Did You Know?
Some SSE Professors’ favorite academic discourses, interactions, and theories that have sparked debates within their respective fields have been compiled below to serve to you, dear reader, as suggestions for further exploration.
Bo Becker, Department of Finance
“Many issues in finance are open, subject to competing hypotheses, informed by mixed evidence, and subject to disparate interpretations. A key example is what the equity premium is and how it changes. Starting in the 1980s, people noted that the return on equity (the stock market) was surprisingly high. Since then, there has been a lively debate.
In recent years, a lot of my own work is about the movement of the credit supply in business cycles - does the availability of financing change over time. This is important for understanding crises and recessions, for designing and evaluating regulation and public policy, and for understanding the financial system. My viewpoint is that the financial system and financial markets are key to economic cycles, and this is now more popular with macroeconomists. This has been an evolving academic discussion, and I think the "finance matters" side has pretty much won. See this year's Nobel prize, for example.”
Hans Kjellberg, Department of Marketing and Strategy
“One debate that might be worth looking into is the Sokal affair, which revolves around the publication of a hoax article by a hard science critic of postmodern scholarship. A debate that was important to me personally during my PhD-studies is the “epistemological chicken” debate between Bruno Latour & Michel Callon and Harry Collins & Steven Yearley. “
Andreas Werr, Department of Management and Organization
“I can’t come up with any heated debate in the field of organization theory. This is a rather multi-paradigmatic field where it is more “live and let live” – and where people with different views avoid each other, publish in different outlets, etc.”
Johan Båge, Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Technology
Although not specifically pertaining to the department which he works at, Mr. Båge suggested one to look into “Cantor’s diagonalization proof,” which he finds to be a “treat!”
References:
Becker, Bo. “Bo Becker: Vad Är Den Förväntade Långsiktiga Avkastningen På Börsen?” Affärsvärlden, August 29, 2022. https://www.affarsvarlden.se/kronika/bo-becker-vad-ar-den-forvantade-langsiktiga-avkastningen-pa-borsen.