Malthus to Solow

"A unified growth theory is developed that accounts for the roughly constant living standards displayed by world economies prior to 1800 as well as the growing living standards exhibited by modern industrial economies. Our theory also explains the industrial revolution, which is the transition from an era when per capita incomes are stagnant to one with sustained growth.... [The authors] use a standard growth model with...[several] technologies. The first, denoted the 'Malthus' technology, requires land, labor and reproducible capital as inputs. The second, denoted the 'Solow' technology, does not require land. [The authors] show that in the early stages of development, only the Malthus technology is used and, due to population growth, living standards are stagnant despite technological progress. Eventually, technological progress causes the Solow technology to become profitable and both technologies are employed. At this point, living standards improve since population growth has less influence on per capita income growth. In the limit, the economy behaves like a standard Solow growth model."     

从马尔萨斯到索洛:工业革命理论综述

不发达国家的经济怎么才能实现长期而稳定的增长,并达到发达经济,这是经济学家所长期追寻的目标。19世纪以来接连出现的大量国家相继走上富裕之路,给经济学家提供了丰富的研究素材,但受制于分析工具的不完备,该领域的研究长期未取得大的进展。20世纪90年代中后期,对该问题的研究有了新的、统一的分析框架,形成了工业革命的研究领域,这项研究试图统一人口增长理论、制度经济学、经济增长理论和发展经济学。本文就该理论的进展进行了综述,并对可能的发展方向做了简要评述。     

全球化与贫困关系的最新研究进展

随着全球化程度的加深,越来越多的发展中国家融入到全球市场中,开放政策也无可避免地影响着穷人的生存状态,本文对近期西方针对贸易和资本流动与贫困关系的文献进行了综述,得出了以下结论:首先,基于一般均衡的贸易模型并不能客观描述开放的贸易政策对穷人的影响;其次,如果能辅之以必要的国内政策,穷人分享全球化成果的能力将会大大增强;第三,贸易和资本开放政策对在出口部门和外资流入部门就业人员产生积极的影响,等等.     

马尔萨斯的自然资源稀缺论

马尔萨斯认为土地生产力与人口增殖之间的不平衡实质上体现了绝对稀缺思想,这种绝对稀缺是无法改变的自然力量决定的;土地的绝对有限性和土地生产力增长的有限性决定了人口平衡是贯穿全生物界的自然法则;同时马尔萨斯认为自然资源的稀缺是相对的,因为自然资源的绝对稀缺是一种潜在的力量,受到社会制度、技术、道德和经济激励等因素的制约。     

The application of nonparametric tests to poverty targeting

Many otherwise successful social programs have limited outreach among the very poor. We show how a recently developed nonparametric test can detect this pattern of program participation. We apply the test to data on participation in a microcredit program in India and do find participation increasing in income among the poorest households in the region.     

The Cambridge challenge to the Ricardian analysis of poverty

The Ricardian economists’ famous model of economic growth employed the Malthusian population doctrine, the law of diminishing returns, and the classical or iron law of wages. This analysis was based on utilitarian moral philosophy. The gloomy Stationary State conclusions of the Ricardian growth model — maldistribution of income and widespread poverty — were challenged by both economists and moral philosophers. A particularly important challenge was that offered by William Whewell (1794–1866), Professor of Moral Philosophy and the dominant figure at the University of Cambridge. Whewell is remembered today for his early contributions to mathematical economics. This article begins with a review of the Ricardian growth model. Next, Whewell’s system of moral philosophy is examined and the scientific and religious basis of Whewell’s antagonism to Ricardian economics is considered. After considering Whewell’s treatment of agricultural progress, economic classes, and rent doctrine, his own model of economic growth is analyzed. Finally, Whewell’s appraisal of the duty of government to those harmed by development is explored.     

