On the Origins of The American Journal of Economics and Sociology: Its Purposes and Objectives

This essay, written with the help of his devoted wife, Mrs. Dorothy Burnham Lissner, was prepared at the request of the current editor of the AJES. This essay was written during the fall of 1999. On September 10, Mrs. Lissner informed me that, “The early history of the Journal is all done. . . . I hope it is satisfactory . . . Will and I worked very hard on it. Long hours. . . . so I decided to interview him and take down what he said or have him answer on tape. Then I put everything together on the computer, almost like an article. He [Will Lissner] has checked it and thinks it's perfect, that we can do no better” (correspendence of D. B. Lissner with L. Moss, 9/10/99). This is the last known writing of Will Lissner and summarizes his aims, goals, and ambitions for this Journal nearly six decades after its founding. Had Will had more time, this essay would have been the first of a series of reflections on this history of this Journal.     

The New Economic Sociology of Prices: An Analysis Inspired by the Austrian School of Economics

The new economic sociology includes some reference studies on the sociology of prices. They have not until now been studied by economists, and this article attempts to fill that gap by offering a detailed analysis, inspired by the Austrian School of Economics, of their object and approach. We first show that, from a theoretical point of view, the explanations advanced by these sociologists are based implicitly on basic models of economics, such as the “law of supply and demand” and the “law of costs,” and that they cannot therefore replace economic explanations of prices. Secondly, from a methodological point of view, these studies are based on field surveys that provide concrete information on certain markets but they lose sight of an aspect that is fundamental to the Austrian School, the interdependence of prices in different markets. And when this interdependence is taken into account, namely, in the case of the relationship between cost and price, the causal link postulated by sociologists goes from cost to price when Austrian economists argue that it goes in the opposite direction.     

面向网络发表科技论文的作者投稿心理调查与分析

网络科技论文发表平台学术论文质量提升的起点在于高水平论文作者向其投稿的意愿。据此,本论文采用问卷调查的方式对作者向网络科技论文发表平台投稿的心理进行了调查,并通过对回收问卷的数据分析,得到了影响作者投稿的主要心理因素。     

The Rebirth of Austrian Economics: 1974–99

Twenty five years ago, Austrian economics appeared to be a 'closed chapter in the history of economics.' Today Austrian ideas are flourishing as never before. That is partly due to the compelling nature of Austrian ideas. But there is a good case for arguing that the 'official rebirth' of Austrian economics dates back to a meeting in South Royalton, Vermont in June 1974.     

Crossing the Boundary of Economics and Sociology: The Case of Vilfredo Pareto

The aim of the paper is to present the economic sociology of Vilfredo Pareto. We argue that Pareto represents a mode of thinking that has not been used in economic sociology and barely considered in the other branches of sociology. We reject the habitual bifurcation of Pareto into the economist and the sociologist. Pareto stresses the non-logical parts of human life, and he provides empirical examples of this in his writing. He was occupied with the dynamics in society as a result mainly of non-logical actions. We show how one may speak of a distinctly Paretian economic sociology, which primarily has its origin in his theoretical discussions. We also show that Pareto conducted empirical studies drawing from his version of economic sociology. Included is finally a presentation, as well as a discussion of Pareto's idea of rentiers and speculators, which is followed up by a more general discussion of economic types in the market.     

The Political Sociology of Jordan: An Analysis for the Map of Gains and Pains

Abstract

Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jor dan has ex pe ri-enced sig nif i cant eco nomic and po lit i cal de vel op ments. These in cluded ef forts to re form and open up the econ omy and pri vat ize pub lic sec tor en ter prises. Re forms have been oc cur ring un der the aus pices of the In ter-na tional Mon e tary Fund and the World Bank. Jor dan has also re cently signed an As so ci a tion Agree ment with the EU, Free Trade Area with the USA and joined the World Trade Or ga ni za tion to but tress its plans of ‘glob al iz ing Jor dan.’ There is a strong feel ing in side Jor dan that many of these re forms, agree ments and ac ces sions have been hasty, car ried out with out study ing their full im pli ca tions and with out pre par ing Jor da ni-ans for them. This pa per sheds some light on the main fears be hind these feel ings.     

