Technology, the Technology Complex and the Paradox of Technological Determinism

This paper examines the working definitions of the term 'technology' across a range of disciplines such as industrial relations, organizational behaviour, operations management and development economics. The precise 'subdefinition' of technology in use depends on the disciplinary problematic. We develop a conceptual device called the technology complex to reveal the pattern that is observable when a large number of subdefinitions are compared. The technology complex is a list of the distinctive 'elements' that comprise the disciplinary subdefinitions of technology and it orders this list of elements from the 'physical' to the 'cultural'. The technology complex captures the idea that a working definition of technology will be some selection from the elements of the complex. The technology complex also captures the idea that in its most general sense 'technology' is 'knowledge related to artefacts'. We apply the technology complex to the issue of determinism in technological and social change using the examples of aircraft design and robotics. We argue that there is not an 'either—or' issue between the social and the technological influences on change since the terms are not distinct: 'technology' always includes some aspect of the social. We show how what appears to be 'technological determinism' in the examples of aircraft design and robotics use can be understood through the technology complex.     

Worker Cooperatives in the Theory of the Firm: Marx and Veblen on Technological Determinism

This article contends that, in their treatments of worker cooperatives, the predominant theories of the firm adhere to the logic of technological determinism, and can accordingly be evaluated using the ideas of Thorstein Veblen and Karl Marx. Invoking these patriarchs’ respective distinctions between instrumental and ceremonial institutions and between the technical and social relations of production, the article argues that, contrary to contemporary theories of the firm, worker cooperatives possess an inherent but often latent advantage in implementing bureaucratic organizational structures, enjoying their instrumental/technical benefits for technology and coordination without incurring their ceremonial/social drawbacks for behavior and cooperation.     

Global Warming and Endogenous Technological Change: Revisiting the Green Paradox

One of the most pressing policy challenges facing the world today concerns how to mitigate global warming while improving people’s well-being. The green paradox argues that increasing taxes on CO₂ emissions exacerbates global warming in the present because firms have the incentive to bring forward the extraction and sale of fossil fuels. This paper shows that whenever technological progress allows the extraction costs of fossil fuels to be reduced over time and a positive R&D subsidy is paid, a growing tax on CO₂ emissions reveals a welfare maximizing policy.     

The Gift Paradox: Complex Selves and Symbolic Good

Generous unemployment benefits are a conventional explanation of the high rates of unemployment in many OECD countries. However, this perception has been challenged on the basis that cross-national evidence comes only from regression analyses of unemployment on the OECD's gross replacement rate but that results are not robust to improved, multidimensional measures of generosity. In this article, I conduct a detailed empirical analysis of how social welfare programs affect unemployment in 17 OECD countries, from 1975 to 2000, using a detailed concept of labor “decommodification” to make cross-national comparisons of generosity. The results show that unemployment benefits remain an important, robust determinant of unemployment even when the new measure is used.     

技术能力、路径依赖与技术赶超研究

分析了技术领先地区（国）和技术落后地区（国）之间的技术溢出效应,基于Verspagen模型,建立了基于技术能力和路径依赖的技术赶超模型。研究表明,后发地区（国）实现技术差距缩小和技术赶超的关键不仅在于自身技术能力的提高,还要打破路径依赖的锁定效应;后发地区（国）不可忽视经济主体“有意识的行为”,实现从路径依赖到路径创新的演化。因此,后发地区（国）一方面要培育自身技术能力,另一方面要提高经济主体的创新意识和创新能力,尽快摆脱技术对路径依赖的负面影响,实现技术赶超。     

信任、不信任与民主制的悖论

本文论述了信任与不信任产生的条件.一个全面的信任模型至少要包含三个方面,即"被信任者的可信度"、"信任者的基本信任倾向"以及催生信任的文化因素.信任文化的产生既有结构原因,又有历史原因.本文认为民主秩序是孕育信任的重要力量.     

