The Journal of socio-economics最新文献

This study presents evidence about relations between national cultural dimensions, socioeconomic development and governance quality. Relations between Hofstede's dimensions, Schwartz cultural values, Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) and UNPD Human Development Index (HDI) were analysed by using correlations, multiple regression analysis, moderator and mediator analyses as well as path analyses. Correlation results showed that WGI, indulgence, harmony, affective and intellectual autonomy and egalitarianism were positively and power distance, embeddedness, and hierarchy negatively related to HDI. Regression analyses and moderation analyses showed that WGI moderated the relations between HDI and indulgence, embeddedness, intellectual autonomy and affective autonomy. In path models using structural equation modelling techniques, the effects of power distance and individualism on HDI were fully mediated by WGI whereas indulgence vs. restraint and long-term orientation had significant paths only to WGI. The effect of Schwarz's embeddedness dimension on HDI was partly mediated by WGI. In both models, WGI was strongly related to HDI. These results emphasize the importance of the quality of governance in socioeconomic development.

The paper contributes to the interpretation of annual growth rates based on the effect of the basic growth factors (capital, labour, human capital) and the cultural background as part of the “remaining factors”. It uses a series of variables to express these effects, which are analysed with a principal component analysis and a regression analysis, in the context of a Solow–Romer augmented growth framework. Cultural background variables are divided in two main groups: “Efficiency Orientation” and “Social Orientation” variables. We formulate the hypothesis that within the well-known growth framework “Efficiency Orientation” variables significantly affect economic growth, while “Social Orientation” influences are unpredicted in principle. The results confirm that cultural background positively affects annual growth rates. However, “Social Orientation” plays the main (positive) role. Furthermore, performing a sensitivity analysis on the cultural background, the conclusions confirm that cultural background has a strong interpretive role in annual growth rates. The deterioration of the “Social Orientation” cultural background negatively affects annual GDP growth. The paper points the crucial explanatory power of the “Social Orientation” cultural background for annual growth rates.

This paper reports two experiments involving an ultimatum game, conducted in Japan. There were two treatments in each experiment, which we call the cash session and the point session. The cash session involves introducing cash into the procedure of the experiments. In other words, in a cash session, subjects made decisions while holding cash in their hands, versus having points or tokens as in most prior experiments. We found that, compared to the point sessions, proposers offered more and responders rejected less frequently in the cash sessions. This is evidence that a cash effect exists in ultimatum game experiments.

The effects of electoral systems on corruption have been widely studied in economic and political literature. However, in explaining this relationship, very little attention has been paid to the role of political competition. We hypothesize that the degree of proportionality of the electoral system has a direct and indirect impact on corruption, via the degree of electoral competition among political parties. The estimated results, on a sample of the 20 Italian regions over 26 years, show that both the direct and the indirect effects are relevant in explaining corruption. As the electoral system becomes more proportional, corruption directly decreases. This beneficial effect can be reinforced or reduced depending on how the variation in political competition follows a variation in the degree of proportionality of the electoral system.

Donations and volunteerism can be conceived as market transactions with a zero explicit price. However, evidence suggests people may not view zero as just another price when it comes to pro-social behavior. Thus, while markets might be expected to increase the supply of assets available to those in need, some worry such financial incentives will crowd out altruistic giving. This paper reports laboratory experiments directly investigating the degree to which market incentives crowd out large, discrete charitable donations in a setting related to deceased organ donation. The results suggest markets increase the supply of assets available to those in need. However, as some critics fear, market incentives disproportionately influence the relatively poor.

This paper studies how an individual's composition of human and social capital affects his or her disposition to become an entrepreneur. Our theoretical analysis is an extension of Lazear's (2005) jack-of-all-trades theory in combination with the idea of bricolage of experiences and their effectuation in the disposition to become an entrepreneur. Our primary conclusion is that it is not individuals with a higher level of human or social capital but rather individuals with a more balanced and combined portfolio of human capital, social capital and experiences that are more disposed than others to become entrepreneurs. We use survey data from a sample of more than 2000 German students to test this hypothesis and find that the jacks-of-all-trades, i.e., individuals who are more balancing and combining different skills rather than specializing in a few, are more likely to become entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the masters-of-one, i.e., the specialists, are better off being employees and rightly prefer to do so.

While the mainstream economics over stresses the roles played by institutions defined as formal rules and organizations, current cultural models tend to be over-subjective, focusing on values system only. We draw from accumulated choices – marginal choices conditional on partial sums of one's own sunken choices as well as that of a chosen group of people – to offer alternative readings into culture, to open up new conversations and to pave the road for unified and balanced growth. National (organizational) cultures are defined as σ-algebras over the collective set of accumulated choices by all the people in the society (organization). To facilitate empirical test, a cultural triangle (also a growth or development triangle) made of wealth, institution and Internal Choice Environment (ICE) is derived. We then examine the interactions among the three dimensions and shed light on some old debates. AC shares dynamic bonds with the path dependence theory but see more positive roles of history.