Institutional Economics as Theory of Policy Change: Impact of Past Policy Failures on Present Policy

Social scientists have developed several theories for understanding or evaluating policy change over time. Since all costs or benefits are not internalized owing to positive transaction costs, policymaking is always implemented under cost underestimation conditions and, therefore, is imperfect. I call this trait policy failure in this article. Furthermore, I show that a new framework combining the social costs approach and the legal/economic approach in institutional economics is suitable and can be applied to evaluating how past policy failures affect present policy, providing as an example the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.     

Bringing Social Structure Back into Economics: On Critical Realism and Hayek's Scientism Essay

This paper offers a critique of the critical realist (CR) interpretation of Friedrich Hayek's famous essay Scientism and the Study of Society presented in Tony Lawson's recent Economics and Reality. It is argued, contrary to Lawson's reading, that Hayek's social structures (1) do have an existence over and above the conceptions of the individual actors and (2) serve as a precondition for human action on the lines proposed by CR. Some links are made between Hayek's essay and the theory of social reality recently proposed by John Searle, and some comparisons drawn with CR.     

西方组织战略理论的演进与述评

组织战略理论从20世纪60年代以来,经历了3个阶段,分别是：以组织结构为基础的组织战略理论、以产业环境为基础的竞争战略理论以及目前研究的比较热门的能力理论。其理论分析的视角分别是组织内部、组织外部,而后又重新回到组织内部。而能力理论中存在的最大缺陷一一能力惯性,据此提出动态能力理论,其研究视角是一个较新的视角：结合组织内外两方面,最后针对动态能力理论的未来研究提出了展望。     

社会性别视野中的人力资本投资

基于人力资本投资性别差异的现实,论述了人力资本投资中社会经济发展水平和社会文化对性别歧视的影响.通过社会关系分析法,揭示了人力资本理论中所存在的社会性别歧视,提出了经济发展水平的提高可以减少人力资本投资的性别歧视,社会文化的进步是消除人力资本投资性别歧视的根本.     

Freedom of Choice and Poverty Alleviation

The Capability Approach (henceforth CA) views poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon that is not only characterised by lows levels of achievement in the various dimensions but also by a restricted opportunity to choose among different ways of life. The CA thus puts a lot of emphasis on (limited) freedom of choice as a crucial aspect of poverty. If poverty is seen in this way there are two ways to improve the situation of the poor: by broadening the set of opportunities open to them or by strengthening their ability to choose. The paper concentrates on the latter. Although the CA discusses several possibilities for strengthening the ability to choose it does not explicitly consider the role of enhancing the capability of choosing as a means of poverty alleviation. The paper summarizes which circumstances are seen in the CA as suitable for strengthening freedom of choice. Namely, the paper discusses the market as an institution that trains the ability to choose, democracy as a political institution that is based on freedom of choice and participatory methods as an attempt to build explicitly on freedom of choice of the participants. Two shortcomings in the theoretical conceptualization of freedom of choice in the CA are identified by discussing these institutions and circumstances: first, the interplay between social structures and individual agency is not modelled in much detail within the CA. Second, the CA does not provide an explicitly temporal model of agency. The paper takes a closer look at these shortcomings from a sociological perspective since the questions they raise are core questions of sociology. The problems are intertwined. In order to tackle the problem of social embedding in the CA one needs to introduce time and processes as well. Sociological approaches show how social structures evolve from the interaction of individuals. The paper gives an example of how sociological concepts of this interaction can be used for drawing a model of social work for strengthening the agency of the poor. The paper proceeds as follows: first the view of poverty as capability deprivation is presented. The second section gives an overview of the areas in which the CA discusses the strengthening of individual choice: the market, democracy and participatory projects. The third section elaborates on the shortcomings of the CA identified in the preceding section from a sociological perspective and introduces a concept of social work developed in a similar theoretical context. The conclusion summarizes the lessons and outlines further lines of research.     

Centering Social Economics on Human Dignity 1

The paper explores a social economics centered on the normative value of human dignity. The first part of the paper explores the philosophical meaning of the concept. In the process, great weight is given to Alan Gewirth's “dialectically necessary argument” for human dignity, grounding the concept in human agency. The second part explores some of the apparent major implications: a rejection of both positive methodology and cultural relativism; the questioning of economic rationality and the efficiency norm; much of commercial advertising; and cost-benefit analysis. It also serves as a critique of the Kaldor-Hicks criterion, the institution of the wage system and of an unqualified application of cost-benefit analysis.     

股权结构与股利政策的发展综述及展望

作为公司财务理论三大支柱之一的股利政策,一直是一个难解之谜。2006年,股权分置改革取得了阶段性的胜利,它解决了长期以来因“同股不同权”而带来的公司治理方面的诸多问题。国际上对股权结构主要从股权流通性、股权集中度、股权制衡度等方面进行探究,而我国关于股权结构与股利政策关系的实证研究主要集中在股权流通性上,研究表明：我国非流通股偏好现金股利,而流通股偏好股票股利。国外研究表明：股权集中度与股利支付水平负相关,而我国则相反。至于股权制衡度,欧洲与亚洲亦得出相反的结论。     

Natural Images in Economics: A Review Essay

An extended review of Philip Mirowski's edited collectionNatural Images in Economic Thought. Examines the roles of metaphors; the relationships between metaphors of the “natural” and the “social”; the significance of metaphoric reasoning, for economics, with regard to questions of meaning, ontology and epistemology; the discursive, or rhetorical, nature of economic theory; and significant historical and interpretive issues pertinent to economic thought.     

