Jacques Maritain and human rights

Jacques Maritain’s concern and thoughts on human rights and natural law are analyzed and studies in the context of the humanist tradition of mankind. For this, St. Thomas Aquinas-J. Maritain types of law: 1) the natural law, 2) the people law, and 3) the positive law are discussed in relation to the three Maritain characteristics of the human being, i.e., wholeness, independence, and belonging to a society of human beings. From these considerations emerges the superadditive property of society, which is in complete agreement with Aristotle's principe that the whole is more than the addition of its parts.     

Understanding the culture of markets: A reflection

This essay examines Virgil Storr’s (2013) Understanding the Culture of Markets, particularly the relationship between cultures and constitutions and the particulars of the ideal-typical ‘spirit’ of capitalism. Culture cannot be viewed as a constitution, I argue, because of fundamental differences between the two types of guidance to conduct, both for the actors within them and the researchers studying them. I also consider possibly conflicting interpretations of the idea of the animating spirit(s) of a market in the context of Storr’s example of the economic culture of the Bahamas.     

自然保护地自然资源资产产权制度现状辨析

“建立以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系”是党的十九大所提出的国家公园体制建设的新方向。实现自然保护地的有效保护管理是其重要内容，关键在于通过改革形成科学、合理的自然资源资产产权制度，而厘清自然资源资产产权制度的现状则是进行改革的前提。首先，对现行法律进行系统梳理，明确法律所认定的自然保护地中的自然资源类型。其次，从自然资源的产权种类及所有权改变、用益物权流转三方面总结了自然保护地自然资源资产的产权制度现状。再者，从各类自然保护地申报设立的条件和环保督查中反映出来的问题两方面入手分析了自然保护地的自然资源保护管理现状，从国家公园体制试点采取的措施出发分析了目前的改革探索，并提炼出自然保护地自然资源资产产权制度存在的四大问题，即自然资源资产产权的界定和要求较局限、自然资源所有权行使人虚位、公权与私权的利益协调机制不健全、改革探索中物权途径面临制度障碍。最后，从自然资源资产产权制度设计的角度提出了改革的4个方向。     

Industry innovativeness,firm size,and entrepreneurship: Schumpeter Mark III?

Emphasizing the dynamics in economies and industries, Schumpeter points to entrepreneurs carrying out ‘new combinations’. His work, and in particular the Theory of Economic Development, is often interpreted as praising individual entrepreneurs setting up new firms to contribute to an industry’s innovativeness. This has come to be referred to as the Schumpeter Mark I perspective. Later, however, in his Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Schumpeter has rather suggested that large incumbents are best positioned to contribute to an industry’s innovativeness (Schumpeter Mark II). In this discussion, however, the possibly different effects of structural as opposed to dynamic industry competitiveness is often not taken into account. In addition, the contribution of new and small firms to industry innovativeness are often conflated. Using New Product Announcements as a measure of innovation, we find that industries dominated by small firms prove consistently and significantly more innovative than industries where large firms dominate. Taking account of industries’ structural and dynamic levels of competition, we find that high existing and increasing levels of new firms entering an industry, exercising what Schumpeter called the ‘entrepreneurial function’, actually decrease industry innovativeness. We conclude that the contribution of small firms in terms of industry innovativeness is different from that of large as well as new firms, suggesting a Schumpeter Mark III perspective.     

Evolutionary economics and the case for a constitutional libertarian paternalism—a comment on Martin Binder, “should evolutionary economists embrace libertarian paternalism?”

In his article “Should evolutionary economists embrace libertarian paternalism?”(Journal of Evolutionary Economics 24(3), 2014, 515–539) Martin Binder discusses the pros and cons of “libertarian paternalism” (LP) from an explicitly evolutionary viewpoint, concluding that as a general rule, evolutionary economists should be cautious regarding this new and highly influential policy approach. In this comment I argue that Binder starts from an incomplete model of the institutional status quo and neglects an obvious alternative to the standard variant of LP, namely, a constitutionally constrained LP. Most of Binder’s objections do not apply with equal force to such a refined variant of LP.     

