The market and exploitation in Marx's economic theory: a reinterpretation

Adopting the view that Marx's notion of 'commodity' has a widerreach than is usually supposed, and that it is this notion,rather than a 'labour theory of value' that is the cornerstoneof his economic theory, this paper shows that Marx's accountof capitalist exploitation is one that accords equal priorityto the production and market domains. Central to this demonstrationis an unorthodox explanation as to why Marx posits two alternativerules of prices in Capital.     

Race,competition, and institutional change in J.R. Commons

This article examines the contribution of J.R. Commons to race relations, competition, and institutional change. One result of our study is that, in his analysis of institutional dynamics in the United States, Commons’ rejection of laissez-faire is derived from a racist analytical framework: the “superior races” should be protected from the “inferior races”. Another result is that Commons adopts a neo-Lamarckian framework which takes education as the basis for the assimilation of “inferior races”. This article then shows that policies often defended as progressives, as education policies, may be derived from racist foundations. The final remarks single out the ambiguous connection between race and culture revealed by Commons’ approach.     

The Reform Method of John R. Commons

We examine the extent to which neoliberal or post-neoliberal forces have been generating a new global or regional social structure of accumulation (SSA) or mode of regulation (MOR) through enhancing growth, productivity and financial stability. After outlining the contours of neoliberalism and post-neoliberalism, the record of economic performance is reviewed over the 1950s-2000s. We conclude that highly advanced capitalist economies have mostly been undergoing regime maturation while numerous nations of Asia (especially China) have been transforming their SSAs or MORs. Neoliberal or post-neoliberal institutions must necessarily be supplemented by changes in many other areas for long wave upswing to emerge.     

The economic analysis of social customs: the case of pre-marital sex

This paper uses a sample of 18,876 adults aged 16-59 from to estimate logit equations of the determinants of support for the custom of abstaining from pre-marital sex. Three sets of equations are estimated separately for males and females; one set for disapproval of pre-marital sex, one set for disapproval of one night stands and another set for a proxy for involvement in pre-marital sex. These results confirm some expected male-female differences and also show a polarisation amongst the population in their support for, and observance of, customs and practices related to abstaining from sex before marriage.     

Institutional Evolution through Purposeful Selection: The Constitutional Economics of John R. Commons

The paper relates John. R. Commons view on the roleof human design in institutional evolution to the views thathave been advanced on this matter by F. A. Hayek, in German ordo-liberalism,and in constitutional political economy. It is argued that Commonsconcept of purposeful selection points in the direction ofa theoretical perspective that consistently integrates the notionsof institutional evolution and constitutional design.     

Gandhian Economics from the Perspective of John R. Commons

We examine the evolution of law regarding corporations' legal status and the power of government to regulate corporations. John R. Commons described this jurisprudential history as changing the meaning of property from individual ownership to a going business owned by a going concern. Despite this history, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, accorded corporations the rights of individual citizens, characterizing the corporation as an "association of citizens." If corporations are associations of citizens rather than going concerns distinct from their owners, the law will elevate private interests of shareholders above collective interests.     

Technology and obsolescence: A reinterpretation of the specific-factor model of production

We develop a two sector general equilibrium model with a continuum of sector-specific capital goods in each sector, where each capital good represents a particular type of technology. Even without the standard assumptions usually made in the context of specific-factor models, similar results are derived. This framework is used to analyze the impacts of growth and technological change on the degree of obsolescence in each sector. Innovation and an increasing capital stock increase the degree of obsolescence. On the other hand, growth of labor and modernization of existing technologies reduce the stock of obsolete capital.The paper has benefitted from the comments of the seminar participants at Rutgers University, Cornell University, Columbia University, and at the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. Special thanks are due to Subhasis Gangopadhyay for helpful suggestions. Comments from two anonymous referees of this journal were extremely rewarding. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Neutral agents and social tolerance: a dynamic perspective based on economic interaction model with local social cost functions

The influence of neutral agents on the evolutionary dynamics of social tolerance is discussed based on a recently proposed economic interaction model with local social cost functions. We show that the dynamical structure of social tolerance is completely changed even if a few neutral agents are introduced into the society. Especially, the full intolerance steady state, which is stable in previous works, becomes unstable and avoidable due to the economic incentive introduced by the neutral agents. The necessary condition of achieving full tolerance is also reduced compared to previous works without neutral agents.     

