Small business and entrepreneurship in the knowledge economy: A comparison of Australia and Sweden

Dominant explanations within the existing development literature for the differences in poverty levels around the world have tended to ignore the influence of international inequality on poverty, instead focusing solely on domestic factors. In this paper, I conduct a regression analysis of the effect of inequality between countries on world poverty between 1980 and 2007, employing a new structural measure of international inequality which is created using social network analysis to calculate countries' positions in international trade networks. Countries' infant mortality rates are used to measure poverty. The results of the empirical analysis provide cross-country evidence to demonstrate that structural inequalities in the international system have a significant impact on poverty around the world. As such, the analysis demonstrates the need to move beyond focusing exclusively on domestic attributes of developing countries towards considering the broader international political economy in analysing contemporary poverty.     

Inflation and relative-price variability — A model for an open economy applied to Sweden

The relationship between inflation and relative-price variability is analyzed empirically in a multi-market, partial information equilibrium model, which incorporates raw materials on the supply side, open economy characteristics and allows different supply responses across markets. The hypothesis that the expected, as well as the unexpected, rate of inflation affects relative-price variability is put forward and tested. The empirical results are consistent with the view that inflation is non-neutral, in the sense that it affects relative prices, and it is also shown that raw material prices as well as foreign demand are important determinants of relative-price variability in the Swedish economy.     

A Model of Structural Change and Openness: Applications to the Argentine economy

This paper describes a dynamic, multisectoral model of a less developed economy in which investment and income distribution policies influence structural change and the pattern of trade. That is, the model considers a Keynesian 'socialised investment' function and distributional policies that, by their effect on demand, could be also described as Keynesian. The model is used to analyse the effects of different policy regimes in the Argentine economy. In an environment characterised by enduring stagnation, investment policies aimed at increasing the degree of economic autonomy and self-sufficiency do not succeed in significantly changing output and trade patterns, and in reducing the degree of openness of the economy. From a long term perspective, however, stagnation is not necessarily a permanent condition. A new environment of higher growth could evolve from the consolidation of a new technological paradigm and the emergence of new socioeconomic norms and mechanisms. In an environment of lower uncertainty and higher efficacy of the investment, model simulation shows that investment policy is quite successful in augmenting the degree of autonomy and self-sufficiency of the economy. Also, income redistribution has a positive impact on income and welfare growth.     

循环经济:泰达发展的不竭动力

泰达作为我国综合型生态工业园区的代表，通过机制和技术的创新，逐渐构建起较为明晰的区域物质流、能量流和信息流，促进了区域资源能源的高效利用、产品的耦合共生、产品经济向功能经济的转变，形成了结构较完整的循环经济发展模式，是我国推进循环经济工作中的典范，为建立资源循环型社会起到了示范作用。     

Accounting for the social economy: the socioeconomic impact statement

Abstract ** :  Organizations within the social economy have unique characteristics, yet their accounting procedures do not reflect this uniqueness, and rather are designed for private‐sector organizations that exchange their goods and services in the market. We argue that conventional accounting creates a perception that social economy organizations are users of resources and separate from the private and public sectors, rather than creators of value and an integral part of our society (Quarter, Mook, and Richmond, 2003a). This paper addresses the accounting needs of social economy organizations by presenting a model of social accounting—the Socioeconomic Impact Statement—that may help bring out the impact of such organizations. The paper presents a demonstration project of the potential utility of the Socioeconomic Impact Statement .     

Long-run sectoral development: Time-series evidence for the German economy

In economic development, long-run structural change among the three main sectors of an economy follows a typical pattern with the primary sector (agriculture, mining) first dominating, followed by the secondary sector (manufacturing) and finally by the tertiary sector (services) in terms of employment and value added. We reconsider the verbal theoretical work of Fourastié and build a simple model encompassing its main features, most notably the macroeconomic influences on the sectoral development. Estimation and analysis with German data for the period 1850–2001 show that this model is quite capable of replicating the empirical facts.     

