Identitarian passions: the overwhelming power of the human recognition need

According to Plato, thymòs—a notion denoting the human need for recognition—triggers off the most powerful and overwhelming human passions. Indeed, any action originated and nurtured by thymòtic passions places its own raison d’être in itself. The acts motivated by thymòs can either improve or (even) worsen someone’s wellness: they do not entail any pay-off in the present or future, and their nature is not influenced nor mitigated by monetary incentives. Moreover, it follows that since identity is based on the others’ recognition (both individuals and social groups), then indulging with thymòtic passions and building up someone’s own identity are exactly the same process. Indeed, thymòtic passions are identitarian passions. This paper argues the relevance of the thymòtic approach. We do propose a conceptual framework that we reckon is useful and innovative in order to study and interpret these peculiar forms of human action. We also point out the social and “environmental” conditions that stimulate their appearance.     

Undesirable versus desirable societies

The idea behind this paper is simple: While devising an image of a future society appears to be difficult— one that actually would be universally accepted as desirable—figuring out what we should avoid is probably a sensible first step. Framing the images of undesirable societies is, therefore, a necessary ingredient of any strategy for action.This essay has eight sections. In section 1, the general problem of desirable vs undesirable societies is sketched out. Section 2 deals with a critical analysis of some current societal projects that are considered desirable. In section 3, the shifting foundations of individual vs group images of future societies are briefly introduced. The main conclusion stemming from this part accents the need for considering two different issues when the desirability of a particular image is explored: the structure of the desired society and the desired rules of negotiation of what is or is not desirable in both the present and future. Section 4 focuses on some specific group images of what should be—namely on class, national, and global (or world) levels. In section 5, some conjectures concerning the general relationship between societal structures and rules for dialogue that can define such structures are presented. Section 6 deals with a special type of resonance—called here desirability resonance— as a framework for understanding societal dynamics. In section 7, the problem of assessing the roads leading to the desirable societies is explored, with emphasis on the difficulties of a (positive) idealized long- term planning. A new type of long-term planning (called here critical long-term planning), focussing especially on what is to be avoided as undesirable, is introduced in section 8 as a suggestion for a frame for a possible theory of negative strategic awareness in social choice.     

Social Capital Accumulation and the Exercise of Power: The Case of P2 in Italy

This article addresses the production of legitimate forms of power in our democracies by framing the rise and fall of “Propaganda 2” (P2) — a masonic lodge active in Italy during the 1970s — in the analysis of social capital proposed by Pierre Bourdieu. This lens emphasizes the role played by networks in the accumulation of symbolic capital and their interaction with the historical and institutional context in the exercise of symbolic violence. The experience of P2 is then analyzed to describe, on one hand, the characteristics of the networks that are critical to its success and, on the other, the lodge’s capacity to interfere with the economic and political systems within the context of the Cold War in Italy. The willingness to control and provoke institutional change expressed by P2’s affiliates also shows to what extent the accumulation of social capital, in combination with other forms of capital, may represent a threat to public welfare. By illustrating the interaction between networks and the normative framework underlying our institutions, this case study suggests that the experience of P2 is not an exception in the functioning of our democracies.     

Transaction costs,collective action and adaptation in managing complex social–ecological systems

With the escalating uncertainties and surprises faced in responding to environmental and natural resource challenges has come growing recognition of the need to manage such issues as social–ecological systems and value the capacities that enable adaptation to these changes. Adaptations in environmental management often involve complex, including wicked, problems of collective action. Institutions introduced to reduce the transaction costs of solving these problems do not come for free.A cost effectiveness framework designed to provide a comprehensive and logical structure for economic evaluation of path dependent institutional choices in this context, and a procedure for boundedly rational empirical application of the framework, are proposed and illustrated in this article — including for the choice between water buy-back and infrastructure upgrade programmes for accumulating the ‘environmental water’ needed to sustain the ecosystems of Australia's Murray–Darling Basin. Also outlined is a research strategy designed to help identify the heuristics needed for application of this procedure.     

