The contribution of agricultural economics to development

Agricultural economics is an applied discipline with a broadly based application to development theory. The importance of agriculture in economic development has led to pressing demands on the role which agricultural economists are required to play. At all stages, a major part of the planning and implementation input is contributed by agricultural economists. The development of agricultural economics was therefore dynamic as well as problem related. Within the Southern African development context, the agricultural economist has had a long standing involvement. For example, Professor F R Tomlinson chaired the important Tomlinson Commission in the 1950s, while Dr Simon Brand is the Chief Executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Both are agricultural economists. In general, agricultural economics has contributed to the fields of research and training, smallholder and rural development, project planning and management, and the formulation, planning and analysis of macro‐policy.     

演化发展经济学与新结构经济学——哪一种产业政策的理论范式更适合中国国情

国际学术界有关产业政策的研究存在着两种不同的理论范式：演化经济学和后新古典经济学,这两种不同的理论范式在发展经济学领域中表现为演化发展经济学和新结构经济学的不同。两者的产业政策基于完全不同的理论基础：技术赶超或比较优势;新结构经济学有关政府作用的理论仍是以新古典经济学的市场失败理论为基础的,而演化发展经济学则在批判市场失败理论的基础上提出了一系列的新理论。在演化发展经济学家看来,新结构经济学不适合于中等收入国家,特别是在运用于作为超大型发展中国家的中国国情时存在着严重的缺陷;即使是运用于低收入国家,也是有局限性的。事实证明,技术赶超而非比较优势战略更适合中国国情;以自主创新为核心的基础全面的价值链升级正是我国所有地方政府都面临的共同挑战,而《吉林报告》则忽视了这一关键问题。《吉林报告》的缺陷说明,聚焦于传统意义上产业部门之间区别的新结构经济学已不适应新国际分工对产业政策提出的新要求,演化发展经济学所关注的价值链特定环节、核心技术和组织能力已经成为产业政策的核心问题。因此,一个重要的问题就摆在了中国经济学界的面前：是通过新结构经济学研究中国经济发展问题,还是在演化发展经济学基础之上,针对中国作为超大型发展中国家的国情,发展一种历史和国情特定的中国经济发展理论?     

中国经济学教育面向新世纪的思考

回顾建国以来我国现代经济学教育走过的道路,要对新世纪中国经济学的教育进行展望,中国经济学教育界有一个基本的问题需要澄清,这就是什么是“经济学”。作者从经济学发展的历史轨迹中去寻找答案,认为所谓的“经济学”实际上是一个由问题、工具、理论等三个不同阶段构成的生动的“过程”。借助这个“过程论”,作者分析了中国经济学界的一些问题,并据此对新世纪中国经济学的教育进行了展望。     

作为异质性偏好的禀赋效应：来自神经经济学的证据

禀赋效应是主流经济学难以回避的"异象"（Anomalies）,对主流经济学一系列重要的理论假设构成了严峻挑战。过去半个世纪以来,对于禀赋效应是否真实、有效和稳健的存在,在主流经济学家与行为经济学家和实验经济学家之间一直存在着严重的分歧与争论。近10年来,伴随着科学技术的进步以及脑科学、认知神经科学、尤其是神经经济学的发展,研究者们在行为实验的基础上,使用脑成像和脑刺激等先进技术,揭示了禀赋效应与人类大脑神经活动之间的相关关系和因果关系,在神经科学的层面上证实了禀赋效应存在的微观基础。文章将对这些研究成果进行较为全面的回顾与评述,从而为禀赋效应的存在性提供新的科学证据。     

Of Positivism and the History of Economic Thought

The rhetoric of positivism had a profound effect on the worldview and practice of economists in the middle of the last century. Though this influence has greatly diminished, it still may be found in the attitude of many economists toward the history of their discipline. This article traces the effects of positivism in economics and then argues that the history of economics is a critical component of both the undergraduate teaching and the graduate training of economists, and that as such, it should be reintroduced into the economics curriculum. It concludes by documenting some recent hopeful signs of change.     

A paradigmatic change is needed for understanding the real market

Economics in China has been neoclassicalized in the past few decades. In this article, I argue that neoclassical economics is not a good theory of the market. It misleads both economists and government in understanding the economic issues. China is particularly vulnerable to its defects. In contrast, the Austrian School of economics is a better theory of the market since it studies the real market, not an imaginary market. The most important difference between the two economics paradigms is their understandings of the entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is missed in neoclassical economics. In the Austrian School economics and Schumpeterian economics, entrepreneurship is the soul of the market. The paradigm shift of economics is urgently needed but it will be a slow process. Chinese economists should play a role in this transformation.     

The fallacy of Washington consensus and the role of the Government: interpreting some Chinese contributions to development policy from aspects of Chang’e 4

Students of economics may have heard of that economics, especially the kind of mainstream neoclassical economics taught in most universities on earth today, is an imitation of physical science in some fundamental fashion. However, few economists would imagine that economics can be as effective as physical science, not even in the remote future. China’s Chang’e 4 mission to the far side of the Moon provides a golden opportunity for economists to explore this fascinating possibility from the aspect of astrodynamics.

This article, inspired by thoughts of Justin Yifu Lin and Angang Hu among others regarding China’s economic reform, demonstrates that physics explaining the Three-Body Problem of classical mechanics may as well be understood as guiding principles when dealing with issues in development economics. Several aspects of ‘Washington consensus’ are examined in relation to the concerns raised by Chinese scholars. The study concludes that neoliberal interpretations of modern economics are basically inconsistent with the neoclassical framework outlined in standard economics textbooks.     

