Socio-economic Literature Research Articles

Мир объективного знания и социально-экономическая реальность (К. Поппер & К. Маркс)

The growing specialization and formalization of economic knowledge threatens to break away from the general scientific base that forms the worldview of the researcher. An urgent task is presented in the reintegration of basic methodological principles and categories of science into modern social science and economic theory. The article conducts a comparative analysis of the works of K. Marx and K. Popper, who made revolutionary changes in the methodology and ideological attitudes (conceptual frameworks) of scientific knowledge. Marx’s contribution focuses on dialectical and historical materialism, the doctrine of the economic basis of society and the change of socio-economic formations; Popper’s contribution focuses on his trial and error method with falsifying interpretation of results and the concept of successive three worlds of the universe. Popper’s criticisms of Marxist doctrine (essentialism, elements of mythology, teleologism) and the counterarguments of consistent Marxists are evaluated. The paper characterizes Popper’s positions on the realism of scientific knowledge, the world of predispositions, flexible management in animate and inanimate nature, the world of mental states of consciousness and the world of the objective content of thinking. Their commonality with the provisions of dialectical and historical materialism (the material nature of objective reality, the theory of reflection, the role of objective mental forms and ideological social relations) in the formation of the ‘world of objective knowledge’ is shown. The insufficiency of Popper’s epistemology for the study of the economic basis of social life is revealed. Based on a structural and logical analysis of the methodological principles and theoretical positions of Marx and Popper, the paper outlines the paths to the development of a system of concepts that brings together the complementary results of their apparently opposing research programs. Also presented are sources showing the relevance of the ideas of Marx and Popper in modern methodological and socio-economic literature. It is concluded that the world of objective knowledge (the key category of Popper’s social science) is part of the socio-economic life of society (in its Marxist interpretation), which, in turn, is incomplete without taking into account the realities of this world and needs additional study from the appropriate angle.

The Link Between Disability Adaptation and Subjective Well-Being (Empirical Evidence from Indonesia)

Persons with disabilities will experience life in ways that are not typical because they perceive the detrimental effects of declining or nonexistent material well-being as they become older. As there is not much socioeconomic literature on the subject, this study looks at the different types of disabilities and how they affect people's subjective well-being in a certain period of time. This study accommodates disabilities such as hearing loss, impaired hand and foot movement, difficulty communicating, and incapacity to care for oneself. We use household and individual data to collect disability and subjective well-being information, apply an adaptation model, and empirically examine the link between the two. Our findings show that the well-being of households with disabled members is lower, although they can adapt over time to the negative effects of disability on well-being. With the exception of people who suffer from vision and hearing impairments, material well-being is not usually positively correlated with disability. As a result, stronger adaptation may help the household welfare level to recover prior to disability (pre-disability). This indicates that if adaptation exists, the negative impacts of disability will tend to decrease with time. We suggest that the government needs to give their daily activities more consideration.

The problems of training future teachers of vocational education in the context of post-war economic recovery in Ukraine

The research analyzed the key issues of preparing future vocational education teachers for the economic recovery of Ukraine, particularly emphasizing the relevance and necessity of ensuring the economic component of their pedagogical training for the further development of entrepreneurial competence of students in vocational education, which will meet the state's needs during the post-war period in qualified specialists and workers. In the process of scientific research, a set of problems of preparing future vocational education teachers for professional activities in the context of post-war recovery of Ukraine was identified, particularly emphasizing the need for systematic updating of the content of pedagogical training taking into account the socio-economic factors that influence the labor market and determine the content of economic components of educational programs in vocational education. The research utilized methods such as analysis of scientific-pedagogical and socio-economic literature, periodicals, monographs; study of state standards, legislation in the field of education, qualification frameworks, concepts of competency-based approach, strategies for post-war recovery, etc., systematization of research results; interviews with specialists from the Ministry of Education, teachers in vocational education, educators and masters; pedagogical observations, and more. The author identified and justified the relevance of a number of key issues in preparing future teachers in preliminary higher and vocational education considering the economic component of pedagogical training, and also planned perspectives for further research on the readiness of future teachers to carry out their professional activities at the sufficient level, taking into account the modern requirements of the labor market for qualified specialists and workers, as well as the socio-economic factors in the country during the period of post-war recovery

Unveiling the intellectual structure of informality: Insights from the socioeconomic literature.

