A Multi-Layer System and Its Features: Reconceptualizing the Monetary Regime of Late Qing and Modern China

This essay aims to reconceptualize the monetary regime of late Qing and modern China as a multilayer system of currencies and examine the features and logics of its operation from the 16th century to early 20th century. We argue that this system consists of a variety of silver and copper currencies, each occupying a particular layer in the structure and each satisfying a specific market demand. Analyzing the production and circulation of copper and silver currencies, we first trace their evolution from the Qing to the Republican era and demonstrate the multi-layer currency structure persisted in China across the modernizing changes that took place at the end of the 19th century. Second, using data drawn from gazetteers, this essay adopts a quantitative approach to empirically examine the mechanism and speed of interactions between the different layers of the monetary market and reveal the operational mechanism of the multi-layer system. We suggest that this multi-layer system, while bringing some efficiency loss, also constituted an effective institutional arrangement that helped to ensure the stability of the Chinese economy in tumultuous times.     

IMPACT OF JOINING THE WTO ON CHINA's ECONOMIC, LEGAL AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract.  This essay applies a historical–institutional approach to assess the impact of WTO membership on China's economic, legal and political institutions. In each case historical and institutional trends are described, and the effects of WTO membership on these trends are examined. The topics include changes in economic structure and the rate of growth of GDP, formal legal institutions and the legal behavior of the Chinese people, and the forces contributing to the development of democratic political institutions in China.     

Bringing institutions into evolutionary growth theory

Classical economics was both evolutionary and institutional. With the rise of neoclassical economics, both the evolutionary and the institutional aspects were squeezed out of main line economic theory. The last quarter century has seen a rebirth of both traditions, but as minority intellectual positions, and to a considerable extent separate ones. This essay argues the need for a rejoining of evolutionary and institutional economics, and suggests a way to bring the two strands together in a coherent way.     

The Introduction of Automatic Switching into the Bell System: Market versus Institutional Influences

The use of height data to measure living standards is now a well-established method in the economic literature. While much is known about nineteenth century Southern black legal and material conditions, less is known about how their nineteenth century biological conditions were related to institutional change and the physical environment. Average Southern black statures ironically increased during the antebellum period and declined — at least temporarily - after emancipation. On the other hand, average Southern white statures declined throughout the nineteenth century. It is geography and direct sunlight (insolation) that present an additional attribute of nineteenth century black and white stature, and greater insolation is documented here to be associated with taller black and white statures.     

经济学视角下的制度变迁:内生性、驻存与演进

制度变迁的效率假说隐含地将经济体简约为一个绝对理性的最大化行为者,这种做法存在缺陷。就长期而言,制度变迁的本质是内生的,但也受到外部冲击的影响。制度演进过程既体现出路径依赖的特征,又不乏偶然性和机遇。经济因素或政治因素都可能导致内卷化,即长期陷入某种低效率或无效的制度安排。有效制度的演进可以通过多种途径而实现:它往往得益于一些偶然事件的影响或冲击,但也可能因经济行为者如利益集团的推动而出现。     

Thorstein Veblen's Darwinian framework and gene-culture coevolution theory

At the turn of the previous century, Thorstein Veblen used Darwinian evolutionary principles to explain the macro-historical evolution of human societies, as well as the institutional structure of the modern pecuniary culture. Even if Veblen had a strong intuitive grasp of the evolutionary forces operating in society, he was not always clear and explicit in developing his ideas towards a full-fledged, consistent evolutionary social theory. This paper argues that a relatively recent theoretical approach, gene-culture coevolution theory, has the conceptual apparatus to remedy this problem and thus make Veblen's ideas an important part of contemporary evolutionary thinking in social theory.     

