The Democratic Efficiency Debate and Definitions of Political Equilibrium

An ongoing debate has been occurring within public choice for over a decade concerning the efficiency of democracy. Virginia Political Economy holds that political markets perform very differently from traditional markets. Chicago Political Economy, exemplified by the work of Becker and Wittman, maintains that political equilibrium, properly defined, is relatively efficient. I argue that the debate can be understood at least partially in methodological terms: Chicago views politics exclusively within the equilibrium framework of traditional economics, while Virginia draws at least implicitly on Austrian economics' view of the economy as a disequilibrium process. I contend that the factors which public choice scholarship has identified as distinguishing politics from markets—rational ignorance, majority rule, collective outcomes—affect the performance of politics as a process even if political equilibrium is relatively efficient.     

The Legislator as Political Entrepreneur: Investment in Political Capital

This paper applies the standard Austrian theory of capital investment to the standard interest group model of legislator behavior. Distinguishing between reputational capital and representative capital as interdependent forms of political capital, I argue that legislator behavior (specifically roll call voting) can be explained as entrepreneurial investment in political capital under uncertainty. I discuss several examples in which this approach can potentially add predictive power regarding legislative voting.     

Political Entrepreneurs and the Transfer Demanding Process: Homesteading the Unassigned District

This paper introduces the transfer-demanding entrepreneur to help bridge the gap between static equilibria in an interest group theory of government and process theories. The transfer demanding entrepreneur acts in a creative, discontinuous fashion to organize latent demand for a particular transfer into an effective interest group. The disequilibrating, re-equilibrating transfer demanding entrepreneur provides a theoretical framework for understanding the movement between static political equilibria. This paper considers the transfer demanding entrepreneurship necessary to bring together the western railroads, organized labor, and potential Oklahoma colonists in the passage of white settlement and coal-lease ratification legislation in the Indian Territory.     

市场非均衡、知识与企业家过程

熊彼特和柯兹纳对企业家作用的不同看法直接导致了他们对企业家过程的不同理解。实际上他们所描绘的是两种不同类型的企业家,即创新型企业家和套利型企业家,这两种不同类型的企业家分别承担了创造性破坏和恢复均衡的职责。这两种企业家在经济增长中的作用是互相补充、互相依存的,两者共同构成了一个完整的、动态的企业家过程。在这个动态循环体系中,企业家知识是环流的介质。它的实质是企业家知识在市场中被创造、扩散、发现和吸收利用的过程。     

企业家人才市场建设势在必行

在21世纪,我们面对的是更加复杂而竞争激烈的生存环境。企业的发展更加需要善经营懂管理的企业家。企业家队伍的成长既需要教育、培养和在经营管理的实践中造就,也需要有企业家市场,企业家市场的建设,可以促使企业家的竞争、流动和素质的提高。而企业家人才市场的建设是一项涉及到多方面问题的复杂工作,只有进行相应的配套改革,才能保证这项工作的顺利进行。     

政治资源、独立审计需求与市场评价——来自中国民营上市公司的经验证据

文章从民营企业家政治资源的专用性角度出发,探究了民营企业对高质量审计需求的形成动因,以及可能需要的条件。实证结果发现,民营企业家具有政治资源的公司更倾向于聘请大型事务所进行审计,这种动机在市场化进程较快、法治水平较高的地区更为显著。进一步,在控制自选择的内生性问题后,大型事务所对此类公司出具了更清洁的审计意见,也抑制了其财务报告的盈余管理程度,提升了外部投资者对此类公司的正面评价,在法治水平较高的地区,这种正面评价越显著。     

从政治发展到政治转型——当代民主化进程研究的范式转移

在当代民主化进程研究中,从政治发展到政治转型的范式转移趋势日益明显。由于政治发展范式在基本假设上存在先天性缺陷,对现实的解释能力与对未来的预测能力逐渐枯竭,导致了这一范式的衰落。政治转型理论因其在研究主题、理论假设、理论期待、理论资源、研究方法等方面比政治发展范式更具优势,逐步成为新主流范式。中国政治学在当代民主化进程的研究中要想在理论上取得新突破,在实践上产生新影响,必须积极面对这场新的范式转移,借鉴和吸收政治转型理论范式,实现民主化进程研究分析框架、研究方法与研究策略的总体性转变。     

The Infusion of Relational Market Obligations into the Austrian Agenda—Some Lessons Learned from Economic Sociology

