X-Efficiency: Theory, Evidence and Applications e-bog

My interest in X-Efficiency (XE) dates back to 1978. At the time, I was writing the dissertation for my Ph. D. at Washington State University. My dissertation was concerned with the role of attitudes in the school-to-work transition among young men. I was advised by Professor Millard Hastay (a member of my committee) to look at Leibenstein's "e;new"e; book, Beyond Economic Man. One of the things that caught my attention was his be- havioral description of (selective) rationality. It seemed that Leibenstein's behavioral description of a (selectively) rational individual was very similar to what psychologists such as Abraham Maslow were reporting as being the product of a particular motivational system. In other words, I was im- pressed with the idea that what Leibenstein was referring to as X-ineffi- ciency was being discussed by psychologists as "e;the way it (often) is. "e; So from the beginning I always considered the concept of X-(in)efficiency to be a valuable one for understanding human behavior. I have since come to believe that this is particularly true when considering behavior in non- market environments, i. e. , within the firm. Work on this book, however, can most realistically said to have started with work which I began in 1982 while I was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. Professor Leibenstein suggested that I consider how some em- pirical evidence which was being cited as evidence for the role of property rights might also be consistent with XE theory.