Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Rational economic agents'

This study tests whether if heuristics affect the decisions of an economic agent. Through different sets of lottery games conducted on students, the participants made choices between an uncertain asset and a risk-free asset. Instead of the classical approach, I chose to relate the uncertain asset to a financial asset and the risk-free asset to a cash payment placed in a savings account. The game contained a total of six rounds, where the participants made choices on different level of risk for the first three rounds. In the remaining three rounds the participants made choices on the same level of risk do distinguish if past experience affected their risk preference. The experimental results show that when the risk environment change, participants in the low risk environment became more risk averse, as oppose to participants in the high risk environment. The results also show that when exposed to avolatile environment, participants tend to switch to the safe option earlier compared to when stakes are low. However, when the participants made choices on the same level of risk, the switch from the lottery to the safe option did not differ between the participants. In other words, past experience did not seem to aect the valuation of the asset. In this experiment, women tend to be more risk averse than men. On average, women switched to the safe option earlier than the men.

The new classical school's dominance of mainstream economic thought in recent years has brought with it the associated adoption of rational economic agents ( in the Muthian sense) by mainstream economists. This thesis challenges this underlying assumption of human behaviour in the context of the non-durable consumption expenditure decision making process. In doing so, our attention will be placed upon the weak or more general form of the hypothesis, which has come to be known as optimisation. We employ a behavioural methodology in an attempt to ascertain if individuals adhere to the optimising or satisficing model of human behaviour. In doing so time will be spent examining the bounded rationality hypothesis. We also employ a behavioural methodology in producing a non-durable consumption function that is econometrically comparable with an optimising model of non-durable consumption expenditure (namely the permanent income rational expectations hypothesis). The micro results produced in this thesis suggest that the respondents surveyed from non-durable consumption expenditure decisions that are sub-optimal in nature. The formation of these sub-tropical expenditure decisions appear to be a consequence of the cognitive constraints faced by our respondents, which in turn provides empirical support for the bounded rationality hypothesis. On a macro level, our behavioural consumption function generates results that are comparable with those produced by the optimising model employed in this thesis. Our results also question the rational expectations permanent income hypothesis (as it is usually applied), despite making adjustments to the model which remove the underlying assumption of known, constant real interest use
Master of Commerce (Hons)

The new classical school's dominance of mainstream economic thought in recent years has brought with it the associated adoption of rational economic agents ( in the Muthian sense) by mainstream economists. This thesis challenges this underlying assumption of human behaviour in the context of the non-durable consumption expenditure decision making process. In doing so, our attention will be placed upon the weak or more general form of the hypothesis, which has come to be known as optimisation. We employ a behavioural methodology in an attempt to ascertain if individuals adhere to the optimising or satisficing model of human behaviour. In doing so time will be spent examining the bounded rationality hypothesis. We also employ a behavioural methodology in producing a non-durable consumption function that is econometrically comparable with an optimising model of non-durable consumption expenditure (namely the permanent income rational expectations hypothesis). The micro results produced in this thesis suggest that the respondents surveyed from non-durable consumption expenditure decisions that are sub-optimal in nature. The formation of these sub-tropical expenditure decisions appear to be a consequence of the cognitive constraints faced by our respondents, which in turn provides empirical support for the bounded rationality hypothesis. On a macro level, our behavioural consumption function generates results that are comparable with those produced by the optimising model employed in this thesis. Our results also question the rational expectations permanent income hypothesis (as it is usually applied), despite making adjustments to the model which remove the underlying assumption of known, constant real interest use