Given its dictum of market equilibrium, economics in general obviously does poorly in shouldering market dynamics. Pervading obligatory traits of the market (other than mere dyadic contracting) is yet another area where not much attention is devoted. Whereas the Austrian agenda fills the first of these voids in a most sophisticated manner, its current discourse appears as oblivious concerning the manner in which market exchange transforms into relational interconnected obligations. That is to say, exchange is hardly understood as an indispensable facet of durable market obligations such as relationships 'constituting the market', but exclusively as immediate entrepreneurial arbitrage. Apart from an outright peculiar failure to recognize some of its own roots in this regard this omission unnecessarily delimits the manner in which Austrians can proceed and deepen their market analysis. The principal idea of this paper is to scrutinize the manner in which relational market obligations can be introduced into Austrian reasoning by drawing on ideas from within economic sociology. Max Weber's dictum on market openness takes on a particular role in this regard. An adjacent contribution strived for is to let this scrutiny foreshadow the manner in which such a partial reconciliation of market ideas from within economic sociology and Austrian economics could proceed.     

Political connections and corporate performance: Evidence from Pakistan

This study seeks to understand how political connections affect firm performance. Using a hand‐collected dataset of Pakistani firms from 2008–2014, our firm fixed effects and Heckman two‐stage regression results show that connected firms outperform those without political ties. Moreover, we show channels through which political benefits are realized in terms of greater access to debt, lower financing costs and lower tax rates. These benefits are found to be particularly large when firms are connected to politicians who held political positions most recently and firms connected through their owners. Finally, we do not find evidence for differences in political favours across regulated and unregulated industries.     

The Dynamics of the Institutional Change and the Market Economy: Understanding Contemporaneous Market Development Processes

The Austrian theory of institutions shows the particularity of being tied into a market process analysis. If such a specificity gave rise to a great number of analytical as well as methodological or epistemological contributions, its empirical dimension has been neglected to the benefit of the so-called Institutional works. The aim of my contribution is to come back to this untapped potential in order to exhibit the operational nature of Austrian analyses of institutions, particularly those of Lachmann. The objective here is to establish, through an appropriate temporal articulation of different institutions, the conditions for a harmonious development of market processes. I particularly show the great benefit of such a framework in order to, on one side, offer some explanations of the recent financial crisis faced by the emerging economies, and on the other side, to understand the specificity as well as the coherence of the Chinese economic transition.     

政治关系“力量”与民营企业价值研究:腐败的调节效应

从社会网络理论的强弱关系视角对2012-2014年福布斯中国富豪榜的企业家及其企业进行了政治关系的度量,检验了腐败是否会调节政治关系"力量"对企业价值的影响。研究发现,企业家本身所具有的政治关系对企业价值具有明显的正向影响作用,关系的"力量"越强,对企业价值的正向影响就越大;与此同时,腐败的出现会强化政治关系"力量"对民营企业价值的影响。通过分组验证发现,这种"力量"在腐败程度较高环境下更易对企业价值产生正向影响,但在腐败程度较低的环境中,政治关系对民营企业价值的影响很多时候并不显著。     

文化视野下中国传媒的对外政治传播

大众传媒是对外政治传播的重要载体,大众传媒的实力决定着一国对外政治传播的影响力。文化视野下的中国传媒对外政治传播重视对外政治信息传播中文化因素的运用及与对外文化传播的配合推进以达致理想的影响力。在追求政治传播影响力的过程中,传媒如何在尊重传统文化和呈现现代中国当中寻求到平衡的支点,是后续研究应该关注的问题。     

企业家核心能力拓展与市场势力构建——基于越商群体的实证研究

本文从技术、市场、社会三个维度建立了一个理论框架来分析企业家核心能力在市场势力构建中的作用和机理,并运用浙江省绍兴市的201份企业家调查问卷进行了实证研究。结果显示,企业家的技术获取能力、市场渠道控制能力和社会关系网络能力对于企业市场势力的构建有显著的正向影响;企业家核心能力的各个子能力与市场势力的各个子能力的关联强度和影响程度存在显著差异;将企业家的出身、年龄、学历、行业等作为控制变量引入模型后,一定程度上弱化了企业家的社会关系网络能力对于市场势力构建的影响程度和解释力。     

An Austrian business cycle parable: An educational note

This paper presents a short narrative example intended for use in teaching the Austrian Business Cycle Theory, meant to complement theoretical presentations by presenting an idealized account of an individual entrepreneur operating over time and responding to various possible evolutions of the interest rate. In particular, the similarity from the point of view of the entrepreneur between a reduction in the interest rate due to an increase in consumer saving and a similar reduction due to monetary policy is emphasized. Along with the narrative itself, we discuss the motivating version of the Austrian Business Cycle behind the narrative, as well as offer commentary as explanation for the particular choices made in its construction.     

