Behavioural economics builds on psychology rather than on sociology, and on cognitive science rather than the science of culture. The same is true for new behavioural scholarship in the legal discipline, whether this is referred to as 'behavioural law and economics' or 'law and the behavioural sciences'. The result of a one-sided definition of a more realist research agenda in legal scholarship is an impoverished understanding of the 'social'. In Thaler and Sunstein's famous concept of nudging, social conformity appears as a property of the individual, which can be instrumentalized by social nudges. More generally, the cognitive strand of behavioural economics lends itself to strategies of regulatory 'debiasing', which suggests that it is possible to get down to pure preferences that are free from any distortions. While this approach neglects the endogeneity, or social contingency, of individual preferences, the social strand of behavioural economics is explicitly concerned with the dynamics of social interaction, or the effects of social interdependence. However, both strands of behavioural economics are still higher on methodological individualism, naturalism or positivism and lower on institutionalism, culturalism or constructivism than a genuinely sociological approach. More specifically, their understanding of the 'social' does not sufficiently account for the social embeddedness of both rational and irrational economic action. What is more, behavioural economics also lacks the means to reflect on the link between science and politics, which includes the question of why different models of economic man are attractive at different points in time. The conceptual move from rational to behavioural economic man bears distinctive policy implications, which are in line with the transformation of welfare capitalism towards 'less state' and 'more market'. While the overall direction of this project gets blurred in Thaler and Sunstein's branding of 'libertarian paternalism', it is evident in the adaptation of consumer policies, which proceeds under the imperative of market-conformity. Accordingly, a strategy of nudging does not put into question the wider institutional context but offers a technical solution to what is defined as a problem of individual behavioural rigidities and cognitive biases in the market environment.

Issues of pension viability are at the forefront of gerontological debate. The uncertainty of long-term effects of the societal aging process on public pensions and the constant public policy struggle to maintain income levels among pensioners are critical points of discussion. As existing pension policies are examined and amended, policymakers increasingly rely on experts of pension research and income inequality for policy frameworks. Gosta Esping-Andersen's (1990) Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism has provided the seminal typology for nearly two decades. His typology consists of three regimes: liberal, conservative, and social-democratic. The purpose of this research was to examine and compare the outcomes of historical pension policy in a social-democratic nation (Finland) with pension-receiving cohorts in a comparison nation of each regime: liberal (the United States), conservative (Germany), and social-democratic (Sweden). Specific aims were: to investigate the continuing viability of Esping-Andersen's typology at a national (macro) level; to explore a new analytical approach by disaggregating the population and conducting micro analyses; and to examine the value of using more sensitive inequality indices (Atkinson and Theil) in lieu of the commonly used Gini Index. Finland provides a case study focus of the comparative analysis. Analysis of Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data confirms that Esping-Andersen's typology remains viable at the macro level for the liberal United States. However, conservative Germany and social-democratic Sweden and Finland may be shifting their respective classifications with possible convergence of the conservative and social-democratic regimes info a European regime.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Elna Green, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of History. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 12, 2005). Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

This dissertation analyses changes in income redistribution through the lens of market-state (private-public) nexus. The main goal of the dissertation is to explore the impact of taxes and benefits on income redistribution among different population groups while aiming for social welfare in emerging welfare capitalism Lithuania. This dissertation analyses the changes in market income and primary income inequality among households and individuals. Changes in public opinion towards desirable income redistribution level and state’s role in distribution process during the last two decades are evaluated as well, stressing the demand for redistribution. Dissertation analyses the impact of taxes and benefits on disposable income inequality and consequences for different socio-economic groups. Relative importance, size and progressivity of redistributive instruments are evaluated. Changes in income redistribution are associated with the changes in tax-benefit legislation. Finally, considering the relative importance of taxes and benefits for income inequality, dissertation contributes to the on-going discussion on the kind of welfare regime forming in Lithuania. / Disertaciniame darbe, analizuojant gyventojų pajamų perskirstymo kaitą, akcentuojama analitinė valstybės – rinkos (viešo – privataus) skirtis. Pagrindinis disertacijos tikslas - ištirti mokesčiais ir socialinėmis išmokomis vykdomą pajamų perskirstymą besiformuojančiame gerovės kapitalizme Lietuvoje tarp skirtingų gyventojų grupių siekiant socialinės gerovės tikslų. Disertacijoje analizuojama, kaip keitėsi gyventojų rinkos pajamos ir jų nelygybė. Kartu parodoma ir gyventojų nuomonių dėl norimo pajamų pasiskirstymo ir didesnio ar mažesnio valstybės vaidmens kaita per du dešimtmečius, taip išryškinant poreikį pajamų perskirstymui. Darbe analizuojama, kaip valstybė socialinėmis išmokomis ir mokesčiais sumažina pirminę pajamų nelygybę ir koks yra poveikis skirtingoms gyventojų pajamų ir socialinėms ekonominėms gyventojų grupėms. Įvertinamas atskirų instrumentų dydis, progresyvumas ir kaita besiformuojančiame gerovės kapitalizme. Pajamų perskirstymo kaita siejama su mokesčių ir išmokų politikų pokyčiais. Galiausiai prisidedama prie mokslinės diskusijos, kokiam gerovės režimo tipui, pagal santykinį mokesčių ir išmokų vaidmenį perskirstant pajamas ir mažinant pirminių pajamų nelygybę, Lietuva galėtų būti priskirta.