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2012.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
This dissertation ties together three papers on mechanism design with boundedly rational agents. These papers explore theoretically whether, and to what extent, limitations on agents' ability to strategically misrepresent their preferences can help a mechanism designer achieve outcomes that she could not achieve with perfectly rational agents. The first chapter investigates whether local incentive constraints are sufficient to logically imply full incentive-compatibility, in a variety of mechanism design settings. This can be motivated by a boundedly rational model in which agents cannot contemplate all possible misrepresentations, but can consider those that are close to their true preferences. This chapter offers a unified approach that covers both continuous and discrete type spaces, showing that in many commonly studied cases, local incentive-compatibility (suitably defined) implies full incentive-compatibility. The second chapter advances the methodology of looking quantitatively at incentives for strategic behavior, motivated by the premise that agents will be truthful if the incentive to be strategic is small enough. This chapter defines a mechanism's susceptibility to manipulation as the maximum amount of expected utility any agent can ever gain from strategic misrepresntation. This measure of susceptibility is then applied to anonymous voting rules. One set of results estimates the susceptibility of specific voting rules; an important finding is that several voting systems previously identified as resistant to manipulation are actually more susceptible than simple plurality rule, by the measure proposed here. A second set of results gives asymptotic lower bounds on susceptibility for any possible voting rule, under various combinations of efficiency, regularity, and informational conditions. These results illustrate how one can quantitatively explore the tradeoffs between susceptibility and other properties of the voting rule. The third chapter carries the methodology of the second chapter to a market environment: unit-demand, private-value double auction markets. This chapter quantitatively studies the tradeoff between inefficiency and susceptibility to manipulation, among all possible mechanisms for such markets. The main result approximately locates the possibility frontier, pinning it down within a factor that is logarithmic in the size of the market.
by Gabriel D. Carroll.
Ph.D.

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CNPQ – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
Este trabalho investiga a pretensão da Análise Econômica do Direito Penal em contribuir na maneira pela qual o Direito se relaciona com a sociedade contemporânea. Aquela se sustenta na utilização de instrumentos de análise da Ciência Econômica a respeito do comportamento dos seres humanos em sociedade. Investiga o efeito dos incentivos (em um sentido amplo), mensurando as respostas dos "agentes racionais" (mesmo com racionalidade limitada). Nesse contexto, a intenção das análises econômicas consiste em complexificar a perspectiva jurídica a respeito do comportamento humano, no sentido de encontrar melhor responsividade social em relação ao ordenamento jurídico, sobretudo fazendo uso de pesquisas empíricas. Assim, partindo de uma reconstrução da Análise Econômica do Direito Penal, desde o texto seminal de Gary Becker (1968), a pesquisa discute os avanços internos daquela perspectiva, assim como os aportes provenientes da Economia Comportamental. Esse enfoque é assumido em razão de, por si só, a Economia Comportamental (da mesma maneira que as análises empíricas) ser capaz de auxiliar na construção/evolução da dogmática do Direito. Por fim, investiga-se, com fundamentação da Teoria dos Sistemas, a possibilidade de acomplamentos entre os aportes da Ciência Econômica (como comunicação do Sistema da Ciência ou da Economia) em relação ao Sistema do Direito, especialmente considerando as dificuldades de racionalidades consequencialistas, como as propostas ligadas ao agente racional (que reage aos incentivos - ainda que limitadamente, com viéses e com heurísticas de decisão). O resultado considera a possibilidade de ganhos para o Direito, especialmente na maneira de como as normas jurídicas podem ser planejadas e terem sua eficiência e efetividade mensuradas; de outro lado, sugere-se atenção às pesquisas (e a realização de novas) a respeito da percepção e da responsividade dos destinatários das normas jurídicas. Da mesma forma, verificou-se dificuldades para que o Direito alcance objetivos sociais diante da contingência e dos riscos nas sociedades contemporâneas, segundo a perspectiva da Teoria dos Sistemas Sociais.
This research studies the role of the Economic Analysis of Criminal Law in order to verify how it might contributes with the Law in contemporary society. Economic analysis is based on the use of analytical tools of Economic Science with the aim to investigate the way in which humans beings behave in society. Actually, it investigates the effect of incentives (in a broad sense) in human behavior. In this context, the intention of the Law and Economics analysis is to complexify the legal perspective regarding human behavior to find better social responsiveness, in relation to changes in the legal system. Thus, based on a reconstruction of the Economic Analysis of Criminal Law, from the Gary Becker’s seminal text (1968), this research discusses the internal progress of that perspective, and especially the criticism added on it from Behavioral Economics. This approach was chosen because Behavioral Economics, by itself, could be able to assist in the construction of the dogmatic view of Law. Finally, it was investigate, based on System Theory, the theoretical relationship between the contributions of Economic Science (as communications of System Science or Economics) in relation to the System of Law, especially considering the difficulties of “consequentialist rationalities”, as related to the “rational agent” (that reacts to incentives, even with bounded rationality, biases and heuristics of decision). The result suggests the possibility of gains for the Law, especially in the way of how legal rules can be planned and might have measured their efficiency and effectiveness, considering the way of how recipients perceive (and react) to rules changing. In the same perspective, it might be difficult to Law reach social goals in a social contingent and risky society, from the perspective of the Theory of Social Systems.

