history is the materialist conception of history or historical materialism, as called by Engels. Thus, as Stalin wrote in 1938, dialectical materialism is the world outlook of the Marxist-Leninist party; it is called dialectical materialism because its approach to the phenomena of nature, its method of studying and apprehending them, is dialectical, while its interpretation of the phenomena of nature, its conception of these phenomena, its theory, is materialistic. The present chapter seeks to discuss the development of philosophy in general that served as the cradle of Marxism. In this we follow the argument of Engels that the philosophical question whether there are only material entities or only mental entities divided philosophy into two opposite camps: materialism and idealism, and trace out the dialectical development of philosophy through the conflict between the two. |
| Keywords: | Marxism; Philosophy; materialism; Idealism; Agnosticism |
| JEL: | B1 B14 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45010&r=hpe |
| By: | Ben Fine (Department of Economics, SOAS, University of London, UK); Elisa Van Waeyenberge (Department of Economics, SOAS, University of London, UK) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the attempt by Justin Lin, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, to posit a new development paradigm through his New Structural Economics, NSE. Lin’s attempt to redefine development economics deserves scrutiny for at least two reasons. He launched his new framework from the platform that his position as Chief Economist at the Bank. Critical scrutiny of his propositions then allows for continued insights into the complex relationship between scholarship and policy at the Bank and further illuminates, more broadly, the role of the Bank across the spectrum of development economics, development studies and development policy. Second, Lin’s framework claims a return to a “structural†understanding of development, with a strong industrial policy rhetoric emanating from it. This has been greeted with considerable enthusiasm by erstwhile critics of the Bank. Closer scrutiny of the NSE, however, both reveals the flawed nature of its core theoretical notion of comparative advantage and exposes its strong, if unfortunately conservative, commitment to a flawed and incoherently applied neoclassical economics. These issues are explored across Lin’s propositions regarding structural change, the role of the state and finance and are further examined in the context of specific policy interventions that Lin attaches to the NSE. |
| Keywords: | A14, O10, O19, O25 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soa:wpaper:179&r=hpe |
| By: | Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont |
| Abstract: | There is no way around it: each theory rests on a tiny set of foundational propositions. Standard economics rests on behavioral axioms. After a long intellectual detour it should be clear by now that behavioral axioms are the wrong formal departure point. Being beyond repair, they have to be replaced by objective structural axioms. This paper deals with saving and its relation to investment and profit. It starts from the fact that there is no such thing as a real economy. Hence economic phenomena are only explicable as the outcome of the interaction of real and nominal variables. |
| Keywords: | new framework of concepts; structure-centric; axiom set; triangle theorem; income; profit; investment; productivity; time shift |
| JEL: | B41 C65 E20 |
| Date: | 2013–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44479&r=hpe |
| By: | Dipak R. Pant |
| Abstract: | Comprehension of the phenomenon of ‘waste’ in the global arena in general, and as an issue of international cooperation in particular, needs to be analyzed from many different perspectives. The current work is a modest contribution from the interdisciplinary perspective of anthropology and economics which combines an ethnographic approach (field survey) with human ecology and wider (global) strategic considerations oriented towards sustainable solutions. |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:liu:liucec:263&r=hpe |
| By: | Bos, Frits |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an introductory overview of the meaning and measurement of national accounts statistics. Attention is paid to the various uses of national accounts, the role of the international guidelines, the relationship with economic theoretic and administrative concepts and the measurement practice. The latter is also compared with compiling other statistics, econometric modelling and a barometer: what are the similarities and differences? |
| Keywords: | Uses of national accounts, history of national accounting and macro-economic statistics, relevance and reliability of the national accounts, Petty, King, Vauban, Quesnay, Keynes, Clark, Kuznets, Leontief, Tinbergen, Hicks, Stone, Meade, guidelines on national accounting, European unification, macro-economic modeling and forecasting, GDP, economic growth and welfare, measurement in economics |
| JEL: | B00 C8 D7 E01 E6 O4 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44970&r=hpe |
| By: | HASAN, HAMID; EJAZ, NAUMAN |
| Abstract: | The paper attempts to test the following hypotheses: (i) Are people generally self interested, (ii) If people tend to be generous, what is the motive, i.e., either they fear rejection or do they have a preference for fairness, and (iii) Is there any behavioral difference in bargaining between males and females. In this respect, we conduct an ultimatum bargaining experiment in a “same gender pairings” setting in International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan. In order to test the first hypothesis we look at the overall offers made by the proposers and the rejection rates of the responders. In order to test the second hypothesis we compare the offers that proposers anticipate will be accepted by the responders and the offers they actually make. If actual offer exceeds the minimum acceptable offer anticipated by the proposer, we conclude that he is fair minded. Otherwise, he is being generous due to fear of rejection. In order to test the third hypothesis, we compare the offers and responses made by males and females in this game. At the start of this study, we were of the view that the people of an Islamic society, in general, and students of International Islamic University, Islamabad, in particular, would show a greater concern for fairness rather than fear of rejection. As is evident, the results of this study prove these views wrong. Further, this fear of rejection was very realistic, particularly, in case of males where the rejection rates for unfair offers were very high. |
