Ekkehart Schlicht (born in 1945,
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
) is a German economist. He is best known for his work in
labor economics,
custom
Custom, customary, or consuetudinary may refer to:
Traditions, laws, and religion
* Convention (norm), a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom
* Norm (social), a r ...
in the
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
, and his contributions to the field of
institutional economics.
Early life
Ekkehart Schlicht was born in 1945 in the Northern German city of
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
. He attended the Freie
Waldorfschule Rendsburg
Rendsburg ( da, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'', nds, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'') is a town on the River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the central part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) of Rendsburg-Ecke ...
(
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
) where he completed his
Abitur in 1965.
Studies
Schlicht attended the
University of Kiel
Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...
from 1965 to 1967, and
University of Regensburg
The University of Regensburg (german: link=no, Universität Regensburg) is a public research university located in the medieval city of Regensburg, Bavaria, a city that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university was founded on 18 ...
from 1967 to 1969, where he received the title of
Diplom-Volkswirt in 1969. The topic of Schlicht's
Diplomarbeit was "Die Einbeziehung des technischen Fortschritts in die Produktionstheorie" (''The inclusion of technical progress in production theory''). Two years later, he completed his doctorate, writing his thesis on "Eine neoklassische Theorie der Vermögensverteilung" (''A neo-classical theory of wealth distribution'').
Academic career
Schlicht has taught at the
University of Bielefeld
Bielefeld University (german: Universität Bielefeld) is a university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization a ...
(1976–80),
Technical University of Darmstadt
Technical may refer to:
* Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle
* Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data
* Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...
(1980–93), and
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (since 1993). He has also held guest professorships at
University of Bonn
The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...
(1975–76),
Brown University (1987/88), the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
(1991),
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...
(1995), and
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...
(2000/2001), as well as many further research positions.
Major contributions
Schlicht's major contributions have been numerous works on
labor economics,
institutional economics, and
economic methods.
Among his work in labor economics are papers on the theory of
wealth distribution
The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or economic heterogeneity.
The distribution of wealth differs from the income distribution in tha ...
,
efficiency wages
The term efficiency wages (or rather "efficiency earnings") was introduced by Alfred Marshall to denote the wage per efficiency unit of labor. Marshallian efficiency wages would make employers pay different wages to workers who are of different ef ...
and
wage discrimination
Economic discrimination is discrimination based on economic factors. These factors can include job availability, wages, the prices and/or availability of goods and services, and the amount of capital investment funding available to minorities for ...
, in which Schlicht offers rationales for why such commonly observed phenomena may emerge in a free market. On efficiency wages, Schlicht has argued that the offering by employers of above-market wages may have to do with turnover costs, which the employer attempts to reduce by paying a "job rent". This is an alternative to other common approaches to efficiency wages such as the "
discipline" theory by e.g.
Shapiro
Shapiro, and its variations such as Shapira, Schapiro, Schapira, Sapir, Sapira, Spira, Sapiro, Spiro (name)/Spyro (in Greek), Szapiro/ Szpiro (in Polish) and Chapiro (in French), is a Jewish Ashkenazi surname.
Etymology
The surname is derive ...
and
Stiglitz, or the "adverse selection" and "loyalty" models by e.g.
Akerlof
George Arthur Akerlof (born June 17, 1940) is an American economist and a university professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and Koshland Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. ...
. More recently he has developed an efficiency wage theory based on "selection wages" where firms offer higher wages in order to attract more applicants which enables them to implement more demanding hiring standards.
In the field of institutional economics Schlicht has written a book on
custom
Custom, customary, or consuetudinary may refer to:
Traditions, laws, and religion
* Convention (norm), a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom
* Norm (social), a r ...
in the
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
and numerous publications on topics which combine
economic
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
,
psychological, and
institutional
Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...
analysis. Several articles have also focused on
social evolution
{{unreferenced, date=February 2015
''Social Evolution'' is the title of an essay by Benjamin Kidd, which became available as a book published by Macmillan and co London in 1894. In it, Kidd discusses the basis for society as an evolving phenomenon ...
, comparing the evolution of biological organisms to the evolution of social norms and institutions.
Some other publications by Schlicht have focused on
seasonal adjustment
Seasonal adjustment or deseasonalization is a statistical method for removing the seasonal component of a time series. It is usually done when wanting to analyse the trend, and cyclical deviations from trend, of a time series independently of the ...
of
time series
In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. Ex ...
data and a "
moving equilibrium theorem".
References
External links
CV, Ekkehart SchlichtIZA Research Fellow Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlicht, Ekkehart
1945 births
Living people
German economists