Evolutionary Economics,Rational Expectations,and Monetary Policy

Wealth disparity is a critical factor in the perpetuation of blackwhite disparity in the United States. Intergenerational wealth transfers are the major determinant of household wealth formation. A program of reparations would acknowledge past and continued injustice, redress such injustices, and provide closure. Radical institutional analysis benefits this policy discussion in at least three areas: explaining the re-creation of discrimination; indicating the role of wealth disparity; and identifying the funding source for reparations. For centuries the economic surplus has enhanced white wealth relative to black wealth. A program of reparations suggests directing the surplus toward funding black-white equality.     

Men,Women, Money,and Morality: The Development of China's Sexual Economy

This paper focuses on men and women engaged in China's sexual economy, which is dominated by the exchange between wealthy and politically influential men and unmarried young women who trade their femininity and sexuality for material wealth and financial security from these men. Drawing on analyses of the popular 2009 television serial, Woju (Dwelling Narrowness), coupled with recent ethnographic studies, the paper shows how this sexual economy thrives in the increasingly competitive and commercial urban landscape of present-day China. The study then examines the impact of commodification and materialism on men and women. The paper places these gender dynamics within the context of socioeconomic changes during the last thirty years and investigates how gender inequality became assimilated into both official and popular discourses of Chinese life, thereby facilitating the ascendancy and power of the sexual economy.     

The Corporate State,Economic Performance,and Social Policy

We use the Survey of Consumer Finances to analyze changes in U.S. household debt between 1989 and 2013. We focus on how income and debt levels have changed, and what this means for future economic growth and living standards. Prior to the Great Recession, U.S. households had record high debt levels and record low savings rates. Highly leveraged consumption boosted economic growth. However, large debt burdens have led many families to deleverage. Our study finds that deleveraging has been insufficient. Although debt payments have fallen relative to household income, this is mainly due to low interest rates. Debt levels, especially for home mortgages, remain high by historical standards and portend continued stagnation due to lower consumer spending.     

社会资本、人力资本与经济增长

笔者采用截面数据回归分析法及时间序列数据协整分析法对中国社会资本的不同维度——信任和民间组织与人力资本、经济增长的关系进行实证研究。结果表明,我国社会资本通过影响人力资本而影响经济增长,人力资本是我国社会资本作用于经济增长的机制之一。     

两种制度经济学范式中的意识形态理论:分歧与根源

作为制度经济学的两种范式,新制度经济学和马克思经济学的意识形态理论在意识形态的本质和功能、意识形态的根源与变迁、意识形态与制度变迁的关系等方面存在着明显的分歧.整体来看,马克思的分析框架迄今仍是最有说服力的.这些分歧的根源是方法论:新制度经济学的方法论是制度个体主义和建构理性主义,马克思的制度经济学的方法论是制度整体主义与制度个体主义的统一、演进理性主义与建构理性主义的统一.     

社会人属性和企业治理效率的改善

基于经济人假设的代理理论及其指导下的企业治理实践产生了一个低效的治理效率.独立董事初步显示了社会人属性对企业治理效率的改善.如果存在足够的具有社会人属性的经营者,那么股东将愿意更多激励和更少监督经营者,这将是一个帕累托改进,因而能够改善企业治理效率.     

The Glass Ceiling Puzzle,Legal Institutions,and the Shadow Economy

ABSTRACT

Scholarly studies in economics, sociology, psychology, and management emphasize the low number of women in management as one of the main indicators of gender discrimination in the labor market. This study investigates the differences in the percentage of women in senior management across forty-five countries. The results of the regression analysis show that women are more represented in senior management in developing countries than in so-called “liberal Western democracies.” Women also participate more in senior management in countries in which prejudice and discrimination against women are greater. The study presents empirical evidence for two economic explanations for these puzzling results: the weak functioning of the legal system and the large size of the shadow economy.     

社会保障支出对人力资本培育有效性分析

利用2000—2010年的时间序列数据,通过Eviews分析对社会保障支出和人力资本的动态关系进行实证分析。研究表明,社会保障支出与人力资本之间存在长期协整关系,社会保障支出变化确实是人力资本变化的原因。提出社会保障支出在对人力资本培育中的一些建议。     

The Information Society: Implications for Economic Institutions and Market Theory

The extraordinary growth and reduction in inequalities achieved between the mid-1960s and mid-1990s by the High Performing Asian Economies (HPAEs) — namely Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan (collectively called "the four tigers"), Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand — has been discussed at great length in the economic literature. However, no clear explanation has been suggested for the poor performance of other Asian economies, like India, which share the HPAEs geographical proximity and similar economic structures. This paper shows that the stark contrast between the high growth rates and declining income inequalities of HPAEs on one side, and low growth rates and stable (or rising) income inequalities of India and other Asian countries on the other side, may at least in part be explained by the different role that human capital has played in those economies between the mid-1960s and mid-1990s.     