Taking,giving, and impure altruism in dictator games

We show that, if giving is equivalent to not taking, impure altruism could account for List’s (in Journal of Political Economy 115(3):482–493, 2007) finding that the payoff to recipients in a dictator game decreases when the dictator has the option to take. We examine behavior in dictator games with different taking options but equivalent final payoff possibilities. We find that recipients tend to earn more as the amount the dictator must take to achieve a given final payoff increases, a result consistent with the hypothesis that the cold prickle of taking is stronger than the warm glow of giving. We conclude that not taking is not equivalent to giving and agree with List (in Journal of Political Economy 115(3):482–493, 2007) that the current social preference models fail to rationalize the observed data.     

Rethinking the Foundation of the Original Institutional Economics Policy and Reform Program: Reactions to Thomas C. Leonard’s “Illiberal Reformers”

John R. Commons, among other original institutional economists, argued for the interests of the common people against the power of vested interests in politics and business. Against this backdrop, a new book by Thomas C. Leonard contends that, in fact, these same economists were actually “illiberal” and only promoted the interests of certain groups, such as Anglo-Saxon men, and were against the progression of minority populations, women, or the disabled. But Leonard’s argument that these economists were “illiberal,” and that their entire reform program related to the role of government in the economy and the creation of the administrative state, is essentially defunct. As Leonard (2016 Leonard, Thomas C. Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics and American Economics in the Progressive Era. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016. [Google Scholar], xiv) writes in the prologue, “expertise in the service of the administrative state, what progressives call social control, has survived the discredited notions once used to uphold it.” We respond to Leonard’s book by offering a direct critique of the arguments he makes. We argue that Leonard — at least partially — takes the founders’ view on these issues out of context, and that even where some of their views would be refused by today’s institutional economists, it does not mean that the entire reform project is rejected.     

A note concerning the proposed emasculation of the legal services corporation

In its frenzy to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society programs of past progressive administrations, the Reagan administration has taken a special interest in the emasculation of the Legal Services Corporation. This should come as no great surprise.Then Governor Reagan and thethen Legal Services Program became immediate adversaries at the time of the program's inception. The purpose in this paper is to examine the pending emasculation of this instrumentality of legal reform in the context of structural changes elsewhere in the American legal profession.     

Supermarket responses to Wal-Mart Supercenter expansion: a structural approach

The impact of Wal-Mart in lowering incumbents’ retail prices has been well documented by previous studies using reduced form models. This article uses a structural model to examine the pricing behavior and promotion responses of incumbent supermarkets to a rapid expansion of Wal-Mart Supercenters (WMS) using the Dallas–Fort Worth milk market as a case study. Empirical results verify that WMS expansion disciplines incumbent supermarkets by decreasing oligopoly power and numbing consumer responsiveness to promotion. In addition, WMS expansion lures away price-sensitive consumers, leaving incumbent supermarkets to face more price-inelastic but lower demands for milk.     

Time-Related Characteristics of Tenancy Contracts and Investment in Soil Conservation Practices

We present a dynamic model that shows how different types of land tenancy contracts and their time-related characteristics influence farmers’ decisions to invest in soil improvement and productive inputs. Using recent household and plot-level data from the Brong-Ahafo Region in Ghana, we analyze the impact of land tenancy arrangements, contract duration, as well as the number of times the contract has been renewed in the past on the intensity of investment in soil conservation measures such as ditches and farmyard manure and productive inputs like chemical fertilizer. The empirical findings generally confirm the predictions of the theoretical model and reveal that the intensity of investments on different plots cultivated by a given farmer varies significantly with the type of tenancy arrangement on the plot as well as the time-related characteristics of the contract.     

