Quantity and Quality Concerns about Technology Impacts

Paleoanthropologists have taught us that, in the earliest Homo-human history, technology, human cognition, and social institutions influenced each other and evolved together. They remain integrated in our complex social institutions today. Robert Owen and Clarence Ayres emphasized the importance of the human-technology relationship. This article moves a step beyond Owen and Ayres by recognizing that humans are technology. Without the recognition of human technology, it is not possible to compare it with and evaluate how it should fit with other technologies. It is also not possible to adequately analyze and judge technological innovations, in general, without the use of social belief criteria. Furthermore, any technological comparisons and evaluations should recognize that decreases in production are needed in order to deal with climate change. Technological assessment has become more important given the vast and profound societal penetration of modern technology such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and genetic editing.     

Modeling System Complexity in the Context of Geopolitics Related to Climate Change

Due mainly to the evolution of science and technology, ontic systems have continuously become more complex. Thus, original institutional economics has adopted and advanced the concepts of complex systems. This article further develops complexity concepts and relates them to problems of climate change. Systems complexity is combined with concepts from geopolitics in order to introduce geopolitical analysis about boundaries/borders into complex systems. The addition of geopolitical ideas allows for systems to focus on a designated social and ecological context that fits the problem of interest. The social and ecological components of open geopolitical systems lead to processes that are dynamic and complex. Thus, complex-systems modeling needs the assistance of geopolitical concepts and geopolitical models need to be embedded in complex systems. Each section of the article clarifies its meaning with examples of climate change concerns.     

中国纳税服务基本理念缺失的原因分析

纳税服务理念的缺失具有深厚的历史背景:政府的职能定位、个体功利不被重视、企业的经济地位不独立以及纳税人权利与义务的不对等,对纳税服务理念影响深远。随着社会主义市场经济体制的建立和完善,应逐步培养公民的权利意识和政府的责任意识,更新为纳税人服务的理念,并在制度操作层面加以完善,是确立纳税服务理念、促进征管质量和效率提高的客观要求。     

新常态下科技成果转化政策支撑与法律保障研究

新常态下,中国经济以创新驱动为重要特征,努力实现内涵式发展的增长模式。创新驱动发展战略的内在要求为科技成果转化的法律制度变革提供了明确的导向,但是,科技成果转化率与经济新常态的要求存在现实落差,科技成果转化率不高,未充分发挥对经济社会发展的支撑作用。《促进科技成果转化法修正案（草案）》允许高校对科技成果转化拥有自主权、加大科技成果完成者分成比例、允许科技人员离岗创业等,体现了政策创新和突破。但现行科技成果转化方面的法律法规缺乏可操作性,科技成果转化与知识产权运用的突出问题没有得到根本解决。分析了新常态下科技成果转化中存在的问题,结合国外先进经验,从法律保障和政策支撑方面提出了对策建议。     

什么样的宏观生态环境影响科技人才集聚——基于中国内地31个省份的模糊集定性比较分析

科技人才是地区经济社会发展和科技创新的核心要素,优化科技人才宏观生态环境进而打造科技人才集聚高地是国家或地区发展的必然选择。为探究宏观生态环境对科技人才集聚的影响机制,基于人才生态系统理论,采用模糊集定性比较分析方法,以中国内地31个省份为样本,分析多重因素构成的宏观生态环境影响科技人才集聚的条件组态和路径。结果表明：文化教育是影响科技人才集聚的必要条件;存在4条提升科技人才集聚的有效路径,即科技创新主导型、科技创新主导下的宜居文教驱动型、文化教育和公共服务主导下的经济科创驱动型、公共服务主导下的文教驱动型;存在6条阻碍科技人才集聚的路径,且与提升科技人才集聚路径之间属于非对称关系。     

事业单位基建会计应关注的问题

随着社会主义市场经济的不断发展,基本建设投资规模的不断扩大,使基建会计所处的客观经济环境发生了很大变化,对基建会计工作的要求也就越来越高。由于对相关制度的学习检查不够以及会计人员自身素质等原因,一些基本建设单位存在会计核算不规范以及监督不严等问题。     

