Book review essays

Book reviewed in this article: Regionalism and monopoly capitalism: a new approach to the study of local power : Dulong, R. 1978: Les régions, l'état et la société locale. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Regionalism and monopoly capitalism: a new approach to the study of local power : Logroye, J. Wright, V. editors 1979: Local government in Britain and France: problems and prospects (LGBF). Regionalism and monopoly capitalism: a new approach to the study of local power : Tarrow, S., Katzenstein, P. and Graziano, L. editors 1978: Territorial politics in industrial nations (TPIN). Regionalism and monopoly capitalism: a new approach to the study of local power: Lojkine, J. 1977: Big firms' strategies, urban policies and urban social movements (1975). In Harloe, M., editor, Captive cities.     

Problem shifts and market research: The role of networks in business relationships

This article discusses changes in approach to the study of business relationships, and sees the paradigm concept as constituting an inadequate basis for describing gradually evolving changes in the perception of business. The frequent references to paradigms appear to focus more on state aspects than on change aspects of theory building. The article attempts to trace some of the changes in the perception of markets preceding the emergence of network theories, and relates the presence of an interactional approach to business studies to the concept of problem shifts (Lakatos). The development of interactional approaches in marketing is seen as representing a shift away from theory building commonly found in economics and organizational theory. Changes in the approach to the study of business relationships are interpreted as theoretical or empirical problem shifts, and are thus related to the a priori and a posteriori relevance of the continual evolution of alternative business theories. The article explores some of the epistemological relevance of the network theories to the study of market relationships, and the potential impact on continual changes in approach to the study of markets.     

Post Keynesian Theories of Crisis

Post Keynesian economics has two complementary theories of crisis that were used to predict the 2007 crisis and diagnose its causes: Minsky's financial instability hypothesis and Godley's stock‐flow‐consistent approach. Both theories take a monetary perspective on capitalism and argue that the dynamics of private debt caused the crisis. As well as explaining the crisis and enabling its occurrence (though not precise timing) to be predicted, both theories imply that the current recovery will be short‐lived because the underlying cause of the last crisis has not been addressed by subsequent economic policy.     

An alternative to shareholder capitalism? A review of Alex Edmans' “Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit”

Alex Edmans' “Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit” provides an alternative approach to business called Pieconomics. Profits to shareholders play a critical role in Pieconomics (similar as in shareholder capitalism), but the goal of an enterprise is to maximize the social value it creates (somewhat similar as in stakeholder capitalism). This review discusses and critically evaluates this thesis.     

制定成本会计准则的必要性——基于价格管制和政府采购的视角

文章运用垄断价格管制理论和福利经济学相关理论分析了当前出现垄断行业的"三高"以及政府采购成本偏高的现象,指出成本会计准则的制定是对垄断行业进行价格管制的前提,同时成本会计准则的制定必将有利于对政府采购成本实行有效控制,最后就如何制定成本会计准则提出了一些建议。     

混合所有制改革是否有助于缓解人力资本配置扭曲

将人力资本在所有制企业间的配置扭曲（错配）理解为技术配置扭曲和规模配置扭曲两个方面,基于1998—2013年中国工业企业数据库的相关数据,探讨国有企业混合所有制改革影响人力资本配置扭曲的内生机理,结果表明：混合所有制改革鼓励非国有资本通过参股、控股和并购等方式参与到国有企业的生产决策中,这有助于完善国有企业的公司治理结构和利润分配机制,进一步缓解人力资本的技术配置扭曲和规模配置扭曲程度;相对于非行政垄断行业,行政垄断行业中国有企业混合所有制改革对于人力资本配置扭曲的缓解作用较小。     

Salmon's critique of Hempel: an alternative view of statistical explanation and theory building

This paper outlines and discusses Wesley Salmon's S-R model of explanation, and commends it to the favorable attention of political scientists. The discussion undertaken here proceeds in three general sections. The first recounts Hempel's account of deductive-nomological (D-N) and inductive-statistical (I-S) explanation. The discussion will particularly note those aspects of Hempel's account that impart special stringency to the requirements of I-S explanation. Section Two unfolds Salmon's S-R model of explanation, which is both a positive account of his model and a critique of the Hempelian account. The third section illuminates those aspects of Salmon's account that make it particularly useful to researchers who are attempting to develop and test theories en route to explanation. The paper concludes with some comments about the usefulness to political scientists of Salmon's S-R model.     

