Ein Index der Qualität des Arbeitslebens für die siebziger Jahre : Indexbildung und multidimensionale Analyse von Arbeitsmarkt- und Beschäftigungsbedingungen auf der Basis von Sozialindikatoren

"Aus der Analyse von Validitätsmängeln herkömmlicher marktlich-monetärer Erfolgsmaße in ihrer möglichen Eigenschaft als Wohlfahrtsindikatoren wird das Konzept eines Sozialindikatoren-Systems zur Bestimmung und empirischen Ermittlung multidimensionaler Erfolgs-Konstrukte entwickelt. Für die Bestimmung und Ermittlung von theoretisch und empirisch noch handhabbaren Teilkonstrukten von "well-being" liefert die Arbeitswelt-Forschung besondere Ansatzpunkte. Auf der Basis eines Datensatzes, den eine Auswertung der amtlichen Statistik liefert, wird der Versuch gemacht, mit Hilfe statistischer Methoden einen Index als Globalmaß der Qualität des Arbeitslebens zu konstruieren. Allerdings kann dabei kein Wohlfahrtsmaß im wohlfahrtstheoretischen Sinne ermittelt werden. Es wird zunächst eine theoretische Dimensionierung des Konstrukts "Qualität des Arbeitslebens" in Form einer mehrstufigen Struktur von Zieldimensionen und Unterdimensionen entwickelt. ... Als Verfahren der Datenstrukturierung, Informationskomprimierung und Indexbildung werden Cluster- und Faktoranalyse verwendet, die in bestimmten Abfolgen nacheinander angewandt werden." (Autorenreferat)soziale Indikatoren, Arbeitsmarkt, Beschäftigung

Simplistic vs. Complex Organization: Markets, Hierarchies, and Networks in an 'Organizational Triangle'

Transaction cost economics explains organizations in a simplistic ‘market-vs.-hierarchy’ dichotomy. In this view, complex real-world coordination forms are simply considered ‘hybrids’ of those ‘pure’ and ideal forms, thus being located on a one-dimensional ‘line’ between them. This ‘organizational dichotomy’ is mainly based on relative marginal transaction costs, relative lengths of value-added chains, and ‘rational choice’ of coordination form. The present paper, in contrast, argues that pure ‘market’ and ‘hierarchy’, even including their potential hybrids, are a theoretically untenable and empirically void set. Coordination forms, it is argued, have to be conceptualized in a fundamentally different way. A relevant ‘organizational space’ must reflect the dimensions of a complex world such as dilemma-prone direct interdependence, resulting in strong strategic uncertainty, mutual externalities, collectivities, and subsequent emergent process. This, in turn, will lead either to (1) informally institutionalized, problem-solving cooperation (the instrumental dimension of the institution) or (2) mutual blockage, lock-in on an inferior path, or power- and status-based market and hierarchy failure (the ceremonial dimension of the institution). This paper establishes emergent instrumental institutionalized cooperation as a genuine organizational dimension which generates a third ‘attractor’ besides ‘market’ and ‘hierarchy’, i.e., informal network. In this way, an ‘organizational triangle’ can be generated which may serve as a more relevant heuristic device for empirical organizational research. Its ideal corners and some ideal hybrids on its edges (such as ideal clusters and ideal hub&spoke networks) still remain empirically void, but its inner space becomes empirically relevant and accessible. The ‘Organizational Triangle’ is tentatively applied (besides casual reference to corporate behavior that has lead to the current financial meltdown), by way of a set of criteria for instrumental problem-solving and a simple formal algorithm, to the cases of the supplier network of ‘DaimlerChrysler US International’ at Tuscaloosa, AL, the open-source network Linux, and the web-platforms Wikipedia and ‘Open-Source Car’. It is considered to properly reflect what is generally theorized in evolutionary-institutional economics of organizations and the firm and might offer some insight for the coming industrial reconstructions of the car and other industries.Market vs. Hierarchy; Transaction Costs; Complexity; Institutionalization; Network Formation; Hub&Spoke Supplier Networks; Open-Source Networks

Declining trust in growing China: A dilemma between growth and socio-economic damage

Declining general trust has become a serious social issue in China in recent years. This paper attempts to understand and analyze this social phenomenon from a social interaction perspective. Based on a repeated prisoners´ dilemma game on networks, it finds that the evolution of general trust is dependent on changes of the social interaction structure, and the increases of both social and spatial distance may explain a decrease of the levels of cooperation and general trust. In addition, we find that the traditional Chinese family and clan networks culture has an ambiguous effect on general trust, and simple reactive social "homing behavior" might be critical for China´s future economic development. In order to recover the general trust level, a major strategic option for China, and for fast growing countries in economic transition in general, is to (re-)develop appropriate network structures and properties, as our model indicates

