The study intends
(1) to look at the importance of
individual rationality as the main principle of economic behaviour,
incorporated
best in the concept of “homo oeconomicus”.
(2) to show how the third technological
revolution, the “digitalization of society”, may
transform individual behaviour
in the three pillars of an economic system (real, financial, public).
One major
achievement of main stream economics of Western style is the
“homo
oeconomicus”. Behind this concept stands the idea of rational
man relevant for
all parts in economic systems. It allows a consequent application of
profit and
efficiency maximizing in the real and financial sector and of vote and
utility
maximization in the public sector as agents' behaviour.
Psychology, sociology, behaviourism,
anthropology are strictly against the idea of the “homo
oeconomicus”.
Evolutionary and Neo-Schumpeterian Economics also claim that it is
wrong
because it doesn’t allow to include uncertainty
considerations which are a condition
sine-qua-non for innovation, change and prosperity.
But, is this concept
completely wrong? Or is it perhaps relevant for specific parts of an
economic system,
if they develop within the process of digital revolution?
These are the
questions which will be tackled in the paper. The analysis will follow
a
comprehensive approach, looking at the three institutional pillars of
an
economy, the financial, the real and the public sector trying to work
out the
effects of digitalization on the patterns of behaviour.
All in all, the effects
of digitalization can be summarized as follows: In the financial pillar
it
modifies the culture of doing business from “symbiotic
capitalism” to
“financial capitalism” with prevailing olympic
rationality. In the industrial
pillar it induces changes from short term maximizing
“managerial capitalism” to
a long term oriented “entrepreneurial capitalism”.
In the public pillar it may
open ways to institutional change, at least partially, from a “bureaucratic tax
state” to a system of “social
capitalism” with high potentials for enabling individual
creativity and
resilience capabilities.
JEL: B52, D00, O1