In the socioeconomic sphere, the concept of informality has been used to address issues pertaining to economic dynamics, institutions, work, poverty, settlements, the use of space, development, and sustainability, among others. This thematic range has given way to multiple discourses, definitions and approaches that mostly focus on a single phenomenon and conform to traditional disciplinary lines, making it difficult to fully understand informality and adequately inform policymaking. In this article, we carried out a multilevel co-word analysis with the purpose of unveiling the intellectual structure of socioeconomic informality. Co-occurring document keywords were used, initially, to delimit the scope of the socioeconomic dimension of informality (macro level) and, later, to identify its main concepts, themes (meso level) and sub-themes (micro level). Our results show that there is a corpus of research on socioeconomic informality that is sufficiently differentiable from other types of informality. This corpus, at the same time, can be divided into six major themes and 31 sub-themes related, more prominently, to the informal economy, informal settlements and informal institutions. Looking forward, the analysis suggests, an increasing focus on context and on the experience of multiple 'informalities' has the potential, on the one hand, to reveal links that help unify this historically fragmented corpus and, on the other hand, to give informality a meaning and identity that go beyond the traditional formal-informal dualism.

Электронный документооборот как фактор влияния на человеческий капитал организаций

The article represents one of the first attempts in the domestic literature on the problems of electronic docu-ment management to link this issue with such a social factor as increasing trust in society and such a problem of modern management as the role of electronic document management in managing the human capital of the organization. On the issue of trust, the article substantiates the fact that the problem initially posed by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 9, 2017, to create conditions for increasing trust in electronic documents has not yet been solved. It is emphasized that the rejection of paper media has rather reduced trust in society both at the level of the state-population and at the level of corporate employer-employee relations. In order to confirm this circumstance, the authors stress the social inertia of the transition from paternalistic social and labor relations to liberal-market commodity-money relations in modern society. On the issue of the connection of transition to electronic document flow in the management of a modern organiza-tion, the article substantiates that such a transition from the standpoint of human resource management should be assessed from the standpoint of changing the paradigm of managing the labor potential of an employee, adopted in the Soviet economy, to the paradigm of human capital management in the modern economy. The given conclusion is argued both by references to socio-economic literature and the results of socio-economic research. The article justifies that the transition to management as part of human capital issues solves the prob-lem of trust and social justice in the transition to electronic document flow management.

Why Money Matters: Debating the Social Construction of Monetary Value and the Concept of Money as Debt

This article evaluates the major gaps in the state of the art regarding the socioeconomic literature on money. It examines current debates on the ontology of money and the concept of money as debt. It asserts the idea that money is essentially the result of a human cognitive property by means of which we establish a general measure of value that can be applied to valuing things, goods, or services. Money is the institutionlization of an abstract measure of value, not the object being measured, nor a tool for valuation. This article argues that understanding the social nature of money as a social institution is fundamental to comprehending the role it plays in organizing the economy and social life.

A Model for Evaluating Inequalities in Sustainability

AbstractOn 25 September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, which includes seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, among them the 10th Goal aims to reduce inequalities. Convinced of the importance of this goal, in this paper we propose to study the socio-economic determinants which affect the inequalities among the 20 Italian regions by applying a suitable regression model. The socio-economic literature suggests that the most important determinants of inequalities are government spending, income, employment and educational attainment, so we focus our attention on the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals related to these determinant factors. Given that the number of indicators is extremely high, while the number of observations is low, we consider the partial least squares regression as the most suitable statistical methodology to deal with this dependence modeling.

Gender, wheat trait preferences, and innovation uptake: Lessons from Ethiopia and India

During the post-Green Revolution era, numerous improved wheat varieties were released and disseminated to enhance tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses and increase productivity. Still, in the wheat-based farming systems of the Global South, gender-based and other social inequalities continue to undermine equitable access to improved varieties, especially for women, poor, and marginalized farmers. Here, we present a case for gender-sensitive technology development, dissemination, and evaluation as part of wheat varietal improvement programs. We take stock of the various challenges that persist in the uptake of modern wheat varieties by male and female smallholders. We focus on Ethiopia and India, two geographies with substantive wheat economies, widespread poverty, and gender inequalities. The socio-economic literature on wheat is relatively thin with limited and dated gender-sensitive evaluation studies on varietal technologies in these countries. Varietal technology evaluations could ideally cover gender differences in relation to wheat varietal trait preferences, technology adoption, and associated decision-making and labor-use changes related to new varieties and complementary technologies, as well as nutritional and economic benefits. The paper calls for a need to change the institutional arrangements in wheat research-and-development (R&D) programs to understand and pursue better paths for wheat improvement to proactively contribute toward gender equity and inclusivity.

