|
on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Bögenhold, Dieter; Michaelides, Panayotis G.; Papageorgiou, Theofanis |
| Abstract: | As we know, Joseph Alois Schumpeter is one of the greatest economists of all times, while Thorstein Veblen is an economist and sociologist who made seminal contributions to the social sciences. Pierre Bourdieu, meanwhile, is one of the most famous structural sociologists, who has consistently worked on economic dynamics. These three scholars have laid the foundations of a socioeconomic perspective. However, several important aspects of their works remain less widely discussed, or even inadequately explored in a comparative manner. Of course, investigating the origins of their ideas in evolutionary and institutional economics and re-evaluating comparatively the influences that shaped their works is quite useful for promoting dialogue between Economics and Sociology. Within this framework, this essay focuses on the conceptual relationship between Schumpeter, Veblen and Bourdieu. Evolution and Change shape the economic life in their respective works and, in such a framework a central point of their analyses is the interdependence between the cultural, social and economic spheres. Furthermore, an economic sociology is built around the concept of habit formation. The three great authors’ systemic views focus on the various institutions and other aspects of cultural, social and economic life, where habits are formed and cover diverse fields and notions such as Consumption, Preferences, Art, Knowledge, Banking and even Capitalism. For instance, all three social scientists acknowledged the fact that the internal dynamics of capitalism introduce structural instabilities into the economic system. Also, they recognized that research and knowledge development is a collective social process. However, from a methodological perspective, their main emphasis is on the emerging dynamic evolution of habits, which is perceived as the interruption of already existing social norms and the conflict between routine and change. Several differences between Schumpeter, Veblen and Bourdieu are observed and analysed and ideas for future research are presented. |
| Keywords: | Schumpeter, Veblen, Bourdieu, Habits, Consumption, Capitalism |
| JEL: | B15 B25 B31 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:74585&r=hpe |
| By: | Abdulkader Cassim Mahomedy |
| Abstract: | This paper follows on from the previous one in this series on the incursion of rationalist thought into Christendom. In this paper, I show how the sequence of socio-political events in Europe at the turn of the 16th century provided an opportunistic environment for rationalism to supplant religion as the dominant paradigm for human thought. It gave birth to the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and their nemesis, the Romantic Movement. All of them sought to assert the primacy of human agency in the process of knowledge generation. But from inception, scientific thought itself was split between the competing claims of both intellectualism and empiricism. After discussing the key features of each episteme, I show how despite considerable efforts in the occidental world to reconcile this bifurcation, none has produced a satisfying synthesis. This dichotomy now abides not only within the individual psyche but also across the entirety of the socio-scientific enterprise and all of its institutions and artefacts. Its implications have been previously described as a watershed in the history of humankind, instituting an intellectual crisis of great import. More importantly for this study, I then juxtapose some of these outcomes vis-Ã -vis the agenda of Islamic economics and finance, to demonstrate the inherent dissonance between the two systems of thought. Lastly, I introduce the reader to the third and last part of this study, to appear in another edition of this series, where I demonstrate that when mainstream economics fell under the grip of rationalist philosophy, it suffered, as a result, the same fate of atomisation and methodological individualism |
| Keywords: | Epistemology, intellectualism, empiricism, Economics, Islamic economics  |
| JEL: | E42 |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:632&r=hpe |
| By: | Oleg Morozov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article traces the origins of the Humboldt myth. It challenges the established view that the myth arose during the celebrations of the centenary of Berlin University in 1910, demonstrating that this view is not confirmed by sources. First, the article examines the speeches delivered by the participants in the 1910 jubilee celebrations and concludes that they could not have provided the basis for the Humboldt myth because they mention Humboldt no more frequently than the names of other prominent scientists, and the brief assessments of his activities are too vague to warrant judgements about his contribution to the development of higher education. Second, the article analyzes the works of German philosophers and educators of the early twentieth century and stresses that the sources of the Humboldt myth go back mainly to works written before 1910, had nothing to do with the centenary of Berlin University and were influenced by Humboldt’s note On the Internal and External Organization of the Higher Scientific Institutions in Berlin published in 1903. The article concludes that the traditional view of the origin of the Humboldt myth needs to be re-examined: the myth was born before 1910 and the centenary of Berlin University was only one channel for asserting and spreading it |
