Limits to the economy of knowledge and knowledge of the economy

In this essay, we explore the view that the growth of knowledge is a complex evolutionary process. We pay particular attention to the division of knowing in a knowledge economy, to the restless nature of knowledge and to the principle of variation and selection that makes the growth of knowledge an evolutionary phenomenon. The foundations for this discussion are located in Adam Smith's suggestion that the most fundamental aspect of the division of labour is the division of knowledge, and the consequential existence of roundabout and combinatorial ways of producing knowledge. This notion of roundaboutness also connects our discussion with the writings of the Austrian school of economists. It is this school of thought that has come closest to understanding the open-ended and evolutionary nature of knowledge based economic activity. The theory of complex adaptive systems, when applied to the economic and social domain, has enabled us to confront the distinction between knowledge and the institution of social understanding. We map the difference between knowledge, which is private, and understanding, which is social. If knowledge is a characteristic of individuals, understanding then becomes an emergent phenomenon arising from the interaction between individuals in specific contexts. Understanding has boundaries it has components that possess great heterogeneity and is sustained by the connections of information flow. It is a socially distributed process whose growth is dependent on a systemic context, on the way a given set of individuals interact to share information and thus to further develop their idiosyncratic knowledge. Recognising that understanding is necessarily distributed leads to the insight that economic activity, which is necessarily social, depends on shared understandings, that is to say, correlated knowledge. This provides a clue as to the unpredictability and unevenness of knowledge accumulation, and of course the unpredictability of capitalism as a knowledge driven system.     

Post-Industrial Society: The myth of the service economy

There is a popular view of the current pattern of change in developed societies, a view typified by Daniel Bell's The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, that recent economic growth has been increasingly concentrated in the collective provision of services rather than in individual consumption of material goods, and that this change of economic focus from goods to services is a trend which will continue into the future. The author argues, using UK data, that the trend is in fact away from the expenditure on services and towards expenditure on goods. The growing employment in the tertiary sector, previously used as an indicator of the growth of the service economy, emerges here as a manifestation of the division of labour—a process which increases the efficiency of production of material goods—while the final production of services, using automatic machinery and “direct labour”, will increasingly take place in the home.     

Unit labour costs still higher in east than in west Germany

Conclusion The rapid wage growth in east Germany during the early years of German unification are a millstone around the neck of medium-term economic development in the new federal states. Because labour costs have raced ahead of productivity, unit labour costs have risen to a level substantially higher than that prevailing in the old federal states: there has been no improvement in the relationship between east and west German unit labour costs in recent years. Comparatively high wages at low productivity have led to an unfavourable profitability situation for many east German firms, which, in turn, has reduced investmen and slowed productivity growth. If firms in the new federal states are to break out of this vicious circle “it is essential that the level of collectively agreed wages does not rise for a number of years. Productivity growth would then create the scope for an improvement in profitability, which, in turn, is a necessary precondition for investment and the creation of competitive jobs… Only if a fundamental correction towards a relation (between labour costs and productivity) corresponding to that in west Germany is realised in east Germany can a self-sustained growth process be expected.”⁷ Yet in 1997 there is again no chance of a change of course of this nature.     

The genesis of professional organisation in English accountancy

The organisation of accountants in Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield during the 1870s has not been subject to exhaustive historical investigation. This paper analyses the first organisations of accountants in England in the context of theories of jurisdictional boundaries, occupational conflict, the creation of labour market shelters and social closure. It is shown that the Bankruptcy Act, 1869 disturbed the division of labour between accountants and lawyers and threatened the status of established accountants by encouraging competition from lesser practitioners. The study illustrates that the organisation of accountants in Liverpool was instigated by lawyers anxious to establish a medium for negotiating the boundaries of bankruptcy work with local accountants. In London, Manchester and Sheffield (and partly in Liverpool) organisation concerned the protection of established accountants from interlopers and was actualised by erecting market shelters and the imposition of exclusionary closure. Organisation was a device for the institutionalisation of occupational difference and protecting market advantage. During the 1870s the occupation of accountant was bifurcated into professional practitioners, marked by the badge of organisational membership, and less reputable individuals who were denied it. It is also contended that inter and intra professional conflict are pervasive themes in professional organisation and that individual actors were significant to engineering formation processes.     

A colonial “social experiment”: Accounting and a communal system in British-ruled Fiji

There is now an emerging literature that focuses on accounting practices in colonial processes of imperialism. This historical study theorises accounting's involvement in collectivistic social arrangements within a colonial regime. It analyses the colonial functions of accounting in British-ruled Fiji. We define colonialism by an official emphasis on the customary in 19th century utopian community-type ideas. The paper focuses on the moments and processes including that of accounting that produced such an expression of cultural difference. Rather than taking the communal division as given, this paper analyses the construction of such an identity and the role played by accounting from a political economy perspective. It examines the complex negotiations that sought to define a utopian communal arrangement that exploited, inter alia, the generation of much needed revenue for the state coffers.Archival documents highlight the emphasis on revenue that led to exploitative colonial labour policy for indigenous taxation and its attendant requirement for exacting unremunerated labour from the indigenous population. The paper also shows how accounting calculations were indiscernible from exploitative and oppressive acts of organising indigenous labour for colonial taxes as well as for the collaborating Chiefs’ personal services.     

Companies’ Access to Finance,Co-operative Industrial Relations,and Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis of the States of South Eastern Europe

This paper examines the links between corporate funding, co-operative industrial relations, and wage flexibility, on the one hand, and economic growth, on the other, in 11 countries in South Eastern Europe. These links have been downplayed in previous research. The paper draws on the most comprehensive and extensive dataset on these issues for the whole of the region. Previous research has focused on a selection of these countries. The paper uses a novel analytical technique, fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, to examine these possible associations. It finds that wage flexibility and co-operative labour relations can promote growth; the availability of different forms of domestic funding for firms does not. The findings indicate that policy makers may focus their efforts on promoting wage flexibility within a consensual industrial labour system if they wish to foster economic growth.     

Has Devolution Increased Democratic Accountability?

This article examines the impact of devolution, the New Public Management and public management culture on accounting for democratic accountability in the first term of the devolved national assemblies and parliament in the UK. Although there is more openness, transparency, consultation and scrutiny with regard to budgets, accounts and performance as a result of devolution, there is extensive information overload. Thus, many politicians are highly dependent on the parliamentary division of labour and are reliant on experts and advisors functioning as buffers and filters of accounting information.     

保险监管的基础理论脉络及其启示

无论是保险脆弱说、公共利益论,还是监管失灵论或监管成本论,综合起来都说明了一个观点,即认为政府能完全有效地弥补和矫正所有的市场缺陷或功能失灵是不切实际的。由此带给我们一些启示:如注重保险行业的安全、转变保险监管的方式、重视保险监管职能的分工、监管者的再监管及监管中的信息问题。     

Dynamic fiscal policies and unemployment in a simple endogenous growth model

This paper analyzes the growth and employment effects of dynamic fiscal policies in an overlapping generations model with endogenous growth and imperfect labour markets. With balanced-budget policies, the modelled closed economy grows at a constant rate which is higher, the lower are the labour tax rate and the unemployment rate. Constant-flow budget policies are not feasible, while government Ponzi games are feasible only if economic agents have implausibly high savings rates. Furthermore, while constant-stock fiscal policies are sustainable, an increase in the debt-to-capital ratio is accompanied by higher taxes, a rise in unemployment and lower economic growth. JEL Classification E24 · J51 · H63 · O41     

High-quality regulation: its popularity,its tools and its future

This article examines the impact of devolution, the New Public Management and public management culture on accounting for democratic accountability in the first term of the devolved national assemblies and parliament in the UK. Although there is more openness, transparency, consultation and scrutiny with regard to budgets, accounts and performance as a result of devolution, there is extensive information overload. Thus, many politicians are highly dependent on the parliamentary division of labour and are reliant on experts and advisors functioning as buffers and filters of accounting information.