Dynamics of social factors in technological substitutions

Diffusion models of technological innovations are often based on an epidemic structure which has a good fit to historical data but whose communication assumptions lack explanatory power. They assume a simplified decision process, uniform decision criteria across adopters categories, and a fully interconnected social structure. The objective of this paper is to show that the dynamics of social factors during technological substitutions have significant effects on substitution patterns. The success of a paradigmatic shift is not only a function of technological characteristics but also depends on change agents and many social dynamics. Such complexity requires analysis at several levels of granularity. We start with cognitive processes at the individual level using concepts from cognitive psychology and decision making under uncertainty and then move to interpersonal communications at the aggregate social level. We show that population heterogeneity generates different decision criteria and a social topology which greatly affect perceptions and the formation of expectations. The structure of interpersonal networks also explains how the relevance and credibility of information impact the critical mass dynamics of technology adoption. A more complete model accounting for social interactions provides a useful framework for understanding complex substitution patterns and reducing the risk of misreading the market.     

Efficient online exchange via fiat money

In many online systems, individuals provide services for each other; the recipient of the service obtains a benefit but the provider of the service incurs a cost. If benefit exceeds cost, provision of the service increases social welfare and should therefore be encouraged—but the individuals providing the service gain no (immediate) benefit from providing the service and hence have an incentive to withhold service. Hence, there is scope for designing a protocol that improves welfare by encouraging exchange. To operate successfully within the confines of the online environment, such a protocol should be distributed, robust, and consistent with individual incentives. This paper proposes and analyzes protocols that rely solely on the exchange of fiat money or tokens. The analysis has much in common with work on search models of money but the requirements of the environment also lead to many differences from previous analyses—and some surprises; in particular, existence of equilibrium becomes a thorny problem and the optimal quantity of money is different.     

生态文明视域下可持续设计理念的演进与转型思考

建设和营造一个更可持续的社会是今天全人类共同面对的重要议题。中国在绿色发展的基础上提出生态文明建设的新目标和要求,并倡导生态优先和协调发展。通过文献综述,梳理生态文明建设背景下,设计学科引入并结合生态理念和系统性思维方法的演进路径,对比分析不同阶段生态理念与可持续设计思想的关联,探索其中以生态理念为核心的主导性逻辑,提出从单体到系统、从局部到整体的演进趋势,并结合生态文明建设的要求,分析可持续转型趋势和创新设计需求,尝试构建中国生态文明视角下的可持续设计发展思路和转型方案。     

创业环境如何影响科技人员创业活跃度——基于中国27个省市的fsQCA分析

为探究创业环境对科技人员创业活跃度的影响机制,以中国内地27个省市为样本,采用模糊集定性比较分析法,从市场环境、政策服务环境、融资环境和创业文化４个维度,选取有代表性的８个变量,通过整体视角探究影响科技人员创业活跃度的条件组态和路径。结果表明,存在４条提升科技人员创业活跃度的有效路径,即资本驱动路径、服务＋文化双驱动路径、政策服务驱动路径和服务＋资本双驱动路径;R&D项目数、金融业总产值占GDP比重、社会融资规模增量、私营企业占比是提高科技人员创业活跃度的核心条件,R&D项目数、孵化器个数和社会融资规模增量是提高科技人员创业活跃度的３个充分条件。结论不仅可为提升不同地区科技人员创业活跃度提供理论依据,也可为因地制宜制定相关政策提供参考。     

Management of non-timber forestry products extraction: Local institutions, ecological knowledge and market structure in South-Eastern Zimbabwe

