Adam Smith's “tolerable administration of justice” and the Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith argues that a country’s income depends on its labor productivity, which in turn hinges on the division of labor. But why are some countries able to take advantage of the division of labor and become rich, while others fail to do so and remain poor? Smith describes how the security of property rights, through a “tolerable administration of justice,” allows investment and exchange to take place, bringing about economic progress. Recent empirical work on economic development has supported Smith’s emphasis on a country’s political “institutions,” particularly the judiciary, in determining its national income.     

Reflection and Study on the Transfer of International Manufacturing Industries and Chinese Sustainable Development

Ever since the 1960s, especially 1980s, under the background of quickening pace of economic globalization and the regional division of labor around the world, the transfer of manufacturing industries among countries and areas gets great momentum and impetus. During 20-plus years in which China has adopted the policy of opening-up and reforming, our country has played an active role in taking part in the transfer of manufacturing industries. It advances the structural change of national manufacturing industries, accelerates national industrialism and promotes the comprehensive development of regional economics. In this paper, the author makes some initial study on the regularity of transfer of International manufacturing industries, discusses the profound impact of such shift on our national resources, environment, economics and society, and also proposes corresponding suggestions on how to implement the strategy of sustainable development in the process of the shift.     

A Methodological Reflection on the “Thick Socialism” of Socialism after Hayek

This article discusses the valuable contribution that Ted Burczak's Socialism After Hayek makes to the Marxist theory of socialism by drawing on the Hayekian appreciation of markets as processes of discovery. But the article also critiques the book's acceptance of Hayek's exclusive reliance on markets as a mode of economic organisation. The article reflects on the methodological conditions that might have led the book down a path of market essentialism.     

Theory of the / : The Suture and Critical Border Studies

Borders are crucial sites of political and spatial contestation: and in an attempt to evade the lamentation for an ideal model of a single line or the empty insistence of the dominance of that line, this article argues that the trope of the suture better captures the dual world-creating functions of the border. By examining the critical border theories of Agamben, Walker, and Galli, the suture better focuses analytical attention towards the role of borders in the creation of both sovereign states and the system of sovereign states.     

Research on the Impact of Industry Transfer to Regional Competitiveness

In this paper the effects of industry transfer are discussed. Through analysis it can be found industry transfer will have important influence on the national competitiveness, regional competitiveness and enterprise competitiveness. It is found that industry transfer is an effective way to rejuvenate the old industrial base in the Northeast Region of China.     

Well-being and the Wealth of Nations: How are They to Be Defined?

Questions relating to well-being have recently returned to the limelight, notably with the publication in September 2009 of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi commission report on the measurement of economic performance and social progress. Has this commission changed the terms of the debate on what a society's wealth and well-being are? Has it proposed new paradigms? In accepting the limitations of GDP as a key indicator of well-being, has it developed a new theoretical foundation and new evaluation criteria suited to a very different situation and to very different priorities from those that prevailed at the time when GDP first became established as a measure of national economic performance? These are the main questions raised and reviewed by this paper.     

A Guide for Submissions to the Features and Information Section—A Wealth of Opportunities

The associate editor for the Features and Information (F&I) section of the Journal of Economic Education provides an overview of articles published in this section over the last 20 years with emphasis on pieces that serve as exceptional models for potential contributions. She also offers advice on topics and stylistic approach to authors considering a submission to F&I.     

Foreign Direct Investment and the External Wealth of Nations: How Important Is Valuation?

While the balance sheet approach has increased the focus on position data, differences in valuation practices for foreign direct investment (FDI) make cross‐country comparisons difficult. To enhance comparability, the IMF's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition, which some countries have already implemented and others will implement in the coming years, recommends seven methods for valuation of unlisted FDI. This paper demonstrates that both the valuation method and simple differences in estimation techniques can fundamentally change a country's financial balance sheet. Using Denmark as an illustration, unlisted FDI equity liabilities vary from 22 to 156 percent of GDP when applying different estimation techniques, but just one valuation method, price to earnings. These measurement uncertainties can lead to important misunderstandings and affect policy recommendations, thus pointing to the need for further international harmonization. While the results are presented in an FDI context, the uncertainties also apply to other macroeconomic datasets, including national accounts statistics.     

Driven to abstraction? Critical realism and the search for the 'inner connection' of social phenomena

This paper examines critically the method of abstraction offeredby critical realism. Our main argument is that critical realismfails to articulate the synthetic side to abstraction. For thisreason, the critical realist method is unable to capture the‘inner connection’ of social phenomena. We arguethat critical realism is prone to extend a method (partially)applicable to the local and specific level of analysis to thehistorical level. The paper develops a method of abstraction,‘systematic abstraction’, that is appropriate tothis historical level. We argue that systematic abstractionconstitutes a radical addition to critical realism, one whichchallenges the fundamental precepts of the critical realistapproach to abstraction.     

