Vienna University of Economics and Business
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Inclusive Cognitive Hierarchy
Get PDFCognitive hierarchy theory, a collection of structural models of non-equilibrium thinking, in which players' best responses rely on heterogeneous beliefs on others' strategies including naive behavior, proved powerful in explaining observations from a wide range of games. We introduce an inclusive cognitive hierarchy model, in which players do not rule out the possibility of facing opponents at their own thinking level. Our theoretical results show that inclusiveness is crucial for asymptotic properties of
deviations from equilibrium behavior in expansive games. We show that the limiting behaviors are categorized in three distinct types: naive, Savage rational with inconsistent
beliefs, and sophisticated. We test the model in a laboratory experiment of collective decision-making. The data suggests that inclusiveness is indispensable with regard to explanatory power of the models of hierarchical thinking.Series: Department of Strategy and Innovation Working Paper Serie
Democratization beyond the post-democratic turn: towards a research agenda on new conceptions of citizen participation
Get PDFFollowing extensive debates about post-democracy and post-politics, scholarly attention has shifted to conceptualizing the ongoing transformation of democracy. In this endeavour, the change in understandings, expectations and functions of political participation is a key parameter. Improving citizen participation is widely regarded as the hallmark of democratization. Yet, a variety of actors are also increasingly ambivalent about democratic institutions and the further expansion of participation. Meanwhile, new forms of participation are gaining in significance – neoliberal activation, the responsibilization of consumers, digital data mining, managed behaviour guided by choice architects – which some believe much improve representation, but which others perceive as a threat to the citizens’ autonomy. This article introduces a special issue focusing on the participation-democratization nexus in well-established democracies in the economically affluent global North. Based on a critical review of popular narratives of post-democracy and post-politics we sketch the notion of the post-democratic turn – which offers a new perspective on emerging forms of participation and in this special issue serves as a conceptual lens for their analysis. We then revisit more traditional conceptualizations of democratic participation which are challenged by the post-democratic turn. The article concludes with an overview of the individual contributions to this special issue
Institutions and Actorhood as Co‐Constitutive and Co‐Constructed: The Argument and Areas for Future Research
Get PDFWe argue that in order to overcome the reductionism and essentialism in institutional theory there is a need to acknowledge that institutions and social actors are co-constitutive and co-constructed in processes of communication. We elaborate this argument by drawing on the phenomenological foundation of institutional theory and point to promising areas of future re-search: the multimodal nature of institutions, the mediated and mediatized character of modern communication, and the contestedness of all social orders and their legitimation
The effect of a "none of the above" ballot paper option on voting behavior and election outcomes
Get PDFWe investigate how voter and political candidate behavior and election results are affected by an explicit blank vote option “None of the above” (NOTA) on the ballot paper. We report evidence from two online survey experiments conducted in the weeks preceding the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and the 2016 Austrian run-off election for President. We subjected participants either to the original ballot paper or to a manipulated ballot paper where we added a NOTA option. We find that introducing a NOTA option on the ballot increases participation and reduces the vote shares of non-establishment candidates. NOTA is chosen more frequently by voters with a protest motive, who are either unhappy with the candidate set or with the political establishment in general. Using a laboratory experiment we further explore the reaction of political candidates to the existence of a NOTA option. We replicate our field evidence that NOTA diverts votes from a protest option (e.g. an inferior candidate or policy), thus decreasing the likelihood that the protest option actually wins. However, (establishment) candidates anticipate this shift and become more likely to make unfair policy proposals when NOTA is present. As a result, a NOTA option on the ballot in our laboratory setting improves efficiency but increases inequality.Series: Department of Strategy and Innovation Working Paper Serie
Concrete utopianism in integrated assessment models: Discovering the philosophy of the shared socioeconomic pathways
Get PDFThe Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) are at the forefront of climate change science today. As an influential methodology and method, the SSPs guide the framing of numerous climate change research questions and how these are investigated. Although the SSPs were developed by an interdisciplinary group of scientists in a well-documented process, there is no apparent consensus in the literature that answers the question, "What is the philosophy of science behind the SSPs?" To investigate, the paper applies a systematic thematic qualitative content analysis to the dataset of published papers that establish the rules and expectations for using the SSPs. The research determines that there is no obvious and concise statement on the epistemological and ontological foundation of the SSPs. However, based on the evidence identified in the dataset, SSPs are implicitly, though not explicitly, consistent with a critical realist and concrete utopian philosophy as coined by Roy Bhaskar. This is the first paper to discuss the philosophical underpinning of the SSPs
A little less autonomy? The future of working time flexibility and its limits