Common-pool resources (CPRs), such as forests, water resources and rangelands, provide a wide variety of economic benefits to forest-fringe dwellers in semi-arid areas of southern Africa. However, the public nature and competition involved in the use of these goods, and weak enforcement of institutional arrangements governing their use may lead to resource degradation. Using survey data from four communities in south-eastern Zimbabwe for 2008 and 2009, this paper examines the extent to which forest degradation is driven by existing common property management regimes resource and user characteristics, ecological knowledge and marketing structure. A Principal Component Analysis indicates that the existence of agreed-upon rules governing usage (including costs of usage), enforcement of these rules, sanctions for rule violations that are proportional to the severity of rule violation, social homogeneity, and strong beliefs in ancestral spirits were the most important attributes determining effectiveness of local institutions in the management of CPRs. Empirical results from a regression analysis showed that resource scarcity, market integration, and infrastructural development lead to greater resource degradation, while livestock income, high ecological knowledge, older households, and effective local institutional management of the commons reduce resource degradation. The results suggest that there is need for adaptive local management systems that enhance ecological knowledge of users and regulates market structure to favour long-term livelihood securities of these forest-fringe communities.     

立法视角下职务科技成果所有权规定模式对比研究

职务科技成果权益归属是影响科技成果转化效率的关键因素之一,科技成果的权利性质、权利归属和管理权限划分,是政府引导市场机制发挥促进科技成果转化作用的前提和关键所在。目前各地区都在积极探索职务科技成果权属改革,很多地区在地方性法规中对其进行了规定。总结了我国各地法规对于职务科技成果所有权归属的规定模式,并对比分析不同模式的优劣势。研究发现：目前职务科技成果所有权在地方立法中的规定包括原则性规定、奖励一定比例权属份额、分类规定权属、赋予全部或部分权利、单位弃权后科研人员优先取得等5种模式,不同模式各有优劣;即便是同一种模式,在不同地区立法中也有着不一样的解读,对于各地职务科技成果所有权赋权改革也会产生不同程度的影响。     

Economic growth and religious production efficiency

Moral institutions, religions and ethics affect the economic development, as for example, trust and honesty are essential requirements for emerging economic activity. Religious production efficiency measure is constructed and used in economic growth regressions for 8 OECD countries. By using panel estimation methods and additionally time‐series estimations for each country, more information is gained concerning the country specific growth and religion characteristics. Empirical evidence from the panel data estimations seems to suggest that religious beliefs attain more relevance than religious attendance. Religious production efficiency, containing both belief and activity aspects, was not found statistically significant with panel data or with individiual 8 OECD countries growth model, except for Finland. Significant coefficient for Finland can be explained by referring to Finland's unique religious market properties, as the level of religious beliefs have historically been unusually high in Finland. On the other hand, attendance in religious activities has followed the typical Northern‐European decreasing trend. More exact understanding on the links between these concepts are essentially needed to better model the economic consequences of cultural, religious and moral variables.     

Understanding Agro-Holdings in Russia: A Commonsian Analysis

Agro-holdings in Russia are large-scale vertically integrated farms within the food processing industry which emerged in the economic, political, and social context inherited from the Soviet era and the post-Soviet market transition. Several economic researchers consider agro-holdings either as a transitory phenomenon or as a major innovation that enables economies of scale and scope. However, their sustainability does not support the idea of a transitory organizational form. Meanwhile, important aspects of their activity, as with the financing of social infrastructures and the partnership with public institutions, cannot be explained by the aim of productive efficiency. I argue that applying John R. Commons’ concepts of strategic transactions, going concerns, and futurity offers an insight enabling the understanding of agro-holdings in Russia as the result of actors’ capacity to form new working rules and compromises, reflected in going concerns that incorporate both the productive and distributive dimensions of their activity.     

LEGAL INSTITUTIONS,INNOVATION, AND GROWTH

We analyze the relationship between legal institutions, innovation, and growth. We compare a rigid legal system (the law is set before the technological innovation) and a flexible one (the law is set after observing the new technology). The flexible system dominates in terms of welfare, amount of innovation, and output growth at intermediate stages of technological development—periods when legal change is needed. The rigid system is preferable at early stages of technological development, when commitment problems are severe. For mature technologies, the two legal systems are equivalent. We find that rigid legal systems may induce excessive R&D investment.     