企业发展:基于RBV的产权经济学分析

资源基础观的企业发展,意味着资源的不断聚集与留衍,这有赖于资源的持续吸纳和有效利用。如果赋予资源持有者/投入者以尽可能完全的产权——明晰的归属权、适切的生产性控制权、严正的分配性控制权、足够的收益权、充分的留衍所有权,将促进资源吸纳及利用效率的提高进而企业的发展,而这需要相应的治理安排对这些权利、权力的实现予以保障。     

The Economic Effects of Anti-takeover Gimmicks; An American View

Should companies be allowed to protect themselves from takeover? Robert McGee, of Seton Hall University, outlines the case against ‘poison pills’ and other restrictions on takeovers and mergers.     

Making the Country Work for the City: Von Thünen's Ideas in Geography, Agricultural Economics and the Sociology of Agriculture

Geography, as the discipline responsible for describing the organization of space, has developed several ways of dealing with the phenomenon of the central city and its surrounding hinterlands. One of the most prominent of models used is von Thünen's Isolated State, a predictive model of how rural hinterlands organize agricultural production in relation to an urban center. Despite today's globalized food provisioning system, there are still some agricultural commodities that remain in U.S. city hinterlands. The most prominent of these is milk. The spatial organization of dairying is therefore a topic in which von Thünen's notions of centrality are still pertinent. In addition, outside of geography, his ideas had a significant effect on the agricultural economists who formulated dairy marketing policy. This paper will examine von Thünen and notions of centrality in the formulation of dairy policy in the United States. His contribution has been very important to agricultural economists and agricultural geographers but less important to sociologists of agriculture, who see the spatial organization of food production around cities due as much to contingent, local political outcomes as to law-like notions of centrality. Comparative historical method in sociology has been particularly useful in determining the role of predictive models and contingency in determining the spatial organization of milksheds.     

Expectations Formation and Business Cycle Fluctuations: An Empirical Analysis of Actual and Expected Output in UK Manufacturing, 1975–1996

Direct measures of expectations, derived from survey data, are used in a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model of actual and expected output in eight industries in the UK manufacturing sector. No evidence is found with which to reject rationality in the derived expectations series when measurement error is appropriately taken into account. The VAR analysis illustrates the importance of intersectoral interactions and business confidence in explaining the time profile of industrial outputs, examines the mechanisms by which shocks are propagated across sectors and over time and investigates the relative importance of sectoral and aggregate shocks of different types.     

Rankings Methodology for International Comparisons of Institutions and Individuals: an Application to Economics in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract.  The objectives of this paper are threefold. First, we critically survey and analyse the different methodologies that have been adopted in the rankings literature. Second, using journal articles included in the ECONLIT database and on the basis of two criteria – one based on citations and the other on perceptions of journal quality, we rank economics teaching departments in Australia and New Zealand for 1988–2002 and 1996–2002 and for individual academic economists for the periods 1988–2002, 1988–1995 and 1996–2002. Furthermore, we identify individual star performers and recognize them in a designated 'Hall of Fame' for 1988–2002. Third, our methodology enables us to make international comparisons on total and per capita bases. Previous multi-country ranking studies in economics do not rank economics departments. They provide rankings based on total publications in economics in universities regardless of whether the economists are in the economics departments or in other departments. Thus, no rankings on per capita bases are provided. We correct this shortcoming by providing total and per capita rankings and analysing the correlations between total and per capita rankings. This is the first study to examine whether the size of the economics department matters with regard to productivity.     

The Methodology of Austrian Economics and Its Relevance to Institutionalism

A bstract . The methodology of Austrian economics's presented in the writings of Ludwig von Mises is described. The Misesian system is built on a priori categories (choice, causality, teleology, time, uncertainty) which Mises regarded as common to all human actors. He used these categories to describe how theories of social phenomena must be constructed if they are to be comprehensible to others. To interpret history , including economic history , one must invent models based on subsidiary assumptions and he or she must make bypotheseszbom the specific "intentions and expectations" of actors. One model is that of an "economic institution." The meaning of the Misesian model of an institution is stated. It is said to have much in common with the models of phenomenologicai sociology. Finally, contrary to recent papers in this J ournal , it is argued that (1) Misesian a priori categories are not alternatives to a priori assumptions described by institutionalists, (2) although a pure theory of choice does not lend itself to the evaluation of public policy , hypotheses about specific intentions and expectations do permit such evaluations, and (3) statements by Mises on institutions and the study of history resemble those made by many institutionalists.