Competition in telecommunication networks with call externalities

This paper describes a model involving two interconnected networks offering different degrees of quality. In these networks, there are call externalities enabling consumers to assess the quality of the calls they send and receive. Networks compete in two-part tariffs. Our aim is to show that the “profit neutrality” result no longer applies due to network asymmetry and call externalities. In the case of non reciprocal access charges, call externalities generate private incentives enabling each competitor to charge low access prices. This reduces the risk of tacit collusion as competitors are free to negotiate their access charges.      

Strategic interoperability standards and trade taxes

In a two-country international trade framework, the paper considers the interplay between the governments' incentives for conducting traditional trade policies and their incentives for the policies toward compatibility between the products of the firms competing in the international market. The model assumes that one domestic and one foreign firm supply partially incompatible products for the home country market while consumers value both variety and a network externality. Motivated by the benefits of the network externality, the home government sets a standard requiring the foreign firm to guarantee a minimum level of compatibility between its own product and the product of the domestic rival. The paper analyzes the home country standard setting and import tariff policies as well as the incentives of the foreign country for imposing the export tax and conducting a policy which enhances the degree of compatibility between the rival products in the export market.     

The Internet and other networks: utilization rates and their implications

Costs of communications networks are determined largely by the maximal capacities of those networks. On the other hand, the traffic those networks carry depends on how heavily those networks are used. Hence, utilization rates and utilization patterns determine the costs of providing services and, therefore, are crucial in understanding the economics of communications networks. A comparison of utilization rates and costs of various networks helps disprove many popular myths about the Internet. Although packet networks are often extolled for the efficiency of their transport, it often costs more to send data over internal corporate networks than using modems on the switched voice network. Packet networks are growing explosively not because they utilize underlying transport capacity more efficiently but because they provide much greater flexibility in offering new services. Study of utilization patterns shows there are large opportunities for increasing the efficiency of data transport and making the Internet less expensive and more useful. On the other hand, many popular techniques, such as some Quality of Service measures and ATM, are likely to be of limited usefulness.     

Returns to skills,incentives to study and optimal educational standards

In imperfectly competitive labor markets returns to skills are lower than their productivity and educational standards may play an important role in stimulating students to provide efforts. We propose a principal-agent model to analyze the determinants of student effort and the setting of standards by a policy-maker maximizing alternative social welfare functions. We show that if the policy-maker takes into account individuals' future earnings, he finds it optimal to set lower standards in more distorted labor markets, whereas higher standards would be preferable for efficiency reasons. Moreover, we show that labor market distortions may also influence the amount of resources devoted to schools. Finally, it is shown that standard setting may be useful in preventing the opportunism of school principals in the use of resources.      

Network externalities and long-run market shares

We study a dynamic duopoly model with network externalities. The value of the product depends on the current and past network size. We compare the market outcome to a planner. With equal quality products, the market outcome may result in too little standardization (i.e. too many products active in the long run) but never too much. The potential inefficiency is non-monotonic in the strength of the network effect, being most likely for intermediate levels. When products differ in quality, an inferior product may dominate even when the planner would choose otherwise, but only if the discount factor is sufficiently large     

Perspectives on Economics in the School Curriculum: Coursework,Content, and Research

This review describes the conditions for teaching economics in the kindergarten through twelfth grade (K–12) curriculum in U.S. schools. The first section presents data on course-taking in economics in high schools and state mandates for economics instruction. It discusses the value of the infusion approach to teaching economics either in place of a separate course or as a complement to it. The second section describes the economic content that is taught to students as presented in content guides and standards. The final section presents research findings on (1) test instruments for measuring outcomes from economics instruction, (2) the effect of teacher coursework and training on the student economic understanding, and (3) how instructional materials complement or substitute for instructor selection and training.     

Optimal product strategies in the presence of network externalities

A network externality exists when a user’s benefit from a product increases with the number of other users in the same network. We examine the possibility that a software firm may exploit network externalities by introducing a limited feature version of its commercially available software into the market. The two versions need not be perfectly compatible and network externalities are allowed to decline as the difference between the versions increases. We obtain conditions under which introducing a limited feature version is optimal.     

