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Showing posts with the label labour supply curve

Decision Making as Output and Bounded Rationality

  The classical economics theories proceed on the assumption of rational agents. Rationality implies the economic agents undertake actions or exercise choices based on the cost-benefit analysis they undertake. The assumption further posits that there exists no information asymmetry and thus the agent is aware of all the costs and benefits associated with the choice he or she has exercised. The behavioral school contested the decision stating the decisions in practice are often irrational. Implied there is a continuous departure from rationality. Rationality in the views of the behavioral school is more an exception to the norm rather a rule. The past posts have discussed the limitations of this view by the behavioral school. Economics has often posited rationality in the context in which the choices are exercised rather than theoretical abstract view of rational action. Rational action in theory seems to be grounded in zero restraint situation yet in practice, there are numerous restra

Twitter, Facebook and Productivity: Are they Mutually Exclusive?

Employees would desire access to social networking sites at work places. Employers feel it as an unnecessary distraction. How do we reconcile the two?   In 2009, Nucleus Research estimated a loss of 1.5% to firms’ productivity thanks to online social networking usage. Similarly in 2010, a British research firm estimated the loss to British firms at $2.2 billion per year. This implies a trade off happens between the firm’s decision to allow employees to access social networking sites at work and the productivity of the employees. However a contrary view too exists. Writing in Wired (February 2010; www.wired .com), Brendan Koerner argues otherwise.   He feels they are essential to enhance creativity and stoke a creative mind. He feels the studies that argue the loss of productivity ignore the impact of the creative process. With the human body unstructured to maintain a constant focus on assigned tasks, periodic breaks relieve the conscious minds of the pressure to perform. This e