Writing in the discipline and reproducible methods: A process-oriented approach to teaching empirical undergraduate economics research

The authors of this article describe an empirical research project as a component of an upper-level undergraduate economics writing-in-the-discipline course, thus aiming to reduce the high fixed costs associated with designing an empirical research project assignment and encourage more undergraduate economics research. This project is central to the course structure and has a dual-purpose: to teach students economics writing conventions and reproducible empirical research methods. The authors present a sequenced project design and replication documentation protocol and posit that this promotes student learning and leads to improvements in organization and coherence throughout the entire research and writing process. As an essential element of the course, students learn to do econometrics through effective writing, data management, and empirical analysis.     

The state of Portuguese research in economics: an analysis based on publications in international journals

In this paper I analyze the state of Portuguese research in economics based on publications in international journals for the period of 1986 to 2000. I find that scientific production is increasing but productivity remains low. I also provide a revealing characterization of the production habits of Portuguese researchers by answering the following questions: where do Portuguese researchers publish? who are the most active publishers? how often do they publish? how much do they collaborate? what is their background? Finally, I analyze the impact of that research based on citation counts.Received: July 2001, Accepted: November 2001, Mathematics Subject Classification: A10, A14I would like to acknowledge the helpful comments of the Editor, Paulo Brito, as well as Ana Rute Cardoso, Clara Dismuke, João Santos Silva, Octávio Figueiredo, Pedro Pita Barros and Pedro Portugal.     

Migration and Americanization: The special case of Belgian economics*

One of the distinguishing features of Belgian economics is that, from the early 1920s, so many of Belgium's best economists pursued postgraduate studies at top American universities, a case of ‘temporary’ migration. This was made possible by the fellowships granted by the Commission for Relief in Belgium, a legacy of the First World War. After a stay in the US of a few years, most returned to Belgium. However, they maintained strong links with the US. Also, they tried to recreate in Belgium the most valuable elements of their American experience. It would lead to a strong and early Americanization of Belgian economics. Moreover, they were at the forefront of several initiatives to organize economics on a European scale, such as the European Economic Review and the European Economic Association.     

The figure of Smith: Dugald Stewart and the propagation of Smithian economics

Despite the persistence of interpretive differences over the substance of Adam Smith's economic and political writings, in the last two decades historians of economic and political thought have done much to establish distinctions between the figure of Smith and the original subject. This paper examines a subset of issues surrounding what we call the Transmission questionnamely, the process which led to the forging of the figure of Smith as the apostle of economic liberalism that he is widely, if not universally, thought to have been. It is not primarily concerned with what Smith actually said but rather with the figure of Smith; with how and why it came to acquire some of its most characteristic feathers under the direction of Dugald Stewart.     

The evolutionary and non-Darwinian economics of Joseph Schumpeter

In a recent paper, Matthias Kelm (1997) accepts that `Schumpeter's definition of evolution does not contain any Darwinian mechanism such as natural selection or any other biological concept' and that Schumpeter `made no such attempt' to apply `Darwinian theory to economic evolution'. However, Kelm goes on to argue that Schumpeter would have been a Darwinian if circumstances were different. It is argued here that this contention is highly implausible because Schumpeter explicitly rejected biological metaphors and analogies in economics. Furthermore, Schumpeter misunderstood Darwinism. In his attempt to `interpret' Schumpeter as a Darwinian, Kelm himself misrepresents the three core principles of Darwinism. In addition Kelm's paper contains several misunderstandings and misrepresentations of the assessment of Schumpeter made by Hodgson (1993). This present response concludes that Schumpeter was indeed one of the greatest economists of the twentieth century and that he may legitimately be described as an `evolutionary economist'. However, he cautioned strongly against the use of biological metaphors in economics and there is no legitimate basis for describing his approach as Darwinian.     

The ancient art of economics

Abstract

This article reviews ancient texts dedicated to the art of economics, narrating how the master was to manage his wife, slaves and things. The discourse on the economy of things focuses on defining the proper limits of wealth. The economy of the slaves included multiple technologies of classification, management and supervision that were to guide the master and the matron in their ‘use’ of slaves. The wife was a freeborn member of the polis who was doomed to spend her entire life in the economy as a governed subject who partakes in government only within the confines of the oikos.     

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.     

