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Teletrabajo y depresión: el caso particular austriaco
No full textIn this paper, we analyze the relationship between telework and the mental health of workers in Austria, focusing specifically on depression, work–life balance, and subjective well-being. To do so, we use data from the 2021 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and estimate several econometric models (linear probability models, ordinary least squares, and logit models) in order to assess the significance of the effects of telework on these indicators of individual well-being.
The results show that, once sociodemographic and job-related controls are applied, telework does not exhibit a direct and robust effect on either subjective well-being or the probability of suffering from depression. In the case of work–life balance, telework initially appears to generate negative effects; however, after incorporating sociodemographic and labor controls, this significance disappears. Overall, therefore, the evidence suggests that the effects of telework on workers’ individual well-being depend more on labor and personal conditions than on the teleworking modality itself. This reinforces the importance of a contextualized analysis and is consistent with the findings of the existing literature
From Code to Court: the Impact of Brazil’s Digital Bill of Rights on Tech Lawsuits
No full textWhat was the impact of the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), Brazil's Digital Bill of Rights enacted in 2014, on the landscape of tech-related lawsuits in the country? Utilizing a synthetic control methodology, we construct a counterfactual scenario to estimate the number of lawsuits that would have occurred in the absence of the MCI. Our findings indicate a statistically significant decrease in the judicialization of internet-related disputes following the law's implementation. This suggests that while the MCI aimed to establish a robust legal framework for internet governance, it concurrently fostered a lesser litigious environment, particularly concerning intermediary liability and content moderation
Information and Self-selection in School Choice: an Experiment
No full textWe study how different framings of otherwise equivalent information
affect school choice under uncertainty. In an online experiment,
subjects repeatedly submitted rank-ordered lists of schools knowing
only a probability distribution over their own score. Admission
depended solely on whether the score exceeded exogenous school
cutoffs. Across rounds, subjects varied in “type”
(advantaged/disadvantaged score distributions) and faced one of four
information treatments: a control (score distribution only), ex-ante
admission probabilities, simulated ex-post composition statistics, and
composition statistics based on actual choices of prior participants.
We find that information framing has large and heterogeneous
effects. Advantaged students react strongly to both ex-ante and
ex-post information, becoming more cautious under probability
information and more ambitious under composition information;
disadvantaged students respond more weakly and only under specific
cutoff environments. Ex-ante information significantly reduces
segregation between advantaged and disadvantaged types.
Our results highlight that the impact of information depends
critically on student type and market competitiveness, implying that
effective information policies must be carefully tailored to their
intended beneficiaries
The temporal structure of specialization and economic change – [in work]
No full textThis paper interprets the division of labor through the temporal lens of the market process: specialization fundamentally reorganizes time allocation between necessity and discretion, not merely output per unit of time.
Productivity gains manifest through three sequential effects - income, diversification, and displacement. As markets mature and diversification exhausts, displacement dominates: organizational improvements reduce the time required per unit of output, liberating discretionary time. The relation TS + TC ≡ O(S) formalizes how discretionary time (TC) and Time for necessities (TS) and organization of specialization are two sides of the same coin, with TC = TS × M where M is the multiplying effect of cooperation and exchange.
Freed discretionary time enables Productivity-Yielding Demand: wants requiring discretionary time as input that cannot be known ex ante because they depend on temporal conditions not yet realized. This represents genuine ignorance about future possibilities. Alert entrepreneurs discover profit opportunities in discretionary time, driving further specialization that increases M and liberates more time—an autocatalytic process of spontaneous order.
The mechanism reveals why the market process cannot equilibrate. Coordination success alters the temporal structure of action, enabling previously impossible wants. Entrepreneurial responses disrupt existing coordination patterns. Economic change is endogenous: specialization creates discretionary time, which enables unforeseen demand, which drives further specialization. The very process of coordinating involves discoordination.
