Russian Roller Coaster: Expenditure Inequality and Instability in Russia, 1994–98

This paper uses the second phase of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey to investigate the changes in expenditure inequality and instability in Russia between the autumn of 1994 and the autumn of 1998. The expenditure distribution is stable in spite of the economic and political turmoil Russia is going through. However, that does not imply much stability. Households experienced considerable fluctuations in their expenditure, with over 60 percent of the population's expenditure either more than doubling or falling to less than half their previous levels. Only about 6 percent of all households experienced an expenditure shock of less than 10 percent. The inquiry in expenditure mobility suggests high levels of transitory variation in the expenditure and high levels of instability.     

Lessons for Development from the Japanese Experience

Economic class, defined in relation to its actual control over the economy’s productive assets, is the most useful lens for examining power distribution in the post-Soviet transition and clarifying the neoliberal nature of its social provisioning processes. Using Ukraine as an illustration, I argue that only ownership empowerment of economically powerless classes can democratize the oligarchic transition economies. As an exit strategy from oligarchic capitalism, I recommend that state capitalism be implemented, as a transitory condition only, to divest oligarchs of unlawfully acquired economic power. Then, progressive restructuring of oligarchic companies must be conducted through broadening property ownership to include shared ownership and worker participation in economic decisions. I conclude that only by nurturing the democratic fundamentals of the economy and promoting a social democratic welfare state could a government in post-Euromaidan Ukraine initiate its own social control and create a genuine political and economic democracy.     

Inequality and volatility moderation in Russia: Evidence from micro-level panel data on consumption and income

We construct key household and individual economic variables using a panel micro data set from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) for 1994–2005. We analyze cross-sectional income and consumption inequality trends and find that inequality decreased during the 2000–2005 economic recovery. The decrease appears to be driven by falling volatility of transitory income shocks. The response of consumption to permanent and transitory income shocks becomes weaker later in the sample, consistent with greater self-insurance against permanent shocks and greater smoothing of transitory shocks. Finally, expenditure and income inequality in Russia are not far apart.     

论《资本论》的研究对象、方法和分析范式

马克思在《资本论》第一卷序言中明确指出:"我要在本书研究的,是资本主义生产方式以及和它相适应的生产关系和交换关系。"这句话是关于《资本论》的研究对象的经典表述。我们可以将马克思这一经典表述解读为:作为资本主义经济形成的生产力基础的生产组织或劳动方式,以及和它相适应的生产关系和交换关系。在《资本论》中,马克思将历史唯物主义运用于资本主义经济形态的研究,发现了这种经济形态的特殊运动规律。这就是说,《资本论》的研究方法就是历史唯物主义。在《资本论》的宏大的理论体系的展开过程中,历史唯物主义的世界观这个根本的方法论原则,具体化为经济学分析的一系列规范:(1)从生产力与生产关系的矛盾运动中解释社会经济制度变迁;(2)以生产资料所有制为基础确定整个社会经济制度的性质;(3)在历史形成的社会经济结构的整体制约中分析人的经济行为;(4)依据经济关系来理解政治和法律的制度以及道德规范。     

The Lost Promise of Democratic Socialism in Russia

To explain the failure to create democratic socialism in Russia after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, I apply Thorstein Veblen’s vision of economic democracy as a cure for vested interests. In late imperial Russia, many socialist thinkers imagined socialism primarily in terms of workplace democracy, worker ownership, local governance, and economic decentralization. Their vision was destroyed, first, by Bolshevik policies and then by Stalin’s tyrannical command economy. Thereafter, vested interests reemerged in the Soviet Union as an underground economy, rife with theft of public resources, and then, with the beginning of transition, capitalism in its most neoliberal form was restored.     

Competing Models of Socially Constructed Economic Man: Differentiating Defoe's Crusoe from the Robinson of Neoclassical Economics

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe has seldom been read as an explicitly political text. When it has, it appears that the central character was designed to warn the early eighteenth-century reader against political challenges to the existing economic order. Insofar as Defoe's Crusoe stands for ‘economic man’, he is a reflection of historically produced assumptions about the need for social conformity, not the embodiment of any genuinely essential economic characteristics. This insight is used to compare Defoe's conception of economic man with that of the neoclassical Robinson Crusoe economy. On the most important of the ostensibly generic principles espoused by neoclassical theorists, their ‘Robinson’ has no parallels with Defoe's Crusoe. Despite the shared name, two quite distinct social constructions serve two equally distinct pedagogical purposes. Defoe's Crusoe extols the virtues of passive middle-class sobriety for effective social organisation; the neoclassical Robinson champions the establishment of markets for the sake of productive efficiency.     

