The determinants of fertility behavior vary considerably from country to country. An oft-cited motivation for childbearing in developing countries is the economic returns parents expect to receive fro. their children. The demand for children as security assets is important in areas where insecurity is rife, alternative assets are risky or absent, and the support provided by children lacks market substitutes. An overlapping generations model in which fertility, children's education and migration are jointly determined by rural agricultural households is formulated. The effects on family size of changes in education costs, urban wages, child altruism towards parents, and rural living conditions are derived from the model. Same policy implications c-f the theoretical results are examined. The findings appear ta support the notion that as long as a traditional family-based system of obligations is retained and urban-rural wage differentials remain large, the security native will continue ta be significant as an explanation fer the high level of fertility in traditional rural societies. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> Behavioral economists have attempted to show that human iterated reasoning faculties discourage non-equilibrium, non-convergent game dynamics. But what if individuals iterating through each other's strategic intentions are instead driving complex collective dynamics? The results in this manuscript demonstrate that bounded "what you think I think you think" reasoning can cause sustained deviations from Nash equilibrium and other fixed-point solution concepts. Supporting my thesis are a series of six experiments, a revisitation of a classic game theory experiment, a variety of computational models, and an analysis of a real-world dataset with highly motivated agents. I also introduce two new games, the Mod Game and the Runway Game. By bridging human higher-level reasoning and animal collective behavior, this work challenges attitudes in economics that complex social dynamics can--or even should--be designed away. </p>

<p> The transition to late-capitalism in the U.S. has generated extensive societal change. This paper examines the intersection of three of these changes: the transition to a consumer-oriented economic and societal model, the increase of economic insecurity experienced by individuals and households and the heightened emphasis on a short-term orientation in individual decision-making. A review of literature from the fields of Sociology, Economics and Psychology describes differing understandings of how individuals react to the heightened economic insecurity that households experience under late-capitalism. Within mainstream Economics', theoretical and empirical work suggests that individuals respond to insecurity by reducing spending and maximizing long-term financial well-being. However, recent work by theorists such as Zygmunt Bauman and Richard Sennett suggest that the proliferation of risk that occurs under late-capitalism weakens individuals' ability to anticipate future risks and leaves them vulnerable to society's emphasis on short-term thinking. </p><p> In response to these two interpretations, I analyze differences in the effect of household employment insecurity on consumer behavior over time. Part one of the analysis is a descriptive evaluation using six years (1980-2005) of General Social Survey data and compares levels of perceived job insecurity across demographic and occupational groups, while controlling for occupation-specific unemployment levels. Results show that perceived insecurity increased during this time period, regardless of individual characteristics however, members of traditionally 'secure' groups had lower initial levels of perceived insecurity and sharper growth such that, by 2005, levels of job insecurity are not well predicted by demographic or occupational characteristics. </p><p> The second part of this study analyzes data from BLS' Consumer Expenditure Survey. A two-level regression model for repeated cross-sectional data decomposes the effect of occupational characteristics, the unemployment rate and time on households' spending in nine expenditure categories. Models include interaction effects to assess changes in the effect of occupational characteristics over time. Results suggest that occupational characteristics weakened as predictors of spending behavior during this time series, especially in 'long-term oriented' categories (e.g. housing, education). However, the presence of an earner in a high insecurity occupation is significantly associated with increased spending on 'short-term oriented' good and services.</p>

The thesis deals with the possibilities of employment of persons who face special barriers to entering the labour market. In the theoretical part it introduces a model of the welfare state as a solution to current social issues in most European countries. It refers to the crisis the existing forms of the welfare state is passing through and emphasizes the need for its reform. The the author's initial idea considers cooperation between the state, private profi and non-profit organizations and households in the field of so called third sector. The thesis also presents the theoretical foundations of the labour market functioning, defínes unemployment and provides a list of economic and social consequences of unemployment. In the practical part the author characterizes vulnerable groups in the labour market, names existing forms of support to these groups and offers the concept of social firms as a promising partner for the state government, local authorities and communities and unemployed people in solving their adverse social situation.

