2023年经济学人 为什么经济学不能理解商业(2)

 

为什么经济学不能理解商业(2)

    Where there is the delegation¹ of tasks, there is a problem of motivation--how to get an employee to act on behalf of the firm, to be a team player, rather than narrowly self-serving.

    哪里要委托任务，哪里就有动力问题 -- 如何让员工代表公司行事，成为团队的一员，而不是狭隘地为自己谋利。

    This is known in economics as the principal-agent problem, the source of much illuminating² theory in this period.

    这在经济学上被称为委托代理问题，是这一时期许多有启发性的理论的来源。

    Incentives³ matter, of course, but often the best approach is for organisations to pay a fixed⁴ salary and not to tie rewards to any one task.

    当然，激励很重要，但通常最好的方法是让组织支付固定的工资，不要将奖励与任何一项任务挂钩。

    Tie teachers' pay to exam results, for instance, and they will "teach to the test", instead of inspiring pupils to think independently.

    例如，如果将教师的工资与考试成绩挂钩，他们就会"为了考试而教学"，而不是鼓励学生独立思考。

    Such avenues of research would earn Nobel prizes in economics for Oliver Williamson, Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom.

    这样的研究途径后来让奥利弗·威廉森、奥利弗·哈特和本特·霍姆斯特罗姆赢得诺贝尔经济学奖。

    (Coase had won the prize in 1991; Simon in 1978.)(科斯于1991年获奖，西蒙于1978年获奖。)

    Their work explains in part why, by the mid-1990s, our business-school professor was so confident that economics should rule the study of business.

    他们的工作在一定程度上解释了为什么在20世纪90年代中期，商学院的教授们如此自信地认为经济学应该统治商业研究。

    The bestselling books of Michael Porter, an economist⁵-turned-business guru, further fuelled such optimism, as did excitement about the potential for game theory in corporate⁶ strategy.

    迈克尔·波特是一位经济学出身的商业界大师，他的畅销书进一步助长了这种乐观情绪，人们对博弈论在企业战略中的潜力感到兴奋，这也起到了相同的助长作用。

    Yet today if a firm hires a chief economist, it is for a take on GDP growth or the policy of the Federal Reserve.

    然而，现在如果一家公司聘请了一位首席经济学家，那是为了咨询关于GDP增长或美联储政策的看法。

    It is not for advice on corporate strategy.

    而不是寻求企业战略方面的建议。

    There are reasons for this.

    出现这种现象是有原因的。

    One is academic prestige.

    一个原因是学术声望。

    Economics likes to see itself as a foundational discipline, like physics, not a practical one, like engineering.

    经济学喜欢把自己看作类似物理学的基础学科，而不是类似工程学的实用学科。

    But most of what makes for a flourishing business cannot be captured in a tight theory with a few equations.

    但是，促成企业蓬勃发展的大部分因素，不可能用含有几个方程式的严密理论来描述。

    Often it is a matter of how well ideas, information and decision-making spread throughout the firm.

    通常，这是想法、信息、决策在整个公司传达得有多好的问题。

    And pay is not the only motivation.

    而薪酬并不是唯一动力。

    Strong businesses are shaped by shared values and common ideas about the right way to do things--by corporate culture.

    强大的企业是由共同的价值观和对于正确做事方式的共同看法而塑造的，即企业文化。

    People take pride in their work and their workplace.

    人们为自己的工作和工作单位感到自豪。

    These are not natural subjects for economists⁷.

    这些不是经济学家会自然研究的主题。

    Nor is economics comfortable with the specificity of business problems.

    经济学也对商业问题的特殊性感到不自在。

    Solving them is more than a simple matter of establishing the right economic incentives.

    解决这些问题不仅仅是建立正确的经济激励机制这么简单。

    It requires detailed⁸ knowledge of technology, processes and competitors as well as social psychology⁹ and political trends.

    还需要对技术、流程、竞争对手，以及社会心理学和政治趋势有详细的了解。

    Economics is never enough.

    光靠经济学是永远不够的。

    Many of the influences on any topical business issue--which tech firm will win the AI race, say--lie outside its purview¹⁰.

    对热门商业问题 -- 比如哪家科技公司将赢得人工智能竞赛 -- 产生各种影响并不在经济学的权限之内。

    There are economic ideas that business people ignore at their peril¹¹.

    而有一些经济学理念，商界人士若忽视了，就要自己承担风险。

    If a firm's strategy can be freely copied, it should expect its profits to be competed away quickly.

    如果一家公司的战略可以被自由复制，它就应该预料到自己的利润会很快被竞争对手夺走。

    A sound business needs an edge.

    稳健的企业需要有自己的优势。

    But beyond such precepts¹², economics has little of practical use to say about what makes a successful company.

    但除了这些准则，在说明是什么造就了成功企业方面，经济学几乎没有实际用处。

    The study of business remains¹³ an outpost of the empire.

    商业研究仍然是经济学帝国的边远前哨。

    It now seems unlikely it will ever fully¹⁴ conquer the terrain¹⁵.

    现在看来，经济学可能永远无法完全征服这一地带。

1 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

2 illuminating   

a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的

参考例句：

• We didn't find the examples he used particularly illuminating. 我们觉得他采用的那些例证启发性不是特别大。
• I found his talk most illuminating. 我觉得他的话很有启发性。

3 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

4 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

5 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

6 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

7 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

9 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

10 purview   

n.范围；眼界

参考例句：

• These are questions that lie outside the purview of our inquiry.这些都不是属于我们调查范围的问题。
• That,however,was beyond the purview of the court;it was a diplomatic matter.但是，那已不在法庭权限之内；那是个外交问题。

11 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

12 precepts   

n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They accept the Prophet's precepts but reject some of his strictures. 他们接受先知的教训，但拒绝他的种种约束。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The legal philosopher's concern is to ascertain the true nature of all the precepts and norms. 法哲学家的兴趣在于探寻所有规范和准则的性质。 来自辞典例句

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

14 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

15 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。