O objetivo desta tese é explicar a redução nas taxas de sequestros políticos na Colômbia nos últimos anos a partir da análise do comportamento estratégico dos criminosos. Pontos de vista convencionais explicam a diminuição dos sequestros como o resultado exitoso da política de segurança democrática do presidente Álvaro Uribe Vélez. No entanto, até agora, tem sido desconsiderada a busca de explicações alternativas à já existente, que bem poderiam ser encontradas a partir da perspectiva de análise dos dilemas organizacionais produzidos pelos sequestros nas FARC – Forças Armadas Revolucionárias da Colômbia –, da sua interação estratégica com o governo e, em particular, de seus efeitos sobre sua atividade global e na decisão de pôr fim a essa ação criminosa. O interesse dos três ensaios que compõem esta tese é estudar as motivações deste grupo rebelde, sob o enfoque da teoria da agência, dividindo sua estrutura organizativa entre líderes (principal), que tomam as decisões estratégicas, e os combatentes (agentes), que as realizam, em um contexto de informação assimétrica, para tomar decisões racionais. Cada ensaio desenvolve a partir de diferentes perspectivas, mas tendo como base o enfoque racional de principal-agente, as razões que levaram a organização a renunciar a uma de suas atividades criminosas, considerada no princípio como uma ação estratégica eficiente que obrigaria o governo colombiano a negociar. O primeiro ensaio está focado em mostrar os custos de transação que gerou essa estratégia para os agentes e o principal. Esta análise faz uso dos mesmos instrumentos analíticos empregados para analisar os custos de qualquer transação econômica que leva a cabo uma organização legal. Mostrando que os custos dessa atividade foram altos, expressados, primeiro, em um conflito de interesses entre o líder, encarregado de esquematizar e designar tarefas, e os agentes, responsáveis por sua execução. A divergência entre estas duas partes teve origem em uma mudança nas expectativas dos agentes, que preferiam mais atividades de combate às relacionadas com o sequestro, em um contexto de perseguição constante do exército colombiano. O segundo ensaio estuda como essa mesma estratégia afetou o contexto no qual os agentes definem suas preferências. Através do uso de três enfoques diferentes da teoria econômica se expõem três interpretações diversas da mudança nas preferências dos agentes: a) uma mudança no risco; b) uma divergência entre as preferências subjacentes e induzidas; c) a presença de dimensões motivacionalmente salientes. E o terceiro ensaio apresenta um modelo formal para estabelecer um sistema de compensações eficiente que o principal oferece ao agente para atenuar o que sobre seu comportamento gerou o sequestro. Os resultados mostram que, considerando que os recursos das organizações armadas ilegais são escassos, quanto maiores são os incentivos oferecidos aos agentes para evitar que desertem, menor é a capacidade da organização para penalizar os desertores e menor a utilidade do principal. Simulando o modelo para um conjunto específico de parâmetros se conclui que a incorporação do mecanismo de autocumprimento (self-enforcing) dentro da função de utilidade do principal aumenta seus custos e propicia o baixo esforço do agente e seu comportamento oportunista.
The objective of this thesis is to explain the reduction in the rate of political kidnapping in Colombia in recent years by means of analyzing the strategic behavior of its perpetrators. This is the basic question addressed in this thesis. Conventional views interpret the fall in the kidnapping rate as an outcome of President Álvaro Uribe’s democratic security policy. I will argue, however, that this is not the whole story, since political kidnapping led Farc [for its acronym in Spanish, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia] into an unprecedented strategic situation that induced a breach between leader (principal) and combatant (agent) concerns with strong effects on its overall activity and its decision to stop that criminal action. The focus of three essays making up this thesis is on studying FARC’s motivations from the perspective of agency theory, by splitting its organizational structure into principals and agents who are acting on a setting of asymmetrical information. Each essay develops, from different perspectives, the reasons that led the organization to give up that criminal activity due to the substantial political and organizational risks involved. The first essay is focused on the transactions costs generated by the kidnapping strategy both for agents and principals. This analysis is based on the same theoretical tools used to study the costs held by any legal organization. I found that the costs of kidnapping were high, expressed first in a conflict of interest between the leader –responsible for designing and assigning tasks—and the agents in charge of its implementation. The divergence was due to a shift in the expectations of agents who preferred combat activities over the menial tasks associated with kidnapping, in a context of heavy pressure by the Colombian Army. In contradistinction to legal organizations in which such type of divergence can be solved, in part, by paying higher wages to agents in order to extract their best effort, this alternative is not feasible for FARC, for those who joined the organization are supposed to have an ideological and political commitment. The second essay studies how the kidnapping strategy affected the preferences of agents and their behavior by means of using three different approaches from economic theory: (a) a change in risk, (b) a divergence between underlying and induced preferences and, (c) the presence of salient motivational dimensions. The third essay examines, through a principal-agent model, the nature of the trade-off between incentives and enforcing mechanisms that the leadership of an Armed illegal organization offers to its agents. Using a MATLAB’s optimization tool-box, I computed the optimal transfer system for a given parameterization of the model, and analyzed its properties. The numerical analysis shows that the inclusion of a self-enforcing mechanism on the leader’s objective function increases the costs for the principal and could lead agents to choose low efforts and engage in opportunistic behavior.

