Towards a New Austrian Macroeconomics

Austrian macroeconomists of the interwar period saw the economy as a complex adaptive system, in which macroeconomic variables emerge from the interaction between millions of purposefully acting agents. Recent advances in computation technology allow us to build empirically salient synthetic economies in silico, and thereby formalize many Austrian insights. We present a workhorse model with firms on an input-output network. Macroeconomic variables evolve through the interaction between micro-economic decisions. We use the model to explain an effect of monetary shocks on the price distribution and provide a sketch of other potential applications.     

On Political Competition: Democracy, Opinion and Responsibility

In this paper, I consider the influence of political competition on opinion. After reflecting on the notion opinion as a concept in the economic analysis of politics, I turn to Hayek's Constitution of Liberty and consider his argument for democracy on the grounds that it is the form of government which best promotes progress in opinion. Yet Hayek's claim that democratically formed opinion improves is unsubstantiated. I turn to accounts of expressive voting thereafter to show why opinions which are realised in the form of votes may be anything other than propitious to democratic culture. I then return to Hayek and consider what becomes of opinion in Law, Legislation and Liberty. His claim that opinion improves under democratic institutions is no longer of great significance to him. Indeed, his account of the rise of bargaining politics provides evidence against the claim that opinion improves. I conclude by asking how democracy can be shielded from opinion, that is, how opinion might be improved in ways which go beyond Hayek's model of political competition outlined in Constitution of Liberty. To this end, I look to accounts of deliberative democracy and expressive politics for support.     

Ecological Political Economy: Towards a Strategic-Relational Approach

This article identifies three distinct traditions in what might be described as ‘ecological political economy’. First, a ‘Promethean’ approach posits that capitalism has a relentless drive towards growth and bears responsibility for the wholesale transformation of nature. Second, critics of sustainable capitalism acknowledge the possibility of capitalist futures with a better management of natural resources and carbon emissions. The Strategic Relational Approach, developed by Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum, points to a unique third type of ecological political economy. Each approach is shown to have distinct views concerning the commodification of nature, the role of the state and ways to understand ecological and social transitions. The Strategic Relational Approach points to the possibility of counter-hegemonic strategies and collective mobilization to transform the state and so redirect, control and contain capitalist relations with nature.     

Towards a New Political Economy of the Crisis: Getting What Went Wrong Right

Not only did the global financial crisis transform the prevailing institutions, policies and practices of contemporary capitalism, it also had a profound impact upon the discipline of economics itself. From 2008 a different crisis, one of public legitimacy, engulfed academic economics as critics railed against its failure to predict the onset of unprecedented global economic turmoil. But despite the public focus upon the failings of mainstream economics, the rise of alternative disciplinary and epistemological perspectives has been muted. Scholars of international political economy (IPE), unconstrained by the debilitating equilibrium assumptions of neoclassical economics and keenly aware of the intimate connectivity between politics and economics, might justifiably have expected to make gains during the economics profession's darkest hour. That they have not managed, thus far, to substantially unsettle the intellectual and institutional predominance of economics should not, however, be a source of dismay. Political economy scholars possess the analytical tools to produce a much-needed counterpoint to prevailing academic economics. It is with demonstrating that capacity, and restating the holistic merits of political economy scholarship, that this Special Issue is concerned. Bringing together a number of diverse theoretical perspectives and employing a wide range of conceptual categories, this Special Issue showcases the rich variety of IPE scholarship and its collective capacity to generate much deeper and more holistic analyses of the global economic crisis than those provided by the reigning economics orthodoxy, and in doing so, to get what went wrong right.     

Beyond Regulation: Towards a Cultural Political Economy of Complexity and Emergence

Drawing on and contributing to materialist state theory, the regulation approach and institutional economics for more than three decades, Bob Jessop can certainly be considered one of the foremost Marxist political economists of our time. Recently, he has taken on board the cultural turn in social analysis by developing a highly original cultural political economy of the knowledge-based economy. As a contribution to the further development of a cultural political economy that is sensitive to the cultural dimensions of social life while retaining an emphasis on capital accumulation and state regulation, this article directs attention to the limits of Jessop's approach and suggests possible amendments to the theory. In particular, the article highlights the need to move beyond a concern with regulation towards a cultural political economy of complexity and emergence.     

