Ranking economics departments in the US South: an update

This study provides an update to Mixon and Upadhyaya’s (2001) ranking of Southern economics departments using research output indexed in EconLit. Ranking results from a ‘core’ (i.e. the top five faculty researchers) of each institution’s economics department reveal that Vanderbilt University, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland and Georgia State University currently maintain the top five economics departments, respectively, in the US South. Relatedly, the five institutions rising the most from Mixon and Upadhyaya (2001) are Tulane University, Georgia State University, University of Texas–Dallas, Rice University and Florida International University, respectively.     

Original Institutional Economics and Political Anthropology: Reflections on the Nature of Coercive Power and Vested Interests in the Works of Thorstein Veblen and Pierre Clastres

Our inquiry advances a comparison of the anthropological content of Thorstein Veblen’s evolutionary perspective with the foundations of the political anthropology drawn from selected works of Pierre Clastres. We seek to establish that what can be referred to as a clastrean reference can simultaneously offer new perspectives on institutionalism, while maintaining a radical and emancipatory understanding of Veblen’s writings. In this sense, we seek to reconsider and reevaluate the role of economic surplus drawn from Veblen’s anthropology, while also offering a general and critical perspective for understanding the emergence of coercive power within societies.     

Job quality and the economics of New Labour: a critical appraisal using subjective survey data

This paper assesses the record on job quality during the earlyterm of office of the New Labour government by interpreting,from a political economy perspective, changes in a variety ofsubjective measures of job quality taken from several differentdata sources. We find some improvements in job quality overthe period 1998–2004; however we argue that these improvementshave arisen not because of New Labour's policies towards theworkplace but because of low and falling rates of unemployment.Despite recent improvements, a large number of workers in Britainremain in low quality jobs and, without a radical change ofpolicy direction, sustained and substantial progress in thequality of work will remain elusive.     

Dynamic adjustment and long-run equilibria: Panel data estimates for the East German states

The economic development in East Germany after unification shows both, success and failure. In the early nineties wages and productivity increased fast; later on catching up faded out. A central question from a policy viewpoint is whether this fading out indicates a reduction of the adjustment speed or an equilibrium gap. This points towards a stationarity analysis of differences between East and West Germany. Our paper presents panel data estimates for the East German states for wages, productivity, competitiveness and unemployment. The results reveal that the adjustment was fast, but the equilibrium gaps are large.     

Ecological economics and the politics of knowledge: the debate between Hayek and Neurath

Hayek's epistemic arguments against planning were aimed notjust against socialism but also the tradition of ecologicaleconomics. The concern with the physical preconditions of economicactivity and defence of non-monetary measures in economic choicewere expressions of the same rationalist illusion about thescope of human knowledge that underpinned the socialist project.Neurath's commitment to physicalism, in natura calculation andplanning typified these errors. Neurath responded to these criticismsin unpublished notes and correspondence with Hayek. These highlightedthe epistemological premises his work shared with Hayek's, representinga response to Hayek from Hayek's own assumptions. This paperexamines the cogency and continuing relevance of the argumentsin this debate.     

Management and the representative firm revisited: the modern significance of Marshall's evolutionary economics

In an essay written in honour of Peter Swann, it is second nature to discuss some aspects of the economics of innovation, as that is the very challenging area of economic life where he has added so much to our understanding. I will attempt to do this by posing the problem of how innovation fits into the theory of value. Innovation research continues apace, but its broader systemic implications for how we understand the dynamics of capitalism are in danger of being overlooked. But two important economists, Schumpeter and Marshall, have seen the problem differently and built innovation into their theoretical schemes from the start. Marshall's theory of evolutionary change provides a natural focus for our discussion, and this is reflected in his treatment of management, in his use of the representative firm and in the variation-cum-selection dynamics of his open competitive process. We treat each of these topics and show how his evolutionary dynamics can be expressed in the Fisher/Price dynamics of evolutionary change. More generally, the key to economic development is the uneven nature of innovation and it is the uneven nature that gives economic transformation its evolutionary character. This, I suggest, is the proper legacy of Marshalls economics.     

