Nicolas Postel

Bio: Nicolas Postel is an academic researcher from university of lille. The author has contributed to research in topics: Economism & Corporate social responsibility. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 41 publications receiving 288 citations. Previous affiliations of Nicolas Postel include Lille University of Science and Technology.

L'économie des conventions. Une approche instrumentale de la rationalité individuelle?

Abstract: L'economie des conventions Une approche instrumentale de la rationalite individuelle ? ; ; L'economie des conventions propose un projet de recherche particulierement stimulant qui met l'accent sur l'analyse du role des regles et conventions dans la coordination economique Pour etre coherent, ce projet requiert une theorie de l'emergence et de la dynamique des conventions Or, une telle theorie pose en retour des interrogations quant a l'hypothese de rationalite qu'il convient de preter aux agents L'hypothese de rationalite limitee, sur laquelle s'appuie l'economie des conventions, est ambigue Elle recouvre en particulier des hypotheses radicalement differentes concernant le caractere exclusivement ou non exclusivement instrumental de la rationalite individuelle Cette ambiguite marque l'economie des conventions et entrave la realisation effective de son projet de recherche

RSE et éthique d'entreprise : la nécessité des institutions

Abstract: Lʼarticle porte sur les liens entre ethique et responsabilite sociale des entreprises (RSE). Il propose une definition operationnelle de lʼethique fondee sur le concept de rationalite communicationnelle dans une optique institutionnaliste-pragmatique (se revendiquant de lʼapproche conventionnaliste). Sur cette base il distingue et jauge les differentes modalites contemporaines visant a associer ethique et efficacite au sein du capitalisme : paternalisme, fordisme, RSE. A la lumiere de cet eclairage conceptuel et historique il propose dʼinterpreter la RSE comme une forme conventionnelle en cours dʼinstitutionnalisation. La reussite de ce processus dʼinstitutionnalisation, qui depend principalement du comportement des consommateurs, est la condition sine qua non de lʼexistence dʼune authentique dimension ethique au sein des demarches de RSE.

Économie et Rationalité : apports et limites de l'approche polanyienne

Abstract: Polanyi analyse le deploiement historique d’une science economique "formelle" a partir du triptyque "marche-rarete-rationalite instrumentale". Il fait apparaitre ce triptyque, et le savoir qui s’y consacre, comme etant un sous-ensemble d’une question plus large que devrait analyser une science economique "substantielle" s’interessant au triptyque "besoin-nature-institution". Si l’on suit Polanyi dans sa critique fondamentale de l’economisme inherent au premier triptyque, on a plus de reticences a accepter sa solution de substitution, melange heterogene de naturalisme et d’institutionnalisme, d’essentialisme et d’historicisme. La these defendue dans l’article est qu’il faut etre plus polanyien que Polanyi et rechercher une economie de la raison pratique, fondement d’une science economique reintroduite a l’interieur des sciences sociales.

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

Abstract: 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.

On Institutional Economics

Abstract: The difficulty in defining a field for the so-called institutional economics is the uncertainty of meaning of an institution. Sometimes an institution seems to mean a framework of laws or natural rights within which individuals act like inmates. Sometimes it seems to mean the behavior of the inmates themselves. Sometimes anything additional to or critical of the classical or hedonic economics is deemed to be institutional. Sometimes anything that is "economic behavior" is institutional. Sometimes anything that is "dynamic" instead of "static," or a "process" instead of commodities, or activity instead of feelings, or mass action instead of individual action, or management instead of equilibrium, or control instead of laissez faire, seems to be institutional economics.

The market for 'lemons': quality uncertainty and the market mechanism

Abstract: This paper examines the allocation of credit in a market in which borrowers have greater information concerning their own riskiness than do lenders. It illustrates that (1)the allocation of credit is inefficient and at times can be improved by government intervention, and (2) small changes in the exogenous risk-free interest rate can cause large (discontinuous) changes in the allocation of credit and the efficiency of the market equilibrium. These conclusions suggests a role for government as the lender of last resort.

The Worlds of the Indian Ocean: A Global History

Abstract: Europe's place in history is re-assessed in this first comprehensive history of the ancient world, centering on the Indian Ocean and its role in pre-modern globalization. Philippe Beaujard presents an ambitious and comprehensive global history of the Indian Ocean world, from the earliest state formations to 1500 CE. Supported by a wealth of empirical data, full color maps, plates, and figures, he shows how Asia and Africa dominated the economic and cultural landscape and the flow of ideas in the pre-modern world. This led to a trans-regional division of labor and an Afro-Eurasian world economy. Beaujard questions the origins of capitalism and hints at how this world-system may evolve in the future. The result is a reorienting of world history, taking the Indian Ocean, rather than Europe, as the point of departure. Volume II provides in-depth coverage of the period from the seventh century CE to the fifteenth century CE.