From Social Theory to Explaining Sickonomics: A Response to Dimitris Milonakis and Ben Fine

This response shows that, in their reply to my critique of their work, Ben Fine and Dimitris Milonakis generally maintain the impression that there is a single, widely accepted definition of methodological individualism, but they do not identify it. They assert that social structures (undefined but seemingly specified to exclude law and institutions) have ‘analytical priority’ and logically (but tacitly) imply that individuals should have no part in the analysis of social or economic phenomena. They mischaracterise Hodgson's (2011) position on Marshall by quoting just one part-sentence out of context. Fine, Milonakis and Hodgson agree that the intellectual roots of the predominance of technique over substance in modern economics can partly be traced to the 1870–1900 period, but disagree on what they are.     

Wealth Distribution and Imperfect Factor Markets: A Classroom Experiment

The author presents a simple exercise to demonstrate how initial property distribution can affect final wealth patterns in developing areas of the world. The simulation is a variant of the Monopoly board game in which students role play different members of a market in which they each face different rules of credit access and salary patterns. The property distribution and new mortgage rules reflect the reality of many developing areas. The simulation can be completed in one full class period and has proven successful in making students more sensitive to wealth distribution issues. Students have suggested several variations of this simulation to make it applicable across more settings.     

Economic reforms and human development: evidence from transition economies

Do market-oriented economic reforms result in higher levels of human well-being? This article studies the impact of macro-level institutional and infrastructure reforms on the economic, educational and health dimensions of human well-being among 25 transition economies. We use panel data econometrics based on the LSDVC technique to analyse the effects of market-oriented reforms on the human development index (HDI), as a measure of human well-being, from 1992 to 2007. The results show the complexity of reform impacts in transition countries. They show that institutional and economic reforms led to positive economic effect and significant impacts on other dimensions of human development. We find some positive economic impacts from infrastructure sectors reforms. However, not every reform measure appears to generate positive impacts. Large-scale privatizations show negative effects in health and economic outcomes. The overall results show the importance of the interaction among different reform measures and the combined effect of these on human development.     

交通信号灯与拍卖机制——对市场与制度关系的一个案例研究

肖特的交通博弈模型表明,当还不具备足够的技术条件有效降低交易成本的情况下,更为可行的制度可以成为价格机制的替代,然而其模型并不足以证明制度与市场价格机制的替代关系。现代技术条件使得十字路口价格机制的实现成为可能,因此也表明了制度与市场价格机制并非简单的替代关系。模型的发展演变反映了奥地利学派的自发市场秩序观更为具有解释力。     

From Malthus to Ohlin: Trade,Industrialisation and Distribution Since 1500

A recent endogenous growth literature has focused on the transition from a Malthusian world where real wages were linked to factor endowments, to one where modern growth has broken that link. In this paper we present evidence on another, related phenomenon: the dramatic reversal in distributional trends—from a steep secular fall to a steep secular rise in wage-land rent ratios—which occurred some time early in the 19th century. What explains this reversal? While it may seem logical to locate the causes in the Industrial Revolutionary forces emphasized by endogenous growth theorists, we provide evidence that something else mattered just as much: the opening up of the European economy to international trade.     

Skilled and unskilled wage dynamics in Italy in the 1990s: changes in individual characteristics,institutions, trade and technology

In this paper, we use individual micro data on workers combined with industry and regional data to study the wage dynamics of skilled and unskilled workers in Italy in the 1991–1998 period. In contrast to previous empirical studies, our data make it possible to analyse, within a single framework, the role of many of the factors indicated in the literature as possible determinants of skilled and unskilled wage dynamics: changes in the individual characteristics of workers, changes in labour market institutions, increasing international integration, and skill‐biased technological progress. Our results show that international integration, both in terms of trade in goods and in terms of international labour mobility, plays a role in determining the wage dynamics of skilled (white‐collar) and unskilled (blue‐collar) workers. Moreover, in line with labour economics research, our findings show that the individual characteristics of workers and the institutional variables are more relevant in explaining skilled and unskilled wage dynamics than wage differentials.     

