A dynamic model of endogenous interest group sizes and policymaking

We present a dynamic model of endogenous interest group sizes and policymaking. Our model integrates `top-down' (policy) and `bottom-up' (behavioral) influences on the development of interest groups. We show that, for example an increase in the contribution by members of an interest group need not induce larger subsidies to that group, even though it would in case of fixed interest group sizes. This is due to a political participation effect, next to a redistribution effect. On the other hand, the dynamic analysis of the model shows that reliance on equilibrium results such as these can be misleading since equilibria may not be stable. In fact, complicated dynamics may emerge leading to erratic and path dependent time patterns for policy and interest group sizes. We demonstrate that our model can endogenously generate the types of spurts and declines in organizational density that are observed in empirical studies.

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ORGANIZATIONS

An organization is a group of persons who satisfy an established membership requirement. Membership requirements may be based on inherited or earned traits. Organizations provide a place for social capital to reside. Organizations exist because they provide the setting in which members can meet their economic, social, validation, and information needs. As the needs of members change, membership requirements and organizational emphasis may also change. Relationships among an organization's members range from antipathetic to sympathetic. Depending on the quality of relationships or social capital within an organization, power will be exercised using a stick, carrot, and hug. Organizations may experience conflict if members perceive they must compete with each other to satisfy their needs. Finally, in a two-person relationship, social capital is likely to be symmetric or exploitation may exist. In more complicated relationships, social capital is likely to satisfy adding up constraints.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Learning from failure

We study decentralized learning in organizations. Decentralization is captured through a symmetry constraint on agents’ strategies. Among such attainable strategies, we solve for optimal and equilibrium strategies. We model the organization as a repeated game with imperfectly observable actions. A fixed but unknown subset of action profiles are successes and all other action profiles are failures. The game is played until either there is a success or the time horizon is reached. For any time horizon, including infinity, we demonstrate existence of optimal attainable strategies and show that they are Nash equilibria. For some time horizons, we can solve explicitly for the optimal attainable strategies and show uniqueness. The solution connects the learning behavior of agents to the fundamentals that characterize the organization: Agents in the organization respond more slowly to failure as the future becomes more important, the size of the organization increases and the probability of success decreases.Game theory

Decentralized Organizational Learning: An Experimental Investigation

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Decentralized Organizational Learning: An Experimental Investigation

We experimentally study decentralized organizational learning. Our objective is to understand how learning members of an organization cope with the confounding effects of the simultaneous learning of others. We test the predictions of a stylized, rational agent model of organizational learning that provides sharp predictions as to how learning members of an organization might cope with the simultaneous learning of others as a function of fundamental variables, e.g., firm size and the discount factor. While the problem of learning while others are learning is quite difficult, we find support for the comparative static predictions of the model's unique symmetric equilibrium.

Interest Group Size Dynamics and Policymaking (extensive revised version of WP 01-03)

We present a dynamic model of endogenous interest group sizes and policymaking. The model integrates `top-down' (policy) and `bottom-up' (individual and social-structural) influences on the development of interest groups. Comparative statics results show that the standard assumption of fixed-sized interest groups can be misleading. Furthermore, dynamic analysis of the model demonstrates that reliance on equilibrium results can also be misleading since equilibria may be unstable. Complicated dynamics may then emerge naturally, leading to erratic time patterns for policy and interest group sizes. Our model can endogenously generate the types of spurts and declines in organizational density reported in empirical studies.

Organizational capital and employment fluctuations

In this paper I present a model in which production requires two types of labor inputs: regular productive tasks and organizational capital, which is accumulated by workers performing organizational tasks. By allocating more workers from organizational to productive tasks, firms can temporarily increase production without hiring. The availability of this intensive margin of labor adjustment, in combination with adjustment costs along the extensive margin (search frictions, firing costs, training costs), makes it optimal to delay employment adjustments. Simulations indicate that this mechanism is quantitatively important even if only a small fraction of workers perform organizational tasks, and explains why the hiring rate is persistent and why employment is slow to recover after the end of a recession.Business cycles, labor market, organizational capital, jobless recoveries