Balancing corporate culture: Grid-group and Austrian economics

The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly to discuss the foundations of Grid-Group “Cultural Theory” and highlight the compatibility with Austrian economics, and secondly to apply this framework to the context of organisational culture. My claim is that “Corporate Cultural Theory” provides a rigorous and grounded social anthropological framework to take Austrian economics beyond its traditional uses and improve upon competing explanations of corporate culture.     

构建可持续消费政策框架研究

根据可持续消费政策对改变消费行为或引发消费行为改变所做的贡献为衡量标准,提出构建可持续消费政策框架的三个核心要素和四个新要素。并在此基础上,从政策基础、政策方法、政策工具和政策评估四个方面给予政策制定者提供建议。     

The Phillips Curve and Optimal Policy in a Structural Signal Extraction Model

We study a monetary economy subject to “signal extraction” problems, and investigate within that framework the positive and normative aspects of monetary policy. As in Lucas (1972, Journal of Economic Theory,4, 103–124; 1973, American Economic Review, 63, 326–334), imperfect signal perception generates macroeconomic correlations similar to those found in the “Phillips curve” literature. Moving to normative aspects, we find that, when aggregate shocks are present, traditional nonactivist policies do not permit reaching the first best, and that an intelligent activist policy always leads to better outcomes. The specific characteristics and effectiveness of this optimal policy also depend crucially on the problem of signal extraction. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: E5.     

Environmental–Economic Accounting: Progress and Digression in the SEEA Revisions

The 1992 Earth Summit and its message of sustainable development drove the launching of a System for integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting, the SEEA. Since then, sustainable development and the SEEA have given way to green growth and green economy indicators in the latest 2012 Summit. A lengthy revision process has now produced a curtailed “SEEA central framework.” The new framework focuses on expenditures for environmental protection and resource management, and stocks and flows of “economic” resources; both are covered by the conventional national accounts. Environmental degradation, notably from pollution, is left to “experimental” ecosystem accounts. Further revision of the SEEA should reverse this retrenchment from integrative environmental–economic accounting. A comprehensive satellite system, rather than a limited statistical standard, might put the SEEA back on the policy agenda.     

Le Pont de Londres: Interactions between monetary and prudential policies in cross‐border lending

Using two unique confidential datasets summarizing the cross‐border lending of banks in France and the UK, we examine whether recipient‐country prudential policies can help to reduce the spillover effects of euro‐area (EA) monetary policy. We address this question from a novel angle, focused on the role of international financial centres, by considering differences in bank size and location (lending from French headquarters vs. from French affiliates located in the UK). For small French banks that lack a presence in international financial centres, the response of direct cross‐border lending from France to EA monetary policy is partially offset by recipient‐country prudential policy. For larger banks, however, the offsetting effect applies only to lending that passes through foreign affiliates located in London. This suggests the existence of a “London Bridge”: banks adapt their flows to the UK conditional on EA monetary policy and global prudential policies; and from their UK affiliates to third‐party countries in a manner that depends on local prudential settings.     

THE PARTISAN MODEL OF MACROECONOMIC CYCLES: MORE THEORY AND EVIDENCE FOR THE UNITED STATES*

The “Partisan Theory” of macroeconomic policy is based on the idea that political parties typically weight nominal and real economic performance differently, with left-party governments being more inclined than right-party ones to pursue expansive policies designed to yield lower unemployment and higher growth, but running the risk of extra inflation. Given suitable assumptions about the structure of the macroeconomy, partisan models imply a political signal in demand management, output and inflation movements originating with shifts in party control of the government. In this paper I develop and test with postwar US data a revised Partisan model that allows for (i) uncertainty among policy authorities about the sustainable output growth rate and therefore about how aggregate demand expansions will be partitioned between extra output and extra inflation, and (ii) ex-post and projective learning and preference adjustment under such uncertainty. Dynamic numerical analysis of a small, stylized political-economic model based on these extensions of Partisan Theory generates within-sample forecasts that correspond remarkably well to the observed pattern of price, output and nominal spending fluctuations under the parties.     

