The Narrow and Broad Approaches to Evolutionary Modeling in Economics

Some models in evolutionary economics rely on direct analogies to genetic evolution, assuming a population of firms with routines, technologies, and strategies on which forces of diversity generation and selection act. This narrow conception can build upon previous findings from evolutionary biology. Broader concepts of evolution allow many or just one adaptive entity, instead of necessarily requiring a population. Thus, an institution or a society can also be understood as an evolutionary entity. Both the narrow and broad approaches have been extensively used in the literature, albeit in different literature traditions. I provide an overview of the conception and development of both approaches to evolutionary modeling, and argue that a generalization is needed to realize the full potential of evolutionary modeling.     

Evolution-Based Approaches in Economics and Evolutionary Loss of Information

Evolutionary economics provides a self-organizing, stabilizing mechanism without relying on mechanic equilibria. However, there are substantial differences between the genetic evolutionary biology and the evolution of institutions, firms, routines, or strategies in economics. Most importantly, there is no genetic codification and no sexual reproduction in economic evolution, and the involved agents can interfere consciously and purposefully. This entails a general lack of fixation and a quick loss of information through a Muller’s ratchet-like mechanism. The present contribution discusses the analogy of evolution in biology and economics, and considers potential problems resulting in evolutionary models in economics.     

The Capital Idea and the Scope of Economics

This paper traces the idea of Capital from Adam Smith to modern times and shows how different conceptions of Capital give rise to different approaches to economics and the range of problems that can be investigated. A structural, as opposed to a stock, approach to Capital is shown to be more conducive to a studies of business institutions and practices, and to rules, institutions and standards in a changing world.     

Evolutionary Theories in Environmental and Resource Economics: Approaches and Applications

Recent advances in evolutionary theory have important implications for environmental economics. A short overview is offered of evolutionarythinking in economics. Subsequently, major concepts and approaches inevolutionary biology and evolutionary economics are presented andcompared. Attention is devoted, among others, to Darwinian selection,punctuated equilibrium, sorting mechanisms, Lamarckian evolution,coevolution and self-organization. Basic features of evolution, such assustained change, irreversible change, unpredictability, qualitativechange and disequilibrium, are examined. It is argued that there are anumber of fundamental differences as well as similarities betweenbiological and economic evolution. Next, some general implications ofevolutionary thinking for environmental economics are outlined. This isfollowed by a more detailed examination of potential uses ofevolutionary theories in specific areas of environmental economics,including sustainability and long run development theories, technologyand environment, ecosystem management and resilience, spatial evolutionand environmental processes, and design of environmental policy.     

关于首都功能疏解的若干设想

首都功能疏解不是权宜之计,必须制订经得起历史检验的规划。要做到区域科学发展,保证首都功能疏解落实,需要重构大北京地区功能,优化城市布局,调整产业布局,完善交通布局,扩大生态空间,特别是应谋划一批功能区,如在涿州建设大型医院区、在秦皇岛建设大型科研区等,使首都产业和功能疏解有适宜承接的城市和功能区。     

The Economics of Karl Marx: Analysis and Applications

Abstract

Controversy focuses on three questions: Is capital a distinct factor of production? Is capital quantifiable in a theoretically consistent manner? Are process stories necessary around convergence to, or changes in, equilibrium interest rates? To all, Kaldor answers ‘yes’ to Knight's ‘no’. The controversy is historically important in: 1) shifting issues in recurring twentieth century capital theory controversies from periods of production to production functions, from roundaboutness to diminishing returns; 2) revealing Knight's position on increasing knowledge offsetting diminishing returns over time as an unacknowledged ‘precursor’ of new growth theory; 3) marking the turning point for Kaldor's attachment to Austrian theory.     