Beyond Piketty: A new perspective on poverty and inequality in India

The socio-economic literature has focused much on how overall inequality in income distribution (frequently measured by the Gini coefficient) undermines the “trickle down” effect. In other words, the higher the inequality in the income distribution, the lower is the growth elasticity of poverty. However, with the publication of Piketty’s magnum opus (2014), and a subsequent study by Chancel and Piketty (2017) of evolution of income inequality in India since 1922, the focus has shifted to the income disparity between the richest 1% (or 0.01%) and the bottom 50%. Their central argument is that the rapid growth of income at the top end of millionaires and billionaires is a by-product of growth. The present study extends this argument by linking it to poverty indices in India. Based on the India Human Development Survey 2005–12 – a nationwide panel survey-we examine the links between poverty and income inequality, especially in the upper tail relative to the bottom 50%, state affluence (measured in per capita income) and their interaction or their joint effect. Another feature of our research is that we analyse their effects on the FGT class of poverty indices. The results are similar in as much as direction of association is concerned but the elasticities vary with the poverty index. The growth elasticities are negative and significant for all poverty indices. In all three cases, the disparity between the income share of the top 1% and share of the bottom 50% is associated with greater poverty. These elasticities are much higher than the (absolute) income elasticities except in the case of the poverty gap. The largest increase occurs in the poverty gap squared – a 1% greater income disparity is associated with a 1.24% higher value of this index. Thus the consequences of even a small increase in the income disparity are alarming for the poorest.

Media bias against women in music: an empirical analysis of Italian music magazines

The music industry presents a strong gender disparity in all genres and roles (composers, musicians, conductors). The reasons for the disparity discussed in the socio-economic literature regard genetic diversity, socio-cultural differences, and gender discrimination. Discrimination can be aggravated by the negative attitude of the mass media towards the women involved in the music industry. This paper explores the potential media bias in 2022 reviews of pop-rock and jazz albums released internationally between 2003 and 2015, published in two major Italian music magazines. The empirical analysis shows that the reviews of “female” albums consist of fewer words than the “male” albums, but the difference is significant only for a magazine. Within each magazine, the data also reveal two weak qualitative biases (though not significant): the reviews are more positive if no woman appears among the artists and, if the reviewer is a woman, the attitude towards the albums by female artists is, on average, worse.

ОСНОВНІ СУБ'ЄКТИ СОЦІАЛЬНОЇ ЕКОНОМІКИ

UDC 330.811.1; JEL Classification: B1 As follows from modern socio-economic literature, the social economy includes two main, but extremely broad classes of phenomena: social and economic. In reality, their concrete manifestations in the form of subjects of social economy have a practical interest. But the subjects of social economy are implemented in a fairly large number. An analysis of modern research and publications shows that in any era only four main subjects of social economy can be distinguished – these are: state, enterprise, market and person. The problem of determining the nature of their change in time and the nature of their interaction has not yet been resolved and therefore is relevant. The purpose of the article is to determine only the changes in time of the nature of each of social economy four subjects. To achieve it, the following tasks were set: to determine the change in time according to the nature of the state, enterprise, market and person; results generalization. It was determined that the main subjects of the social economy are the State, the Enterprise, the Market and the Person, and the interaction of the state, the enterprise, the market, the person was implemented in different models of social economy. Two most important aspects have been resolved: changes in time of the nature of each of these four subjects of social economy were determined; changes in time of the nature of their interaction were determined. Methodology of research: review of literary sources, 2C70, VEO, induction-deduction, theory of the Babilov’s method. Findings: the change in time of the nature of the social economy main subjects (state, enterprise, market and person) was determined. Originality: for the first time, the socio-economic nature of the social economy main subjects (state, enterprise, market and person) was proved. Practical value: the establishment of the socio-economic nature of the state, enterprise, market and person will save business, management, entrepreneurship from a limited (only economic or only social) approach to solving problems of the social economy main subjects.

Educational poverty in Italy: concepts, measures and policies

In recent years in Italy, as a result of the initiative by the NGO Save the Children Italia and of the government action, we have witnessed the success of the notion of “povertà educativa”, as an effective way to indicate severe inequalities in education across the country. Firstly, the aim of this paper is to shed light on the different concepts and measures of educational poverty in socio-economic literature, in order to highlight specific and innovative aspects of this idea. Moreover, the paper intends to scrutinize Save the Children’s proposal in order to monitor and tackle educational poverty as well as to show how the action of the NGO has influenced the development of Italian recent government policies against child and educational poverty.