Race,competition, and institutional change in J.R. Commons

This article examines the contribution of J.R. Commons to race relations, competition, and institutional change. One result of our study is that, in his analysis of institutional dynamics in the United States, Commons’ rejection of laissez-faire is derived from a racist analytical framework: the “superior races” should be protected from the “inferior races”. Another result is that Commons adopts a neo-Lamarckian framework which takes education as the basis for the assimilation of “inferior races”. This article then shows that policies often defended as progressives, as education policies, may be derived from racist foundations. The final remarks single out the ambiguous connection between race and culture revealed by Commons’ approach.     

Re-framing the urban blight problem with trans-disciplinary insights from ecological economics

Similar to circumstances in the field of economics, market fundamentalism dominates urban blight policy spaces in the U.S. despite criticisms of the paradigm. Unlike the unified alternative that ecological economics (EE) provides to conventional economic theory, however, disagreement over the meaning of “blight” has prevented a commonly held pre-analytic vision and policy agenda from forming in critical blight scholarship. This paper asserts that “applied EE” offers a framework in which to develop such a vision, and to strengthen the inchoate critical blight policy stream. We draw on the EE theory and concepts to argue that blight can be understood as a stock that accumulates in an urban system as a result of underinvestment into real property. Our conceptualization of the problem has several important implications for public policy. A brief illustration compares the relative efficacy of one city's characteristically neoliberal blight policies with more “EE-consistent” policies in a second city to show that the latter might in fact outperform the former.     

经纬度延伸:发展劳动价值论

依据卫兴华教授的《劳动价值论需要创新与发展》一文的结构框架,提出用“经纬度延伸”这一核心思路来解决劳动价值论的矛盾问题。本文认为,传统的关于“商品生产”的劳动价值论是狭隘的,应该经度由生产延伸到流通,纬度由商品延伸到服务,从而形成完整意义上的劳动价值论。在构建了新框架体系基础上,还探讨了其它相关问题,证明根据“经纬度延伸”这一思路能够对劳动价值论中现有的矛盾进行合理的解释。     

Policy Design and Rent Seeking: Targeted versus Broad Based Intervention

The present paper analyzes how policy intervention should be designed so as to create industrialization. We focus on whether intervention should be targeted, promoting investment in specific firms or industries, or broad based, increasing the profitability of investment in general. Our main argument is that in areas with weak institutions, broad based policies should be chosen, while in areas with strong institutions, targeted policies may be less costly in moving the economy out of a poverty trap. The targeted policy is attractive because it internalized a demand externality, but is also more exposed to rent seeking, since “picking a winner” involves a greater measure of discretion in policy formulation and implementation. The broad based policy does not discriminate between industries and is, hence, less likely to be captured by rent seekers, but also does not take advantage of the demand externality.     

Monetary policy and macroprudential policy: Different and separate?

The paper discusses how monetary and macroprudential policies can be distinguished, how appropriate goals for the two policies can be determined, whether the policies are best conducted separately or coordinately and by the same or different authorities and how they can be coordinated when desired. The institutional frameworks in Canada, Sweden and the UK are briefly compared. The Swedish example of monetary policy strongly “leaning against the wind” and the subsequent policy turnaround is summarized, as well as what estimates have been found of the costs and benefits of leaning against the wind.     

Paternalistic Capitalism

Brazil’s political-economic structure has rapidly evolved over the past decade, shedding its shallow policy alignment with neoliberalism of the 1990s. Brazil’s large, diversified industrial base was painfully constructed over the course of the twentieth century. A major and sustained political realignment, which began in 2003, has resulted in two essential thrusts in development policy: (i) a “growth with equity” strategy that has dramatically reduced poverty and inequality; and (ii) a state-led “industrial policy” designed to upgrade manufacturing and direct the accumulation process toward specific sectors, highlighting and consolidating the National Innovation System (NIS). Nonetheless, as a result of the commodity boom that swept through Latin America, Brazil’s natural resource sector achieved outsized growth from 2002 to 2012. One result has been a shift toward resource intensive activities and a broad opening to low-cost Chinese manufactures. Utilizing an institutionalist framework and method, this article analyzes the cohesion of the NIS and the emergence of the “deindustrialization” debate. Also, it assesses the instrumental nature of the “growth with equity” strategy. The article hypothesizes the viability of an endogenous “neo-developmentalist” strategy, while acknowledging the emergence of fundamental exogenous forces and structural ceremonial/institutional factors that have impeded the consolidation of a Brazilian social structure of accumulation.     