Schumpeter and the `Schmollerprogramm': integrating theory and history in the analysis of economic development

This essay addresses the historical and institutional aspects of Schumpeter's thought. It suggests that Schumpeter prepared a pluralist research agenda, formulated in accordance with the conceptual perspective of the German Historical School, as presented by major scholars such as Schmoller, Sombart, Spiethoff and Max Weber. Schumpeter's notion of development, with its emphasis on the correspondence of economic and socio-cultural evolution, is therefore to be viewed in the context of the comprehensive Schmollerian approach. Moreover the ethical-evolutionary components of Schmoller's ideas point at the vital role of the German Historical School in the elaboration of a modern evolutionary economics in Schumpeterian terms. The essay concludes that the Schmollerprogramm is going to inspire further developments in Schumpeterian economics, as the integration of theory and history continuously marks the research agenda of evolutionary approaches to economic development.     

Economic and legal institutionalism: What can they learn from each other?

The main argument of this paper is that both constitutional political economy and institutional legal theory can benefit from adopting certain central notions from each other. On the one hand, the legal notion of validity can help to clarify certain obscurities concerning the mode of existence of institutions in constitutional political economy. On the other hand, the economic notion of voluntary choice can serve as a point of departure for institutional legal theory in developing substantive criteria for the evaluation of legal systems without appealing to natural law ideas. The author wishes to thank Bob Lieshout and Bernard Steunenberg for their comments.     

In defence of generalized Darwinism

Darwin himself suggested the idea of generalizing the core Darwinian principles to cover the evolution of social entities. Also in the nineteenth century, influential social scientists proposed their extension to political society and economic institutions. Nevertheless, misunderstanding and misrepresentation have hindered the realization of the powerful potential in this longstanding idea. Some critics confuse generalization with analogy. Others mistakenly presume that generalizing Darwinism necessarily involves biological reductionism. This essay outlines the types of phenomena to which a generalized Darwinism applies, and upholds that there is no reason to exclude social or economic entities.

社区变迁:基于城市规划的透视与策略

社区变迁是当代中国社会转型时期必须面对的城市问题。推动积极的社区变迁,实现有效的社区融合,是统筹社会经济协调发展的客观要求。文章对城市社区变迁的原因、现状和趋势进行了分析,并在此基础上结合城市规划的技术和方法,针对城市社区变迁反映出来的城市规划问题,提出了相关的城市规划对策。     

Institutional Change and the Evolution of the World Leisure Industries

I explore the changing institutions of leisure and their dynamic relationship with the evolution of the world leisure industries through an analytical framework that incorporates the theory of institutional change of Paul Dale Bush and related evidence worldwide. I find a ceremonial-instrumental dichotomy in terms of the forces that enter the different phases of institutional change and the receptivity of the markets. Since the mid-twentieth century, the world leisure industries have rapidly advanced because they are not only interactively promoted by an increasing number of mass leisure institutions, but also due to technological advancements and industrial innovations. Indeed, the development paths of these industries in different countries are influenced by institutional factors, such as public interests, culture, and education, and their interactions and changes over time. Given that the paths may not be so straightforward, my findings show that Bush’s related works provide a synthetic framework which deserves further examination in the economics of leisure.     

演化经济学中的社会合作的起源问题

人类是我们能够观察到的,在没有血缘关系的个体之间,进行广泛而密切的合作的唯一物种,合作在某种意义上,成就了这一生物物种于自然界中的生存和发展.从演化经济学的视角,将制度演化理解为在一般生物演化中获得生物特征的同时获得社会特征的演化过程,进而寻求合作的社会起源.     

Veblen,Veblenian Social Practices,and Prosperity Theology

Abstract:

At the turn of the twentieth century (1910), Veblen published an essay which explored the relationship between Christianity and capitalism by focusing on the interaction between the two institutions as they evolved. Veblen’s analysis begins by detailing the evolution of Christianity prior to the age of industrialized capitalism, after which he explores the evolutionary interplay between the two. Just over ten years prior to the publication of this essay (1899), Veblen published the Theory of the Leisure Class while over ten years after the publication of the essay (1923), Veblen dissected the sales efforts of Christianity in a note titled “Salesmanship and the Churches.” Nearly 100 years later, these three works together explain a modern and distinctly American religious movement—Prosperity Theology. This research argues that Prosperity Theology as practiced in the United States over the past nearly half century embodies and integrates all three of these works by Veblen and proposes the conceptual term “Veblenian Social Practice.”     