Moral rights and wrongs of research funding

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of being vigilant in the implications of all indicators of research output, quality and impact that are used in research assessment exercises

The Dichotomy, Inconsistency, and Peculiar Outmodedness of the „Mainstream“ Textbook. The Example of Institutions

This paper critically reviews the leading microeconomic textbooks of Varian, Pindyck/Rubinfeld, and Schumann/Meyer/Stroebele, with a focus on their theoretical inconsistencies and their lack of an institutional perspective

Policy Implications of Economic Complexity and Complexity Economics

Complexity economics has developed into a promising cutting-edge research program for a more realistic economics in the last three or four decades. Also some convergent micro- and macro-foundations across heterodox schools have been attained with it. With some time lag, boosted by the financial crisis 2008ff., a surge to explore economic complexity’s (EC) policy implications emerged. It demonstrated flaws of “neoliberal” policy prescriptions mostly derived from the neoclassical mainstream and its relatively simple and teleological equilibrium models. However, most of the complexity-policy literature still remains rather general. Therefore, policy implications of EC are reinvestigated here. EC usually is specified by “Complex Adaptive (Economic) Systems” [CA(E)S], characterized by mechanisms, dynamic and statistical properties such as capacities of “self-organization” of their components (agents), structural “emergence”, and some statistical distributions in their topologies and movements. For agent-based systems, some underlying “intentionality” of agents, under bounded rationality, includes improving their benefits and reducing the perceived complexity of their decision situations, in an evolutionary process of a population. This includes emergent social institutions. Thus, EC has manifold affinities with long-standing issues of economic heterodoxies, such as uncertainty or path- dependent and idiosyncratic process. We envisage a subset of CA(E)S, with heterogeneous agents interacting, in the “evolution-of-cooperation” tradition. We exemplarily derive some more specific policy orientations, in a “framework” approach, embedded in a modern “meritorics”, that we call Interactive Policy

Why economics textbooks must, and how they can, be changed into a real-world and pluralist economics. The example of a fundamentally new complexity-economics micro-textbook

We argue that economics must, and can, be taught in fundamentally different ways than the simplistic and ideology-laden “economics of x”. We illustrate this with a fundamentally new textbook, “Microeconomics of Complex Economies” (2015). The mainstream’s ambivalence between some relevant research and its simplistic teaching in terms of “optimum”, “equilibrium”, and “market”, and the resulting textbook structure, incoherent between the static and “optimal” equilibrium and some reference to more recent real-world phenomena, will be characterized. We show how this can be changed by showing the process of getting a “heterodox” complexity textbook published, and by the structure of its content

Policy and State in Complexity Economics

Complexity economics has developed into a powerful empirical, theoretical, and computational research program in the last three decades, advancing more realistic economics. It converges with long-standing heterodox schools, and its theoretical and empirical findings are consistent with older heterodox research interests and predictions. Economic complexity is characterized by path-dependence, idiosyncrasies, some self-organization capacity, structural emergence, and certain statistical distributions in economic topologies and motions, as complex economic systems move between building order and phases of sudden disorder. In agent-based systems, underlying “intentionality” of agents includes improving their performance, reducing perceived complexity, and generating social institutions. Boosted by the financial crisis 2008ff., a surge to explore complexity-economics’ policy implications has emerged. This chapter will briefly review the literature on economic Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and derive implications for economic-policy interventions and the state to act upon socio-economic complexity. From an “evolution-of-cooperation” perspective, we exemplarily derive some more specific policy orientations, specified “framework-policy” or “interactive-policy” approaches, embedded in a conception that we call “new meritorics”. We consider some required structures and capacities that a modern effective state, capable of a strong and persistent, but learning and adapting “complexity policy”, should have.Submission to the Handbook of Government Intervention, ed. by Nikolaos Karagiannis and John E. King, forthcoming 2017

The Dichotomy, Inconsistency, and Peculiar Outmodedness of the „Mainstream“ Textbook. The Example of Institutions

This paper critically reviews the leading microeconomic textbooks of Varian, Pindyck/Rubinfeld, and Schumann/Meyer/Stroebele, with a focus on their theoretical inconsistencies and their lack of an institutional perspective