The Scholarly Status of Blacks in the Economics Profession: Have the National Economic Association and the Review of Black Political Economy Mattered?

This paper considers whether the National Economic Association and its journal the Review of Black Political Economy have enhanced the scholarly status of black economists. A bibliometric analysis reveals that while the typical black economist has never published in the Review of Black Political Economy, the share of black economists publishing in the Review of Black Economy approximates the share of all articles published on the economic and political economy of race by black economists, and the share of articles published in the Review of Black Political Economy by black economists appears higher than typical journals in economics—particularly for black economists employed at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We also find that similar to other economics journals non-black economists dominate the share of published articles, and publications in the Review of Black Political Economy appear to be consistent with Lotka’s Law of scientific productivity suggesting that the journal is a standard outlet for research no different from any other science journal. Our results imply a plausible counterfactual that if the National Economic Association and Review of Black Political Economy did not exist, the scholarly status of blacks in the economics profession would have been lower than currently observed.     

Transportation Regulation and Deregulation： A Literature Review

Regulation became one of the most important features of transportation sector. The development of transportation regulation arose the study interest of many economists, and transportation industry has become a hot area of industrial organization and regulation economics. This paper introduced and reviewed the relevant studies on the transportation regulation and deregulation.     

超越新古典——新兴经济学理论创新概述

最近10多年来，随着一些非主流新兴经济学科的不断发展与成熟，一个新的、超越新古典传统的经济学理论体系正在逐步形成。本文对新兴经济学在研究方法和基本假设方面的创新进行了阐释，这种阐释有助于我们前瞻性地把握经济学未来的发展方向和趋势，有助于中国经济学家尽快融入这场正在不断向纵深发展的理论创新思潮，从而缩短中国经济学研究与国际学术前沿的差距。     

Academic Anti-Semitism and the Austrian School: Vienna, 1918–1945

The theme of academic anti-Semitism has been widely discussed recently in histories of the interwar period of the University of Vienna, in particular its Faculty of Law and Policy Sciences. This paper complements these studies by focusing on the economics chairs of this faculty and, more generally, on the fate of the younger generation of the Austrian School of Economics. After some introductory remarks the paper concentrates on three case studies: the neglect of Mises in all three appointments of economics chairs in the 1920s; the anti-Semitic overtones in the conflict between Hans Mayer and Othmar Spann, both professors of economics in the faculty; and on anti-Semitism as a determinant of success or failure in academia, and consequently of the emigration of Austrian economists. Finally, we have a short look at the development of economics at the University of Vienna during and after the Nazi regime.     

The role of home economics in agricultural extension

Home economics could play a vital, supportive and complementary role in agricultural extension. Home economics training is, however, in much need of reorientation if the profession is to play this much‐needed role. A comparison of the mission statements, foci and roles of these disciplines illustrates the value of including home economists in agricultural extension teams. The two professions have areas of similarity, but each also has specialist expertise vital to agricultural development. As a multidisciplinary, female‐dominated profession, home economics is able to assist agricultural extension officers in designing extension programmes which suit the needs of women farmers. The article outlines the areas of collaboration, specialist expertise and cooperation between the two professions while questioning the focus of traditional home economics training.     

群体选择与个体主义方法论

群体选择在经济学中运用的合法性长期受到质疑,许多学者认为它与个体主义方法是冲突的。通过研究群体选择理论的传统不足与现代发展,深入辨析个体主义方法论的实质内涵和拓展,本文尝试论证两者的可兼容性,从而理清群体选择在经济学运用中的方法论障碍。本文指出,群体选择的方法论与个体主义方法论是兼容的,它不仅能够解释利他个体的演化,也能够从新的视角解释社会制度的演化,进而还能够为个体与制度的共同演化提供解释框架。     

Have you gotten to know the Index to International Statistics (IIS)?

The Index to International Statistics (IIS) is a new reference sourcebook that should become standard equipment in the tool kit for all development economists and students of development economics. The IIS provides for the first time a comprehensive and up-to-date index of statistical information published by major intergovernmental organizations, along with microfiche access to source documents. The purpose of this article is to explain the features of the IIS and to discuss its position in the panoply of statistical reference materials concerning data on developing countries.     

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.     

Ranking Economics Journals,Economics Departments,and Economists Using Teaching-Focused Research Productivity

This paper constructs new rankings of economics journals, economics departments, and economists that employ a measure of teaching-focused research productivity, an area of growing importance in recent years. The ranking methodologies presented here use information from articles that were published from 1991 through the early part of 2005 within the Journal of Economic Literature's “economic education” classifications (A200-A290). The Journal of Economic Literature tops the list of journals, followed by the Review of Economics and Statistics and the American Economic Review. Among the top institutions are Vanderbilt University, Indiana University, and the University of Wisconsin. Others that rank high here, such as Oberlin College and Denison University, do not often fare as well using methodologies that evaluate more traditional types of economics research. Finally, among the economists we find that John Siegfried, William Becker, and Michael Watts are ranked above other economists.     

Conservation laws in economics

Examples are given, in economics and physics, to suggest that economists gain a bit more from Maximization principles than from Conservation principles.     

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.     

Nea presidential address, 1993: Why black economists?

This article looks, with humor, at the role of black economists in academia and in the economics profession.     

Crime and Race: A Plea for New Ideas

A review of the economics of crime literature provides an unsatisfactory explanation of the higher crime rates among African Americans compared to crime rates for whites in the US. This address challenges economists, particularly African American economists, to come up with new and credible ideas to explain the observed crime differential that could influence policies to decrease crime in the African American community.