Knife-edge conditions in the modeling of long-run growth regularities

Balanced (exponential) growth cannot be generalized to a concept which would not require knife-edge conditions to be imposed on dynamic models. Already the assumption that a solution to a dynamical system (i.e. time path of an economy) satisfies a given functional regularity (e.g. quasi-arithmetic, logistic, etc.) imposes at least one knife-edge assumption on the considered model. Furthermore, it is always possible to find divergent and qualitative changes in dynamic behavior of the model – strong enough to invalidate its long-run predictions – if a certain parameter is infinitesimally manipulated.     

我国经济增长地区性趋同路径的实证分析

研究经济增长的地区性趋同要回答两个问题:一是是否存在趋同性;二是怎样才能趋同。文章通过对我国全国及东中西部地区主要宏观经济变量间的因果关系的分析,给出第二个问题的答案,即我国经济增长的地区性趋同的路径为:人力资本与资本存量的差异程度影响对外开放的地区差异程度,进而影响人均GDP的地区性差异程度。与全国相比,东、中、西部地区的经济增长的趋同路径又有所不同。最后文章给出了加快全国及东、中、西部地区经济增长趋同的政策建议。     

The Recent Critique of Theoretical Economics: A Methodologically Informed Investigation

My purpose is to appraise the recent critique of theoretical economics by applying the methodological perspective. Therefore, I start by identifying the main lines of criticism raised against theoretical economics in the aftermath of the post-2008 global economic crisis: namely, the voices criticizing economics for its unrealistic models, excessive mathematization, and overconfidence in its theoretical claims. First, I show that these issues are interconnected and should be jointly analyzed. Next, I investigate these lines of critique from the perspective provided by the latest achievements in the philosophy of economics (e.g., studies on the epistemic role of economic models). Taking this perspective reinforces some allegations against economics (e.g., these voices accusing economists of treating economic laws as universal laws of nature) and makes some criticisms more nuanced (e.g., the issue of unrealistic assumptions). I conclude by stating that such a methodological perspective is necessary in critically apprising the recent critique of economics.     

The Incoherent Emperor: A Heterodox Critique of Neoclassical Microeconomic Theory

It is somewhat common for heterodox economists to come to the defense of neoclassical microeconomic theory. This is due to many reasons, but perhaps the commonest one is ignorance. It seems that most heterodox economists are not aware of the many critiques or that as a collective they completely undermine neoclassical theory. The objective of the article is to dispel ignorance by using the existing criticisms to delineate a systematic critique of the core components of neoclassical microeconomic theory: the supply and demand explanation of the price mechanism and its application to competitive markets. The critique starts by examining the choices, preferences, utility functions, and demand curves, followed by examining production, costs, factor input demand functions and partial equilibrium, and ending with perfect competition and the supply curve. In the conclusion, the implications of the results will be extended to the firm and imperfectly competitive markets, and then the question whether general equilibrium theory or game theory can save neoclassical microeconomic theory.     

中国经济增长与就业增长的非一致性分析

改革开放以来,中国国民经济增速较快,但在GDP保持高速增长的同时,就业率并没有保持相应的同步增长.导致这一问题出现的原因是多方面的,其中最重要的原因是地方政府对经济增长的过分偏好和对就业问题的相对忽视.要解决这一问题,就要从中国国情出发,充分发挥政府部门作用,以实现经济与就业的同步增长.     

The Facts and the Values of the Lucas Critique

In his influential 1976 paper, ‘Econometric Policy Evaluation: A Critique,’ Robert E. Lucas, Jr. presented the policy non-invariance argument, also known as the Lucas critique (LC). Drawing on the work of Putnam and Walsh, this paper discusses how the LC, like all works of scientific inquiry, contains values entangled with scientific facts, and argues that the Lucas critique devalued and revalued the highest values in macroeconomic science, a process known as ‘transvaluation.’ Most importantly, the LC worked to operationalize a shift in values that undermined belief in economists’ ability and responsibility to make meaningful interventions in the economy. Employing the language and concepts of continental philosophy, this paper discusses the meaning and effect of the LC on the values embedded in contemporary macroeconomic science.     