How Compatible are Public Choice and Austrian Political Economy?

The Review of Austrian Economics - Public Choice relies heavily on equilibrium analysis in its models of government failure. Austrians are suspicious of equilibrium analysis owing to its reliance...     

Towards a Political Economy of Zero Budgeting in Austria

The EMU sets new standards for public finance. In particular, the Stability and Growth Pact aims at a budget ``close-to-balance or in surplus'. Austria is lagging behind in this respect. First, this paper discusses the reasons for that. Then, two scenarios of budget consolidation are analyzed with the Wifo macroeconomic model. In the case of the crash-scenario, which balances the budget already in 2002, the pure Keynesian solution would result in a decline of real GDP of 1% after six years. The precautionary consolidation scenario (balanced budget in ten years) would result in a real GDP loss of only 1/2%. With supply-side effects (incentives for investment due to privatization and UMTS licences sales or credibility effects), real GDP declines only by 1/3% in both scenario. Taking a consolidated view of the tax reform 2000 and the budget consolidation, on balance, the overall effects are rather positive than negative.     

Democracy Evolving: A Diversity of Institutional Contradictions Transforming Political Economy

I analyze democracy as an evolving socio-historical process of autonomy, participative governance, social learning, and institutionalization. I discuss a variety of institutional contradictions, ranging from protective versus developmental democracy, socialist versus capitalist democracy, transcendental versus comparative institutionalism, and utilitarian versus pragmatist democracy. I argue that these contradictions are inherent in the agonistic nature of democracy that is transforming political economy along with the antagonistic interests of its members and institutions. I also present a basic synthesis of some dynamic aspects of democracy that enable and enhance social emancipation and transformation.     

产权改革战略对法治发展的影响 --产权的政治经济学分析

当俄罗斯“大爆炸”式私有化开始时，西方对俄所鼓吹的主导范式是。只要授予人们财产控制权就可以赢得他们对法治(能够保护私有产权)的支持。但是俄罗斯的实际情况并非如此，本文构建了一系列简单的模型对此予以解释。模型集中分析了在均衡状态下抑制法治需求的两种伎俩：1)资产掠夺，为人们延续非法治状态提供了机会；2)行贿，会导致对垄断的保护进而阻碍那些支持法治的政治局外人的进入。此外，本文认为政治环境具有公共物品的特性。我们所给出的结论是，鉴于理性、政治环境的公共物品特性及均衡，“大爆炸”式私有化后将很难产生对法治的支持。     

The New Comparative Political Economy

With the collapse of communism in the late 1980s the field of comparative political economy has undergone major revision. Socialism is no longer considered the viable alternative to capitalism it once was. We now recognize that the choice is between alternative institutional arrangements of capitalism. Progress in the field of comparative political economy is achieved by examining how different legal, political and social institutions shape economic behavior and impact economic performance. In this paper we survey the new learning in comparative political economy and suggest how this learning should redirect our attention in economic development.JEL classification: B53, O10, O20, P0     

Self-ignorance: Towards an extension of the Austrian paradigm

This article argues for an extension of the Austrian paradigm of the ignorance of actors. The idea that will be defended here is that actors are not only confronted with their lack of knowledge of the other person but also with their lack of self-knowledge. From this perspective, the article seeks to understand the implications of this phenomenon in terms of infra-individual coordination and to account for the mental processes mobilized by the individual mind so as to deal with that self-ignorance.

建构全球政治新范式

当前国际政治向全球政治转型,需要建构一种新的全球政治范式,这种范式应具有综合与中庸的特征,是全球参与下的国家共同治理范式,是一种务实的自由主义或现实的理想主义。     

Capital Controls: a Political Economy Approach

The paper examines the economic consequences of political conflicts that arise when countries implement capital controls. In an overlapping‐generations model, agents vote on whether to open or close an economy to capital flows. The young (workers) receive income only from wages while the old (capitalists) receive income only from savings. The authors characterize the set of stationary equilibria for an infinite‐horizon game. Assuming dynamic efficiency, when the median representative is a worker (capitalist), capital‐importing countries will open (close) while capital‐exporting countries will close (open). These predicted patterns are consistent with data on liberalization policies over time and across various countries.