The Death and Revival of Usury in China: An Institutional Analysis

The practice of usury has recently provoked an intense debate in China. While the practice is widely condemned, prominent figures have sought to legitimize it with economic analysis. The institutional competition between ancient usury and modern money and banking has persisted for centuries and seems far from ending. This article examines the institutional factors underpinning the revival of usury in China after a thirty-year stretch (1948–1978), during which the practice had virtually disappeared. The revival of usury is attributed mainly to a pattern of uneven development in China. Usury, by its nature, is a drag on economic productivity and a source of social discord. As China endeavors to achieve a more broad-based human flourishing, the practice of usury must be prohibited strictly once more.     

Agriculture as Van and Rear in Institutional Change

The formation of interest groups is path-dependent. The ideology and thus behavior of interest groups cannot be isolated from history, customs, economic conditions and changing alternatives open to individuals. In Australia, there were historical and traditional divisions concerning farmers producing for international markets that depend on flexible world prices and those producing for the domestic market with stabilized and subsidized prices. The National Farmers Federation (NFF) (1979) is the result of a historical-evolutionary-developmental process of preceding agricultural interest groups. Hence, an understanding of the NFF ideology that promotes free competition and the elimination of agricultural subsidies worldwide, in contrast to the agricultural interest groups in the United States and UK, requires an examination, using an institutional and economic complexity approach, of the evolution of agricultural interest groups in Australia.     

制度缺失与中国经济体制改革面临的三大问题

经济体制改革以来,由于制度缺失的存在,致使经济体制改革在取得辉煌成就的同时,也面临着市场化改革所带来的严峻经济问题,这些问题突出地表现在以下三个方面:一是日益凸现的失业问题;二是财富分配不公问题;三是国有资产流失问题。制度缺失导致的这三个问题,加重了改革的社会成本,危害了社会公平,破坏了经济效率,因此必须采取相应的治理措施。     

医疗救助制度正义论

正义是西方伦理学研究的主要领域之一,在现代社会中,正义观被普遍理解为权利平等。制度正义包括制度本身正义和制度运行正义。医疗救助制度作为保障平等享有基本人权的再分配制度,其正义性有着丰富的内涵与理论依据。然而医疗救助制度正义性在设计与运行中存在诸多阻隔因素。与经济社会发展相适应,不断提高医疗救助的公平与效率,才能提高医疗救助制度的正义性。     

利益集团与制度变迁的“陷阱”——兼论转型的合法性危机

文章主要讨论制度变迁过程中那些无效率的制度均衡是如何形成的.在时利益集团经济行为进行分析的基础上,主要考察了Dayis和North理论意义上的第一和第二行动集团在制度变迁中的作用.研究表明,由于利益集团自身利益与社会利益之间存在着冲突,因此即使是启动和推进制度变迁过程的第一和第二行动集团,也有可能妨碍制度变迁迭至最优点,使其掉入"陷阱"之中.     

制度改进的基本思维:演化动力和优化原则

新古典主义主要基于力量博弈解释制度变迁,但实际上促进制度变迁的因素有三类:一是社会力量结构的自发变动,二是社会力量结构的自觉变动,三是对制度本质的社会认知提高。其中,后两者都与认知有关,认知在非正式制度转化为正式制度中扮演着重要角色。同时,新古典主义主要基于效率原则设计社会制度,但实际上制度优化有两大原则:正义原则和效率原则。其中,正义原则是根本性的,制度的设立和完善必须体现不断深化的社会正义和应得权利。     

资源环境约束下的和谐增长与制度和谐

经济增长对自然资源消耗和环境污染是不可避免的,然而,当经济增长对自然资源与环境资源的需求超过其承载力的阈限时,就会出现由于资源枯竭与环境恶化的非和谐增长.在对和谐增长相关理论进行梳理的基础上,以我国经济增长对资源、环境的超"阈限"影响为背景,分析"三重失灵"对和谐增长的影响,并将和谐增长纳入制度和谐的框架内,试图从制度约束上探讨长期和谐增长的保障机制.     