Innovation and the competitiveness of industries: Comparing the mainstream and the evolutionary approaches

The study of the relationships between innovation and the competitiveness of industries is an important topic for both, academic research and economic policy. The huge economics literature flourished in the last couple of decades on the subject broadly falls into two distinct research traditions, namely the mainstream R&D spillovers approach and the evolutionary economics view. Both traditions agree on the important role played by innovation and the inter-sectoral diffusion of advanced knowledge for the competitive performance of industrial sectors. Behind this general agreement, however, the two approaches are radically different. This paper shows that, at a deeper level of analysis, the mainstream and evolutionary views do indeed differ with respect to their theoretical foundations, empirical research and policy implications. In a nutshell, while the mainstream R&D spillover approach is inspired by a traditional view of economic policy based on a market-oriented approach, the evolutionary view is on the contrary consistent with the idea that institutional arrangements and policy interventions do indeed play a fundamental role for shaping innovation patterns and their impacts on the competitiveness of industries.     

论中国特色社会主义金融发展与经济增长理论——中国金融发展与经济增长关系的政治经济学

中国特色社会主义金融发展与经济增长的伟大实践走过了一条不同于传统金融发展与经济增长理论所描述的经济和金融自由化之路。中国特色社会主义金融发展与经济增长理论的逻辑是,强调中国共产党对金融工作的领导,强调通过国有所有权来实施金融控制战略,通过金融控制来有效降低或阻隔金融市场上的"羊群效应"和"传染效应",从而最大限度地去解决金融监管始终滞后于金融创新带来的现实或潜在系统性风险难题,牢牢守住不发生系统性风险的底线。新时代中国特色社会主义金融发展与经济增长理论在持续深化。在进一步寻求金融控制程度和降低金融系统性风险之间的最佳组合上,在让金融回归服务于实体经济的本质属性上,在发展普惠金融弥补市场天生之不足、促进公平增长上,都取得了重大进展。中国特色社会主义金融发展与经济增长理论和实践有助于实现金融发展与经济增长之间的良性互动,是中国特色社会主义金融发展与经济增长关系的政治经济学。     

The figure of Smith: Dugald Stewart and the propagation of Smithian economics

Despite the persistence of interpretive differences over the substance of Adam Smith's economic and political writings, in the last two decades historians of economic and political thought have done much to establish distinctions between the figure of Smith and the original subject. This paper examines a subset of issues surrounding what we call the Transmission questionnamely, the process which led to the forging of the figure of Smith as the apostle of economic liberalism that he is widely, if not universally, thought to have been. It is not primarily concerned with what Smith actually said but rather with the figure of Smith; with how and why it came to acquire some of its most characteristic feathers under the direction of Dugald Stewart.     

Economics,Sociology, History: Notes on Their Loss of Unity,Their Need for Re-integration and the Current Relevance of the Controversy between Carl Menger and Gustav Schmoller

We are experiencing a situation of increasing criticism of the state in which economics is being represented nowadays. One of the remarks is that economics has become too formalized and too abstract and that the state of discipline has become increasingly unable to express many phenomena of “real life” with its concrete socioeconomic specifica. Criticism has found a way to get cumulated in different terms of economic pluralism. The claim for fostering interdisciplinary research which we also find nowadays reflects the diagnosis that our islands of shared knowledge have become too fragmented. When reflecting what is going on in recent times a view back to the end of the nineteenth century may help to contextualize recent debate. Looking at the debate between Carl Menger and Gustav Schmoller which was later classified as the first battles in social sciences helps to sort up arguments which are still on the agenda, inductive versus deductive methods or empirism versus abstract theorizing.     

Public Sector Employment and the Skill Premium: Sweden versus the United States 1970–2012

Swedish census data and tax records reveal an astonishing decline in the aggregate skill premium of 30 percent between 1970 and 1990, with only a modest recovery in the next couple of decades. In contrast, the US skill premium rose by around 24 percent over those four decades. A theory that equalizes wages with marginal products can rationalize these disparate outcomes when we replace commonly used measures of total labor supplies by private sector employment. The dramatic decline in the skill premium in Sweden is the result of an expanding public sector that has disproportionately hired unskilled labor.     

