The institutional approach to economic history: Connecting the two strands

This essay examines the historiography of two episodes in history—the scattering of plots in the open fields in the Middle Ages and the transition to the factory system in the Industrial Revolution—to shed light on the uses of institutional economics in economic history. In both of these episodes, economic “just-so” stories advanced our understanding of history. What animated intellectual innovation in both cases was a bold conjecture about the raison d’être of a puzzling institutional structure. But what ultimately enriched our understanding was the process of conjecture and revision those conjectures set off. In both episodes, the revised conjectures that best withstood criticism and revision were those that saw the phenomena not as static snapshots of economic agents confronting an economic problem but rather those that embedded the phenomena within a larger economic problem and within a process of economic change. In the end it is an account of institutional change—what I call the good old New Institutional Economics—that connects the use of institutional economics to explain puzzling historical phenomenon with the role of institutional economics in addressing the big questions of economic growth.     

美国经济等待"软着陆"

充当全球经济"火车头"的美国经济显出了疲态.美国商务部公布的最新统计数据显示,美国经济今年第三季度仅增长1.6%,不仅远远低于市场预期,而且创下了近4年来的最低季度增幅.     

Contributions to Canadian economic history: The last 30 years

The cliometric revolution that transformed economic history in the US in the 1960s was soon embraced by Canadian economic historians. Many of the important issues surrounding Canadian development remained the same: the role of resources, the place of international trade, immigration, capital accumulation and interactions with Native Americans, among others. But beginning in the 1960s, and certainly over the last 30 years, economic historians of Canada have addressed them with the tools of modern economics, both theoretical and empirical. We highlight the recent work emphasizing not just the methods but also the fundamental ways our understanding of Canadian history has been changed.     

世界500强跨国公司及其在华投资

跨国公司不是一个大小的概念。它是指一个企业在两个以上母国以外的其他国家进行投资和经营,公司追求全球化的总体战略,实现全球性分工和协调,并对其分支机构的经营战略制定和重要人员安排具有决定权。目前,全球约有6.4万多家跨国公司,分支机构约达87万家,平均每家跨国公司拥有14个国外分支机构。跨国公司是世界对外直接投资的主要载体。跨国公司及其国际投资以跨国公司为主要载体的对外直接投资,在世界经济中发挥着重要作用。外国直接投资约占世界固定资本形成的12%;投资存量在2004年达到8万多亿美元,约占全球GDP的22%;跨国公司海外分支…     

Teaching the history of economic thought

The main purpose of this survey is to present the results of a questionnaire recently sent to historians of economic thought. This questionnaire — presented in the appendix - was devised so as to provide data on the approaches and experiences of teaching the history of economic thought in a wide range of universities throughout the world.

A summary of the most significant results is presented in section 2 of this survey. Section 1 provides a general introduction to the methodological context of the discussion of problems concerning the teaching of the discipline.     

A brief history of cliometrics and the evolving view of the industrial revolution

Abstract

Over the past century and a half, economists have differed on methodology, interpretation, and explanation of the causes, consequences, and proper approach to understanding the historical period commonly referred to as the Industrial Revolution. The impact of the methodological debate over the role of theory and history in economics, and the growth of cliometrics on the ways in which we think about and analyze the Industrial Revolution have been primary factors in this debate. This article uses the rise of cliometrics as a lens through which to view the intellectual history of economists’ views of the Industrial Revolution. It is not in itself an attempt to explain the causes or consequences of the Industrial Revolution, but rather, an overview of the evolution of the approaches that economists have used to define what constituted the Industrial Revolution, when it occurred, and how to explain its causes and why it occurred when and where it did.     

A farewell to critical junctures: Sorting out long-run causality of income and democracy

We consider the empirical relevance of two opposing hypotheses on the causality between income and democracy: The Democratic Transition hypothesis claims that rising incomes cause a transition to democracy, whereas the Critical Junctures hypothesis denies this causal relation. Our empirical strategy is motivated by Unified Growth Theory, which hypothesizes that the present international income differences have roots in the prehistoric past. Thus, we use prehistoric measures of biogeography as instruments for modern income levels, and find a large long-run causal effect of income on the degree of democracy. This result rejects the Critical Junctures hypothesis, which is an important part of the Primacy of Institutions view.     

