Comments on John Roemer’s first welfare theorem of market socialism*

Abstract

In this comment on John Roemer’s “theory of cooperation with an application to market socialism”, I extend Roemer’s first welfare theorem of market socialism in two directions. First, I prove a version of the theorem that deals with non-linear taxation. Second, I offer a connection between the theorem and welfare equality. I then argue that the models and questions that Roemer contribute to bring to welfare economics raise questions that go much beyond the research on socialist ethics. In particular, I introduce a positive model of moral behavior that yields different predictions from Roemer’s Kantian model. I conclude that individual morality should become a central concern of welfare economists.     

Robust political economy

This paper introduces the idea of “robust political economy.” In the context of political economic systems, “robustness” refers to a political economic arrangement's ability to produce social welfare-enhancing outcomes in the face of deviations from ideal assumptions about individuals' motivations and information. Since standard assumptions about complete and perfect information, instantaneous market adjustment, perfect agent rationality, political actor benevolence, etc., rarely, if ever actually hold, a realistic picture and accurate assessment of the desirability of alternative political economic systems requires an analysis of alternative systems' robustness. The Mises-Hayek critique of socialism forms the foundation for investigations of robustness that relax ideal informational assumptions. The Buchanan-Tullock public choice approach complements this foundation in forming the basis for investigations of robustness that relax ideal motivational assumptions. JEL Code B53, P16, P26     

Why Austrian socialism?

Socialist objectives can be achieved in a market context with the rule of law if market socialism were to take the form of competitive worker-owned and self-managed enterprises, supplemented by universally available welfare redistributions, which could include a basic income, universal capital grants, or education and health insurance vouchers.      

Self-managed market socialism with “free mobility of labor”

In 1934 Breit and Lange presented a model of a socialist market economy in which workers had a right to be employed by self-managed firms. The interest of this model lies in particular in the fact that it eliminates two possible flaws of Myrian-type socialism: differentiation in per capita earnings across self-managed firms and involuntary unemployment. Analogous features can be found in Herztka's 19th-century model of market socialism. The purpose of the paper is to analyze an economy with free mobility of labor (Herztka's expression for the right of workers to employment) both from the point of view of X- as well as of allocative efficiency. Finally the possibility of a partial application of the right to employment principle in a capitalist economy is considered.     

The economic contributions of Paul Sweezy

This paper offers a critical appraisal of the work of Paul M. Sweezy (1910-2004). After a brief biographical summary, the following sections deal with Sweezy's early writings; his book, The Theory of Capitalist Development; his thinking on socialism; his contribution as an historian of events and of ideas; the Monopoly Capital, co-authored with Paul Baran; and Sweezy's work after the death of Baran in 1964. The paper concludes with an assessment of Sweezy's significance, and a comprehensive bibliography of his writings.     

The reception of Marx in France: La Revue Socialiste (1885–1914)

Abstract

The aim of the present article is to provide context to reading, interpreting and using Marx from 1885 to 1914 in La Revue Socialiste, the main journal of socialist movements in France. The article first states some quantitative elements on the absolute and relative importance of the references to Marx and the words “Marxism” and “Marxist” in the journal. The central editorial line of the review – to restore a French descent to socialism and to try to found a socialism not exclusively “Marxist” – is then analysed. This line is maintained over time, with variations, in different national and international contexts. Finally, three key economic themes defining the relation to Marx in the journal are presented. Based on this quantitative and qualitative analysis, a brief conclusion stresses some of the most specific aspects of the socialist reception of Marx in France before WWI.     

改革进程中的“社会主义”——经济体制改革方向系统辨析

关于改革方向的误导性观点流传广泛。正确把握经济体制改革的社会主义方向,必须澄清与深化对以所有制为核心的一系列重大问题的认识。社会主义市场经济不能以现代法治市场经济取代;马克思主义的社会主义以公有制为基本特征,社会主义本质作为社会主义制度的本质,不是用来回答什么是社会主义问题的;判断一种经济形式是否为社会主义公有制的标准在于财产权利的等同性,即劳动者共同所有、共同劳动、共同管理和按劳分配。     

Economic modeling to evaluate the impact of chronic myeloid leukemia therapy management on the oncology care model in the US

Abstract

Objective: To develop an economic model to evaluate changes in healthcare costs driven by restricting usage of branded tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) through substitution with generic imatinib among chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients in a typical Oncology Care Model (OCM) practice, and examine the impact on Performance-Based Payment (PBP) eligibility.

