Essays in the Theory of Risk-Bearing. By KENNETH J. ARROW. Chicago: Markham Publishing Co., 1971.... more Essays in the Theory of Risk-Bearing. By KENNETH J. ARROW. Chicago: Markham Publishing Co., 1971. Pp. vii + 278. $10.95. This volume provides an edited collection of Kenneth Arrow's many contributions to contemporary analysis in the economics of uncertainty.
ABSTRACT Laboratory experiments provide an underutilized methodology for subjecting research in l... more ABSTRACT Laboratory experiments provide an underutilized methodology for subjecting research in logistics and supply chain management to rigorous scientific scrutiny. As discussed in this paper, by following established procedures researchers can create an economic system in which behavior can be observed and replicated. With the ability to control the institution and the environment, researchers have complete information and can exogenously manipulate treatment variables, neither of which may be feasible in field work. We also address many of the reservations that skeptics of laboratory experiments often express including issues of realism, participant sophistication, and payoff stakes. We then provide several examples where experiments have been used to study issues relevant to logistics and supply chain management including auctions, wholesale practices in gasoline markets, inventory replenishment, liberalization of the electric power industry, and deregulation of the natural gas markets. Finally, we identify several additional areas where laboratory experiments could be informative.
Abstract
Adam Smith’s metaphor of the impartial spectator is an essential element in understandi... more Abstract
Adam Smith’s metaphor of the impartial spectator is an essential element in understanding his model of the maturation process whereby people learn to follow general rules that honor the human sentiments of gratitude and resentment in others. Through the impartial spectator human action, subject to error, is governed by self-command. Smith’s model is presented in the form of a series of propositions.LINK TO ABSTRACT [T]here are indeed some universal moral norms and values, but to think that 'fairness' is among them is an Anglocentric illusion. —Anna Wierzbicka (2006, 162) Adam Smith refers to the " impartial spectator " over sixty times in his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but only once as the " fair and impartial spectator " : " We endeavour to examine our own conduct as we imagine any other fair and impartial spectator would examine it " (TMS, III.1.2). This form of the metaphor best enables us to understand Smith's conception of the maturation process wherein we become social creatures by gradually modifying our behavior to follow other-regarding general rules that meet with the approval , and avoid the disapproval, of our neighbors. I will use propositional statements to articulate and develop Smith's model of human sociability, and the central role of the impartial spectator, beginning with some background axioms and principles. The power of Smith's work is that it accommodates the observed tendency for humans to be other-regarding in their more intimate groupings, explains the emergence of property as it occurs in the civil order of government, and accounts seamlessly for the prominence of self-interested action in impersonal markets and thence to the causes of the wealth of nations. We are strapped in finding a modern equal to Smith's grand accounting for the deep meaning he extracted from carefully observing the diversity of human conduct. PROPOSITION 1. Learning to become social is not about altering our self-interested or self-loving nature, but rather is about incorporating our self-loving nature into a theory of the emergence of socializing rules through processes of cultural consent.
Essays in the Theory of Risk-Bearing. By KENNETH J. ARROW. Chicago: Markham Publishing Co., 1971.... more Essays in the Theory of Risk-Bearing. By KENNETH J. ARROW. Chicago: Markham Publishing Co., 1971. Pp. vii + 278. $10.95. This volume provides an edited collection of Kenneth Arrow's many contributions to contemporary analysis in the economics of uncertainty.
ABSTRACT Laboratory experiments provide an underutilized methodology for subjecting research in l... more ABSTRACT Laboratory experiments provide an underutilized methodology for subjecting research in logistics and supply chain management to rigorous scientific scrutiny. As discussed in this paper, by following established procedures researchers can create an economic system in which behavior can be observed and replicated. With the ability to control the institution and the environment, researchers have complete information and can exogenously manipulate treatment variables, neither of which may be feasible in field work. We also address many of the reservations that skeptics of laboratory experiments often express including issues of realism, participant sophistication, and payoff stakes. We then provide several examples where experiments have been used to study issues relevant to logistics and supply chain management including auctions, wholesale practices in gasoline markets, inventory replenishment, liberalization of the electric power industry, and deregulation of the natural gas markets. Finally, we identify several additional areas where laboratory experiments could be informative.