| Keywords: | Wilhelm von Humboldt, Berlin University, Humboldt myth, history of universities, higher education, academic community, jubilee, 1910 |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:134/hum/2016&r=hpe |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)); Sarah Flèche (Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science); Claudia Senik (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), UP4 - Université Paris-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | In spite of the great U-turn that saw income inequality rise in Western countries in the 1980s, happiness inequality has fallen in countries that have experienced income growth (but not in those that did not). Modern growth has reduced the share of both the “very unhappy” and the “perfectly happy”. Lower happiness inequality is found both between and within countries, and between and within individuals. Our cross-country regression results argue that the extension of various public goods helps to explain this greater happiness homogeneity. This new stylised fact arguably comes as a bonus to the Easterlin paradox, offering a somewhat brighter perspective for developing countries. |
| Keywords: | development,economic growth,inequality,Happiness,Easterlin paradox |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01080877&r=hpe |
| By: | Damien Besancenot (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - Université Paris 13 - USPC - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Radu Vranceanu (Economics Department - Essec Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the production of fundamental research as a coordination game played by scholars. In the model, scholars decide to adopt a new idea only if they believe that a critical mass of peers is following a similar research strategy. If researchers observe only a noisy idiosyncratic signal of the true scientifi c potential of a new idea, we show that the game presents a single threshold equilibrium. In this environment, fundamental research proceeds with large structural breaks followed by long periods of time in which new ideas are unsuccessful. The likelihood of a new idea emerging depends on various parameters, including the rewards of working in the old paradigm, the critical mass of researchers required to create a new school of thought and scholars ability to properly assess the scientifi c value of new ideas. |
| Keywords: | Global games,Scienti c discovery,Strategic complementarity,Strategic un- certainty,Economics of science |
| Date: | 2014–12–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01117929&r=hpe |
| By: | Mastrogiorgio, Antonio; Petracca, Enrico |
| Abstract: | The current notions of bounded rationality in economics share distinctive features with Simon’s original notion, which still influences the theoretical and experimental research in the fields of choice, judgment, decision making, problem solving, and social cognition. All these notions of bounded rationality are in fact equally rooted in the information-processing approach to human cognition, expressing the view that reasoning is disembodied and that it can be reduced to the processing of abstract symbolic representations of the environment. This is in contrast with the last three-decade advancements in cognitive psychology, where a new view on human cognition has emerged under the general label of ‘embodied cognition’, demonstrating that cognition and reasoning are grounded in the morphological traits of the human body and the sensory-motor system. In this paper we argue that embodied cognition might reform the current notions of bounded rationality and we propose a number of arguments devoted to outline a novel program of research under the label of ‘embodied rationality’: (1) reasoning is situated as it arises from the ongoing interaction between the subject and the environment; (2) reasoning, not being exclusively a mental phenomenon, constitutively relies on the physical resources provided by the environment; (3) the sensory-motor system provides the building blocks for abstract reasoning, (4) automatic thinking is rooted in the evolutionary coupling between the morphological traits of the human body and the environment. |
| Keywords: | Bounded rationality; embodied cognition; Herbert A. Simon; ecological rationality; heuristics and biases |
| JEL: | A12 B40 D03 D04 D80 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:74658&r=hpe |
| By: | Petri, Fabio (Università degli Studi di Siena (University of Siena)) |
| Abstract: | Pierangelo Garegnani has argued that the value capital endowment could have been avoided in Knut Wicksell’s long-period general equilibrium in Value, Capital and Rent (1898); the capital endowment might have been speci-fied as an amount of labour embodied in the economy’s stock of capital goods, which would have avoided the vi-cious circle of a factor endowment dependent on the prices the equilibrium must determine. The paper argues that this thesis cannot be accepted. |
| Keywords: | capital endowment; long-period general equilibrium; Wicksell; Garegnani |
| JEL: | B13 D50 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:sraffa:0011&r=hpe |
| By: | Ariane Lambert-Mogiliansky (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), PSE - Paris School of Economics); Ismael Martinez-Martinez (DUCE - Dusseldorf Institute for Competition Economics - Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf [Düsseldorf]) |
