Polanyi’s ‘substantive approach’ to the economy in action? Conceptualising social enterprise as a public health ‘intervention’

For several decades now, critical public health researchers have highlighted the deleterious effects that pursuing neoliberal policies can have on the ‘causes of the causes’ of poor health and upon growing health inequalities. This paper argues that the conceptual tools of Karl Polanyi can help lend particular insight into this issue. The specific example that this paper focuses upon is the ‘social enterprise’: a form of organisation that combines both social and business objectives. The paper explores, conceptually, whether social enterprises may have the potential to act as one component of a neo-Polanyian countermovement: helping to re-embed the economy back into society, and offering greater recognition for a more comprehensive and socially imbued concept of health. Importantly, this potential is critically examined in the context of neoliberal hegemony, where challenges to the status quo have regularly been met with assimilation, co-option and/or repression.     

Communication in dynastic repeated games: ‘Whitewashes’ and ‘coverups’

Summary. We ask whether communication can directly substitute for memory in dynastic repeated games in which short lived individuals care about the utility of their offspring who replace them in an infinitely repeated game. Each individual is unable to observe what happens before his entry in the game. Past information is therefore conveyed from one cohort to the next by means of communication.When communication is costless and messages are sent simultaneously, communication mechanisms or protocols exist that sustain the same set of equilibrium payoffs as in the standard repeated game. When communication is costless but sequential, the incentives to whitewash the unobservable past history of play become pervasive. These incentives to whitewash can only be countered if some player serves as a neutral historian who verifies the truthfulness of others reports while remaining indifferent in the process. By contrast, when communication is sequential and (lexicographically) costly, all protocols admit only equilibria that sustain stage Nash equilibrium payoffs.We also analyze a centralized communication protocol in which history leaves a footprint that can only hidden by the current cohort by a unanimous coverup. We show that in this case the set of payoffs that are sustainable in equilibrium coincides with the weakly renegotiation proof payoffs of the standard repeated game.Received: 30 September 2002, Revised: 5 August 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: C72, C73, D82.We wish to thank an Associate Editor and Dino Gerardi as well as seminar participants at Arizona State, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Indiana, Montreal, Princeton, Rochester, Vanderbilt, VPI, the 2001 NSF/NBER Decentralization Conference, the Summer 2001 North American Econometric Society Meetings, and the Midwest Theory Conference, 2000, for useful comments and suggestions. All errors are our own.     

Using ‘big data’ to validate claims made in the pharmaceutical approval process

Abstract

Big Data in the healthcare setting refers to the storage, assimilation, and analysis of large quantities of information regarding patient care. These data can be collected and stored in a wide variety of ways including electronic medical records collected at the patient bedside, or through medical records that are coded and passed to insurance companies for reimbursement. When these data are processed it is possible to validate claims as a part of the regulatory review process regarding the anticipated performance of medications and devices. In order to analyze properly claims by manufacturers and others, there is a need to express claims in terms that are testable in a timeframe that is useful and meaningful to formulary committees. Claims for the comparative benefits and costs, including budget impact, of products and devices need to be expressed in measurable terms, ideally in the context of submission or validation protocols. Claims should be either consistent with accessible Big Data or able to support observational studies where Big Data identifies target populations. Protocols should identify, in disaggregated terms, key variables that would lead to direct or proxy validation. Once these variables are identified, Big Data can be used to query massive quantities of data in the validation process. Research can be passive or active in nature. Passive, where the data are collected retrospectively; active where the researcher is prospectively looking for indicators of co-morbid conditions, side-effects or adverse events, testing these indicators to determine if claims are within desired ranges set forth by the manufacturer. Additionally, Big Data can be used to assess the effectiveness of therapy through health insurance records. This, for example, could indicate that disease or co-morbid conditions cease to be treated. Understanding the basic strengths and weaknesses of Big Data in the claim validation process provides a glimpse of the value that this research can provide to industry. Big Data can support a research agenda that focuses on the process of claims validation to support formulary submissions as well as inputs to ongoing disease area and therapeutic class reviews.     

