Meta Governance of Path Dependencies: Regulation, Welfare, and Markets

Author(s):  
John Braithwaite

Regulation, welfare, and markets grow interdependently, shaping, reinforcing, and supporting each other: markets allow for the expansion of welfare states, and welfare states create demand for regulatory state services that help to solve perceived welfare problems. Crises can drive this path dependency because they create opportunities for growth in markets, regulation, and welfare institutions. The momentum toward interdependent risk of ecological crises, economic crises, and security crises is formidable, but regulatory-welfare-market path dependencies might be mustered to counter it. This article proposes a meta governance of path dependence, emphasizing multiple interactions in the regulation-welfare-market system and suggesting that meta governance can steer path-dependent regulation, welfare, and markets in the governance of crises. I discuss whether patterns of path dependence explain why regulation, welfare, and markets interdependently persist and grow.

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 1611-1635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Reinstaller ◽  
Peter Reschenhofer

Abstract This paper examines how product relatedness and the breadth of technological search affect the path-dependent development of export specializations across countries documented in prior research. The results of the econometric analysis in this paper show that broader technological search in an industry has a positive impact on the development of comparative advantages in the product lines it exports. The interplay between product relatedness and the scope of technological search has a two-edged character. On the one hand, broader technological search supports adjustments and consolidations of the export baskets on the extensive margin. This contributes to weaken path-dependency. On the other hand, it fosters the competitiveness of products that are related to current export specializations, and thereby promotes path-dependency on the intensive margin of trade. These results differ across countries with different levels of technological capabilities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 400-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Layton ◽  
Sarah Duffy

Path dependency in marketing systems occurs when what has happened at an earlier time affects the possible outcomes of a sequence of events occurring at a later point in time (Sewell 1996). Unlike the wider category of all social systems, in marketing systems path dependency is innate in the evolutionary dynamics underlying the formation and growth of a marketing system, beginning with the historical framing of choices made by all participants, generating, through self-organization and emergence, four complex social mechanisms - delivery systems, stakeholder action fields, technology evolution systems and value change fields. These complex social mechanisms interact over time generating marketing system outcomes that feedback continually into participant choices. The paper argues that all marketing systems, whether micro, meso or macro in scale and level, exhibit path dependence, and explores the implications of this finding. The paper identifies three ways of approaching path dependence in marketing systems - a narrative, partial and strong approach. It concludes that in a specific marketing systems setting all three approaches complement each other, the first establishing in narrative terms what happened, the second identifying the key path dependencies in a partial analysis, and finally, the third, drawing on a detailed or strong understanding of the causal dynamics at work to provide insights needed to extend theories of marketing system formation and growth and to provide the foundations for policy prescription. The occurrence of path dependency in all marketing systems and the complementary nature of the three distinctive approaches are the two major contributions of this paper.


Author(s):  
Michelle Hegmon

Path dependence concepts, thus far, have seen little application in archaeology, but they have great potential. At a general level, these concepts provide tools for theorizing historical sequences, such as patterns of settlement on a landscape and divergent historical traditions. Potential applications include issues of historical contingency in the late Rio Grande, settlement in the Mesa Verde region, and divergent trajectories in the post-Chaco period. Specific concepts from path dependence theory, including lock-in and critical junctures, are illustrated by an analysis of the growth of Hohokam irrigation, which exhibited a path-dependent trajectory. As archaeological study of path dependence builds awareness of the importance of decision-making on the future, it contributes to difficult decision-making in today’s world.


2018 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 689-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward W. Tekwa ◽  
Eli P. Fenichel ◽  
Simon A. Levin ◽  
Malin L. Pinsky

Understanding why some renewable resources are overharvested while others are conserved remains an important challenge. Most explanations focus on institutional or ecological differences among resources. Here, we provide theoretical and empirical evidence that conservation and overharvest can be alternative stable states within the same exclusive-resource management system because of path-dependent processes, including slow institutional adaptation. Surprisingly, this theory predicts that the alternative states of strong conservation or overharvest are most likely for resources that were previously thought to be easily conserved under optimal management or even open access. Quantitative analyses of harvest rates from 217 intensely managed fisheries supports the predictions. Fisheries’ harvest rates also showed transient dynamics characteristic of path dependence, as well as convergence to the alternative stable state after unexpected transitions. This statistical evidence for path dependence differs from previous empirical support that was based largely on case studies, experiments, and distributional analyses. Alternative stable states in conservation appear likely outcomes for many cooperatively managed renewable resources, which implies that achieving conservation outcomes hinges on harnessing existing policy tools to navigate transitions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Knoerich

