The rise of obesity in Europe: an economic perspective

Obesity in Europe is rising. This paper investigates the economic rationales for public intervention to control obesity. We present new empirical evidence showing that family background is related to obesity among young European adults. This evidence provides a strong basis for intervention on equity grounds, particularly targeted towards children. The case for intervention on efficiency grounds is less clear-cut and in most cases the evidence is relatively weak. We find insufficient evidence that information deficiencies are important, as the majority of Europeans appear to be aware of the bad consequences of obesity on health. We also find that the potential health insurance externality -- non-obese effectively subsidizing obese individuals -- is small. In support of policy intervention, we show that there are product and labour market imperfections. Obese employees earn less than the non-obese. We also find that there is a remarkably high proportion of individuals with self-control problems, who fail to stick to their self-declared weight-related plans. Regulations that affect fast food advertisements and the location and access to fast food vending machines and establishments may help these individuals in controlling their weight.
--- Giorgio Brunello, Pierre-Carl Michaud and Anna Sanz-de-Galdeano     

On induced economic change in precapitalist societies

This essay explores a number of properties of a general growth model of induced economic change in precapitalist societies which incorporates both the insights of Ester Boserup and Thomas Malthus. Responses to diminishing returns include changes in work intensity and population growth. Some important variants of the model are also examined which focus on the transfer of production to non-producers and on alternative processes by which change is induced. The results are used to generate some parameters influencing the political stability of non-working elites; to criticize some previous, less general, growth models; and to suggest some fruitful lines fot future empirical research on economic development in the long run.     

Addressing shortfalls in TIA care in the UK: an economic perspective

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the clinical outcomes and costs associated with reconfiguring the management of TIA in the UK to offer patients rapid access to outpatient clinics for specialist assessment and treatment.

Methods: An economic deterministic model was run comparing two pathways – one arm representing current clinical care based on national guidelines and clinical practice and patient referral to a weekly outpatient clinic, and a revised care pathway replicating phase 2 of the EXPRESS study with patient referral to a daily outpatient clinic. The outcomes of the model were measured in terms of recurrent strokes avoided and net budget impact to secondary care.

Results: Reconfiguring TIA care pathways in the UK could result in the avoidance of 8,164 recurrent stroke events. The model predicts savings of £25,573,279 for the UK healthcare system over 12 months. Annual net savings are predicted in England (£24,916,011), Scotland (£80,554) and Northern Ireland (£1,041,817). In Wales, increased costs of £450,435 are estimated.

Limitations: Using the data published from the EXPRESS study, it is not possible to model a stepwise approach to implementing the revised TIA care pathway. It is therefore assumed that it would be possible to implement the revised TIA care pathway as detailed in the EXPRESS study across the UK and achieve the reduction in recurrent stroke risk that was reported.

Conclusions: The model suggests that the reconfiguration of TIA care pathways in the UK to offer rapid access to treatment and assessment could prevent TIA-related future stroke events and potentially result in cost savings to the healthcare system.     

Universal Service: An economic perspective

This paper discusses some important issues that feed the debate on the notion of Universal Service, namely, its definition, justification, cost and financing, within a unified economic framework. In view of the diversity of both the historical and forward looking situations under which the implementation of universal service is envisioned, we provide a systematic analysis of the economic trade-offs associated with various scenarios. We also draw on some actual universal service experiences that have reached some appreciable level of maturity, most notably in telecommunications and postal services, to illustrate and sometimes fine tune some of our arguments.     

Content and method: an epistemic perspective on some historical episodes

The double contrast between allocation and process and between formal proof and empirically based reasoning is selectively applied to the history of economics. Hume's rejection of provable knowledge led to Smith's psychological explanation of science and thence to his theory of growth through the division of labour. Marshall's cautious theorizing and cognitively based evolutionary perspective stimulated contrasting responses from Sraffa and Young. Robinson matched method to content but Chamberlin did not, and Andrews's attempt to develop a process-based price theory met more resistance than Penrose's reinvention of growth theory. We currently observe conflicting methods of handling evolution and business strategy.     

The WTO dispute settlement system: a first assessment from an economic perspective

We explore the incentives countries face in trade litigationwithin the new WTO dispute settlement system. Our analysis yieldsa number of interesting predictions, First, because sanctionsare ruled out during the litigation process, the dispute settlementsystem does not preclude all new trade restrictions. However,the agenda-setting capacity of the complainant, including itsright to force a decision, make trade restrictions less attractivethan under the WTO's predecessor, GATT. Second, the system'sappellate review provides the losing defendant with strong incentivesto delay negative findings, and both parties with a possibilityto signal their determinacy in fighting the case. Third, a relativelyweak implementation procedure potentially reinforces incentivesto violate WTO trade rules. Fourth, bilateral settlements aremore likely at an early stage in the process and are biasedtoward the expected outcome of the formal dispute settlementprocedure. Empirical evidence based on a first dataset of casesat an advanced stage of the litigation process provides qualitativesupport for our claims.     

Economic emergence: An evolutionary economic perspective

The standard neoclassical approach to economic theorising excludes, by definition, economic emergence and the related phenomenon of entrepreneurship. We explore how the most economic of human behaviours, entrepreneurship, came to be largely excluded from mainstream economic theory. In contrast, we report that evolutionary economists have acknowledged the importance of understanding emergence and we explore the advances that have been made in this regard. We go on to argue that evolutionary economics can make further progress by taking a more ‘naturalistic’ approach to economic evolution. This requires that economic analysis be fully embedded in complex economic system theory and that associated understandings as to how humans react to states of uncertainty be explicitly dealt with. We argue that ‘knowledge,’ because of the existence of uncertainty is, to a large degree ‘conjectural’ and, thus, is closely linked to our emotional states. Our economic behaviour is also influenced by the reality that we, and the systems that we create, are dissipative structures. Thus, we introduce the notions of ‘energy gradients’ and ‘knowledge gradients’ as essential concepts in understanding economic emergence and resultant economic growth.     

国际服务贸易促进我国经济增长的实证分析及对策研究

随着全球经济的重点正从货物贸易转向服务贸易,服务贸易在我国经济高速持续增长中能够发挥重要支持和源泉作用。通过对1985-2001年的统计数据进行实证分析国际服务贸易对我国经济增长的作用,对我国服务贸易开放度与国际竞争力进行实证分析探讨服务贸易对经济增长带动不足的原因。提出引进、消化国外先进的生产性服务;发挥服务业传统优势,提高服务业知识技术含量,不断创造出新的优势;用竞争优势理论,努力增强我国服务贸易的国际竞争力;充分发挥政府在服务业竞争能力培育中的作用等增强服务贸易国际竞争力、支撑经济增长的政策建议。     

Remittances for economic development: The investment perspective

Based on the economic theory of the family, this paper constructs a model of remittances where the migrant, besides sending money to his family, also invests in his home country. The investment is looked after by a family member in return for some monetary compensation. The model focuses on two different cases: state-contingent transfers (transfers are tied to investment outcomes) and fixed transfers (transfers are mainly of altruistic motive). As the migrant derives utilities from consumption, his consumption-investment decision is driven by preferences and future investment prospects. The transfers are to increase with both business encouraging and income compensatory effects.     

Bioeconomics of some nonhuman and human societies: new institutional economics approach

New institutional economics (NIE) has been very successful in explaining the role of institutions such as the firm, money, and contract law in facilitating production and exchange in human societies. In this paper, I will show that the NIE approach, which so far has been used by economists to analyze institutions and organizations in human society, including the ethnically homogeneous middleman groups, can also be extended to explain the high degree of cooperation and coordination of activities of honeybees, ants, and schooling fish. In addition, the paper emphasize the importance of identity in nonhuman and human societies in eliciting cooperation and in detecting cheaters or fakers. This paper thus contribute to the integration/consilience of economics and biology by providing a more unified view of aspects of the bioeconomics of nonhuman and human societies.     

Between European integration and regional autonomy: the case of Italy from an economic perspective

Italy has experienced a double political phenomenon over the last few decades: a transfer of powers to a supranational entity (the EU) and a move towards regional autonomy. This paper aims to evaluate how policy competences are attributed to and exercised by the European, national and regional institutions. It develops a set of quantitative indicators analysing the legislative production of the EU, the Italian parliament and the Italian regions in various policy areas. The main findings indicate a certain substitutability between European and national legislation and that different levels of government share competences in a larger number of sectors than suggested by the economic theory.

