Macroeconomic Confusion

This note critically evaluates the New Classical Macroeconomics from a Marshallian perspective. Revisiting the famous Keynes-Tinbergen controversy, it is argued that Keynes' criticism comprises the "Lucas critique," and that it is misleading to label this a critique of Keynesian economics. The postulate of immutable economic structures carries Tinbergen's approach to the extreme and neglects the possibility of slowly changing structures, as conceived by Marshall. The position is defended by arguments about equilibrium and rationality that are admittedly empty

Einschränkungen der Preisgestaltung im Einzelhandel aus wettbewerbsökonomischer Perspektive

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Cultural, cognitive and personality traits in risk-taking behaviour: evidence from Poland and the United States of America

The study analyses the susceptibility to risk-taking behaviour in relation to cultural, cognitive and personality traits. For the requirements of the research, undergraduate students with the same major but from two different cultural regions (Poland and the USA) were examined. In order to better understand them, the ten-item personality inventory (TIPI) method–a 10-item measure of the Big-Five personality dimensions–was used. A domain-specific risk-taking (DOSPERT) scale was used to assess risk-taking, while cognitive aspects of behaviour were measured by a cognitive reflection test. It is important to point out that Polish stu- dents reported significantly greater proneness to risk-taking than their American counterparts. It was revealed that participants scoring highly in the cognitive reflection test were characterised with lower risk-taking propensity. Consistent with past research, high scores in extraversion and low scores in conscientiousness predicted overall risk-taking behaviour. As follows from the study, men reported significantly greater willingness to take risks than wome

Firm heterogeneity and wages under different bargaining regimes : does a centralised union care for low-productivity firms?

This paper studies the relationship between wages and the degree of firm heterogeneity in a given industry under different wage setting structures. To derive testable hypotheses, we set up a theoretical model that analyses the sensitivity of wages to the variability in productivity conditions in a unionsised oligopoly framework. The model distinguishes centralised and decentralised wage determination. The theoretical results predict wages to be negatively associated with the degree of firm heterogeneity under centralised wage-setting, as unions internalise negative externalities of a wage increase for low-productivity firms. We test this prediction using a linked employeremployee panel data set from the German mining and manufacturing sector. Consistent with our hypotheses, the empirical results suggest that under industry-level bargaining workers in more heterogeneous sectors receive lower wages than workers in more homogeneous sectors. In contrast, the degree of firm heterogeneity is found to have no negative impact on wages in uncovered firms and under firm-level contracts

Employee share ownership in a unionised duopoly

Profit sharing schemes have been analysed assuming Cournot competition and decentralised wage negotiations, and it has been found that firms share profits in equilibrium. This paper analyses a different remuneration system: employee share ownership. We find that whether firms choose to share ownership or not depends on both the type of competition in the product market and the way in which workers organise to negotiate wages. If wage setting is decentralised, under duopolistic Cournot competition both firms share ownership. If wage setting is centralised, only one firm shares ownership if the degree to which goods are substitutes takes an intermediate value; otherwise, the two firms share ownership. In this case, if the union sets the same wage for all workers neither firm shares ownership. Therefore, centralised wage setting discourages share ownership. Fi- nally, under Bertrand competition neither firm shares ownership regardless of how workers are organised to negotiate wages.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio