经济人何以成为经济学之硬核：思想史的端倪

经济人之所以会成为现代主流经济学的硬核,从思想史的角度看,主要有两个重要的分水岭。一是,斯密关于“无形的手”之“预定协调”的观点赋予了自利行为的合理性,从而使得“自利”为后来的主流经济学家所片面强调,乃至赋予了个体行为以效用最大化这一偏至诉求。二是,边沁关于效用加总的功利主义原则赋予了个体效用的计量性,从而使得“效用”为后来主流经济学所普遍接受,乃至进一步发展了基于理性计算的数理模型化分析。显然,正是两者的结合,为经济人假设的出现及其在经济学中的支配地位奠定了思想史的基础。     

政府和市场关系两种模型的比较与思考

传统上认为,“掠夺之手”模型和“扶持之手”模型是两种完全不同的关于政府和市场关系的理论,前者以政府经济人假设为前提。后者则坚持政府是公共社会福利代表的假设。但两者都认为政府应该积极作为,这说明两者背后可能存在共同的逻辑。通过更为细致的比较,发现两种理论模型其实在进行前提假设时并不完全绝对,前者承认在特殊时刻,政府利益和社会公共利益会重合,后者则在承认政府存在腐败、效率低下等问题的前提下。试图通过政府治理解决这一问题。这提示我们,如果政府具有自利和利他的双重属性,则两种理论的冲突可以弥合。     

Second‐hand clothing consumption: a cross‐cultural comparison between American and Chinese young consumers

There has been an enormous increase in the economic power and global scope of the second‐hand clothing trade since the early 1990s. Young consumers are a major driver behind the growth of the second‐hand clothing industry in the US. While the stigma of buying second‐hand clothing is fading in the western countries, little is known about second‐hand clothing consumption in the Asian countries. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate young consumers' behaviours towards second‐hand clothing from a cross‐cultural perspective in the US and Chinese contexts. Results of this study indicated significant differences in young consumers' second‐hand clothing consumption behaviour between the two countries in the following aspects: past purchase experience, perceived values and concerns, perceived subjective norm and future purchase intention.     

The economics of the division of labour in early Chinese literature: With particular comparison to the ancient Greek thought

Like their Greek counterparts, a number of Chinese thinkers of the “Axial Period” wrote extensively on the division of labour. In particular, Kuan Chung, Hsün Tzu and Ssu-ma Ch’ien explicitly discussed economic issues related to the division of labour, contributing sophisticated analysis on the subject. In this article, we first examine Kuan Chung and his followers’ fairly interesting analysis of the economies of agglomeration of specialists, and Ssu-ma Ch’ien's deep insight into the Taoist invisible hand of the market in coordinating the division of labour. The common ground between them is a sound understanding of the role of market exchange in facilitating the social division of labour, but the latter goes much further in appreciation of the spontaneous market order. We then turn to Hsün Tzu's profound scholarship of specialised learning or doing and his Confucian theory of the origin of social division, highlighting, in particular, his Confucian notion of natural equality and utilitarian account of the formation of society. Similarity in profundity and influence notwithstanding, of greater interest, appears to be the remarkable differences between the Chinese scholars and the philosophers of classical Athens in respect of their study of the division of labour, and we therefore investigate how and why the Chinese treatment contrasts thus sharply with the Greek/Europeans.     

手工艺类非物质文化遗产发展的困境与思路——以苏绣为例

传统手工艺类非物质文化遗产是非物质文化遗产中的一种重要分类。以苏绣为例,在其保护、传承与发展过程中,存在着保护意识淡薄、法律法规不完善、保护人才缺乏、传承机制不健全、宣传力度不够和保护资金的来源不足等问题。对手工艺类非物质文化遗产保护,要构建一个完善的保护机制,建设一个展览馆,做好保护传承人工作,以实现可持续发展。同时,要将传统手工艺类非物质文化遗产与旅游业相结合,最终实现手工艺类非物质文化遗产的开发。     

基于VS2008的PDA水准手簿程序开发

在Visual C++9.0环境下,探讨了基于PDA的水准记录电子手簿嵌入式开发原理和方法,根据水准测量相关规范及技术标准,完成了基于PDA的水准记录电子手簿的程序设计,成功实现了水准记录手簿软、硬件的更新换代,极大的方便了外业记录工作,取得了良好的效果。     

LIBERTY BETWEEN THE LINES IN A STATIST AND MODERNIST AGE: UNFOLDING THE ADAM SMITH IN FRIEDRICH HAYEK

This article interprets F. A. Hayek as having been constrained by the statism and modernism of his times, and as writing in a way that obscured some of his central ideas. I suggest that between the lines we can see a focus on liberty understood hardily as others not messing with one's stuff– even though Hayek in The Constitution of Liberty defined liberty in ways that tended to obscure this hardy definition, and Hayek often used code words like ‘competition,’‘the market,’ and ‘spontaneous’ where ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’ would have been plainer, albeit more offensive to the culture. Seeing the hardy definition of liberty between the lines in Hayek enables us to see his focus on the liberty principle and his case for a presumption of liberty. Such a reading of Hayek, I suggest, is true to Adam Smith, who expounded a central message that by and large the liberty principle holds, and that it deserves the presumption in our culture and politics.     

Policies on smoking in the casino workplace and their impact on smoking behavior among employees: Case study of casino workers in Macao

Exposure to second hand smoke (SHS) is a major health concern. This study sought to examine the smoking behaviors of casino workers in Macao, and explore how workplace smoking policies might affect that behavior. A majority of casino workers who smoked believed that exposure to SHS at work makes it harder to quit smoking, while over a quarter minded people smoking near them at work because of that reason. Over half of the workers believed that they would try to quit smoking if no-one was allowed to smoke in their workplace. The findings demonstrate how smoke-free casinos could lead to a healthier workforce, not just due to reduced exposure to dangerous chemicals in SHS, but also from the potential reduction in smoking among workers. The hospitality industry, and policy makers in government, should ensure that casinos, and their workforce, are not excluded from smoke-free legislation.     

IN A WORD OR TWO,PLACED IN THE MIDDLE: THE INVISIBLE HAND IN SMITH'S TOMES

We explore the conjecture, first hinted at by Peter Minowitz, that Smith deliberately placed his central idea, as represented by the phrase ‘led by an invisible hand’, at the physical centre of his masterworks. The four most significant points developed are as follows: (1) The physical evidence: the expression ‘led by an invisible hand’ occurs pretty much dead centre of the 1st and 2nd editions of The Wealth of Nations (WN), and of the final edition of the tomes containing The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). (2) The rhetoric lectures show that Smith not only was conscious of deliberate placement of potent words at the centre, but thought it significant enough to remark on to his pupils, noting that Thucydides ‘often expresses all that he labours so much in a word or two, sometimes placed in the middle of the narration’. (3) The invisible‐hand paragraphs in TMS and WN both contend with Rousseau and hearken back to the Rousseau passages that Smith had translated and provided in his 1756 article on literature. (4) There are numerous and rich ways in which centrality and middleness hold special and positive significance in Smith's thought.     

左手友情 右手爱情

一个起点的两条射线,只会越来越远。每个人都是一个起点,踏错了第一步,如果不懂得回首或是悔悟,成功只会越来越远。--前记