“以市场换技术”IJV的技术溢出预期及其悖论

“以市场换技术“战略下的IJV联盟生产被落后国家或地区企业经常采用,旨在获得IJV联盟生产中的技术溢出效应,以便在短期内低成本提升其竞争力。然而,由于技术保护或者只以非核心技术投入IJV,落后国家或地区企业不但不能实现预期目标,反而失去了对市场资源的控制能力,使其竞争力相对下降。     

Networks,Law, and the Paradox of Cooperation

There is a tension between libertarians' optimism about private supply of public goods and skepticism of the viability of voluntary collusion (Cowen 1992, Cowen and Sutter 1999). Playing off this asymmetry, Cowen (1992) advances the novel argument that the free market in defense services favored by anarcho-capitalists is a network industry where collusion is especially feasible. The current article dissolves Cowen's asymmetry, showing that he fails to distinguish between self-enforcing and non-self-enforcing interaction. Case study evidence on network behavior before and after antitrust supports our analysis. Furthermore, libertarians' joint beliefs on public goods and collusion are, contrary to Cowen and Sutter (1999), theoretically defensible.     

技术并购与技术创新

本文通过中外案例剖析研究了基于并购视角的企业自主创新能力形成路径,指出在发展早期的技术依赖阶段,从单纯的技术购买转向通过并购获得技术许可,是企业提高技术能力的一个重要手段。当企业技术能力积累到一定阶段,从模仿创新到自主创新,战略性技术联盟和技术并购就成为企业技术能力成长的有效途径,可实现技术创新的超常规发展。同时大量实证研究也表明技术并购已成为企业技术能力提升的主要来源和趋势,技术并购对企业自主创新能力提升和形成起到了极大的推动作用。尤其是我国企业的跨国技术并购通过取得的研发资源与自身要素相结合,获得技术上的协同效应来进行消化吸收和再创新以培育企业自主研发能力,从而实现技术的跨越和企业核心竞争力的提升。以上研究对我国企业技术并购与技术创新实践提供了借鉴与启示。     

人性、爱情及共感受的悖论——解读昆德拉

他与先哲们或尚存的大师们的共通之处告诉我们,抓住当今人类精神真实的存在,一是要避开昔日辉煌的金字塔,从一个个毫不起眼的蜂窝中见人所不见,发掘所谓现代和后现代社会多元的真理;二是应不辞艰辛地走进人的精神世界,包括内心最隐秘的角落,不仅要认识人类共同的精神体验,尤其要深入自己往往无法走进的自己的精神世界,从那里寻求真正的非物质的“生命之轻”。     

适宜技术、技术选择和发展中国家的经济增长

在本文中，我们认为一个国家最适宜（优）的技术结构内生决定于这个国家的要素禀赋结构。如果一个发展中国家选择与其要素禀赋结构相一致的技术结构，那么这个发展中国家和发达国家之间在全要素生产率以及每个劳动力的人均产出上的差异就会变得最小。进一步地，如果发展中国家选择最适宜的技术，那么由于发展中国家在技术变迁的成本上比发达国家低，因此，发展中国家的经济增长速度可以超过发达国家的经济增长速度，从而，我们可以得出发展中国家可以收敛到发达国家的结论。     

人工智能、索洛悖论与高质量发展:通用目的技术扩散的视角

在生产网络中对新一代通用目的 技术——人工智能的采用和扩散是实现中国技术进步和高质量发展的关键所在.但在通用目的 技术扩散初期,劳动生产率增长将经历较长时间的低迷阶段,这被称为"索洛悖论".本文在对比信息时代和人工智能时代典型事实的基础上,将人工智能在生产网络中采用和扩散的过程内生化,构建了一个通用目的 技术扩散影响劳动生产率增长的动态模型,揭示了"索洛悖论"形成及其演化背后的经济机制,并进行了参数校准与仿真模拟.模型模拟结合基于中国产业面板数据的实证研究发现:无论是用研发投入与SG&A费用,还是以上市公司股票估值溢价所衡量的无形资本对生产率增长的影响都呈现出短期抑制作用,但在长期将有效提升生产率.此外,由于生产网络中的上游产业传导效应并不显著,提高下游产业传导效应和激发企业家精神是提高短期和长期劳动生产率,实现高质量发展的重要途径.     