The Cambridge challenge to the Ricardian analysis of poverty

The Ricardian economists’ famous model of economic growth employed the Malthusian population doctrine, the law of diminishing returns, and the classical or iron law of wages. This analysis was based on utilitarian moral philosophy. The gloomy Stationary State conclusions of the Ricardian growth model — maldistribution of income and widespread poverty — were challenged by both economists and moral philosophers. A particularly important challenge was that offered by William Whewell (1794–1866), Professor of Moral Philosophy and the dominant figure at the University of Cambridge. Whewell is remembered today for his early contributions to mathematical economics. This article begins with a review of the Ricardian growth model. Next, Whewell’s system of moral philosophy is examined and the scientific and religious basis of Whewell’s antagonism to Ricardian economics is considered. After considering Whewell’s treatment of agricultural progress, economic classes, and rent doctrine, his own model of economic growth is analyzed. Finally, Whewell’s appraisal of the duty of government to those harmed by development is explored.     

Rank-based poverty measures and poverty ordering with an application to Tunisia

Using the normative approach, we develop a class of poverty measures that is function of a weighting system. Each particular weighting function corresponds to a particular social judgment. This offers the decision-maker a large selection of social preferences functions, and he can choose the one that best represents his social judgment. We also develop new concepts of a-extended TIP curves. They are used to establish the conditions of the robust and unanimous poverty ranking of our measures. These conditions are in terms of second-and higher-degree TIP dominance. Finally, we provide an empirical illustration using Tunisian data on the 2005–2010 period.     

From Malthus to Ohlin: Trade,Industrialisation and Distribution Since 1500

A recent endogenous growth literature has focused on the transition from a Malthusian world where real wages were linked to factor endowments, to one where modern growth has broken that link. In this paper we present evidence on another, related phenomenon: the dramatic reversal in distributional trends—from a steep secular fall to a steep secular rise in wage-land rent ratios—which occurred some time early in the 19th century. What explains this reversal? While it may seem logical to locate the causes in the Industrial Revolutionary forces emphasized by endogenous growth theorists, we provide evidence that something else mattered just as much: the opening up of the European economy to international trade.     

The sensitivity of poverty rates to macro-level changes in the European Union

The authors use the European Union-wide tax–benefit model,EUROMOD, to establish baseline rates of relative poverty in1998 for each of the Member States and then explore their sensitivityto (a) an increase in unemployment, (b) real income growth and(c) an increase in earnings inequality. They find that povertyrates are sensitive to such ‘macro-level’ changesbut that the size—and in some cases the direction—ofthe effect varies across countries. If such indicators are tobe used in judging the effectiveness of social policies, itis important that differences in responsiveness are fully understood.     

论按资分配对按劳分配作用范围的影响

按资分配与按劳分配是分配制度中两种重要的分配方式。二的关系是研究按劳分配与按生产要素分配相结合的重要内容。本将致力于从微观经济学和宏观经济学的新视角分析按资分配对按劳分配作用范围的影响。     

The effect of minimum wage on poverty

To the best of my knowledge, the minimum wage's influence on poverty in Russia has never been investigated. Russian data provide a unique opportunity for studying the effects of the minimum wage on poverty, given significant increases in the minimum wage in recent years, almost complete coverage, and a high representation of full-time workers in poor households. This article examines the effect of the minimum wage on the incidence of poverty and the transitions into and out of poverty in Russia using data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) from 2006 to 2011. The results indicate that the minimum wage in Russia had moderate poverty-reducing effects.     

The economics of poverty in poor countries

This paper examines the links that have recently been studied between poverty, high fertility and undernourishment, on the one hand, and degradation of the local environmental-resource base and civic disconnection, on the other, in poor countries. An account is offered of a number of pathways involving positive feedbacks that create poverty traps, in which certain identifiable groups of people in an economy can get caught even when the economy in the aggregate experiences economic growth. The relevant policy implications are noted.     

The poverty of democracy in Latin America

This paper reviews recent Latin American presidential elections as a means of examining the quality of democracy in the region. Its principal hypothesis is that, notwithstanding the claims of mainstream analysis, the (re)introduction of formal democratic procedure has not represented a meaningful advance in authentic, broad-based political and economic enfranchisement of the region’s working class and peasant majorities. In many cases the so-called democratic transition has merely disguised the adaption of previously authoritarian mechanisms of social control.