The approach to transforming the traditional agricultural economy: a research on the multiple paths of poverty alleviation and transformation in rural China

Transforming a traditional agricultural economy into a modern economy is one of the main themes in economic development. Through theoretical and empirical analysis, this paper finds out that the key to transformation is to raise the economic value of people, to improve human capital investment and to match the stocks of physical and human capital. China’s rural economy is on the edge of economic take-off, and different zones may pursue different paths for transformation. The source of rural poverty is not the scarcity of income or consumption, but the deficiency of education, social security, medical care and economic opportunity, which we define as “capability poverty”. __________ Translated from The Journal of World Economy (世界经济), 2005,(2) (in Chinese)     

中国铁路交通发展对沿线城市经济增长趋同的影响

以1997—2011年中国6次铁路提速和高铁开通为背景,在β趋同模型中加入用可达性度量的铁路交通发展因素,并用频次加权平均旅行时间衡量可达性,从全国、区域和城市3个空间层次分析了中国铁路交通发展对铁路沿线城市经济增长趋同的影响。结果显示:铁路交通发展对全国、东部地区、东北地区以及提速铁路沿线城市的经济增长的β趋同均有促进作用,对西部地区铁路沿线城市经济增长的β趋同有阻碍作用,而铁路交通发展对非提速铁路沿线城市经济增长的β趋同的影响甚微,对中部地区铁路沿线城市经济增长的β趋同的影响不确定。     

中国经济增长模型的设定:1952—1998

现代经济增长理论能够刻画我国的经济增长吗 ?如果能 ,那么哪类经济增长理论能比较好地刻画我国的经济增长呢 ?围绕这些问题 ,本文从实证和理论两个方面展开讨论。在实证上 ,本文采用Jones( 1 995)实证检验新增长理论的方法 ,针对各类经济增长理论的核心特征 ,实证分析了 1 952— 1 998年间我国经济增长的典型事实 ,结果发现这些典型事实明显地拒绝了新古典增长理论和R&D类型增长理论 ,相对而言 ,比较支持AK类型增长理论。另外 ,我们还发现以综合要素生产率测量的技术进步 ,不是我国1 952—1 998年间经济增长的引擎。在理论上 ,本文从“边干边学”的角度 ,把“探索适合我国国情的经济建设道路”纳入经济增长模型 ,证明了其本身可以作为我国经济增长的引擎 ;同时回答了为什么AK类型增长理论能够刻画我国的经济增长。     

中国区域经济增长差异及影响因素分析

随着中国经济的高速增长,区域经济差异日益突出。此项研究通过对地区经济差异的统计描述,并运用经济计量模型,在传统的资本要素和劳动力要素的基础上,增加了技术要素和制度要素两个变量来考察区域经济增长的差异,得出了结论和启示。     

The Impact of Climate Change on the Balanced Growth Equivalent: An Application of <Emphasis Type="Italic">FUND</Emphasis>

The Stern Review added balanced growth equivalents (BGE) to the economic climate change research agenda. We first propose rigorous definitions of the BGE for multiple regions and under uncertainty. We show that the change in the BGE is independent of the assumed scenario of per capita income. For comparable welfare economic assumptions as the Stern Review, we calculate lower changes in BGE between a business as usual scenario and one without climate impacts with the model FUND than the Stern Review found with the model PAGE. We find that mitigation policies give even lower changes in BGE and argue that those policy choices should be the focus of the research effort rather than total damage estimates. According to our results, the current carbon tax should be below $55/tC. Sensitivity analyses show that the Stern Review chose parameters that imply high impact estimates. However, for regionally disaggregated welfare functions, we find changes in BGE that are significantly higher than the results from the Stern Review both for total damage as for policy analysis. With regional disaggregation and high risk aversion, we observe fat tails and with that very high welfare losses.      

转变经济增长方式的路径选择:-个投资的视角

投资是拉动经济增长的重要路径,而当前中国在投资结构和投资形式诸方面均存在着不少问题,制约了经济增长方式的转变。经济增长方式转变的一个重要内容就是投资方式的改善。以中国要素禀赋结构为基础,充分发挥比较优势,构建产业的自生能力是完善投资方式的应有之义。     

汽车产业对经济发展的带动作用

汽车产业对整个经济发展的带动效应强,基本原因在于其中间投入比重很大,同时产业链条延伸很宽很长。汽车产业对工业和服务业,以及就业都有很大的带动作用。而且间接带动作用远大于直接带动作用。在21世纪初期,中国汽车产业的发展有利于减轻消费需求对经济稳定增长的制约,有利于加强投资需求对经济增长的拉动作用,也有利于产业结构的调整升级。     

