About

Professor Donald W. Katzner's research interests include microeconomic theory, methodology, culture and economic behavior, Japan and the Japanese economy, and organization theory.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Economics
• Mathematics
• Mathematical economics
• Political Science
• Operations research
• Psychology
• Business
• Microeconomics
• Econometrics
• Epistemology
• Law

Selected publications

• The past is only prologue – not the future: response to my critics

  Journal of Post Keynesian Economics · 2023-10-17

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This is my response to criticisms of my paper "The Problem with Probability" (JPKE, 2023, n. 3) given by Dequech, Cantillo, and Skillman and Veneziani (also appearing in JPKE 2023, n. 3). The main issues discussed concern the possibility of having knowledge of the future and empirical testing of decision-making models.

  PublisherDOI

• The problem with probability

  Journal of Post Keynesian Economics · 2023 · 5 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Economics
  • Mathematical economics

  Knightian uncertainty is the circumstance in which there is not enough information available to quantitatively measure in terms of probability the uncertainty that is present. Economic decision makers usually face that kind of uncertainty when attempting to determine their best route forward into the future. But instead of confronting Knightian uncertainty head on, economists generally have assumed it away by opting instead to employ what Knight called risk as measured by probability. But there are serious questions about whether probability has the capacity to coral in a meaningful way the uncertainty many decision makers actually face, and whether its use in models of decision making provides an appropriately relevant and realistic explanation of what is going on. This paper argues that it does not by examining the meaning of the probability concept as it relates to the true uncertain environment the decision maker faces. It also suggests that the alternative measure of surprise introduced by Shackle not only returns such analyses to the more realistic realm of Knightian uncertainty, but is also a workable and suitable replacement for probability in explanations of decision making that need to account for the unpredictability of the future.

  PublisherDOI

• Allocative efficiency

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2021 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Economics
  • Business
  • Microeconomics

  Chapter 13 studies the allocative efficiency, referred to as "internal Pareto optimality," that is associated with the allocation of activities chosen by employees and restrictions imposed by supervisors on subordinates. It is demonstrated that if all employees are incentive motivated, vertically influenced, or internalize the values of the firm, then the allocation that obtains is internally Pareto optimal.

  PublisherDOI

• Cultural Variation in the Theory of the Firm

  Scholarworks (University of Massachusetts Amherst) · 2021-09-20

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper presents a model of the firm that includes the possibility of firm and employee-on-the-job decision making based on alternatives to profit and utility maximization. Such alternatives are relevant and significant when explaining firm activity in cultural environments in which self interest is not considered to be a primary force driving human behavior. Three types of firms are defined and their properties compared: the Western firm, the Japanese firm, and the clan. The third is a combination of the first two.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Conclusion to Organization in the Economic Firm

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2021-10-26 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Chapter 15 discusses the significance of firm organizational structures in the wider economic scheme of things and some implication of preceding argument.

  PublisherDOI

• Complexity and responsiveness

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2021-10-26

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Chapter 6 defines the complexity of a firm's organization in terms of the restrictions on activities that supervisors impose on employees. It is argued that the greater the restrictions, the greater the complexity and the less responsive the firm becomes in addressing such things as the changing market forces it faces. A measure of responsiveness (on a scale of 0 to 1) is proposed and its properties described. Complexity is measured as one-minus the measure of responsiveness. The impact of the firm hiring a new employee on its organizational complexity and responsiveness is analyzed.

  PublisherDOI

• Height and thickness

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2021-10-26

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Chapter 3 defines the notions of height and thickness of pyramidal authority structures and develops measures of them. The ideas of horizontally balanced and pseudo horizontally balanced structures are introduced and the relations between firm size and the height and thickness of its organizational authority structure are analyzed. In the latter context, the trade-off between height and thickness when the size of the firm is held fixed is considered.

  PublisherDOI

• Preface

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2021-10-26

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This volume is partly a compendium of a few of my previously published papers, partly an expansion or a rewriting of portions of that work, and partly a platform for the presentation of new, previously unpublished material.The themes addressed by these components all support my belief that authority structures, the social interaction (including supervision) among employees necessary for them to fulfill the responsibilities of their jobs, the complexity of organizational structures and their responsiveness to the need for change, participatory decision making and its implications, and certain kinds of efficiency are all fundamental to analyses of the internal organization of the economic firm.In addition, the reality of time, not as it is represented in differential or periodic equation form but as it affects the "ordinary business of life", still raises the implicit, if not explicit necessity of considering its possible impact on these organizational features.I hope that these tenets come through clearly in the ensuing pages.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Complexity, output, and profit

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2021-10-26

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Chapter 7 analyzes how, under certain conditions, changes in complexity or responsiveness in the model of Chapter 4 impact the firm's output and profit. Several sets of conditions are considered. Each is expressed in terms of the restrictions imposed on employees by their supervisors.

  PublisherDOI

• Time, order, and firm organization

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2021-10-26

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Chapter 5 is concerned with how the presence and passage of time impacts both the structures that have been introduced in the previous chapters, as well as those that will appear in subsequent discussions. It is the passage of time that allows the possibility of change. The details of how change might alter the component parts of the structures and the structures themselves are worked out.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Alex Coram

  2 shared

• Peter Skøtt

  2 shared

• John D. Hey

  University of Bari Aldo Moro

  1 shared

• George T. Duncan

  1 shared

• Mikhail J. Nikomarvo

  INSEAD

  1 shared

• J. Edward Russo

  Cornell University

  1 shared

• Mikhail J. Nikomarov

  1 shared

• Timothy J. Brennan

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Recognition for distinguished academic outreach, University…
• The Order of Merit, Poznan University of Economics, Poznan,…
• University Medal, Mongolian National University, Ulaan Baata…
• Inducted into Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society (University of Ma…
• Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 1964-65