Professor Ronald W. Jones and his influence on Asia Pacific economics

Professor Ronald W. Jones is one of the greatest general equilibrium theorists, who has illustrated the economic force underlying a general equilibrium adjustment in a very elegant manner. With his friendly personality, at the same time, he has made an enormous contribution to Asian Pacific economic research and the formation of a strong network of economists in our region. This essay intends to explain what I think of as the essence of his economics and his contributions to Asia Pacific economics.     

经济学中演化分析和均衡分析的历史争论与现实反思

在经济现象的产生和发展上,经济学界长期存在两种解释思路：一是基于异质性个体互动的基础之上的动态演化分析,这是以有机的、动态的和开放的世界观为基础的结构主义思路,它把行为主体看成是异质的;二是基于同质性个体假设基础上的静态（或比较静态）均衡分析,这是以机械的、静态的和封闭的世界观为基础的新古典主义传统,它强调行为主体的同质化。显然,现代经济学的基石就是一般均衡理论,因而静态均衡分析也就是现代经济学的基本方法;在均衡框架下,现代经济学研究理性经济人如何按照效用最大化原则实现资源最优配置。但是,这种均衡分析用于分析现实时却遇到非常严峻的问题：一者,它所依赖的假设条件是非现实;二者,无法考察人类行为和经济现象的动态演化。因此,现代主流经济学也正面临着严峻的挑战。     

Comments on “interpreting Chinese contributions to development policy from aspects of Chang'e 4”

This article is a comment on The Fallacy of Washington Consensus and the Role of the Government: Interpreting Some Chinese Contributions to Development Policy from Aspects of Chang'e 4 by Jinghai Zheng.The comparison between how equilibrium concepts are used in economics and natural sciences is extended to areas such as biology, chemistry and convex optimization in mathematics and is discussed on the basis of the state's role in economics and general equilibrium theory.     

TOWARD BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND EMPIRICAL REALITY

Introductory (i.e. first year) undergraduate learners often perceive economics to be remote from reality and overly theoretical, leading to a lack of motivation and enthusiasm to study economics. A general survey of curriculum practice reveals that lecture materials and the pedagogic approach to teaching introductory economics often do not place the current “mainstream” economic theory into its philosophical context. The result being that the learners are unable to bridge the gap between abstract economic theory and empirical reality. This paper argues that research into effective teaching and learning should focus not only on learner characteristics but also on curriculum content and its philosophical underpinnings, in order to research why students hold these negative perceptions. The paper recommends that introductory undergraduate teaching needs to engage in a critical examination, with the learner, of the philosophical underpinnings of “mainstream” economic theory and to introduce debates about the implications of these into the curriculum. This would create exciting new opportunities for teachers and learners to explore the connections between economic theory and social science in general and should come a long way in changing the negative perceptions of introductory undergraduate economics.     

中国技术经济研究的动态知识图谱分析

以1992年以来技术经济研究领域的中文文献为研究对象,借助文献计量软件CiteSpace V,对CNKI数据库该领域文献的发表时间、刊载期刊、高产作者与高产机构进行统计分析,并采用共词聚类分析法探讨1992-2016年中国技术经济研究的主要内容和研究专题,进而构建“关注度”指数、“新颖度”指数和战略坐标图,揭示1992-2016年中国技术经济研究专题的分布特征、研究热点与研究方向。结果表明：关于“技术进步与全要素生产率”、“高新技术产业化与政府行为创新”等问题是该领域关注的主要热点,而“产业升级与科技金融支持”、“知识溢出与创新的空间分析”等问题则是该领域较为新颖的研究方向。最后进一步对中国技术经济研究趋势进行了展望。     

Rowing along the computable general equilibrium modelling mainstream

Theoretical, empirical, and technical principles of computable general equilibrium models (CGE models) development have been presented. It is commented how to model the economical processes using this approach. many economists develop the CGE mosels in order to solve the problems of economical forecast. But the resonable criticism of this method is ignored. By analyzing the approaches to CGE models development in the paper it is concluded that the majority of CGE models are not able to describe properly the operation of real economics losing to the method of interindustry forecast. In the recent time the CGE models have been widely used in economics. The presented paper explain why such attractive methods can lose its popularity.     

Is System Dynamics Modelling of Relevance to Neoclassical Economists?