A Proposed Methodological Synthesis of Post-Keynesian and Institutional Economics

Post-Keynesian and institutionalist writers have commented on the theoretical and conceptual commonalities between the two schools. Some have suggested a theoretical synthesis based on these commonalities. In spite of these theoretical and conceptual commonalities each tradition has developed significantly different methods of analysis. Instead of theoretical or conceptual synthesis we seek here to present a methodological synthesis.

Institutionalist methods have yielded "plausible" explanations, but these have been too "vague and suggestive" to be consistently used for economic policy. Post-Keynesian methods have policy necessary "rigor," but the similarity to neoclassical methods has exposed post-Keynesian theories to unwarranted synthesis with incompatible traditions.

This essay presents a synthesis of post-Keynesian and institutionalist methodology, one of "plausible rigor," combining elements of "institutional dynamics" with a heuristic framework based on John Dewey's "instrumental logic," and proposes that the resulting approach overcomes weaknesses in the methods of analysis of both schools.     

Institutional Approaches to Economic Development: The Current Status of the Debate

The recent publication of "Institutions and Economic Development: Theory, Policy and History" (Chang 2011a) has stimulated a thought-provoking debate, and has brought forth a wide-ranging demonstration of the theoretical arsenal of the new institutional economics. The debate proves that, as of yet, no satisfactory theory of institutions has been articulated, nor is there an agreement on the relationship between institutional change and the politics of development. It also demonstrates the presence of two distinct lines of research: ideological and political, both of which rely on different theoretical legacies, and embody distinct economic worldviews. This scenario allows a summary of the argument in the most recent literature to be made on the relationship between institutions and development, as well as to relate the debate to the concept of development as a process of expansion of capacities.     

制度绩效递减规律与我国21世纪初新一轮体制创新研究

21世纪初我国有必要也有可能再次进入“快速增长”时期。如何才能确保我国21世纪初的快速增长,本认为关键在于体制创新。为此,本以制度绩效生命周期与递减规律与理论基础,说明要确保我国经济快速增长则必须进行新一轮体制创新,并在概括20世纪末我国体制创新的特征基础上,提出了21世纪初我国体制创新的原则和相应的有关措施。     

试析经济法的制度缺陷

作为国家干预经济之法的经济法在现代经济发展中起到了其非常重要的作用 ,但是 ,经济法是国家经济干预之法 ,其本身存在着极大的制度缺陷与不足 ,这主要体现在国家干预对市场经济而言是一种外在的东西 ,故其干预就不可避免地导致干预不当 ,并滋生官僚主义等弊端 ;而且 ,经济法的干预是由相应机构的相机干预 ,具有很大的不确定性与随意性 ,这也必然使经济法暴露出对经济发展的不定性     

中国经济周期波动的制度冲击效应分析

经济制度变革成为中国宏观经济经历的影响最深远的整体性、持久性的外生冲击之一,制度变动的冲击对我国经济周期的变动特征产生了深刻的影响。文章运用经济计量方法对制度冲击改变我国经济周期特征进行了检验,并通过市场化程度、非国有化水平和开放度三个制度冲击变量检验了其与我国经济周期波动的相关性,其结论证明在我国受政治背景的影响而出台的重大的经济制度改革对经济的发展影响巨大而深远,制度变动冲击对经济的周期变动的方向及程度起到了较大的决定作用。     

经济增长中制度创新贡献的测度

技术和制度创新是经济增长的基础,对经济增长起决定性作用的是制度性因素而非技术性因素。本文以索洛-纳尔逊同期模型为基础,试图建立包含资本、劳动体现型技术进步的生产函数模型,进而对制度创新在经济增长中的贡献进行测度。     