European Union: Collective bargaining and internal flexibility during the Great Recession

AbstractThe paper’s main objective is to analyze the collective bargaining response in terms of internal flexibility during the Great Recession (GR) in five EU countries (Spain, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom), and three economic sectors (industry, commerce and hospitality, and financial services and real estate), at the establishment level (ECS2013 database). The theoretical framework used is linked to the varieties of unionism and to the debate on the tendency towards the international homogenization or heterogenization of collective bargaining between the European Union countries. Using a descriptive statistical analysis and a probit model, this paper presents new evidences. However, the responses were heterogeneous between countries and sectors, the use of internal functional flexibility has been more intense than the numerical and salary internal flexibility. Moreover, it is related to the intensity of GR. These results, in general, while requiring a more detailed analysis of the effects of the GR on internal flexibility in the EU countries, contribute to introducing a new perspective in the socioeconomic literature about the collective bargaining and internal flexibility.

Economic and sociological determinants of well-being in Italy: A regional perspective

This paper aims to analyze the determinants of well-being by considering economic and sociological perspectives. These perspectives emphasize the relationship between well-being and “consumption of time”, a concept that relates to the “hyper identity” status. Data are collected starting from a dataset realized by ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) for the period 2005-2016 and considering a sample of 130 indicators (12 relevant domains) collected by Italian regions, updated annually in the so-called BES (Benessere equo e sostenibile) 2017 report. Taking into account the socio-economic literature collected on the topic, we have structured five econometric models using a stepwise regression methodology. All models have been structured taking into account life satisfaction as the dependent variable and other explanatory variables. The study contributes to the existing literature on the theme of individual well-being and its main determinants, also highlighting possible practical implications in terms of corporate governance and human resource management. Results reveal a positive impact associated with family relationships, mobility satisfaction, and job satisfaction while showing a negative relationship regarding proxies related to the subjective perception of insecurity and uncertainty (deep material deprivation, and home theft).

The ongoing aftermath to the financial crisis and the Great Recession

This article discusses the consequences of the financial crisis that started in 2008 in the West, and particularly in the United States, as a manifestation of neoliberal capitalism’s multiple failures. In doing so, it focuses on the scholarly contributions of Manuel Castells and his colleagues in two important books: Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis (2012) and Another Economy is Possible (2017). Both books are collective works led and edited by Castells. Also included in the review is a third book by Castells, Rupture: The Crisis of Liberal Democracy (2018), which can be read as a statement on some of the political consequences of the 2008 financial crisis and a report on the current crisis of liberal democracy. The contention is that Castells et al. make an important contribution to the socio-economic literature on the financial crisis, its consequences, and the interpretation of the societal changes that ensued and are key to understand our contemporary world. Such contribution, as observed in the three books under review, can be summarized as follows: (1) Castells and colleagues provide cases and examples from around the world in a broad comparative fashion, thus expanding our understanding of a crisis that was essentially a crisis of the West with ramifications in other countries but never a truly global crisis. (2) The approach of Castells and his colleagues is interdisciplinary and goes beyond purely economic arguments to include sociological, political and cultural ideas and insights that help us understand the complexity of the historical period under analysis; readers develop an awareness of the systemic character of the crisis, where all events were closely interrelated; in particular, both micro and macro processes leading to the crisis converged into a mutually dialectical and reinforcing relationship that warrants the contention by the authors that ‘economies’ are ‘cultures.’ (3) The authors in both Aftermath and Another Economy is Possible focus on the (long) aftermath of the crisis, which is still ongoing as of September 2019 around the world; in fact, one of Castells’ main points is that the financial crisis brought about irreversible societal change, ongoing and clearly visible today, as it triggered a significant restructuring of global informational capitalism. (4) The authors provide a focus on one of the reactive consequences of the crisis: alternative economic practices developing in the aftermath of the crisis, under the premise that we might be witnessing the rise of a new economic model based on new, alternative values. (5) Castells provides a discussion (in Rupture) of aspects of the contemporary political landscape a decade after the outset of the financial crisis and the Great Recession.

Using your ties to get a worse job? The differential effects of social networks on quality of employment in Colombia

This article examines the effect of social networks (SNW) by investigating how mobilizing family, friendship or kindship ties in job searches affects the quality of employment (QoE) using quantitative and qualitative data. Drawing from socioeconomic literature on the segmented labor market, the authors propose an original and multidimensional measure of job quality and a fruitful estimation of the effect of SNW on QoE that allows for dealing with complex inter-groups heterogeneity. Using the Great Integrated Household Survey and a sample on Bogota's workers in 2013, they provide empirical support that the use of ties is negatively correlated with the QoE for those who are vulnerable. Likewise, the use of social relations is not significant for protected workers. Complemented by focus groups interviews, these results raise questions about the difference prevailing in relational practices between necessity networks for precarious workers and opportunity networks for protected workers in the Colombian capital.

