Economists as subjects: Toward a psychology of economists

Economists can reflect on their own field of research and themselves in a number of ways. The philosophy of science has long been the dominant way to reflect on the work of scientists, to be joined in more recent times by both the sociology of science and the rhetoric of science. In this paper I do not argue that these approaches are wrong, but I do argue that they should be complemented with a study of the individual scientist. A psychology of economists, in other words, is called for. One important theory in recent psychological literature (social learning/cognitive theory) is introduced as an instance to indicate what kind of suggestions concerning the reflective position of individual scientists might be derived. It would be preferable from this perspective that scientists set high standards for themselves, have an open mind to what happens in different disciplines, and set high standards by which to judge others. Then follows a discussion where some potential objections to the approach in general, or to the specific psychological theory in particular, are refuted.     

Economists as subjects: Toward a psychology of economists

Economists can reflect on their own field of research and themselves in a number of ways. The philosophy of science has long been the dominant way to reflect on the work of scientists, to be joined in more recent times by both the sociology of science and the rhetoric of science. In this paper I do not argue that these approaches are wrong, but I do argue that they should be complemented with a study of the individual scientist. A psychology of economists, in other words, is called for. One important theory in recent psychological literature (social learning/cognitive theory) is introduced as an instance to indicate what kind of suggestions concerning the reflective position of individual scientists might be derived. It would be preferable from this perspective that scientists set high standards for themselves, have an open mind to what happens in different disciplines, and set high standards by which to judge others. Then follows a discussion where some potential objections to the approach in general, or to the specific psychological theory in particular, are refuted.     

政策组合能否促进民参军企业协同创新——基于演化博弈的数值仿真视角

军民科技协同创新是构建军民一体化国家战略体系和能力的重要内容,营造良好的政策环境是推进军民科技协同创新的重要方式。以民参军企业、科研院所和政府为博弈主体构建三方博弈演化模型,通过系统分析政策支持对博弈主体策略选择的影响过程,利用Matlab数值仿真分析不同政策及政策组合支持对民参军企业与科研院所协同创新的影响。结果表明,政府对不同创新主体应采用不同组合政策支持,直接政策与间接政策对鼓励民参军企业开展协同创新更加有效,营造良好的创新环境有利于科研院所选择协同创新策略;政府需要采用合理的政策组合支持军民协同创新,中强度的直接与间接政策以及低强度的创新环境政策组合相较单一政策支持对民参军企业与科研院所协同创新更有效。     

中国科技评价研究演进脉络与特征——建国70年来相关研究文本分析

以2 698篇中国科技评价研究相关文献作为分析样本，运用共词聚类分析法和社会网络分析法，构建不同研究阶段高频关键词谱系图和共词网络，探究不同研究阶段主题内容和变化趋势。总体而言，研究主题共性与差异并存；评价原则与导向发生了重大转折；评价主体较为单一；评价对象范围不断扩大，分类评价成为新趋势；评价方法日趋多样化；研究关联度和相互渗透性有所增强。在此基础之上，研究发现既有文献在科技评价主体、客体、指标体系构建、评价方法等层面尚存在一些局限性和空白。     

Tracing interdisciplinarity of converging technologies at the nanoscale: A critical analysis of recent nanotechnosciences

Besides 'innovation', 'interdisciplinarity' is one of the most popular buzzwords frequently used in present-day science policy. At the same time, however, 'interdisciplinarity' is vague and misty; the term is not well defined. In order to clarify its meaning, I classify different types of interdisciplinarity. By making use of analytical classification I show that a specific type of interdisciplinarity is involved in the nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science (NBIC) scenario on converging technologies (Roco-Bainbridge report of the US National Science Foundation). I argue that the NBIC scenario is based on a 'technoobject-oriented interdisciplinarity'. This type of interdisciplinarity will be contrasted with the research program of the European Union on converging technologies (CTEKS) that widens the circles of convergence and aims to promote a different ('problem-oriented') type of interdisciplinarity.     