Distributional Effects of Public Education in an Economy with Public Pensions*

We study how the allocation of government expenditures between two major outlays—education and pay‐as‐you‐go social security—affects human capital distribution in an economy with heterogeneous agents. We consider an overlapping generations economy where the government maintains both programs, and allocates tax revenues to finance them. In our model, human capital is one of the factors of production. It is itself produced as a combined result of public inputs and private inputs. Parents' decisions to invest time and material resources in education of their children are motivated by altruism, heterogeneous in its strength across the population, which leads to heterogeneity of incomes. We investigate the effect of an increase in public funding for education on the human capital distribution. We show that in this framework, contrary to some earlier results, increased spending on public education may lead to higher inequality. Our results depend crucially on the interaction of education funding with the social security budget and on the elasticity of substitution in the learning technology.     

Dynamic comparative advantage: Some implications for trade policy in North America

This paper explores the implications of changing North American trade policies for dynamic comparative advantage and shows, with examples from the energy and high-technology sectors, how a new policy based on interdependence might work. Newly industrializing countries such as Mexico should aim to break into industries with progressively higher technological and value-added components, such as computer manufacturing—industries that are entering a period of expanded demand and going beyond the period of greatest capital intensity. Although few Mexican firms might be expected to enter such oligopolistic markets alone (at least in the short run), they could combine forces with established enterprises abroad in order to permit gradual market penetration. The examples in the paper illustrate the need for a stable macroeconomic framework for policymaking that includes exchange rates, investment incentives, relative price behavior, taxes, intellectual property rights, labor and environmental regulations, capital market policies, harmonization of standards, and other measures. There is also a need for policies that anticipate the potential private and social returns of activities that might be overlooked in a static framework.     

大数据背景下科技型中小企业社会资本对动态能力的影响

基于大数据背景探讨了科技型中小企业社会资本对动态能力的影响,构建了社会资本—知识共享—动态能力理论模型。利用SPSS和Amos软件进行实证分析后发现,知识共享在社会资本与技术动态能力之间起完全中介作用,知识共享在认知资本和市场动态能力之间及关系资本与市场动态能力之间起完全中介作用,知识共享在结构资本和市场动态能力之间起部分中介作用。根据上述结论,提出相关建议。     

Social Responsibility and Accounting: A Possible Binomial

The main objective of our research is to give some evidence, from a conceptual approach, about the possibility of contributing to the social responsibility development, starting from accounting. Different authors agree that there is a rising need for developing a suitable conceptual framework, which gives information companies should provide in relation to their behavior towards the environment. However, this work intends, not only to analyze the reflection of the companies' behavior in financial information, but also to show how a new accounting framework could facilitate progress in the social responsibility of companies. The paper shows that it is absolutely necessary that accounting defines the way of calculating the results of the company, taking into account the social and economical approach. A key question is a more complete definition of the matching principle, and also to put forward the new requirements for information in relation to the new approach.     

The Role of Income Effects in Early Retirement

We provide a long‐term perspective on the individual retirement behavior and on the future of retirement by emphasizing the role of (negative) income effects. We consider a political economic theoretical framework, with actuarially “fair” and “unfair” early retirement schemes, and derive a political equilibrium with positive social security contribution rates and early retirement. A reduction in the wages in youth, consistent with the recent labor market trends since the massive introduction of temporary jobs, induces workers to postpone retirement, and—in the “unfair” system—leads to lower contribution rates. A reduction in the growth rate of the economy has opposite effects on the retirement decisions, leading—in the “unfair” system—to more early retirement. Aging induces a negative income effect, but has also an opposite political effect on social security contributions and retirement decisions. For an actuarially “fair” social security system, we provide conditions for the political effect to dominate; in an “unfair” scheme, numerical simulations confirm a slight predominance of the political effect, as contribution rates increase. These results may shed some light on the future of early retirement in aging societies.     

What If There Are No Conventional Price Mechanisms?

