The Institutional Revolution: A review essay

This review essay discusses and appraises Douglas Allen’s The Institutional Revolution (2011) as a way of reflecting on the uses of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) in economic history. It praises and defends Allen’s method of asking “what economic problem were these institutions solving?” But it insists that such comparative-institutional analysis be imbedded within a deeper account of institutional change, one driven principally by changes – often endogenous changes – in the extent of the market and in relative scarcities. The essay supports its argument with a variety of examples of the NIE applied to economic history.     

Seeing One's Intellectual Roots: A review essay

The Review of Austrian Economics -     

Humanistic economics: The new Challenge: A review essay

This paper discusses the role of social, institutional, and psychological factors in the consumption and borrowing behavior of low-income households, and makes arguments in favor of policy interventions to alleviate some of the challenges of these households. Focus group evidence and findings on the current behaviors and borrowing patterns of low-income families are provided to support and motivate this perspective on consumption and policy. While the data are drawn from a specific region, the observations and findings could be generalized to other communities after accounting for different cultural and social characteristics. This research provides an in-depth understanding of the challenges confronted by low-income individuals at achieving their economic desires for lives of basic dignity, explores both economic and non-economic motivations, and provides insights useful for policy deliberation and model development.     

劳动、价值、分配“三论”新解

在科技革命的新形势下,作者结合我国改革实践,从劳动论、劳动价值论分配论三个方面,对社会主义社会劳动和劳动价值论进行了再认识,进一步深化和发展了马克思的劳动和劳动价值论。     

也谈价值、分配等问题--与程恩富、汪桂进两位先生商榷

现实中的价值分配与价值创造相关,主张价值分配与价值创造无关是不正确的;社会主义市场经济中劳动者的资本收入具有劳动收入的性质,以为资本创造价值或者资本收入是非劳收入是不正确的;现阶段的按要素分配只是分配的表现形式,其实质则是按劳分配。     

Economics,Democracy, and the Distribution of Capital Ownership

This article holds that widespread, practical access to capital acquisition is essential for sustainable widespread economic prosperity and democracy. The founders of the U.S.A. agreed that sustainable democracy required widespread ownership of land to provide a viable earning capacity sufficient to support robust participation in democratic government. The importance of widespread land ownership to individual prosperity and sustainable democracy was supported not only by the prevailing philosophical views of property, it was also apparent to the common man and woman. Compared to Europe, America offered widespread access to land ownership, higher wages, better work conditions, cheaper staples and greater individual freedom, equal opportunity, prosperity, and political participation. This conviction that widespread access to ownership is a necessary condition for widespread prosperity and sustainable democracy continued throughout most of the nineteenth century, but today public discourse reveals virtually no trace of this once universally held opinion. This article suggests that the disappearance of this conviction can be traced to an erroneous view shaped by neoclassical economics and Keynesian economics. According to this view, (1) the disappearance of the American frontier and industrialization made the goal of widespread capital ownership either impractical or of little or no economic significance and (2) by way of technological advance, sufficient earning capacity and consumer demand to promote growth and sustain democracy can be achieved, without widespread ownership, primarily through jobs and welfare. Although differing in many respects, both mainstream schools, along with Adam Smith’s classical economics, share one common but unstated economic assumption: the broader distribution of capital acquisition (in itself) has no fundamental relationship to the fuller employment of people and capital, the broader distribution of greater individual earning capacity, and growth. Contemporary thinking, shaped by these economic schools, also tacitly assumes that widespread capital ownership is not essential for the sustainable individual earning capacity needed to support robust democracy. This erroneous “ownership-neutrality assumption” (1) contradicts both the views of America’s founders and the colonial experience, and (2) provides theoretical justification for structuring capital markets and capital acquisition transactions to unfairly and dysfunctionally favor existing owners at the expense of broader ownership distribution, more widely shared prosperity, greater efficiency, ecologically friendly growth, and a vital democracy. America’s conscientious founders would be shocked by the diminished importance of the distribution of ownership in the mainstream analysis of prices, efficiency, production, growth, and democracy. Rather than enhancing democracy, they would view the “ownership-neutrality assumption” of mainstream economics as contributing to its deterioration and corruption. They would openly search for economic analysis built on an alternate assumption more consistent with their understanding of the requisite conditions for sustainable democracy. This article advances an economic analysis that suspends the ownership-neutrality assumption, replaces it with a “broader-ownership-growth assumption,” and suggests a voluntary market strategy for substantially broadening capital ownership, enhancing individual earning capacity, and providing the widespread economic prosperity needed for robust democracy.     

Factor Taxation, Income Distribution and Capital Market Integration

This paper addresses the optimal mix of capital and wage taxation when policymakers maximize the political support of workers and capitalists, subject to a fixed revenue requirement. Capital market integration increases the efficiency costs of a tax on capital but simultaneously changes the political equilibrium through its effect on the distribution of factor incomes. These distributional effects are directly opposed in the capital importing and the capital exporting region. While the capital tax rate will always be lowered in the capital importing region, the tax rate in the exporting country will rise when political resistance to market-induced changes in the distribution of income is sufficiently high.     