新科技革命对我国经济体制改革的新要求

新科技革命是技术创新成果积累和制度变革相互作用的产物。新科技革命带来的社会生产力飞跃性发展,必然对生产关系和上层建筑产生深刻影响,对我国经济体制改革提出新的历史要求。我国迎接新科技革命的挑战,必须深化改革,为先进生产力快速成长创造良好的制度条件。     

Econogenic Harm and the Case for ‘Economy Harm Profile’ Analysis

ABSTRACT

The economics profession aspires to promote the public good, defined variously as social welfare, freedom, justice, sustainability, and other valued goods. But the institutions, rules, and practices economists advocate in pursuit of that goal also cause harm. The profession has nevertheless been relatively inattentive to what I term ‘econogenic’ or economist-induced harm. An adequate engagement with econogenic harm would require new concepts, frameworks, and normative criteria for assessing economic performance. The paper presents one such framework, an ‘economy harm profile.’ An economy harm profile is given by the nature of the prevalent, averted and covered harms; productivity of harms; distribution of harms; mechanisms of harm generation and distribution; and consent and coercion that are associated with harm-generative and distributive mechanisms. There is much to be gained from the investigation of economy harm profiles. Economic harm profile analysis might help the economics profession to design and implement reforms that eliminate gratuitous harms while preparing for and ameliorating necessary harms.     

The Discretionary Economy

Some critics allege that many if not most economists are subject to "Panglossian tendencies" — that is, they are too quick to make excuses for apparently dysfunctional aspects of the status quo. This paper examines theoretical welfare economics as a possible exemplar of "Panglossian tendencies." A major focus is on the absence from both the pedagogic and the professional literatures of two key concepts bearing upon the evaluation of Pareto efficiency and social welfare maximization as competing criteria of economic policy analysis: the "isowelfare function" and the "supra-welfare region." These concepts are explicated herein using the familiar Edgeworth-Bowley box diagram illustrating the twoindividual, two-good pure exchange model. A higher level of awareness and appreciation among economists of these concepts might serve the beneficial purpose of downgrading the perceived significance of Pareto efficiency as an operational criterion of economic performance.     

Joint determination of biological encephalization,economic specialization

In this paper, we develop a paleoeconomic model of the co-evolution of economic specialization and encephalization—the common physiological measure of intelligence as reflected by brain mass relative to total body mass. Our economic analysis links ecological and social intelligence theories of increased encephalization in early hominins through a model in which both economic and ecological feedbacks jointly determined the evolutionary incentives. We focus on degrees of specialization affected by coordination costs with and without market exchange. Our results suggest encephalization would be a process characterized by diminishing returns to behavioral advances. In terms of the long-running debate in economics over whether specialization increases or decreases intelligence, our results suggest from an evolutionary perspective the answer depends on economic/social institutions and how these influence ecological interactions.     

MICROFINANCE REGULATION AND SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS: THE CASE OF NIGERIA AND ZAMBIA

This study examines the effect of regulations on microfinance institutions in Nigeria and Zambia by focusing on the post‐regulation experiences and reflections of the microfinance institutions (MFIs) and their regulators. Based on in‐depth interviews with the Central Banks as regulators, MFI managers, practitioners and apex microfinance associations, the study finds that regulations in both countries have managed to professionalize the sector, but their effectiveness in augmenting the centrality of social goals to microfinance and MFIs remains doubtful. The poorly designed regulations are not only undermining social goals but also sending wrong signals to would be social investors, with implications for the social image of the industry. The study further finds that regulations have neither speeded the emergence of sustainable MFIs (especially in Zambia) nor accelerated the sectors’ outreach to the poor and the financially excluded. Additionally, considerable levels of political interference and poor regulation have led to unintended consequences to the sector, further frustrating the ultimate goal of extending financial services to the poor. These findings have policy and practical implications for how microfinance engages with the regulatory logic and continues to serve those at the bottom of the pyramid.