Inspired by Frederic (“Fred”) S. Lee’s theoretical contribution to institutional-heterodox economics, I make the case that the neoclassical price mechanism is not only flawed, but also irrelevant for the study of actual coordination mechanisms, hence the price mechanism — as a theory as well as a way of thinking — should be discarded. While this position was addressed by early institutionalists, starting with Thorstein Veblen, later institutionalists have not completely rejected the price mechanism. The sympathy for the price mechanism has prevented institutionalists (and other heterodox economists) from fully developing an alternative theoretical framework concerning how actual economic activities are organized. I, therefore, provide an institutionalist-heterodox framework of the provisioning process focusing on business enterprise activities. This framework shows how institutional economics becomes more refined and useful when it is married to other traditions in heterodox economics, in particular, Marxian, social, and post-Keynesian economics. Such an integrative approach is what Fred Lee showed through his work toward producing a better theory and policy for the underlying population.     

基于熵权TOPSIS法和三维结构下的区域发展模式——以山东省为例

针对区域发展中的诸多问题,需要对区域发展的理念与目标以及发展手段与措施等进行重新设计,以构建符合经济发展、社会进步和生态环境三方面要求的发展,即三维结构下的区域发展,提出三维结构下的8种区域发展模式类型。通过构建区域发展水平指标体系,引入熵权TOPSIS法对山东省17地市发展模式实证分析,17地市以经济—社会双滞后型发展模式和经济—社会—生态环境协同发展模式为主。三维结构下的区域发展模式类型的构建及实证分析对于区域发展理论和实践具有一定的借鉴意义。     

Information disclosure and exchange media

When commitment is lacking, intertemporal trade is facilitated with the use of exchange media—interpreted broadly to include monetary and collateral assets. We study the properties of a model commonly used to motivate monetary exchange, extended to include a physical asset whose expected short-run return is subject to a news shock, but whose expected long-run return is stable. The nondisclosure of news enhances the asset?s property as an exchange medium, and generally improves social welfare. When a nondisclosure policy is infeasible, the framework admits a role for government debt, including fiat money. When lump-sum taxation is not permitted, fiat money may still improve welfare—but only if its circulation is supported by a cash-in-advance constraint.     

Get ready for the L-bomb: A preliminary social assessment of longevity technology

The societal impacts upon various sectors of the United States population resulting from the retardation of the cellular aging process in men and women is the subject of this study. Significant biomedical research advances of recent years, as well as future fruitful areas of bio-science exploration in genetic programming, parabiosis, vitamin therapy, body temperature control, calorie quality and quantity intake, and the control of free radicals in body compounds, indicate the life span of the present generation may be expanded by a considerable number of years. The potential impact upon various sectors of our societal structure and institutions would be enormous. This study proposes to evaluate and assess the impact of the resultant population alteration upon seven major social variables (employment, income, resource consumption, education, the social service load, social institutions, and legal problems). This will be analyzed over a number of ten year time segments.The study will attempt to determine the effects of longevity technology upon the social impact variables within the framework of five basic working lifetime scenarios as follows: (1) normal working lifetime, (2) extended working lifetime, (3) delayed working lifetime, (4) segmented working lifetime, and (5) divided working lifetime. Two computer models of the United States—a demographic and an econometric—will be used to systematically measure the implications of these scenarios for the social impact variables.     

Framing Modern Monetary Theory

This article argues that Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has struggled to gain traction in wider economic and political debates due to: (1) An incomplete understanding of key macroeconomic terms among economic commentators, especially journalists, and the wider community (lack of education); and (2) The deployment of key macroeconomic terms (incorrectly) in the context of pervasive cultural metaphors to support policy interventions that effectively benefit a privileged few at the expense of the majority. We provide a conceptual basis for understanding how the language we use constrains our thinking and we examine some of the key metaphors used to reinforce the flawed message of orthodox economics. We examine key ideas of modern monetary theory—an apolitical model of macroeconomic operations—and propose effective ways of expressing those key ideas in a progressive social and economic framework.     

