To Trust or to Control: Informal Value Transfer Systems and Computational Analysis in Institutional Economics

This article illustrates the usefulness of computational methods for the investigation of institutions. As an example, we use a computational agent-based model to study the role of general trust and social control in informal value transfer systems (IVTS). We find that the terms of interaction between general trust and social control have an impact on how IVTS work, become stable, and prove highly effective. The case shows how computational models may help (i) to operationalize institutional theory and to clarify the functioning of institutions; (ii) to test the logical consistency of alternative hypotheses about institutions; and (iii) to relate institutionalist theory with other paradigms and to practice an interested pluralism.     

国际分工演化过程模拟实验研究

文章提供了一个基于主体的开放经济模型———ASMEC-O,用于研究国际分工的演化过程。在国际贸易中,经济主体之间的相互作用内生地决定了国际分工的演化过程,而国际分工的演化过程又会对经济主体的行为产生深刻影响。经济主体应用分类器系统来选择正确的行为规则。我们应用该模型分别进行了在不完全竞争和规模递增假设下,比较利益和路径依赖情况下形成国际分工演化过程的模拟实验。实验结果表明:在两国存在资源禀赋差异的条件下,比较利益和规模经营是形成国际分工的自然原因;在两国不存在资源禀赋差异的条件下,路径依赖也是形成国际分工的重要原因。     

The Role of Culture,Historicity, and Human Agency in the Evolution of the State: A Case Against Cultural Fatalism

I examine how the nature of the state and its relationship to its people are determined and evolve. I bring together differing contributions of traditional institutionalism to further an emerging evolutionary-institutionalist discourse concerning the role played by culture and historicity, on one hand, and by individual actions and awareness, on the other, in shaping and reshaping the nature of the state. Such discourse is significant in understanding that, although inherited culture plays an important role in influencing the character of the state in a given society, the future of the state is not fully determined by its history. In equal measure, it depends on the volition of individuals who purposefully amend the state’s institutions through rearranging power distribution. Using Russia’s authoritarian state as a case in point, I demonstrate how this emerging evolutionary-institutionalist discourse can circumvent ideological misuse of the institutionalist paradigm in non-democratic societies.     

Uncertainty,Rationality and the Study of Social Institutions

The insight that both ontological and epistemological perspectives are intertwined is certainly correct, but at the same time insufficient to differentiate mainstream from heterodox approaches to economic institutions. As this paper argues, it is important whether one starts from ontological or epistemological considerations first. The paper suggests that the difference can be described in terms of function versus rules and demonstrates that an intersubjective ontology for institutions requires also an intersubjective epistemology. Otherwise, ontological precepts contradict the epistemological ones with important repercussions for understanding knowledge, rationality and institutions.     

商务模式创新中社会化商务应用的研究路径

社会化商务应用进入了快速发展阶段,对组织、个人的行为构成了重要的影响。商务模式创新是企业竞争力的重要源泉,也是企业应对经济增长放缓、经济结构调整的新常态一个重要措施。商务模式创新活动应更多地将社会化商务应用纳入其中。本文对商务模式创新中社会化商务应用的研究路径进行了探讨。提出,广义虚拟经济理论使用价值、虚拟价值的理论视角对商务模式创新中社会化商务应用研究具有重要的理论指引作用。商务模式创新、社会化商务应用研究涉及个体智能、行为、系统结构等多方面的复杂性因素。运用复杂性科学的研究方法、行为科学的研究方法来开展相关研究很有可能取得显著的研究成效。本文着重对复杂性科学研究方法中基于主体的计算实验方法进行了分析。     

Universal Health Care and the Economics of Responsibility

In the American health care system the cost of health insurance is underwritten by all three sectors of the economy: 1) households; 2) employers; and 3) government. However, while costs are shared, responsibility is not. The retreat of private firms and government from assuming a substantial share of the burden of health care costs is based on the presumption that health care is an individual’s responsibility, while the contributions of government and the private sector are basically optional - a matter of benevolence rather than responsibility. The outcome of the current debates over health care reform will depend on this issue of responsibility. Who should pay for health care? Is it a collective responsibility or an individual one? In this paper, we explore the economics of responsibility as it applies to health care. In the institutionalist framework, any reallocation of costs must be driven by an underlying philosophy of shared responsibility.     