The Policy Ramifications of Capital as Ideas

In 1987, Baldwin Ranson wrote about capital and technology in economic growth. Ranson argued that capital should be defined as intangible ideas and technology that are not subject to supply and demand constraints. Thorstein Veblen (1908, 518) described his conception of capital as being “found in possession of something in the way of a body of technological knowledge, – knowledge serviceable and requisite to the quest of a livelihood.” John R. Commons (1934, 662) wrote in a similar vein that “capital is not an accumulation of past products of stored-up labor – these are transitory and aimless – capital is a going plant of industrial knowledge and experience.” More recently, Cesar Hidalgo (2015) and Paul Romer (1990, 1994) have also written about the idea of capital as ideas and the key to economic growth. Hidalgo (2015, 179) states that “the growth of information in the economy, which is ultimately the essence of economic growth, results from the coevolution of our species’ collective computation capacity.” The first section of this article explores the linkages between the older generation and more recent thinkers on the intersection of capital as technology and ideas. The second section explores the policy ramifications of this conceptualization of capital. Romer argues that temporary monopolies are needed to encourage investment in innovation. According to both Veblen and Ranson, these rules do not allow for the full social value of ideas to be utilized. The second part of this article also explores these differences using A. Allan Schmid’s situation-structure-performance (SSP) model.     

Social mobility and inequality in urban China: understanding the role of intergenerational transmission of education

China’s rapid economic growth since the late 1980s has been accompanied by great economic and social transformations, which have resulted in a sharp increase in income inequality. This article contributes to the literature of social mobility in China by examining the impact of parental education on the education of their children. Using the 1990 and 2000 Chinese Population Censuses, we employ nonparametric estimation strategies to provide a systematic investigation of intergenerational transmission of education in urban China. We find evidence of increasing parents–children educational correlations. Our results raise concerns regarding economic inequality in urban China as high intergenerational persistence of education is expected to be a barrier to equal opportunities in children’s education attainments and their future labour market outcomes.     

Memorable occasions

Eucken, in his paradigm of a functionally competitive social market economy, established the basis for a free market economy which institutionalizes concerns for economic and social justice. The Bishops’ Pastoral (and also the Lay Letter) on the U.S. economy approach the concept of a social and just economy from a Christian moral tradition. A community of interests between these two approaches, as well as Donaldson’s synthesis of Nozick’s and Rawl’s theories of justice, causes a moral-economic dialogue and cross fertilization to emerge. The Bishops postulate that the evolution of a just and fair market economy, as the guarantor of freedom, human dignity, and justice, cannot be left to chance but needs to be consciously guided. Therefore, they emphasize the integration of economic theories and policies with notions of “fairness” and “justice,” advocating a holistic approach in viewing the economic system as an organic whole. This paper shows that the broad economic guidelines, which Bishops suggest, fall within the framework of a functional market economy, i.e., a social market economy. It does not deal with the religious and biblical arguments of the Pastoral Letter.     

Pastoral economics within the framework of a social economy

Eucken, in his paradigm of a functionally competitive social market economy, established the basis for a free market economy which institutionalizes concerns for economic and social justice. The Bishops’ Pastoral (and also the Lay Letter) on the U.S. economy approach the concept of a social and just economy from a Christian moral tradition. A community of interests between these two approaches, as well as Donaldson’s synthesis of Nozick’s and Rawl’s theories of justice, causes a moral-economic dialogue and cross fertilization to emerge. The Bishops postulate that the evolution of a just and fair market economy, as the guarantor of freedom, human dignity, and justice, cannot be left to chance but needs to be consciously guided. Therefore, they emphasize the integration of economic theories and policies with notions of “fairness” and “justice,” advocating a holistic approach in viewing the economic system as an organic whole. This paper shows that the broad economic guidelines, which Bishops suggest, fall within the framework of a functional market economy, i.e., a social market economy. It does not deal with the religious and biblical arguments of the Pastoral Letter.     