人本资本形成的机理研究——基于新制度经济学视角

对人力资本的专用性、交易频率和不确定性三变量进行分析,揭示人本资本在交易费用和协调费用约束下的生成过程,利用杨小凯的模型拓展和深化人本资本形成的理论过程,并通过分析最优人本资本形成路径,得出几点共识并在此基础上提出发展我国企业人本资本的政策建议。     

创新型企业融资新路径问题研究

创新型企业在中国转变经济发展方式和调整经济结构中发挥着支撑引领作用,目前创新型企业定义并不十分清楚,对于如何解决创新型企业融资也缺乏有针对性的的研究。从创新型企业内涵、特征入手,先从理论角度分析创新型企业融资特点,再从供给需求两个方面来分析创新型企业融资问题,并通过借鉴国内外创新型企业发达地区的做法,给出了符合创新型企业融资的新路径和一些政策建议。     

Some Reflections on the Teaching of Economics and Commerce in a Developing Country

The author, a teacher of economics and commercial subjects in Papua New Guinea which recently became independent, reports on the difficulties encountered in teaching these subjects in this developing country, where education of the western type is still associated in the minds of many with an aura of “cargo-cult” thinking. Other problems are the lack of textbooks in the language of the country, and the fact that the traditional beliefs of the majority of students run counter to principles of modern business and economics, making for a lack of even the most elementary economic understanding. Thus, the author believes, the transplanted course now being taught in Papua New Guinea cannot achieve the objective of providing basic economic understanding.

Mr. Smyth also suggests that the teacher “should be concerned with searching out those aspects of the traditional culture fhat can be used as ‘spring boards’ into a more complex study of the modem economy.”     

Parametric Approaches to Productivity Measurement: A Comparison among Alternative Models

This paper deals with modeling total factor productivity (TFP) growth in a flexible manner using panel data. Several competing parametric models are used to explore whether there are any similarities in the estimates of TFP growth and technical change among these models. Using a primal approach, we decompose TFP growth into different components. The models are then used to measure productivity and technical change in the Swedish cement industry. In general, the results are found to be model dependent and often conflicting, although much less so for returns to scale and overall productivity growth.
JEL classification: O 30; C 33     

我国商业银行规模经济评价方法研究

现有的关于银行规模经济评价的理论,要么基于参数法,要么专注于非参数法,很少有将二者兼顾考虑的评价方法.本文在充分考虑参数法和非参数法利弊的基础上,针对我国商业银行的特点提出了分类规模经济评价的思想.同时在利用DEA方法获得生产可能性集前沿面的基础上,建立了通过拟合生产函数获得各种规模经济评价指标的方法.     

A Characteristics Approach to the Evaluation of Economics Software Packages

Using the Bloom taxonomy of learning, the authors identify elements of student and instructor interest and then develop characteristics that are useful in analytically evaluating software packages for instruction in economics. They illustrate the technique with the extensively used software package Running the British Economy.     

资本经济一般:马克思主义经济学发展的新课题

马克思主义经济学不仅研究特定的经济性质关系,而且研究经济一般和经济运行关系。社会主义经济关系认识中对经济一般理论的探索,是马克思主义经济学发展中的薄弱环节和巨大空间。我国经济改革中的资本经济转轨,使资本运动扩展到社会主义经济过程,形成体现现代大生产运行的资本经济一般关系;挖掘并升华资本经济一般理论,无疑是马克思主义经济学发展的新机遇和新天地。     

“区域自我发展能力”的经济学界定及经验含义

从一个新的视角---经济学视角基于生产函数定义“区域自我发展能力”分析一个地区利用自身现有资本、劳动等要素禀赋发挥比较优势,使生产函数连续发生变化的能力。而从经验含义看,制度激励、技术改进都能增进区域自我发展能力。因此,提高西部地区自我发展能力应加大技术投入并促进西部制度创新。     

Income and Fiscal Incidence by Age and Gender: Some Evidence from New Zealand

With many fiscal policies likely to have quite different age/gender incidences, this paper examines age and gender dimensions of income distribution and fiscal incidence in New Zealand using Household Economic Survey data for 2010. Applying, and testing, an intra‐household income sharing rule, our evidence suggests strong life‐cycle and gender aspects to fiscal incidence. Net tax liabilities are found to be low and negative, at younger and older ages but positive during much of the “working age.” Notwithstanding considerable within‐gender heterogeneity, women are found on average to have systematically and persistently lower net fiscal liabilities than men, especially at older ages.     

