Endogenous growth with addictive habits

In this paper, we investigate the global dynamics of an endogenous growth model with linear technology and addictive habits. We find feasible parameters’ conditions under which: (a) the resulting equilibrium consumption path is steeper than in a standard AK model; (b) endogenous fluctuations in the form of damping fluctuations around the balanced growth path emerge; (c) the Easterlin’s paradox emerges. The relevance of these results is explained comparing our findings with the results already known in the existing literature.     

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.     

Location and the theory of production: A review,summary and critique of recent contributions

This paper has two main objectives. First, a generalized version of the Moses-type production- location model is developed where both the input variables and the location variables are allowed to adjust simultaneously. Secondly, the results of the recent articles relating to the Moses framework are discussed in the context of our generalized structure. We conclude that - unless one is willing to assume either the transport rate of output is zero or the location is constrained to be on the Moses arc - if transport rates do not depend on quantities shipped then location is independent of output when the production function is homogeneous of degree one. If transport rates depend on quantities shipped (e.g. quantity discounts), then a production function which is linearly homogeneous is not sufficient to insure that location is independent of output unless the transport rate functions have constant elasticities.     

Endogenous lifetime,accidental bequests and economic growth

This paper introduces the concept of unintentional bequests in a closed economy à la Chakraborty (J Econ Theory 116:119–137, 2004) with overlapping generations. We show that scarce public investments in health can lead to poverty traps depending on the relative size of the output elasticity of capital. More importantly, the existence of unintentional bequests, rather than a market for annuities, means that health tax rates play a prominent role in determining the stability of the long-term equilibrium in rich economies. In fact, Neimark–Sacker bifurcations and endogenous fluctuations occur depending on the size of the public health system.     

Voting with one's feet: a critique of the evidence

This study offers an interpretation of the literature on voting with one's feet, that is, moving to that area which best satisfies one's preferences for public goods. The implications of the literature to date are examined. The study also offers ways in which to improve future research efforts. Regional labor market distortions are examined in depth.     

The CIR report on disclosure of information: a critique

The publication of the CIR's long-awaited report on disclosure of information seems to have been greeted with an embarrassing silence. Little comment has been heard from the news media, Parliament, trade unions or employers' associations. This may reflect concern with more pressing issues in industrial relations, such as, for example, the search for a prices and incomes policy, but the nature of the report itself may also explain why it created scarcely a ripple in public consciousness. Far from being a clear guide to decision and action, it is merely a collection of very general recommendations which will create little controversy because they are so unexceptional.     

Endogenous growth, the Solow model and human capital

Both endogenous growth theory and the (augmented) Solow model propose a role for human capital in the growth process though each is based on different conceptual arguments. Since both approaches can justify the inclusion of human capitallevels andgrowth rates in an output growth regression the two theories cannot readily be distinguished empirically. This paper argues that the variable most commonly used in empirical studies to proxy human capital (levels or growth) — school enrolment rates (SERs) — may capture bothstock andaccumulation effects, butchanges in SERs can provide useful additional dynamic information on the contribution of human capital to growth. Empirical evidence from samples of developed and less developed countries during 1960–85 suggests important growth effects associated both with initial levels of, and changes in, SERs. The nature of these effects appears to differ between the two country groups.I am grateful to an anonymous referee and to Subrata Ghatak for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and to Massimo Suardi for research assistance     

A theory of growth controls

A microeconomic model of individual decision-making that illustrates how growth controls might arise is developed. The emergence of growth controls is analyzed under a variety of assumptions about the local-governmental environment, including congestion effects, different cost conditions and pricing schemes for public services, and property-tax limitations. Some welfare consequences of growth controls are also presented.     

Transferring management practices to China: a Bourdieusian critique of ethnocentricity

This paper provides a critique of the emergent theories of human resource management in China with a view to generating new theoretical insights with particular reference to Pierre Bourdieu's social theory. It reassesses the relevance of the orthodox critique of ethnocentricity and the coherence of approaches embedded in Chinese culture. With reference to six case studies of the largest retail firms, we identify two key challenges: the reliance on headquarter human resource practices that reflect an ethnocentric ethos, i.e. country-of-origin bias, and the failure to empower local managers and the problems this creates for managers expected to implement ethnocentric practices. We examine how Bourdieu's social theory sheds light on the processes by which these firms realise their strategic objectives through the complicity of local managers whose scope for resistance is constrained by the use of normative control and in part through attractive remuneration and career prospects that generate Bourdieusian capital for these managers. We conclude with some suggestions for further research.     

Endogenous fertility, multiple growth paths, and economic convergence

"This paper extends the Cass-Koopmans optimal growth model to allow for endogenous fertility choice. It is shown that if agents choose their fertility rate, then the net rate of return on capital (marginal product of capital minus the population growth rate) may not be monotonically decreasing in capital. In this case, multiple steady states and growth paths may emerge, which can explain the persistent differentials in income between poor and rich countries, as well as the existence of development miracles and disasters. The paper provides also empirical evidence which supports the existence of multiple convergence groups and is consistent with the theoretical model."     

The Endogenous Economist:

A bstract . In the social sciences there exist links of communication and influence between the scientists and the actors of the modelled social systems. Social scientists are therefore endogenous parts of the systems which they study. Theories and models shouid be self-referential. The treatment of information in the rational choice models of the new classical theory, with its core assumption of rational expectations , has stopped short of extending the concept of endogeneity to the economists themselves. Economic theory proceeds on the assumption that it yields the true model and that the actors in the system share this same model even though economists have not yet agreed on this unique model. Moreover, it assumes that economists' disputes about the true model do not prompt the actors of the system to take positions and opt for one or the other of the discussed models. The use of a unique model perspective to interpret the response of financial markets to monetary announcements leads to inconclusive interpretations of the evidence. These findings are better interpreted as the result of multi model competition that has spilled over from academic science to the financial markets themselves.     

The emperor's new clothes: a critique of the multivariate t regression model

Zellner (1976) proposed a regression model in which the data vector (or the error vector) is represented as a realization from the multivariate Student t distribution. This model has attracted considerable attention because it seems to broaden the usual Gaussian assumption to allow for heavier-tailed error distributions. A number of results in the literature indicate that the standard inference procedures for the Gaussian model remain appropriate under the broader distributional assumption, leading to claims of robustness of the standard methods. We show that, although mathematically the two models are different, for purposes of statistical inference they are indistinguishable. The empirical implications of the multivariate t model are precisely the same as those of the Gaussian model. Hence the suggestion of a broader distributional representation of the data is spurious, and the claims of robustness are misleading. These conclusions are reached from both frequentist and Bayesian perspectives.     

The systems approach to planning: A critique

This paper attempts to examine the value for planning of the systems approach (particularly as expressed by Chadwick and McLoughlin) to (a) the phenomena with which planning is concerned and (b) the planning process. It is maintained that the assumption of systemness by Chadwick and MeLoughlin is unwarranted and that the assumption has not produced any interesting substantive propositions. It concludes that planning theory must begin by recognising the ideological and political nature of the planning act and that it is to the social sciences that planning must look for theory construction.     

The Delphi method: Substance,context, a critique and an annotated bibliography

This paper is concerned with a methodology for efficiently obtaining concensus from a panel of evaluators on questions which are shrouded in uncertainty and can not be measured or evaluated in the classical sense. The methodology and its historical development are described, it is placed in context vis-a-vis other methods of subjective scaling, and a critique is provided. An extensive and current annotated bibliography is presented.