The sustainability of economic transformation

The paper analyzes the feasibility of sustaining both macroeconomic stability and political support during economic transformation. Macroeconomic stability requires that state sector losses plus public infrastructure investment be financed by tax revenue plus any external assistance. Political sustainability depends on the income gains and losses experienced by three groups—state sector workers, private sector workers, and private savers/investors. The aggregate income gains from allowing heterogeneous workers to make occupational choices consistent with their comparative advantages can outweigh or significantly offset the short-run economic efficiency costs of maintaining political support for the transformation. Successful transformation may depend on external assistance, but this need will diminish over time.     

The convergence of economic systems and the M-form

This paper draws together two areas of economic theory: Williamson's transactional analysis of the capitalist corporation, and the role of technology in comparative economic systems. It considers the M-form as an organizational innovation under capitalism, central planning and self-management, and comes to the conclusion that this new technology does not seem to have promoted the convergence of economic systems. Rather, the M-form's experience suggests that new technology has an impact consistent with Ambivalence theory, which sees new technologies as being adapted to suit the status quo.     

The role of the log transformation in forecasting economic variables

For forecasting and economic analysis many variables are used in logarithms (logs). In time series analysis, this transformation is often considered to stabilize the variance of a series. We investigate under which conditions taking logs is beneficial for forecasting. Forecasts based on the original series are compared to forecasts based on logs. For a range of economic variables, substantial forecasting improvements from taking logs are found if the log transformation actually stabilizes the variance of the underlying series. Using logs can be damaging for the forecast precision if a stable variance is not achieved.     

Conservation of biodiversity and economic development: The concept of transferable development rights

For ecological and economic reasons it is more cost effective to conserve habitats rather than species, and hence biodiversity conservation becomes a land use issue. Since in developing countries, land is the most important productive asset, the opportunity costs of conservation are forgone development, while the benefits from conservation are distant and largely external to the host country. The concept of transferable development rights (TDRs), which has been extensively applied to conservation of historical buildings in urban areas, is extended and adapted here to the conservation of biodiversity, both within a country and globally. Creation of a market for TDRs makes effective the latent demand for and supply of biodiversity conservation and generates benefits for both the supplier (developing countries) and the demander (developed countries). The paper explores the conditions and public interventions necessary for the creation of an active market for TDRs. It also proposes a number of mechanisms such as credits and offsets for purchase of TDRs against domestic regulations and conservation taxes in the developed countries.     

Topology of economic systems

An economic topology can have many uses to the academician, student and practitioner. Refining a topology of economic systems helps to bring together seemingly disparate characteristics and to point out potential long run trends. The progression of economic systems over time and also brief explanations of each system are given. We argue that most modem economic systems have some remnants of earlier forms, that is, most economies today are some mixture of what might be considered pure systems. Measurable characteristics to identify a particular system are developed that allows progress to or from a particular classification to be charted for individual countries.     

金融发展与中国二元经济结构转换

传统的二元经济理论只考察了资本因素在经济发展不平衡中的作用,并没有把金融发展因素纳入其中进行分析,而传统的金融发展理论研究的焦点主要集中在金融发展与经济增长的关系上,对金融发展与二元经济结构之间的关系重视不够。中国是一个典型的城乡二元经济结构的发展中国家,而我国城乡金融发展差距是城乡经济发展差距存在的一个重要原因。因此,解决我国二元经济结构问题的一个重要方面就是要均衡城乡金融发展。     

Gaming-simulation of the functioning of economic systems

This article attempts to provide a structure-functional analysis of economic activity and propositions based on this analysis about applications of gaming-simulation for an institutionalist study of the functioning of economic systems. Modern institutionalism in contrast to neoclassical economics, which is to a great extent mathematicized, does not actually use any quantitative methods and models. Simulation games represent such models that can be designed and promote the implementation of research in the spirit of neoinstitutional economics. In this sense, gaming-simulation may be considered as institutional modeling. In this work we shall, first be concerned with a ‘static’ structure of economic activity deriving from the three-level scheme by Parsons. Next, a ‘dynamic’ structure of economic activity will be analyzed in terms of the concept of limited rationality by Simon. In the final section, we characterize the methods of reflection of different components of economic systems in gaming simulation models, as well as ways of implementing the research on such models.     

