The structure of Islamic economics: A comparative perspective on markets,ethics and economics

A comparative examination of mainstream economic doctrines and their recent developments is undertaken with a view to find out how ethics has been treated in these. The principal focus here is to identify the new paradigm that can treat ethics endogenously in preference formation, the market and the economic order. The quest for this paradigm leads us to an examination of Islamic economics. Islamic economics is presented in terms of its epistemological roots. Thereby, a general systems view of interactions, integration and creative evolution among economic and social possibilities is shown to lead to the paradigm of Islamic political economy. Some Islamic financial and economic instruments are examined to bring out the pervasive causality of the principle of universal complementarity across diversity in a general systems perspective of Islamic political economy as premised on its epistemological roots.     

IS THE NAIRU THEORY A MONETARIST,NEW KEYNESIAN,POST KEYNESIAN OR A MARXIST THEORY?

The NAIRU (non‐accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) theory has become the mainstream theory in explaining unemployment in Europe and is often used to justify demands for a cutback of the welfare state, such as reducing unemployment benefits. Close inspection reveals that it, perhaps surprisingly, shares some arguments with Post Keynesian and even Marxist theory. The paper proposes an underdetermined, encompassing NAIRU model, which is consistent with several theoretical traditions. Depending on the closure with respect to demand formation and determination of the NAIRU itself, the model allows for New Keynesian, Post Keynesian and Marxist results.     

POST KEYNESIAN PERSPECTIVES AND COMPLEX ECOLOGIC–ECONOMIC DYNAMICS

This paper considers the implications of complex ecologic–economic dynamics for three broad, Post Keynesian perspectives: the uncertainty perspective, the macrodynamics perspective and the Sraffian perspective. Catastrophic, chaotic and other complex dynamics will be seen as reinforcing the conceptual foundations of Keynesian uncertainty. Predator–prey models will be seen as deeply linked to Post Keynesian macrodynamic models. Finally, certain cases in ecologic–economic systems will be seen as generating such Sraffian, capital theoretic conundra as reswitching. Ecologic–economic models considered besides predator–prey will include fisheries, forestry, lake dynamics and global climatic–economic dynamics.     

Economic sentiment shocks and fluctuations in economic activity in the euro area and the USA

Economic sentiment indicators can provide a wealth of information for macroeconomic policy formulation and analysis. Despite this, economic sentiment is often neglected by mainstream economics. This article assesses whether there is a potential role for economic sentiment to amplify business cycle fluctuations. This paper integrates the European Commission Economic Sentiment Indicator data into an econometric analysis of the euro area business cycle. The investigation of the euro area economy suggests that sentiment shocks do have an impact on important macroeconomic variables such as output, retail sales, and unemployment. There is furthermore significant evidence that economic conditions and shocks affect economic sentiment.     

GROWTH POLICY IN THE SPIRIT OF STEINDL AND KALECKI

There are large differences between Steindl’s ideas on growth policies and the Brussels/Paris consensus. Steindl called for innovation and education policies, whereas the mainstream today rather favours deregulation and privatization. Steindl stressed the positive demand‐side effects of the public sector and the contribution of lower household savings and anticyclical policies to growth. The economic mainstream praises the efficiency effects of a declining public sector, the importance of high savings for investment and warns of active anticyclical policies being an impediment to budget consolidation. Steindl and the Keynesians regarded the labour market situation as a consequence of economic growth. Today many economists see low growth as a result of labour market rigidities.     

RECONSIDERING THE INVESTMENT–PROFIT NEXUS IN FINANCE‐LED ECONOMIES: AN ARDL‐BASED APPROACH

A Post‐Keynesian growth model is developed, in which financial variables are explicitly taken into account. Variants of an investment function are estimated econometrically, applying the ARDL (auto‐regressive distributed lag)‐based approach proposed by Pesaran et al. (Journal of Applied Econometrics, 16 (3), pp. 289–326). The econometric results are discussed with respect to a remarkable phenomenon that can be observed for some important OECD countries since the early 1980s: accumulation has generally been declining while profit shares and rates have shown a tendency to rise. We concentrate on one potential explanation of this phenomenon, which is particularly relevant for the USA and relies on a high propensity to consume out of capital income.     

TECHNICAL CHANGE AND FORMATION OF EXPECTATIONS

The aim of this paper is to discuss the implications for the process of expectation formation as developed by Keynes and the Post‐Keynesians when technical change (as understood by the Evolutionary and Institutional school of thought) is taken into account. The claim made here is that the traditional division of expectations in short and long period is insufficient to deal with all features of technical change, and thus, a new type of expectations (medium‐period) is proposed. Moreover, it is claimed that the independence among different types of expectations cannot stand when medium‐period expectations are taken into account.     

The International Economic Crisis and the Crisis of Economics

The objective of this paper is to explore the correlation between the recent economic crisis and economic science and demystify the dogmatic conflict surrounding them. The paper starts by summarising the various arguments against economic science and economists, considered by many to be responsible for the crisis. Following that, an attempt is made, subject to space constraints, to objectively evaluate the individual arguments. Particular reference is made to the role of both policy and the markets in the crisis and the prospects for replacing the neoclassicist school, dominant until now, with the Keynesian. The analysis concludes that economic science did not cause the crisis; however, many of its theories did offer an intellectual background or some sort of academic legitimacy to both policy and the markets, and, in the case of the recent crisis, there was not only a failure of the dominant form of economic thought but, above all, of those two. The analysis shows that there is a problem of selective use of economic theories when it comes to practical economics and that, in order to be useful, economics ought to utilise knowledge from other disciplines and take more account of interdependencies between political and social phenomena.     

