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The Future Of Work: How Sociology Can Enhance AI Integration In Economic Sectors
Get PDFWhat will the future look like? A question with many answers, influenced by wider social events and as yet undecided events, but transforming as time passes. Predicting the future is complex, but certainly conversing about it and how current events shape the future is essential. The future of the labor market and how people undertake work is currently shaped by and linked to increased sophistication and widespread deployment of ICT applications across many different sectors. The trend towards increased technology being used in many different economic sectors will no doubt continue, so that sociology will have an important role to play in how it can work with other disciplines to achieve the maximum benefit. Currently, many advances in making better use of the data already within commercial information systems are improving predictive intelligence and self-driven improvements within existing information system architectures. This implies that human input—while still important in advanced decision making, will become less labor-intensive. AI technologies will be used to graphically represent the data, enabling 'fair' debate with AI over the effectiveness of the AI models
From Stagnation to Resilience: An In-Depth Analysis of Economic and Social Drivers in Bangladesh’s Development Journey
Get PDFThis paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the various economic and social factors that have shaped Bangladesh’s development, tracing its evolution from pre-independence stagnation and post-war recovery to its emergence as a resilient and increasingly prosperous nation in South Asia. The country’s transformation from a conflict-affected, least-developed economy to achieving upper-middle-income status offers a compelling case study in development. The research examines critical elements such as macroeconomic policies, trade and investment frameworks, advancements in agricultural technology, and the role of remittance inflows. On the social front, it evaluates demographic shifts, education, healthcare, gender dynamics, and the impacts of rapid urbanization. Additionally, the paper highlights persistent challenges, including poverty, inequality, environmental concerns, and governance issues, while underscoring the significance of technological innovation. By analyzing these key factors, the study illuminates the policies that have propelled Bangladesh’s economic growth and identifies strategies to ensure its continued and sustainable development
Labor share and market power in European firms
Get PDFThis study examines the relationship between firms’ market power, captured by product markups and labor markdowns, and the labor share within European firms. Using firm-level data from the CompNet database, we develop a microeconomic framework linking the labor share to firms’ market power. Empirical results show that labor markdowns reduce the labor share, while product markups have a hump-shaped effect on it. Specifically, moderate
increases in product markups initially lead to a rise in the labor share. However, as markups reach higher levels, firms with significant pricing power increasingly exercise monopsony power over their workers, amplifying markdowns and suppressing labor costs. Additionally, the analysis uncovers substantial cross-country heterogeneity in the relationship between markups, markdowns, and the labor share
China versus USA: A game-theoretic simulation approach
Get PDFThis paper combines one of the central questions of contemporary political economy, id est the conflict between China and the USA, with one of the major methodological advances in modelling technique, id est game theory. Of course, such a task goes far beyond the possibilities of a single research paper, it thus remains a modest sketch of a possible approach.
No formalisation attempt is independent of the content it tries to model. Therefore, the first part of the paper provides a very short synopsis of the envisaged global conflict between the two superpowers. Surprisingly, one of the historical contributors to this topic, John von Neumann, also is the scientist, which brought the methodological revolution of game theory to its full blossoming. The second part of the paper discusses von Neumann’s vision of game theory as a new formal language to describe human interaction - a somewhat different vision to the one that drove the mathematicians using his approach in the decades that followed. The third part of the paper presents a simple simulation exercise built on the ideas of the first two parts. The conclusion provides two lessons that can be learned from the paper, a methodological one and one concerning the mid-run development of the conflict between China and the USA
Sticky Information and Price Controls: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
Get PDFWe test the predictions of the sticky information model using a survey dataset by comparing the shoppers’ accuracy in recalling the prices of regulated and comparable unregulated products. Regulated product prices change less frequently, vary less across stores and between brands, and are sold more than comparable but unregulated product prices. Therefore, shoppers would be expected to recall the regulated product prices more accurately. However, we find that shoppers are better at recalling the prices of unregulated products, in line with the sticky information model which predicts that shoppers will be more attentive to prices that change more frequently
