Clientelism, income inequality, and social preferences: an evolutionary approach to poverty traps

Political clientelism is a dyadic relation in which a politician (the patron) gives material goods and services to a citizen (the client), in exchange for political support. We argue that there is a two-way relation between clientelism and income inequality and poverty. In a poor society in which income inequality is high, clientelism will be a natural outcome. Once clientelism is established, it is harder for democracy to redistribute income and it is easier for the society to be caught in a poverty trap. We develop a two-part game-theoretic model. In the first part, clientelism emerges in a poor and unequal society as a consequence of social preferences, in particular, strong reciprocity. In the second part, using evolutionary and stochastic game theory, we show that clientelism causes income inequality and poverty.

Searching online for health-related information by people suffering from respiratory allergy and asthma: the results of a survey study

  INTRODUCTION: The objective of the study was to compare online behaviour in groups of persons suffering from respiratory allergy and/or asthma and in the reference group. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Comparative analysis of two independent questionnaire studies. Study A was carried out in the Masovian Voivodeship, Poland in 2013. As many as 1,728 questionnaires were collected and 51 respondents were selected for analysis (study A, reference group). Study B was carried out in 2014 in a group of 59 patients of the outpatient allergy clinic. RESULTS: More than 92% of the general population (study A) declared that they used the Internet to search for health-related information, health protection, while in the group of patients (study B) the same was declared by 97%. Both studies showed that more than 74% of respondents looked for online information on a specific disease (p > 0.05). Information on how other persons cope with similar health issues was searched by 20% (study A) and 33% (study B) of respondents. Advice on different methods of treatment of a given disease was sought by 40% and 51% of respondents, respectively. Nearly 51% of respondents in study A and 56% of subjects in study B searched online for health information when they did not feel well or were sick. CONCLUSIONS: Both in the group of chronically ill persons and in the reference group, it is common to search online for health- -related information. Persons suffering from respiratory allergy and/or asthma verified the physician’s diagnosis on the Internet much more often than did the reference group.

Az oldás és a kötés gazdasági formái – föld és pénz

Ebben az írásban arra keresem a választ, hogy a föld és a pénz mint gazdasági formák miként hordozzák az oldás és kötés kettősségét. Ehhez a vállalkozáshoz Georg Simmel A pénz filozófiája és G. K. Chesterton A józan ész nevében vonatkozó részeinek összehasonlító elemzésére támaszkodom

„Istenben bízunk.” És még miben? – A bizalom pénzügyi letéteményei Nyugat-Európa elmúlt 250 éves történetében Gondolatok Youssef Cassis és Giuseppe Telesca (szerk.) Pénzügyi elitek és az európai bankrendszer című könyvéhez (Pallas Athéné Könyvkiadó, 2020)

A gazdasági és társadalmi folyamatok iránti bizalom megteremtésének szolgálata a pénzügyek egy kevéssé hangsúlyozott vonulata. Jelen írás a Youssef Cassis és Giuseppe Telesca szerkesztésében megjelent pénzügytörténeti áttekintésekhez fűzött kommentárokkal azonosítani igyekszik a pénz, a pénzügyi eszközök és a pénzügyi intézményrendszer azon elemeit, amelyek a francia forradalom óta bizalmi infrastruktúraként funkcionáltak a nyugati világban. Ez a perspektíva némi eligazításul is szolgálhat a digitális pénzügyi forradalom küszöbén. A hazai olvasóközönség a Pallas Athéné Könyvkiadó révén a tavalyi évtől magyar nyelven is megismerheti azt a mintegy tizenhárom szerző írását tartalmazó kötetet, amely Youssef Cassis és Giuseppe Telesca szerkesztésében áttekintést kíván nyújtani a pénzügyi vezetés elmúlt 250 éves nyugat-európai történetéről. E vállalkozás háttereként a szerkesztők „a globalizált világgazdaság elmúlt harminc évének ellentmondásait, különösen a növekvő jövedelmi és vagyoni egyenlőtlenségeket, illetve a 2008-as gazdasági válság kirobbanását” festik fel, amely szerintük újraéleszti az elit – mint a vezetés kiemelt szereplőinek – tudományos igényű elemzését

Drawing Lines

My work uses process as a course of action that marks the death of moments through a continuous stream of consciousness. I metaphorically link disparate pieces of information to the human condition in order to present multiple readings through juxtaposition. I assemble both abstract and figurative subject matter in a collage-like manner through methods of cropping and fragmentation to symbolize the disjuncture I feel is indicative of how we experience the world through short-lived thoughts, feelings, and actions

Clientelism, Income Inequality, and Social Preferences: an Evolutionary Approach to Poverty Traps *

Abstract Political clientelism is a dyadic relation in which a politician (the patron) gives material goods and services to a citizen (the client), in exchange for political support. We argue that there is a two-way relation between clientelism and income inequality and poverty. In a poor society in which income inequality is high, clientelism will be a natural outcome. Once clientelism is established, it is harder for democracy to redistribute income and it is easier for the society to be caught in a poverty trap. We develop a two-part game-theoretic model. In the first part, clientelism emerges in a poor and unequal society as a consequence of social preferences, in particular, strong reciprocity. In the second part, using evolutionary and stochastic game theory, we show that clientelism causes income inequality and poverty