企业异质性与加计扣除政策研发激励：来自中国高新技术企业的实证

基于2012-2015年全国高新技术企业税收数据，筛选仅享受研发加计扣除政策的高新技术企业微观数据，利用面板回归模型，检验研发加计扣除对研发投入的异质性激励效应。结果表明：加计扣除政策能够刺激企业进行研发投入。从地区看，加计扣除政策激励效应具有地域差异；从经济属性看，加计扣除政策对外资、民营企业研发激励效应较强；从行业看，加计扣除政策对科学技术行业激励效应最大。     

世界科学技术活动中心转移规律再分析

通过对1901-2016年诺贝尔科学奖获得者国籍的计量分析,基本可以看出世界科学技术活动中心由德国转移到美国的大致状况以及当前世界科学技术研究发展态势：欧美国家是世界科学技术研究的重心,而美国是世界科学技术活动的中心,但是,这个地位并不是十分稳固的。随着各国对科学技术研究事业的重视,世界科学技术研究朝着多极化方向发展已初露端倪,这对于我国科技体制改革与科技政策调整具有重要启示意义。     

科技推广服务业对区域创新效率的影响——以东部三大城市群为例

基于2010—2019年我国东部三大城市群面板数据,运用面板回归、中介效应与门槛模型考察科技推广服务业对东部三大城市群创新效率的影响及作用机制。研究结果表明：东部三大城市群创新效率呈逐年提升态势,且京津冀城市群创新效率与长三角、珠三角城市群存在较大差距;科技推广服务业不仅有助于直接提升东部三大城市群创新效率,还能通过促进产业结构升级间接驱动区域创新效率提升;科技推广服务业对东部三大城市群创新效率的影响存在区域异质性;科技推广服务业对拥有不同创新能力或处于不同经济发展阶段的城市具有异质性作用。     

经济现象的复杂性与经济学数量化的认识论局限

科学本身具有主观性和不确定性,因而数学在科学研究中本身就存在一定的限度;同时,由于社会科学所面对的对象更不确定、所获的认知更为主观,因而数学在经济学的应用存在更大的局限.一方面,经济学中预设前提的设定不同于自然科学,它存在是否合理或者存在抽象的限度问题,并体现了主体的认知和理想:另一方面,经济学中逻辑推理不同于自然科学,它不是局限于严格的数理关系上,而是关涉到人的行为逻辑.但是,现代主流经济学却主要集中于第二阶段的演绎分析,并把经济学的逻辑等同于敖理逻辑,从而导致了数学在经济学中的泛滥;正因如此,我们必须重新审视经济学的研究方法,审视数学在经济学中的应用限度.     

Spillover effects and the science base of innovations reconsidered: an empirical approach

When quantifying spillover effects among technologies and between science and technology one faces the problem that clear-cut measurement procedures are difficult to define and to validate. The well-known approach by indexing certain outputs (patent documents) grasps only parts of the complex and feedback innovation-oriented processes. However, recently, new promising lines of research for understanding technological externalities have been embarked upon. New measurements of the science-technology-innovation interface are presented from three different aspects. First, the overall properties of technological spillover and, second, of science involvement in innovations are presented on a world-wide scale. The third main section of the results provides a panoramic view of scientific involvement in technology in terms of a country comparison. The contribution attempts to add quantitative evidence for an evolutionary understanding of the externalities between public science, latent public technology and private innovation.     