生产能力过剩与消费能力稀缺--论西方主流经济学的基础性缺陷

稀缺性是西方主流经济学的一个基本假设，而这个假设又以消费欲望无限为前提。然而自古以来的经济实践一再表明：人的消费能力是有限的，而且常常比生产能力更为稀缺。一旦认识到经济学面临的真问题是生产过剩而不是资源稀缺，我们就有可能创建一种新的理论，从而更准确地解释经济现象和更有效地解决经济问题。     

The Great Recession and Racial Inequality: Evidence from Measures of Economic Well-Being

Abstract:

The Great Recession had a tremendous impact on low-income Americans, in particular Black and Latino Americans. The losses in terms of employment and earnings are matched only by the losses in terms of real wealth. In many ways, however, these losses are merely a continuation of trends that have been unfolding for more than two decades. We examine the changes in overall economic well-being and inequality, as well as changes in racial economic inequality during and since the Great Recession. We find that the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being inequality between White and Black households decreased during the Great Recession but since 2010, racial inequality in terms of LIMEW has increased. We find that changes in base income, taxes, and income from non-home wealth during the Great Recession produced declines in overall inequality, while only taxes reduced between-group racial inequality.     

全球化信息化时代政党意识形态面临的危机

面对当今社会信息化全球化的纵深发展,政党自身的意识形态面临着多方面的挑战,其中,阶级结构的变化和文化全球化给政党意识形态带来的挑战最为深入。对这一现状做出判断并加以分析有助于问题的最终解决。     

Rethinking the Links between Human Relationships and Economic Efficiency Using Local Institutions: The Case of Two Emerging Economies

Emerging countries around the world have been growing fast over the last thirty years, with most of these countries basing their economic development on a state capitalism. Within these countries, there is a concentration of wealth in the hands of a few people. This fact confirms the analysis of Thorstein Veblen (1898 Veblen, Thorstein. “Why Is Economics Not an Evolutionary Sciences?” Quarterly Journal of Economics 12, 2 (1898): 373–397.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) who shows the gap that exists between the vested interest of the rich and the unmet needs of the poor. The world happiness report (Helliwell, Layard and Sachs 2016 Helliwell, John F., Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs, eds. World Happiness Report 2016. World Happiness, 2016. Available at http://worldhappiness.report/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/03/HR-V1_web.pdf. Accessed December 1, 2016. [Google Scholar]) also shows for the emerging economies a gap between the world rank in economic growth and in wellbeing. I propose a new paradigm of development for two emerging economies, Brazil and South Africa, by putting human development in the center of economic development and by using different approaches in economics and psychology. My analysis links the theories of Carl Shapiro and Joseph E. Stiglitz regarding “efficiency wages” (1984 Shapiro, Carl and Joseph E. Stiglitz. “Equilibrium Unemployment as Worker Disciplines Devices.” American Economic Review 74, 3 (1984): 433–444.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) with the complexity approach (Le Moigne 1995 Le Moigne, Jean-Louis. La modélisation des systèmes complexes. Paris, France: Dunod, 1995. [Google Scholar]). This approach combines the results of positive psychology (Kahneman 2011 Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. London, UK: Penguin, 2011. [Google Scholar]) with the role of local institutions for improving the economic development of emerging economies (Deaton 2016 Deaton, Angus. La grande évasion: Santé, richesse et origine des inégalités. Paris, France: PUF, [2015] 2016. [Google Scholar]). In the first section of the article, I examine definitions of economic and human wealth. In the second section, I analyze the gaps that exist between the standard-of-living ranking and the wellbeing ranking for both Brazil and South Africa in order to present meso-happiness indexes linking the micro- and macro-levels of human wealth. In the last section, I analyze the way local institutions in Brazil and South Africa could create dynamic links for these countries’ efficient functioning in the world economy.     