| Abstract: | We develop a framework for the analysis of strategic interactions under the constructive preference perspective à la Kahneman and Tversky formalized in the Type Indeterminacy model. The players are modeled as systems subject to measurements and characterized by quantum-like uncertain preferences. The decision nodes are modeled as, possibly non-commuting, operators that measure preferences modulo strategic reasoning. We define a Hilbert space of types spanned by the players' eigentypes representing their potential preferences in different situations. We focus on pure strategy TI games of maximal information where all uncertainty stems from the intrinsic indeterminacy of preferences. We show that preferences evolve in a non-deterministic manner with actions along the play: they are endogenous to the interaction. We propose the notion of cashing-on-the-go to compute a player's utility, and the Type Indeterminate Nash Equilibrium as a solution concept relying on best-replies at the level of the eigentypes. We illustrate an example exhibiting the phenomenon of the manipulation of rivals' preferences. |
| Keywords: | Hilbert space of types,Type Indeterminacy,Superposition of preferences,Actions as projections,Cashing-on-the-go,Type Indeterminate Nash Equilibrium |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01095472&r=hpe |
| By: | Sebastien Broca (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - Université Paris 13 - USPC - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Cet article cherche à mettre en lien l'évolution de l'économie numérique au cours des années 2000 avec deux critiques qui lui ont été successivement adressées : la critique de la propriétarisation de l'information et la critique du digital labour. Je m'appuie pour cela sur le cadre théorique proposé par Luc Boltanski et Ève Chiapello, qui montrent dans Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme qu'il existe un jeu dialectique permanent, en vertu duquel ce qui nie le capitalisme à un moment donné devient ultérieurement une nouvelle ressource pour son affirmation symbolique et matérielle. L'hypothèse de l'article est ainsi que la critique de la propriétarisation de l'information, portée par les acteurs du logiciel libre, des Creative Commons ou de l'open access, a été largement incorporée par l'économie numérique, comme le montre le succès actuel de business models reposant moins sur l'appropriation privative des ressources informationnelles que sur la participation gracieuse des utilisateurs à la création de valeur. Cette « incorporation » a ouvert la voix à un deuxième type de critique, celle du digital labour, qui ne porte plus sur les entraves à la circulation de l'information et du savoir, mais sur les formes de travail et les modalités de répartition de la valeur qui sont au cœur du (nouveau) capitalisme numérique. L'article analyse les ressorts (et certaines limites) de cette deuxième critique d'inspiration marxiste, qui substitue à un discours axé sur les libertés individuelles et le droit un discours centré sur le travail et les structures économiques. |
| Keywords: | logiciel libre,digital labour,critique,capitalisme numérique,Chiapello,Boltanski |
| Date: | 2015–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01137521&r=hpe |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Two behavioural explanations of the Easterlin Paradox are commonly advanced. The first appeals to social comparisons, whereby individual i compares her income (Yit) to a comparison income level earned by some other individual or group j (Y*jt). The second explanation is that of adaptation to higher levels of income. This is of the same nature, but here the individual’s current income is compared to her own income in the past (i.e. Yit is compared to Yit-τ, for some positive value or values of τ). The first of these explanations has attracted far more empirical attention than has the second. This is probably for data-availability reasons, as the investigation of the latter requires panel information. There is also a suspicion that large changes in Yit might be accompanied by a movement in some other variable that is also correlated with subjective well-being. We here review the empirical evidence that individuals do indeed compare current to past income, and then whether individuals adapt in general to aspects of their economic and social life. Last, we ask whether adaptation is in fact a viable explanation of the Easterlin Paradox. |
| Keywords: | Income,Adaptation,Easterlin Paradox |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01112725&r=hpe |
| By: | Hasan, Zubair |
| Abstract: | Islamic economics has of late landed in confusion and neglect and much concern is being voiced on this state of affairs. The divergence of views on various aspects of the subject tends to grow, cohesive efforts are missing. It is in this context that the present paper takes a look at the nature and significance of Islamic economics and examines the issues of its definition, nature and scope, the questions of methods and methodology, system approach, the problems that seems to hinder its growth, the challenges Islamic economics faces today and how the same can be faced. Since the differences between the Islamic and mainstream economic disciplines stem from the divergent worldviews that condition them, the discussion opens on the topic as background material. This paper is a part of draft Chapter of a book under preparation on Islamic economics and finance. Comments and suggestions are welcome but the paper or its parts cannot be put to any commercial or unfair use. |
| Keywords: | Islamic economics, Worldview, Methodology, Economic systems, Problems challenges. JEL. B10, B30, G20, K40, K20. |
| JEL: | B10 B30 G20 K20 K40 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:74763&r=hpe |