La microéconomie conventionnelle présente le concept de rationalité de manière univoque et étroite comme maximisation de l'utilité espérée. On sait les critiques qui ont été adressées à ce concept tant du point de vue de l'économie comportementale que de celui de la sociologie. Notre objectif est de proposer une lecture de certaines de ces critiques afin de montrer que, pour l'essentiel, elles mettent en évidence la diversité des modes de rationalité. Le problème est, dès lors, de savoir si le constat de cette diversité conduit nécessairement à la récusation du modèle standard. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans la double perspective de la théorie du choix rationnel et de la théorie des jeux. À partir des critiques de l'économie comportementale, nous soutenons que le principe de maximisation constitue un mode de raisonnement local et évaluable au regard du contexte d'action. Mais une telle régionalisation implique une profonde révision de la théorie des jeux standard. La récusation de l'équilibre général, fondé sur le présupposé de la maximisation de l'utilité espérée, comme modèle univoque appelle un nouveau type de formalisation. En ce sens, nous montrons que la modélisation multi-agents permet de penser, de manière contrefactuelle, des interactions entre agents économiques rationnels et situés. Cette méthode nous autorise ainsi à élaborer des scénarios rationalisants qui dessinent des mondes possibles sans trancher entre ces mondes
Standard microeconomics displays the concept of rationality as the maximisation of expected utility i.e. in a narrow and unequivocal sense. The criticisms against this concept made by behavioural economics or sociology are well known. I aim at providing an analysis of some of them in order to emphasise the fact that they mainly highlight the diversity of reasoning modes. But the issue is to know whether the diversity of reasoning modes necessarily leads to reject the standard model. My intention falls into two fields : the theory of Rational Choice and the Game Theory. From the point of view of behavioural economics, I assume that the maximisation is nothing more than a local reasoning mode that can be assessed in relation to the context of action. But this assumption implies correcting the standard Game Theory as well. The fact that the general equilibrium, based on the maximisation of expected utility, cannot be used anymore as an unique model calls a new kind of formalisation. So, I point out that agent-based modelling allows us to conceive, in a counterfactual way, interactions between rational economic agents in their context. Therefore, in this respect, rational patterns of actions and interactions design possible worlds without having to choose between them

