scholarly journals A first formal approach to animal spirits beyond uncertainty

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Gerasimos T. Soldatos ◽  
Erotokritos Varelas
Keyword(s):  
Policy Maker ◽  
Rational Expectations ◽  
Income Redistribution ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Status Change ◽  
Formal Approach ◽  
Interest Rate Policy ◽  
Animal Spirits ◽  
The Business Cycle

Standard Macroeconomics treats animal spirits as a source of uncertainty disturbing otherwise rational expectations. But, Keynesian animal spirits ensue from suboptimal emotional responses to socioeconomic status change beyond matters of uncertainty. This paper identifies such spirits with the disturbance from the optimal decision-making implied by an emotional well-being utility function. The introduction of a policy-maker, holding its own view of private welfare in a society of emotional individuals, generates by itself, i.e. in the absence of animal spirits, uniform business fluctuations. This is the result of the income redistribution needed to reconcile the policy-maker’s with the emotional individual’s view of private welfare. Consequently, if animal-spirits induced fluctuations are already present when a policy-maker is introduced in the economy, the aim of policy intervention should be the design of that income redistribution that would not aggravate the business cycle but that would end up in uniform only cycles, with the aid perhaps of discretionary interest rate policy. Nevertheless, if animal spirits do not exist when the policy-maker enters the system, the income-redistribution induced cycles may incite such spirits by themselves in which case the cycles will not be of the uniform type. All comes down to “income and emotion”, to an ageless and ecumenical fact of life, complicated purposefully or not by authority.

scholarly journals Income Redistribution Predicts Greater Life Satisfaction Across Individual, National, and Cultural Characteristics.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Income Redistribution ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Cultural Characteristics ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Strong Hypothesis ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Over Time

The widening income gap between the rich and the poor has important social implications. Governmental-level income redistribution through tax and welfare policies presents an opportunity to reduce income inequality and its negative consequences. The current longitudinal studies examined whether within-region changes in income redistribution over time relate to life satisfaction. Moreover, I examined potential moderators of this relationship to test the strong versus weak hypotheses of income redistribution. The strong hypothesis posits that income redistribution is beneficial to most. The weak hypothesis posits that income redistribution is beneficial to some and damaging to others. Using a nationally representative sample of 57,932 German respondents from 16 German states across 30 years (Study 1) and a sample of 112,876 respondents from 33 countries across 24 years (Study 2), I found that within-state and within-nation changes in income redistribution over time were associated with life satisfaction. The models predicted that a 10% reduction in Gini through income redistribution in Germany increased life satisfaction to the same extent as an 37% increase in annual income (Study 1), and a 5% reduction in Gini through income redistribution increased life satisfaction to the same extent as a 11% increase in GDP (Study 2). These associations were positive across individual, national, and cultural characteristics. Increases in income redistribution predicted greater satisfaction for tax-payers and welfare-receivers, for liberals and conservatives, and for the poor and the rich. These findings support the strong hypothesis of income redistribution and suggest that redistribution policies may play an important role in societal well-being.

Transitions to Chaos in a Seven-Equation Model of the Business Cycle with Income Redistribution and Private Debt

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (02) ◽  
pp. 1650027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgio Colacchio
Keyword(s):  
Business Cycle ◽  
Income Redistribution ◽  
Period Doubling ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Private Debt ◽  
Debt Dynamics ◽  
The Business Cycle ◽  
Consumption Demand

In the present paper, we investigate the chaotic implications of a seven-equation model of the business cycle. The main distinguishing features of the model are related to: (a) the role played by the bargaining power in the process of income redistribution; (b) the consideration of hysteresis effects on workers’ consumption demand; (c) the effect of public expenditure on labor productivity. In addition, the role played by the agents’ memory on the actual dynamics of the economic system, with particular regard to their learning-by-doing process, is particularly emphasized. Under all these assumptions, the system exhibits a rich and complex phenomenology, characterized by a number of transitions to chaos (in particular via sequences of period doubling bifurcations), aperiodic behavior, bistability, tristability, etc. We maintain that our analysis takes us another step forward in the building of a more general model of the business cycle. In particular, the model we propose may be of help in the explanation of some peculiar features of advanced capitalist economies, with particular regard to the role played by the State in the determination of agents’ disposable income, to the debt dynamics of the various macroagents, and to the main dilemmas of economic policy. More in general, the main lesson one learns from our investigation is that “disequilibrium paths”, characterized by “complicated” dynamics which, more often than not, takes the form of aperiodic motion, should be considered as the “normal” state of the system.