Measuring ‘indirect’ investments in ICT in OECD countries

ABSTRACT

ICT components, such as microprocessors, may be embodied in other capital goods not recorded as ICT in National Accounts. We name ‘indirect ICT investment’ the value of embodied ICT components in non-ICT investment. The paper provides estimates of ‘indirect ICT investment’ based on detailed and unpublished Supply-Use tables (SUT) in 12 OECD countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Our main finding is that ICT investment appears significantly higher when considering its indirect component, the average increase being about 35%. The inclusion of indirect ICT investment, excluding software (for which firms’ expenditures are difficult to measure), changes significantly the relative position of countries with respect to the ICT intensity of their investments. The inclusion of software further increases indirect ICT investment but the increase is smaller (in percentage) than without this inclusion. A final result, but concerning only three countries, it that the diagnosis of a stabilisation, or even a decrease, of ICT investment in percentage of GDP or of total investment, observed from the beginning of the century, is not modified if we take into account the indirect ICT investment.     

Separation of powers and the erosion of the ‘right to property’ in India

There has been a substantial erosion of the ‘right to property’ with respect to state takings in India, reflected in a progression of amendments to the Indian Constitution. Among other things, these amendments signify a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers. To study the implications of this on governance in relation to state takings, this paper juxtaposes a narration of events that describe the progressive erosion of the ‘right to property’ against a heuristic analytical structure that seeks to capture the costs of violating the doctrine of separation of powers. This analysis is then utilized to point to the social costs that characterize the state acquisitions (takings) regime in India.

Hayek’s 1945 Finlay Memorial Lecture: Tracing the origins and evolution of his ‘true’ individualism

Hayek’s original 1945 University College Dublin lecture outlined the origins and evolution of two different interpretations of ‘individualism’, comparing and contrasting what Hayek terms ‘true’ and ‘false’ individualism notwithstanding the misleading contemporary interpretations and distorted perceptions of the assumptions underlining ‘true’ individualism. Hayek developed and extended the Scottish Enlightenment theory of spontaneous order originally formulated by Adam Ferguson’s maxim that social order was the result of unintended human action rather than the result of deliberate human design in order to explain the origin of complex social structures, which originated in a Cromwellian maxim. The origination and inspiration for the title of Hayek’s lecture is also considered, as is the influence of other thinkers; Mandeville, Tocqueville, Mill, Acton and Schatz that Hayek cites in his Dublin lecture.     

A ‘Big Think’ Approach to Government Debt: Promoting Significant Learning in Introductory Macroeconomics

Drawing on Dee Fink's theory of significant learning, the authors present a ‘big think’ learning module to supplement fiscal policy discussions in introductory macroeconomics courses. Students are asked to consider a salient, contentious question that can be addressed in meaningful ways based on principles-level concepts and models, namely: ‘In your judgment, does the recent steep rise in the US debt-to-GDP ratio pose a serious threat to the US economy? Why or why not?’ To enhance students' willingness and ability to engage this big think question, the module provides open-ended preparatory exercises amenable to courses taught from heterodox or mainstream perspectives. Unlike standard textbook treatments which inadvertently thwart exploratory thinking and provide little support for analyzing case-specific burdens and benefits of government borrowing, the big think unit motivates students to think logically and creatively about the debt–GDP relationship in the current US context.     

The ‘Greater Middle East’ as a ‘Modern’ Geopolitical Imagination in American Foreign Policy

This article aims at analysing how the September 11 terrorist attacks have caused the formation of a new geopolitical vision of an area called the ‘Greater Middle East’ and how this formation has led to changes in US foreign policy towards this region. To do that, the article first presents a theoretical background against which the modern geopolitical imagination of the USA is formulated. It considers the links between national traumas/myths, geopolitical codes and visions, and foreign policy actions. The article then applies this analysis to the case of the Greater Middle East with respect to how this imagined geography shapes the foreign and security policy of the USA. It concludes that even though this imagined region has been presented in texts as justifying US-led policies with liberal underpinnings, it has in reality laid the ground for and been used for justifying US extra-territorial intervention in the region.     