In the 1880s, capitalism as a social and economic system integrated new geographic areas of the American continent. The construction of the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad (D&IR), financed by a group of Philadelphia investors led by Charlemagne Tower and later owned by the US Steel was part of this emerging political economy based on the exploitation of human and material resources. Migrant labor was in demand as it came cheap and, generally, floated between various construction-sites on the “frontier” of capitalism. The Swedish immigrants were one part of this group of “floaters” during the late 1800s and made up a significant part of the force that constructed and worked on the D&IR between the 1880s and the 1920s. This book deals with power relations between groups based on class and ethnic differences by analyzing the relationship between the Anglo-American bourgeois establishment and the Swedish and other immigrant workers and their children on the D&IR and in the railroad town of Two Harbors, Minnesota. The Anglo-American bourgeois hegemony in Minnesota, to a large extent, dictated the conditions under which Swedish immigrants and others toiled and were allowed access to American society. I have therefore analyzed the structural subordination and gradual integration of workers and, in particular, immigrant workers, in an emerging class society. The book also deals with the political and the cultural opposition to Anglo-American bourgeois hegemony that emerged in Two Harbors and that constructed a radical public sphere during the 1910s. In this process, new group identities based on class and ethnicity emerged in the working class neighborhoods in the wake of the capitalist expansion and exploitation, and as a result of worker agency. Building on traditions of political insurgency an alliance of immigrant workers, particularly Swedes, Anglo skilled workers and parts of the local petty bourgeoisie rose to a position of political and cultural power in the local community. This coalition was held together by the language of class that became the basis of a local multi-ethnic working class identity laying claim to its own version of Americanism. The period of preparedness leading up to the Great War, the war itself, and its aftermath, produced a reaction from the Anglo American bourgeoisie which resulted in a profound change in the public sphere as a coalition between “meliorist middle class reformers”, represented primarily by the YMCA and local church leaders and the D&IR and its program of welfare capitalism launched a broad program to counter socialism locally, and to forge new social bonds that would cut across class lines and ethnic boundaries. By this process, the ethnic working class in Two Harbors was offered entry into American society by acquiring citizenship and by their inclusion in a broader civic community undifferentiated by class. But this could only be realized by the workers’ adoption of an Anglo-American national identity based on identification with corporate interests, a new local solidarity that cut across class lines and a white racial identity that diminished the significance of ethnic boundaries. By these means the Swedish immigrants, or at least a portion of them, became Americans on terms established by the D&IR and its class allies.

English abstract This dissertation thesis deals with an entrepreneur as an engaged social agent that wants to shape society, creating not only a successful business venture but also a societal vision. This research focused on the Czech example of Tomáš and Jan Antonín Baťa while utilizing case studies of American entrepreneurs Henry Ford and Milton Hershey. These business owners are examples of social agents that realized their entrepreneurial plans, while their enterprise also allowed them to create a desired societal vision. The goal of the dissertation thesis is to discover how the studied entrepreneurs tried to influence the community of their employees and their company towns. The examination will include the ways they tried to influence wider society, through areas such as politics, philanthropy, and support of education. The goal is to identify and evaluate their motivations, goals, and ideas they used to shape society. The intent of the thesis is to present engaged Czech entrepreneurs through comparison with their American counterparts. This thesis is focused on the first 40 years of the 20th century. It was a time that immediately followed the societal changes connected with industrialization, urbanization, and modernization. The studied entrepreneurs lived in an era of massive social changes,...