Methods: An Excel-based economic model of an OCM practice with 1,000 cancer patients during a 6-month episode of care was developed. Cancer types and proportions of patients treated in the practice were estimated from an OCM report. All-cause healthcare costs were obtained from published literature. It was assumed that if a practice restricts usage of branded TKIs for newly-diagnosed CML patients, 80% of the market share of branded imatinib and 50% of the market shares of 2^nd-gen TKIs would shift to generic imatinib. Among established TKI-treated patients, it was assumed that 80% of the market share of branded imatinib and no patients treated with 2^nd-gen TKIs would shift to the generic.

Results: Four CML patients were estimated for a 1,000-cancer patient OCM practice with a total baseline healthcare cost of $51,345,812 during a 6-month episode. If the practice restricts usage of branded TKIs, the shift from 2^nd-gen TKIs to generic imatinib would reduce costs by $12,970, while shifting from branded to generic imatinib lowers costs by $25,250 during a 6-month episode. Minimum reductions of $3,013,832 in a one-sided risk model and $2,372,010 in a two-sided risk model are required for PBP eligibility; the shift from 2^nd-gen TKIs to generic imatinib would account for 0.4% and 0.5% of the savings required for a PBP, respectively.

Conclusions: This analysis indicates that the potential cost reduction associated with restricting branded TKI usage among CML patients in an OCM setting will represent only a small proportion of the cost reduction needed for PBP eligibility.     

农民合作经济组织与和谐农村的构建

建设社会主义和谐社会,必须要有农村社会的和谐。解决千家万户的农民个体经营与千变万化的大市场的矛盾,激活农村经济,构建社会主义新农村,是需要深入研究和探讨的重大课题。新型农民合作经济组织的发展,是着眼于农村内部制度创新、实现小农户和大市场对接的有效途径,这对建设和谐的社会主义新农村有着重大而深远的影响。     

Budget impact analysis of long acting injection for schizophrenia in Japan

Abstract

Aims: To estimate the budgetary impact of providing additional reimbursement for long acting injections for schizophrenia patients in psychiatric hospital settings in Japan to improve patient outcomes in schizophrenia.

Methods: Budget impact analysis of change in reimbursement policy using a prevalence-based model over a five-year time horizon. The results are reported as net change in expenditure and consequent cost/savings in Japanese yen at the time of analysis.

Results: The budget impact analysis shows that an increase in reimbursement for LAIs could lead to cumulative savings of an estimated 36.6 billion JPY over five years. These savings result from a decrease in hospitalization costs and an increased usage of LAI (assumed to be 10%). Based on the sensitivity analysis, the saving estimates are most sensitive to change in market share of generic and branded oral antipsychotics.

Limitations: Historical data were used to estimate the future costs of drug and hospitalization; however, it is not the best predictor of future, hence a source of potential bias. A good level of treatment adherence with oral antipsychotics was assumed, which is generally not the case; therefore, we might have overestimated the effectiveness of oral atypical antipsychotics. Additionally, the drug cost due to reimbursement might have also been overestimated because in clinical setting, the increase of LAI use may not have reached 10% of the market share. Lastly, patients’ behavior was derived from models, which may have loosely approximated the reality.

Conclusions: An additional reimbursement for the use of LAI in schizophrenia patients is likely to be cost neutral/cost saving and should be considered as a policy option to improve patient outcomes and budget sustainability.     

Post-Hayekian socialism a la Burczak: Observations

Burczak (Socialism after Hayek, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006) presents a proposed form of stakeholder socialism to overcome the critique by Hayek of Marxist socialist systems. This involves financing the beginning of worker-owned and managed cooperatives through a wealth tax, with a generous social safety net, within a market economy in a democratic political system with civil liberties. While such a system may overcome worker alienation, avoid many of the informational and incentive-based inefficiencies identified by Hayek, and have some special efficiencies of its own, it will likely suffer from the financing problems most cooperatives face within predominantly market capitalist economies as they try to grow larger. The most likely location for an effort at such a system might be in a smaller country that has had some experience with workers’ management, such as the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia.      

Two-way relationship between innovation and market structure: evidence from Indian high and medium technology firms

ABSTRACT

This study analyses a two-way relationship between innovation and market structure in Indian high and medium technology firms. We perform an empirical analysis based on a simultaneous equation model on data for 991 high and medium technology firms during 2000–2015. Patent applications and patent grants capture innovation activity of the firms. We find that the market structure has an insignificant impact on innovation. A separate analysis of neck-and-neck firms also suggests that market structure has no impact on innovation. On the other hand, patenting has a positive and significant impact on market structure in both high and medium technology firms. The study concludes that in-house technology creation is a vital source of market dominance in Indian high and medium technology firms.     