Get PDFThe European Court of Justice has recently issued rulings on the interpretation of the European Working Time Directive 2003/88, which appear to restrict flexible working time arrangements(especially Matzak C-518/15,Syndicat C-254/18 and CCOOC-55/18). Only a few months prior tothe latter ruling of the CJEU, the Austrian legislator amended the Working Time Act in orderto make it more flexible. The article argues that the measures taken by the Austrian legislator toenable more flexibility and autonomy can still be regarded as compatible with Union law. In general,the article tackles the question of possible further legislative developments in order to strike abalance between autonomy and the need for security of both parties to the employment relationship. Among other suggestions, the article introduces the concept of molecularisation ofworking time and examines whether work intensity should be introduced as a qualitativedimension to the concept of working time, thus deviating from the current European WorkingTime Directive. Finally, the article suggests security measures – often referring to Austria as a bestpractice example – in order to safeguard workers in view of working time flexibility
The Scarring Effect of the 2008 Economic Crisis: Growth and Growth Decline in Austria’s Nonprofit Social Services Sector
Get PDFSince the 2008 economic crisis, social service providers worldwide have reported funding cuts, while the need for some social services has been increasing. This paper examines the combined and longer-term effects of such divergent developments on the nonprofit social services sector. The empirical analysis uses Austrian administrative data on six subfields of the sector covering the years 2003–2017. We investigate significant changes in the trends of four growth indicators applying interrupted time series analysis. We find that the 2008 economic crisis is associated with persistently lower growth rates in Austria’s nonprofit social services sector. The magnitude of this dampening effect differs across subsectors. Additionally, our findings suggest an increase in market concentration. Hence, the study discloses a long-term scarring effect of the economic crisis on Austria’s social services sector, raising doubts on the sector’s future resilience
Why Business Schools Need Radical Innovations: Drivers and Development Trajectories
Get PDFBusiness education is undergoing paradigmatic changes, and business schools are feeling the brunt of these changes. This article proposes that "business as usual" is over for traditional business schools. Using Ohmae's 3Cs—customers, competitors, and company—as an analytical framework, I examine important changes from different vantage points. From the perspective of customers, the focus lies on technological and value changes. In terms of competitors, the analysis centers on the growing number of alternative suppliers of business education and the geographic shifts in the business school landscape. As to the company dimension, I comment on the vast number and heterogeneity of business schools and suggest that they are heading toward a business model competition. In considering potential development paths for business schools, the article concludes that they require radical innovations to stay relevant
Tracking Owners' Sentiments: Subjective Home Values, Expectations and House Price Dynamics
Get PDFEconomic theory predicts that expectations on future house price growth are related to the current price of a house. We test this relationship for the supply side of the secondary housing market using micro data that links individual expectations to a subjective owner estimated value (OEV). We find a strong causal relationship that optimistic expectations indeed imply higher OEVs as compared to neutral or pessimistic expectations. We find qualitatively and quantitatively consistent results for Italy and the US as well as for booming and gloomy years. Our results survive ample robustness checks. Since we use subjective data on house prices, we first show that OEVs are indeed a valid source to study house price dynamics by performing three types of convergent validity tests. We find that price dynamics derived by either combining OEVs and dwelling characteristics, or making use of repeatedly provided OEVs by the same owner over time reproduce objectively measured market trends strikingly well – even over decades. In contrast, OEVs and objective data tend to differ in levels – potentially due to psychological bias. These results hold for a large set of countries. We hence conclude that the "wisdom of the home-owner crowd" is sufficient to study house price dynamics but OEVs are less suited for measuring the level of market prices.Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Serie
Relational Analysis of the Phenomenon of Early School Leaving: A Habitus Typology
Get PDFAlthough there is an extensive body of literature on the causes and consequences of early school leaving (ESL), little is known of how early school leavers cope with their situation after having left the education system. This paper's main objective is to fill this research gap. At first we look at developments in the social positioning of early school leavers in Austria that show that their situation has deteriorated not only because of changes in the labour market (e.g. due to globalization) but also because of displacement processes that are influenced by habitus formation and capital endowment. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and capital, we explored the situation of young people who had left school early. We used a multi-perspective approach and conducted 123 narrative interviews which we analysed by grouping cases that demonstrated similar social practice and perception patterns generated by a set of socially learned dispositions. Thus we were able to reconstruct a habitus typology consisting of seven different types: the "ambitious", the "status-oriented", the "non-conformist", the "disoriented", the "resigned", the "escapist" and the "caring". How young people experience stigmatization is the common thread that runs through all seven habitus types