Wirtschaftswissenschaften: zu wenig Pluralität der Methoden und Forschungsrichtungen?

The authors discuss the merits of including pluralist methods, theories and paradigms into the traditionally mainstream. They also evaluate the progress made by German faculties in this regard. The pluralism debate is in itself plural. There are numerous international and Germany specific dimensions and associated critiques of mainstream economics. Different approaches to economic policy must be organised in a manner which guarantees theoretical and paradigmatic pluralism — on which economic policy proposals ought to be based. Another view focuses on the educational effect and states that the mental frames of economics students are subject to manipulation; the foundation of their thinking is narrowed and recontextualised in an emotionally and politically highly charged semantic environment.     

A Critical Realist and Multimethodology Framework for Product Placement Research

This article contributes to the existing literature by examining the appropriate philosophical and methodological foundations for research in marketing communication that has yet to be discussed. In particular, this article argues that the ontological, epistemological, and methodological underpinnings of a critical realist paradigm could be a meaningful alternative to the predominant positivism in product placement research. Under a critical realist framework, several unexplored areas in product placement research are identified and a multimethodology approach is proposed to expand the scope of knowledge in the field. The discussion ends with some ethical concerns and the major contributions to the discipline with regards to Habermas's three worlds: the material, social, and personal worlds.     

Unenlightened Economism: The Antecedents of Bad Corporate Governance and Ethical Decline

The paper expands on Goshal’s criticism of what management as a scientific discipline teaches and the effects on managerial and societal ethics. The main argument put forward is that the economisation of management has a detrimental effect on the practice of management and on society in large. The ideology of economism is described and analysed from an epistemological perspective. The paper argues that the economisation of management not only introduces the problems of economics (three are identified and discussed) but destroys the very essence of management because economics is focused on efficiency and management should be focused on effectiveness. What is more, the basic axioms of mainstream economics stand in stark contrast to the philosophy of the Enlightenment and therefore endanger the foundations of Western societies. Management theory (via corporate governance) is the Trojan horse carrying economism into society.     

行为法律经济学:新知还是旧论——波斯纳与桑斯坦等的论战及其意义

行为法律经济学的新近崛起挑战了主流法律经济学的理论公设,拓宽了法律的经济分析的研究领域,但同时也引起了主流学者如波斯纳等的诘难。双方在理性概念、经济学行为研究方法的证据支持、"互惠人"模型及其法律应用等论题上展开了激烈的交锋。从整体上观察,论战各方其实只是名义之争,相互融合的趋势显然。作为这次学术论战的潜在影响,国内相关的理论研究和政策实践将会获得相当程度的促进功用。     

ECONOMIC POLICY IN A GROWTH CONTEXT: A CLASSICAL SYNTHESIS OF KEYNES AND HARROD

This paper clarifies key differences between Harrodian and Keynesian theories and policies, and develops a classical alternative to both. The stability of the Harrodian warranted path is proved, and the Keynesian paradox of thrift is shown to be transient. Distinct Harrodian fiscal policies are derived, and Post‐Keynesian debates about Harrodian dynamics are addressed. Finally, it is argued that business and household savings are fundamentally different, and it is shown that if the business savings rate responds at all to the investment–savings gap, it becomes possible to have both profit‐driven accumulation as in Keynes and normal capacity growth as in Harrod.     

经济学的数学化贫困——奥地利学派视野中的数学方法

数学化推动了自然科学的迅猛发展,这种趋势也深刻影响了经济学。边际革命后西方主流经济学走上一条数学形式化的不归之路,但作为边际革命发起者之一的门格尔所创立的奥地利学派经济学家一直反对经济学的数学形式化,这源于该学派不同于主流经济学对经济现象的基本认识和所持的哲学观。奥地利学派一直秉承至今的传统对当前经济学的人文理解有重要启示意义。     

COMPETING VIEWS OF THE MONEY SUPPLY PROCESS: THEORY AND EVIDENCE

This paper examines three competing approaches to the determination of the money supply. The first approach is labelled the pure portfolio approach, and corresponds to the orthodox approach to the money supply. The second approach is labelled the pure loan demand approach, and corresponds to the Post Keynesian accommodationist view of endogenous money. The third approach is labelled the mixed portfolio-loan demand approach, and corresponds to the Post Keynesian structuralist view of endogenous money. The critical theoretical difference between the latter two models is identified in terms of the importance of the private initiatives of banks in accommodating expansions of loan demand. The paper then provides Granger-causality evidence on the three approaches, and concludes in favor of the mixed portfolio-loan demand approach.     

Foreign indebtedness and economic growth: The Philippines

Problems of indebtedness in developing countries are not isolated occurrences. The example of the Philippines, however, is for many reasons a most interesting one. On the one hand, borrowing already once culminated in a debt crisis at the end of the 60s. On the other, the Philippine foreign debt situation has deteriorated faster than that of other highly-indebted countries recently. This article sets out to analyse Philippine borrowing by using an econometric model against the background of the economic policies actually pursued. What are the prospects for the Philippines during the 80s?     

Teaching Western Economics to Eastern Economists

This paper describes and intensive four week workshop for Polish professors of economics. The primary goals of the program were to teach current mainstream Western economics and to introduce U.S. teaching methods to Eastern bloc economists. Prior to this program the professional training of these teachers had been solely or predominantly from officially sanctioned socialist economists.