On the measurement and analysis of aggregate economic activity for China: the coincident economic indicators approach

This paper reviews some of China's high-frequency economic indicators and our principal findings on their selection and use. Our aim is to develop a composite index of coincident economic indicators (coincident economic index, CEI) which can be used to obtain timely information on the present state of the China's economy and provide an appropriate measure to analyze China's short-term macroeconomic dynamics. Notably, combining industrial production, retail sales, manufacturing employment, income of financial institutions and passenger traffic volume, they work well as the method for dating business cycles for China. It shows that, over the past two decades, there was one marked recession which occurred in 1988:8 to 1989:12. In addition to this business cycle chronology we also develop a growth cycle chronology based on the deviations from trend of the CE which shows that there have been four cyclical slowdowns since 1986. Whereas GDP growth lacks cyclical movements and appears to be dominated by trend and irregular movements, in contrast to GDP, the CEI works well as a measure of cyclical dynamics and can contribute to the analysis of short-term fluctuations of Chinese economic activity relative to its long-term growth.     

The economic effects of social security: Toward a reconciliation of theory and measurement

In this paper we argue that actuarial valuation of Social Security benefit streams is theoretically inconsistent with the assumption of pure life cycle motives. Instead, we show that the simple discounted value of future benefits (ignoring the possibility of death) is often a good approximation to the relevant concept of value. This observation motivates a re-examination of existing empirical evidence concerning the economic effects of Social Security. We focus our attention on studies of distributional equity and personal saving behavior. In both cases we argue that the use of simple, rather than actuarial, discounting of survival-contingent income streams produces results that differ dramatically from previous findings. Specifically, estimates based on actuarial valuation may overstate the importance of redistribution between and within generations, and may understate the depressive effect of Social Security on personal wealth accumulation by a factor of three or more.     

John R. Commons and Government as Employer of Last Resort: Three Paths to a Progressive Right to Work

Abstract:

Today in the United States, a number of congressional Democrats endorse proposals that would establish a job guarantee for all Americans seeking work. Arguments for such a policy can be traced back at least to the work of John R. Commons, one of the first institutional economists. This article demonstrates that there are actually three arguments in Commons’s scholarship that provide a case for government to hire the unemployed by serving as employer of last resort. These arguments, each highlighted at a different point in Commons’s career, can be viewed in turn as legal, financial, and historical paths to public provision of work for the jobless—government employment that Commons considered part of “the right to work.” The article traces each path, highlighting insight that remains relevant and calling for greater attention to Common’s writings as a way to reclaim the right to work as a progressive cause.     

Evolutionary dynamics of social tolerance in the economic interaction model with local social cost functions

The evolutionary dynamics of social tolerance in a society with local social cost functions have been discussed. We show that, very different from the global function case studied previously, dynamics of social tolerance in a society with local social cost functions is integrable in phase space. The exact solution of the evolutionary dynamics in phase space is obtained, and the evolutionary trajectories are discussed by using the Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser theorem. We show that the property of steady states is closely related to the group populations. We also discuss the necessary condition of the full tolerance steady state, and it is demonstrated that both global and local social cost functions have the same necessary condition of achieving full tolerance.     

Future generations and economic activities: The case of the social discount rate

The objective of this article is to show the difficulties economists have when they try to answer the following question: What can economists do to promote a fair and “safe” economic development? Or otherwise said: what should we do to promote more equity between generations in an environmental perspective? The purpose of this article is not to develop new tools or policies but to give an overview of some theoretical and practical problems linked to the connection between environment, intergenerational justice and economic activities. The first section focuses on the reasons for the need to develop a reflection about intergenerational equity in the economics of the environment. The second section investigates some related theoretical problems, and the third section shows the practical difficulties economists have when dealing with intertemporal economic decisions; that is, trying to take intergenerational equity into account—in particular the choice of a discount rate for public investments.