劳动力市场搜寻与匹配理论——2010年诺贝尔经济学奖得主的重要贡献

彼得.戴蒙德、戴尔.莫滕森和克里斯托弗.皮萨里德斯三人因在劳动力市场搜寻与匹配理论及其应用的突出贡献,共同获得2010年诺贝尔经济学奖。其中,戴蒙德通过提出著名的戴蒙德悖论,开创了劳动力市场搜寻与匹配理论框架;在此基础上,莫滕森认为,建立工资公告等匹配机制有助于劳动力市场博弈实现均衡,从而拓展了摩擦性失业相关理论研究;而皮萨里德斯则通过推动匹配函数与工资议价等的确立,进一步完成了劳动力市场搜寻与匹配理论的系统化过程。借鉴该理论,中国劳动力市场应做出提高信息传播效率、提高农村的信息水平、政府制定针对性相关政策等改进。     

论粤港澳经济一体化模式的新发展--深圳前海、珠海横琴与广州南沙的创新平台差异化分工合作

深圳前海、珠海横琴、广州南沙作为粤港澳深度融合的先行发展平台及制度创新试验区,在明确分工后开展了制度创新方面的探索。三个创新试验区一体化发展尚面临诸多亟待研究解决的问题,特别是区内外分工、合作与协调优化问题。从经济运行机制、政府职能转变和发展环境三个维度重新探讨了三地的跨区域差别分工合作和优化组合,并提出了政策建议。     

Exploring the relationship between CSR performance and financial constraints: empirical evidence from European firms

This paper investigates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and financial constraints. Our panel dataset consists of 397 European companies listed in the STOXX Europe 600 during 2009–2014. The findings reveal that firms with higher CSR performance exhibit lower degree of financial constraints. In addition, the link between CSR performance and financial constraints is a fully mediated relationship. The negative effect of CSR performance on financial constraints follows the path through mitigating agency conflicts of free cash flow and information asymmetry. The findings suggest that one mechanism linking CSR performance and financial constraints is a reduction of capital-market imperfections.     

Global imbalances and asymmetric returns to US foreign assets: fitting the missing pieces of the US balance of payments puzzle

The issue of whether the US earns a persistently higher return on its foreign direct investment (relative to returns to foreign-owned direct investment in the US) has received considerable attention but little closure in the ‘global imbalances’ debate. Measuring the rate of returns to US direct investment abroad and foreign direct investment in the US we find higher returns to US foreign direct investment relative to its foreign counterparts in the US. Given the evidence indicating higher returns to US direct investment overseas, we link the irresolution in the contemporary literature regarding the existence of these returns to the unsettled debate over the origin of global imbalances. Reviewing the macro-financial literature on global imbalances, we find a failure to acknowledge that the US current account deficit is, in part, the outcome of transnational production networks in a global economy under-pinned by dollar hegemony. Given the growth in US multinational supply chains, we argue that the US trade deficit is consistent with asymmetric returns to US direct investment and that the sustainability of these return differentials rests on the stability of the status quo.     

On the Strong Liberal State: Beyond Berghahn and Young

The paper is a reply to Berghahn and Young's reflections on Bonefeld's ‘Freedom and the Strong State’. It argues that ordoliberalism focuses on the strong state as the political form of free economy.     

Harmony between man and nature：the base for the harmonious society

The harmony between man and nature is the base for the harmonious society. It is determined by the eco-ruleand eco-economic rule. Human being should not violate the eco-rule. However, human being can make eco-systemsupply suit economic growth and its speed through systematical innovation and restriction of human economic activityand choice. Through technological innovation, efficiency satisfaction of unit resource can be increased; structure andfunction of eco-system can be perfected; supply capability of eco-system can be improved. To build the harmonioussociety, human should consider the reasonable distribution of limited resources from two sides. The first one is that theutilization of two functions of resource supply and pollution purification to nature should not exceed its special supplycapability formed under its special structure and function states, i.e. harmony between man and nature. The second sideis human being should think over the reasonable and effective distribution of limited resources in economic society, i.e.harmony between human beings and society. The reasonable economic activity of human being is the key to the harmo-nious development of man and nature.     

Freedom and the Strong State: On German Ordoliberalism

Ordoliberalism is the theory behind the German social market economy. Its theoretical stance developed in the context of the economic crisis and political turmoil of the Weimar Republic in the late 1920s. It is premised on the strong state as the locus of liberal governance, and holds that economic freedom derives from political authority. In the context of the crisis of neoliberal political economy and austerity, and debates about the resurgence of the state vis-à-vis the economy, the article introduces the ordoliberal argument that the free economy presupposes the exercise of strong state authority, and that economic liberty is a practice of liberal governance. This practice is fundamentally one of social policy to secure the sociological and ethical preconditions of free markets. The study of ordoliberalism brings to the fore a tradition of a state-centric neoliberalism, one that says that economic freedom is ordered freedom, one that argues that the strong state is the political form of free markets, and one that conceives of competition and enterprise as a political task.