Marx,primitive accumulation,and the impact of Sismondi

Abstract

This article re-examines Marx’s well-known concept of “primitive accumulation” in relation to Marx’s successive attempts to give a historical explanation for the birth of “capitalism”. Marx formulated this concept for the first time in Value, Price, and Profit (1865), and extrapolated upon it further in the first edition of the first volume of Capital (1867). It signified an appreciable alteration to Marx’s original historical theory. Indeed, in his writings, preceding the publication of volume 1 of Capital, such as The Communist Manifesto or The German Ideology, Marx had presented a more straightforwardly linear conception of the evolution of human society, consisting of various stages, “capitalism” being the penultimate stage, and “communism”, the last. Within this framework, the most advanced nations, such as Great Britain and Germany, were assumed to be those closest to being on the pre-revolutionary cusp of realising socialism. However, from the publication of volume 1 of Capital onwards, Marx embraced a less deterministic conception of progress, focussing more than previously on economically backwards countries or societies “at the margins” (Anderson 2010 Anderson, Kevin D. 2010. Marx at the Margins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and envisaging for them possibilities for historical development that did not inevitably entail the sort of industrialisation that Great Britain had experienced. This was particularly true regarding Russia, where volume 1 of Capital was welcomed and discussed precisely in light of these questions, as has been underscored by many scholars, notably Shanin, Wada, White, and Stedman Jones.     

Signaling in social network and social capital formation

This paper presents a model of social capital and social network formation. The key interaction within the model is that whom an individual chooses to become friends with affects the value (social capital) of the friendship. In the model, how a player searches for and then forms friendships reveals how willing she is to engage in cooperation with a potential friend. Individuals observe their local network structure (friends and cliques) and the actions of players within these. Willingness to cooperate is private information and is captured by the discount factor of an individual. Cooperative types have high discount factors and can signal their type by forming a clique through befriending a friend of a friend. Uncooperative types do not form these kinds of friendships because of the local observability of their actions to all members of a clique. Thus, when a player meets someone with whom she shares a friend, her belief that the individual has a high discount factor is greater than the population average. In this sense, people “trust” each other more when they share a friend in common. Finally, I relate the primitives of the model to characteristics of the implied social network by nesting the sequential equilibrium in an algorithm of network formation proposed by Jackson and Rogers (Am Econ Rev 97(3):890–915, 2007). The model highlights a trade-off between maximizing the total amount of social capital in a society and distributing it equitably across individuals.     

The accuracy of OECD forecasts

This paper examines the accuracy and properties of forecasts by the OECD for 24 countries and 8 variables. First the forecasts made in December of yeart?1 for yeart are examined, with the largest errors being for investment, industrial production and foreign balance. Next the way forecasts are revised between December and July is considered. Systematic revisions occur for Iceland, Turkey and Luxembourg. Finally the accuracy of forecasts made before, during and after the 1979 oil price rises are compared, and no evidence of a worsening of accuracy is found.     

A test of the Wagner's hypothesis for the Fiji islands

In this article we examine Wagner's law for Fiji for the period 1970 to 2002. Using the Johansen (1988 Johansen, S. 1988. Statistical analysis of cointegrating vectors. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 12: 231–54. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) test for cointegration, we find one cointegration relationship between national output and government expenditure. Using five different long run estimators, we find robust results on the impact of national income on government expenditure. The elasticity ranges from 1.36 to 1.44, implying that a 1% increase in income leads to a 1.36–1.44% increase in government expenditure. Moreover, we find that in the long run national income Granger causes government expenditure. While these results are consistent with Wagner's law, we warn policy makers that because Fiji's total debt stands at around 69% of GDP, in future the bulk of expenditure will go towards debt financing at the expense of productive sectors.     

Survival of the hippest: life at the top of the hot 100

We analyse the survival characteristics of recordings that reached the number one spot on the US popular music charts over the period 1955 to 2003. Our results show that there has been a statistically significant change in the time spent at number one since ‘album cuts’ were included in the compilation of Billboard?'s Hot 100. Survival time is significantly improved if the recording is by a female solo artist, or if it is an instrumental tune. We also find a significant ‘Elvis effect’.

‘I’ll never be a saint, it's true. I’m too busy surviving!’ (Madonna, 1994 Madonna. 1994. “Survival”. In Bedtime Stories Album, Hollywood, CA: Warner Brothers Records.  [Google Scholar])     

Does Benford’s Law hold in economic research and forecasting?

