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CIAO DATE: 06/05
Volume 19, Number 1, Winter 2005
Symposium: Sociology and Economics
What is Economic Sociology and Should any Economists Care? by Robert Gibbons
Identity and the Economics of Organizations by George A. Akerlof and Rachel E. Kranton
The economics of organizations is replete with the pitfalls of monetary rewards and punishments to motivate workers. If economic incentives do not work, what does? This paper proposes that workers' self-image as jobholders, coupled with their ideal as to how their job should be done, can be a major work incentive. It shows how such identities can flatten reward schedules, as they solve "principal agent" problem. The paper also identifies and explores a new tradeoff: supervisors may provide information to principals, but create rifts within the workforce and reduce employees' intrinsic work incentives. We motivate the theory with examples from the classic sociology of military and civilian organizations.
The Impact of Social Structure on Economic Outcomes by Mark Granovetter
Ecologies of Organizations: Diversity and Identity by Michael T. Hannan
A Sociological Perspective on Gender and Career Outcomes by Barbara F. Reskin and Denise D. Bielby
Symposium: The Economy of Russia
Russian Retrospectives on Reforms from Yeltsin to Putin by Padma Desai
The kamikaze crew of liberal reformers, picked by former President Boris Yeltsin in the early 1990s, succeeded in overturning the planned economy and the authoritarian political arrangements of seven decades of Soviet Communism. However, the resulting breakdown of political cohesion and the urgency of restoring stability prompted Yeltsin to select Vladimir Putin as his successor. The consolidating impetus under Putin, who was elected president in early 2000, has raised concerns about the continuation of economic and political reforms under his leadership. In this essay, nine Russian interviewees look back on the reform issues under Yeltsin and look ahead on the unfolding political economy scenario under Putin. They include three principle economic reformers under Yeltsin, three economic policy analysts, and three banking professionals.
Autopsy on an Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union by Elizabeth Brainerd and David M. Cutler
Male life expectancy at birth fell by over six years in Russia between 1989 and 1994. Many other countries of the former Soviet Union saw similar declines, and female life expectancy fell as well. Using cross-country and Russian household survey data, we assess six possible explanations for this upsurge in mortality. Most find little support in the data: the deterioration of the health care system, changes in diet and obesity, and material deprivation fail to explain the increase in mortality rates. The two factors that do appear to be important are alcohol consumption, especially as it relates to external causes of death (homicide, suicide, and accidents) and stress associated with a poor outlook for the future. However, a large residual remains to be explained.
The Role of Oligarchs in Russian Capitalism by Timothy J. Feddersen
Using a unique dataset, we describe the degree of ownership concentration in Russian economy and its role in shaping economic and political institutions in Russia. In particular, we find that Russian 'oligarchs' do control a substantial part of the economy. While the relative weight of their firms in Russian economy is huge, they do not seem to be excessively large by the standards of the global economy where most of them are operating. The oligarchs seem to run their firms more efficiently than other Russian owners controlling for industry, region and size.
A Normal Country: Russia After Communism by Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman
During the 1990s, Russia underwent an extraordinary transformation from a communist dictatorship to a multi-party democracy, from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, and from a belligerent adversary of the West to a cooperative partner. Yet a consensus in the US circa 2000 viewed Russia as a disastrous and threatening failure, and the 1990s as a decade of catastrophe for its citizens. Analyzing a variety of economic and political data, we demonstrate a large gap between this perception and the facts. In contrast to the common image, by the late 1990s Russia had become a typical middle-income capitalist democracy.
Articles
The Making of an Economist Redux by David Colander
This paper reports the findings of a survey and interviews with graduate students at seven top-ranking graduate economics programs. It finds that over the last 15 years graduate economics programs have become more empirical, less mathematical and less theoretically oriented, and that the students are generally positive about the profession. It also finds fewer differences among school. Despite the improvements, and greater student satisfaction, the paper suggests that there are serious pedagogical questions about the focus of the core on mathematical techniques rather than on creativity and economic reasoning, which students see as the true core of economics.
Child Labor in the Global Economy by Eric V. Edmonds and Nina Pavcnik
Few issues in developing countries draw as much popular attention as child labor. This paper begins by quantifying the extent and main characteristics of child labor. It then considers the evidence on a range of issues about child labor. Fundamentally, child labor is a symptom of poverty. Low income and poor institutions are driving forces behind the prevalence of child labor worldwide. This study concludes by assessing the policy options to reduce worldwide child labor.
Features
Data Watch: The American Time Use Survey by Daniel S. Hamermesh, Harley Frazis and Jay Stewart
We discuss the new American Time Use Survey (ATUS), an on-going household survey of roughly 1,200 Americans per month (1,800 per month in the first year, 2003) that collects time diaries as well as demographic interview information from respondents who had recently been in the Current Population Survey. The characteristics of the data are presented, as are caveats and concerns that one might have about them. A number of novel uses of the ATUS in economic research, including in the areas of macroeconomics, national income accounting, labor economics, and others, are proposed to illustrate the magnitude of this new survey's possible applications.
Recommendations for Further Reading: Bernard Saffran
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