| Keywords: | Ultimatum games, fairness, self-interest, gender |
| JEL: | C9 C91 C92 D0 D03 |
| Date: | 2013–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44923&r=hpe |
| By: | Issaoui, Fakhri; El Montasser, Ghassen |
| Abstract: | Liberals and libertarians believe that justice is deeply embodied in liberalism. The famous physiocratic maxim "let them do business, let people and goods move: the world works by itself" relegated to second place some virtues such as justice and equity by considering them as mechanical outputs produced by market mechanisms. The invisible hand of Adam Smith is so benevolent that it inherently purifies various actions of the market. However, reality does not often look forward to these considerations often qualified as ideal. The market is not fair and Pareto optimality is still running even if an individual walks away from the rich to the detriment of another. A rereading of justice by Rawls empowered liberalism to return to normality long sought and rarely approved. However, at the level of political governance, justice is far from being installed whenever democracy casts away almost all individuals (people) and supports a few to govern. This latter, hypothetically unable to personify and care for individuals, is forced to crush individual preferences by directing them to an unknown preference qualified as the people's preference. The aim of this paper is to study this issue by emphasizing the obligation of reviewing democracy so that it serves best the values of liberalism and justice. |
| Keywords: | justice, fairness, Liberalism, preference transmission |
| JEL: | A10 A11 A14 |
| Date: | 2013–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44613&r=hpe |
| By: | Jingnan (Cecilia) Chen (Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science and Department of Economics, George Mason University); Daniel Houser (Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science and Department of Economics, George Mason University) |
| Abstract: | Although economic and social relationships can involve deception (Gneezy 2005), such relationships are often governed by informal contracts that require trust (Berg et al. 1995). While important advances have been made concerning deception in economics, the research has focused little on written forms of communication. Are there certain systematic cues that signal written communications as dishonest? Are those signals accurately detected and used by message receivers? We fill this gap by studying messages written in a novel three-person trust game (we call it the “Mistress Gameâ€). We find that: (i) messages that use encompassing terms, or a greater number of words, are significantly more likely to be viewed as promises; and (ii) promises that mention money are significantly more likely to be trusted. Notwithstanding the latter finding, we find senders who mention money within their promises to be significantly less likely to keep their word than those who do not. Length: 36 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gms:wpaper:1038&r=hpe |
| By: | Ben Fine (Department of Economics, SOAS, University of London, UK) |
| Abstract: | This paper is a lengthier and revised version of the Closing Plenary given to the World Congress of the Association of Social Economics, and Cairncross Lecture, University of Glasgow, June, 2012. Mainstream economics is seen as unfit for purpose because of deficiencies that have long been criticised by a marginalised heterodoxy. These include the taking out of the historical and social even if bringing them back in on the basis of a technical apparatus and architecture that is sorely inappropriate. These observations are illustrated in passing reference to social capital but are particularly appropriate for understanding the weakness of ethics within mainstream economics. An alternative is offered through taking various “entanglements†(such as facts and values) as critical point of departure, leading to the suggestion that ethical systems are subject to the 10 Cs – Constructed, Construed, Conforming, Commodified, Contextual, Contradictory, Closed, Contested, Collective and Chaotic. |
| Keywords: | Economics and ethics, heterodox critique of mainstream, social capital |
| JEL: | A10 A11 A12 A13 B41 B50 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soa:wpaper:176&r=hpe |
| By: | Philippe Aghion; Ufuk Akcigit; Peter Howitt |
| Abstract: | Schumpeterian growth theory has operationalized Schumpeter's notion of creative destruction by developing models based on this concept. These models shed light on several aspects of the growth process which could not be properly addressed by alternative theories. In this survey, we focus on four important aspects, namely: (i) the role of competition and market structure; (ii) firm dynamics; (iii) the relationship between growth and development with the notion of appropriate growth institutions; (iv) the emergence and impact of long-term technological waves. In each case Schumpeterian growth theory delivers predictions that distinguish it from other growth models and which can be tested using micro data. |
| JEL: | O10 O11 O12 O30 O31 O33 O40 O43 O47 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18824&r=hpe |
| By: | Jason Shachat; J. Todd Swarthout |