中国经济市场化过程及制度演进研究评述

1978年以来,中国从计划经济体制逐步向市场经济体制转轨,进行了全方位的市场化改革。国内外有大量文献针对这一重大的制度变革开展深入的探讨和分析。值得注意的是,这里讨论的"市场化"是不存在意识形态差别的,而是针对"管制"而言的相对概念;中国的市场化是一个制度变迁、创新的过程;这一过程对于经济增长有着积极的影响和作用。     

机构投资者与股价波动率:理论与实证分析

针对现有文献对于机构投资者与股价波动率研究结果的大相径庭,笔者认为不管是羊群效应模型,还是Fama-Mac-Beth截面回归方法均由于无法考虑二者之间的相关性问题而使股价波动率的估计有所偏误。本文将羊群效应和Fama-Mac-Beth截面回归方法结合起来分析股价波动率的影响因素。实证结果表明羊群行为与机构持股比率、规模等变量军存在着相关性。同时,在考虑了羊群行为、换手率等变量后,机构持股比率对股价波动率影响的系数显著变小,不同机构投资者对于股价波动率的影响存在着差异,从而证明了我们所提出的相应命题。     

Institutional Analysis of Banks and Personal Loan Companies: Lesson from Poland

Abstract:

The purpose of the article is to explain changes in the behavior of individuals, their actions, choices and ways of thinking that took place under the influence of banking and personal loan companies in Poland. The hypothesis adopted here is that mistakes made in the lawmaking process in Poland caused a number of adverse social changes, which affected the poorest part of society. The article is devoted to legal norms which banks started to apply as prudential regulations after the financial crisis from 2008 to 2015. In 2016, new important legal regulations were introduced which slightly changed the image of the market described in the article. The article describes the results of the author’s research concerning far-reaching social consequences of the regulations introduced at that time. Such consequences include people already in the lowest-income levels of society falling further into poverty, as well as loss of trust in the state as an institution failing to protect all of its citizens.     

经济国有化与行政垄断制度的发展——基于制度变迁理论的经济史研究

文章在新制度经济学的理论框架下,对新中国的经济国有化和行政垄断制度的发展历程进行了经验研究。研究结果表明,行政垄断与国有经济存在很强的共生关系。当今中国的行政垄断是以法律法规形式存在的社会正式规则,它与国有经济、市场经济长期稳定共存,是转轨时期中国经济制度的一大特色。     

经济转型中的制度移植与非正式制度约束

经济转型的实践表明,制度移植很大程度上取代了制度设计.而制度移植成功的关键在于制度创新,将移植来的正式制度形式与本土的非正式制度相融合.如果在经济转型过程中只关注目标制度的形式,而不关心其内涵,必然会与本土的非正式制度形成冲突,导致移植失灵,陷入制度陷阱.文章的主要观点通过对中国和俄罗斯制度创新模式的实证分析得到支撑.     

Property and Economic Power as Issues in Institutional Economics

In the first part of this two-part paper, I presented an "irenic" reconciliation of the three apparently contradictory definitions of "institution" within original institutional economics (OIE), employing the methodology of critical institutionalism. The critical institutionalist reconciliation of these definitions conceptualizes institutions as an emergent process by which the internal and necessary relations of social structure as collective action, mediated through agency, results in the control, expansion, and liberation of the individual action of social actors in transactions. In short, an institution is the emergent process of social structure actualized in transactions (social action). Institutions, therefore, not only have a structural existence, but also an actual existence as they are the process of the emergence of the actual (in transactions) from the structural. Institutions are multi-level processes and cannot be reduced to structures, actions, behaviors, or patterns of behaviors. In this part, I demonstrate the significance of this reconciliation in two areas. The first is its ability to further differentiate the institutional definition of economics as "the science of social provisioning" from the mainstream definition of economics as "a relationship between ends and scarce means" by decomposing the institutional definition into its productive and distributive processes. The second is its usefulness in modeling the interaction of non-economic social institutions with economic institutions at varying levels of detail. I also introduce critical institutional analysis, and use as a method, for model-building and use it to build models of communal, feudal, and industrial capitalist economies.