IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v62y2003i3p509-532.html

Uncertainty and Economic Sociology:

Author

Listed:
  • David Dequech

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The paper discusses the role of uncertainty in economic sociology, aiming to clarify some controversial issues in the related literature. Initially, some conceptual remarks are made about the relation between economic sociology, neoclassical economics, and rational choice theory. Next, in light of the existing literature on uncertainty and economic sociology, we distinguish between complexity and different types of uncertainty. We also identify different versions of the maximization hypothesis and examine their relations to the different types of uncertainty. Then we defend a concept of fundamental uncertainty that emphasizes the role of institutions. A theory that combines fundamental uncertainty and institutions should emphasize not only the existence of behavior in accordance with institutions, but also the possibility of creative, bold, unconventional behavior, discussed next, as people may use the knowledge provided by institutions to go against the tide. Finally, we suggest that the primary distinction should be that between approaches to economic issues, not between disciplines.

Suggested Citation

  • David Dequech, 2003. "Uncertainty and Economic Sociology:," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 509-532, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:62:y:2003:i:3:p:509-532
    DOI: 10.1111/1536-7150.00226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1536-7150.00226
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1536-7150.00226?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Siegwart Lindenberg, 1998. "The Cognitive Turn in Institutional Analysis: Beyond NIE and NIS?," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 154(4), pages 716-716, December.
    2. Mary K. Farmer, 1992. "On the Need to Make a Better Job of Justifying Rational Choice Theory," Rationality and Society, , vol. 4(4), pages 411-420, October.
    3. Paul DiMaggio, 1998. "The New Institutionalisms: Avenues of Collaboration," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 154(4), pages 696-696, December.
    4. G. Dosi & M. Egidi, 2000. "Substantive and Procedural Uncertainty: An Exploration of Economic Behaviours in Changing Environments," Chapters, in: Innovation, Organization and Economic Dynamics, chapter 5, pages 165-188, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Neil J. Smelser, 1992. "The Rational Choice Perspective," Rationality and Society, , vol. 4(4), pages 381-410, October.
    6. Daniel Ellsberg, 1961. "Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 75(4), pages 643-669.
    7. David Dequech, 2001. "Bounded Rationality, Institutions, and Uncertainty," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 911-929, December.
    8. David Dequech, 1999. "Expectations and Confidence under Uncertainty," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 415-430, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paul Lewis, 2008. "Solving the “Lachmann Problem”: Orientation, Individualism, and the Causal Explanation of Socioeconomic Order," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(5), pages 827-857, November.
    2. Knoll, Lisa, 2013. "Justification, conventions, and institutions in economic fields," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 14(2), pages 39-45.
    3. Hsiang-Lin Cheng & Ming-Chang Huang, 2021. "Does dual Embeddedness matter? Mechanisms and patterns of subsidiary ambidexterity that links a Subsidiary’s dual Embeddedness with its learning strategy," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 1431-1465, December.
    4. Chiara L. Comolli & Daniele Vignoli, 2019. "Spread-ing uncertainty, shrinking birth rates," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2019_08, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    5. Paul Lewis, 2008. "Uncertainty, power and trust," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 21(2), pages 183-198, September.
    6. Park, Joo Young, 2014. "Assessing determinants of industrial waste reuse: The case of coal ash in the United States," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 116-127.
    7. Daniyal Khan, 2016. "Reading the General Theory as Economic Sociology: A broader interpretation of an economics classic," Working Papers 1605, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    8. João Ribeiro Butiam Có, 2009. "Teorias e dinâmicas migratórias internacionais: algumas experiências africanas de "brain drain","brain circulation" e "brain gain"," Working Papers wp022009, SOCIUS, Research Centre in Economic and Organisational Sociology at the School of Economics and Management (ISEG) of the University of Lisbon.
    9. Sharon A. Alvarez & Jay B. Barney & Philip Anderson, 2013. "Forming and Exploiting Opportunities: The Implications of Discovery and Creation Processes for Entrepreneurial and Organizational Research," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 301-317, February.
    10. Sharon A. Alvarez, "undated". "Two Theories of Entrepreneurship: Alternative Assumptions and the Study of Entrepreneurial Action," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2005-19, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
    11. Alpar Lošonc, 2006. "Is There an Opportunity to Establish the Social-Capitalism in the Post Socialist Transition?," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 53(4), pages 407-425, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fontana, Giuseppe & Gerrard, Bill, 2004. "A Post Keynesian theory of decision making under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 619-637, October.
    2. David Dequech, 2008. "Varieties of uncertainty: a survey of the economic literature," Anais do XXXVI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 36th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 200807211223070, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    3. Guido Cozzi & Paolo Giordani, 2011. "Ambiguity attitude, R&D investments and economic growth," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 303-319, May.
    4. Massimo Egidi, 2017. "Schumpeter’s picture of economic and political institutions in the light of a cognitive approach to human behavior," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 139-159, January.
    5. Bas Aarle & Cindy Moons, 2017. "Sentiment and Uncertainty Fluctuations and Their Effects on the Euro Area Business Cycle," Journal of Business Cycle Research, Springer;Centre for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys (CIRET), vol. 13(2), pages 225-251, November.
    6. Dequech, David, 2006. "The new institutional economics and the theory of behaviour under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 109-131, January.
    7. Moser, Roger & Kuklinski, Christian Paul Jian-Wei & Srivastava, Mohit, 2017. "Information processing fit in the context of emerging markets: An analysis of foreign SBUs in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 234-247.
    8. Marcela Miozzo & Lori DiVito, 2020. "Productive opportunities, uncertainty, and science-based firm emergence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 539-560, February.
    9. Alberto Feduzi, 2010. "On Keynes's conception of the Weight of Evidence," Post-Print hal-00870185, HAL.
    10. Feduzi, Alberto, 2010. "On Keynes's conception of the weight of evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 338-351, November.
    11. Sharon A. Alvarez & Jay B. Barney & Philip Anderson, 2013. "Forming and Exploiting Opportunities: The Implications of Discovery and Creation Processes for Entrepreneurial and Organizational Research," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 301-317, February.
    12. Neil J. Smelser, 1993. "Response to Discussants," Rationality and Society, , vol. 5(1), pages 141-145, January.
    13. Christina Leuker & Thorsten Pachur & Ralph Hertwig & Timothy J. Pleskac, 2019. "Do people exploit risk–reward structures to simplify information processing in risky choice?," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 5(1), pages 76-94, August.
    14. Morone, Andrea & Caferra, Rocco, 2024. "The Ambiguity Box: A new tool to generate ambiguity in the lab," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    15. Anne Corcos & François Pannequin & Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde, 2012. "Aversions to Trust," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 78(3), pages 115-134.
    16. Simon Levin & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2021. "On the Coevolution of Economic and Ecological Systems," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 355-377, October.
    17. Simona Fabrizi & Steffen Lippert & Addison Pan & Matthew Ryan, 2022. "A theory of unanimous jury voting with an ambiguous likelihood," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 399-425, October.
    18. Kiyohiko G. Nishimura & Hiroyuki Ozaki, 2001. "Search under the Knightian Uncertainty," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-112, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    19. Liu, Hui-hui & Song, Yao-yao & Liu, Xiao-xiao & Yang, Guo-liang, 2020. "Aggregating the DEA prospect cross-efficiency with an application to state key laboratories in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    20. Chateauneuf, Alain & Eichberger, Jurgen & Grant, Simon, 2007. "Choice under uncertainty with the best and worst in mind: Neo-additive capacities," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 538-567, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:62:y:2003:i:3:p:509-532. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.