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
The prices of securities traded on stock exchanges, as well as any other commodity in the financial market fluctuate naturally with the demand for these products. These oscillations, along with the asymmetry of information about the prices of these products generate volatility processes. Charles Dow in the early twentieth century created sector indexes, in which papers met the same area of activity, according to him, several indicators point to the same direction would be a sign that this really would be a tendency to drive the market, thus characterizing the Dow Theory. Ralph Nelson Elliott (1871-1948) studied the average prices of the Dow Jones Industrial and realized repetitions in the market changes, their observations were summarized in what became known as "The Wave Principle." Elliott developed his theory based on so-called Fibonacci sequence, discovered by Leonardo Pizza (Fibonacci) around 1200. In addition to the Dow Theory and the Theory of waves in this work was done using the Theory of Rationality of the agents as a complementary way to explain the decision process of investors, as happens in situations of uncertainty. A rational decision involves selecting the choice which has the largest expected return for a given level of risk.
Os preços dos ativos negociados em bolsas de valores, assim como qualquer outro tipo de commodity do mercado financeiro, oscilam naturalmente com a procura por esses produtos. Essas oscilações, juntamente com a assimetria das informações acerca dos preços desses produtos geram processos de volatilidade. Charles Dow, no início do século XX criou índices setoriais, nos quais reunia papéis da mesma área de atividade, segundo ele, se vários índices apontassem para a mesma direção seria um sinal de que realmente essa seria uma tendência de movimentação do mercado, caracterizando assim a Teoria de Dow. Ralph Nelson Elliott (1871-1948) estudou as cotações médias dos índices Dow Jones Industrial e percebeu repetições nas alterações do mercado, suas observações foram resumidas no que ficou conhecido como O Princípio da Onda . Elliott desenvolveu a sua teoria com base na denominada Sequência de Fibonacci, descoberta por Leonardo de Pizza (Fibonacci) por volta de 1200. Além da Teoria de Dow e da Teoria das Ondas, nesse trabalho, fez-se uso da Teoria da Racionalidade dos agentes como uma forma complementar para se explicar o processo de decisão dos investidores, dado que acontecem em situações de incerteza. Uma decisão racional implica em selecionar a escolha que apresente o maior retorno esperado para um dado nível de risco.

Revisorn anlitas för att ge ett oberoende yttrande som ska säkerställa pålitligheten i företagensfinansiella rapporter. Denna tilltrosskapandande effekt kan endast uppnås om revisorn görsina bedömningar och fattar beslut utan att låta sig påverkas av andra personers viljor ellerönskningar. Att revisorn är oberoende är särskilt viktigt i de fall revisorernas arbete påverkarintressenters beslutsfattande. Diskussionen kring revisorns oberoende i samband medtillhandahållandet av fristående rådgivning har debatterats flitigt. Vissa menar att denfristående rådgivningen medför positiva effekter på revisionen, medan andra anser att denborde förbjudas då den utgör ett hot mot revisorns oberoende och påverkar förtroendet förbranschen. Genom införandet av revisionspaketet står revisionsbranschen inför nyaregleringar av oberoendet och den fristående rådgivningen. Denna uppsats ämnar fördjupadiskussionen och undersöka varför det kan upplevas som ett problem när en revisionsbyrå, irollen som oberoende kontrollorgan, erbjuder både fristående rådgivning och revision.Frågeställningen besvaras med hjälp av relevanta teorier, modeller och intervjuer medrevisorer, intressenter samt normgivande organ. Den fristående rådgivningen kan medföra attrevisorn inte uppfattas som oberoende och kan utmana förtroendet hos allmänheten. Vidarekan det upplevas som ett problem när den fristående rådgivningen sker på revisionsklienter.Medias skildring av debatten, att det verkar föreligga ett förväntningsgap samt en bristandetransparens kan även det vara bidragande orsaker till problematiken. Revisionspaketet kankomma att öka transparensen, minska förväntningsgapet samt stärka förtroendet för branschenoch kan således komma att minska problematiken med att ett oberoende kontrollorganerbjuder både fristående rådgivning och revision.
Program: Civilekonomprogrammet

The dissertation concerns F. A. Hayek’s (1899–1992) critique of legislation. The purpose of the investigation is to clarify and assess that critique. I argue that there is in Hayek’s work a critique of legislation that is distinct from his well-known critique of social planning. Further that the main claim of this critique is what I refer to as Hayek’s legislation tenet, namely that legislation that aims to achieve specific aggregate results in complex orders of society will decrease the welfare level.           The legislation tenet gains support; (i) from the welfare claim – according to which there is a positive correlation between the utilization of knowledge and the welfare level in society; (ii) from the dispersal of knowledge thesis – according to which the total knowledge of society is dispersed and not available to any one agency; and (iii) from the cultural evolution thesis – according to which evolutionary rules are more favorable to the utilization of knowledge in social cooperation than are legislative rules. More specifically, I argue that these form two lines of argument in support of the legislation tenet. One line of argument is based on the conjunction of the welfare claim and the dispersal of knowledge thesis. I argue that this line of argument is true. The other line of argument is based on the conjunction of the welfare claim and the cultural evolution thesis. I argue that this line of argument is false, mainly because the empirical work of political scientist Elinor Ostrom refutes it. Because the two lines of argument support the legislation tenet independently of each other, I argue that Hayek’s critique of legislation is true. In this dissertation, I further develop a legislative policy tool as based on the welfare claim and Hayek’s conception of coercion. I also consider Hayek’s idea that rules and law are instrumental in forging rational individual action and rational social orders, and turn to review this idea in light of the work of experimental economist Vernon Smith and economic historian Avner Greif. I find that Smith and Greif support this idea of Hayek’s, and I conjecture that it contributes to our understanding of Adam Smith’s notion of the invisible hand: It is rules – not an invisible hand – that prompt subjects to align individual and aggregate rationality in social interaction. Finally, I argue that Hayek’s critique is essentially utilitarian, as it is concerned with the negative welfare consequences of certain forms of legislation. And although it may appear that the dispersal of knowledge thesis will undermine the possibility of carrying out the utilitarian calculus, due to the lack of knowledge of the consequences of one’s actions – and therefore undermine the legislation tenet itself – I argue that the distinction between utilitarianism conceived as a method of deliberation and utilitarianism conceived as a criterion of correctness may be used to save Hayek’s critique from this objection.