System dynamics modelling is a technique that is widely used in business, environmental and ecological applications. In the field of economics, however, it is less frequently used, and those that do use it are usually not professionally trained economists. One of the reasons for this is the perceived ideological differences between system dynamics modelling and neoclassical economics. System dynamics is classified in the literature as a heterodox approach. This article utilises a reputable framework from social theory to compare system dynamics modelling and neoclassical economics on ontological and epistemological grounds. This is the first known study to find congruency between these two approaches on this basis. System dynamics modelling has the potential to increase the range of modelling tools at the disposal of neoclassical economics, so long dominated by econometric and general equilibrium modelling approaches.     

An Austrian Foundation for Microeconomic Principles

Teaching Microeconomic Principles well, a blend of good pedagogy and good economics, is the professional obligation of many economists. Since such courses are conventionally grounded in neoclassical theory, professors who embrace the theoretical perspective of the Austrian School may seem to confront a dilemma unfamiliar to other teachers: Teach the course well, or teach good economics? The thesis of this paper is, simply, that there is no such conflict. Incorporating properly chosen attributes of Austrian theory makes one’s Microeconomic Principles course better. This conclusion would be rejected by those who identify Austrian economics as adding complex disequilibrium propositions to an equilibrium analysis indistinguishable from that of neoclassical theory, or who think it dismisses equilibrium entirely, but both positions misunderstand the School’s nature. Among Austrian theoretical attributes that enrich a Microeconomic Principles course are methodological individualism, ordinal subjective utility and cost, future orientation, entrepreneurship, a process view of competition, and consideration for market participants’ knowledge. In this paper these characteristics—many ostensibly shared, but not consistently respected, by neoclassical theory—are applied by developing conventional smooth supply and demand curves, and their interaction in markets, from individuals’ value comparisons of discrete units. The paper concludes that an Austrian foundation is simultaneously more theoretically accurate and closer to the student’s everyday life, a combination that means a better Principles course.     

EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMICS DEPARTMENTS

Over the past decade, economics departments in South Africa have seen major changes and a certain level of disruption. Much of this can be attributed to the integration of our discipline into the global arena after a period of academic isolation. This paper presents a survey of economics departments and covers everything from staff profiles and qualifications to curricula, and research output. This paper indicates that there has been some improvement in the state of economics at South African universities since 2003 when the previous survey was conducted. Research output is largely up as is the proportion in international journals, and more researchers are producing in leading international economics publications. However, the gap between South African economics departments and their international counterparts remains large.     

全球经常项目失衡问题研究

近些年,全球经常项目失衡问题成为经济研究者、国际机构和各国中央银行经济学家以及商务经济研究报告竞相研究的热点问题。本文构建了经常项目影响因素的一个简单的理论模型,应用该结构性模型考察了一国在世界经济中的地位、政府财政收支以及对外净资产等经济变量对经常项目的影响,利用52个国家或地区1980年到2004年经济数据就理论模型所关注的经济变量对经常项目的影响进行了实证研究,并且对解决当前全球经常项目失衡问题提出了相关建议。     

理解污染避难所假说

污染避难所假说是现代国际经济学领域中一个颇受争议的热点问题,本文通过构筑一个一般均衡模型对这一假说进行了剖析。我们首先将外国直接投资和跨境外部性效应等策略变量纳入到一个北南国家的贸易模型中,由此勾勒出外国直接投资和环境污染相互影响的关系,即外国直接投资并不一定造成环境的恶化,相反,在某些特定的条件下,外国直接投资还可能降低东道国的污染物数量,从而对改善环境质量起到积极的推动作用。在此分析的基础上,我们没有找到污染避难所假说成立的理论依据。     

A note on educational performance of economics graduate programs in East and Southeast Asia

This paper considers educational performance of economics graduate programs in East and Southeast Asia by examining the highest educational origins of the regional contributors in the top five journals between January 1995 and July 2005. Evidence proves that East and Southeast Asian graduates represent 13% of the contributors, have a 10% share of the regional aggregate AER-equivalent-length pages, and American doctors are dominant. Educational productivity of East and Southeast Asian economics graduate programs is thought to be equal, at best, to that of the middle-ranked ones in the United States top-50 schools.     

