经济学中演化分析和均衡分析的历史争论与现实反思

在经济现象的产生和发展上,经济学界长期存在两种解释思路：一是基于异质性个体互动的基础之上的动态演化分析,这是以有机的、动态的和开放的世界观为基础的结构主义思路,它把行为主体看成是异质的;二是基于同质性个体假设基础上的静态（或比较静态）均衡分析,这是以机械的、静态的和封闭的世界观为基础的新古典主义传统,它强调行为主体的同质化。显然,现代经济学的基石就是一般均衡理论,因而静态均衡分析也就是现代经济学的基本方法;在均衡框架下,现代经济学研究理性经济人如何按照效用最大化原则实现资源最优配置。但是,这种均衡分析用于分析现实时却遇到非常严峻的问题：一者,它所依赖的假设条件是非现实;二者,无法考察人类行为和经济现象的动态演化。因此,现代主流经济学也正面临着严峻的挑战。     

政治经济学教学效果不佳的原因与对策分析

政治经济学课程在我国高等教育体系中占有十分重要的地位。近年来,这门课程教学效果不佳的问题日益突出。内容陈旧是造成政治经济学教学效果不佳的主要原因;教材改革是提高政治经济学教学效果的根本举措;教学方法创新是巩固政治经济学教学效果的关键。     

IDENTIFYING SOME CONSTRAINTS IN FIRST YEAR ECONOMICS TEACHING AND LEARNING AT A TYPICAL SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

This paper examines possible determinants of economics 1 performance at the Riverside campus of the Durban Institute of Technology. The study finds that high school subjects taken, age and gender are not significantly associated with economics achievement. Learner motivation, however, does appear to be associated with economics performance. Specifically, learners may find it difficult to relate meaningfully to the discipline's real content at least partly as a consequence of the philosophical framework within which it is delivered and partly because they do not have the textbook. A well‐designed learner guide and workbook could go some way to demonstrating the relevance of economics and instilling in students more effective learning methods. The result could be a virtuous cycle of improved performance and greater learner motivation.     

经济理论该如何回应行为“异象”挑战——来自桑塔费学派的看法

行为经济学研究不是要挑战主流经济学的理性行动者模型（BPC模型）,而是要改造和完善BPC模型。许多不一致的偏好和"非理性"的行为,只要加入情景因素便可得到合理的解释。经济理论对人类行为"异象"挑战的正确回应,不是抛弃BPC模型,而是考虑偏好的情景依存性和进化心理机制对BPC模型进行修正和改造。     

The Great Depression: Mises vs. Fisher

Ludwig von Mises established the foundations of modern Austrian economics while Irving Fisher established the foundations of modern mainstream macroeconomics and central bank policy. Fisher helped create and was a proponent of mathematical economics, statistics and index numbers, and a monetary policy that “stabilized” the value of the dollar. Fisher claimed that his scientific approach established a new era of prosperity during the 1920s. Mises published a book in 1928 that critiqued Fisher’s approach and predicted that it would lead to an economic crisis and collapse. Before the stock market crash in 1929 Fisher proclaimed a perpetual prosperity for the economy and continued to recommend investing in stocks long after the market had collapsed. In this important case study, Mises passed the “market test” while Fisher lost his personal fortune during an economic crisis that his economics help create.     

Between micro and macro — what economic history can learn from modern economics

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of economic history to modern economic theory. Taking my point of departure from the division that still haunts economic history — between micro and macro approaches — the paper argues that economic theory today is significantly different from what it was only twenty or thirty years ago. Hence, for example, the division between micro and macro has been upset in modern economics. Also the development of institutional economics, the use of concepts like “bounded rationality” or “path dependence” makes it necessary for economic historians to learn from and confront modern economic theorizing. Many economic historians criticise a version of (neo-classical) economics) that belongs rather to the past than to the present.     

Flipping the Undergraduate Economics Classroom: Using Online Videos to Enhance Teaching and Learning

The flipped classroom has been proposed as a teaching method with the potential to enhance student learning by removing much of the ‘‘transmission of knowledge’’ from the classroom and replacing this with active learning approaches that enable the assimilation of information. This article analyzes the impact of a flipped undergraduate economics course that leverages an existing suite of online lectures by Khan Academy. The study employs a quasiexperimental design to evaluate the impact of two different flipped treatments on an undergraduate microeconomics principles final exam. Student achievement is compared for students in (i) a “traditional” undergraduate course; (ii) a “complemented” (or partially flipped) classroom including traditional “mini” lectures complemented with online video lectures assigned as homework; and (iii) a flipped classroom. Results suggest that students in both of the flipped courses scored between 4 and 14 percentage points higher on set of common questions and a cumulative final exam.     

