1,721,153 research outputs found
Shangri-La Governance. A Sketch of an Integral Solution for European Economic Policy based on a Synthesis of Europe's Problems
No full textThis chapter provides a preview of what governance in a better future
state, Shangri-La governance, should take care of. The starting point for each policy
feature, of course, is a contradiction that contemporary political economy cannot
solve-what appears as problem already incorporates the ideas of its solution.
Problem areas are grouped as corners of a hexagon. A sketch of an overarching
policy program derived from existing contradictions is presented. The main result is
that the different policy areas are so tightly linked that only a holistic approach-
taking care of all corners of the hexagon simultaneously-can promise success.
Piecemeal engineering in isolated corners, i.e. what is currently happening, is bound
to fail. A newly formulated overarching European economic policy clearly will
include the particular role to be played by Eastern European countries. After almost
ten years since the enlargement of the EU to central and Eastern European countries
it is remarkable that this integration does not occur as one of the six major contradictions
to be solved today. Quite the opposite is formulated. In the concluding
paragraphs: Despite the many shortcomings and-hopefully mostly transitory-
disadvantageous developments in several Eastern states an overall assessment of
welfare implications of integration can hardly ignore the positive net effects. These
many-layered experiences can, and should be considered as a kind of historical
laboratory experiment testing if cohesive forces within the EU are strong enough to
assure the survival of this political entity-and this test has been passed
Classes - From National to Global Class Formation
No full textThis book is meant to start a grand debate on the investigation into the forms of global organization of the different large groups on earth, or to use the traditional concept of political economy, an
investigation into a possible future global class structure1. It is evident that what holds the human species together is its genetic setup; it makes each individual member an element of the species.
On the other hand, it is far less clear in which way the structuring of groups within the species evolves. Of course, the continuing growth of the number of individuals increases the impact on the
environment of the species as well as on its internal structure necessary to maintain its flourishing.
As history shows, this evolution comes in the form of alternating stages: long periods of relatively smooth growth with only slightly changing structure intermitted by much shorter periods during
which the old structure is broken up, new organization forms, and social entities emerge, while some others are eliminated2. The focus of political economy is to understand this highly complicated
nonlinear dynamic process, needless to say that a formal treatment is out of sight as Long as even a preliminary canonized understanding of its major ingredients in prose is not aavilable.
The task here therefore is more modest. It is just one step in the long-run evolutionary process of human progress that is considered: the step from nation states and their internal class structure
to the emergence of possible global classes. This introduction will present some General ideas on how the growth of the sheer size of political entities-governance of countries, of continents, and of the whole earth-interacts with the traditional class concepts and enforces their theoretical adaption
Power as a structuring concept for political economy. Algorithmic evolutionary methods in action.
No full textThe talk explores the concept of power and uses it to provide a new foundation for a conceptual framework of evolutionary political economy. This framework makes excessive use of the perspective of agent based simulation to keep all new notions clear, concise, and consistent. The artificial political economy is considered as a tribal society. The tribes´ chieftains are involved in a game of power and exploit their farmers dependent on their chosen strategies. The model combines elements of a stock-flow consistent architecture of capital reproduction cycles, of agent-based bottom-up mechanisms and of evolutionary group-selection on a network topology
Diversity of Diversity. A transdisciplinary consideration of a pivotal concept
No full textThe use of the word `diversity´ has become quite fashionable in several sub-disciplines of the social sciences (including economics) recently. Unfortunately this common usage hides the variety of meanings, which the concept `variety´ has in the different domains of scientific discourse - hence the title of this paper. It sets out to shed some light on this sometimes confusing situation by starting with a discussion of the two rather opposed uses of `diversity´ in the area of gender and race discrimination on the one hand, and in the area evolutionary economics on the other hand.
It turns out that despite the enormously divergent context of `diversity´ in these two scientific discourses there is a common denominator, which allows bridging the gap: coalition formation. Emergence and even necessity to build - at least transitory - new units consisting of heterogeneous members to improve welfare turns out to be an underlying theme in both areas.
