Category archives: Economics

Ownership control, transnational corporations and financial power

Ownership control, transnational corporations and financial power

Economics

By Nacho Álvarez Peralta

Power has always been an issue of particular importance for the social sciences, in general, and for Political Economy in particular. Many studies in this field, from different approaches, have wondered about the nature, structure and sources of power. Particularly noteworthy are those authors –such us Susan Strange, Stephen Gill of Ulrich Beck– who have […]

Legos and motivation

Legos and motivation

EconomicsPsychology

By Isabel de la Fuente

At my workplace, we received recently a survey to measure our engagement at work. We were asked to evaluate different aspects of our daily job, such as the work atmosphere, productivity, performance…, and each question would accumulate points for our working team. For those items in which our team scored less, we were required to […]

Artificial distinction and real discrimination: Manipulating physical appearance

Artificial distinction and real discrimination: Manipulating physical appearance

EconomicsEthology

By Invited Researcher

Scientific experiments using animals frequently involve the marking of animals that artificially changes their phenotype. For instance, penguins with flipper bands have been used to study climate change. However, as Saraux et al. show, this banding reduces penguins’ survival rate. Consequently the study may mix up the effects of banding with other changes in penguin […]

Experiments in fairness

Experiments in fairness

Economics

By José Luis Ferreira

This is the ultimatum game: You are provisionally allocated USD10 with the following instructions. You have to decide a way to divide this money with another person. If she or he agrees, the division is carried out. If not, you both get nothing. What would you do? How would you react if you were the […]

Experimenting with markets

Experimenting with markets

Economics

By José Luis Ferreira

Markets are the most studied economic mechanism for two main reasons. First, they have existed in most societies. Second, at least since Adam Smith we have learned some of the interesting properties they possess. In particular, the modern General Equilibrium Theory, in its standard version, asserts that rational agents interacting in a competitive market with […]