养老保险资源获取途径新探

养老主体是老年人,养老资源的获取应是老年人一生积累和创造的过程,是老年人积极、主动的争取过程,而不是消极、被动的等待外界的救助过程,这种过程可以理解为老年人为实现幸福晚年而进行的养老价值资本的投资过程。提出的养老价值资本思想,为养老资源的获取提供了新的视角。养老价值资本体系的构建,为养老价值资本投资明确了方向,在此基础上建构的养老价值资本分析模型,对养老研究与实践具有重要意义。     

The Methodology of Economics and the Survival Principle Revisited and Revised: Some Welfare and Public Policy Implications of Modeling the Economic Agent

In contemporary political economic analyses of development processes, Hernando De Soto's The Mystery of Capital, has been one of the most discussed, albeit controversial, books. Although well received by global development agencies such as the World Bank, a key exponent of De Soto's work, positing that the creation and institutionalisation of individual property in housing and land revives “dead capital” and creates the conditions that will enable the poor to emerge from abject poverty, has been widely criticised. These criticisms show that (1) the thesis is flawed, (2) the flaw is due to implementational problems and (3) the practical implications arising from the thesis are largely neutral and will neither improve nor worsen poverty. Although agreeing with the first criticism, this paper argues that the second critique must be nuanced, and the third is entirely mistaken. Utilising insights from Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Polanyi and Henry George, it makes the case that applying De Soto's ideas through policy would be ineffective in curbing urban poverty, and actually serve to simultaneously entrench and augment it. Moreover, while finding that De Soto's assumption that the poor possess some economic agency is sound and may, indeed, secure socially beneficial outcomes through pursuing innovative and entrepreneurial endeavours, De Soto's conception of such processes remains largely emasculated from broader political economic considerations.     

人力资本对经济增长推动作用研究

人力资本作为一种潜在的资本能量,在与物资资本相结合的生产过程中,价值创造功能会逐渐的显现出来。但在各国实际的经济发展过程中,人力资本发挥作用的物质载体有很大差异,因此这种能量的发挥也会受到具体条件的限制。本文从理论与实证的角度梳理了部分学者关于人力资本对经济增长推动作用的研究。理论上,人力资本通过非知识效应、收入效应、替代效应以及外部效应等相关作用机制对经济增长会起到推动作用,这得到了大家的一致认同;实证分析研究中,由于学者采用的人力资本存量计量方法的不同,结论也不尽相同;而学者在对我国经济增长的实证研究中显示,人力资本对我国经济增长的推动作用不足。     

高校基建工程结算审计的途径分析

目前,对基建工程结算实施审计,是防止资金外流的一个重要环节。基建工程结算审计对调整投资结构、控制投资规模、提高投资效益具有十分重要的意义。应针对高校基建工程结算审计中出现的主要问题,采取切实可行地解决途径及技巧,让基建投资发挥最佳的经济效益。     

Limits of the New Institutional Economics Approach to African Development

In the last two decades, there has been a marked shift in the research on Sub-Saharan Africa from standard neoclassical analysis to new institutional economics (NIE). The increasing emphasis on NIE is reflected in a wide range of works by international financial institutions and scholars. However, the NIE approach retains fundamental limitations due to its narrow interpretation of institutions, its over-reliance on analysis of transactions costs and property rights, and its ahistorical attachment to markets and private sector firms as major engines of development. Furthermore, NIE typically fails to look “inside institutions” to identify the complex cultural factors that shape the interests and behaviors of the members of institutions. This paper engages in a critique of NIE analysis of Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic development, and suggests the need for a nuanced analysis of property rights and culture, along with development programs to address inequality and poverty and to foster state-led development.