Das Management von Enron bediente sich moralisch fragwürdiger Praktiken ("Bad Practices"), die zu dem spektakulären Aufstieg und Fall des Unternehmens beitrugen. Wie konnten sich diese Bad Practices etablieren? Um diese Frage zu beantworten, betrachten wir vier Verhaltensmechanismen und...

Das Management von Enron bediente sich moralisch fragwuerdiger Praktiken (‘Bad Practices’), die zu dem spektakulaeren Aufstieg und Fall des Unternehmens beitrugen. Wie konnten sich diese Bad Practices etablieren? Um diese Frage zu beantworten, betrachten wir vier Verhaltensmechanismen und...

This paper contributes to literature on the process of reform in Latin America. We study political economy aspects and the policy making process of reforms in what we identify as the five critical steps through the "life cycle" of a policy reform: the Planning, Dialogue, Adoption,...

Harstad and Selten (this forum) raise interesting questions about the relative promise of optimization models and bounded-rationality models in making progress in economics. This article builds from their analysis by indicating the potential for using neoclassical (broadly defined) optimization...

This chapter reviews the theory of the voluntary public and private redistribution of wealth elaborated by economic analysis in the last forty years or so. The central object of the theory is altruistic gift-giving, construed as benevolent voluntary redistribution of income or wealth. The theory...

Computer technology presents economists with new tools, but also raises novel methodological issues. This essay discusses the challenges faced by computational researchers, and proposes some solutions.

This study investigates the mechanisms affecting sleep choice and explores whether commitment devices and monetary incentives can be used to promote healthier sleep habits. To this end, we conducted a field experiment with college students, providing them incentives to sleep and collecting data...

The notion of ‘social justice’ emerged in political economy debates in the XIX century. This concept was developed particularly by Walras and by Catholic social economists. While Walras found inspiration in the view of natural law expressed by Quesnay, Catholic economists based their...

In the first part the history of the ideas of the Frankfurt School of statistics is presented. In the second part the function of statistics within the process of gaining empirical knowledge by economic and social research is systematically analysed. An essential is the distinction between the...

We use a unique panel data set to analyse price setting in restaurants in Switzerland 1977-93, for items known to have sticky prices. The macroeconomic environment during this time period allows us to examine how firms adjust prices at low (0%) and fairly high (7%) inflation. Our results...