How Compatible are Public Choice and Austrian Political Economy?

The Review of Austrian Economics - Public Choice relies heavily on equilibrium analysis in its models of government failure. Austrians are suspicious of equilibrium analysis owing to its reliance...     

Beyond Equal Rights: Equality of Opportunity in Political Participation

While it is well documented that political participation is stratified by socioeconomic characteristics, it is an open question how this finding bears on the evaluation of the democratic process with respect to its fairness. In this paper, we draw on the analytical tools developed in the equality-of-opportunity literature to answer this question. We investigate to what extent differential political participation is determined by factors that lie beyond individual control (circumstances) rather than being the result of individual effort. Using rich panel data from the United States, we indeed find a lack of political opportunity for the types with the most disadvantaged circumstances. Opportunity shortages tend to complement each other across different forms of participation and persist over time. Family characteristics and psychological conditions during childhood emanate as the strongest determinants of political opportunities.     

市场过程内生的垄断:市场权势和自然垄断

作为内生的垄断现象,市场权势实际上是争胜竞争过程的结果,并非垄断的市场结构所决定。如果将竞争理解为一个动态过程,市场权势具有竞争性和暂时性。自然垄断现象也是市场过程演化过程中的自然现象,无论源于规模经济还是范围经济,都表明自然垄断具有动态效率特征。除非政府人为阻碍争胜竞争过程的展开,通常市场过程内生力量能够有效制约非政府垄断现象。     

市场环境变迁和政府政策冲击对民营企业创新绩效的影响——考虑企业竞争战略和政治关联的调节作用

在文献梳理和理论分析的基础上,以中国制造业的655家民营企业为研究样本,构建回归模型,对市场环境变迁和政府政策冲击对企业创新绩效的影响进行实证分析,并进一步检验了企业竞争战略和政治关联在其中的调节作用。结果显示:市场竞争程度对民营企业的创新行为不具有显著影响;政府制定的创新激励政策会显著影响企业的创新绩效,而税收等行业政策及创新抑制政策对民营企业的创新绩效没有显著影响;在当前中国经济进入软着陆时期,自主创新战略比成本领先战略更适合于中国民营企业;与政府保持良好关系有助于民营企业降低市场竞争压力、获取额外资源,从而提升创新绩效。     

Social Justice in Comparative Political Economy: Lessons from Habermas and the Contemporary German Case

This article critiques recent operationalisations of social justice theories in empirical research in comparative political economy from an epistemological entry point. It offers an alternative epistemic framework based on Habermas’s system and lifeworld distinction to reconcile normative theory with empirical research before developing a critical theory of social justice based on two principles: Nancy Fraser’s parity of participation and Hauke Brunkhorst’s notion that functional differentiation in systems cannot generate asymmetric moral standards. These principles are then operationalised for regimes of welfare capitalism before exploring the contemporary German labour market in these terms, drawing on original qualitative research. It demonstrates that parity of participation cannot be achieved when the moral duty to participate is asymmetrically applied. It concludes capitalism is inherently unjust in any variety due to the inequality of wealth and free movement of capital reinforcing the inequality of moral expectations characterising the lived experience of welfare-mediated labour markets. Therefore, accepting this inherent injustice and whether institutions of the welfare state exacerbate or mitigate it should be the central focus of future research on social justice in comparative political economy.     

创新发展中国特色社会主义政治经济学需处理好十个方面的关系

中国特色社会主义政治经济学是当代中国经济学的理论基础,是理论经济学与应用经济学相关学科的"硬核"部分。创新发展中国特色社会主义政治经济学需要处理好若干重要的关系,例如价值理性与工具理性的关系、马克思主义政治经济学原理与中国特色社会主义实践的关系、马克思主义政治经济学原理与中国特色社会主义政治经济学的关系、文本研究与实证分析的关系、问题导向与理论抽象的关系、政治经济学与西方经济学的关系、政治经济学与经济史学的关系、政治经济学与经济思想史的关系、政治经济学与应用经济学的关系、政治经济学研究与政治经济学叙事的关系,等等。