The metamorphosis of development economics

The scientific paradigm of Development Economics is not dead nor is it declining in importance. Instead, it has desynthesized into more than 30 analytical and specialized subparadigms which deal with the complex economic phenomena in LDCs. The great number of sub-disciplines of Development Economics is a verification of the dynamic evolution of the discipline and shows its trend towards increased specialization which seems to be the true index of the scientific progress of the subject. For those who complain that “the current output of new development theories…is smaller” (W. A. Lewis), we remind them that Development Economics is a discipline which has more of a praxeological-concrete orientation than a theoretical-abstract one. It seems that the world today needs more the exercise of development praxeology by the activist than the abstract theorizing of the purists. However, the study and empirical research of development phenomena in the context of the 30 or more specialized sub-disciplines offers an opportunity for improving the quality of our knowledge on these phenomena by the recurrent validation and consolidation of development theories.     

New Goods, Market Formations, and Pitfalls of System Design

The standard practice in economic theory is to assume that all the relevant variables (e.g., the space of all the goods of potential economic value) and all the relevant constraints are known to the policymaker or to the designer of an economic system. This often unstated assumption (or the belief implicitly embodied in it) inadvertently creates an illusion about our ability to design an economic system and control process of resource allocation. In this paper, a series of examples is developed to illustrate that this modeling approach has the danger of misdirecting our attention when evaluating alternative forms of an economic system. Some implications for reforms in the former socialist economies are also drawn. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 1995, 9(4), pp. 376–402. Department of Economics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208; NBER; and TCER.     

Cantor’s diagonal argument: An extension to the socialist calculation debate

Conclusion The standard view of the socialist calculation debate is that Mises and Hayek at best demonstrated the practical impossibility of socialist economy, but that the mathematical solution of economists such as Dickinson showed that “in principle” planners could achieve a rational use of resources without private ownership of the means of production. In the present paper I hoped to show that this view is incorrect, because (if seriously implemented) a socialist planning board would need to publish a list containing an uncountably infinite number of prices. As Cantor’s diagonal argument from set theory shows, it is demonstrably impossible to construct such a list. Therefore, socialist economy is truly impossible, in every sense of the word.     

On economics and technical change

Summary The article is divided into four sections. The first consists of a review of a few main lines of Heertje's thoughts on the relation between economics and technical change. It appears that Dr. Heertje has chosen to write a basically non-mathematical book dealing with the history of technology, production theories and the significance of technical development for economic growth, monopoly power and economic policy. The general comments in the second section make it clear that his study is an excellent survey of the literature on the subject. It covers an overwhelmingly large number of topics and includes copious notes at the end. However, the author's assigned task of filling a gap in the literature for a varied audience of undergraduates, post-graduate students and working economists as well as those doing research in the field of technical development inevitably proved to be too difficult. It means that many conclusions have to be accepted at their face value. On the contrary, at the end of the second section of thepresent article a CS model is constructed that allows for a more exact analysis of the important question about the absorptive power of an economic system with regard to the consequences of labour-saving technological pushes. The third section deals more fully with the author's treatment of Von Böhm-Bawerk's roundabout production theory. Improvements are suggested in this section as well as in the concluding fourth section.Review of and comments on: Arnold Heertje, Economics and Technical Change, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1977. Pp. xii + 334.     

Changes in equal employment enforcement: What enforcement statistics tell us

The Reagan administration has been accused of setting back civil rights enforcement.This article reviews available data on the administration’s enforcement efforts and discusses changes in emphasis, tone, and types of cases pursued.An emphasis on identifiable victims and a movement away from more punitive measures is apparent.Moreover, the large budget cuts and the administration’s antipathy to goals and timetables raise questions concerning the “quality” of enforcement.     

Opinions on the Tax Deductibility of Mortgages and the Consensus Effect

Summary We present the results of a survey-experiment – using a representative sample of the Dutch population – in which we relate respondents’ opinion about a restriction of the tax deductibility of mortgages to their estimates about other people’s opinions. We find a strong consensus effect; meaning that respondents’ estimates of others’ opinions are related to their own opinion. Furthermore, we find that the size of the effect is not affected by the ambiguity of the question posed. The provision of arguments pro and contra the tax provision and monetary incentives for accuracy reduce the consensus effect, but only so in conjunction. Finally, we find that house owners display a significantly stronger consensus effect. Our results suggest that both cognitive and motivational factors are responsible for the consensus effect. Aside from the consensus effect, our survey gives interesting insights into people’s opinion on tax deductibility of mortgages. A majority consider a general restriction to be unfair, but a proposal to restrict only mortgages as of a certain size meets with much more approval. We thank Marcel Das and Corrie Vis of CentERdata for their excellent support in conducting the survey-experiment and two referees of this journal and Dirk Engelmann for helpful comments. Financial support from the Faculty of Economics and Business administration is gratefully acknowledged.     

