Mesoeconomics

The meso-economic interaction theory of economic policy can be assigned to the theories of the New Political Economy . It is part of economics and was founded by Hans-Rudolf Peters in the early 1970s .

"Meso" means "medium". The aim of the theory is the economic explanation of group behavior on a medium aggregation level between political decision-makers and interest groups. The purely microeconomic analysis of the individual and the purely macroeconomic view of entire group structures are criticized as inadequate. In particular, the assumptions of methodological individualism - rational and individual behavior of the actors - are perceived as excessive restrictions. Irrational behavior as such is included in the theory formation.

Mesoeconomics sees itself as interdisciplinary and, in addition to approaches from sociology and political science, borrows from approaches from deregulation theory , economic structure theory and the microeconomically oriented New Political Economy.

The meso-economic approach was taken up by business administration, in particular by commercial business studies , as being useful for the analysis of the characteristics of the cooperations or groups of companies, namely the retail sector , and as a sound theoretical approach for cooperative retail marketing .

Representative

• Hans-Rudolf Peters ( Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg )
• Wolfram Elsner ( University of Bremen )

literature

• Hans-Otto Schenk: Verbundlehre - New Scientific Approach for Cooperation , in: The Verbund. 6th year, issue 1/1993, pp. 4-7.
• Wolfram Elsner ; Torsten Heinrich: A simple theory of 'meso'. On the co-evolution of institutions and platform size — With an application to varieties of capitalism and 'medium-sized' countries , in: The Journal of Socio-Economics, Volume: 38 (2009), Issue: 5 (October), p 843-858. [1]