The impacts of religion,political ideology,and social capital on religious and secular giving: evidence from the 2006 Social Capital Community Survey

Using a double hurdle model and data from the 2006 Social Capital Community Survey (SCCS2006) we examine religious and secular giving, focusing on the impacts of religion, political ideology and social capital. Our main results indicate that greater participation in religious activities positively impacts religious and secular giving, the intensity of religious belief increases religious giving at the expense of secular giving, religious giving by very conservative individuals is higher than for other ideological groups, and measures of social capital are very important in raising the level and likelihood of philanthropic giving.     

The Socioeconomic Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi: As an Origin of Alternative Development

This paper tries to present the overall socioeconomic thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as an origin of alternative development. The first section of the paper provides Gandhi's criticism of modern civilization, that of economics and that of Marxist socialism and communism. The second section analyzes his ideas for a "post-modern" construction of India, where his views on Swadeshi (self-reliance), his theory of trusteeship (theory of class and distribution) and his images of an ideal village economy are examined. The paper, referring to the works of E. F. Schumacher and the Other Economic Summit as well, concludes that Gandhian style of development theories have persistently furnished a critique of "modern" ways of thinking and presented alternative visions of socioeconomic development.     

Uncertainty,Rationality and the Study of Social Institutions

The insight that both ontological and epistemological perspectives are intertwined is certainly correct, but at the same time insufficient to differentiate mainstream from heterodox approaches to economic institutions. As this paper argues, it is important whether one starts from ontological or epistemological considerations first. The paper suggests that the difference can be described in terms of function versus rules and demonstrates that an intersubjective ontology for institutions requires also an intersubjective epistemology. Otherwise, ontological precepts contradict the epistemological ones with important repercussions for understanding knowledge, rationality and institutions.     

The Impact of Power Equality,Income, and the Environment on Human Health: Some Inter‐Country Comparisons

Economic studies on environmental degradation generally have a narrow focus on per capita income as an explanatory variable, and often fail to distinguish among the various types of environmental quality or damage. This paper addresses both problems by examining the effect of relative equality in the distribution of power on environmental outcomes, and making a clear distinction between health‐related environmental outcomes and so‐called ‘environmental amenities,’ only the latter of which should correlate strongly with income. This paper introduces a national index of power equality that is derived from related socioeconomic variables, and studies its effects on individual country achievement in addressing environmental quality and population health. This model is applied to a data set of 180 countries, as well as to subgroups of the entire country set. Employing disability‐adjusted life expectancy and the population child mortality rate as two health proxies, this paper finds that power equality in most cases positively influences population health, and that power equality is in every case no worse and in some cases better than per capita income at explaining population health.     

Institutions and Development: The Interaction Between Trade Regime and Political System

This paper argues that an unequal distribution of political power, biased to landed elites and owners of natural resources, in combination with openness to trade is a major obstacle to development of natural resource- or land-abundant economies. We develop a two-sector general equilibrium model and show that in an oligarchic society public investments conducive to industrialization. schooling for example.are typically lower in an open than in a closed economy. Moreover, we find that, under openness to trade, development is faster in a democratic system. We also endogenize the trade regime and demonstrate that in a land-abundant economy the landed elite has an interest to support openness to trade. We present historical evidence for Southern economies in the Americas that is consistent with our theoretical results: Resistance of landed elites to mass education, comparative advantages in primary goods production in the 19th century globalization wave, and low primary school enrollment and literacy rates.     

From Receding to Reseeding: Industrial Policy,Governance Strategies and Neoliberal Resilience in Post-crisis Britain

ABSTRACT

Industrial policy has been on the agenda of British policy elites since the 2008 financial crisis, particularly since Theresa May became Prime Minister in 2016. This has been seen as a challenge to pre-crisis norms of economic governance associated with neoliberalism. This article explores key aspects of industrial policy development in post-crisis Britain – new forms of vertical support for industry, local government reform, and the public financing of private sector R&D – in order to sketch a new understanding of political and ideological change. It focuses on the institutional mechanisms through which industrial strategy will ostensibly be implemented, including subnational and private spheres of governance. The article argues that recent industrial policy developments do not represent the receding of neoliberalism, but rather have provided opportunities for the reseeding of neoliberal norms in British economic statecraft. The strategy has reinforced forms of state machinery through which pre-crisis elite practice can be maintained and legitimated. By demonstrating that the apparent revival of state intervention in the wake of capitalist crises must not be assumed automatically to challenge pre-crisis economic orders, and highlighting the crucial role of exigent political circumstances, the article makes an important contribution to the literature on neoliberal resilience.