Since the mid 1990s, the momentum behind Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has increased. CSR has become an important issue at political, academic and business level. Already since the beginning of the last decade, commentators have suggested that CSR seems to differ between European countries and that said differences appear to be shaped by the country context. Nevertheless, in general, so far, only few empirical cross-country studies have been conducted. In addition, said studies focused mainly on the comparison between Europe as a region and the US. The latter are biased by the selection of only few specific European countries, which are regarded as a proxy for Europe as a whole. Hence, said studies deliver partially contradictory results, since they do not consider that CRS is supposed to be Non-Pan-European. Moreover, cross-country studies of international character, going beyond that regional comparison, have been rather superficial in view of CSR issues to be investigated. And finally, only recently, cross-country research in CSR has started to establish a systematic link between CSR patterns and the country specific institutional context. Also in view of the latter, the focus has been set on the comparison between countries of Anglo American/Saxon tradition and Europe, considering again some specific European countries as a proxy for the region as a whole.

Given that lack in the literature, the following explicit calls for empirical cross-country research of CSR in Europe have been formulated: First, to explore differences in view of CSR; and second, to find out if country specific institutional mechanisms are influential in shaping said differences.

Hence, the dissertation aims at filling this gap and to answer said calls for research by presenting a cross-country research involving two European countries, Germany and Spain. The research aims at exploring differences in view of a variety of CSR issues and at finding out if the national institutional contexts are influential in shaping said differences.

The dissertation consists of five main parts. In part one, the introductory part, the following is pointed out: motivation, main theoretical frameworks of CSR and main CSR issues in CSR literature. Moreover, a detailed overview on the research design of the three papers, which form part two, three and four, is provided.

In part two, which is composed of one paper, differences in view of CSR concepts and CSR drivers (analytical framework) between Germany and Spain are explored. The methodology applied was a questionnaire-based postal survey among the 500 largest companies in both, Germany and Spain.

The results of the study suggest important differences between the two countries over the analytical framework. In comparison to Spanish companies, the German ones seem to be more attached to the "sustainability" concept of CSR, whereas the Spanish companies favour to a major extent the CSR concept, formulated by the EC and the "Triple Bottom Line" concept. In view of CSR drivers, the results imply that German corporations are to a major extent than their Spanish counterparts driven by secondary stakeholders, whereas corporations in both countries seem to be equally pressured by primary stakeholders to become engaged in CSR. In addition, the findings suggest that CSR in Spain seems to be more "voluntary", whereas, in Germany, it seems to be more "regulated". The analysis of the results with regard to "expectations on positive internal" and "positive external effects" as drivers to CSR suggests a "more competitive advantage centred" approach to CSR among Spanish companies than among German ones, where the corresponding approach is "less competitive advantage centred". And finally, the findungs further suggest, that the country context seems to be influential in shaping most of said differences.

Part three, which consists of one paper, deals with CSR reporting, which is assumed to deliver insights into the institutionalization of the leading reporting guidelines in CSR, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, CSR agendas and the communicated rationale behind CSR. The methodology applied was quantitative contents analysis of CSR reports. As sample served companies of the utility industry, listed in the main stock indexes in Germany and Spain.

