Capabilities and Constraints

Sen’s capability approach emphasises the importance of freedom and choice in leading the life that one values. This paper seeks to argue that, nonetheless, the capability approach is fully cognisant of the constraints that restrict individuals from achieving capabilities. Since the achievement of capabilities is set within a social context, and also because the constraints to capability-achievement are often of a social nature, it is useful to keep in mind the social context. An account of the capability approach that places adequate stress on the constraints that confront individuals and the institutional context will describe their situation more accurately; it will also be of more use for policy purposes.     

Capabilities and Constraints

Sen’s capability approach emphasises the importance of freedom and choice in leading the life that one values. This paper seeks to argue that, nonetheless, the capability approach is fully cognisant of the constraints that restrict individuals from achieving capabilities. Since the achievement of capabilities is set within a social context, and also because the constraints to capability-achievement are often of a social nature, it is useful to keep in mind the social context. An account of the capability approach that places adequate stress on the constraints that confront individuals and the institutional context will describe their situation more accurately; it will also be of more use for policy purposes.     

Temporal and thermodynamic irreversibility in production theory

Summary. The two notions of temporal and thermodynamic irreversibility are distinguished. It is shown that the irreversibility concept of Arrow-Debreu, while establishing temporal irreversibility, does not encompass thermodynamic irreversibility. This means, the standard irreversibility concept of production theory is too weak to be in full accordance with the laws of nature.Received: 8 October 2001, Revised: 5 April 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: D20,D51,D92.For helpful comments and discussion I am grateful to Malte Faber, Andreas Lange, Martin Quaas, Armin Schmutzler and seminar participants at Berkeley, Il Ciocco, Delft, Strasbourg and Rethymno.     

动态能力、微观能动主体与组织能力提升

在动荡变化的环境中,企业仅仅拥有"VRIN"属性的资源与能力将难以维持竞争优势,只有不断提升组织能力才是企业基业长青的惟一出路。动态能力在组织能力提升中起重要作用,但动态能力的定义自提出至今仍然模糊不清。本文澄清了动态能力的概念内涵,深入分析了企业高层管理者作为动态能力微观能动主体的角色,并在动态能力及其微观能动主体的基础上构建了一个颇具解释力的组织能力提升框架。     

A generalization of modern production theory

This paper analyses the relationship between inflation and equity returns in Australia over the period January 1974 to March 1996. Analysis is based on monthly and quarterly data, using value weighted equity indices at both the aggregate market and industry level. Three price indices, the consumer price index (CPI) (quarterly) and the manufactured materials used index (MMU) and the manufacturing articles produced index (MAP) (both monthly and quarterly) are used to measure inflation. Results provide little evidence of the statistically significant negative relationship observed in the US for the full study period. Analysis is also conducted on three subperiods, ‘monetary targeting’ (July 1976–January 1985), ‘checklist approach’ (February 1985–December 1989) and anti-inflation (January 1990–March 1996). At the market level the anti-inflation subperiod does provide some evidence of a negative relationship between inflation and equity returns though statistical significance is not apparent with quarterly time series. The impact of expected inflation on industry returns varies considerably. Consistent with the overall market analysis, the incidence of negative expected inflation betas increases in the latter anti-inflation subperiod. Finally, changes in Government inflation policy appear to have greatest impact on industrial company expected inflation betas.     

Substitution and expansion effects in production theory: The case of joint production

This paper is concerned with a systematic examination of what happens when a firm that has been in equilibrium at certain prices of inputs and prices of outputs experiences a change in these prices. The mutual effects between inputs and between outputs and the cross effects between inputs and outputs are explored by means of various kinds of decomposition equations in production theory. A definition of the “normal” technology is given to show that inputs are not gross substitutes, nor are outputs, and that the input-output relations are not regressive.     

论政府能力

经济全球化的实质是全球范围市场竞争,这种竞争不仅是各国优势产业及其链条的生产力竞争,同时也是政府能力的竞争。政府能力是一种结构化的体制能力,主要包括财政能力、控制能力、协调能力、危机处理能力和组织动员能力等五个要素。由这些要素整合而成的政府能力,只有在市场经济的基础上,通过政府职能的有效匹配才能发挥促进生产力、提高国家综合竞争力的主导性作用。     

On Human Capital and Individual Capabilities

Starting out from a simple conceptual framework running from initial individual abilities to skills produced in school to the utilization of these skills in the labor market, this paper surveys empirical studies in labor economics, economics of education and occupational psychology to assess the empirical strength of the links between these sets of variables. Cognitive and non-cognitive abilities are relevant for economic success, but make a modest contribution. Occupational psychology is complementary to economics and supports the notion of interlocking heterogeneity of individuals and jobs.     

Aligning Knowledge Strategy and Knowledge Capabilities

This paper outlines a framework that links knowledge strategy and knowledge capabilities in a similar way as prior studies for the more generic concepts of strategy and capabilities. Existing theory in knowledge strategy is fragmented and focused on competitive positioning. We utilize concepts of good strategic management and the theory of the firm to place knowledge strategy on a more theoretically sound basis. This expands knowledge strategy beyond competitive positioning to include internal organization and the boundaries of the firm. This expanded view of knowledge strategy is compared to a conceptualization of knowledge capabilities that focuses on different capabilities for internal, collaborative and competitive situations. Using this perspective highlights the interconnection between knowledge capabilities and knowledge strategy—they are often jointly determined. It also provides a basis for integrating competence- and knowledge-based views of the firm in an empirically testable model. Suggestions for further research are proposed.     

