scholarly journals Persisting inequality: A case of probabilistic drive towards divergence

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Maialeh

The aim of the study is to prove that agents organised by market forces tend to create and even more so deepen economic disparities over time. Empirical studies do not reliably describe the trend and causes of interpersonal global inequality in recent decades. Hence, the attention is turned to general economic theory with inspiration from Schumpeterian and neoclassical theories. The results indicate that pure market economy logic will tend to lead to multi-level divergence.

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 265-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Thornton

The word entrepreneur originally meant someone who is active, risky, and even violent. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was used to denote a contractor who built large structures and fortifications for the government or provided supplies for the military for a contracted price but largely uncertain future costs. In contrast, Cantillon (1755) defined the entrepreneur as someone buying goods and resources at current market prices to be sold in the future at uncertain prices. His definition was adopted by the leading French economists of the time, and as a result it eventually became the common usage of the term, as will be seen in a sample of French dictionaries over time. In this remarkable and largely unrecognized transformation, Cantillon essentially turned the word upside down. Cantillon’s entrepreneur was self-regulating on the basis of profit and loss, and thus became the foundation on which he was able to construct theories and models of the market economy, which we know as economic theory. His definition is essentially that of Frank Knight and Ludwig von Mises, so it has important implications for the development of the Chicago and Austrian schools of economics.


Author(s):  
Robert Sugden

Chapter 8 asks what properties a market economy must have if it is to be psychologically stable—that is, if it is to reproduce a general belief that its governing principles are fair. I argue that, because of the division of knowledge and because the opportunities open to each person depend on how other people choose to use their opportunities, full equality of opportunity is not compatible with a market economy. Psychological stability has to rest on continuing expectations of mutual benefit, defined relative to a baseline that evolves over time and that cannot be justified in terms of abstract principles of fairness. However, if the market is to be recommended to each individual separately, each individual must be able to expect to share in the benefits that markets create. Maintaining such expectations typically requires redistributive mechanisms.


Organizational contradictions and process studies offer interwoven and complementary insights. Studies of dialectics, paradox, and dualities depict organizational contradictions that are oppositional as well as interrelated such that they persistently morph and shift over time. Studies of process often examine how contradictions fuel emergent, dynamic systems and stimulate novelty, adaptation, and transformation. Drawing from rich conversations at the Eighth International Symposium on Process Organization Studies, the contributors to this volume unpack these relationships in more depth. The chapters explore three main, connected themes through both conceptual and empirical studies, including (1) offering insight into how process theorizing advances understandings of organizational contradictions; (2) shedding light on how dialectics, paradoxes, and dualities fuel organizational processes that affect persistence and transformation; and (3) exploring the convergence and divergence of dialectics, paradox, and dualities lenses. Taken together, this book offers key insights in order to inform persistent, contradictory dynamics in organizations and organizational studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergei P. Sidorov ◽  
Sergei V. Mironov ◽  
Alexey A. Grigoriev

AbstractMany empirical studies have shown that in social, citation, collaboration, and other types of networks in real world, the degree of almost every node is less than the average degree of its neighbors. This imbalance is well known in sociology as the friendship paradox and states that your friends are more popular than you on average. If we introduce a value equal to the ratio of the average degree of the neighbors for a certain node to the degree of this node (which is called the ‘friendship index’, FI), then the FI value of more than 1 for most nodes indicates the presence of the friendship paradox in the network. In this paper, we study the behavior of the FI over time for networks generated by growth network models. We will focus our analysis on two models based on the use of the preferential attachment mechanism: the Barabási–Albert model and the triadic closure model. Using the mean-field approach, we obtain differential equations describing the dynamics of changes in the FI over time, and accordingly, after obtaining their solutions, we find the expected values of this index over iterations. The results show that the values of FI are decreasing over time for all nodes in both models. However, for networks constructed in accordance with the triadic closure model, this decrease occurs at a much slower rate than for the Barabási–Albert graphs. In addition, we analyze several real-world networks and show that their FI distributions follow a power law. We show that both the Barabási–Albert and the triadic closure networks exhibit the same behavior. However, for networks based on the triadic closure model, the distributions of FI are more heavy-tailed and, in this sense, are closer to the distributions for real networks.


IMP Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malena Ingemansson Havenvid ◽  
Elsebeth Holmen ◽  
Åse Linné ◽  
Ann-Charlott Pedersen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship continuity across projects among actors in the construction industry, and to discuss why and how such continuity takes place. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on the results from four in-depth case studies illustrating different strategies for pursuing relationship continuity. The results are analysed and discussed in light of the oft-mentioned strategies suggested by Mintzberg (1987): emergent, deliberate and deliberately emergent strategies. Furthermore, the ARA-model is used to discuss why the relationship continuity strategies are pursued, and which factors might enable and constrain the relationship continuity. Findings The main findings are twofold. First, the authors found that the strategy applied for pursuing relationship continuity may, in one-time period, contain one type of strategy or a mix of strategy types. Second, the type of strategy may evolve over time, from one type of strategy being more pronounced in one period, to other strategies being more pronounced in later periods. The strategies applied by construction firms and their counterparts can thus contain elements of emergent, deliberate and deliberately emergent strategies, in varying degrees over time. It is also shown that the strategies of the involved actors co-evolve as a result of interaction. Also, the main reasons for pursuing continuity appear to lie in the re-use and development of important resources and activities across projects to create efficiency and the possibility to develop mutual orientation, commitment and trust over time, and thus reduce uncertainty. Research limitations/implications Further empirical studies are needed to support the findings. For managers, the main implication is that relationship continuity can arise as part of an emerging interaction pattern between firms or as part of a planned strategy, but that elements of both might be needed to sustain it. Originality/value The authors combine Mintzberg’s strategy concepts with the ARA-model to bring new light to the widely debated issue of discontinuity and fragmentation in the construction industry.


