Structural changes in an economy or in financial markets can arise as a result of agents adopting rules that appear to be the norm around them. Such rules are adopted by implicit consensus as they turn out to be profitable for individuals. However, as rules develop and spread they may have...

[eng] Organisational structure and networks of interpersonal relations are a central preoccupation for most social scientists. However these aspects of economic activity have received relatively little attention from economists. The idea of this paper is to explain why this is so. The basic...

[fre] On a récemment suggéré que l'expérience du plan Marshall après la guerre pourrait être renouvelée aujourd'hui pour les pays de l'Est. Il semble toutefois, selon des études historiques récentes, que le plan Marshall ait été beaucoup moins efficace qu'on ne l'a prétendu et que...

 

In physical models it is well understood that the aggregate behaviour of a system is not in one to one correspondence with the behaviour of the average individual element of that system. Yet, in many economic models the behaviour of aggregates is thought of as corresponding to that of an...

In France today we are faced with three problems in training young economists. Firstly we have a system in which every university is supposed to offer equivalent degrees and this means that more than half of the students disappear without getting a degree. We cannot offer the sort of courses...

This paper discusses modern macroeconomic and financial models in the light of the current crisis. Theory has been revealed to be inadequate in its explanation of the origins and the nature of the crisis, as Jean-Claude Trichet the Governor of the European Central bank and his colleagues at...

This work introduces a special issue of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization on the emergence and impact of market institutions in wholesale fish markets. The analysis of fish markets has a respectable pedigree also in terms of the description of how they function. A major advantage...