Social Organization
It is ESOP’s ambition to explore the interaction between markets, social equality and worker security. Do market forces erode social reforms? Do social reforms erode market efficiency?
There is a strong interdependence between how the economy is organized, how the workplace is organized, and what culture of trust and cooperation that prevails in a society. Egalitarian societies usually have less hierarchical firms. This work organization in return reinforces the mechanisms that sustain egalitarian features.
Small social differences in society and at the workplace may also produce less social conflict, more cohesion, and hence more smoothly functioning societies with more cooperation. The importance of feed-back mechanisms and consistency is often emphasized in economics, but the framework is usually limited to the market mechanism. The interconnections between the economic, social, and political forces should be captured within similar frameworks.
Our findings
Selected publications
Brekke, Kjell Arne, Karen Evelyn Hauge, Jo Thori Lind and Karine Nyborg (2011) "Playing with the good guys. A public good game with endogenous group formation", Journal of Public Economics Vol. 95 No. 9-10, pages 1111-1118.
Almås, Ingvild, Alexander W. Cappelen, Erik Ø. Sørensen and Bertil Tungodden (2010) "Fairness and the Development of Inequality Acceptance", Science Vol. 328 No. 5982, pages 1176-1178.
Anderson, Siwan, Jean-Marie Baland and Karl Ove Moene (2009) "Enforcement in Informal Saving Groups", Journal of Development Economics Vol. 90 No. 1, pages 14-23.
Fernandez, Raquel and Alessandra Fogli (2009) "Culture: An Empirical Investigation of Beliefs, Work, and Fertility", American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics Vol. 1 No. 1, pages 146-177.
Core publications by subject
List of core publications by subject (pdf)