社会创业行为实现路径及内在机理——一项扎根理论的探索

基于8份社会创业者访谈材料，运用扎根理论方法，对社会创业在中国制度环境中的实现路径进行探索性分析。结果表明，社会创业意愿是社会创业的前置因素，制度情景和社会痛点是孕育社会创业意愿的重要土壤；创业者在多重制度逻辑中灵活运用合法性构建和资源拼凑等理性工具，并持续积累与更新创业知识和技巧，发挥社会创业意愿转化为创业行为的工具理性作用；当激励效应反馈到社会创业意愿时，新一轮创业行为将始于新的创业意愿；在整个社会创业意愿实现过程中，情绪特质和突发情节发挥重要调节效应。     

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS AND BALANCE SHEETS: ISSUES FOR THE REVISION OF SNA

This paper is an abridged version of a report with the same title originally written for the United Nations Statistical Office, as a part of the ongoing review of the System of National Accounts. Its purpose is to identify the issues in the financial statistics area that need to be considered in the course of the review. Particular attention is paid to problems of harmonization of SNA with related standards of the International Monetary Fund. The 1968 SNA provided a place in the framework for financial accounts and balance sheets, but did not develop them in any detail. In the 19 years since the revised SNA was published, policy and analytic interest in financial questions has greatly increased, and much work has been done on conceptual development and statistical compilation of financial statistics, both within and outside of the SNA framework. It is now apparent that some of the early decisions taken when financial considerations were not the focus of attention need reconsideration, some of the makeshift solutions that have grown up over time are no longer adequate, and some issues that have not been dealt with at all need to be addressed. This paper is not intended to propose solutions, but rather to reflect questions that have been raised, and to present alternatives that have been proposed.     

On the efficiency of fair trade

The first part of this paper reviews five major theoretical approaches that describe the fundamental causes of poverty, with particular attention to what these theories imply about government policy towards markets and the need for immediate poverty alleviation. Different causal theories have very different policy implications; it is difficult to recommend specific anti-poverty policies with making assumptions about the nature of economic markets and of individual behavior. The paper ends with comments about how to make these choices, arguing that the greater moral onus one associates with poverty, the more willing one should be to adopt less efficient strategies that do more to raise incomes among the poor. The interconnections between markets and social and political systems—which often disadvantage poor populations—suggests that some market regulations and targeted programs may be necessary to reduce poverty, especially if these can be implemented with minimal corruption and monitored for effectiveness.     

科学、价值与判断在环境影响评估架构中之整合

公共政策研拟，尤其是环境影响评估，不仅牵涉技术性科学层面，同时涵盖社会性价值评估与政策性决策判断。旨在探讨如何将科学、价值与判断等因素合理融合于环境影响评估作业过程中，并据此研拟一环境影响评估架构，作为中国台湾地区环保部门开发案审核依据之参考。本文所研拟之环境影响评估架构的理论基础包括社会选择理论、社会判断理论及多属性评估方法。通过社会选择理论分析环境政策制定的机制；通过社会判断理论解释科学与价值如何整合于政策制定及其可行性中；而通过多属性评估方法建立开发案评选的集体决策技术。以山坡地开发为例说明此架构在实践中的应用。     

Sustainable use of renewable resources: an identity approach

Despite the achievements obtained by environmental economics over recent decades, it shares the same failings as economic theory in general. In this sense, regarding preferences, very little attention has been paid to three elements; the long-term change in social preferences, the incorporation of non-economic factors in the structure of preferences, and the need to consider some kind of heterogeneity in social preferences. In this paper we deal with these three issues by developing a new framework which encloses non-economic factors as one of the driving forces to explain consumer behavior and which allows us to endogeneize preference and consider heterogeneity. After setting up our approach, we pose the question as to how far such a framework modifies the levels of use and consumption of a renewable resource. Our findings have enabled us to draw interesting conclusions regarding environmental policies in place since the 1970s.     

Are modern philosophical accounts of well-being excessively ‘individualistic’?

Do modern accounts of well-being which have influenced, or been adopted by, some economists encourage excessive ‘individualism’? I suggest that this question can be answered by considering two objections to modern views of welfare: (1) that they involve an impoverished view of persons and (2) that they decompose all goods into goods for individuals and do not give intrinsic value to collective goods. I argue that two influential views of well-being—the informed desire view and the capability approach—can convincingly respond to these objections. Both views allow for our distinct social roles and identities: the ways in which social norms and institutions shape values and a concern for others. Neither view sees goods as goods only of specific individuals, nor do they require us to separate out neatly the realisation of values in the lives of various individuals. But that does not imply that goods such as friendship are collective rather than individual goods or that collective goods have intrinsic value. Nonetheless, accounts of well-being may need to be more explicit than they have been in incorporating the social dimension.