The findings of the study suggest that the institutionalisation of the GRI indicators is low in the corporations investigated in both countries. But, it is especially low in German firms. With regard to CSR agendas, the focus of corporate activities appears to lie among German corporations on those attached to environmental responsibilities, whereas Spanish corporations appear to have in this regard a mixed approach, related to their economic, environmental and social responsibilities. But, in contrast to their German counterparts the economic responsibilities are more emphasized. With regard to the communicated rationale behind CSR, German corporations seem to be driven by normative reasons, the Spanish to a major extent by instrumental ones. And finally, the findings imply that the country context seems to be influential in shaping most of said differences.

In part four, which contains one paper, differences in the understanding of CG in view of its links to CSR are explored. Currently, scholars discuss the link between CG and CSR and their relational models in the theoretical literature. Hence, to explore the understanding of CG and its links to CSR ,an analytical framework was elaborated, based upon said current theoretical debate. The methodology applied was qualitative contents analysis, conducted in the framework of a web site research. The sample consisted of corporations listed in the main stock indexes in both countries.

The findings suggest differences between the two countries with regard to the understanding of CG and its links to CSR and the corresponding relational models. In Spain the understanding of CG seems to be to a major extent linked to the "narrow view" of CG, implied by a major focus on shareholders only in view of corporate responsibilities. In contrast, among German corporations the view appears to be "broad", including other stakeholders than exclusively shareholders in this regard. In addition, the results suggest, that the relational model favoured by German corporations consists of CSR being considered as a part of CG, whereas the Spanish companies seem to relate CG to CSR or at least consider both, CG and CSR, as complementary constituents. And finally, the findings suggest that most of the exposed differences seem to be shaped by mechanisms of the traditional national CG systems.

In the final main part, part five, the overall conclusions of the dissertation have been formulated. These can be summarized as follows. From an overall perspective the three essays contribute to fill the lack in the literature as already pointed out. They constitute an original answer to the calls for research expressed in this regard. Moreover, they contribute to increase the knowledge on differences in CSR between European countries. And furthermore, through paying attention to country specific institutional mechanisms, they enhance the understanding of said differences induced by the country context or country specificity of CSR. In addition, the three essays have raised important implications for managerial practice, public policies, international and (supra) national institutions and for further research. In view of the implications for managerial practice, the findings suggest to sensitize practitioners with regard to the country specificity of CSR and to undertake corresponding measures in e.g. corporate communication, product and market strategies, employer marketing and organizational and management development terms. With regard to the implications for public policies, international and (supra) national organizations, those with regulatory power should increasingly bear in mind to handle more carefully the outsourcing of said power to private institutions, including NGOs, which play an important role in the "oluntary" regulation of CSR. In addition, those institutions, without regulatory power, which issue e.g. voluntary guidelines, should consider the country specificity of CSR and the "one size does not fit all" problem. Concerning the implications of the findings for further research these are the following: 1) to expand the CSR issues to be investigated in cross-country studies; 2) to intensify cross-country research in Europe in view of the number of countries involved; 3) to consider longitudinal approaches in cross-country research in Europe; 4) to expand said research (1-3) also to SMEs; 5) to increase the scope of institutional mechanisms to be investigated; and 6) to intensify cross-country linguistics research in view of CG and CSR. And finally, the findings of the three essays have delivered substantial contributions to enliven the debate, at academic and practitioner level, in view of the international management of CSR in terms of complexity vs. simplicity.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Public perceived inflation and expectations have a significant impact on agents’ decisions and therefore actual inflation. It is an important factor predetermining macroeconomic changes and influencing efficiency of monetary policy. This paper presents a theoretical and empirical evaluation of inflation perceptions and expectations. Being a part of the European Union Poland takes part in the joint harmonized EU program of business and consumer surveys. Within this research Poles are asked about their perceived and expected inflation. The key question this paper tries to answer is what factors are influencing inflation perceptions and expectations in Poland. To investigate this relation a survey of 1500 individuals is conducted. As an extension to questions from the EU survey, an additional set of questions is asked regarding changes in prices of products consumed by a given respondent. Being a single source survey makes it unique comparing to other inflation related consumer studies. The main conclusion is that both inflation perception and expectations are driven by own experience and by changes in prices of most often consumed products. While for perception the key is personal experience, inflations expectations seem to be driven more by products often consumed by Poles in general. The second conclusion is that people differ in the way they understood questions asked by the European Commission . People, who understand it as a question about their personal experience, tend to have a significantly higher expectations than those who undrestand it as a question about changes in general level of prices.

