The Mordukhovich Normal Cone and the Foundations of Welfare Economics

The statement that Pareto optimal allocations require the equalization of marginal rates of substitution, or in an economy with public goods, require the equalization of the aggregate of the marginal rates in consumption to those in production, is formalized through the use of the Mordukhovich normal cone. Since this cone is strictly contained, in general, in the Clarke normal cone, the results generalize earlier work of Khan and Vohra, Quinzii, Yun, and Cornet. The results are an application of Mordukhovich's 1980 theorem on necessary conditions for optimality in constrained optimization problems involving functions that are not necessarily differentiable or quasi-concave. As such, the results suggest a distinction between the mathematical programming approach to the "second welfare theorem," as in the work of Hicks, Lange, and Samuelson, and that based on the separation of sets, as pioneered by Arrow and Debreu.     

Metaphysical Beliefs and the Foundations of Modern Economics

[England's] thinkers are again beginning to see, what they had only temporarily forgotten, that a true Psychology is the indispensable scientific basis of Morals, of Politics, of the science and art of Education; that the difficulties of Metaphysics lie at the root of all science; that those difficulties can only be quieted by being resolved, and that until they are resolved, positively whenever possible, but at any rate negatively, we are never assured that any human knowledge, even physical, stands on solid foundation.

John Stuart Mill

No science can be more secure than the unconscious metaphysics which tacitly it presupposes.

Alfred North Whitehead     

The Social Economics of Work Time: Introduction

How do social economists conceptualize and analyze time, particularly time spent in paid employment? In this symposium regarding this quite “timely”" issue, it is evident that social economics views work time as something more than its presentation in neoclassical economics. For neoclassical economists, time is a scarce resource that, when commodified as labor, serves as a factor of production and means to the end of consumption for optimizing firms, individuals, and families. It is also more than the radical political economics understanding of time as the yardstick measuring the value created by labor. Instead, time spent on the job is all at once a source of income, personal identity, and relative status within society, the workplace and household, and a constraint on individuals' ability to pursue self-directed activities and social reproduction. Work time is determined within a complex web of evolving culture and social relations, as well as traditionally conceived market, technological, and macroeconomic forces and institutions such as collective bargaining and government policy.     

The Welfare Economics of Water Resource Allocation over Time

An operational stochastic capacity expansion model for a survival conscious firm is developed and applied to shrimp fishing in which the entrepreneur evaluates all the information known to him at the time of decision. The results show the effect of survival considerations on the growth in net worth of a firm making sequential and irreversible purchases of physical capital with uncertain future yields. The survival model is applied to shrimp fishing on the Texas Gulf Coast and the reults are compared with those of a simple model in which survival is not considered. Bankruptcy could clearly result from use of the simple model; survival of the firm is guaranteed by use of the survival model.     

经济学科学性的时空相对性

当我们不考虑社会经济现象与自然现象之间的本质差异，试图用自然科学的科学性来规范经济学的科学性时，自然有足够的理由来说明经济学的非科学性，但是，当我们承认社会经济现象与自然现象之间的本质差异，并在此基础上讨论经济学的科学性的时候，问题就不再表现为经济学是否具有科学性，而是演变为经济学的科学性是怎样表现出来的。显然，在不同的时空条件下，经济学的科学性的表现形式有所不同，或者说，经济学的科学性在现实中总是表现为时空相对的科学性或条件限制的科学性。     

打开"无知之幕"--正义原则与社会稳定性

罗尔斯的正义原则主要依赖于"无知之幕"的假设."无知之幕"打开之后,罗尔斯的正义原则立即面对着正义原则的可行性问题,即社会的稳定性问题.为此,罗尔斯在<自由主义>中提出了三个关键概念,即"正当的优先性"、"公共理性"和"部分共识".本文对这三个概念进行了分析,揭示出罗尔斯的正义理论从"正义的可欲性"到"正义的可行性"的变化.     

创建与时俱进的中国经济学理论体系刍议

创建中国经济学理论体系框架的关键是确定中国经济学的基本前提和基本假定,中国经济学的始点、主线和核心命题以及中国经济学的方法论。     

马克思经济学与西方经济学的差异性和互补性研究

马克思经济学的生命力在于其从现象到本质的研究路线及对不合理的现实进行剖析和改造。但局限于特定的历史背景,它的分析主要停留在有关社会制度的宏观层面,缺乏对微观制度的具体分析,这也正是马克思经济学研究所面临的困境。在微观行为机理及影响因素实证方面,现代西方主流经济学有很大发展。马克思经济学的发展需要契合西方主流经济学研究具体微观问题的工具、模型及理论。将马克思经济学的研究方法与现代西方主流经济学的表达工具和检验手段结合起来,就可形成更全面的分析体系。