Zombie Firms and Soft Budget Constraints in the Chinese Stock Market*

The growth of zombie firms has caused increasing concern. The present study seeks to understand why zombie firms have been emerging in recent 10 years and to further explore the mechanisms of their formation. Based on a dataset of Chinese listed companies from 2012 to 2016 and empirical analysis, the present study ascribes the prevalence of zombie firms to soft budget constraints. After using a modified identification model in the Chinese context, we concluded that zombie firms have access to some external resources such as credit support from banks and governmental subsidies, substantiating soft budget constraints among zombie firms. To explain this phenomenon, further analysis reveals that zombie firms bear a heavier policy burden by hiring excess employees, which will bring them more subsidies and a stronger relationship with government in return. This result indicates that policy burden is the reason for soft budget constraints, which exacerbates the zombie firm problems in China.     

Energy sanctions and the global economy: mandated vs unilateral sanctions

International Economics and Economic Policy - The world is witnessing an unprecedented episode of ‘economic warfare’, with more than 30% of global GDP (the G7’s share) pitched...     

How Influential is Economics?

Economists often claim that their discipline has a great influence on the economy. An analysis of the existing literature reveals, however, that little convincing empirical evidence exists. The two approaches used are subject to major shortcomings. The ‘Economics Production Function’ relating the input of economic ideas to economic outcomes, is faced with major estimation problems. The ‘Revealed Behaviour Approach’ of choosing to study economics is based on very restrictive assumptions. It is argued that the ‘Case Study Approach’ analysing specific policy instances constitutes a more promising avenue and should be undertaken to identify more general patterns of influence.     

On the scope of hydraulic macroeconomics: Some reflections on Alan Coddington's Keynesian Economics

Summary The questions which Alan Coddington's posthumous bookKeynesian Economics brings to the fore as well as the thought-provoking (rather than fully acceptable) answers it provides make it worthy of being taken up for further analysis and discussion. This review article is intended to be one possible contribution in this respect. It focuses on the way Coddington's book deals with subjectivist approaches in economics and criticises it for going astray in this respect by adopting a mistaken view on the proper method of economics and giving a mistaken interpretation of both Keynesian economics and the economics of Keynes.I am indebted to L. H. Hoogduin, I. M. Kirzner, J. A. Kregel, S. K. Kuipers, J.A.H. Maks, J. Muysken and J. Pen for their valuable comments and discussion on an earlier version of this paper. Of course, they cannot be blamed for any remaining errors.A. Coddington,Keynesian Economics: The Search for First Principles, George Allen and Unwin, London, etc., 1983. Pp. 129. £ 9.95     

Observations on technical change and paretian welfare economics

Summary This article brings together two major topics of economic theory: technical change and Paretian welfare economics. Until now, the tendency has been to study these topics separately. By introducing economic search behaviour in the first phase of technical change, the analysis of technical change is broadened by means of a link between this behaviour and so-called virtual goods. The concept of Pareto optimality is broadened by expanding the space of goods with new and virtual goods. The question is whether the generalized Paretian theory makes it possible to compareex post equilibria after the process of technical change with theex post situation before this process takes place. Although generalized Pareto optimality does not allow a welfare judgement on aprocess of technical change, the theory still provides us with an explanation for the allocation of resources of R&D in terms of consumer preferences and with an analytical device to compare actual economic structures with a generalized Pareto optimum in a static setting.If they (i.e. economists) are to perform their guiding task as conscientiously as possible, it is first necessary that they themselves have proper insight into the regrettably narrow limits of what economics has to offer to politics in terms of purely economic criteria; secondly, that they are aware of the foundations and the substance of their additional sociopolitical valuations and finally, that they do not fail to make these known when advising society. (Hennipman, 1995, p. 174).This article is a condensed revised version of my Prof. dr Pieter Hennipman Lecture of February 23, 1993. Some time after the presentation of the lecture, I had the opportunity to discuss several issues with my beloved teacher. No doubt this version benefited from his comments. 1 A notable exception is K.J. Arrow (1962, pp. 210–228).     

Interdisciplinary economics

Summary Starting from Robbins and Hennipman and with the help of Becker and Lindenberg a theoretical framework has been constructed within which the strong points of economics and sociology are combined,viz,. the formal but relatively bare-bones modelling of economics and the often so much richer, in terms of social content, analysis of sociology. This theoretical framework also appears to enable more balanced analyses of the effectiveness and efficiency of legislation and regulation than the kind of law and economics so much in fashion at the moment, which is often not devoid of economism and in whichhomo econornicus still all too often figures as the prototype of man.(Economic Institute/Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Labour Market and Distribution Issues (CIAV)); Associate of The Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) in The Hague and the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS). This article is an adapted version of my inaugural lecture.     