| By: | Phiilippe Gillig |
| Abstract: | Many German historical economists have denounced classical political economy’s pretension to establish abstract universal laws. This paper seeks to defend John Stuart Mill against this criticism. It argues that, contrary to what these authors alleged, they have a great deal more in common with Mill on this topic than they were willing to realise. In fact, from a methodological as well as a political perspective, their views on relativity regarding both economic laws and the laissez-faire principle are very similar to those of Mill’s.. |
| Keywords: | German historical economics, H. Roesler, G. Schmoller, J. S. Mill, natural laws, epistemology, laissez-faire. |
| JEL: | B12 B15 B40 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2016-43&r=hpe |
| By: | Sofía Correa; Juan Pablo Torres-Martínez |
| Abstract: | We characterize the existence and the essential stability of Weak Pareto-Nash and Pareto-Nash equilibria in multi-objective generalized games with a continuum of players. |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp430&r=hpe |
| By: | Wälde, Klaus (University of Mainz); Moors, Agnes (KU Leuven) |
| Abstract: | Positive and negative feelings were central to the development of economics, especially in utility theory in classical economics. While neoclassical utility theory ignored feelings, behavioral economics more recently reintroduced feelings in utility theory. Beyond feelings, economic theorists use full-fledged specific emotions to explain behavior that otherwise could not be understood or they study emotions out of interest for the emotion itself. While some analyses display a strong overlap between psychological thinking and economic modelling, in most cases there is still a large gap between economic and psychological approaches to emotion research. Ways how to reduce this gap are discussed. |
| Keywords: | emotions, decision making, theory |
| JEL: | A12 B0 D03 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10261&r=hpe |
| By: | Glenn Dutcher; Daniela Glätzle-Rützler; Dmitry Ryvkin |
| Abstract: | Contests are meant to attract the best performers and incentivize high effort, however, they may also attract cheaters who try to win via illicit means which crowds out the best performers. We use a laboratory experiment to explore the role of self-selection in contests with a possibility of lying in a real effort task. Contrary to common wisdom, we do not find evidence that contests disproportionately attract intrinsic cheaters. However, we find that contests fail at selecting the best performers, as no difference is observed in the actual or perceived ability of those who selected into the contest versus those who selected into a comparable noncompetitive pay scheme. Classification-JEL: D02, K42, M52, C90 |
| Keywords: | contest, cheating, entry, experiment |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2016-29&r=hpe |
| By: | Kuzmin, Evgeny A. |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article - more precisely definition for the approach to a quantitative assessment of the system uncertainty in view of identified methodological assumptions. According to academic ideas in today's economic studies, all cases of represented uncertainty are usually divided into three groups, i.e. the environmental uncertainty, the decision-making uncertainty and the uncertainty of consequences from made decisions. Such kinds of unpredictability only cover a part of an economic cooperation. There are aspects in place that go beyond the conventional view. Their synthesis through the prism of the system uncertainty is a pressing research objective. Prerequisites have been identified that contribute into method justification and specify the requirements to it; an approach to the estimation has been presented in a formalized way with a specified number of essential points. The content of common uncertainty errors has been also revealed. In the approach development, as a result, existing uncertainty circles (cycles) have been recognised. |
| Keywords: | System uncertainty, Group of polensive entropy, Group of singular entropy, Uncertainty circle. |
| JEL: | D81 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:74665&r=hpe |
| By: | Alexandre Skoda (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Let G = (N,E,w ) be a weighted communication graph (with weight function w on E ). For every subset A ⊆ N, we delete in the subset E (A ) of edges with ends in A, all edges of minimum weight in E (A ). Then the connected components of the corresponding induced subgraph constitue a partition of A that we Pmin(A ). For every game (N , v ), we define the Pmin-restricted game (N , v ) by v (A = ∑F∈ Pmin (A) v(F ) for all A ⊆ N. We prove that we can decide in polynomial time if there is inheritance of F-convexity from N , v ) to the Pmin-restricted game (N , v ) where F-convexity is obtained by restricting convexity to connected subsets |
| Keywords: | graph, complexity, supermodularity, partitions,communication networks, cooperative game, convex game,restricted game |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01382502&r=hpe |
| By: | Jean-François Laslier (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This theoretical paper contrasts two voting heuristics: overstating and replacing. Under the Alternative Vote, overstatement is inefficient but replacement is efficient. The paper argues that the “replacing" manipulation corresponds to a psychologically and politically plausible voter behavior. |
| Keywords: | Alternative vote,Manipulation,Behavioral voting |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01168670&r=hpe |
