Building the <Emphasis Type="Italic">New</Emphasis> New Orleans: Foundation and NGO Power

Most accounts of organized philanthropy’s response to the Katrina disaster portray foundations as either providing critical resources in the absence of federal, state, and municipal leadership, or as mildly ineffective and uncommitted grantmakers with little understanding of local nonprofit and community needs. Through an in-depth case study of the three largest regional foundations and two largest foundations established as a direct response to Hurricane Katrina, I examine the overall role of philanthropy in the post-Katrina New Orleans, including the history, leadership, grantmaking practices, and ideology of the largest and most influential foundations. Far from being saviors in the absence of state leadership, nor bumbling and ineffective grantmakers, it is shown that dominant foundations and major NGOs have proven very effective in leading the local growth coalition’s opportunistic response to the disaster.     

The Great Growth Debate: A Statistical Look at Mankiw,Romer, and Weil, <Emphasis Type="Italic">versus</Emphasis> Islam

This paper takes a purely statistical look at two of the most important empirical growth papers authored by Mankiw et al. [1992] and Islam [1995]. MRW claim that the Solow model is justified only when human capital is added to the regression, while Islam claims that cross-country heterogeneity is the actual culprit. In a statistical sense, the author of this study finds that Islam was correct in the fact that mean heterogeneity does exist in MRWs data. However, after statistical adequacy is achieved, human capital continues to maintain its role as a significant determinant of growth even though the estimates are not robust for one of the two cross-country samples investigated. On the other hand, though Islams models were not without statistical problems, they continue to maintain their traditional form and his estimates are robust to respecification. This paper also exemplifies the need for objective statistical testing methods in applied work.     

Whites,Blacks, and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Brown</Emphasis> in the Labor Market in Brazil: A Study About Inequalities

This paper examines inequalities between white and black and brown populations in Brazil within occupations that require university degree. The main result confirms that once reached the university degree, blacks/brown usually obtain smaller but comparable income to that of whites. Although some racial discrimination in labor market may exist, such result corroborates other studies that identify schooling differentials as the main reason for the high income inequality found in Brazil.     

基于生活品质视角的居民消费高级化路径研究

居民生活品质的提升与居民消费水平、消费方式和消费结构有着不可分割的关系,文章依托生活品质的测评指标体系,从经济生活品质、文化生活品质、社会生活品质和环境生活品质的提升角度来探索促进居民从较低生活质量标准的消费结构向较高生活质量标准的消费结构演变的实现路径。     

Probability and the synthetic <Emphasis Type="Italic">a Priori</Emphasis>: A reply to block

Conclusion Contrary to Block, the synthetic a priori has little to do with our dispute. My critique of the Austrians is not that their methods are “unscientific,” but that their most distinctive positions are false or overstated. Yet Block’s latest reply does inadvertently make Austrian economics more reasonable. If synthetic a priori claims vary in degree of probability, they can no longer be treated as scientifically superior to empirical claims. Furthermore, while empirically testing absolutely certain synthetic a priori claims is pointless, empirically testing uncertain synthetic a priori claims is not. As is often the case with Austrians, Block is better at criticizing neoclassicals than he is at producing a sound alternative. He is right that most economists do not practice the logical positivism that they preach. He is also correct to maintain that logical positivism is mistaken. However, both of these problems can be resolved if neoclassical economists themselves adopt the Bayesian model of belief formation that they routinely apply to everyone else.     

基于竞合关系的产业集群生命周期研究

文章通过对产业集群内部竞合关系的分析来研究集群的发展规律。集群内企业间的竞合是推动产业集群发展的动力,通过对竞争强度与合作强度的分析,结合以往对产业集群生命周期的研究,有助于了解集群的状态和未来发展方向,从而更好地为产业集群发展和进化创造条件,实现产业集群的可持续发展。     

The Life Cycle of Daily Newspapers in The Netherlands: 1848–1997

In 1848 freedom of the press was written into the Constitution of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. This paper investigates the life cycle characteristics of the market for daily newspapers in The Netherlands since then. Life expectancy depends on the cyclical evolution of the number of daily newspapers through time. The life cycle of the competitive newspaper industry in The Netherlands is characterized by a turning period of turmoil during World War II. Models that aim at estimating the expected lifetime of newspapers should acknowledge the cyclical characteristics of the industry.