Vocational Identity Trajectories: Differences in Personality and Development of Well–Being

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Hirschi
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Vocational Identity ◽  
Relative Increase ◽  
Identity Status ◽  
Status Change ◽  
Identity Statuses ◽  
Over Time

This person–centred study investigated the longitudinal patterns of vocational identity development in relation to personality, the development of well–being, gender, nationality and the attended school track among two cohorts of Swiss adolescents in 8th or 9th grade ( N = 269) and in 11th or 12th grade ( N = 230). The results confirmed the existence of four identity statuses, namely, achievement, foreclosure, moratorium and diffusion. Forty–two per cent of students showed progressive patterns of identity development, while 37% remained in their identity status over time. Students with different statuses and status change patterns differed significantly in their personality traits. Higher neuroticism related to the emergence of identity exploration over time, while conscientiousness related to maintaining or achieving a sense of identity commitment in terms of achievement or foreclosure. Controlling for the effects of socio–demographics and personality traits, students who reached or maintained a state characterized by identity clarity and commitment showed a relative increase in life satisfaction, while those entering a state of identity crisis or exploration showed a decrease in life satisfaction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

scholarly journals Russian Disabled Veterans in Poland in the 1920s – 1930s: Community, Personalities and Daily Life

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 674-685
Author(s):  
S. I. Nikonova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Well Being ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Status Change ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Central State ◽  
Adjustment Difficulties ◽  
Disabled Veterans ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Moral Problems

The article examines the dramatic history of the survival of Russian disabled veteran emigrants in Poland in the 1920s–1930s. The main aim is to highlight issues of the financial situation of disabled veterans, their legal status and self-organization, and the humanitarian activity of the Union of Russian Disabled Veteran Emigrants in Poland. The paper reflects the adjustment difficulties of disabled veterans in Poland, aspects of the mixed attitude of the Polish authorities to Russian emigrants, and the internal problems of the emigrant community. Continuous support and assistance to disabled people and their families, and care for disadvantaged fellow countrymen are he focus. The article shows the efforts of the Board of the Union of Russian Disabled Veteran Emigrants in Poland, not only to support disabled people financially, but also to encourage the emigrant community’s morale and to oppose the marginalization of disabled veterans. The paper states the fundamental reasons for moral problems associated with the physical well-being of disabled people, the lack of prospect awareness, the loss of hope for a status change and receiving Polish citizenship, and the loss of connections with Russia. The article presents features of everyday life of the Russian disabled veteran emigrants; it observes the policy of the Union’s Board in relation both to Polish authorities and to members of the Union. In the 1920s and 1930s the Union of Russian Disabled Veteran Emigrants remained the only uniting center for disadvantaged Russian people, and its leaders honestly fulfilled their duties. The author used materials from the documents of the Russian archives (State Archive of the Russian Federation, Russian State War and Historical Archive), and newly available documents of the Lithuanian Central State Archive (LCVA).

Economic Convergence and Real Dimensions

2020 ◽  
pp. 288-313
Author(s):  
Saptarshi Chakraborty
Keyword(s):  
Policy Maker ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Convergence ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Individual Household ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
The Government

Economic convergence exists when two or more economies tend to reach a similar level of development and wealth. The idea of convergence in economics is the hypothesis that poorer economies' per capita incomes will tend to grow at faster rates than richer economies. Though income is considered to be an important indicator, it is now widely recognized that ‘real' dimensions like nutrition, health, shelter, education etc. assess the overall wellbeing of an individual/household. The objective of this chapter is to discuss and formulate a methodology by which one can measure shelter deprivation and its convergence in a region as a step forward to add on to overall well-being of an individual or household. This chapter not only shows a methodology to calculate such divergence and analyses the reasons for such divergence, but also prepares a list of possible combinations of policy prescriptions by which a policy maker, such as the government, can find the extent of rectification of shelter deprivation of a group given its allotment of budget.

scholarly journals Complementarity of Labor Market Institutions, Equilibrium Unemployment and the Propagation of Business Cycles

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Burda ◽  
Mark Weder
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Business Cycles ◽  
Business Cycle ◽  
Rational Expectations ◽  
Labor Market Institutions ◽  
Stochastic Dynamic ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Dynamic General Equilibrium Model ◽  
The Business Cycle ◽  
Differential Support

Abstract This paper evaluates complementarities of labor market institutions and the business cycle in the context of a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model economy. Matching between workers and vacancies with endogenous time spent in search, Nash-bargained wages, payroll taxation, and differential support for unemployed labor in search and leisure are central aspects of the model. For plausible regions of the policy and institutional parameter space, the model exhibits more persistence than standard real business cycle models and can exhibit indeterminacy of rational expectations paths without increasing returns in production. Furthermore, labor market institutions act in a complementary fashion in generating these effects.

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