Cognition,Social Impulse,and the Principle of Adaptation: Insights into the Peirce-Veblen Connection

This article seeks to offer insights into the connections between Charles S. Peirce and Thorstein B. Veblen regarding their understanding of the logic of scientific thought and cognition. In this sense, this work explores how both Veblen and Peirce dismissed the Cartesian notion of unmediated cognition and how they sought to depict cognition as a process. Furthermore, this article presents Peirce’s concept of “social impulse” and Veblen’s “principle of adaptation” as complementary perspectives on science and cognition that have strong evolutionary content.     

The future of the working classes: a comparison between J.S. Mill and A. Marshall

Abstract

Both J. S. Mill and A. Marshall had a lifelong interest in the living conditions of the working classes and theorized the possibility of a new age, characterized by a widespread mental and moral cultivation. This paper compares the precise arguments put forward by them in the period ranging from Mill's to Marshall's Principles, against the background of the evidence of social and human progress at their times. It is argued that, at different stages and with different specific arguments, their predictions relied on self-reinforcing mechanisms, in which a better life was the cause, no less than the effect, of progress. In order to make similarities and differences more transparent from a logical point of view, two simple mathematical formulations are proposed.     

Trustworthiness as a Moral Determinant of Economic Activity: Lessons from the Classics

This paper reviews the way that social norms and ethical values in general, and trustworthiness in particular, is perceived to affect the behavior of economic agents in view of the work of Adam Smith, Nassau William Senior and John Stuart Mill. Classical Political economists held that economic actions are context-dependent and thus constantly under the influence of social norms and values. It is further suggested here that Classical Economists had established that trustworthiness acts as a general ethical precondition for the efficient behaviour of the markets and an important asset of the national social capital.     

Heterogenesis of ends: Herbert Spencer and the Italian economists

The influence of Spencer's ideas is now generating a good deal of analysis. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of Spencer's work on economic thought. It also analyses the way in which this work was interpreted by the Italian economists. In particular, it investigates the influence of Spencer's theory of evolution on the thought of Pantaleoni (1857–1924) and Nitti (1868–1953). These two representative Italian scholars were on opposite sides for their economic methodology and the issue of government intervention in the economy. The paper clarifies whether their two divergent visions on social change could both be in accordance with Spencer ideas.     

Monte Carlo simulation of macroeconomic risk with a continuum of agents: the symmetric case

Summary. Suppose a large economy with individual risk is modeled by a continuum of pairwise exchangeable random variables (i.i.d., in particular). Then the relevant stochastic process is jointly measurable only in degenerate cases. Yet in Monte Carlo simulation, the average of a large finite draw of the random variables converges almost surely. Several necessary and sufficient conditions for such “Monte Carlo convergence” are given. Also, conditioned on the associated Monte Carlo -algebra, which represents macroeconomic risk, individual agents' random shocks are independent. Furthermore, a converse to one version of the classical law of large numbers is proved. Received: October 29, 2001; revised version: April 24, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" Part of this work was done when Yeneng Sun was visiting SITE at Stanford University in July 2001. An early version of some results was included in a presentation to Tom Sargent's macro workshop at Stanford. We are grateful to him and Felix Kübler in particular for their comments. And also to Marcos Lisboa for several discussions with Peter Hammond, during which the basic idea of the paper began to take shape. Correspondence to: P.J. Hammond     

个体认知、权威决策与中国农地制度变迁——一个动态演化博弈模型的构建及检验

超越"强制性-诱致性变迁"二分法,构建动态制度变迁模型是制度经济学研究的前沿和难题。本文初步构建了一个以个体和权威为主体,包含制度变迁成本的动态演化博弈模型,并以中国农地制度变迁历程中的两个典型案例进行实证检验。研究表明,权威决策是正式规则的主要来源,个体共同认知则是非正式约束的主要来源,二者共同决定了制度变迁的方向;制度变迁成本是重要的激励约束因素,制度变迁的速度则取决于制度变迁成本与个体认知、权威决策三者的一致性程度,一个高效、有序的制度变迁过程应尽量避免三者的背离和冲突。因此,政府主导进行的农地制度改革应特别关注农民认知,尊重农民意愿;对具有高变迁成本的制度变迁采取渐进改革的方式,适时建立过渡性的制度安排,并在改革的速度与质量之间做好权衡,以减少改革阻力,提高改革效率。     

国防支出与经济增长关系的战略选择——一个数理模型的分析与模拟

国防支出与经济增长之间的关系到底如何、怎样安排国防支出才能有利于国防和经济建设,这是国防经济学必须回答的基本问题。文章在一系列假设前提下,构建了一个简单的数学模型,描述了经济总量制约国防支出、国防支出又反作用于经济增长的内在机理,并通过数字模拟比较了三种国防支出战略对于经济增长和国防资本积累的不同影响,对现实中的很多问题给予了解释,得出了一些有意义的结论。     

创新驱动经济增长:创客模式与传统创新模式比较研究

首先,对全球创客的发展史进行梳理,通过对比传统创新模式与创客模式下的创新流程差异,构建"知识—生产"两部门模型,从理论角度测度创客模式由于知识高度共享而深度释放的经济增长效应。然后,以上述理论模型为依据构造创客指数,用于衡量理想状态下各地区由于市场、经济以及制度安排等因素不同而带来的经济增长效应的相对差异,并讨论了两种创新模式与经济增长之间的具体作用机制以及二者分别适用的市场类型。     

企业多元化战略与财务决策的关系：一个多视角的分析框架

本文试图从理论上系统分析在不同的多元化战略下(相关多元化和无关多元化)应采取何种财务决策。在结合不同理论视角的同时,分析企业不同的参与者类群(债权人,股东,高层管理者、部门管理者)的心理和行为决策。财务决策采用常用的分类:投资(长期和短期)、融资(权益融资和债务融资)和股利分配(高股利和低股利)。理论分析认为,相关多元化的公司倾向于进行长期投资,使用股权融资和低现金股利政策;无关多元化的公司倾向于进行短期投资,使用债权融资及高现金股利政策。