| Abstract: | We conduct an experiment in which we auction the scarce rights to play the Proposer and Responder positions in subsequent ultimatum games. As a control treatment, we randomly allocate these rights and then charge exogenous participation fees according to the auction price sequences observed in the auction treatment. With endogenous selection into ultimatum games via auctions, we find that play converges to a session-specific Nash equilibrium and auction prices emerge which support this equilibrium by the principle of forward induction. With random assignment and exogenous participation fees, we find play also converges to a session-specific Nash equilibrium as predicted by the principle of loss avoidance. The Nash equilibrium observed within a session results in low ultimatum game offers, but the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium is never observed. |
| Keywords: | Ultimatum Bargaining, Auction, Forward Induction |
| JEL: | C92 C78 D44 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exc:wpaper:2013-01&r=hpe |
| By: | Koshevoy, G.A.; Suzuki, T.; Talman, A.J.J. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we introduce the concept of quasi-building set that may underlie the coalitional structure of a cooperative game with restricted communication between the players. Each feasible coalition, including the set of all players, contains a nonempty subset called the choice set of the coalition. Only players that are in the choice set of a coalition are able to join to feasible subcoalitions to form the coalition and to obtain a marginal contribution. We demonstrate that all restricted communication systems that have been studied in the literature take the form of a quasi-building set for an appropriate set system and choice set. Every quasi-building set determines a nonempty collection of maximal strictly nested sets and each such set induces a rooted tree satisfying that every node of the tree is a player that is in the choice set of the feasible coalition that consists of himself and all his successors in the tree. Each tree corresponds to a marginal vector of the underlying game at which each player gets as payo his marginal contribution when he joins his successors in the tree. As solution concept of a quasi-building set game we propose the average marginal vector (AMV) value, being the average of the marginal vectors that correspond to the trees induced by all maximal strictly nested sets of the quasi-building set. Properties of this solution are also studied. To establish core stability we introduce appropriate convexity conditions of the game with respect to the underlying quasi-building set. For some speci cations of quasi-building sets, the AMV-value coincides with solutions known in the literature, for example, for building set games the solution coincides with the gravity center solution and the Shapley value recently de ned for this class. For graph games it therefore diers from the well-known Myerson value. For a full communication system the solution coincides with the classical Shapley value. |
| Keywords: | Set system;nested set;rooted tree;chain;core;convexity;marginal vector;Shapley value |
| JEL: | C71 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2013012&r=hpe |
| By: | Pillai N., Vijayamohanan; B. P., Asalatha |
| Abstract: | Wellbeing has always eluded definition, and the elusive definition, in turn, has denuded the concept of an objective measure. Attempts at an objective measure have brought out two basic methodological alternatives. The first, objective, measure has come out as the famous Physical Quality of Life Index, developed by the sociologist Morris David Morris in the 1970s, based on the indicators of basic literacy, infant mortality, and life expectancy, and supplanted now by the Human Development Index. The second one, dealing with subjective wellbeing, focuses upon self-reported levels of happiness, pleasure, fulfillment etc. The present paper, in five sections, seeks to review the available objective measures of subjective wellbeing. In particular, section 2 discusses some of the important attempts at measuring wellbeing, especially objective wellbeing in terms of objective indicators. Section 3 details the subjective approach to wellbeing in terms of life satisfaction, represented by measures of global life-satisfaction, affect balance, average domain satisfaction and income. Section 4 presents a list of variables which are correlated with global reports of life satisfaction and happiness, such as smiling frequency, sociability and extraversion, sleep quality, high income, and high income rank in a reference group, active involvement in religion, self-reported health, age, sex, education, etc. Section 5 then reports on the surveys of subjective wellbeing, such as the World Values Survey, the General Social Survey, the Eurobarometer Survey, the Cantril Self-Anchoring Scale, and the Gallup World Poll, and seeks to interpret the scores received. The next section turns to a major concern of researchers in the field, which is whether self-report instruments are valid, whether there are cases wherein people might report that they are happy yet not truly experience high subjective well-being. The section also discusses briefly the recent attempts to mesaure individual welfare in terms of moment-to-moment affect in such approaches as Experience Sampling or the Day Reconstruction Method. |
| Keywords: | Subjective wellbeing; Objective measure; perceptions; life satisfaction surveys; |
| JEL: | B4 D6 I3 |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45005&r=hpe |
| By: | Michael Tomz; Mark L. J. Wright |
| Abstract: | In this essay we review the empirical literature about sovereign debt and default. As we survey the work of economists, historians, and political scientists, we also emphasize parallel developments by theorists and recommend steps to improve the correspondence between theory and data. |
| JEL: | C82 E01 F21 F34 F51 F55 N20 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18855&r=hpe |