财经类大学生思想行为特点及对策研究

文章认为高校财经类专业学生在思想观念、专业学习、文化素质、情感等方面具有与其它专业不同的特点,并根据财经类专业学生的思想特点和行为方式,探讨了教育管理内容,提高思想政治教育工作的针对性和实效性。     

《农业经济学》课程教学方式的改进与实践

农业经济学是农业高校农林经济管理专业、农村区域发展等专业的本科专业基础课,在专业课程体系构造中具有十分重要的地位。结合所在教学团队多年来的实践和体会,从农业经济学课堂教学方式、实践教学方式及考试方式等方面提出改进的建议,以提高农业经济学课程的教学水平。     

大学生农村基层就业能力现状及其培养研究

大学生基层就业能力是大学生满足农村人才需求,实现自我价值的重要保障。但通过调研发现,大学生基层就业能力较差,应在切实加强思想道德教育、提高思想政治素质的基础上,加大工作力度,强化就业指导服务职能,开展农村社会实践活动,完善大学生基层就业服务体系。     

财经类高校实施通识教育若干问题探析

针对当前我国高等教育中普遍出现的重专业教育、轻通识教育的现象,并结合财经类高校的实际,探讨了在财经类高校推行通识教育的必要性和紧迫性。在此基础上,又分析了财经类高校实施通识教育所面临的困境,最后提出了在财经类高校语境下推进通识教育的若干建议。     

财经类院校高年级本科生科研能力培养模式研究

面对人才需求的日益多元化,财经类院校如何培养出满足这一需求的创新型和高层次人才具有极大的现实意义。首先分析加强高年级本科生科研能力培养的意义,接着对其中存在的问题进行深入分析,进而以安徽财经大学经济学院为例,从完善本科生导师制、以经济学国家级特色专业建设为契机、依托大学生科研项目等方面探讨如何提升高年级本科生科研创新的能力。     

Health economics of market access for biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars

Abstract

Background and scope: This article discusses health economic challenges of research and development, registration, pricing and reimbursement of biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars. A literature search was carried out of PubMed, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination databases, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and EconLit up to March 2009.

Findings: The development process of biopharmaceuticals is risky, lengthy, complex and expensive. Registration is complicated by the inherent variation between biopharmaceuticals. Also, as biopharmaceuticals are likely to be efficacious in a subgroup of the patient population, there is a need to select the most responsive target population and to identify biomarkers. To inform pricing and reimbursement decisions, the development process needs to collect comparative data to calculate the incremental cost effectiveness and budget impact of biopharmaceuticals. There is a role for innovative mechanisms such as risk-sharing arrangements to reimburse biopharmaceuticals.

Conclusions: Given that biosimilars are similar, but not identical to the reference biopharmaceutical, the development process needs to generate clinical trial data in order to gain marketing authorisation. From a health economic perspective, the question arises whether inherent differences between biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars produce differences in safety, effectiveness and costs: to date, this question is unresolved. The early inclusion of health economics in the process of developing biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars is imperative with a view to demonstrating their relative (cost) effectiveness and informing registration, pricing and reimbursement decisions.     

经济学的时间及其革命

时间是人类认识世界的一种基本方式,人类时间观的改变不可避免地影响着人们对经济世界的认知。人类时间概念内涵的变化体现在经济理论发展的不同阶段中。本文阐述了人类时间概念演化史,分析了内涵不同的时间观在经济学理论建构中的地位和作用,以及时间观现代变革对经济学当前发展的意义。     

马克思主义经济学人本思想对财务学研究的启示与拓展

针对财务学的“经济人”假设进行了探讨,认为正是由于公司财务理论研究前提假定的非真实性,导致了当前主流财务学在研究导向、研究方法和研究对象上的失效。马克思经济学人本主义思想为财务学研究如何贴近社会现实提供了一个很好的借鉴思路。财务学本身具有社会属性,在此基础上,财务学研究的领域可以扩展到制度财务学、财务社会学、财务心理学、财务伦理学等方面。     

The Research Assessment Exercise, the state and the dominance of mainstream economics in British universities

In previous research on the impact of the Research AssessmentExercise on heterodox economics and heterodox economists inthe UK, the author concluded that reliance on Diamond List journalsto rank departments would drive economic departments to discriminatepositively in terms of their hiring, promotion and researchstrategies in favour of mainstream economists and their research,in order to maintain or improve their ranking. As a consequence,the author predicted there would be no or only a token presenceof heterodox economists in an increasing number of departments.Whether the conclusions still hold and the predictions materialiseis the subject of the paper.     

The application of environmental economics in marine functional zoning and coastal city conceptual planning

There are a lot of functions of marine resources. The various and competing conflicts between different users and different sectors in the use of marine resources will cause the disorderly development of marine resources, and even destroy the marine ecosystem. Marine functional zoning is an effective tool to solve the conflicts. However, there are some shortcomings in the current understanding on marine functional zoning and its practice. In this paper, a case study on the resource-oriented marine functional zoning of Xiangshan Port is introduced. By the principles of resource-oriented and public participation, Xiangshan Port is divided into seven zones, and the main function of the whole port and seven zones are determined by the environmental economics analysis. A case study of Xiamen is also introduced for how to integrate marine functional zoning into a coastal city conceptual planning. Under the conservation principle, resources-oriented principle and so on, the advantages and disadvantages of natural ecosystem, social ecosystem and economic ecosystem are holistically analyzed, the urban orientation of Xiamen is determined as a regional international tourism city, and the whole city is divided into five function zones according to its leading industry -tourism. Resource-oriented marine functional zoning has a long-term guidance for sustainable use of marine resources and development strategy of a coastal city. And environmental economics analysis is an effective tool for resource-orientation.