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In this paper we assess the implications of precautionary savings for global imbalances by considering a world economy model composed by the US, the Euro Area, Japan, China, oil-exporting countries, and the rest of the world. These areas are assumed to differ only with respect to GDP volatility which is calibrated based on the 1980-2008 period. The model predicts a wide dispersion in net foreign asset positions, with the highly volatile oil-exporting countries accumulating very large asset holdings. While heterogeneity in GDP volatility may lead to large imbalances in international investment

This study discusses the implications of the recursive or self-reflexive effects of economic theories on bounded rational behaviour and interaction. It focuses on the mechanisms through which bounded rational actors perceive the self-referential nature of economic theories and might absorb their prescriptions. As individuals think and are conscious of their thought, reflexivity is potentially involved in all human acts of cognition and in all conceptualizations. Further, the individuals can make use of social theories which can therefore yield recursive effects and interfere with the phenomena they aim to depict. Taking into consideration the bounded rationality of the individuals, this study investigates the modalities by means of which the recursive character of economic theorizing is perceived and the conditions under which economic theories affect behaviour, according to the results of two economic experiments focussing the absorbability of guessing-games' and informational cascades' theories.

This thesis observes and explores the imaginary of digital devices when the latter are introduced, in the form of tablets or augmented reality browsers, to support mediation work in ethnography museums. The thesis examines how museum professionals position themselves in relation to the growing presence of digital devices in the exhibition space, which is underpinned by a technophile promotional narrative spun by the media and politicians who present the introduction of these technologies as highly desirable. An ethnographic study in two museums faced with the imposition of such technological agendas – the Museon Arlaten in Arles and the McCord Museum in Montreal – allows for an analysis of the expectations towards and imaginary of these devices by museum professionals. The concept of triviality, as defined by Yves Jeanneret, is used to compare the accompanying discourses on digital technologies with the discourses of professionals in the two ethnography museums, in order to highlight how discourses circulate, as do the imaginaries underpinning them. There were three stages in this study. First, the various accompanying discourses on digital technologies in museums – from both inside and outside of the institutions – and the agendas they carry were identified, so as to understand what was dictated to the professionals. Besides, the museum professionals were interviewed in order to identify what their imaginaries of technological devices were, which allowed for an understanding of their expectations and fears regarding these devices. Finally, asking the interviewees about their concrete practices when effectively devising the devices made it possible to observe processes of adjustment, from opposition to adaptation to invention. The comparison between the professionals' discourses and the accompanying discourses offered by the media and politicians revealed a discrepancy between the accompanying discourses on technological innovation in museums and the way in which the professionals from the cultural institutions ...