Vestnik NSUEM ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 22-34
Author(s):  
V. Z. Balikoev

The article analyzes and criticizes a vicious practice of the economists who attribute the ideas to the eminent economists who didn’t elaborate those ideas.The practice existed in the 19th and 20th centuries. It does exist today. It has done a huge damage to the development of economic theory and certain and specific economic sciences. Especially in the last century Keynesianism was at the receiving end since it clearly defined the watershed between the obsolete but die-hard «laissez-faire» economic theory – «invisible hand of the market»,free competition and government management of the economy.In this regard the economic theory constantly faces the question of certain «Keynesianism crisis», allegedly indicative of obsolescence of Keynesianism as economic theory.The article on the contrary proves that «Keynesianism crisis» is far-fetched and of ideological nature. Keynesianism itself is relevant today, more than ever, especially in the conditions of Russia, where, according to invincible belief of the author,state-directed market economy named state capitalism is being formed slowly and surely.


Author(s):  
Samuel Muehlemann ◽  
Stefan Wolter

The economic reasons why firms engage in apprenticeship training are twofold. First, apprenticeship training is a potentially cost-effective strategy for filling a firm’s future vacancies, particularly if skilled labor on the external labor market is scarce. Second, apprentices can be cost-effective substitutes for other types of labor in the current production process. As current and expected business and labor market conditions determine a firm’s expected work volume and thus its future demand for skilled labor, they are potentially important drivers of a firm’s training decisions. Empirical studies have found that the business cycle affects apprenticeship markets. However, while the economic magnitude of these effects is moderate on average, there is substantial heterogeneity across countries, even among those that at first sight seem very similar in terms of their apprenticeship systems. Moreover, identification of business cycle effects is a difficult task. First, statistics on apprenticeship markets are often less developed than labor market statistics, making empirical analyses of demand and supply impossible in many cases. In particular, data about unfilled apprenticeship vacancies and unsuccessful applicants are paramount for assessing potential market failures and analyzing the extent to which business cycle fluctuations may amplify imbalances in apprenticeship markets. Second, the intensity of business cycle effects on apprenticeship markets is not completely exogenous, as governments typically undertake a variety of measures, which differ across countries and may change over time, to reduce the adverse effects of economic downturns on apprenticeship markets. During the economic crisis related to the COVID-19 global pandemic, many countries took unprecedented actions to support their economies in general and reacted swiftly to introduce measures such as the provision of financial subsidies for training firms or the establishment of apprenticeship task forces. As statistics on apprenticeship markets improve over time, such heterogeneity in policy measures should be exploited to improve our understanding of the business cycle and its relationship with apprenticeships.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-50
Author(s):  
Markus Krienke

Abstract Putting the economic and social–ethical thought of Rosmini in relationship to the German tradition of social market economy, either a pertinent collocation of the liberal catholic thinker Rosmini or new perspectives for the concept of social market economy, which is in search for a new identity, have been made. The justification of this paper lies in the fact that Rosmini introduced the idea of social justice right in the sense of social market economy, on the one hand, and in the way in which the late 19th-centrury economic theory in Italy received his economic thought, on the other hand. Hence, despite his theoretical and cultural distance from Röpke, both have many interesting economic reflections in common.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Gonzalez Ollauri ◽  
Slobodan Mickovski ◽  
Rohinton Emmanuel ◽  
Albert Sorolla Edo

<p>Live cribwalls are Nature-based solutions consisting of timber-based structures acting as retention walls at the toe of slopes and embankments subjected to instability and erosion events. The structure of live cribwalls resembles a multi-level crib made of timber logs from different plant species (e.g. pine, spruce, hazelnut, etc.). The crib structure is then backfilled with earth materials in which locally-available plant cuttings and/or saplings are inserted to establish a dense cover of native vegetation, providing added reinforcement and stability to the cribwall over time; particularly after the complete decay of the timber structure is reached. However, the effect of vegetation on the reinforcement of live cribwalls has not been examined systematically. Information on how vegetation can contribute to reinforce cribwalls hydrologically and mechanically is essential to evaluate the long-term performance of these Nature-based solutions against hydro-meteorological hazards. In this study, we propose a novel conceptual, numerical model based on empirical knowledge to evaluate the reinforcement effect of vegetation on live cribwalls over time. We also demonstrate how the proposed model can be applied to other Nature-based solutions concerned with slope protection and erosion control, such as live gratings or palisades.</p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 331-354
Author(s):  
Lambrianos Nikiforidis

This chapter examines paternal relationships with sons and daughters. Identity drives investment (and parental investment in particular), because people invest in that which aligns with their identity. And biological sex drives identity. These two ideas combined imply that a parent-offspring match in biological sex can influence parental favoritism in a systematic manner, an idea supported by recent empirical studies. This parental bias of concordant-sex favoritism can have broad implications, outside the context of the traditional family structure. In single parent or same-sex parent households, the consequences of this bias can be even stronger, because there would not be an opposite-direction bias from the other parent to even things out. This favoritism could have even broader ramifications, entirely outside the context of the family. On the one hand, whenever social norms dictate that men should control a family’s financial decisions, then sons may systematically receive more resources than daughters. This asymmetry in investment would then result in ever-increasing advantages that persist over time. On the other hand, if women are a family’s primary shoppers, this can manifest in subtle but chronic favoritism for daughters.


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