A Guide to Graduate Study in Economics: Ranking Economics Departments by Fields of Expertise

Ph.D. programs in economics are ranked overall and by subject field. The results provide insight to students researching graduate programs in economics in specific subject fields. Results indicate that (i) differences in overall research productivity measures diminish as a university's rank declines; (ii) a university ranked highly in a particular subject field may be the result of a single, extremely productive faculty member; and (iii) many programs outside the traditional top 20 programs are ranked high in specific subject fields.     

Price makers and nonclearing markets

In a recent survey article, Benassy argues that fixprice theory holds the key to incorporating monopoly and monopolistic competition into general equilibrium theory. This paper argues that the opposite is true. Fixprice theory is an impediment to incorporating monopoly into general equilibrium theory. The reason for this is that fixprice theory virtually jettisons Walras's law. It is demonstrated that Walras's law makes the general equilibrium analysis of monopoly very tractable, although it was long thought that monopoly and general equilibrium were incompatible.     

EXCHANGE RATES AND EMPLOYMENT

The analysis of exchange rates and employment has received scant attention in development economics. This is surprising, since there appears to be a number of well-defined transmission channels through which exchange rates impact on employment. In South Africa this is particularly important given the rand's higher volatility relative to other emerging economies. The main focus of this paper is to give an overview of the transmission channels through which exchange rates affect employment and to discuss the standard methodological approach to conceptualising the impact of exchange rates on employment. Given the sector-specific impact of exchange rates which are conditioned by industry characteristics, such as the degree of external orientation, there will always be winners and losers in the face of a currency shock. This means the full impact of exchange rates on employment can only be dealt with in an economy-wide framework. Results from a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model are presented to demonstrate that even in a country with unreliable employment data such as South Africa, one can still analyse exchange rate and employment issues.     

人民币债券市场准入问题研究

本文运用博弈论和信息经济学的相关理论,对境外机构发行人民币债券的市场准入问题进行了静态和动态博弈分析。文章求解了不完全信息下的贝叶斯纳什均衡和精炼贝叶斯均衡,对人民币债券市场准入中的现实问题进行了理论阐述和证明,并讨论了境外机构在境内发行人民币债券的各种影响。     

The bubble game: A classroom experiment

We propose a simple classroom experiment on speculative bubbles: the Bubble Game. This game is useful to discuss about market efficiency and trading strategies in a financial economics course, and about behavioral aspects in a game theory course, at all levels. The Bubble Game can be played with any number of students, as long as this number is strictly greater than one. Students sequentially trade an asset which is publicly known to have a fundamental value of zero. If there is no cap on asset prices, speculative bubbles can arise at the Nash equilibrium because no trader is ever sure to be last in the market sequence. Otherwise, the Nash equilibrium involves no trade. Bubbles usually occur with or without a cap on prices. Traders who are less likely to be last and have less steps of reasoning to perform to reach equilibrium are in general more likely to speculate.     

Economics Faculty Research at Teaching Institutions: Are Historically Black Colleges Different?

This paper examines the difference in research output of economics departments at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and non-HBCUs that are teaching institutions. We also examine the causal relationship between economics faculty research and the number of an institution's baccalaureate graduates who earn doctorates in economics. Our findings suggest that economics departments at HBCUs produce less research output relative to non-HBCUs. However, research output is equally effective in producing economics doctorates at both types of institutions. These findings suggest that a plausible way to increase the stock of black Ph.D. economists is to increase economics research at HBCUs.     

汇率不确定性与FDI

关于汇率波动如何影响FDI的问题，一直以来都是学者们争论不休的话题。基于以往对FDI的局部均衡分析中将汇率看作外生因子的局限性。本论文借鉴最优货币区理论中的一般均衡分析框架，将汇率设定为由经济基本因素所决定的内生因子，其中重点分析货币因素的变化对汇率，进而对FDI产生影响的机制；从而调和了过去局部均衡分析所得出的矛盾观点，指出，汇率是促进还是抑制FDI主要取决于影响汇率波动的具体因素。     

经济人假设与人的发展在经济学中的位置思考

经济人假设是经济学形成时最好的前提假设。以经济人假设为基础的经济分析视角在不断变化,由此推动了经济学理论不断发展。人的发展经济学研究人的发展问题,与经济学分析离不开人的要求相一致。处于经济社会转型的当今中国,对人的发展问题的研究应该是中国经济学研究的重要任务之一。文章认为,如同传统经济学把经济人作为一种分析方法一样,人的发展经济学应在正确理解人与经济学关系的基础上,找准对人的发展分析的视角。