Adam Smith's theory of economic history and economic development

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to show that Smith has a theory of economic history grounded in a politico-economic modeling (as well as a sort of economic theoretical modeling). In terms of the politico-economic approach, in the Wealth of Nations (Book III.ii–iv) Smith tried to offer a systematic account of economic development from feudalism to capitalism in Europe. These lead to suggest that the seeming internal inconsistency between the natural and the actual courses of progress in Book III may be resolved, and that Smith may be treated as a precursor of Douglass North, who stressed an inextricable link between the polity and the economy in economic history.     

Bankruptcies and economic history the example of France

The study of French bankruptcy archives has resulted in extensive research into the 18th and 19th centuries. No synthesis has been completed yet. A preliminary review of the literature on the subject is presented here, focusing on three stages: the archives, the statistics, and the data utilization.     

价值观与经济分析:历史与逻辑的统一

经济分析中是否存在价值判断,“经济人”的涵义是否包含价值观,是经济学发展过程中长期探讨的问题。本文沿着经济学的历史发展过程分析,认为古典经济学中追求自利的经济分析其实就是一种价值观的体现;到了新古典经济学,纯“经济人”已经转化为“社会人”;而演进理论和现代经济学在其分析中已明确赋予自由、文化等超经济因素价值观的涵义。本文将理论逻辑的发展阶段与历史的发展阶段紧密结合起来,认为经济分析与价值观始终有着不可分割的统一关系。     

2006年世界经济态势:保持稳定增长

在刚刚过去的2005年,世界经济的发展可谓有惊无险.尽管受到高油价的影响以及数次自然灾害的突然侵扰,但全球通货膨胀水平依然在控制范围内,全球经济在波动中保持了较为强劲的增长.     

世界经济态势及我国外经贸发展对策

在刚刚过去的2006年,世界经济继续处于周期性扩张高点,在面对国际油价高位震荡、主要经济体利率上扬、全球经济失衡等挑战下,世界经济依然表现活跃与强劲,全年实际增长率将连续第四年高于4%,为上世纪70年代初以来首见.展望2007年,世界经济整体上仍可能处于较快增长期,将迎来连续第五个年头的高增长,但受美国经济减速、全球货币政策趋紧等影响,整体平均增长率将比上年有所放缓,与此同时未来世界经济增长也面临着更多的挑战.     

改革创新:外经企业"走出去"的必由之路

一“走出去”战略是在行将跨入新世纪之际,党中央审时度势、高瞻远瞩,全面分析我国经济发展的实际情况和客观需要,及时作出的重大战略决策。当前世界经济全球化的趋势日益深化和加强,实施“走出去”战略正是顺应并融入经济全球化大趋势和加入WTO的新形势,进一步扩大我国对外开放的重大举措。深刻领会和认真实施“走出去”战略,对推动我国国民经济结构的战略性调整,拓展21世纪经济发展的回旋空间,在新的历史条件下深化改革和扩大开放,实现国民经济健康、持续、快速发展;对深化我国与世界各国特别是发展中国家的关系、加强同世界各国的经济…     

Altruism,sociology and the history of economic thought

Abstract

This paper is organized in three stages. In the first part, I outline the evolution of the notion of altruism with its critical dimension of political economy by following the intellectual sequence from Auguste Comte to Pierre Bourdieu, through Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss. In the second, I consider the forms of transaction to which these sociologists report altruism and its derivatives. In the last section, I examine recent developments on altruism as a result of developments on performativity on the one hand and market design on the other.     

From world factory to world investor: the new way of China integrating into the world

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that outward direct investment (ODI) is replacing international trade as the new way China integrates into the world. Based on two complementary datasets, we document the pattern of Chinese ODI. We argue that the rapid growth of China’s ODI is the result of strong economic development, increasing domestic constraints, and supportive government policies. Compared with trade integration, investment integration involves China more deeply in global business. As a new global investor, China’s ODI in the future is full of opportunities, risks, and challenges. The Chinese government should improve bureaucracy coordination and participate more in designing and maintaining international rules to protect ODI interests.