My thesis deals with social economics and its subjects, social enterprises. The first part of my thesis introduces us to main terms and the development of social economics in the Czech republic. I also focus my attention on its pillars and targets in view of the determination of the sphere of its impact. Therefore we specify here the fields in which social economics works. The main aim of my thesis is to characterise social economics and firms which are considered to be social enterprises. Furthermore, I want to refer to the usefulness and importacne of social economics both for a society and the entire economics as well. In the practical part I focus my attention on the particular social enterprise, which is in operation for several years, and I try to refer to its helpfulness. In conclusion of my thesis I come to the evaluation of the importance and position of social economics together with my judgement on its usefulness.

This dissertation contains three chapters. Each applies the tools of applied microeconomics to questions in labor economics, the economics of education, and social economics, respectively. In the first chapter, which is joint work with Amanda Pallais, we present the results of a series of field experiments in an online labor market designed to test whether workers referred to a firm by existing employees perform differently from their non-referred counterparts and, if so, why. We find that referred workers have higher performance and lower turnover than non-referred workers. We demonstrate a large role for selection: referred workers perform better and persist longer even at jobs to which they are not referred at a firm where their referrers do not work. Team production is also important: referred workers are much more productive when working with their own referrer than with someone else's referrer. / Economics

No / Much recent economic work on the music industry has been focused on the impact of technology on demand, with predictions being made of digital copyright infringement leading to the demise of the industry. In fact, there have always been profound cyclical swings in music media sales owing to the fact that music always has been, and continues to be, a discretionary purchase. This entertaining and accessible book offers an analysis of the production and consumption of music from a social economics approach. Locating music within the economic analysis of social behaviour, this books guides the reader through issues relating to production, supply, consumption and trends, wider considerations such as the international trade in music, and in particular through divisions of age, race and gender. Providing an engaging overview of this fascinating topic, this book will be of interest and relevance to students and scholars of cultural economics, management, musicology, cultural studies and those with an interest in the music industry more generally.

A pesquisa visa compreender como os cooperados da UNIWIDIA – Cooperativa Industrial de Trabalhadores em Ferramentas de Metal Duro – negociam interesses e entendimentos no processo cotidiano de construção da autogestão de sua cooperativa. No trabalho de campo foi realizada observação etnográfica do cotidiano de trabalho na cooperativa, bem como realizadas entrevistas com seis cooperados. Os resultados apresentam: a cooperativa, o histórico da cooperativa, o cotidiano de trabalho, os interesses em disputa e os processos formais e informais de negociação. O estudo identifica que os cooperados formularam ao menos três importantes regras sobre seu funcionamento coletivo: “todos são iguais"; “todos são responsáveis" e “todos estão no mesmo barco". Tais regras são utilizadas pelos cooperados para manter a simetria de poder na cooperativa, cobrar atitudes uns dos outros e manter a coesão do grupo. A cada regra enunciada corresponde uma característica psicossocial destes cooperados: eles se preocupam com a cooperativa; controlam os demais cooperados e se sentem membros da cooperativa. A pesquisa conclui que os cooperados alternam posições e interesses, ora se posicionam como sócios favoráveis “à cooperativa", ora como trabalhadores em prol “dos cooperados" e ora como pessoas em busca “de uma vida melhor". Entretanto, conclui também que os cooperados desejam e trabalham para que estes interesses coincidam. / This project tries to understand how the workers affiliated with UNIWIDIA - the cast and die workers cooperative - bargain in the every day process of the self-management of their cooperative. We have done the ethnographic observation of the day to day working of the cooperative and we have also interviewed six workers who were members of the cooperative. The results are: the cooperative, the work day of the members, the goals fought over and the formal and informal bargaining processes. This project concludes that the cooperative members drew up at least three important rules about their collective functioning: “everybody is equal", “everybody is responsible", and “everybody is in the same boat". These rules are used by the members to maintain a certain symmetry of power in the cooperative, to demand correct attitudes from each other and to maintain group cohesion. Each one of the rules corresponds to a psychosocial characteristic of the members: they are concerned about the cooperative, they control the other members, and they feel that they belong to the cooperative. We conclude that the members of the cooperative oscillate between their positions and interests: sometimes they are members “ in favor of the cooperative", sometimes they are workers “in favor of the members of the cooperative", and sometimes they are “workers looking for a better life". We conclude too that the members of the cooperative desire and strive for the coincidence of these three interests.