On Functionally Distributed Quotas

We consider “functionally distributed” quotas, where trade is restricted to a function of another economic activity, paying special attention to the ratio constraint and its relation to “proportionally distributed” quotas. We propose a simple principle defining the optimal policy under a functionally defined restriction, extend the analysis of ratio import/production constraints to general equilibrium, introduce export constraints, and constraints defined in proportion to factor use. We develop the general‐equilibrium geometry of functional trade constraints and the concomitant optimal policies, deriving a “quota locus” that depicts the consumption possibilities under various regimes.     

Creating Legitimacy,Reciprocity, and Transfer Programs

Sustainable development prospects are not substantially visible in the comparative analysis of models of capitalism. The concept of sustainable development does not appear in the initial theoretical framework of the “variety of capitalism” approach or in the “diversity of capitalism” approach. This article aims to contribute to current thinking about the interaction between the diversity of capitalism and sustainable development, based on the concepts of institutional complementarity and hierarchy, and to question the dynamics of various forms of capitalism in this perspective. The example of economic policies aimed at tackling global warming shows how each form of capitalism adopts measures that are compatible with its own unique configuration of complementary institutions, helping to make it “greener.” However, this trend fits into a dynamic of “limited sustainability” that does not challenge the finance-dominated institutional hierarchy or the current growth regime. The non-viability of our production/consumption model on a global scale calls for a more radical change in capitalism, combined with a shift in the institutional hierarchy.     

基于PSOI框架的我国企业研发国际化政策研究

当前，企业研发国际化已成为跨国公司竞相布局、落实“走出去”战略的重要抓手。从政策目标（P）、政策主体（S）、政策客体（O）、政策工具（I）4个维度构建适用于创新政策比较分析的PSOI框架模型，并据此对我国企业研发国际化政策进行比较研究，进一步从优化政府管理体制、加强需求侧政策工具应用、提高公共信息平台建设与运营服务水平等方面提出优化建议。     

企业集群可持续发展能力研究

企业集群是许多地区经济发展的主要模式,在地方公共政策制定中,企业集群战略发挥着越来越重要的作用.然而,并不是所有的企业集群都是持续有效的,由于种种原因一些企业集群面临破裂瓦解的困境.如何识别和培育集群竞争优势,保持可持续发展是一个亟待解决的问题,也是一个值得研究的课题.本文从宏观、中观和微观三个角度对企业集群可持续发展影响因素进行分析,建立了企业集群可持续发展能力评价模型,通过实证分析,指出影响企业集群可持续发展的关键因素为集群的吸引力、影响力、辐射力、整合力、开放度和创新力,并对各影响因素进行了定量分析和评价.     

派驻督察、绩效考核转变与高质量发展*——基于土地派驻督察的经验证据

本文将派驻督察政策与绩效考核指标转变纳入统一分析框架内,利用多任务委托代理模型分析了“质量”任务和“数量”任务冲突情形下的最优策略选择,并以国家土地督察为例,采用双重差分的方法进行实证检验。研究结果表明：派驻督察政策有助于推动高质量发展,但其实施要充分考虑任务的相对冲突性;在双代理人模式下,土地派驻督察政策能够显著发挥其监督激励的作用,可以通过影响地方政府来推动高质量发展;转变绩效考核指标这类引导型激励方式发挥的效果开始初步显现。机制检验表明,督察政策推动高质量发展是通过促进法制规范性、发展集约性、环境可持续性和民生共享性等方面实现的。     

Bad Apples: Political Paralysis and the Quality of Politicians

Why do elected officials often suffer from political paralysis and fail to implement the best policies available? This paper considers a new and intuitive explanation that focuses on the quality of the politicians competing for office. The key insight is that a “good” incumbent with preferences identical to those of a representative voter will want to keep rent‐seeking politicians out of office; he may do so by distorting his policy choices to signal his type and win reelection. The value of signaling and staying in office increases with the fraction of rent‐seeking types in the population of politicians. Electing good types may therefore not be enough to ensure that the best policies are implemented, especially when rent seeking is widespread. This provides a new explanation for why political failure is particularly severe in corrupt democracies.