马克思主义政治经济学与西方经济学教学关系刍议

改革开放的实践告诉我们,不搞市场经济,中国无法提高生产力水平;不坚持社会主义方向,中国无法消除两极分化、达到共同富裕。高校如何开好马克思主义政治经济学和西方经济学这两门课,关系到中国特色社会主义事业的接班人和建设者综合素质,关系到国家的命运和前途。为此,笔者认为,首先要准确把握好这两门课的性质和功能,摆正二者的位置,处理好二者的关系;然后要对教学内容、教学环节、教学方法作一些大胆的改进。最重要的一点,是对担任这两门课的教师,要实行＂准入制＂。     

The role of vaccine effectiveness on individual vaccination decisions and welfare

This paper examines a theoretical model designed to characterize a static, individual vaccination decision environment. I identify and characterize both equilibrium and socially optimal vaccination behavior and determine how this behavior changes as the effectiveness of the vaccine changes. I also evaluate the individual and social welfare implications of a change in vaccine effectiveness. I find that under certain conditions, an increase in vaccine effectiveness can decrease the number of agents vaccinating in equilibrium due to the positive external effects of vaccination. Notably, it is also possible for individual and total welfare to decrease. This is an undesirable, and perhaps unexpected, consequence of better vaccines. Fortunately, welfare at the social optimum always increases as vaccine effectiveness increases. However, equilibrium behavior often falls short of the social optimum due to the positive externalities created by vaccinating.     

Averting economic collapse and the solipsism bias

We study the behavior of experimental subjects who have to make a sequence of risky investment decisions in the presence of network externalities. Subjects follow a simple heuristic—investing after positive experiences and reducing their propensity to invest after a failure. This result contrasts with the theoretical findings of Jeitschko and Taylor [Jeitschko, T.D., Taylor, C., 2001. Local discouragement and global collapse: A theory of coordination avalanches. Amer. Econ. Rev. 91 (1), 208–224] in which even agents who have only good experiences eventually stop investing because they account for the fact that others with worse experiences will quit. This can trigger sudden economic collapse—a coordination avalanche—even in the most efficient Bayesian equilibrium. In the experiment, subjects follow their own experiences and disregard the possible bad experiences of others—thus exhibiting behavior that we term “solipsism bias.” Solipsism results in sustained investment activity and thus averts complete collapse.     

中国经济学三大理论的局限性

作为致用之学的经济学理论在中国已经形成了西方经济学、马克思经济学、马克思主义经济学、发展经济学、制度经济学等流派,从而打破了20世纪80年代以前马克思主义经济学一统天下的格局,实现了经济学理论的多元化。但是,由于中国具体的经济实践和制度环境上的原因,西方经济学、马克思主义经济学和发展经济学三大经济学理论的中国化具有十分重要的理论意义和现实意义。     

关于创建与发展中国经济学的若干思考

理论经济学可划分为马克思主义经济学、西方经济学和中国经济学。发展社会主义市场经济是一个全新的课题,在马克思主义经济学和西方经济学中都找不到现成答案。中国经济学应在经济学研究已取得的成果的基础上,扎根于本土,深入系统地研究现实社会主义初级阶段的生产关系,通过对社会主义市场经济运行和发展的分析,揭示社会主义初级阶段市场经济运动的规律。     

西方经济学与马克思主义经济学关于生产理论的比较——一个方法论的视角

西方经济学与马克思主义经济学的生产理论研究方法上存在三个方面本质区别:西方经济学的生产理论是以"经济人"假设为出发点,把劳动者仅仅作为生产要素研究;而马克思主义经济学的生产理论是以"历史的、现实的人"为出发点,把劳动者既看作生产要素,又作为生产主体来研究.西方经济学的生产理论只研究生产一般,因而使用价值(即效用)范畴是其研究的核心;而马克思主义经济学则不仅研究生产一般,更注重研究生产的具体社会形式,因而把价值范畴作为研究的核心.西方经济学用个体主义方法,把生产理论仅仅置于微观领域来研究,致使其理论体系在微观与宏观上形成脱节;而马克思主义经济学则运用唯物辩证法,在宏观和微观的有机联系中研究资本主义的生产和再生产问题.     

经济学中的权力范式及其运行关系研究

权力是社会科学研究的主题,然而经济学对权力的研究却很不充分,从而导致对现实世界科学分析的困乏。权力是资源的控制力,因而它直接配置资源,权力决定制度的供给和运行效率,也是经济增长中生产要素合力形成的决定因素。因此,权力是经济学理应研究的重要范式。     

Economics and psychology in the twenty-first century

This paper begins by exploring four different possible formsof relationship between economics and psychology, which havedifferent connotations in terms of the relative status of thetwo disciplines. It then focuses on the future for one of these,psychological economics. After setting out the hardcore axiomsand positive and negative heuristics of a research programmein psychological economics, it explores institutional and psychologicalbarriers to the success of such a research programme in thecontext of both research and teaching.     