启发式教学在高职高专经济学课程中的应用

我国高职院校经济类专业普遍开设了经济学（或称西方经济学、经济学基础、经济学原理）课程。由于经济学理论抽象、教学方法陈旧等,使得培养和提高学生将理论知识运用于分析和解决实际经济问题的能力显得尤为重要。需要探讨经济学教学新方法,构建启发式的教学方法体系。     

研究生思想政治理论课“五位一体”教学模式研究

研究生思想政治理论课教学要做到与本科教学的有效衔接和“步步高”,面临着教学内容和教学方法的双重挑战。国内部分高校进行了专题式、互动式和实践教学模式的探索。本文分析比较了不同教学模式的优势,提出构建“五位一体”的教学模式,通过优化教师队伍、规范专题设计、创新教学方法、实施实践教学、完善评价体系来提高研究生思想政治理论课的实效性。     

对“两个范式之争”的反思

两个范式之争实际上涉及的是马克思主义经济学与西方经济学两个范式的关系问题。近年来,中国经济学界对于改革与发展中的一系列重大理论和实践问题的分歧,如果追根寻源,大都派生于两种最基本的理论范式:西方经济学与马克思主义经济学。由于两种理论范式基于不同的思想体系并阐述不同的问题,硬要把二者统一起来或者用一方取代另一方,都是不足取的,也是不可能的。在研究中国经济学发展的问题上,坚持与探索是统一的,相辅相成的。只有坚持以马克思主义为指导,理论研究和学术探索才能沿着正确的轨道健康进行。而只有从实际出发,探索理论和实践中产生的新问题,马克思主义基本理论才能丰富和发展,才有旺盛的生命力。     

Negishi's contributions to the development of economic analysis: Research programs and outcomes

This paper surveys Negishi's significant contributions to economics and the research programs they have generated. In a series of papers and books, Negishi developed a number of models and methods of analysis that changed the course of modern economics and catalyzed research in areas that range from welfare and theoretical to applied and computable general equilibrium analysis, and the extension of imperfect competition to general equilibrium. trade theory and international economics. This paper shows that the Negishian research programs that emanated from his works are progressive, and still have an ongoing impact on mainstream economic analysis decades after their publication.     

现代经济学分析中的功能主义：形成逻辑及其形式化危害

基于不同的研究层次及其目的,经济学界一直存在着两种基本研究思维：一是功能性的,它强调对经济现象的存在表现以及现象之间功能性联系的分析;二是因果性的,它强调对经济现象内在或背后的本质以及事物之间因果性机理的探究。尽管因果性分析曾是古典经济学的重要特色,但现代主流经济学却越来越偏重于功能性分析,并日益畸化为形式主义;它在伦理实证主义思维的支配下,不但为现实社会制度提供合理化解释,而且还往往会得出反人类道德的政策结论。     

Is Economics Useful for Public Policy?

Economists have always played an important role in major public policy debates. Even so, I believe that the role of economists in these public policy discussions has often been misguided because it has typically relied upon “best practices,” stated in the form of “general guidelines” or even “universal principles.” However, “best practices” are not best if the specific situation does not conform with the assumptions that underlie the advice. So my first conclusion is a cautionary, and negative, one: Specific circumstances differ so profoundly across individuals, firms, markets, countries, and time that most any attempt to define “best practices” that apply in all circumstances will lead to profoundly misleading public policy recommendations. However, even if economics cannot identify “the” truth, it can often identify “a” truth. So my second conclusion is a more positive one: Economists should continue to develop multiple theories that inform public policies, but we should also focus our efforts on identifying and testing the critical assumptions that drive the results of these theories, recognizing that the validity of any assumptions will depend intimately on specific circumstances. I illustrate these two main conclusions with specific examples from my own work. I conclude with some “best practices” recommendations of my own, recognizing the obvious irony of such an effort.     

The Mundane Economics of the Austrian School

The Austrian School of economics—the causal-realist, marginalist, subjectivist tradition established by Carl Menger in 1871—has experienced a remarkable renaissance over the last five decades. It is not always clear, however, exactly what distinguishes the Austrian School from other traditions, schools of thought, approaches, or movements within economics and its sister disciplines. This paper argues that Austrian economics, while part of a broader tradition emphasizing the coordination of the market order, is nonetheless a distinct kind of economic analysis, and that its essence is not subjectivism, the market process, or spontaneous order, but what I call “mundane economics”—price theory, capital theory, monetary theory, business-cycle theory, and the theory of interventionism. Call this the “hard core” of Austrian economics. I argue that this hard core is (1) distinct, and not merely a verbal rendition of mid-twentieth-century neoclassical economics; (2) the unique foundation for applied Austrian analysis (political economy, social theory, business administration, and the like); and (3) a living, evolving body of knowledge, rooted in classic contributions of the past but not bound by them. Most Austrian economists from Menger to Rothbard devoted their energies to developing and communicating the principles of mundane economics, not because they failed to grasp the importance of time, uncertainty, knowledge, expectations, institutions, and market processes, but because they regarded these issues as subordinate to the main task of economic science, namely the construction of a more satisfactory theory of value, production, exchange, price, money, capital, and intervention.     