The final part of the paper will generalize this issue beyond the example of the two specific scientific discourses. In particular it will direct the attention towards how to learn general properties using special cases. Since the formation of coalitions to strengthen progressive powers in contemporary global political economy is one of the most urgent tasks, the concluding part of the paper tries to draw some lessons in this respect
From Agents to Large Actors and back: Formalized story-telling of emergence and exit in political economy
No full textThis paper presents a simulation model that is capable to explore essential features of the
emergence and exit of economic institutions. The models used at the micro-level as well as
the interactions which lead to the emergence of macro-behavior are described in detail,
possible extensions are hinted at. With a large amount of simulation runs a classification of
results is attempted, which enables to draw some conclusions from the implications of the
chosen setting. Finally a few issues in political economy are brought into relation to the
simulation framework provided
Signalling games in university design
Full text linkDie Arbeit befasst sich zuerst mit einigen klassischen Beispielen der Spieltheorie und den gebräuchlichen Lösungskonzepten und konzetriert sich dann auf eine spezielle Klasse von Spielen. Spiele mit unvollständiger Information und nur zwei Spielern - den Signalisierungsspielen. Der informierte Spieler zieht zuerst und kann eine Nachricht an den anderen Spieler schicken. Dieser reagiert darauf mit einer Aktion auf die die Auszahlung an beide Spieler folgt. Wir konzentrieren uns auf das Beispiel des Signalisierens am Arbeitsmarkt von Spence (1973) und erörtern die verschiedenen Gleichgewichte und Kriterien um machne von ihnen auszusortieren. Letztendlich wird versucht dieses klassiche Modell auf ein neues Universitätsmodell umzulegen, wobei die "Spieler" die potenziellen Studenten und die Universität(en) sind. Um auf den Entscheidungsprozess des Maturanten einwirken zu können wird versucht die wesentlichen Faktoren und deren Korrelationen zu erörtern. Dieser Ansatz soll dazu dienen ein Modell dieses Prozesses zu erstellen und mit Hilfe von "Agent based modelling" die Situation der Universitäten bzw. dieser höheren Ausbildung zu analysieren und womöglich zu verbessern.This thesis elaborates on the theory of the solution concepts and the different classes of games to provide the foundation for understanding the succeeding parts. First it treats games with complete information and the refinements of the Nash Equilibrium. In the following repeated games and games with incomplete information are discussed. After treating the solution concepts a special class of games namely the signalling games is presented. Then the different kinds of equilibriums and their refinements to discard some of the possible equilibriums are treated applied to the well-known job market signalling game of Spence (1973). Then the attempt is made to create a university model that is based on this classical model to understand the interaction between the potential students and the universities. The focus lies on the individual's mind who makes the decision whether to study or not. Once one understands this factor of the whole equation it can be used to analyze the whole system and make improvements. This thesis only provides initial thoughts on the criteria that an individual's decision is based on and what interdependencies (may) arise
A necessary evolution: structure, problems and change, concepts for the credit rating industry
Full text linkThis thesis explores the role of credit rating agencies (CRAs) on the financial market. The history, structure and business model of the rating industry will be examined, based on an extensive study of relevant literature, also including working papers and legislation by public authorities. Based on this overviews, it will be examined in how far external credit ratings of bad quality can have a destabilising influence on the markets and what might be the reasons for biased ratings. As a consequence it will be shown, that conflicts of interest, together with related dynamics, do indeed factor into the ratings released by CRAs, which in turn deteriorates market stability. Building on this, various possible ways to address these concerns will be presented and evaluated. The ideas of a changed remuneration system for rating agencies, of an European intermediary rating platform and of supplementing external ratings in legislatory frameworks with market measures will be specifically discussed. These topics will then form the basis of an agent-based model in NetLogo. This model will be used to simulate the dynamics that credit ratings induce in the financial market as well as the potential impact of the reform concepts described in the preceding chapter. The evaluation of this simulation model and its results in context of the theoretical part of the paper will then form the conclusion of the thesis
The modern knowledge economy in China and Europe : implications for policy-making in higher education
Full text linkOver the last 20 years knowledge has been of growing significance, hence, coining the term "knowledge economy". These past decades will prove to be of groundbreaking value for education and knowledge all around the globe. This thesis is aiming to discuss the challenges that the university systems in China and Europe face in the dawn of the knowledge economy. In order to get a proper understanding of the knowledge economy, the reader will first be introduced to relevant terminology. Next, an insight into the mathematic modelling in regards to the influence of higher education on economic growth is offered. Subsequently, the question of quality in higher education is introduced. The pertinence of rankings for yielding well-founded commensurability of universities is pointed out, before discussing the university systems of China and Europe, respectively. Thereupon, the issues of quality, equity, financing, and internationalization of higher education in China and Europe are raised. Furthermore, the resemblances of higher education in China and Europe are underlined by a number of tangible examples. To round off the results, various policy suggestions are proposed
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