技术演进动态性与技术赶超

越来越多的学者开始关注技术演进动态性对技术赶超的重要影响。基于技术演进动态性的分析,结合当前技术赶超理论的研究,指出在技术赶超的分析中应该注意两个方面:技术自身演化的特点和技术演进中的价值体系变迁对技术赶超的影响,提出了技术赶超的综合分析框架,为我国当前的技术赶超提供理论依据和现实指导。     

Percolation Processes, Technological Externalities and the Evolution of Technological Clubs

Technological cooperation has become more widespread in recent years. Percolation processes have been studied in physics as the outcome of four classes of forces termed as density, external pressure, connectivity and receptivity. In this paper the methodology of percolation processes has been adapted to interpret the dynamics of knowledge flows within innovation networks as communication systems and to understand the evolution of technological cooperation among firms both within and among industries.     

Inflows of Foreign Technology and Indigenous Technological Development

This paper explores the effects of inflows of foreign technology on technological development in developing countries. It evaluates the existing literature exploring this issue and indicates directions for further research. In particular, it is argued that the implications of the theory of foreign direct investment (the dominant channel of international technology transfer) for technological development have not been fully explored. Dynamic analyses of technology transfer that accommodate the salient features of developing countries have also begun to appear only recently. Further work along these lines is likely to yield rich dividends.     

企业技术创新与产业技术链整合

在梳理国内关于技术创新和技术外向性研究成果的基础上,界定了技术链的概念,分析了技术链的结构,并由此推导出技术链的整合程度是技术创新的关键,只有众多企业和政府齐心协力,才能促进技术创新的可持续进行。在此基础上,构建了技术链整合的评价指标体系,探讨了技术链整合对于个别企业技术创新的作用。     

外国直接投资、技术许可与技术创新

本文以经济全球化条件下 ,以包括中国在内的发展中国家努力向发达国家通过FDI(国外直接投资 )和LICENSING(技术许可 )的渠道进行技术引进以达到自主技术创新从而推动本国经济持续增长的目标为背景 ,建立了一个技术引进与经济增长的扩展模型。本文的主要结论是 :对于包括中国在内的发展中国家 (LDC)而言 ,技术许可比FDI所带来的技术外溢更有效 ,LDC或者依赖FDI,或者依靠技术许可作为其技术引进的主要来源。没有相应管制时倾向于依赖FDI。考虑制定何种政策以达到社会福利的最优化时 ,人力资本的水平起到了决定性作用。     

复杂产品技术能力增长机理研究

本文首先从知识观角度对企业技术能力的增长进行了细致分析,建立了企业技术能力增长的一般过程模型。在此基础上,对复杂产品技术能力增长的几个主要特殊问题作了详细的探讨,初步揭示了复杂产品技术能力增长的基本规律。     

International capital markets,oil producers and the Green Paradox

A rapidly rising carbon tax leads to faster extraction of fossil fuels and accelerates global warming. We analyze how general equilibrium effects operating through the international capital market affect this Green Paradox. In a two-region, two-period world with identical homothetic preferences and without investment, the global interest rate falls and the Green Paradox weakens. With investment or a relatively more impatient oil-importing region, the Green Paradox may be strengthened because the future oil demand function shifts downward or because the interest rate rises. If the oil-importing region is very much more patient than the oil-exporting region, the Green Paradox may be reversed but in our calibrated model the effects are tiny. With exploration and endogenous initial oil reserves, a future carbon tax lowers cumulative oil extraction in partial equilibrium. If the boost to current oil extraction is weakened, strengthened or reversed in general equilibrium, so is the fall in cumulative extraction. A partial and general equilibrium welfare analysis of a future carbon tax, both for full and partial exhaustion, is given. The effects of stock-dependent extraction costs are separately discussed in an Appendix.     

理性恐慌，流动性黑洞和国有股减持之谜

一个具有吸收态的状态转化模型表明国有股减持政策诱使股市状态转向所谓的“流动性黑洞”；同时，在股市行情大跌时追逐流动性的假说没有足够证据支持，因而股市大跌是整个市场的宏观现象。在这些实证结果的基础上，我们构建一个微观市场结构的理论模型来解释“国有股减持之谜”：它并非是一场简单的由消息所引发的股市行情大跌。其根源在于中国股市的功能缺陷，这进一步支持了我们先前关于“中国股票市场达不到弱式有效”的结论。