SOCIAL ASSETS*

We present a model incorporating both social and economic components and analyze their interaction. The notion of a social asset, an attribute that has value only because of the social institutions governing society, is introduced. In the basic model, agents match on the basis of income and unproductive attributes. An attribute has value in some equilibrium social institutions (matching patterns), but not in others. We then show that productive attributes (such as education) can have their value increased above their inherent productive value by some social institutions, leading to the notion of the social value of an asset.     

马克思的生态经济理论和生态经济体制的建立问题——“两型”社会建设的几点思考

从马克思的理论看,经济活动不是单纯的人与自然之间的关系,实际上,人与自然界的物质变换是以人与人的社会关系作为中介的,即生产总是以一定的社会关系进行,并形成相应的生产关系。而生产关系的制度化就形成经济体制,生态经济问题的要义应在经济体制中去理解和把握。基于此,我们这里讨论生态经济问题,不是单纯地思考某一生态的经济产品或产业,而是着重考虑生态经济体制建立的着力点。目前在我国,一是应建立"再生产自然"的经济体系;二是着眼社会发展的整体性和实行"有限的资本生产体制";三是强化主体功能区的分工及其合理协调的发展与生态建设功能;四是优化资源节约型与环境友好型的工业管理体系构建。     

Profitability of corporate social responsibility in network industries

The present paper shows that, when firms compete in a non-cooperative way on the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in network industries, the conventional result of the prisoner’s dilemma structure of the game in standard industries—i.e. to have social concerns is the Nash equilibrium, but it is harmful for firms’ profits—vanishes and, for sufficiently intense network externalities, the equilibrium in which both firms have social concerns is more profitable than simple profit-seeking. Moreover, we show that—when firms cooperate in choosing the profit-maximising level of social concerns—a profit-maximising CSR level does exist, provided that network effects are sufficiently strong. Therefore, in network industries, firms may obtain higher profits engaging in—cooperatively as well as non-cooperatively—CSR activities, showing that firms’ social concerns may be motivated by the owners’ selfish behaviour. Finally, a counter-intuitive result as regards consumer’s surplus and social welfare is obtained: those are always higher under competitive than cooperative choice of CSR because the level of CSR activities is higher in the former case. However, given that firms gain their largest profits with the cooperative choice of CSR, a Pareto-superior outcome is not reached.     

论马克思主义生产力理论中国化的继承与发展

自从马克思主义创始人提出生产力理论以后,生产力理论随着时代的发展被不断的创新与发展。经过中国几代领导集体继承与创新,马克思主义生产力理论已经得到了不断的丰富与发展。我国必须遵循生产力发展规律,促进经济社会发展。     

Autocracies and regional integration: the Eurasian case

The establishment of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in 2010, succeeded by the Eurasian Economic Union in 2015, constituted an important discontinuity in the development of post-Soviet regionalism: while the preceding organisations remained cases of ‘ink-on-paper’ regional integration, in the case of the Customs Union the members actually implemented their commitments. This creates an important theoretical challenge: the literature (which the previous experience of Eurasian regionalism was very much in line with) conjectures that authoritarian states are unable to successfully implement an economic regional integration agreement (RIA). The aim of the article is to explore the conditions under which implementation of economic RIAs by autocracies happens. We argue that the implementation is influenced by the extent of economic, social and political ties between member states, and suggest that, unlike democratic states, which are more likely to implement a RIA where there are strong economic ties, non-democracies are more likely to do so in the case of intermediate economic dependence.     

制度-垄断地租与中国地方政府竞争:一个马克思主义分析框架

竞争性地方政府作为改革以来形成的重要制度形式,在相当程度上决定了中国社会主义市场经济体制的特点。本文不仅承续了既有文献中将地方政府的经济动机归于租金,并将土地财政视为地方政府利用租金开展战略投资的观点,而且试图在一个马克思主义框架内进一步发展这一观点。为此我们对租金的生产性利用和国家的经济作用的关系做了初步探讨,并将大卫·哈维的制度-垄断地租理论运用于分析中国地方政府围绕营建环境的投资活动。本文的基本结论是,中国地方政府在以土地财政为核心的战略投资中,充当了租金的生产性分配者和使用者的角色,并因之嵌入了原本由企业之间的竞争所带来的相对剩余价值生产过程,形成了中国经济特有的相对剩余价值生产双重结构,从而在相当长的时间内造就了世所罕见的高投资率,推动了中国经济的持续快速增长。     