‘Wiped From the Map of the World’? Zanzibar,Critical Geopolitics and Language

This essay uses the case of Zanzibar in its complicated relationship with the United Republic of Tanzania (of which it is a part) as a lens on debates in political geography on empirical and conceptual approaches to critical geopolitics. We test the veracity of a multi-faceted critical geopolitics in the contemporary public contestation of Zanzibar's place in the United Republic from 2008–2012. We analyze Tanzanian media, the speech acts of Tanzanian leaders, and the key events and processes related to what is termed the ‘Zanzibar problem’ during the selected years, to make two points about a critical geopolitics approach: to strengthen critical geopolitics by broadening the analysis of language to engage political acts and languages beyond the Global North; and taking ‘subaltern geopolitics’ more seriously via engagement with critical geopolitical voices on discourses, events and processes from the Global South.     

A generalization of the Cairns–Krautkraemer model and the optimality of the mining rule

There exists a rule of thumb of mines, which decides how the cut-off grade (the lowest grade of extracted ore) should change in response to a change in the price of the metal. It requires that the cut-off grade should decrease (increase) when the present value price of metal increases (decreases). In this paper, the optimality of the rule will be examined by generalizing the Cairns–Krautkraemer model under the perfect foresight assumption.     

Analysis of the Effect and Mode of Strategy Integration of the Enterprise M＆A

Merger is a kind of strategic behavior of seeking long-term development. A new enterprise coming from merger is different from the one that come into existence. The strategy of new enterprise formed from merger is constituted through the integration of the strategy for each side. Strategy integration is the guide for the integration of other elements after merger, the way for enterprises to adapt the change of environment and the warranty for the enterprises to achieve strategy synergistic effect. Strategy integration of the merging-enterprises can be realized through several steps： preparation for strategy integration, readjustment to strategy, reorientation of the enterprise and effective communication with target enterprise in the course of carrying out the strategy.     

China’s Contingencies: Critical Geopolitics,Chinese Exceptionalism and the Uses of History

This paper examines the intimate relationship between narratives emanating from China and their uses of Chinese history, and how such perspectives inform China’s geopolitical positioning and practices in lieu of its purported ‘rise’. Taking inspiration from the deconstructive impetus of critical geopolitics, this article contends that these historical claims to China’s rise constitute deterministic accounts, hinging on the notion of Chinese exceptionalism to provide discursive backing for a Sinocentric geopolitical order in the coming decades. This in turn downplays ‘alternative’ historiographies that can shed light on how the nature of China’s emergence may be more dependent on and shaped by the external environment than previously acknowledged. Building on the historical-geographical expositions related to the idea of contingency, this article demonstrates how China (whether it be in the past or present) cannot be seen as operating in a vacuum but has to constantly negotiate and adjust its strategy of engagements/interactions based on the specific demands imposed by world politics. Specifically, by elucidating these dimensions through cross-strait relations between China and Taiwan, it is argued that understanding China’s contingencies can raise important questions for us to critically appreciate the contextual actors, processes and relationships that differentially impact on China’s engagements in the world.     

Who Gains from the “No War No Peace” Situation? A Critical Analysis of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Since the outbreak of the conflict in the second half of the 1980s, Nagorno-Karabakh has been represented from two perspectives of ethnic incompatibility, which justifies ethnic cleansing by matching the state borders with ethnic ones, and the Great Game narrative, which examines the conflict as part of the global power struggle in the Eurasian continent by disregarding societies and undemocratic regimes in the region. However, time has revealed that these perspectives neither appreciate the internal conditions of the conflict nor offer a way out of the current impasse. By criticising the ‘commonsense’ and ‘realness’ of these representations, this study argues that analysing who gains from the current status quo will offer solutions for a sustainable peace in the region. As long as undemocratic regimes of Azerbaijan and Armenia are satisfied with the status quo and outside powers maximise their interests, the ‘no war no peace’ situation will not be challenged. A way out is only possible by including the people, who are actually on the losing side, in the decision-making and peace-making process.     

The Interaction of Wage Bargaining Institutions and an Independent Central Bank – A Methodological Reflection on Current Theories

The paper analyses the increasingly popular literature on strategic interactions from a methodological viewpoint. These political economy approaches focusing on interactions between wage bargaining institutions and an independent central bank do not follow unified methodological rules and so cannot be categorised under a single particular paradigm. Moreover, the literature remains in a way circumscribed by the limits of our logical capacities and of mathematical tractability and therefore relates to the 'real world' of wage bargaining and economic policy institutions in a very limited way only. A consideration of the vast complexity of institutional conditions that impact economic performance in EMU reminds and cautions one that actual economic policy research is able to cover only very few of the numerous conditions responsible for the overall outcome.     

Technological Creativity and Cheap Labour? Explaining the Growing International Competitiveness of German Mechanical Engineering before World War I

Abstract. Which factors caused the growing international competitiveness of German mechanical engineering industry in the pre‐World War I period? In this paper, we want to address this question and elucidate whether or not the international market success of machine builders in the German Empire was determined by technological creativity and the availability of a comparatively cheap labour force. Based on an unbalanced panel, we therefore investigate the influence of demand, labour costs and technological creativity on export performance of 32 different machinery types. We find robust evidence that the development of export–import ratios in mechanical engineering was positively influenced by the growth of patent stocks that represent the new knowledge being available for German machine builders. In addition, we present some evidence for the assumption that the growing international competitiveness of German mechanical engineering was also caused by decreasing relative unit labour cost.