Natural Resource Degradation through Tobacco Farming in Zimbabwe: CSR Implications and the Role of the Government

Tobacco farming exemplifies the discussion of the impact of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform (FTLR) in the economic domain. However, a disjuncture between its success and environmental implications is illustrated by the ensuing socio-ecological implications at play in the different districts in which tobacco is grown. Also, there is a dearth of vibrant Corporate Social Responsibility programmes to offset environmental degradation caused by tobacco farming as a result of tree cutting. This article is based on a critical review of Zimbabwean natural resources and socio-economic development literature to draw attention to some of the problematic and contradictory issues underlying natural resources management in economic development domains especially given how, post FTLR, tobacco growing has become one the major export cash crops on which the economy is hinged. In an African resource-harnessing context, marginalised and vulnerable local communities are most often direct casualties of environmental and social impacts engendered by the extraction of natural resources. This article focuses on the fundamental questions of sustainable development, climate change, and Zimbabwean tobacco farming trends. Finally, pathways are offered for robust CSR interventions that enhance sustainable development and reversing tobacco farming-induced deforestation in Zimbabwe.

Historical Medical Relations between Italy-Georgia

Italy-Georgia friendly relations begins from the first years of the new nation, which has gone beyond our travels and naturalists, and has acquired scientific, socio-economic literature. Unique assistance from Italian scientists is special in the study of the Georgian coastal area, the recovery and health of the resort. Italy-Georgia's medical relations are now on a new stage, leading to rich climatic-balneological resources, scientific research and exploration, which has a great perspective and greatly contributes to the rapprochement of the two countries.

Rural Change in the Kosi River Basin: A Capital Goods Perspective

This paper sets out to reflect on research in the early 1970s to develop a policy model in the Leontief macroeconomic tradition for the Kosi command area, and investigate the relevance of such models to today’s policy debates for the overall Kosi River basin. The earlier research was set in the context of the ‘generation of problems’ arising from the Indian Green Revolution. Many of the debates at the time concerned policies for the promotion of capital goods in rural areas, such as different types of irrigation technologies, tractors, harvesters, threshers and processing technology, and policies to encourage rural industries to support alternative patterns of rural mechanization. The authors describe the academic and fieldwork contexts of the earlier research; then, in order to ground this paper in a contemporary context, the authors briefly describe the spread of some capital goods in recent years on both the Nepal and Bihar sides of the Kosi river Basin. The authors then review contemporary literature to see what academic research is being done now on the Kosi River basin and find a large hydrology and socio-economic literature. However, as far as the authors can tell, this research is not focusing on macro Leontief economic modelling for policy purposes or on studies to understand the spread of rural capital goods and the growth of small and medium rural industries. The authors conclude by suggesting that Leontief economics needs reviving together with cost-effective field studies of the spread of rural capital goods and the growth of associated rural industries.

Explaining Children\u2019s Life Outcomes: Parental Socioeconomic Status, Intelligence and Neurocognitive Factors in a Dynamic Life Cycle Model

The goal of the present paper is to introduce a dynamic life cycle model that explains the reproduction of wealth and health over generations by introducing knowledge from cognitive neuroscience into the existing knowledge from the socioeconomic literature. The socioeconomic literature successfully identified the major role of socioeconomic status of parents, both as a direct and indirect effect, in the shaping and intergenerational reproduction of wealth and health. Furthermore, the importance of cognitive abilities as actor in this process has been widely studied in socioeconomic literature. A third factor that has been identified by the socioeconomic discipline is the so-called non-cognitive capabilities. This category, however, lacks a clear definition and seems to be a catchall for a collection of factors. Within the repository of these non-cognitive capabilities the construct of executive functions is an interesting and important contribution from cognitive neuroscience. The multidimensional construct of executive functioning or cognitive control (i.e. planning and formulation of objectives) and monitoring processes (i.e. influences the execution of these goals) is a valuable addition to a framework on reproduction of wealth and health over generations, because executive functions are sensitive to training. Merging insights of the socioeconomic literature and cognitive neuroscience in a life cycle model opens the opportunity of educational initiatives with regard to executive functions to break the intergenerational reproduction of poverty and deprivation.