First and higher order digits in data sets of natural and socio-economic processes often follow a distribution called Benford’s law. This phenomenon has been used in business and scientific applications, especially in fraud detection for financial data. In this paper, we analyse whether Benford’s law holds in economic research and forecasting. First, we examine the distribution of regression coefficients and standard errors in research papers, published in Empirica and Applied Economics Letters. Second, we analyse forecasts of GDP growth and CPI inflation in Germany, published in Consensus Forecasts. There are two main findings: The relative frequencies of the first and second digits in economic research are broadly consistent with Benford’s law. In sharp contrast, the second digits of Consensus Forecasts exhibit a massive excess of zeros and fives, raising doubts on their information content.     

On estimation of almost ideal demand system using moving blocks bootstrap and pairs bootstrap methods

This paper applies a bootstrap method to the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) proposed by Deaton and Muellbauer (Am Econ Rev 70:312–326, 1980), where the moving blocks bootstrap (MBB) and pairs bootstrap (PB) methods are adopted taking into account serially correlated error terms and limited dependent variables (note that the dependent variables in the AIDS model lie on the interval between zero and one). We aim to obtain the empirical distribution of the expenditure and price elasticities. Note that, the expenditure and price elasticities are obtained using the parameter estimates included in the AIDS model. In the past, a few studies report both the elasticity estimates and their standard errors obtained from the Delta method, but most of studies show only the elasticity estimates (i.e., statistical tests have not been done in most of the past studies). Applying MBB and PB methods to the AIDS model and using Japanese monthly household expenditure data from January, 1975 to December, 2012, we show in this paper that a few elasticities are statistically insignificant. We also compare the standard errors based on the bootstrap method with those based on the Delta method. We obtain the results that the differences between the Delta method and the bootstrap method are not negligible. In addition, the validity of the linear approximated AIDS (LA–AIDS) model which is commonly used in empirical studies is examined. In consequence, we find that the LA–AIDS model shows a poor performance, compared with the AIDS model, because the LA–AIDS model yields inconsistency on the elasticity estimates.     

Estimating leisure goods models on time series of cross sections

This paper analyses the joint modelling of labour supply and consumer expenditure in a utility maximizing framework. A recent demand system (AIDS) is augmented to include labour supply and incorporate time series/cross section wage rate variation and, then, estimated on pooled F.E.S. data [Family Expenditure Surveys]. A method of non linear FIML is applied. The paper questions the near unanimous ‘evidence’ on backward bending labour supply in previous studies and, using counter evidence, argues that such a bend could have been partly due to the restrictive utility forms usually employed. In addition, hypotheses relating to effects of price/wage movements on composition of ‘full income’ are tested, and the welfare implications of the estimated parameter estimates worked out.     

Do Balkan economies catch up with EU? New evidence from panel unit root analysis

This paper explores empirically the issue of income convergence for the Balkans over the period 1994–2011 and the investigation relies on income differentials from both the averages of the European Union’s-15 (EU-15) and the European Union’s-24 (EU-24) as well as within the Balkan group. The adopted methodology deploys the non stationary panel unit root framework to cope with the problem of limited sample providing more reliable insight and, in particular, the analysis uses the univariate and panel minimum Lagrange Multiplier (LM) unit root tests, suggested by Lee and Strazicich (2003, 2004) and Im et al. (2005), that accounts for one and two endogenously determined structural breaks. The overall evidence is in favor of catching up with the EU benchmark cases as well as in favor of convergence within the Balkan area. However, disparities for some countries are confirmed.     

Keynes vs. the Post Keynesians on the Principle of Effective Demand *

Abstract

The American Post Keynesians – those who attach importance to the capital ‘P’ and the absence of a hyphen between ‘post’ and ‘Keynesian’– claim to be Keynes' most literal interpreters or the ‘truest’ Keynesians (Holt et al. 1998 Holt, R. P.F., Rosser, J. B. Jr. and Wray, L. R. 1998. Paul Davidson's Economics Jerome Levy Economics Institute Working Paper no. 251. Blithewood, NY (www.levy.org) [Google Scholar]: 17). This paper compares the Post Keynesian interpretation of the Principle of Effective Demand, i.e. the D/Z-model, with Keynes' own presentation in chapter 3 of the General Theory– and finds substantial differences. A re-interpretation of the D/Z-model is offered that would bring it into line with chapter 3.