Veblen's Theory of Institutional Change: An Explanation of the Deregulation of Japanese Financial Markets

A bstract In his 1915 essay "The Opportunity of Japan," Thorstein Veblen theorized that traditionai Japanese institutions would undergo evolutionary change as Japan exploited borrowed industrial technology and became integrated into the global business enterprise system. This article explains the recent liberalization of Japanese financial markets which followed Japan's rise to economic prominence within the context of Veblen's theory of institutional development of the enterprise system. The Japanese process of financial deregulation is reviewed, Veblen's predictions Japan are presented and an explanation provided for the liberalization of Japanese financial markets .     

Finding a lasting cure for U.S. health care

In "Making Competition in Health Care Work" (July-August 1994), Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg, Michael E. Porter, and Gregory B. Brown ask a question that has been absent from the national debate on health care reform: How can the United States achieve sustained cost reductions while at the same time maintaining quality of care? The authors argue that innovation driven by rigorous competition is the key to successful reform. A lasting cure for health care in the United States should include four basic elements: corrected incentives to spur productive competition, universal insurance to secure economic efficiency, relevant information to ensure meaningful choice, and innovation to guarantee dynamic improvement. In this issue's Perspectives section, eleven experts examine the current state of the health care system and offer their views on the shape that reform should take. Some excerpts: "On the road to innovation, let us not forget to develop the tools that allow physicians, payers, and patients to make better decisions." I. Steven Udvarhelyi; "Health care is not a product or service that can be standardized, packaged, marketed, or adequately judged by consumers according to quality and price." Arnold S. Relman; "Just as antitrust laws are the wise restraints that make competition free in other sectors of the economy, so the right kind of managed competition can work well in health care." Edward M. Kennedy "Biomedical research should be considered primarily an investment in the national economic well-being with additional humanitarian benefits." Elizabeth Marincola.     

The promotion of maize fertiliser packages: A cause of household food insecurity and peasant impoverishment in high rainfall areas of Zimbabwe

Child malnutrition is a continuing problem in Zimbabwe's communal areas. These include some high rainfall areas, which make a contribution to the country's maize surplus during non‐drought years. A survey of farmers and extension workers in four high rainfall communal areas was carried out to investigate the effects of following recommended practices for maize production on household economy and food security.

Thirty‐two per cent of communal farmers had applied all the officially recommended fertiliser to their 1990/91 maize crop, often by obtaining these inputs on credit in lieu of grain sales receipts from the subsequent harvest. Yet. yields were so low that 48 per cent of these farmers would have been unable to retain sufficient grain to satisfy their families’ minimum requirements, if they had reimbursed the full cost of the input credit.

The majority (64 per cent) of farmers had deviatedfrom the recommended practice by adopting ‘low external input strategies’. A key feature of most of these strategies was the substitution of manure for part or all of the recommended fertiliser. In three of the four communal areas studied, this had improved the chances not only of recovering input costs, but also of achieving maize self‐sufficiency.

These results suggest that policy‐makers should shift emphasis from a dependence on costly external inputs to the integration of low levels of fertiliser with a range of more natural methods of soil improvement, in an effort to improve household food security in the communal areas.     

Knight on Religion and Ethics As Agents of Social Change: An Essay to Commemorate the Centennial of Frank H. Knight's Birth

Abstract . A paradigm is developed in this essay based upon Frank H. Knight's thought in order to provide a foundation for analyzing contemporary moral philosophers’efforts to influence public policy. In honor of Knight's 100th birthday in 1985, the role of religious doctrine and ethics in determining social policy is examined in terms of the exegesis which could have been expected of Frank Knight. Knowledge of Knight's views on religion and ethics provides a provocative means of interpreting and evaluating moralism as a force of social change in today's world.     

企业财务危机运营战略

企业一旦出现财务危机，便站在了崩溃边缘，随时都有“生命危险”。化解财务危机，必须面对现实，分析原因，制定切实可行的财务重整计划；确定短期行动方案，降低现金需求、扩大现金来源；寻求过渡时期的资产支援；检讨企业策略与目标，吸取教训，拟定长期整顿方案及实施时间表。     

Issues and implications of implementing surcharges to improve the U.S. balance of trade

This article addresses the issue of implementing surcharges on goods imported into the U.S. Recent legislation calling for surcharges is reviewed and a theoretical analysis of the effects of such legislation is presented. It is suggested that the implementation of surcharges would not improve the U.S. balance of trade to the extent expected by proponents of the surcharges due to offsetting factors. Particular factors considered in this study include surcharge pass-throughs, exchange rate mechanisms, trade diversion and reaction abroad.