The Role of Keynesian Policies in Semi-industrialized Countries: theory and evidence from India

This paper examines the relevance of Keynesian policies—interpreted as those policies implied by Keynes's theoretical analysis of unemployment developed in The General Theory—for a subset of developing economies, which are called semi-industrialized countries. It draws on recent contributions in development economics to argue on theoretical grounds that Keynesian policies are relevant for semi-industrialized countries even when they are constrained by capital shortages, stagnant agricultural sectors, and foreign exchange availability. It then discusses the recent development experience of India to illustrate the empirical relevance of some of these theoretical issues.     

The turn in recent economics and return of orthodoxy

This paper examines change on the economics research frontier,and asks whether the current competition between new researchprogrammes may be supplanted by a new single dominant approachin the future. The paper discusses whether economics tends tobe dominated by a single approach or reflect a pluralism ofapproaches, and argues that, historically, it has alternatedbetween the two. It argues that orthodoxy usually emerges fromheterodoxy, and interprets the division between orthodoxy andheterodoxy in terms of a core–periphery distinction. Regardingrecent economics, the paper maps out two different types ofcombinations of new research programmes as being synchronicor diachronic in nature. It treats the new research programmesas a new kind of heterodoxy, and asks how a new orthodoxy mightarise out of this new heterodoxy and traditional heterodoxy.It discusses this question by advancing two views regardinghow to different types of combinations in the new research programmesmight consolidate along the lines of three shared commitmentswith traditional heterodoxy to form a new orthodoxy in economics.     

Social capital and social economics

The “discovery” of social capital in the early 1990s led to an upsurge of research into the economic impact of social cohesion and governmental effectiveness. This paper outlines key developments in the social capital literature over the past 13 years. It then examines theory and evidence of the links between social cohesion, quality of governance, economic performance and human welfare. The literature indicates that social capital makes a measurable contribution to economic development and overall wellbeing, particularly in developing countries. Partly in response to this emerging body of evidence, there has been increased interest in the application of community development principles to economic development initiatives. This paper argues that the advent of social capital theory represents a partial convergence between social economics and mainstream economics, and signifies an increased acceptance that economic activity cannot be meaningfully “disembedded” from social and political context.     

资本流动对中部崛起的作用分析

世界经济发展史证明,资本流动有特定的规律,与经济发展之间有着一定的关系,通过分析两者间的相互作用关系,探讨运用经济规律指导中部崛起战略的实施。     

发展经济学方法论初析

发展经济学逻辑体系的松散使得这门学科在面对发展中国家现实和理论发展时,必须对其方法的何去何从作出选择.本文从发展经济学方法的古典基础、建立与发展以及新趋势等几个方面,对发展经济学方法论作了初步的探讨,认为未来的发展经济学方法需要打破传统经济学界限,并考察历史、政治学、社会学、伦理学和制度等.     

Menger’s causal-realist analysis in modern economics

Carl Menger pioneered a unique theoretical research method which served as the foundation of the early Austrian school of economics. Menger’s causal-realist analysis was revived and formalized just before and after World War 2 by Ludwig von Mises as the “praxeological method.” Murray Rothbard, a student of von Mises’, utilized the method in formulating a comprehensive system of economic theory in his treatise, Man Economy, and State published in the early 1960s. Rothbard’s treatise became the foundational work for the “Austrian revival” in the 1970s. In this paper, we address several issues related to the role of Menger’s method in modern economics. First, ample evidence is adduced that von Mises and Rothbard each expressed a surprising ambivalence with respect to his own work in relation to the early Austrian school. Second, von Mises viewed Rothbard’s treatise as beginning a new epoch in economic theory. Third, contrary to the conventional view, a careful analysis of his treatise shows that Rothbard drew heavily on the contemporary neoclassical literature in developing his theoretical system and that his intent was never to set up a heterodox movement to challenge mainstream economics. Rather, his main aim was to consistently apply the praxeological method to rescue economics from what he considered the alien methodology of positivism, which was imported into economics after World War 2. Lastly, I will tentatively suggest that the term “Austrian economics” as the designation for the intellectual movement that coalesced in the early 1970s may now have outlived its usefulness. This term, which initially served an important strategic purpose in promoting the revival of the broad Mengerian tradition, may have come to obscure the meaning and importance of the praxeological research paradigm that Menger originated.     