制度绩效递减规律与我国21世纪初新一轮体制创新研究

21世纪初我国有必要也有可能再次进入“快速增长”时期。如何才能确保我国21世纪初的快速增长,本认为关键在于体制创新。为此,本以制度绩效生命周期与递减规律与理论基础,说明要确保我国经济快速增长则必须进行新一轮体制创新,并在概括20世纪末我国体制创新的特征基础上,提出了21世纪初我国体制创新的原则和相应的有关措施。     

农村合作组织的制度安排：一个基本框架

农村合作组织制度嵌入受到小农经济和村社文化的约束,农村合作组织的制度构架主要由产权制度、分配制度、治理结构制度以及责任制度等构成,农村合作组织的制度演进呈现农村经济合作联社一农民协会一专业合作一股份合作四个阶段,传统制度阴影、现有制度缺陷以及制度变迁成本较高成为农村合作组织的制度演进障碍,促进农村合作组织制度演进的主要措施有：加大对农村合作组织的制度供给的力度;走强制性和诱致性相结合的制度道路;营造制度环境并提供政府援助;以及通过体制创新,构建农村“2＋1”新模式;等等。     

Innovation in corporate law

In most countries large business enterprises today are organized as corporations. The corporation with its key attributes of independent personality, limited liability and free tradeability of shares has played a key role in most developed market economies since the 19th century and has made major inroads in emerging markets. We suggest that the resilience of the corporate form is a function of the adaptability of the legal framework to a changing environment. We analyze a country's capacity to innovate using the rate of statutory legal change, the flexibility of corporate law, and institutional change as indicators. Our findings suggest that origin countries are more innovative than transplant countries. Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (4) (2003) 676–694.     

Hayek Reads the Literature on the Emergence of Norms

Hayek’s approach to cultural and institutional evolution has been frequently criticized because it is explicitly based on the controversial notion of (cultural) group selection. In this paper this criticism is rejected on the basis of recent works on biological and cultural evolution. The paper’s main contention is that Hayek employed group selection as a tool for the explanation of selection among several equilibria, and not as a vehicle for the emergence of out of equilibrium behavior (i.e., altruism). The paper shows that Hayek’s ideas foreshadowed some of the most promising developments in the current literature on the emergence of norms. JEL Classification: B31, B41     

演化、转轨与市场过程理论视角的渐进改革

文章认为,基于主流经济学的激进改革思路,无法解释制度演化的多样性与开放性。渐进式改革强调路径渐进、演化、零碎的特征,与更适合解释现实世界的演化经济学、转轨经济学以及市场过程理论的逻辑一致。考虑非正式制度的内生渐进演化特征,迄今为止的渐进改革模式具有理论与现实的合理性。     

From 3G to 4G: technology evolution and path dynamics in China's mobile telecommunication sector

This paper adopts a standard-related lens on technology trajectory to analyse the mobile telecommunication technology choices beyond the third generation (3G) in one of the largest emerging countries. The attempt is made to model and map the technological evolution based on different standard platforms and through competing technologies under the globalised background. The interplay between different stakeholders behind different technological standards in China is examined. Whether and to what extent technological developments have respectively shaped the paths is also explored. We identify the key technological, commercial and institutional dynamics driving such technology evolution, and argue that large emerging countries can pursue their own policy agenda while dealing with the diverse interests of various stakeholders home and abroad. We also indicate that there remain some high uncertainties in terms of future technology trajectories under the emerging contexts.     

Contested Continuity: Competing Explanations of the Evolution of the Corporate Form

The history of the electric utility industry provides the occasion for testing competing explanations of the emergence and persistence of the corporate form. This industry, characterized by capital intensity, intense competition, and attractive investment opportunities — along with rapid technological change as well as legal and regulatory changes — provides lessons for newer industries with network externalities. Drawing on the work of institutional economics and business history, I examine the evolution of the electric power industry in the US to test competing explanations of choices of finance and technology.