中国地区经济增长差距的成因分析

通过综合现有的经济理论并结合中国经济实际，建立储蓄增长、投资增长与经济增长关系的理论模型，同时采用Ｇｒａｎｇｅｒ因果检测检验各地区三者间关系，并与模型结论比较。结果表明，东部地区的三者关系与模型结论基本一致，即投资增长、经济增长及储蓄增长间存在良性循环；而中部地区投资效率低下、西部地区资本供给不足，致使中西部经济中的三者良性循环被迫中断或被低水平恶性循环取代，从而导致地区经济差距急剧扩大。     

The Long-Run Growth Effects of R&D Subsidies

This article presents a generalized versionof Howitt's (1999) model of R&D-driven growth withoutscale effects and a complete characterization of the long-rungrowth effects of R&D subsidies. R&D subsidiescan either promote or retard long-run economic growth, and surprisingly,the growth-retarding outcome occurs for a wide range of plausibleparameter values. This article also presents a new intuitiveexplanation for why R&D subsidies can have long-rungrowth effects (both positive and negative).     

经济风险视角下中国经济增长质量的评价研究

伴随着社会的进步和经济高速增长,风险问题已经渐渐崭露头角成为经济长足高效增长的障碍。本文通过对于中国经济增长质量中关于经济风险的问题予以研究,并利用熵值分析法计算自建国以来中国经济增长中存在的经济风险。结果表明,自改革开放以后中国经济增长中的经济风险更多的表现为市场风险,因此应该在高效经济增长的同时,切实有效地规避和降低市场风险,从而提高经济增长质量。     

地区差距对中国GDP增长的影响——一个结构分析

地区差距是否如许多学者所说是中国中长期经济持续快速发展的障碍,本文在计量分析的基础上,给出否定答案.该实证分析的基本结论是:(1)中国的地区差距扩大对经济增长几乎没有影响,因此,针对地区差距展开的宏观调控仅能改善社会公平;(2)城市化、工业化和城乡收入问题滞后会削弱资本推动力,减慢整个经济增长速度;它们对经济增长的影响能力和资本投入相比具有同等重要性,是中国中长期经济增长真正可能的障碍;针对这些领域展开的宏观调控将改善资本效率,释放潜在经济增长能力.     

略论我国自然灾害对宏观经济增长的影响——基于内生经济增长理论视角

自然灾害具有偶发性,就我国全国范围看,自然灾害又是必然发生事件。把自然灾害损失内生化以度量其对宏观经济增长的影响。实证分析表明,自然灾害直接损失对当年经济增长起到负面影响,灾后2～3年的时间里对经济有拉动作用;而在灾后4～5年内表现出对经济的负面作用。总的来说,相对于投资和劳动投入自然灾害直接经济损失对GDP增长的影响比较小,长期影响表现出负弹性。自然灾害损失主要通过损失社会财富和拉动内需影响宏观经济增长,灾害当期主要是社会财富损失的负面影响,灾后2～3年则体现内需拉动的正面影响;从长期看,社会财富损失的负面影响要高于内需拉动的正面影响。     

资源与环境约束下的浙江经济增长

“十五”时期,浙江克服了经济运行环境中的种种不稳定性因素,在经济社会各领域取得长足的进步。通过全面贯彻落实科学发展观,浙江正确处理长期发展与眼前利益的关系、经济改革与社会稳定的关系及经济增长与生态环境承载力的关系,将社会主义基本制度与市场经济体制建设有效结合起来,将中央各项政策方针落在实处,在实践中走在前列,在确保经济平衡较快增长的同时,初步实现了从以数量扩张型的经济增长为主的发展格局向质量提升型的经济与社会、生态环境相协调的发展格局的转变。这为“十一五”时期浙江经济平稳较快发展与社会和谐稳定奠定了良好基础。     

闲暇时间与经济增长--兼对中国数据的实证检验

文章放宽了国外对闲暇研究的假设条件,突出考虑闲暇时间对人力资本形成的作用和对技术进步的外部性,将闲暇时间引入增长模型研究了闲暇与增长的动态关系,并对中国1981～2003年的经济数据进行了实证检验.实证检验结果表明,健康的闲暇活动能促进经济增长,但工业化阶段居民较低的闲暇偏好会拉低经济增长率,因此总体上闲暇时间对我国经济增长展现出微小的负作用.为此文章提出,应在加大精神文明建设力度的同时,合理安排契合本国经济发展阶段的公休假制度.