Spillovers,integrated production and the theory of the firm

Recent econometric literature has demonstrated the existence of significant technological spillovers within and around groups of advanced (R&D-intensive) firms. I demonstrate thatcompetence blocks of advanced firms operate as technical universities and research institutes, unintentionally providing free educational and research services, often in areas where such services are not supplied by existing educational institutions or where the nature of competence makes traditional educational institutions incapable of supplying them. I demonstrate that the competence that diffuses from such competence blocks is botheconomic andtechnological, that it only diffuses under particular market circumstances, notably characterized by competition, and that the outcomes are typically experimental.Integrated production is an organizational technique to coordinate complex production in mechanical engineering industry within firms and over specialized consultants and subcontractors in the market. Such organizational competence is typically tacit and difficult to communicate outside its production context. Hence, such a production organization often functions as a competence block that spills knowhow throughout the industry. This organizational form is also very useful in illustrating the nature of the firm, the nature of the organizational competence that forms the backbone of western industrial technology and how that competence generates economic growth through the intermediation of firms. I use Swedish aircraft industry as a case illustration.     

The theory of capital utilization and the putty-rubber production function

This paper extends the theory of optimal shift-work to the presumably realistic case in which the ex post elasticity of substitution between labor and capital services is neither zero nor equal to the ex ante elasticity. The paper considers both the CES and the VES as candidates for the ex post function, and gives reasons for preferring the latter. The introduction of ex post substitutability where none existed before is found to increase the profitability of shift-work.     

A hybrid production structure in trade: theory and implications

In models of pure theory of international trade, no unique production structure is dominant. By grafting a specific factor structure onto a Heckscher–Ohlin framework, in a hybrid general equilibrium production model, this paper presents theoretical results with implications such as: (a) the relative price increase of a traded goods sector might have expansionary or contractionary output effect depending on factor intensities; (b) uniform primary-factor augmenting technical progress in the intermediate inputs sector might lead to a decline in the output of one of the sectors; (c) favorable relative price effect in one sector will lead to a drop in the return to the specific capital type depending on the grafted production structure. The proposed framework is useful for explaining stylized facts related to wage inequality, deindustrialization and export-processing, which have a great policy relevance for trade and development.     

Location and the comparative statics of the theory of production

This paper applies modern methods of doing comparative static analysis to the theory of the firm when location as well as input levels are the firm's choice variables. Many results are obtained including all previously known results. Moreover, it is shown that traditional results in the theory of the firm such as downward sloping derived demand curves, generalize to the location problem. New results, such as an increase in a transportation rate decreasing transportation in terms of ton-miles of an input, are also obtained. Many new symmetry conditions are also found.     

马克思的奢侈品生产理论及其现实意义

本文认为,马克思的奢侈品生产理论给我们的启示是:奢侈品和必要消费资料是相对的、互相转化的。随着人们生活水平的提高,奢侈品就变成必要消费资料。在社会主义条件下奢侈品消费者是一部分先富裕起来的群体,扩大奢侈品消费群体的过程就是提高人们生活水平的过程。越来越多的奢侈品成为必要生活资料,应当成为劳动力价值的构成部分。要提高工资水平以适应部分奢侈品消费的需要。当必要消费资料基本满足后,生产奢侈品是发展生产的方向。     

Capabilities as causal powers

The author argues that Sen's capability approach is primarilya philosophical under-labouring exercise aimed at elaboratingcertain central economic categories, and that the philosophicaland methodological underpinnings of Sen's approach are radicallydifferent from those of contemporary welfare economics and mainstreameconomic practice. Sen's notion of ‘capabilities’as the potential functionings to achieve well-being is interpretedhere as a specification of the ontological category of ‘causalpower’, presupposing an open system conception of realitythat contrasts with much of contemporary economic practice.     

Intersubjective economics, theory of production, and the transformation problem

The intersubjectivist theory of value (surveyed in Levy [1990, 1994a] and Fullbrook [1994c, Section 4]) is founded on Simone de Beauvoir's conception of reciprocal desire and emphasizes the role of conventions and intersubjectivity in market relations. It treats money and markets as social institutions and argues that a money economy is fundamentally different from a real one. The tool of intersubjective economics is to offer a system for analyzing standard economic phenomena from a vantage point outside the equilibrium paradigm. But paradoxically, while the intersubjectivists developed intersubjective analysis of the firm [Eymard-Duvernay, 1989; Levy, 1994b, 1995c; Biencourt et al., 1994], the original intersubjectivist theory of value to which they refer is conceived in an exchange economy. This paper's aim, then, is to explore and discuss points for reducing the lack of a theory of production in intersubjective and measurement economics. The author benefited from the useful thoughts of Richard Arena [1990] as well as from useful discussions and strong encouragements from Edward Fullbrook and Charles M. A. Clark. Finally, the author benefited from the useful discussions of conference participants, especially Manuel Garcia.     

Neoclassical production theory and growth with unemployment: The stability issue revisited

A common belief in economic growth theory is that the instability of the balanced growth path of models based on a non-neoclassical production theory, such as the Harrod–Domar or Goodwin-type models, may be removed by introducing neoclassical technology and substitutability between factors. This does not need to be true. As shown in this paper, Solow-type models with sluggishly adjusting, non-market-clearing, real wages and endogenous fertility may suffer instability. Not only: instability may be favoured by too strong a degree of neoclassical substitution in the economy.