Abstract
Adam Smith’s metaphor of the impartial spectator is an essential element in understandi... more Abstract
Adam Smith’s metaphor of the impartial spectator is an essential element in understanding his model of the maturation process whereby people learn to follow general rules that honor the human sentiments of gratitude and resentment in others. Through the impartial spectator human action, subject to error, is governed by self-command. Smith’s model is presented in the form of a series of propositions.LINK TO ABSTRACT [T]here are indeed some universal moral norms and values, but to think that 'fairness' is among them is an Anglocentric illusion. —Anna Wierzbicka (2006, 162) Adam Smith refers to the " impartial spectator " over sixty times in his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but only once as the " fair and impartial spectator " : " We endeavour to examine our own conduct as we imagine any other fair and impartial spectator would examine it " (TMS, III.1.2). This form of the metaphor best enables us to understand Smith's conception of the maturation process wherein we become social creatures by gradually modifying our behavior to follow other-regarding general rules that meet with the approval , and avoid the disapproval, of our neighbors. I will use propositional statements to articulate and develop Smith's model of human sociability, and the central role of the impartial spectator, beginning with some background axioms and principles. The power of Smith's work is that it accommodates the observed tendency for humans to be other-regarding in their more intimate groupings, explains the emergence of property as it occurs in the civil order of government, and accounts seamlessly for the prominence of self-interested action in impersonal markets and thence to the causes of the wealth of nations. We are strapped in finding a modern equal to Smith's grand accounting for the deep meaning he extracted from carefully observing the diversity of human conduct. PROPOSITION 1. Learning to become social is not about altering our self-interested or self-loving nature, but rather is about incorporating our self-loving nature into a theory of the emergence of socializing rules through processes of cultural consent.
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Papers by Vernon Smith
Adam Smith’s metaphor of the impartial spectator is an essential element in understanding his model of the maturation process whereby people learn to follow general rules that honor the human sentiments of gratitude and resentment in others. Through the impartial spectator human action, subject to error, is governed by self-command. Smith’s model is presented in the form of a series of propositions.LINK TO ABSTRACT [T]here are indeed some universal moral norms and values, but to think that 'fairness' is among them is an Anglocentric illusion. —Anna Wierzbicka (2006, 162) Adam Smith refers to the " impartial spectator " over sixty times in his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but only once as the " fair and impartial spectator " : " We endeavour to examine our own conduct as we imagine any other fair and impartial spectator would examine it " (TMS, III.1.2). This form of the metaphor best enables us to understand Smith's conception of the maturation process wherein we become social creatures by gradually modifying our behavior to follow other-regarding general rules that meet with the approval , and avoid the disapproval, of our neighbors. I will use propositional statements to articulate and develop Smith's model of human sociability, and the central role of the impartial spectator, beginning with some background axioms and principles. The power of Smith's work is that it accommodates the observed tendency for humans to be other-regarding in their more intimate groupings, explains the emergence of property as it occurs in the civil order of government, and accounts seamlessly for the prominence of self-interested action in impersonal markets and thence to the causes of the wealth of nations. We are strapped in finding a modern equal to Smith's grand accounting for the deep meaning he extracted from carefully observing the diversity of human conduct. PROPOSITION 1. Learning to become social is not about altering our self-interested or self-loving nature, but rather is about incorporating our self-loving nature into a theory of the emergence of socializing rules through processes of cultural consent.
Adam Smith’s metaphor of the impartial spectator is an essential element in understanding his model of the maturation process whereby people learn to follow general rules that honor the human sentiments of gratitude and resentment in others. Through the impartial spectator human action, subject to error, is governed by self-command. Smith’s model is presented in the form of a series of propositions.LINK TO ABSTRACT [T]here are indeed some universal moral norms and values, but to think that 'fairness' is among them is an Anglocentric illusion. —Anna Wierzbicka (2006, 162) Adam Smith refers to the " impartial spectator " over sixty times in his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but only once as the " fair and impartial spectator " : " We endeavour to examine our own conduct as we imagine any other fair and impartial spectator would examine it " (TMS, III.1.2). This form of the metaphor best enables us to understand Smith's conception of the maturation process wherein we become social creatures by gradually modifying our behavior to follow other-regarding general rules that meet with the approval , and avoid the disapproval, of our neighbors. I will use propositional statements to articulate and develop Smith's model of human sociability, and the central role of the impartial spectator, beginning with some background axioms and principles. The power of Smith's work is that it accommodates the observed tendency for humans to be other-regarding in their more intimate groupings, explains the emergence of property as it occurs in the civil order of government, and accounts seamlessly for the prominence of self-interested action in impersonal markets and thence to the causes of the wealth of nations. We are strapped in finding a modern equal to Smith's grand accounting for the deep meaning he extracted from carefully observing the diversity of human conduct. PROPOSITION 1. Learning to become social is not about altering our self-interested or self-loving nature, but rather is about incorporating our self-loving nature into a theory of the emergence of socializing rules through processes of cultural consent.