Does the road to serfdom lead to the Servile State?

Hilaire Belloc's The Servile State is often seen as an antisocialist tract arguing that “socialism is slavery.” It is typically assumed that an appreciation and defense of free market capitalism, as well as a general dislike of government intervention must motivate the its thesis. Nevertheless The Servile State is an argument against what Belloc saw as unbridled capitalism not collectivism. Belloc defines capitalism to mean a state in which there is a skewed distribution of wealth in society where the majority of people are dispossessed, proletariat, and a minority makes up the capitalist, property owning class. For Belloc capitalism is an inherently unstable system and servile measures arise to ameliorate insecurity and instability.     

论市场经济与社会主义的全方位结合

改革开放的实践证明，市场经济与社会主义能够全方位结合在一起，也必须全方位结合在一起。只有全方位结合在一起，才能充分体现社会主义的本质，进一步完善社会主义市场经济，更有效地实现社会全面发展和进步。中国在世界上首先成功地走出一条把社会主义与市场经济全方位结合在一起的有中国特色社会主义的道路，这在中国和世界都具有重大而深远的意义。     

Economic Calculation: Private Property or Several Control?

Abstract

As the centenary of the 1917 Russian revolution approaches, it is worth reviewing the past 100 years’ discussion amongst economists on the possibility—or otherwise—of economic planning under socialism. The socialist calculation debate is of fundamental importance, not merely as a specialist application of economic ideas, but as an investigation of the foundations of economic activity. Every economic action is premised upon calculation, every choice depends upon an assessment of the costs and benefits of each alternative between which the agent must choose. The view of that choice and its attendant calculation is constitutive of the schools of thought—Marxian, neoclassical and Austrian—which have contributed to the debate. An understanding of the calculation debate is therefore required to understand how these paradigms stand in relation to each other. This article addresses one aspect of that debate—the claim by Austrian economists that socialism is impossible because the absence of private property in the means of production precludes economic calculation. The article suggests that several control rather than private property is required for economic calculation, and that several control is consistent with public ownership of the means of production. The Austrian argument on this point, therefore, is without force.     

Estimated annual and lifetime labor productivity in the United States, 2016: implications for economic evaluations

Abstract

Background: Human-capital based lifetime productivity estimates are frequently used in cost-of-illness (COI) analyses and, less commonly, in cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs). Previous US estimates assumed that labor productivity and real earnings both grow by 1% per year.

Objectives: This study presents estimates of annual and lifetime productivity for 2016 using data from the American Community Survey, the American Time Use Survey, and the Current Population Survey, and with varying assumptions about real earnings growth.

Methods: The sum of market productivity (gross annual personal labor earnings adjusted for employer-paid benefits) and the imputed value of non-market time spent in household, caring, and volunteer services was estimated. The present value of lifetime productivity at various ages was calculated for synthetic cohorts using annual productivity estimates, life tables, discount rates, and assumptions about future earnings growth rates.

Results: Mean annual productivity was $57,324 for US adults in 2016, including $36,935 in market and $20,389 in non-market productivity. Lifetime productivity at birth, using a 3% discount rate, is roughly $1.5 million if earnings grow by 1% per year and $1.2 million if future earnings growth averages 0.5% per year.

Conclusions: Inclusion of avoidable productivity losses in societal-perspective CEAs of health interventions is recommended in new US cost-effectiveness guidelines. However, estimates vary depending on whether analysts choose to estimate total productivity or just market productivity, and on assumptions made about growth in future productivity and earnings.     

A Dynamic Gender Analysis of Spain's Pension Reforms of 2011

Abstract

Gender differences in the labor market have been widely studied and discussed in terms of both research and public policy. One of the contributions of feminist economics has been to analyze and demonstrate links between gendered labor market experience and retirement incomes. This paper presents a methodology to study the dynamics of gender differences among retirees in Spain. The study provides a way to predict the effects of government policies proposed in 2011 that change the institutional framework of social security systems in an effort to address the fiscal challenges of an aging population.     

Psychology,social evolution and liberalism: a Hayekian trinity

Abstract

The work of Friedrich Hayek describes an extensive political economy, with explicit consideration of the psychological limits to human understanding, the market as a mechanism of information gathering and social coordination, and the relationship between market processes and the free society, where moral and political issues are relevant within a framework of continuous adaptation. Although the survival characteristics of social institutions largely defy rational enquiry, political liberalism secures the diversity that is necessary for evolutionary social adaptation.