Factors influencing ‘missing girls’ in South Korea

Despite the massive attention drawn to ‘missing girls,’ there has been no study that specifically focuses on the association between childlessness and the daughter deficit. Using a bivariate probit selection model, this article analysed the data for 6475 married women aged 15–49 years collected from the 2003 Korea National Fertility and Family Health Survey. The results showed that a couple's decision to have a child exerted a significant influence on its daughter deficit. This study also found that the effect of a woman's education on daughter deficit did not correspond to that of her husband's level of education. Additionally, a prediction was made that if a one child family norm were prevailing in South Korea, the probability of a couple's having a daughter deficit would increase by as much as 63.9%.     

‘Subsistence first’ farm allocation decisions in senegal

This paper examines a problem, suggested by the Senegalese experience but common to many countries, of joint production of a subsistence crop (millet) which is subject to stringent marketing constraints and a cash crop (groundnuts) sold through established channels. Empirical implications for the intertemporal pattern of land allocation are drawn and evidence is provided to support the proposed approach.     

‘利用’与‘引进’关系谈

对利用外资,引进技术存在着两种认识:一种是把利用外资,引进技术当成一回事。第二种是没有把二者较好地结合起来。弄清楚利用外资对引进技术的作用,对做好利用外资工作和技术引进工作都有利。     

The political economy of decarbonisation: from green energy ‘race’ to green ‘division of labour’

This paper aims to provide an addendum to the rapidly growing concept of a global ‘green energy race’ between major states. It argues that although this framing has been useful in underscoring important dynamics in the process of decarbonisation, its narrow focus on installed capacity obscures a much broader and more complex process at play. In particular, it overlooks the critical role played by states aggressively investing in R&D and export manufacturing in the renewable energy sector. The paper thus supplements the concept of a green ‘energy race’ with that of a green ‘global division of labour’, which sees the process of decarbonisation not exclusively as an effort by individual states to install renewables domestically, but rather as a collective and interdependent process by dozens of states, all striving in different ways to promote capital accumulation on their soil. The paper provides an overview of data covering innovation, manufacturing and deployment in the clean energy sector, and offers a theoretical analysis of the trends observed.     

A Post-Keynesian Response to Piketty's ‘Fundamental Contradiction of Capitalism’

In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty presents a rich set of data that deals with income and wealth distribution, output-wealth dynamics and rates of return. He also proposes some ‘laws of capitalism’. At the core of his argument lies the ‘fundamental inequality of capitalism’, an empirical regularity stating that the rate of return on wealth is greater than the growth rate of the economy. This simple construct allows him to conclude that increasing wealth (and income) inequality is an inevitable outcome of capitalism. While we share some of his conclusions, we will highlight some shortcomings of his approach based on a Cambridge post-Keynesian growth-and-distribution model. The paper makes four points. First, r?>?g is not necessarily associated with increasing inequality in functional distribution. Second, Piketty succumbs to a fallacy of composition when he claims that a necessary condition for r?>?g is that capitalists save a large share of their capital income. Third, post-Keynesians can learn from Piketty's insights about personal income distribution and incorporate them into their models. Fourth, we reiterate the post-Keynesian argument that a well-behaved aggregate production function does not exist and cannot explain income distribution.     

Is foreign direct investment attracted to ‘knowledge creators’?

The effect of?‘knowledge creators’?on location patterns of new foreign plants entering the USA from 1986 to 1993 is analysed. The empirical results from a conditional logit model suggest a link exists between knowledge bases, measured by patent counts, and the location decisions of foreign plants. In the limit, these results imply that a 1%?increase in patent counts is associated with an increase in the probability of attracting a new foreign plant by as much as 1.874%.