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze how path dependence in the evolution of major theories of foreign direct investment (FDI) locked in a theoretical perspective of the multinational enterprise that focused on asset-exploitation. This perspective is challenged by recent contradicting observations of multinationals from China and other emerging economies. A decisive re-orientation of FDI theory is proposed as a way forward to resolve this tension. Design/methodology/approach Placing FDI theories into the context of FDI patterns prevailing at the time they were developed, Thomas Kuhn’s framework on the evolution of scientific knowledge is employed to track how the mainstream FDI theory emerged, went through a period of normal science and then approached a crisis of science in this field. Findings The evolution of FDI theory is strongly path-dependent, which made it difficult for theory to effectively incorporate new conceptual discoveries and empirical findings about the nature of FDI activity. Originality/value FDI theory would benefit from a full re-orientation to a demand-oriented perspective which places the pursuit of advantages, assets, resources, etc., at the core of the theory. Such a change is implicit in many recent theoretical advances and would assure theory is generalizable to all types of FDI.


Author(s):  
C. Hari Manoj Simha ◽  
Kaan Inal ◽  
Michael J. Worswick

This article analyzes the formability data sets for aluminum killed steel (Laukonis, J. V., and Ghosh, A. K., 1978, “Effects of Strain Path Changes on the Formability of Sheet Metals,” Metall. Trans. A., 9, pp. 1849–1856), for Al 2008-T4 (Graf, A., and Hosford, W., 1993, “Effect of Changing Strain Paths on Forming Limit Diagrams of Al 2008-T4,” Metall. Trans. A, 24A, pp. 2503–2512) and for Al 6111-T4 (Graf, A., and Hosford, W., 1994, “The Influence of Strain-Path Changes on Forming Limit Diagrams of Al 6111 T4,” Int. J. Mech. Sci., 36, pp. 897–910). These articles present strain-based forming limit curves (ϵFLCs) for both as-received and prestrained sheets. Using phenomenological yield functions, and assuming isotropic hardening, the ϵFLCs are transformed into principal stress space to obtain stress-based forming limit curves (σFLCs) and the principal stresses are transformed into effective stress and mean stress space to obtain the extended stress-based forming limit curves (XSFLCs). A definition of path dependence for the σFLC and XSFLC is proposed and used to classify the obtained limit curves as path dependent or independent. The path dependence of forming limit stresses is observed for some of the prestrain paths. Based on the results, a novel criterion that, with a knowledge of the forming limit stresses of the as-received material, can be used to predict whether the limit stresses are path dependent or independent for a given prestrain path is proposed. The results also suggest that kinematic hardening and transient hardening effects may explain the path dependence observed in some of the prestrain paths.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (01) ◽  
pp. 1850005
Author(s):  
LARS ALKAERSIG ◽  
KARIN BEUKEL ◽  
GIANCARLO LAUTO

This paper examines whether technological advances benefit more from path-dependent or path-creating capabilities. Consistently with recent advances in the literature, we argue that multiple technological trajectories can coexist in a field; therefore, firms may contribute to technological development by recombining in novel ways the capabilities that are widespread in the field, or by building novel and rare capabilities. The paper also conceptualises how technological uncertainty affects the value of such capabilities. Using patent data from 1977 to 2007 for firms developing the hydrocracking technology, the paper finds that both rare and widespread capabilities are valuable to the invention process, thereby suggesting that both path-dependent and path-creating strategies are beneficial for technological development. The paper shows that uncertainty has an inverted U-shaped effect on invention value. In particular, under conditions of low uncertainty, path-dependent capabilities tend to be more valuable.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRADLEY A. HANSEN ◽  
MARY ESCHELBACH HANSEN

Abstract:We illustrate mechanisms that can give rise to path dependence in legislation. Specifically, we show how debtor-friendly bankruptcy law arose in the United States as a result of a path dependent process. The 1898 Bankruptcy Act was not regarded as debtor-friendly at the time of its enactment, but the enactment of the law gave rise to changes in interest groups, changes in beliefs about the purpose of bankruptcy law, and changes in the Democratic Party's position on bankruptcy that set the United States on a path to debtor-friendly bankruptcy law. An analysis of the path dependence of bankruptcy law produces an interpretation that is more consistent with the evidence than the conventional interpretation that debtor-friendliness in bankruptcy law began with political compromises to obtain the 1898 Bankruptcy Act.


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