人力资本积累、收入分布演化与经济增长

本文建立了一个同时含有物质资本、人力资本积累及收入分布演化的内生增长模型,来研究人力资本积累、收入分布演化与经济增长的相互作用.我们发现,更高的初始收入差异将通过直接降低人力资本增长率与间接提高下一期的物质资本与人力资本比这两个渠道对经济增长率产生负面影响.另一方面,降低收入差异能获得更高的人力资本与经济增长率,这将使得低收入国家有可能追赶上高收入国家.     

资本结构与公司价值:理论综述

起源于20世纪50年代的资本结构与公司价值理论研究,经过经济理论工作者半个世纪的努力,其研究深度与研究范围都有了很大的拓展.从莫迪利亚尼和米勒的MM理论开始,虽然并没有得出一个逻辑一致的结论,但所有成果都支持现实经济中资本结构与公司价值密切相关,并且,在引入了不对称信息、代理成本等概念之后,新资本结构理论的研究结论更加接近现实.     

人力资本价值、外部性与产权

人力资本价值包括使用价值和稀缺性价值,随着经济形态的演变,人力资本价值将上升,而且人力资本具有极强的正外部性,这是人力资本产权确立的重要基础.我国在进行物质资本产权制度改革的同时必须尽快建立一个有效的人力资本产权制度,以促进人力资本的形成和有效利用,这是我国在知识经济时代能否实现现代化目标、赶上发达国家的重要前提.     

资本存量估算的再讨论——非土地资本与土地价值的区别

在回顾关于资本存量估算的已有研究的基础上,从估算资本存量时所采用的投资流量度量指标入手,对以往研究是否包含土地要素这一相对模糊的问题进行了判断。然后,基于现有的土地数量(面积)统计数据,讨论了估算土地价值量形式的必要性及其背后的经济学含义,并对土地资本与土地价值进行了对比分析。最后提出了基于一级土地市场估算土地价值的探索性方法,并给出了全国层面、省级层面和区域层面的土地价值估算结果,从增长趋势和地域分布的角度印证了土地价值与经济发展水平的相对一致性。     

绿色投资、绿色资本及其价值

绿色投资无论是在可持续发展、社会和谐价值观念确立等方面,还是在绿色财富创造、生态资源有效利用、环境管理制度创新等方面,都具有其独特功效。绿色投资形成的绿色资本,在其营运过程中具有价值且实现价值增值。这一价值通过全方位、多角度形式表现出来,并构成绿色资本价值核算和价值评价的主要内容。     

报酬分配、组织相容与价值创造

本文模型表明,若企业成员所采用的贴现因子一致且稳定,企业总价值与分配情况无关.但若企业成员所采用的贴现因子与其在企业中所分配得的总收入正相关,则分配方案调整在不影响企业总生产力的情况下已可能损毁企业总价值;即使是依据边际生产率差异进行的分配调整,也只有在被调整的企业成员间的边际生产率差异有一定显著性的情形下,才能创造价值.运用模型结论,本文对并购中的目标公司和整合策略选择提出了政策建议.     

人力资本、财务资本与资本结构：理论和实证

当今社会已经从工业经济迈进知识经济时代，现有以财务资本为研究对象的资本结构理论在解释咨询、高新技术等人力资本较为密集的公司时难免会捉襟见肘。视企业为财务资本与人力资本共同的投资组合是现代资本结构理论研究刻不容缓的任务。本文以现有财务资本结构的研究为基础，通过引入人力资本变量拓宽现代资本结构的内涵，构造债务、股权和人力资本三者之间相互关系和作用的数理模型，结合对我国计算机应用服务业的实证分析，得出结论和启示。     

智力资本论:对企业价值核心的一个认识框架

对于企业价值的探讨从来就没有停止过,但对于企业价值的核心是什么却一直没有定论。本文认为,智力资本才是企业价值的主要贡献因素。本文从智力资本的概念、特点、表现形式和实证资料等方面对智力资本作了一个大致的介绍,并进行了智力资本作了一个大致的介绍,并进行了智力资本的价值分析和与企业价值的关系比较分析。最后,还介绍了智力资本的评估方法。     

徽州典当资本的增值：以程虚宇家庭为例

笔者先用试算法,弄清《崇祯二年休宁程虚宇立分书》中计算典当资本增值的方法,然后对有关数据进行计算和分析,发现:当时是以年利率方式计算资本的增值,经营者须先确保该增值的实现;资本年利率的大小,与资本金的多少无关,而是有规则地随计利年数的增加而增加,但当计利年数超过20年后,年利率值是否继续增加,尚有待考察;资本金注入的当年不计利,此后每满一年,则计利一年。上述成果对认识我国封建时代金融业的经营特征有积极意义。     

全面理解人力资本的经济价值——教育经济学与培训经济学的融合

教育经济学不应只是正规学校教育的经济学,在终身学习的理念下,正规学校教育的结束并不意味着学习步伐的停滞和人力资本投资的终结。教育经济学未来拓展的路径,除了理论基础上的外延式发展外,还可以在原有的人力资本理论框架内走一条内涵式发展的道路,即强调综合考察人力资本投资的多种途径,特别是教育和培训这两种最主要的人力资本投资形式,让教育经济学走出正规学校教育经济学的固有领地,团结在人力资本理论的名义下,与培训经济学融合,走向人力资源开发研究的广阔天地,惟其如此,才能全面、深入地研究人力资本的经济价值及其实现机制。