不同预算约束与公共物品政府直接供给的效率

与私人供给公共物品的问题是容易产生不足不同,政府供给公共物品的问题主要是低效率的问题。通过与萨谬尔森条件比较,发现在经济人政府假设下软预算约束时政府提供公共物品过多;在硬预算约束时政府提供公共物品过少;在效率问题上公共物品供给出现浪费或不足。     

An Evolving Diversity of Organizational Mode and Its Implications for Transitional Economies

The paper constructs a theoretical framework for analyzing the comparative informational efficiency of five organizational modes, each modeled after an evolving diversity of a firm′s internal organization in market economies. It then discusses analytical implications for the organizational reform which may emerge within the ex-state-owned enterprise under evolutionary constraints of the transition, particularly under the tendency toward insider control. It is maintained that possible organizational reform hinges upon the coevolution of complementary ownership structure and financial monitoring mechanism. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 1995, 9(4), pp. 330–353. Department of Economics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.     

Origins of regional divergence: economic growth in socialist Yugoslavia†

Relative to western Europe, we know very little about the determinants of economic growth at the regional level within socialist Europe. This is somewhat unusual, given that socialist policy-makers have put great emphasis on equitable regional development. This article analyses the regional patterns of growth and divergence in socialist Yugoslavia. New estimates of output and inputs are constructed, and an analysis of output growth, factor accumulation, structural modernization, and productivity is provided. Two novel empirical findings are uncovered. The first is that the sources of growth across the regions were fundamentally different. Total factor productivity was a much more important source of growth in the richer regions than it was in the poorer ones. The second finding is that the source of the regional income divergence lies in the failure of the less developed regions to converge towards the employment rates and total factor productivities of the more developed regions. These failures are interpreted, at least partially, as symptoms of the governing objective and the soft budget constraint of the labour-managed firms that operated in Yugoslavia. It is argued that Yugoslavia's development model was less suited to the pre-conditions that prevailed in the less developed parts of the country.     

Microfoundations and Hicksian monetary theory

Summary John Hicks was the first economist to use a general equilibrium framework as a foundation for a dynamic macroeconomic analysis. A critical assessment of his work in this area is used to evaluate the contributions of the ‘micro-foundations’ discussions of the 1970’s. It is noted that Hicks’s starting point, the question of the role of money in a general equilibrium framework, is precisely where the current debate has arrived some fifty years later. This delay, and the foundations debate, were due in large part to Hicks’s own attempts to interpret Keynes’s theory in terms of his own, original framework. Suggestions and comments from P. Davidson, O. Steiger, and the editor, as well as the participants of seminars in the University of Bremen and the Economics Institute of the Faculty of Statistics of the University of Rome are acknowledged without implication of responsibility.     

Entrepreneurship and corporate governance

Conclusions The main message of this article is that Austrians can continue to work within the contractual, or Coasian, approach to the firm in elaborating the insights discussed above. In particular, the problem of corporate governance, and the corollary view that firms are investments, belongs at the forefront of Austrian research on the theory of the firm. Emphasis should thus be placed on the plans and actions of the capitalist-entrepreneur. A particularly undeveloped area concerns the provision of capital to small, “entrepreneurial” ventures. Most of the literature on governance focuses on the large corporation, and the use of stock and bond markets to govern these organizations. Equally important, however, are smaller, privately held firms, financed with venture capital or other forms of investment. So far, the firm-as-investment literature has said little about these organizations, despite their growing importance, particularly in high-growth, technologically-advanced industries like software and biotechnology. Further research in this area is sorely needed. Earlier versions of this article were presented at George Mason University’s “Seminars in Austrian Economics IV: Inside the Black Box,” October 1997; the Austrian Scholars Conference 4, Auburn University, April 1998; and Copenhagen Business School’s RESPECT workshop, November 1998.     

Unemployment on account of market imperfection in the Netherlands since the second world war

Summary By means ofUV analysis it has been attempted to gain some insight into the development of unemployment on account of market imperfection in the Netherlands between 1956 and 1975. Three conclusions can be drawn. (i) The imperfection of the labour market has increased not inconsiderably between 1956 and 1975. (ii) Since the beginning of the Seventies structural unemployment has been caused both by the qualitative discrepancies between supply and demand and by a quantitative shortage of jobs. (iii) The increase in market imperfection must be ascribed above all to the steadily growing imperfection of the sections of the labour market corresponding to the occupational groups.[/p]Professor of Economics and Graduate Assistant, Universtiy of Groningen, The Netherlands.The authors would like to thank Professor Th. van de Klundert and their colleagues of the Department of Economics for their valuable comments on the first version of this article.     

The past,present and future of euro area monetary-fiscal interactions

International Economics and Economic Policy - The EU’s Treaties were designed to limit the interaction between fiscal and monetary policies. However, over the last decade, the introduction of...     

Genetic distance,cultural differences,and the formation of regional trade agreements

Review of World Economics - Genetic distance between countries’ populations has been shown to proxy cross-country differences in cultures and preferences. In an unbalanced panel of 133...