治理理论视阈下交通运输社会管制制度分析

改革开放以来,我国交通运输业取得了令人瞩目的成就,但与此同时,交通安全、环境污染等问题也日益突出。在交通运输行业我们的社会管制制度存在着错位、越位和缺位等问题,为此本文运用了新制度经济学的制度变迁理论和公共治理理论对我国交通运输社会管制制度进行了分析探讨,认为传统的交通运输行业政府管理模式具有强大的惯性作用,决定了我国交通运输社会管制的制度变迁表现出比较明显的“路径依赖”性,正处于制度从均衡状态——不均衡状态——均衡状态中的不均衡状态即锁定状态,要实现交通运输社会管制制度的创新,我们必须要改革交通运输行业政府管理模式,由交通运输行业政府单极治理模式向社会、公众和政府的交通运输多元治理模式转变。     

Railway transport liberalization in the European Union: Freight,labor and health toward the year 2020 in Spain

The year 2010 is a key year for European railway transport as it marks the liberalization of the railway sector in a context of economic crisis. The railway sector is a driving force behind the economy of any country. In the case of Spain, in particular, the sector is undergoing a process of liberalization following large public investments that have provided the country with one of the most extensive high-speed railway networks in Europe. Using a methodological approach that seeks a balance between future studies and constructivist studies on the interaction between technology and society, we examine the present and future consequences of railway transport liberalization, in the case-study of Spain, focusing on a key aspect of the process: changes in occupational health and safety conditions in a sector that must ensure full passenger, worker and freight safety. Through a comparison of actual risks, perceived risks and foreseeable risks, we analyze the main shortcomings of the liberalization model that is currently being implemented and strategies for dealing with foreseeable risks in a scenario of change.     

Modeling System Complexity in the Context of Geopolitics Related to Climate Change

Due mainly to the evolution of science and technology, ontic systems have continuously become more complex. Thus, original institutional economics has adopted and advanced the concepts of complex systems. This article further develops complexity concepts and relates them to problems of climate change. Systems complexity is combined with concepts from geopolitics in order to introduce geopolitical analysis about boundaries/borders into complex systems. The addition of geopolitical ideas allows for systems to focus on a designated social and ecological context that fits the problem of interest. The social and ecological components of open geopolitical systems lead to processes that are dynamic and complex. Thus, complex-systems modeling needs the assistance of geopolitical concepts and geopolitical models need to be embedded in complex systems. Each section of the article clarifies its meaning with examples of climate change concerns.     

The Evolution of the Veblenian Dichotomy: Veblen,Hamilton, Ayres,and Foster

One of the most troubling developments in recent years has been widening income inequality in the United States and elsewhere. We argue Post Keynesian Institutionalism (PKI) provides insight into the causes of increasing income inequality and our contribution is threefold. First, we compare PKI to the “financialization” literature, noting key similarities and differences. Second, we examine changes in financial structure and income inequality for a sample of developed nations, showing that financialization has increased in nearly all the countries sampled and that this increase has generally been accompanied by a rise in income inequality. Third, we demonstrate that the development of modern financial structures does not preclude an expansive welfare state and egalitarian public policies. Our finding is congruent with Hyman Minsky's conception of PKI, which stressed both that “economic systems are not natural systems” and that capitalism comes in as many varieties as Heinz has of pickles.     

Profits,Progress, and Poverty: Case Studies of International Industries in Latin America

Much has been written in recent years about the undue (and potentially adverse) emphasis of orthodox economics on GDP growth. Far less attention has been paid to the growing quantity bias in orthodox economics, and to the ever increasing fascination in broader society with numbers and quantitative data. We contend that the GDP growth bias is inextricably linked to the quantity bias and, moreover, that orthodox economics has catalyzed and reinforced this relationship of cumulative causation. In this context, we find instrumental valuation to be important both in helping identify the quantity bias and in critically analyzing and evaluating it.     