Review Essay on Economics for the Common Good

The initial stage of labor market activity for young adults influences their labor market engagement and earnings profiles over their life cycle. I examine earnings inequality among young adults in a dynamic setting. Education, marital status, race are contributors to the observed earnings inequality. Earnings equalization is observed in the long run, and the proportion of earnings inequality attributed to education, marital status, and race is found to be significant.     

The Challenge of Social Economics: A Review Essay

This paper starts from the perspective that giving meaning to life is a key function of religion: through its narratives, rituals, creeds, and practices, religion clothes life in a meaningful frame. Interestingly, though, meaning of life has not yet appeared in studies on the relation between religion and economic behavior. As meaning of life may prove to be a crucial factor in understanding this relation, this paper seeks to develop a new approach to understanding the link between religion and economic behavior from the viewpoint of meaning of life.     

Sen is not a capability theorist†

This paper aims to clarify the status of capability in Sen’s idea of justice. Sen’s name is so widely associated with the concept of capability that commentators often assume that his contribution to the study of justice amounts to a capability theory, albeit underdeveloped. We argue that such a reading is misleading. Taking Sen’s reticence about operationalization seriously, we show that his contribution is inconsistent with a capability theory. Instead, we defend the idea that the capability approach plays a heuristic role: capability is a step in his argument against alternative materials, but is not meant as a definitive end. Sen defends a critical perspective primarily to encourage public reasoning and respect for agency as regards the definition of what should count in the evaluation of social states.     

社保基金管理中的委托—代理风险研究

社保基金管理制度的改革是社会保障制度改革的重要组成部分.从信息经济学中委托-代理理论出发,分析了社保基金管理中委托-代理关系的复杂性以及我国社保基金管理中存在的风险,并提出了减少社保基金管理风险的对策建议.     

Should we reallocate patent fees to the universities?

In knowledge economies, patent agencies are often viewed as a relevant instrument of an efficient innovation policy. This paper brings a new support to that idea. We claim that these agencies should play an increasing role in the regulation of the relation between private R&D labs and public fundamental research units especially concerning the question of the appropriation of free usable research results. Since these two institutions work with opposite institutional arrangements (see P.S. Dasgupta and P.A. David. 1987. Information disclosure and the economics of science and technology. In Arrow and the accent of modern economic theory, ed. G.R. Feiwel, 519–42. New York: State University of New York Press), we essentially argue that there is, on the one hand, an over-appropriation of these results while, on the other hand, there is also an under-provision of free usable results issued from more fundamental research. We show how a public patent office can restore efficiency.     

Proposal for a Global Fund for Women through Innovative Finance

Despite the spread of budget initiatives for gender equality following the Beijing Declaration of 1995, resources allocated for eliminating gender inequalities remain inadequate. This paper proposes to create a Global Fund for Women through Innovative Finance (GFWIF) with the ability to raise funds through innovative sources of finance on a scale more appropriate to the estimated requirements of making reasonable progress toward gender equality (US$31–107 billion per year in constant 2014 dollars). It builds on previous calls by feminist economists for the establishment of such funds through global forms of taxation. Since donors’ commitments only meet the lower bound, the GFWIF could scale up funding for gender equality interventions commensurate with country needs. Global resource mobilization through innovative mechanisms, including allocations of new Special Drawing Rights, currency transaction taxes, and carbon taxes, have the potential to provide the necessary financing at a much faster pace than is currently possible.     

北京市环境经济政策研究

北京市的经济管理体制在由以计划为主转变为以市场为主的过程中,原来所实施的环境经济政策出现了一系列问题,本文针对这些问题,提出了一些建议,即使用者付费政策、环境税、超标罚款政策、环保奖励政策,并对居民的承受能力进行了分析。     

技术学习文献综述

结合技术学习的内涵,梳理总结了国内外研究者提出的技术学习模式及相关研究成果,认为目前研究者多数关注发展中国家的技术学习及其引起的技术能力提升,而对在发达国家向发展中国家输出技术的过程中是否也发生"技术学习"以及发展中国家形成的技术能力是否能实现质的跨越则缺乏研究,并认为发展中国家在开展技术学习的过程中更应加强内部学习。     

社会嵌入视角下的能力构建研究

在分析社会网络中不同企业的能力差异后,本文提出了以梯度转移为形式的能力构建模式。社会嵌入机制可以通过强化企业间的网络联结来提供支撑,其中结构嵌入是基于网络特性来拓展联结广度,关系嵌入则基于企业行为来增强联结深度,两者的融合会进一步促进企业的跨组织边界知识互动,以维持能力梯度转移的持续和稳定。     

Social Surplus Approach and Heterodox Economics

Given the emphasis on social provisioning in heterodox economics, two of its central theoretical organizing principles are the concepts of the total social product and the social surplus. This appears to link heterodox economics to the social surplus approach associated with the classical economists and currently with Sraffian economists. However, heterodox economics connects agency with the social surplus and the social product, which the Sraffians reject as they take the level and composition of the social product as given. Therefore the different theoretical approach regarding the social surplus taken in heterodox economics may generate a different but similar way of theorizing about a capitalist economy. To explore this difference is the aim of the article.