We will review some of the major results in random graphs and some of the more challenging open problems. We will cover algorithmic and structural questions. We will touch on newer models, including those related to the WWW.

Random graphs

The paper is concerned with spatial clustering of economic activity and its relation to the spatiality of knowledge creation in interactive learning processes. It questions the view that tacit knowledge transfer is confined to local milieus whereas codified knowledge may roam the globe almost frictionlessly. The paper highlights the conditions under which both tacit and codified knowledge can be exchanged locally and globally. A distinction is made between, on the one hand, the learning processes taking place among actors embedded in a community by just being there dubbed buzz and, on the other, the knowledge attained by investing in building channels of communication called pipelines to selected providers located outside the local milieu. It is argued that the co-existence of high levels of buzz and many pipelines may provide firms located in outward-looking and lively clusters with a string of particular advantages not available to outsiders. Finally, some policy implications, stemming from this argumen...

/pdf/clusters-and-knowledge-local-buzz-global-pipelines-and-the-29bsuyvekg.pdf

Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation

The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Economics of Information

Social Network Analysis

The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

Reputationsnetze: Zur Internationalisierung von Unternehmensberatern. Eine relationale Theorie

/pdf/knowledge-and-networks-4ltebvxhzg.pdf

Knowledge and Networks

This essay responds to Sorge and van Witteloostuijn (2004) and argues that consulting firms play an important economic role in helping organizations trigger and deal with change. Sorge and van Witteloostuijn claim that management consultancy is a business in which clients buy into hype-driven and unsubstantiated advice, and they imply that consultants yield returns from short-term opportunism based on information asymmetries. We propose that clients have several sources for assessing consulting service quality, and word-of-mouth effects discourage short-term opportunism of consultants. We also question Sorge and van Witteloostuijn's view that the need for organizations to change is largely a myth. We present data on economic changes over the last three decades to which firms had to respond and continue to do so. Accordingly, we argue that the continuing demand for consultancy is genuine, rather than induced by hype.

Organizational Change and the Economics of Management Consulting: A Response to Sorge and van Witteloostuijn

Unpacking social divisions of labor in markets: Generalized blockmodeling and the network boom in stock photography

Alternative economic practices (AEPs) challenge capitalism and have flourished in Spain since 2008, when the economic, social, and political crisis severely hit the country. Cities are the principa...

Johannes Glückler

Papers

Reputationsnetze: Zur Internationalisierung von Unternehmensberatern. Eine relationale Theorie

Knowledge and Networks

Organizational Change and the Economics of Management Consulting: A Response to Sorge and van Witteloostuijn

Unpacking social divisions of labor in markets: Generalized blockmodeling and the network boom in stock photography

Alternative economic practices in Spanish cities: from grassroots movements to urban policies? An institutional perspective