改革开放实践中的马克思主义经济学--关于实施马克思主义理论研究和建设工程的几点思考

中国改革开放的目的在于走共同富裕之路，达到全面小康。这要求在实践中坚持立党为公、执政为民、以民为本，创造出社会主义条件下社会经济发展新模式。马克思主义经济学思想的发展是在全新的经济发展的物质基础发生转换时提出的，建设一个有诚信的市场体系，是发展经济的当务之急。任何改革都必须从立党为公、执政为民的高度来设计方案，以科学发展观评判结果。马克思主义经济学理论研究必须坚持它的阶级性、科学性、实践性的高度统一。     

A Proposed Methodological Synthesis of Post-Keynesian and Institutional Economics

Post-Keynesian and institutionalist writers have commented on the theoretical and conceptual commonalities between the two schools. Some have suggested a theoretical synthesis based on these commonalities. In spite of these theoretical and conceptual commonalities each tradition has developed significantly different methods of analysis. Instead of theoretical or conceptual synthesis we seek here to present a methodological synthesis.

Institutionalist methods have yielded "plausible" explanations, but these have been too "vague and suggestive" to be consistently used for economic policy. Post-Keynesian methods have policy necessary "rigor," but the similarity to neoclassical methods has exposed post-Keynesian theories to unwarranted synthesis with incompatible traditions.

This essay presents a synthesis of post-Keynesian and institutionalist methodology, one of "plausible rigor," combining elements of "institutional dynamics" with a heuristic framework based on John Dewey's "instrumental logic," and proposes that the resulting approach overcomes weaknesses in the methods of analysis of both schools.     

The impacts of innovations and standards on trade of measurement and testing products: empirical results of Switzerland’s bilateral trade flows with Germany, France and the UK

Nowadays, the impact of the measurement and testing infrastructure on economic performance and trade is theoretically and even politically widely accepted. However, there are no empirical studies on this issue. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the impact of innovative capacity and technical standards as one important part of the measurement and testing infrastructure on international trade flows and competitiveness. In order to focus on the direct causality between innovative technology and measurement and testing standards and the respective market, the empirical analysis concentrates on the trade of measurement and testing products of a country with a top position in measurement and testing technology. In its empirical analysis of Switzerland’s trade flows with Germany, France and the UK, the paper follows the approach of the pioneering paper of Swann et al. (Economic Journal 106 (1996) 1297), who integrated for the first time technical standards as a technology indicator in the estimation of UK trade performance. The trade flows in measurement and testing products from 1980 until 1995 are explained by both an indicator for innovative capacity and for the degree of standardisation. The first indicator is based on the patent applications at the European patent office. The latter uses the stocks of technical standards in the countries differentiated by their regional scope. Four different trade equations are analysed, besides an export and an import function, the trade balance and the intra-industry trade. The results clearly show that both Switzerland’s innovative capacity and its stocks of standards are able to explain its export performance in the three countries. Secondly, especially the stocks of international standards in Switzerland have a positive impact on imports into Switzerland from the three countries, confirming their positive role for fostering trade in general. Thirdly, Switzerland’s export surplus concerning the three trade partners is positively affected by the stocks of international standards in Switzerland, which seem to be an important factor for international competitiveness. Finally, the results of the intra-industry model underline the common view of the general trade-fostering effect of even national standards in the case of the trade with the three countries.     

理论创新与中国理论经济学发展研究

近年来,由于理论创新不足,中国理论经济学走到了一个十字路口,发展方向不明.笔者认为,中国理论经济学的生命力在于不断创新,及时将理论研究重心从引进和吸收为主转向创新为主,奏响理论创新的主旋律,才是中国理论经济学进一步发展的出路.     

Creationism versus Evolutionism in Economics: Societal Consequences of Economic Doctrine

In the 1940s and 1950s, institutionalist economists rapidly lost their influence over American economics. In parallel, a new mainstream emerged, and the institutionalists were extremely dissatisfied with the path taken by the economic science. We analyze the opinions and feelings about this context to shed light on the institutionalists’ understanding of the new mainstream economics. We construct a historical account of the institutionalists’ dissatisfaction with post-war economics based on archival material from the personal papers of Allan Gruchy, John Gambs, John Blair, and Clarence Ayres. In the period analyzed, the economists, who would later found the Association for Evolutionary Economics, acted as dissenters rather than institutionalists. In part, this explains the pluralistic path that the association has followed ever since its foundation.