Socio-Economic Review - current issue

Dialectics of institutional change: the transformation of social insurance financing in Israel

Koreh, M., Shalev, M. — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:22:14 PDT

Social insurance financing is notoriously path-dependent, yet in Israel a series of unobtrusive changes ultimately led to the virtual elimination of employer contributions. This outcome is explained by combining insights into the politics and political economy of taxation with a theoretical approach to understanding institutional change which takes conflict seriously. Institutional arrangements typically emerge as settlements of inherently contradictory goals, and their foundational contradictions are not necessarily eliminated through processes of reproduction. Our case study illustrates how conflicting interests generate susceptibility to institutional change and shape its trajectories. While recent extensions to path-dependency theory suggest that institutions become vulnerable when returns decrease, we find that change may result from unbalanced returns (increasing for some while decreasing for others) or altered conditions which unleash repressed conflicts of interest. Further, in contrast to the expectation that institutional evolution follows a unidirectional path in which reversals are unlikely, we identify a dialectical trajectory which potentially includes the revival of seemingly foregone alternatives.

Recomposed institutions: smaller firms' strategies, shareholder-value orientation and bank relationships in Germany

Bluhm, K., Martens, B. — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:22:14 PDT

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are embedded differently in institutional spheres than large corporations. This influences how they are affected by institutional change. Based on our observations, scholars of the transforming German coordinated market economies are mostly focusing on large enterprises. In contrast, we explore how institutional change in the financing sector affects privately owned SMEs, especially those engaged in manufacturing. Additionally, we asked who is pushing SMEs towards a stronger shareholder-value orientation and how they respond to these changes. Although the direct impact of capital market actors on German SMEs is still limited, we find a diffusion of advanced management tools, which is linked in the literature to the shareholder-value concept, and a redefinition of firm–bank relationships without embracing the arms'-length, equity market-oriented mode of finance. These two features constitute a recomposition that includes institutional continuity as well as change.

The origin of corporate social responsibility: global forces or national legacies?

Gjolberg, M. — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:22:14 PDT

This paper explores the relative importance of global forces and national political-economic institutions for companies' willingness and ability to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). The globalist hypothesis postulates that a company's CSR efforts are a function of the dictates of the global market place: strong anti-globalization and anti-corporate sentiments generate a need for a positive reputation to obtain a ‘social license to operate’. The institutionalist hypothesis postulates that a company's CSR efforts are a function of institutional factors in the national political-economic system: companies based in political-economic systems with strong institutions for social embedding of the economy have comparative institutional advantages for success in CSR. The hypotheses are examined quantitatively by testing an index of national CSR performance against well-established political-economic indicators. The final analysis, based on qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), reveals causal heterogeneity and indicates two separate pathways leading to CSR success.

Ideals or compromises? The attitude-behaviour relationship in mothers' employment

Steiber, N., Haas, B. — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:22:14 PDT

This article addresses the marked variations in women's employment that exist within and across countries, with a specific focus on mothers of children below school-going age. Using comparative survey data for 26 countries, it investigates the determinants of maternal employment behaviour with women's attitudes as important predictors, alongside cost–benefit considerations and the influence of national context factors. Results show that mothers' personal care attitudes are significantly related to their paid work involvement. Yet, multilevel analyses reveal cross-country differences in the predictive power of such attitudes. Stressing that neither women's choices nor their attitudes can in fact be taken as expressions of what their personal ideals are, observed attitude–behaviour relations are interpreted as the result of two underlying processes—the selection of behaviours based on attitudes and the adaptation of attitudes to match the chosen behaviour.

Inequality measures as conventions: new interpretations of a classic operationalization problem

Kampelmann, S. — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:22:15 PDT

Various authors have identified a consensus among economists as to how inequality should be quantified, namely by implementing the ‘axiomatic approach to inequality measurement’. However, empirical studies have revealed that this method is often in contradiction with the attitudes of ordinary citizens towards inequality. It is thus a relevant question why the axiomatic approach still commands support in academic applications. This article adopts a historical perspective and presents evidence for our main hypothesis: the axiomatic approach can be interpreted as a result of conventions that allowed specialists to overcome the indeterminacy of the concept ‘inequality’. An unintended consequence of today's measurement conventions appears to be the crowding out of non-scientific representations.

DISCUSSION: A new labour economics?

Osterman, P., Auer, P., Gautie, J., Marsden, D. — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:22:15 PDT

At the 2008 SASE meeting in San José, Costa Rica, David Marsden organized a session on the prospects for a renewed institutional labour economics. The debate began with introductory remarks by Paul Osterman, who sketched out an argument that at the time was still in its very early stages. The introduction and the subsequent comments were found by the audience to be highly productive. After the session, the editors of Socio-Economic Review asked the participants to share their views with the readers of the journal. We are grateful to Paul Osterman for taking up the challenge and summarizing the state of his thinking in a brief draft of what has yet to be developed into a formal paper. We also thank the discussants who agreed to write up their comments on the basis of Osterman's intermediate draft.

The effect of public opinion on social policy generosity

Kenworthy, L. — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:22:15 PDT

Based on analysis of cross-country and over-time patterns in affluent countries in the late 1980s and the 1990s, Brooks and Manza contend that public opinion is a key cause of social policy generosity. A closer look at the evidence suggests reason for skepticism about this inference.

Four books on capitalism

Streeck, W. — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:22:15 PDT