A pesquisa visa compreender como os cooperados da UNIWIDIA – Cooperativa Industrial de Trabalhadores em Ferramentas de Metal Duro – negociam interesses e entendimentos no processo cotidiano de construção da autogestão de sua cooperativa. No trabalho de campo foi realizada observação etnográfica do cotidiano de trabalho na cooperativa, bem como realizadas entrevistas com seis cooperados. Os resultados apresentam: a cooperativa, o histórico da cooperativa, o cotidiano de trabalho, os interesses em disputa e os processos formais e informais de negociação. O estudo identifica que os cooperados formularam ao menos três importantes regras sobre seu funcionamento coletivo: “todos são iguais”; “todos são responsáveis” e “todos estão no mesmo barco”. Tais regras são utilizadas pelos cooperados para manter a simetria de poder na cooperativa, cobrar atitudes uns dos outros e manter a coesão do grupo. A cada regra enunciada corresponde uma característica psicossocial destes cooperados: eles se preocupam com a cooperativa; controlam os demais cooperados e se sentem membros da cooperativa. A pesquisa conclui que os cooperados alternam posições e interesses, ora se posicionam como sócios favoráveis “à cooperativa”, ora como trabalhadores em prol “dos cooperados” e ora como pessoas em busca “de uma vida melhor”. Entretanto, conclui também que os cooperados desejam e trabalham para que estes interesses coincidam. / This project tries to understand how the workers affiliated with UNIWIDIA - the cast and die workers cooperative - bargain in the every day process of the self-management of their cooperative. We have done the ethnographic observation of the day to day working of the cooperative and we have also interviewed six workers who were members of the cooperative. The results are: the cooperative, the work day of the members, the goals fought over and the formal and informal bargaining processes. This project concludes that the cooperative members drew up at least three important rules about their collective functioning: “everybody is equal”, “everybody is responsible”, and “everybody is in the same boat”. These rules are used by the members to maintain a certain symmetry of power in the cooperative, to demand correct attitudes from each other and to maintain group cohesion. Each one of the rules corresponds to a psychosocial characteristic of the members: they are concerned about the cooperative, they control the other members, and they feel that they belong to the cooperative. We conclude that the members of the cooperative oscillate between their positions and interests: sometimes they are members “ in favor of the cooperative”, sometimes they are workers “in favor of the members of the cooperative”, and sometimes they are “workers looking for a better life”. We conclude too that the members of the cooperative desire and strive for the coincidence of these three interests.

The diploma thesis "Social economics and a treatment of unemployment in towns and regions" addresses on an area of social enterprise and also has an ambition to proof, that in this area is hidden a huge potential for future resolutions of unemployment of specific group of people. The thesis is divided into two main parts. First which is theoretic and methodical is based on explanation of a basic terms, a description of previous development of this phenomena in Czech Republic and in selected european countries. It also deals with definitions of basic relationships occuring in this economic area. An essential component is also a legal basis and an explanation of a regularization of social enterprise. The second part is focused on an established and efficient subject in an area of the social enteprise in Czech republic. There are calculated all pros and cons of a given organization with a consideration of theoretical knowledge from first part of the thesis. The main target is to proof, that those companies, organizations and firms which are based on "social-economical" aproach should be maintained not only for their social aspects, but also for their financial assets for public sector and private sector aswell.