Economics, Sociology, and the "Professional Complex"

A bstract .   This article discusses the relationship between economics and sociology in the context of Parsons's analytical theory of action and systems and his criticisms of orthodox and institutional economics. The article also addresses his view of the importance of the professions to an understanding of the nature of advanced capitalism. The professions are discussed as both an illustration of his theoretical argument and a substantive problem that stimulated the development of his theory. The "professional complex" is an emergent phenomenon in capitalism that modifies its operation and points to the complexity of systems of social action that require to be analyzed without being reduced to one of their elements. This reductionism is evident in orthodox economic theory and also in the more sociologically-oriented approach of institutional economics. Parsons argues that each is a form of what, following Whitehead, he calls the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness." Although Parsons offers a significant critique of dominant approaches in economics, major flaws within his own theory create the appearance that he has simply carried over the deficiencies of orthodox theory into his own general statement of theory. These flaws contribute to major misunderstandings of Parsons's project and, therefore, indicate continuing problems in the relation between economics and sociology.     

Political Instability, Uncertainty and Economics

This paper focuses on the relationship between political instability, policy–making and macroeconomic outcomes. The theoretical section explores various models that explain the effect of instability (and political uncertainty) on growth, budget formation, inflation and monetary policy. The empirical section discusses the evidence on the predictions generated by theoretical models. Preliminary to this discussion, however, is the analysis of a few general issues concerning the specification and estimation of econometric models with political variables. Some new results are then produced on the empirical relevance of theories of strategic use of fiscal deficit.     

SOCIO‐ECONOMIC STUDIES ON SUICIDE: A SURVEY

Abstract In this paper, we review economic theories and empirical studies on the socio‐economic aspects of suicide. Through our survey, we would like to emphasize the importance of studying suicide by employing a ‘rational’ approach that complements the medical perspective on suicide. We first introduce major economic theories of suicide and then present a summary of a variety of empirical studies from the socio‐economic perspective. To shed light on the mixed empirical evidence, we employ a meta‐regression method to investigate how the existing empirical results vary. We have identified a publication bias, not highlighted previously, in the existing literature with respect to several commonly employed socio‐economic factors. Several characteristics of existing studies have been identified as influencing the qualitative outcome. We then discuss the recent developments in economic studies on suicide, on the basis of the authors’ ongoing project on suicide. In the concluding section, we point out some issues for further studies.     

Cities in Contemporary Capitalism

This article outlines essential concepts of the political economy approach of urban research and offers critical modifications and clarifications to some of its contentions concerning the functioning of cities as ‘strategic places’ of capital accumulation. The interrelations between contemporary capitalism and urban economic development are discussed at the scale of a transnationally extended urban system. Based on the general context of the global economic downturn, I focus on the role of cities in distinct circuits of capital, the switching of capital flows within the urban system and the different functional roles of cities within the world city network that interconnects cities both in the global North and South. I call into question the established focus of urban economic research on the role of cities as financial and service centres, arguing that cities might redirect their economic development trajectories towards ‘real economy’ activities, in contrast to relying on the disastrous development model of finance‐dominated capitalism.     

Evolutionary and radical approaches to economic reform

At the end of 1989, most economists agreed that the optimal approach to socialist economic reform involved immediate destruction of old institutions and rapid conversion to capitalist arrangements. This approach is called the radical one. The evolutionary approach has always offered an alternative program of reform. The paper discusses the recent breakdown in the radical consensus and provides a general overview of the evolutionary approach. Two conceptually distinct sets of evolutionary theories are examined-evolutionary economics and conservative political philosophy. Drawing upon these existing theories, the paper builds the rudiments of a single philosophy of evolutionary reform. The evolutionary and radical schemes are then compared. Their different implications for the speed of reform, the use of the old institutions, the magnitude of single elements of reform, and the use of theory are highlighted.     

综合标准化的理论基础

文章从综合标准化需要理论指导、系统理论与综合标准化具有交叉以及综合标准化方法论的3块基石：目标导向、系统分析和整体协调等方面对综合标准化的理论基础进行了阐述。     

环境管理会计理论与实务问题分析

环境管理会计作为管理会计创新的组成部分,其理论研究和实务在过去十年里得到迅速发展．本文对国际上解决常规管理会计中有关问题的EMA理论研究和实务现状进行了分析,回顾了国际上有关行业的EMA 案例,分析了其存在问题,探讨了环境管理会计在投资评估、成本计算以及绩效管理等方面的进一步工作．     

Monopoly regulation without the Spence–Mirrlees assumption

The paper extends the Baron and Myerson [Baron, D., Myerson, R.B., 1982. Regulating a monopolist with unknown costs. Econometrica 50, 911–930] model of monopoly regulation to bidimensional adverse selection: both the marginal cost and the fixed cost of the monopoly are unknown to the regulator. Like in Araujo and Moreira [Araujo, A., Moreira, H., 2000. Adverse section problems without the Spence–Mirrlees condition. Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro, Ensaios Economicos 389], the paper provides an explicit solution of a screening model without the Spence–Mirrlees assumption.     

