Our basic understanding about how the economy works - is wrong.

It’s not supply and demand – it’s demand and supply.

One of the blogs I really like to read is Evonomics. They have a really great essay on an arabic economist from the 14th century and highlight the similarities and difference between him and Adam Smith - who is usually the person western textbooks cite as the - father of modern economics.

Here is the article - https://evonomics.com/amazing-north-african-scholar-beat-adam-smith-half-millennium/ 


First - one of our unending problems is that - western science and western education is really ignorant of all things not western. Which is why - most economists don't even know this guy existed or that - the way he framed things makes more sense.

To quote the article: "The invention of supply and demand analysis wasn’t invented in the 19th century: the Islamic scholar also described the relationship of demand and supply, and also took the role of inventories and merchandise trade into account."

There are some important things to learn from his work.

1) Demand matters. Creating demand is what creates the market. When supply side people say - we need to create a supply - they are missing something important - that is the customer. Without the customer - there is no business.

2) The government matters. Particularly - taxation matters. Taxation helps create civilization. Government helps people see themselves as a united group - which allows commerce to happen since we tend to want to trade with people - we view as friendly. This is expensive and requires money.  Money to build the infrastructure that allows all that trade to occur.  The government is one of the biggest creators of demand!  And this is true in most countries. The government hires more people than - pretty much anything else and spends more money than anything else. We don't need government to get out of the way - as much as we need government to use it's purchasing power for good - and not evil.

3) Greed/Hoarding wealth is bad. Basically - greed is what brings the downfall of the civilization.   Khaldun’s words are telling: “dynasty and government serve as the world’s greatest market place, providing the substance of civilization. Now, if the ruler holds on to property and revenue, or they are lost or not properly used by him, then the property in the possession of the ruler’s entourage will be small. Thus (when they stop spending), business slumps and commercial profits decline because of the shortage of capital”. “ […] Furthermore, money circulates between subjects and ruler, moving back and forth. Now, if the ruler keeps it to himself, it is lost to the subjects” (Khaldun p. 365).

Lowering taxes on rich people, allows the money to be hoarded and when this happens it is lost to the people. And when it is lost to the people, consumption slows and stops - and the economy crashes.

Economic theory applied to the problem of harassment

I was recently in New Delhi for a Happy Workplace Conclave #HyWe2018 – organized by my new friend Mukund Trivedy.  One of the speakers, Adam Cox, a strategist who sits on several executive boards, said that corporate culture is set by the last person promoted. He’s right and that has a direct impact on why harassment is still a problem despite everyone for years knowing that it’s a problem.
So how do we fix it?  By applying science. While I focus on teaching how to use behavioral science to fix the problem, economic theories can also help. 

Here is an article that does just that – it claims that the next Harvey Weinstein can be stopped using the theories of Nobel Prize Winning Economist Richard Thaler.

https://work.qz.com/1098756/the-next-harvey-weinstein-could-be-stopped-by-the-theories-of-nobel-prize-winning-economist-richard-thaler/

 The article is worth reading, but it comes down to how we encourage behavior we want and discourage behavior we don’t want. Which brings us back to my specialty – behavioral science.  Basically – you reward the behavior you want. Provide nudges and reminders of the behavior you want. Reminders about the expected behaviors you want etc etc etc.

The article rightly points out that since 75% of women report being harassed, instead of thinking it doesn’t happen and designing your processes for one off complaints. Expect it to happen and build stopping it from happening and reporting it when it does – into your processes.
But even that won’t be enough.  From the article.

“Ultimately, no reporting mechanism works unless the organization takes action when incidents are reported. One of the dispiriting lessons of Fox News—where O’Reilly and Ailes allegedly harassed women for years—is that the patterns of abuse were widely known by employees who had no faith the company would act. Organizations send messages about the behavior they value by who they choose to promote, and who they let go, says Amy Wrzesniewski, an organizational-behavior professor at the Yale School of Management.”

Which brings me back to Adam Cox – the culture is set by the last person promoted.
If there is a behavior happening in the workplace – it’s there because it’s being rewarded. If you don’t like the behavior – you need to understand that – it’s being rewarded somehow and if you want to fix it – you need to change your rewards and incentives so that you reward the behavior you want – like reporting. And create disincentives to the behavior you don’t want - like harassment. 

Don’t assume your incentives are working the way you want them to.  Perverse incentives come from well-intention-ed people.  If you aren’t getting the results you want – there is a problem with your incentives. Period.

To learn more – take my comprehensive program – Workplace Bullying for HR professionals (or for lawyers).