政府经济职能:市场机制的补充者

转变政府职能是现阶段经济改革的一项主要任务,关系整个改革进程,因此,我们亟需寻求政府职能的恰当定位。政府经济职能不能定位于市场的替代者,而应定位于市场机制的补充者。把政府经济职能定位于市场机制的补充者是政府职能的真正回归。     

Assessing poverty-deforestation links: Evidence from Swat, Pakistan

This paper contributes to the debate on the links between poverty and forestry degradation; the view that due to poverty and the meeting of subsistence needs the poor use natural resources more intensively and hence cause them to degrade. Using the case of the forest rich Swat district, Pakistan, the paper addresses the issue empirically, historically, and institutionally. We do not find empirical support for the “poverty-environment nexus”, in that the poor and other income groups are equally resource dependent and also show that resource degradation is not associated with poverty. Our historical and institutional analyses provide alternative explanations for resource degradation. Selective and rotating ownership patterns, starting with the 17th century, provided limited incentive for resource conservation. It also created tension between de jure and de facto owners, that has persisted, and is one source of forest degradation. Ill-defined resource rights have also exacerbated the impacts of several other factors contributing to forest degradation which is compounded by poor management, corruption, and perverse incentives.     

Aging, Asset Markets, and Asset Returns: A View From Europe to Asia

The extent of the demographic changes is dramatic especially in some Asian and European countries. This paper investigates the effect of aging on global asset markets and asset returns, focusing on markets for productive capital, and especially on interactions between European and Asian economic development. Aging has complex effects on the markets for real capital. If elderly people save less than younger people, interest rates will increase. At the same time, however, the younger generation becomes smaller, which reduces the demand for new investment. The equilibrium effect is thus uncertain. Our multicountry computational equilibrium model delivers a subtle picture: there will be some decline in the return from productive capital, but it is relatively small. We find noticeable interaction effects between labor market and pension reforms in Europe on the one hand, and the demographic and economic developments in Asia, especially India and China, on the other hand.     

Trends in employment and the employment elasticity in manufacturing, 1971-92: an international comparison

Employment growth in manufacturing is limited by output growthin this sector, but the elasticity of employment with respectto output has varied widely in different regions and economies.This paper focuses attention on the idea that a major determinantof employment elasticity is the way the fruits of output growthare divided between employment growth and wage growth. But beforewe are able to determine the quantitative dimension of the trade-off,we have to allow for two other factors which affect the sizeof the cake available to labour in real terms. These are: (i)the elasticity of the wage bill with respect to output, whichdetermines the trend in the share of labour; and (ii) the priceeffect, depending partly on the rate of inflation and partlyon the movements of producer prices relative to consumer prices.A simple decomposition procedure is outlined in the paper whichallows us to quantify the relative importance of these factors,and hence give a clearer idea of the labour market outcome leaningto one or other of the two interests, employment growth andreal wage growth. The empirical analysis for different regionsof the world is carried out on time series data for the manufacturingsector collected by UNIDO from the national surveys of membercountries for the decades of the 1970s and the 1980s.     

循环经济:从理想到现实的系统工程

从传统工业经济向循环经济转型,不仅意味着经济形态的转变,更意味着社会与文化形态的深刻变革。物质技术层面为循环经济的发展构筑了物化平台和技术层面的可能性;制度行为层面为循环经济的发展提供了社会运作的制度框架;从传统工业文明向生态文明的转型触及传统工业文明的精神内核,是保障循环经济良性发展的社会依托。     

The contribution of institutions, trade, and geography to the development process: How robust is the empirical evidence to variations in the sample?

This paper uses an influence spectrum to identify influential subsets in a stylized cross-country data set and finds that institutions, geography, and trade (policy), all appear to play a significant role in the development process for a relatively large sub-sample of countries. For example, equatorial distance, a proxy for geography, becomes positive and significant (originally negative and insignificant) after removing only eight countries or observations from the original sample of sixty-three, while controlling for institutions and trade. In fact, for this set of fifty-five countries all three variables have the correct sign and are statistically significant. As another example, the trade variable becomes positive and significant (originally insignificant) after removing only two countries from the original sample.First version received: May 2003/Final version received: February 2004     

SME Support in Post-Communist Countries: Moving from Individual to Cooperative Approaches (Reflections on the Polish Case)

In the most advanced post-Communist countries of Europe, including Poland, the dynamic growth of the small business sector has been the chief factor driving economic growth since 1992, and has been accompanied by a number of public programs supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) development. However, I argue that something crucial is generally missing from these programs; namely, an attempt to go beyond the problems of individual businesses to approaches based on forms of association and cooperation which preserve, and even enhance, the overall competitiveness of the economy. As a result, while the Visegrad countries are doing well on numbers of SMEs, they are lagging behind in the development of those firms. While proponents of such cooperative arrangements in Poland usually meet the argument that Polish culture does not provide fruitful soil for them, one can point to a handful of experiments in the area of small business finance which prove that this is not necessarily so. This paper presents reflections on the problems and potential of public SME support programs based on case studies of two mutual loan guarantee funds, an enterprise incubator, and various types of business supports centers in one region.     