组织复杂性：动因、控制与利用

通常复杂性被认为是组织发展的障碍而力求规避或降低。然而，作为当今组织行为及其环境中的客观现象，需要因势利导地加以控制与利用，使之成为组织竞争优势的来源。本文分析组织复杂性产生的原因，按照对组织管理的作用将复杂性划分为有益的、有害的和中性的；探讨有害复杂性控制和有益复杂性利用的途径．提出组织利用复杂性获取竞争优势的双界面管理框架模型。     

The participant observer in the formation of economic thoughtSumma Oeconomiae Perlmanensis

This essay addresses issues related to the History of Economic Thought, Comparative Economic Analysis, and Institutional Economics alluded to in Mark Perlman's “The Character of Economic Thought, Economic Characters, and Economic Institutions”. Specifically, some differences between the strands of American Institutionalism and Schumpeterian economics are brought into focus. Against the background of a review, the ideas of a major participant in the historical analysis of economic thought are discussed. The conclusion is that an evolutionary approach to economics would benefit from any attempt to substitute systematic-discursive theorizing for the received genre of an abstract-deductive approach.     

国际货物运输代理业经营风险及其控制

国际货物运输代理业是国际商品流通过程的必然产物,也是国际贸易不可缺少的重要组成部分。国际货物运输代理业所面临的风险主要有货物损毁、员工或操作人员的错误或过失、对第三人责任、罚款与关税、费用等。根据风险控制理论与方法,国际货物运输代理业风险控制的方法主要有加强员工在职教育训练、签订完整的合同、明确约定标准交易条件、作出财产状况征信、投保责任险等。     

The Idea of Culture in the Social Sciences

An Institutionalist critique that draws from selected contributions of Veblen and Myrdal initiates a convergence debate. Challenged is a Neoclassical interpretation of economic processes expected to lead toward a catching up with respect to per capita output of Germany's poorer eastern region with the richer western region. Economic method is considered, and the Institutionalist School of Thought rooted in contributions of Veblen as well as Myrdal is touted for offering higher levels of explanatory power than the Neoclassical School. We challenge the usefulness of laws in Economic Science, and especially their applicability to the empirical economy. Instead of automatic forces driving a meliorative trend, we seek to establish that human agency and policy play determining roles in affecting economic and societal outcomes in Germany's eastern region.     

Reciprocity and Social Order: What Do Experiments Tell us About the Failure of Economic Growth?

This paper makes three observations for policy-makers, interested in promoting economic growth, based on the experimental work done at the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science. First, safeguards must be put into place to protect impersonal exchange from our innate desire for personal exchange. Second, policy must take into account the heterogeneity of individual cognitive strategies that are observed in economics laboratories. Third, policy must be test-bedded in economic experiments where the status quo is modeled as an ecologically rational response to the economic environment and the proposed policy change occurs in an environment where individuals have access to a full repertoire of personal exchange behaviors.JEL classification: C93     

社会系统中个体和群体行为及其计算实验研究的分析范式

提出了一套基于计算实验、可用于研究机制设计和最优控制等问题的分析范式,分析了群体状态对个体行为的影响方式,探讨了个体相互作用对群体状态的影响,提出了系统处于临界状态时的分析框架,指出运用计算实验方法研究社会系统中的特定问题有助于理解现实生活中个体行为与群体表现的关系。     

生态文明建设视域下社会治理创新研究

党的十八大报告明确指出:"面对资源约束趋紧、环境污染严重、生态系统退化的严峻形势,必须树立尊重自然、顺应自然、保护自然的生态文明理念,把生态文明建设放在突出地位,融入经济建设、政治建设、文化建设、社会建设各方面和全过程,努力建设美丽中国,实现中华民族永续发展。"文章首先强调了从生态文明建设的视角研究社会治理创新的重要性,然后论证了生态文明建设与社会治理创新二者之间的关系。紧接着从社会治理理念的更新是生态文明建设的内在要求、社会治理领域的拓宽是生态文明建设的必然选择、社会治理主体的扩大是生态文明建设的重要力量等方面探讨了生态文明视域下推进社会治理创新的路径。文章认为,只有按照生态文明建设的要求推进社会治理创新,才能进一步完善社会治理体制机制,推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化,实现生态文明建设与社会建设的良性互动。     

The Research Assessment Exercise, the state and the dominance of mainstream economics in British universities

In previous research on the impact of the Research AssessmentExercise on heterodox economics and heterodox economists inthe UK, the author concluded that reliance on Diamond List journalsto rank departments would drive economic departments to discriminatepositively in terms of their hiring, promotion and researchstrategies in favour of mainstream economists and their research,in order to maintain or improve their ranking. As a consequence,the author predicted there would be no or only a token presenceof heterodox economists in an increasing number of departments.Whether the conclusions still hold and the predictions materialiseis the subject of the paper.