行业劳动收入份额的影响因素与差距：基于卡莱斯基理论的解析

卡莱斯基从工业制品的定价模式出发,提出了垄断程度决定工资份额的理论.本文以此为基础,首先把行业工资份额的决定归结为行业的价格加成率、技术构成和工资率等直接变量,分析了各直接变量的影响因素,评述了卡莱斯基理论的进步性与局限性;其次利用中国工业细分行业的面板数据,把行业劳动收入份额的差距解析为价格加成率、技术构成和工资率的差距,并验证了直接变量的影响因素;最后就中国的国有企业改革、产业结构升级和收入分配改善等问题提出了若干建议.     

Optimally derived fixed rules and indicators

Monetary targets have come to be regarded as inadequate for the conduct of short-term monetary policy, both among theoreticians and practitioners of policy. In this paper two approaches are put forward, analysed and evaluated for improving the performance of monetary targets. According to the first approach, simple rules for monetary targets are derived within an optimisation framework. These rules, related to ultimate targets, are simple so that they can be announced and are flexible so that they are subject to revision when the economy drifts away from its course due to unexpected shocks.The second approach is based on indicators and complements monetary targets with exchange rate targets through a simple feedback law for determining interest rate policy. The advantage of this feedback law is that it provides the mechanism through which policy is to be revised in response to shocks. If such a feedback law is announced, private economic agents have the means of distinguishing discretionary and arbitrary changes of policy from those which are needed to bring the economy back to the announced and committed course. This approach is used to analyse and extend the suggestions in the House of Commons Report on International Monetary Arrangements.The common ground between the two approaches is an optimisation framework with respect to the parameters of either the fixed simple rules or the simple feedback laws. This is discussed in section 1. The approach of deriving simple fixed rules is illustrated in a monetarist model in which there is a link between private sector expectations and the credible announcement of monetary targets. The model is explained in section 2 and simple fixed rules are discussed in section 3. The performance of simple rules for monetary targets is evaluated in terms of a minimax strategy with model uncertainty between the monetarist model and a Keynesian model without the assumption of announcement effects. This is discussed in section 4. Optimal feedback laws are derived and analysed in section 5. The parameter sensitivity of these feedback laws with respect to the model and the objective function, as well as their behaviour under shocks, is also examined.     

Modeling the Economy as a Whole: An Integrative Approach

This article integrates the social surplus approach with input‐output, stock‐flow consistent, social accounting, and social fabric modeling with a structure‐agency methodology to develop a historically grounded model of the economy. The first two sections develop a model of the monetary structure of the social provisioning process. The third section introduces agency into the model in the form of the acting organization. The fourth section uses the social fabric approach and historical context drawn from social structures of accumulation to develop a socially embedded, historically contextualized, structured‐agency model of the economy as a whole. The final section discusses the importance of the model.     

西方积累的社会结构理论研究的最新趋向

积累的社会结构(Social Structure of Accumulation,简称SSA)理论是激进政治经济学领域最重要的理论创新之一,该理论有着坚实的马克思主义经济学渊源。西方激进主义经济学者对该理论的研究成果众多,创新不断。本文将该理论研究的最新趋向归纳为三点:一是西方激进主义学者开始从宏观的角度重新思考和构建或者说是界定一种新的可以认知资本主义发展的SSA理论框架;二是西方激进主义学者开始对SSA的形成;三是发展中的机制和要素进行探讨和西方激进主义学者开始从积累的社会结构角度解读"中国模式",并且对西方激进主义学者在这三个方面的研究方法和研究进展进行了深入评析,希望能对国内学者在认识和研究SSA理论时提供一些方向性的研究素材。     

MORALITY, ECONOMICS AND THE MARKET IN THE THOUGHT OF BENEDICT XVI

While not uncritical of aspects of modern capitalism, John Paul II's 1991 social encyclical, Centesimus Annus , directed official Catholic teaching towards more explicit affirmation of the moral potential of free markets, exchange and enterprise. Analysis of the pre-pontifical writings of Pope John Paul's successor, Benedict XVI, suggests that an equally nuanced approach to economics and the market from the most authoritative Catholic teaching authority is likely to continue.