Resource constraint,sustainable economic growth pattern and transformation of economic system in China

Over the past 20 years, China has made spectacular achievements in economic growth as well as in thetransformation of economic growth pattern. Industrial structure is being updated, and technology is playing a more andmore important role in economic development. The energy and resource consumption in many industries and enterprisesare reducing. However, we should realize that there are still many problems in changing the economic growth pattern,such as high input, high consumption, high discharge, inharmony, recycling difficulty, and low efficiency, which havegreatly impaired and restrict Chinese economic development. Therefore, the fundamental change of the economic growthpattern is inevitable. Based on the analysis on the status quo and the exploit of resources, this paper suggests that thetransformation from unsustainable to sustainable growth is the only choice in changing the economic growth pattern. Inaddition, the transformation should not completely rely on the fundamental effects of market mechanism. We should makefull use of the power of governments to speed up the transformation of economic system.     

Alternative econometric approaches for studying the link between economic systems and economic outcomes

Econometric studies on the link between economic systems and economic outcomes have relied on two approaches. In the forecasting approach an estimated relationship for Western countries is used to generate hypothetical outcomes for Eastern countries, which are then compared to actual outcomes. In the dummy-variable approach a single relationship is estimated for Eastern and Western countries, using dummy variables to test for differences in Eastern and Western performance. The forecasting approach is shown as flawed; a more complete version of the dummy-variable approach is shown as far superior. A study of energy consumption in some Eastern and Western countries illustrates these approaches.     

The concept of freedom and its relation to economic development--a critical appreciation of the work of Amartya Sen

Following a brief review of the conception of freedom as employedin economic discourse, this paper focuses on the evolution ofthe concept of freedom in the work of Amartya Sen. It tracesthe development of Sen's thought from the capability analysisof the late 1970s to his more recent separation of freedom intoits opportunity and process aspects. While broadly appreciativeof Sen's development of the concept of positive freedom, thepaper identifies some difficulties arising from his definitionof capability as a set of options as well as from his separationof the opportunity and process aspects of freedom. Aspects ofthe relationship between Sen's conception of freedom and thatof Marx are discussed briefly in the context of Sen's recentdiscussion of the market as a source of freedom.     

From Mill to Weber: the meaning of the concept of economic rationality

Weber recognized explicitly that his concept of ideal-type is directly borrowed from economic theory and as it is commonly admitted from the German-speaking ‘marginalist school’. Nevertheless, the construction of ideal-types reminds greatly the definition of economic rationality made by John Stuart Mill, who also built up a concept to explain, in individualistic terms, the real world in a given historical and geographical context. The position defended here is that Weber generalizes Mill's methodological proposition of concept formation regarding economic rationality to accomplish his much larger project of determining the social factors responsible for the rationalization of the Western civilization.     

Income inequality analysis in the period of economic transformation in poland

This paper presents some statistical methods of income inequality analysis based on the theoretical income distribution models that are well-fitted to the empirical models. As theoretical curves, the lognormal, gamma, Burr Type XII, and the Dagum models were used. They were applied to the earnings distributions in Poland in the period of economic transformation from a centrally-planned to a market economy. On the basis of the Dagum model, showing the perfect consistency with the considered earnings distributions, the maximun likelihood estimators of inequality parameters and economic distance ratios between men and women were calculated.     

Property as an economic concept: reconciling legal and economic conceptions of property rights in a Coasean framework

Adopting a simplistic view of Coase (J Law Econ 3:1–44, 1960), most economic analyses of property rights disregard both the key advantage that legal property rights (that is, in rem rights) provide to rightholders in terms of enhanced enforcement, and the difficulties they pose to acquirers in terms of information asymmetry about legal title. Consequently, these analyses tend to overstate the role of “private ordering” and disregard the two key elements of property law: first, the essential conflict between property (that is, in rem) enforcement and transaction costs; and, second, the institutional solutions created to overcome it, mainly contractual registries capable of making truly impersonal (that is, asset-based) trade viable when previous relevant transactions on the same assets are not verifiable by judges. This paper fills this gap by reinterpreting both elements within the Coasean framework and thus redrawing the institutional foundations of both property and corporate contracting.