当代发展经济学的家庭经济研究

家庭经济研究是发展经济学的一个方兴未艾的领域,对发展经济学理论与发展中国家现实的联系作出了特殊的贡献。本文从家庭收入与营养健康的关系;公正、平等与营养健康的关系;家庭生产、消费行为的决策;家庭生育行为决策等方面分析发展经济学对家庭经济的研究。     

基于经济学视角的危机公关探讨

随着经济和社会的发展,组织面临着不断变化的内部和外部环境以及复杂的内外公众,危机事件的发生是不可避免的。正确运用危机公关预防危机、解决危机、转变危机,就显得很重要。本文借助经济学模型,对模型进行分析,基于经济学视角探讨危机公关。     

管制经济学的演进——从传统理论到比较制度分析

文章梳理了管制经济学从传统理论到比较制度分析的演进逻辑,并指出传统的管制理论采取的是把市场和政府对立起来的二分分析方法,而新的管制理论则采取了一种把市场和政府统一起来的分析方法,这种理论进展有助于我们更加深刻地认识现实世界中的管制制度。     

The <Emphasis Type="Italic">Acting</Emphasis> Person: Social Capital and Sustainable Development

Ron Stanfield has had a long and distinguished career as a social economist and commentator on the social economy. Of special concern to us in this article are Stanfield’s interests in social capital, sustainable development, and nurturance which we refer to as caring. We also take up several other virtues including sympathy, benevolence, and generosity that have been part of the economics literature from the time of Smith’s Moral Sentiments along with the associated vices of heartlessness, insensitivity, meanness, greediness, and others. This article attempts to show that (1) adding social capital to the machine-like individual of mainstream economics results in the acting person of personalist economics who becomes more fully a human person through social interactions that foster the development of several virtues or less fully a human person through other interactions that instill certain vices; and that (2) in matters relating to sustainability, becoming more fully a human person calls especially for the practice of the virtues of justice and moderation. In addition we have suggested a framework for thinking about sustainable development in terms of actuating and limiting principles and for developing critical values or performance standards for sustainable development that are person-centered.     

Pareto and contemporary economic theory

This paper provides explanations for Pareto’s apparently contradictory approach to demand theory in simultaneously insisting that measurability of utility is not needed to explain the equilibrium of consumers in competitive markets, and embracing concavifiability and thus measurability of utility when this implies restrictions on consumers’ behavior such as the law of demand. It also treats his method of calibrating an aggregate demand function by employing his law of income distribution, so as to reproduce “Gregory King’s law”. Finally, some disputed issues are dealt with concerning the nature of Pareto’s contributions to welfare economics. (JEL: B13, D11, D60).     

Do economists have anything to contribute to the debate on urban sprawl? (and would anbody listen to them if they did?)

This essay explores reasons for the relative shortage of work by economists on the subject of urban sprawl. I argue that a correct economic understanding of the sprawl issue is difficult to communicate. Meanwhile, a simplified caricature of economic thinking on sprawl has emerged. It argues that decentralized, low-density development has been chosen by the “free market”, therefore the problem signified by the word sprawl does not exist. This argument, made in the name of economics but not always by economists, has served to polarize the detabe as much as to enlighten it. I propose an alternative understanding of the economics of sprawl that provides common ground for debate among economists, planners, and politicians. The author is associate director of the Center for Regional Economic Issues at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management. In a prior life, he studied cost-of-sprawl issues for the New Jersey Office of State Planning. Thanks go to Rachael Callanan for assistance on this paper.     