The pervasive Rational Agent Model distorts reality by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. While behavioral economics tried to conceptualize actual behavior of individuals, giving an introduction into various philosophical and psychological aspects of rationality and human choice, it remains rather limited in terms of abstractions, descriptions and interpretations. The present research explores realms of individual ecological rationality by analyzing the first environment of the mind, the human body, and its effects on cognition and decisions. As human needs have been identified by various psychologists, the effects on the mind will be explored, described and explained in order to suggest a causal relationship between universal human needs and basic human values. While, the method of research was a secondary data analysis, a pragmatic research approach permitted a linguistical correspondence between human needs and human values via abductive reasoning. Overall, human needs seem a fundamental variable of ecological rationality as they not only influence consciousness and cognition but seem to have a tremendous effect on well-being and values.
O modelo de escolha racional universal em economia distorce a realidade a criar uma profecia autorrealizadora. Enquanto a disciplina economia comportamental tentou conceptualizar comportamento efetivo de indivíduos, dando uma introdução a vários conceitos filosóficos e psicológicos, a disciplina continua limitada em termos de abstrações, descrições e interpretações. O estudo presente explorou várias realidades de escolha ecologicamente racional via a análise da primeira “eco” da mente, o corpo humano, e os seus efeitos em relação à cognição e decisão. Como necessidades humanas têm sido delimitados por vários psicólogos, os efeitos cognitivos serão explorados, analisados e explicados de forma a sugerir uma relação causal entre necessidades humanas universais e valores humanos básicos. Enquanto a metodologia se baseia numa análise de dados secundários, a abordagem pragmática permite criar uma correspondência linguística entre necessidades humanas e valores humanos por vias de raciocínio abdutivo. Ao todo, necessidades humanas aparentam uma variável fundamental de racionalidade ecológica visto que não se limitam a influenciar a consciência e cognição individual, mas também aparentam afetar o bem-estar e valores individuais.

Die Dissertation wendet sich insbesondere der Rolle der Ökonomik auf der Metaebene der wissenschaftsphilosophischen Argumentation zu. Ziel ist zu klären, welchen Erklärungsgehalt ökonomische Instrumente in der Wissenschaftsphilosophie haben können. Mit der Economics of Scientific Knowledge (ESK) hat sich seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre ein Literaturzweig herausgebildet, in dem genau diese Zielsetzung verfolgt wird, nämlich das Erkenntnisobjekt der wissenschaftlichen Koordination mit unterschiedlichen Methoden und Instrumenten der Ökonomik zu untersuchen. Es wird gezeigt, dass den analytischen Modellen der ESK einige Probleme inhärent sind, die prinzipiell durch neue Methoden und Instrumente gelöst werden können. Als ein geeigneter Kandidat wird die Agentenbasierte Modellierung (ABM) identifiziert, die eine realitätsnähere Abbildung der Akteure, eine ergebnisoffene Modellierung ihrer Entscheidungen und des Koordinationsprozesses erlaubt. Der Analyse von der ESK zuzuordnenden analytischen und agentenbasierten Modellen folgt im zweiten Teil der Dissertation die Programmierung einer eigenen ABM Continuous Opinions of Satisficing Agents and Discrete Actions (COSDA) mit Hilfe der Multi-Agenten-Programmiersprache NetLogo. In der heuristischen ABM COSDA werden zentrale wissenschaftsphilosophische und ökonomische Prämissen, die im ersten Teil der Arbeit als Problemfelder identifiziert wurden, aufgegeben. Mit Modellierung heterogener Agententypen, die - mit unterschiedlichen Präferenzen und Verhaltensheuristiken ausgestattet - miteinander interagieren, wird eine mögliche Mikrospezifikation für die Emergenz eines Makrophänomens erzeugt. Das Makrophänomen, d.h. die unterschiedlichen Resultate im wissenschaftlichen Koordinationsprozess, sind aus den selbstverstärkenden Effekten der Interaktion erklärbar, aber nicht vorhersehbar. Die Mikrospezifikation kann als relevante, durch eine kohärente Fiktion formulierte Möglichkeit interpretiert werden, die anders als analytische Modelle der ESK kein rationales Entscheidungskalkül der Agenten voraussetzt.