The Economics of Apartheid Politics

Apartheid in South Africa is too often discussed in emotional or nationalistic terms. Professor Duncan Reekie, a Scottish economist now teaching at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, analyses the economic aspects of the political forces working with and against eventual liberalisation.     

The Diffusion of Heterodox Economics

Heterodox economics is in part defined by exclusion from orthodox circles and there is an understandable tendency for heterodox economists to engage primarily with each other outside these circles. Yet the critique offered by heterodoxy speaks more widely. This study examines the diffusion of heterodox economic ideas beyond the immediate confines via an analysis of the citation of heterodox economic journals by other journals. The diffusion of heterodox economics across wider disciplines is traced utilizing data from Emerald, Wiley, and Sage bibliographic databases. Employing the techniques of social network analysis, key journals in the diffusion process are identified, with implications for heterodox economics publishing strategy and engagement in valuation processes.     

The Neglected Economics of Trust

A bstract Economists have little understanding of trust. As economists, we are trained to think of the economy as an amalgam of individual agents, although the social element is an indispensable part of the economy. This perspective has caused us to lose sight of the role of trust. As a result, not only does the quality of life suffer, but the economy becomes less efficient.
In this article, I want to call attention to the central importance of trust in a market economy. I will show that markets both require and destroy trust. As a result, measures that appear to promote the economy may actually threaten the long-term health of the market by undermining trust.     

The Economics of Tropical Deforestation

This paper provides a survey of 'first wave' economic studies of tropical deforestation and land use. These studies of tropical forest land conversion are generally at the cross‐country level. We also conduct a synthesis cross‐country analysis of tropical agricultural land expansion. The results show that agricultural development is the main factor determining land expansion, but institutional factors have an important influence. Income effects tend to vary from region to region, and do not always display an 'Environmental Kuznets Curve' relationship     

The New Institutional Economics

Current English policy towards general practice is ambivalent between developing new forms of contractual governance and constructing more hierarchically organized bodies. NHS policy documents say that Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) will contract some primary care services and directly manage others. Depending on the balance, PCTs could either organize general practice through practice-based contracts or start developing into hierarchies (albeit with some subcontractors for the time being).

New Institutional Economics, in particular Williamson's version, defines conditions where hierarchies are likely to be more efficient than markets (in terms of what welfare economics recognizes as allocative efficiency) and conditions where the reverse holds. This article considers the implications of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) for redesigning the governance of publicly financed services such as general practice which allow direct public access, in which it is difficult to define and manage service quality, and which have a professionalized but fragmented workforce. In contrast to their alleged implications for the hospital sector during the 1990s, NIE theories imply that for publicly funded professional services such as general practice there are stronger economic arguments for constructing hierarchies than for reconstructing quasi-markets at local level.