Ronald Coase and law and economics in Europe

Ronald Coase himself never wrote about law and economics in Europe. Yet many of his insights about the development of the discipline in the United States are extremely useful to our understanding of the methodological and practical challenges faced by European law and economics (as in most civil law jurisdictions). This paper argues that a careful consideration of Coase’s insights might address some of the current limitations.     

山东省发展高效生态林业的设想

本文依据生态经济学原理,从山东省情及林业现状分析,探讨了山东发展高效生态林业的内涵、类型及目标。通过发展高效生态林业,使林业与其相关行业和谐、协调、公平发展,实现山东林业的可持续发展。     

The Economics of Transition and the Transition of Economics*

The economics of transition is the study of the economic transformation from one economic system–central planning–to another, a market system. This paper discusses a number of issues in reform strategy and experiences with reform of Eastern Europe. It is argued that the economics of transition has a wider significance that transcends specific issues of reform strategy and individual country experience. That significance lies in two areas; as a ‘living test’ of the neoclassical model which underpins the reform strategy and as an ultimate challenge to the economics discipline.     

试论混沌经济学对管理会计的影响

随着科学的发展,科学的视界越来越宽,世界的复杂性已经日渐成为科学研究的中心.混沌经济学是研究经济现象复杂性的一门学科,它在方法论、时空结构、建模方法及追求目标等方面与传统经济学存在较大分歧,但在描述和解释经济现象方面更具现实性和优越性,它必将对建立在传统经济学基础上的管理会计产生影响,本文分别从管理会计的三个职能阐述这种影响.     

An economics for development and peace: With a particular focus on the thought of Ernst F. Schumacher

Ernst F. Schumacher'sSmall is Beautiful seems thoroughly persuasive even at the turn of the century, as reckless material development is increasingly recognized as a threat to peace. This article describes how his thought was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's and Schumacher's ways of thinking are considered as alternative development theorees, different from any of those stemming from laissez-faire economics or Marxism. The formulation and proliferation of Schumacher's ideas about intermediate technologies are traced in both Indian and global contexts, to evaluate their sufficiency as bases for development. Moreover, their implications for contemporary economics are discussed, with the assistance of Amartya K. Sen's concepts of “capability,” “sympathy” and “commitment,” which are in clear contrast to the conventional concept of “economic man.” Finally, it is concluded that Schumacher's alternative development theories and practices, as well as Sen's economics, may play important roles in development and peace studies in the 21^st century. I am grateful to William Volgor, Michael McPherson, David Schrom and Mark Kurowski for their helpful suggestions on drafts of this article.     

Chinese rural reform in 30 years: An analysis in terms of institutional economics

Both from history and logic, the rural reform is the starting point for China’s overall economic reform. The gradualism, inherent logical evolution and interest conflict of reform in China all have their origins in rural reform. The thirty-year’s rural reform can be viewed as the adjustment of urban-rural relations by different period. This study adopts the analytical framework of institutional economics to clearly demonstrate the whole logic process of institutional transition, then from the international comparative perspective, generalizes some basic experiences in China’s rural reform and the lessons for developing and transitional countries. On the basis of judging different stages of economic development, this paper also sums up the new challenges faced by rural reform and discusses its prospects for the next reform.     

A resource-based view of Schumpeterian economic dynamics

This paper seeks to offer a theoretical platform where the modern “resource-based view” of the firm might meet with evolutionary economics and the study of entrepreneurship, and with the economics of industrial organization. It does so by proposing the concept of the “resource economy” within which productive resources are produced and exchanged between firms. This is presented as the dual of the mainstream goods and services economy – where the “resource economy” captures the dynamic capital structure of the economy. The paper is concerned to bring out the distinctive principles governing resource dynamics in the resource economy, capturing competitive dynamics in such categories as resource creation, replication, propagation, exchange and leverage; evolutionary dynamics in terms of resource variation, selection and retention; entrepreneurial dynamics in terms of resource recombination and resource imitation, transfer and substitution; and industrial organizational dynamics in terms of resource configuration, resource complementarities and resource trajectories.