Pricing to Market of German Exporters: Evidence from Panel Data

This paper investigates pricediscrimination of German exporters across differentforeign markets. We examine the degree of pass-throughof exchange rate fluctuations in the pricing of 70export items. The model is estimated using panel dataon export unit values. Parameter estimation relies onGMM first difference, fixed effects, LAD, OLS firstdifference, and the random coefficients model. Themain results for 70 manufactured goods and 15destination countries between 1990–1994 are: Thedegree of pricing to market differs among destinationsand products. Highest pricing to market is observedfor U.S., Japan, Italy and Spain. Pricing to market ismore prevalent in exports of chemicals and fertilisersthan in machinery products.     

Institutional Matrices Theory,or X- and Y-Theory: A Response to F. Gregory Hayden

This article draws attention to issues about the institutional matrices theory (IMT) as perceived by and raised in the article by F. Gregory Hayden. To clarify the “controversial” points, I structure my response narrative along two lines. First, I present the prehistory of IMT, or X- and Y- theory, including earlier work by scientists related to the concept of institutional matrix. I connect the development of the actual IMT with the period of “perestroika” and the associated market experiments and reforms in Russia and Eastern European countries. One could see that the effects of market reforms in Russia were different in comparison with other countries in economic transition. I show that the institutional approach was accepted as more relevant to understanding the unexpected results in Russian society. I present IMT as a development of the ideas of Karl Polanyi and Douglas North to answer the challenges of explaining the real social and economic processes in Russia, as well as its wider application to a broader range of economic and social situations in different countries. Second, I then present the main IMT theses, giving special attention to the issues as perceived and raised by Hayden. In conclusion, I suggest the possibility of a joint project that combines IMT consideration and the social fabric matrix (SFM) concept of F. Gregory Hayden.     

Norms and Rationality in the Evolution of Economic Systems: A View from Asian Villages

The evolution of economic systems is viewed as a process in which various informal arrangements are experimented with for improving efficiency under changed economic environments, some of which may survive and become established as new social norms. The process is illustrated by a micro case study of Philippine villages. It reveals the ability of peasants subsisting on small farms to resolve a major disequilibrium between labour's marginal productivity and the wage rate resulting from the intro duction of modern rice technology, by creating, on the basis of their traditional experience, an appropriate institution consistent with their cultural norm. Concurrently, large estate farms were seen to arrive at an inferior outcome because of their inability to utilize the peasant community's norm, thereby demonstrating the existence of multiple equilibria
JEL Classification Numbers: D23, O17, P51     

模块化理论的局限及超越 --一个修正性文献的综述

本文系统阐述了模块化理论的修正性文献。从反驳主流模块化理论的逻辑点和逻辑链条出发,本文从技术模块化的限制因素、技术模块化的动态过程、技术模块化与市场模块化的关系、市场模块化有限的经验意义、解决方法等五个方面介绍和评价了模块理论的修正性文献。     

专业市场与产业集聚互动研究:来自浙江的案例

在规模报酬递增的行业,如果专业市场对该行业产品存在强需求,往往会导致同类企业在市场周边的集聚,同时集聚经济的形成使得企业能够为专业市场提供低价格的商品。与此同时,产品技术含量增加导致甄别商品质量的难度增加,由此造成的专业市场交易效率下降将降低对采购商和集聚区企业的吸引力,同时集聚区产业组织的变化促使领导型的企业绕开专业市场组织企业间的分工,并建立自身的产品营销体系。     

Stock market reactions to environmental disclosures: new evidence from China

We study how the stock market in China responds to announcements by an environmental risk index and find that China’s stock market penalizes firms associated with unfavourable environmental news if the information is provided directly to investors in a manner that is easily understood. We also find that the negative impact on stock prices fades after multiple disclosures of the same information.     

Spot market wages,implicit contracts and technological change: skill-level evidence from Finland

This article investigates the relevance of the theories of implicit contracts and spot market model to the skill-level wages in Finland. We use linked worker-firm panel data over the period from 1991 to 2004, which included major institutional and technological changes. We find similar patterns in the wage flexibility of primary and highly educated workers: their wages increased with the decreasing spot market unemployment rate after the EU membership still exhibiting some weak backward linkages. The wages of the secondary-educated did not follow the decreasing spot market unemployment, but instead some signs of the full commitment risk sharing were found.