IS AIDS A RATIONAL DISEASE? SOME EVIDENCE FROM HOUSEHOLD DATA

The paper discusses some standard models of the spread of HIV such as the “actuarial” model and the “psychological” model. We introduce an “economic” model which is based on the assumption that people are rational utility‐maximizers. The appropriateness of applying an economic model to the spread of a disease is discussed. Available evidence indicates that individuals respond rationally to social and economic stimuli when it comes to taking risks. The article shows how viewing AIDS as a rational disease enriches our understanding of the behavioural underpinnings of the spread of HIV.     

Cosmology and economics

Abstract

Economics has become the political magic of the twentieth century, and contention over economic policy is the political lifeblood of the modern state. The glare of publicity highlights the equilibrism of economic policy, leaving in the shade diplomacy and statecraft of former days. There is a consensus in modern society and in the modern state that political debate and economic discussion are two sides of the same coin, and that “economics”, like a second law of nature, sets the limits of the political options. Economic reform, economic adjustment, economic “rescue plans” and so on are synonyms for political strategies. Politics is the management of the “economy”, and at the same time “economics” is the authority to which all appeal as the “necessity”, as the authority that governs and legitimises policy.     

证伪主义-反思经济学的方法论

近代西方经济学派别林立,各种理论、学说、派别层出不穷,如何理解这些理论,建立对于经济金融现象的全面理性理解,变得越来越困难。之所以会这样,完全是由于人们对于经济学的哲学基础关注甚少。从现代经济学研究史看,哲学思维其实扮演着极为重要的作用,正确的方法论是经济学理论发展的重要标志。本文反思了以往传统经济学证实分析思考模式的局限性,分析探讨了证伪科学哲学对于经济学研究的意义和价值,重新审视了错误在确立理论科学地位属性中的独特价值和决定性作用,赋予人们一种与以往证实分析研究模式完全截然不同全新的视角,对于分析和理解金融现象颇具启发性。     

Economics,Social Science and Development

Development economics nowadays is mainstream economics applied to poor countries. An examination of the core principles of mainstream economics reveals tremendous strengths, but also tremendous weaknesses. Other disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology and political science, have complementary strengths that suggest a role for them as equal partners in development studies and policy. The argument for a partnership of disciplines is logical and strong. But cross-disciplinarity is not easy in practice. It is best achieved through concrete exercises which demonstrate exactly how “two disciplines are better than one” when analyzing specific policy issues in development.     

布坎南宪法经济学思想：逻辑与启示

宪法经济学的建立和发展是布坎南后期学术上的重要理论贡献。宪法经济学的知识传统来源于公共选择理论、古典经济学理论和维克赛尔财政理论。宪法经济学以规则的选择为研究对象,以个人主义、理性选择和交换视角为方法论,以＂一致同意＂和集体政治决策的双层结构为理论基础,以契约理论为政治哲学。文章认为,宪法经济学思想的理论价值与缺陷并存,对我国的经济改革颇具启示意义。     

演化发展经济学与新结构经济学——哪一种产业政策的理论范式更适合中国国情

国际学术界有关产业政策的研究存在着两种不同的理论范式：演化经济学和后新古典经济学,这两种不同的理论范式在发展经济学领域中表现为演化发展经济学和新结构经济学的不同。两者的产业政策基于完全不同的理论基础：技术赶超或比较优势;新结构经济学有关政府作用的理论仍是以新古典经济学的市场失败理论为基础的,而演化发展经济学则在批判市场失败理论的基础上提出了一系列的新理论。在演化发展经济学家看来,新结构经济学不适合于中等收入国家,特别是在运用于作为超大型发展中国家的中国国情时存在着严重的缺陷;即使是运用于低收入国家,也是有局限性的。事实证明,技术赶超而非比较优势战略更适合中国国情;以自主创新为核心的基础全面的价值链升级正是我国所有地方政府都面临的共同挑战,而《吉林报告》则忽视了这一关键问题。《吉林报告》的缺陷说明,聚焦于传统意义上产业部门之间区别的新结构经济学已不适应新国际分工对产业政策提出的新要求,演化发展经济学所关注的价值链特定环节、核心技术和组织能力已经成为产业政策的核心问题。因此,一个重要的问题就摆在了中国经济学界的面前：是通过新结构经济学研究中国经济发展问题,还是在演化发展经济学基础之上,针对中国作为超大型发展中国家的国情,发展一种历史和国情特定的中国经济发展理论?