Identity Politics, Partisan Sentiment and Household Spending
No full textWe examine how political shifts affect household economic sentiment and spending in identity-polarized settings. Using panel data on over 178,000 Indian households, we find that sentiment about personal finances --- and, to a lesser extent, the national economy --- predicts expenditure, even after accounting for income changes. Using close state elections, we show that Muslims become markedly more pessimistic than Hindus about national economic conditions following victories by the Hindu-nationalist party, but exhibit relatively smaller differences in personal financial sentiment, and no detectable divergence in expenditure. A Bayesian learning framework explains the insulation of consumption from politically induced sentiment shocks through the limited transmission of macro-beliefs to individual behavior in high-volatility environments
Debt Dynamics and Economic Growth
Get PDFThis paper assesses the impact of unanticipated shocks to public debt on Pakistan’s economic growth. Following the methodology of Soyres, Kawai, and Wang (2022), a series of forecast errors is constructed to serve as exogenous shocks in analyzing their effects on real GDP. Using data from 1994 to 2023, the analysis reveals that a 1.0 percent unanticipated increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio leads to a 0.14 percent decline in real GDP in the subsequent year. This negative impact highlights the need to identify a debt threshold beyond which economic growth is adversely affected. Applying threshold regression techniques, a critical debt threshold of 57 percent is estimated for Pakistan. The findings underscore the importance of gradual fiscal adjustments to place the debt-to-GDP ratio on a declining and sustainable path
Inequality Reduction in Mongolia: A Dynamic Income Source Analysis
Get PDFMongolia's Gini coefficient decreased by 26% over the past 15 years (2007-2022). This period, marked by a mining boom and bust cycle and great economic transformation. This study finds that the reduction in inequality is attributed to shifts in household income composition, including rising shares of wage income and government transfers, and declining shares of self-employment and own-consumption income. The expansion of the formal labor market, particularly in mining, trade, and finance, alongside social welfare programs like child benefits and pensions, has been pivotal. Interestingly, income from own consumption of housing, which has not been extensively considered in the literature, contributed most to the decrease in inequality due to its substantial reduction in both share and concentration. However, herder households remain vulnerable to shocks, and gender/regional disparities persist. This study, analyzing monetary and non-monetary well-being, offers insights into mining-dependent and transition economies seeking inclusive growth
Geographies of the Institutional Economic Theory and the Belt and Road Initiative. Soft Law Agreements, Pollution Halo Affect, and the Sustainable Development Goals
Get PDFThe Belt and Road Initiative (the BRI) is the current developmental stage of the Chinese capitalist model, and its progress through different nations depend on the governance that China established across its own vast geography over a long period of time. The levels of the BRI international activity resemble a rapid flood rather than a slow flow, due to the availability of the Chinese state finances and private capital funds, since the start of the Deng modernisations, and China’s entry into the WTO. The growth of the Chinese capitalism presented an interesting contrast to the national economic models North America, Europe, and Asia. There has been much interest on the interplay between the nature of the Chinese capitalism, the existing institutions, and the institutions that emerged subsequently. Overall, there exists a specific understanding of the growth in China in terms of the stronger and weaker institutions, that the paper discusses. China’s own development, the BRI activities, and the uneven success of the Sustainable Development Goals across the BRI membership also form an interesting debate. Further, China’s WTO entry, the WTO framework, and the subsequent BRI agreements also significant contrasts that the paper highlights
A three-way dynamic causality analysis on domestic credit risk, external debt, and external debt servicing and its implications on debt sustainability initiatives: Evidence from Zambia.
Get PDFThis paper presents a mathematical economic model to analyze a three-way dynamic causality analysis on commercial banks credit risk, external debt and external debt servicing and its implications on debt sustainability initiatives in Zambia. The results showed a unidirectional causal relationship between external debt and commercial banks' credit risk using a VECM with a consistent 1.659 percent increase in external debt as a proportion of GDP followed a 1 percent increase in banks' credit risk, indicating a vicious cycle. Additionally, we found that for every percentage increase in debt service as a share of GDP, there is a 0.9 percent increase in credit risk. The repayment of foreign debt also had a positive effect on the external debt. Based on this, we concluded that although debt treatment procedures have paved the way for a recovery path, a focus on reducing bank credit risk is necessary to keep the positive impacts of these activities from being undermined by a repo effect