| By: | Lazcano, I. C. |
| Abstract: | When we hear about the 2008 Lehman Brothers crisis, immediately we relate it to the concept of "shadow banking system"; however, the credit intermediation involving lightly regulated entities and activities outside the traditional banking system are not new for the European Financial Systems, after all, many innovations developed in the past, were adopted by European nations and exported to the rest of the world (i.e. coinage and central banking), and European innovators unleashed several financial crises related to "shadowy" financial intermediaries (i.e. the Gebroeders de Neufville crisis of 1763). However, despite not many academics, legislators and regulators even agree on what "shadow banking" is, this latter does not refer exclusively to the functions of credit intermediation and maturity transformation. This concept also refers to the creation of assets such as digital media of exchange which are designed under the influence of Friedrich Hayek and the Austrian School of Economics. This lack of a uniform definition of "shadow banking" has limited our regulatory efforts on key issues like the private money creation, a source of vulnerability in the financial system that, paradoxically, at the same time could result in an opportunity to renovate European institutions, heirs of the tradition of the Wisselbank and the Bank of England which, during the seventeenth century, faced monetary innovations and led the European monetary revolution that originated the current monetary and regulatory practices implemented around the world. |
| Keywords: | Europe; shadow banking; world-system; central banking; financial innovation; regulation |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dip:dpaper:2013-05&r=hpe |
| By: | Lars Peter Metzger |
| Abstract: | Second price allpay auctions (wars of attritions) have an evolutionarily stable equilibrium in pure strategies if valuations are private information. I show that for any level of uncertainty there exists a pure deviation strategy close to the equilibrium strategy such that for some valuations the equilibrium strategy has a selective disadvantage against the deviation if the population mainly plays the deviation strategy. There is no deviation strategy with this destabilizing property for all valuations if the distribution of valuations has a monotonic hazard rate. I argue that in the Bayesian game studied here, a mass deviation can be caused by the entry of a small group of agents. Numeric calculations indicate that the closer the deviation strategy to the equilibrium strategy, the less valuations are destabilizing. I show that the equilibrium strategy does not satisfy continuous stability. |
| Keywords: | Continuous strategies; evolutionary stability; war of attrition; strict equilibrium; neighborhood invader strategy; continuous stability; evolutionary robustness |
| JEL: | C72 C73 D44 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0405&r=hpe |
| By: | HASAN, HAMID |
| Abstract: | While research on happiness and capabilities has been growing rapidly, they seldom treated together for useful policy insights. Using a unique self-reported questionnaire about mental well being in the Pakistan Socio-Economic Survey (PSES), we measure Sen’s capabilities (freedom, functionings and efficiency) of “being achieved” and compare them with our happiness indicator of subjective well-being. It is shown that the PSES capability indicators of subjective well-being (SWB) provide distinctive information while together with the happiness indicator they capture additional insights about SWB. We show that capabilities are the most important and stable determinants of happiness. We rank policy units on the basis of capabilities and happiness, which turn out to be quite different from each other, and show that this provides useful policy insight. |
| Keywords: | subjective well being; happiness; capabilities; freedom; functioning; conversion efficiency |
| JEL: | D6 I3 |
| Date: | 2013–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44892&r=hpe |
| By: | Jeanette Brosid-Koch; Timo Heinrich; Christoph Helbach |
| Abstract: | This study tests experimentally whether teams can create synergies in strategic interactions. For our comparison between team and individual behavior we employ the race game. This game has the advantage that the optimal strategy does neither depend on beliefs about other players nor on distributional or efficiency concerns. Our results reveal that teams do not only outperform individuals but that they can also beat the “truth-wins” benchmark. In particular, varying the length of the race game we find that the team advantage increases with the complexity of the game. The latter finding supports the conjectures made by Charness et al. (2010) and Cooper and Kagel (2005), who suggest a relation between task complexity and the size of synergies created by teams. |
| Keywords: | Race game; strategic sophistication; team decision making |
| JEL: | C72 C91 C92 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0396&r=hpe |
| By: | Gerald Eisenkopf; Pascal Sulser |
| Abstract: | We present results from a field experiment at Swiss high schools in which we compare the effectiveness of a classroom experiment against conventional economics teaching. We randomly assigned classes into different teaching environments or a control group. Our results suggest that both teaching methods improve economic understanding considerably in contrast to classes without prior training. We do not observe a significant overall effect of the classroom experiment, but more able students benefit from the experiment while others lose out. Furthermore there is no robust impact of economic training on social preferences, measured as both individual behavior in incentivized decisions or political opinions. |
| Keywords: | Education of Economics, Classroom Experiments, Field Experiments, Indoctrination |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:twi:respas:0080&r=hpe |