CAPITAL MAINTENANCE AND THE MEASUREMENT OF CORPORATE INCOME

This paper considers the impact upon measures of corporate income of a number of concepts of the maintenance of the existing capital of an incorporated trading enterprise. A main distinction is drawn between the maintenance of all the assets employed in trading and the maintenance of the net assets attributable to the owners. Measures of income and of rates of return to capital depend on whether all the assets, or only the net assets attributable to the owners, are being considered. There are three sections of the paper after an introduction. Section 2 is conceptual and section 3 illustrates the concepts, with figures for U.K. manufacturing industry in 1975 to 1977, in which the figures in company balance sheets are adjusted from book values to estimated replacement cost, and estimates are made of depreciation at replacement cost and of the consumption of stock (inventories) at replacement cost. These figures follow the concept of maintaining physical assests. I have added calculations which extend the concept of capital maintenance to all operating or trading assets, including monetary working capital; and which then calculate the amounts necessary to maintain the assets attributable to the owners of a business. The three main methods are: to apply a gearing adjustment to abate the additional capital maintenance provisions for operating assets (which are realized revaluations by reference to their original cost); to take into income additionally the geared (or debt financed) portion of unrealized revaluations; and-what is conceptually much the same thing-to count as the charge for debt only real interest (which may be negative) rather than nominal interest. Section 4 considers some problems of aggregation, particularly the derivation of aggregates for the sectors of the economy, when based on figures for individual enterprises using the various approaches to capital maintenance.     

Herd behaviour as an incentive scheme

Summary. We consider a set-up in which firms sequentially adopt a technology. The technology is a public good. Late movers, upon observing the early movers adopting the old technology, (partly) infer that the new technology does not exist. This hampers their incentives to innovate. Early movers anticipate this and rather exert effort to try to invent the new technology. Hence, in our model herding reduces free-rider problems and may - in the presence of switching costs - even increase efficiency.Received: 20 June 2002, Revised: 26 May 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: D83, D82, D62.I am very grateful to my thesis advisor Mathias Dewatripont for his many helpful suggestions. I thank seminar participants at ECARES, DELTA, IAE, GREMAQ and WZB. I also benefited from comments made by A.Banerjee, P.Bolton, M.Castanheira, J.Gyntelberg, P.Legros, G.Roland, M.Ruckes, X.Vives, J.Zwiebel and an anonymous referee. I gratefully acknowledge financial assistance provided by the European Commission through its TMR program (Contract number FMRX-CT98-0203) and from the Inter University Poles of Attraction Program (Contract PAI P4/28). Finally, I am also very grateful to M.Castanheira for his many encouragements at the start of my research work.     

Computationally-feasible truthful auctions for convex bundles

In many economic settings, like spectrum and real-estate auctions, geometric figures on the plane are for sale. Each bidder bids for his desired figure, and the auctioneer has to choose a set of disjoint figures that maximizes the social welfare. In this work, we design mechanisms that are both incentive compatible and computationally feasible for these environments. Since the underlying algorithmic problem is computationally hard, these mechanisms cannot always achieve the optimal welfare; Nevertheless, they do guarantee a fraction of the optimal solution. We differentiate between two information models—when both the desired figures and their values are unknown to the auctioneer or when only the agents' values are private data. We guarantee different fractions of the optimal welfare for each information model and for different families of figures (e.g., arbitrary convex figures or axis-aligned rectangles). We suggest using a measure on the geometric diversity of the figures for expressing the quality of the approximations that our mechanisms provide.     

Research Strategies in Science-based Start-ups: Effects on Performance in Danish and Swedish Biotechnology

Although biotech start-ups fail or succeed based on their research, few attempts have been made to examine if and how they strategise in this core activity. Using a unique comprehensive dataset on Danish and Swedish biotech start-ups in drug discovery this paper adopts a Simonean approach to analysing the research strategies of small dedicated biotech firms (DBFs), focusing on three interrelated issues: (i) characterising the problem architectures addressed by different types of DBFs; (ii) testing and confirming that DBFs form requisite research strategies, by which we refer to problem-solving approaches developed as congruent responses to problem architectures; and (iii) testing and confirming that financial valuation of firms is driven by achievements conforming to requisite research strategies. These strategies, in turn, require a careful combination of multiple dimensions of research. The findings demonstrate that Schoonhoven's argument that 'strategy matters' is valid not only for the larger high-tech firms covered by her study, but also for small research-based start-ups operating at the very well-springs of knowledge where science directly interacts with technologies. Although more research is needed along these lines, these findings offer new implications for the understanding, management and financing of these firms.     