African economic development in a comparative perspective

Conventional explanations of poor African economic performancegenerally fail to pay adequate attention to causal mechanismsof growth, decline and stagnation. Many African countries experiencedinvestment booms after independence but, in contrast to EastAsian newly industrialising economies, these were not sustainedowing to failure to establish a virtuous growth circle involvingcomplementary increases in savings and exports. Structural adjustmentprogrammes dismantled stat-mediated mechanisms of accumulationwithout putting viable alternatives in place, and failed totackle the structural constraints which impede productivitygrowth in agriculture. A new policy approach, drawing on theexperience of both post-colonial and adjustment periods, isnecessary.     

Regional economic growth disparities: A political economy perspective

Regional differences in economic growth have been observed within many countries. Our story emphasises three region-specific factors driving growth—capital, labour and political factors. Conditional on differences in production factor (i.e., labour and capital) variations across democratic states, what role do differences in underlying “political factors” across regions play in accounting for regional growth disparities? We build a political economy model of endogenous growth where regions have the same political institutions, but experience different (and estimable) distributions over voter political biases (i.e., our “political factors”). In our model, political factors affect regional productivity as a consequence of politico-economic equilibrium. We discipline our regional growth accounting exercises by calibrating/estimating each model to American state-level economic and political-survey data. We show that the capital factor is the predominant driving force behind growth in American states. Nevertheless, regional variations in distributions of voter's political biases also account a great deal for regional growth disparities. We also evaluate how much politics would have distorted agents' welfare and regional growth, were regional economies given the opportunity to live under an efficient social planner's allocation system; and, if agents were to live under the same democratic system but where all voters have equal voting influence.     

中国区域经济发展的经济学分析

1.生产力层次推移理论 生产力层次推移理论是国际上的一种区域经济理论,即无论在世界范围内还是一国范围内,客观上存在着经济技术上的不同层次。     

Population and economic growth: a simultaneous equation perspective

This article examines the relationship between Population Growth (PG) and Economic Growth (EG) in the framework of simultaneous structural equation models. Based on Lewbel (2012), the structural parameters can be estimated using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). Identification requires a heteroscedastic covariance restriction that appears in some models of endogeneity, measurement errors and panel data. This study obtains several findings. First, the current and lagged variables of PG negatively and positively affect EG in the short run. Second, PG does not significantly influence EG in the long run. Third, the reverse relations running from EG to PG are weak in both the short and long run, regardless of economic development conditions.     

The capital asset pricing model in economic perspective

The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is theoretically incomplete in its demand-side focus, risk-averse investors and internally inconsistent homogeneous beliefs; is not conclusively supported empirically; and yet it legitimizes a notion that investors can earn higher returns by bearing undiversifiable risk. Our article does not merely extend the CAPM with more realistic assumptions, it completes its original framework by including (1) risk-taking investors in the investor population, (2) investors who can have heterogeneous expectations or beliefs – an overlooked but required condition for the CAPM to be an internally consistent and meaningful model of competitive financial asset pricing under uncertainty and (3) a positive-sloped short-run supply curve based on a reasonable interpretation of the nature of financial asset trade. Upon a complete economic interpretation, it is shown that the equilibrium (systematic) risk-rate of return relationship depends on whose aggregate trading activity dominates, risk-averse or risk-taking investors’. There is no universal, or even general, positive relationship between systematic risk and rate of return. This has far-reaching implications for investors and investment advisors who serve them.     

The theoretical bases of economic policy: the Schumpeterian perspective

The central role of economic policy in an evolutionary environment is stressed. Based on a Schumpeterian view the theoretical foundations of such a policy are discussed. This investigation leads to the result that not general rules satisfying and maintaining equilibrium are required but a constant watchfulness, reaction, and, if possible, anticipation of what happens in the economy.Revised and extended version of a lecture given at the Universities of Augsburg and Munich in the spring of 1990. I want to thank Professor Karl W. Roskamp, for a critical reading of an earlier draft. My special thanks are due to my colleague Carl Simon, Professor of Mathematics and Economics at The University of Michigan, who helped me in an essential way with my understanding of what the latest developments in the analysis of dynamic systems are all about.     

Measuring the economic contribution of tourism to destinations within an input-output framework: some methodological issues

Portuguese Economic Journal - The input-output model is a traditional tool employed in the literature for measuring the contribution of an economic activity within a given territory. In the case of...