Growth,mobility and social progress

We evaluate social progress on the basis of panel data on individual incomes by comparing the value of social welfare in the observed panel data to its value in a situation where individuals receive their first period income in each period. We derive necessary conditions for the welfare gain to be positive, and show how it can be decomposed in an effect of economic growth, a mobility effect and a cost due to aversion to time fluctuations given individuals’ ranks in the income distribution. The mobility effect, generated by reranking in the income distribution has two components: a cost due to time fluctuations in incomes and a benefit, due to equalization in time averaged incomes. We illustrate the analysis using CNEF data for Australia, Korea, Germany, Russia, Switzerland and the US. Our results indicate that the largest component of social progress is the equalization of time averaged income, induced by reranking. In countries with high growth (Australia, Korea and Russia), the growth effect is larger than the mobility effect, but in countries with low growth (Germany, Switzerland and the US), the opposite holds true. The poor performance of the US is explained by the large costs of income fluctuations and the way economic growth is distributed.     

Financialization in the American Pharmaceutical Industry: A Veblenian Approach

Thorstein Veblen’s theory of the business enterprise holds that business interests come to dominate industrial interests, with pecuniary returns being the dominant mindset under which economic activity is conducted. Under moneymanager capitalism, this is reflected in the increasing importance of profits from financial channels and the accumulation of intangible rent-generating assets to serve as the basis for capitalization — a process known as financialization. I examine this process of intangible asset accumulation within the context of the American pharmaceutical industry using Veblen’s theory of the business enterprise as a lens. I show that intangible assets have come to dominate productive capital on pharmaceutical enterprise balance sheets, suggesting that pharmaceutical profits are accumulated through rent-seeking channels rather than productive ones, in line with Veblen’s theory, and provide evidence of the financialization of this industry.     

Motivation for conservation: Assessing integrated conservation and development projects and payments for environmental services in La Sepultura Biosphere Reserve,Chiapas, Mexico

In order to achieve conservation and development, direct strategies, such as Payments for Environmental Services (PES), have been claimed to be potentially more effective than indirect strategies, like Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs). However, PES have raised some concerns on the commodification of nature and the potential replacement of non-chrematistic forms of valuing ecosystems. This article evaluates PES and ICDPs in La Sepultura Biosphere Reserve, Mexico, by analyzing the programs' fund allocation, examining conservation perceptions based on 731 structured interviews and presenting a detailed assessment of ICDP/PES preferences in a community with the longest participation in both schemes. People receiving PES tend to make the future of conservation contingent on monetary and utilitarian reasons, this preference increasing with the number of years receiving PES. These are preferred for their directness and short-term results, although raising concerns about the little social capital they generate. ICDPs are appreciated for arising environmental awareness, being linked with long term conservation, productive capacity and social capital building. Negative perceptions of ICDPs are related to past economic failures. Our results suggest that the real issue is not PES vs. ICDPs but how to combine them to find the proper sequence while reinforcing intrinsic value-based attitudes.     

职业分层、中产阶级与收入分配

社会职业不仅反映着人们在社会、经济生活中所处的分工角色,它也带来了人们在收入水平和社会经济地位方面的差距和不同,在各种职业背后存在着以生产条件的占有关系为依据的社会生产关系。社会不可能通过消除普通生产劳动行业和职业,让人们都进入"中等收入"职业。因此,要缩小社会收入分配领域的巨大差距,必须改变现有的分配结构,在初次分配领域,即物质生产领域,进行分配制度的改革,增加普通劳动者的收入,使普通劳动者能够通过勤奋劳动达到"中等收入"水平,这才是在社会主义制度下"扩大中等收入者群体"的正确途径。所谓"人力资本"的收益不过是在雇佣劳动制度的生产方式下,部分人能以物质生产乃至资本主义竞争所必需的知识为条件,进入社会生产关系中具有一定社会经济地位的职业,在这种职业上他们利用社会生产关系所赋予的对生产与竞争能力的控制,从社会剩余产品中占有一定份额。因此,"人力资本"所有者的收入并不是所谓"人力资本"的创造,而是由社会生产关系所决定的收入分配形式。