Note: This is a working paper version (IN WORK). The current draft focuses on the primary theoretical derivation of the Kairosian identity and Productivity-Yielding Demand. Future revisions will include expanded literature synthesis regarding modern time-allocation studies and evolutionary growth models
Tourism, takeoff and growth: A quantitative analysis of Macau
No full textThis study develops an open-economy Schumpeterian growth model with endogenous takeoff to explore how tourism affects the transition of an economy from stagnation to growth. Suppose leisure preference is strong. Then, an expansion in tourism triggers an earlier takeoff and raises the transitional growth rate when tourism reliance is low, but delays takeoff and lowers the transitional growth rate when tourism reliance is high. We use cross-country panel data and find that tourism has an inverted-U effect on economic growth, consistent with our theoretical prediction. We also calibrate the model to data in Macau and find that the growth-maximizing size of the tourism-related sector is about 60% of GDP
«Тупой как мешок кирпичей»: повлияла ли абсурдность современных экономических теорий на деиндустриализацию России
No full textInternational consultants and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and a group of American advisors from the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) actively recommended that Russia implement radical economic reforms in the 1990s, which included, among other things, closing inefficient state-owned enterprises. This paper demonstrates that if the only "efficient" industries are raw material extraction and primary processing using imported equipment, then supporting "inefficient" enterprises is the only way to improve the well-being of the population. This goes so far as to suggest that even 100% subsidy, for example, of the automobile industry and the free distribution of Volga and Lada cars to the population, leads to an increase in the standard of living in the country. Furthermore, in this case, subsidizing "loss-making" enterprises leads to a slowdown, not an acceleration, of inflation. Following these same principles, developed countries have been subsidizing their "loss-making" enterprises, such as Airbus and Nokia, for decades. The model presented is greatly simplified and does not take into account numerous other factors influencing economic development. Therefore, much of the article is devoted to discussing why these seemingly obvious mathematical methods won't work when applied to the Russian economy, and why economic development in Russia is impossible, regardless of any measures of government support or stimuli
Consumer Search with Repeat Purchases
No full textWe study the impacts of repeat purchases on consumer search and price competition in an overlapping generations model. Search incentives are higher for “new” consumers and lower for “old” consumers in each generation, which changes price competition directly for these consumers and also indirectly through intertemporal rivalry. There exist two types of consumer loyalty, with remarkably different competitive effects. Relative to the single-purchase benchmark, equilibrium price is lower when brand preference is unlikely to persist, but higher when discount factors are relatively low
Le seuil de la dette publique en République Démocratique du Congo : contraintes conjoncturelles et impératif de soutenabilité pour le financement du développement
No full textThe Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces a structural paradox: a massive need for financing to support its economic and social development, in a context of limited domestic resource mobilization capacity. Public borrowing therefore appears to be an unavoidable lever to bridge the financing gap. However, the accumulation of debt is not neutral with respect to the effectiveness of economic policies, particularly countercyclical policies.
This article analyzes the existence of critical public debt thresholds in the DRC beyond which borrowing no longer supports growth and instead weakens the effectiveness of macroeconomic instruments. Using a threshold effects approach applied to Congolese macroeconomic data, the study identifies two major thresholds (32% and 110% of GDP) and draws strong implications for the development financing strategy and debt sustainability
The Need for a Narrative Theory of Sustainable Development
No full textMuch science advice today is predicated on the information-deficit model, in which facts have agency or the administrative state makes policy primarily based on information. Sustainable development addresses environmental and social aspects while leaving the economy to market forces, individual lives to the unfettered influence of companies, and the organization of society shaped by tech bros. This model is no longer fit, and a more powerful narrative is needed that shows the path to how we ourselves can achieve a fundamental transformation of economy and society through the building of a new culture and institutions. Here I sketch what I think should be elements of such a sustainable development narrative rooted in natural history and insights to human nature observed in history and by social sciences. The manuscript serves to stimulate a discussion that at some point will lead to a full-fledged narrative theory of sustainable development, created by many
Distributive Conflict and Wage Formation in Germany: A Kaleckian Perspective on Nominal Wages and Demand (1990–2024)
No full textThis paper investigates the interplay between distributive conflict, wage dynamics, and persistent unemployment within a Kaleckian framework, emphasizing the long-memory properties of wages. We develop a stochastic model in which wages adjust adaptively to cumulative historical discrepancies between prices and wages, reflecting backward-looking expectations, institutional rigidities, and distributive conflict. Applying this framework to Germany over the period 1990–2024, we provide empirical evidence that persistent price–wage divergences generate long-lasting effects on real wages and aggregate demand. Within a Kaleckian perspective in which investment and employment are demand-driven, these wage dynamics contribute to the persistence of unemployment by weakening consumption and effective demand over time. Our findings highlight that long-memory wage adjustment amplifies the macroeconomic consequences of distributive conflict and inflation, underscoring the importance of historical wage inertia in shaping employment outcomes. The results offer new insights into the structural origins of persistent unemployment in advanced economies