关于江西利用外资的思考

改革开放以来,江西在吸引和利用外资方面所取得的重大成就,尤其是近年外商直接投资实现持续、平稳增长,每一个江西人都为之兴奋。然而,在取得巨大成就的同时,也存在不少问题。以鲜活的数据为依据,着重从对比分析的角度探讨其问题,分析其成因,从而提出一些切实可行的政策、策略。     

找到微观基础——公共选择理论的中国困境

为什么公共选择理论在中国只有大量的理论介绍,却缺乏真正的经验性研究呢？本文从公共选择理论在中国经验研究的相对死亡谈起,分析了中国政治学研究者在应用广义的理性选择理论上所遭遇的尴尬处境,强调其病根在于未能理解“微观基础”的方法论意义。在对“微观基础”进行界定之后,本文梳理了“经济人假设”的中国式争论,指出导致研究者拒斥微观基础的两个历史包袱：一是整体主义方法论的路径依赖对思维构成了强大的束缚;二是研究者们大都善于单纯的归纳逻辑,而不习惯需要综合演绎与归纳方法的假设检验逻辑。然后本文进一步指出了微观基础背后潜藏的三点病因：意识形态的干扰、政治正确的自我审查、政治科学的整体落后。最后,本文粗略展望了相关领域潜在的研究方向,并提出了三点有限的建议。     

Creating legitimacy in global private governance: The case of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

This article suggests that understanding legitimization processes of private governance initiatives requires a multi-dimensional approach. This suggestion has been operationalized in three aspects that can be used to better understand such processes: legality, moral justifications, and consent/acceptance. These aspects are based on different theoretical traditions and are applied in an analysis of the process of creating legitimacy of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This empirical research reveals the characteristics of the legitimization process of the RSPO and shows the value of a multi-dimensional approach. The three perspectives complement each other and deepen our insights in legitimization processes by revealing tensions and trade-offs in the different ways in which non-state market driven governance arrangements can create legitimacy.     

Methodological individualism: True and false

I apply Hayek’s distinction between ‘true’ and ‘false’ individualism to methodological individualism. Hayek traced ‘false’ individualism to Cartesian rationalism; Hayek’s rejection of Mises’ praxeology was due to its rationalist underpinnings. The first half of this paper identifies praxeology’s foundational philosophical concepts, emphasising their Cartesian nature, and illustrates how together they constitute a case for methodological individualism: intuition and deduction; reductionism; judgement; dualism. In the second half of this paper, I draw upon philosophy and cognitive science to articulate ‘Hayekian’ (N.B. not Hayek’s) alternatives to these Cartesian concepts. The Hayekian alternative allows a ‘gestalt switch’ from the individual- to the system-level perspective. I therefore suggest that methodological individualism is both true and false: true, in that economic phenomena are grounded in the actions of individuals; false, in that certain problems might be reconceived/discovered at the system-level. I finish by suggesting three avenues of research at system-level: optimisation; stigmergy; computational complexity.     

科学商业情境下科学家创业过程研究——基于扎根理论的质性规律探讨

当前,科学家创业成为理论和实践关注热点。聚焦科学商业情境下科学家创业过程规律,通过扎根理论分析构建科学家创业过程模型。该模型将科学家创业过程划分为创业基础、组织生成和成长绩效3个阶段,包括科技成果、创业意愿、制度环境、技术禀赋、创业素质、价值放大、创业绩效7个关键要素。结果发现,科学家创业组织生成涉及4个核心环节：机会识别与获取、创新活动、公司治理、市场开拓;科学家创业对技术创新具有强烈偏好,科学家创业资源禀赋优势强于一般创业;科学家创业过程伴随着科技成果产业化同步进行,创业组织生成和现代公司治理是科学家创业成功的关键,其中发展策略和资本融资起到关键作用。