| By: | David Freeman (Simon Fraser University) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a novel way of distinguishing whether a person is naïve or sophisticated about their own dynamic inconsistency using only their task completion behaviour. I show that adding an extra opportunity to complete the task that goes unused can lead a naïve (but not a sophisticated) person to complete it even later, and can lead a sophisticated (but not a naïve) person to complete the task even earlier. These results provide the framework for revealing the preference and sophistication types studied in O’Donoghue and Rabin (1999) from behaviour in a generalization of their environment. |
| Keywords: | sophistication, naïveté, procrastination, preproperation, task completion, present bias, time inconsistency |
| JEL: | D03 D84 D90 |
| Date: | 2016–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp16-11&r=hpe |
| By: | Mark Schelker |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2016-07&r=hpe |
| By: | Matias Nunez (Thema, Université de Cergy-Pontoise - THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - Université de Cergy Pontoise - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jean-François Laslier (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The paper considers two-person bargaining under Approval Voting. It first proves the existence of pure strategy equilibria. Then it shows that this bargaining method ensures that both players obtain at least their average and median utility level in equilibrium. Finally it proves that, provided that the players are partially honest, the mechanism triggers sincerity and ensures that no alternative Pareto dominates the outcome of the game. |
| Keywords: | Two-agents,Approval Voting,Efficiency,Partial Honesty |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01168675&r=hpe |
| By: | Özak, Ömer |
| Abstract: | This research explores the effects of the geographical distance to the pre-industrial technological frontier on economic development. It establishes theoretically and empirically that there exists a persistent non-monotonic effect of distance to the frontier on development. In particular, exploiting a novel measure of the travel time to the technological frontier and variations in its location during the pre-industrial era, it establishes a robust persistent U-shaped relation between the distance to the pre-industrial technological frontier and economic development. Moreover, it demonstrates that isolation from the frontier has had a positive cumulative effect on innovation and entrepreneurial activity levels, suggesting isolation may have fostered the emergence of a culture conducive to innovation, knowledge creation, and entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | E02, F15, F43, N10, N70, O11, O14, O31, O33, Z10 |
| JEL: | E02 F15 F43 N10 O10 O11 O14 O25 O31 O33 Z10 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:74737&r=hpe |
| By: | Corneo, Giacomo (Free University of Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Current trends in the distribution of wealth trigger a social divide and threaten democracy in many advanced economies. I propose to counter this evolution by enhancing the role of public capital as a redistribution and empowerment device. The governance of public capital requires two novel institutions: a socially responsible Sovereign Wealth Fund and a Federal Shareholder. This paper offers an account of their possible design and sources of financing. |
| Keywords: | public ownership, redistribution |
| JEL: | H0 H5 |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp115&r=hpe |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), PSE - Paris School of Economics); Akiko Kamesaka (Aoyama Gakuin University, ESRIN - European State Research Institute - ESA); Teruyuki Tamura (Sophia University - Sophia University) |
| Abstract: | It is commonly-believed that education is a good thing for individuals. Yet its correlation with subjective well-being is most often only weakly positive, or even negative, despite the many associated better individual-level outcomes We here square the circle using novel Japanese data on happiness aspirations. If reported happiness comes from a comparison of outcomes to aspirations, then any phenomenon raising both at the same time will have only a muted effect on reported well-being. We find that around half of the happiness effect of education is cancelled out by higher aspirations, and suggest a similar dampening effect for income. |
| Keywords: | Education,Satisfaction,Aspirations,Income |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01122749&r=hpe |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | There is much discussion about using subjective well-being measures as inputs into a social welfare function, which will tell us how well societies are doing. But we have (many) more than one measure of subjective well-being. I here consider examples of the three of the main types (life satisfaction, affect, and eudaimonia) in three European surveys. These are quite strongly correlated with each other, and are correlated with explanatory variables in pretty much the same manner. I provide an overview of a recent literature which has compared how well different subjective well-being measures predict future behaviour, and address the issue of the temporality of well-being measures, and whether they should be analysed ordinally or cardinally. |
| Keywords: | Measurement,Predicting behaviour,Affect,Eudaimonia,Subjective well-being,Life satisfaction |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01134483&r=hpe |