Intersectoral wage linkages: the case of Sweden

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether wage-setting in certain sectors of the Swedish economy affects wage-setting in other sectors. The theoretical background is the Scandinavian model of inflation, which states that wage-setting in the sectors exposed to international competition lead wage-setting in the sheltered sectors of the economy. The Johansen maximum likelihood cointegration approach is applied to quarterly data on Swedish sector wages for the period 1980:1–2002:2. Different vector error correction (VEC) models are created, based on assumptions as to which sectors are exposed to international competition and which are not. Granger causality tests are then carried out in the different restricted/unrestricted VEC models to test for sector wage leadership. The Granger causality tests provide strong evidence for the presence of intersectoral wage causality, but no evidence of a wage-leading role for the internationally exposed manufacturing sector.      

经济虚拟化与虚拟经济的独立性特征研究--虚拟经济与实体经济关系的动态化过程

本文运用动态相关多元GARCH模型研究了1919年至2004年虚拟经济与实体经济相关性的时变特征。结果发现，虚拟经济与实体经济的相关性存在着明显的时变特征，具体表现为一个经济虚拟化的过程：二战前实体经济与虚拟经济存在着明显的相关性，随后呈现一个逐渐递减的趋势，在20世纪80年代后，虚拟经济表现出明显的独立性特征，经济运行方式与之前存在显著的差异，虚拟经济与实体经济呈两个相对独立的经济系统而存在，从而验证了经济虚拟化之后，虚拟经济作为与实体经济相对的经济系统的相对独立性特征。     

Planning for the Australian information economy

This study spotlights the inadequacy of the sectoral modeling used hitherto to analyse structural change in Australia. Although the multiplier and key-sector results demonstrate that contemporary Australia is predominantly an industrial economy, in the next decade the growth of the information intensiveness of economic activity or informatization will accelerate. A sectoral model clearly identifying the information sector is proposed to study the implications of the growing information intensiveness of the Australian economy. A methodology to identify the primary information economy or information commodities traded in the market is explained. The macroeconomic scenarios—income and price implications—of programming for various targets of information sector activities are analysed. Three plausible informatization targets are hypothesised: Luddite or zero growth; laissez-faire or continuing the status quo and sunrise or accelerated performance. The significance of Leontief accounting prices based on competitive equilibria and the shadow prices connoting opportunity costs of the linear programming dual are examined. Fiscal policies to subsidise positive externalities generated by informatization, in the fase of intractability of the Pigouvian ideal taxes are briefly reviewed. Finally, the need for anticipatory policy decisions in Australia to harness the full benefits of informatization is emphasised.     

生态经济是新经济的革命

在崭新的21世纪，我们的价值观、世界观和经济组织方面需要一场革命。因为我们面临的环境危机的根源在于追求经济与技术发展时忽视了生态知识。而另一场革命——正在变质的工业革命，需要有经济增长、商品、空间和生物的新观念的变革来取代。自然的沦落与工业革命人类既是地球演化和生物进化的产物，同时又绝对地依赖于地球所提供的生存空间和生存基础，那就是地球上的环境与资源。按照原始社会的人口增长速度，3万年才能翻一番，1850年世界人口才达到10亿人。而从10亿到20亿，用了80年的时间;从20亿到30亿，用了30年的时间;从30亿到40亿，…     

Willingness to Pay for Car Safety: Evidence from Sweden

This study estimates a marginal willingness to pay (WTP) function for a road-mortality risk reduction. Observed marginal WTP from the Swedish car market is used and found to be positively correlated with the baseline risk of the cars. No statistically significant relationships between examined owner attributes, e.g. wealth and background risk, and marginal WTP are found. When comparing the estimated monetary value of a non-marginal risk reduction derived from the integral of the marginal WTP-function with an estimate based on marginal WTP we find, in line with expectations, that the difference between the estimates is negligible for smaller risk reductions and small, 4–10%, also for relatively large risk reductions.      

A coopetitive model for the green economy

The paper proposes a coopetitive model for the Green Economy. It addresses the issue of the climate change policy and the creation and diffusion of low-carbon technologies. In the present paper the complex construct of coopetition is applied at macroeconomic level. The model, based on Game Theory, enables us to offer a set of possible solutions in a coopetitive context, allowing to find a Pareto solution in a win–win scenario. The model, which is based on the assumption that each country produces a level of output which is determined in a non-cooperative game of Cournot-type and that considers at the same time a coopetitive strategy regarding the low technologies, will suggest a solution that shows the convenience for each country to participate actively to a program of low carbon technologies within a coopetitive framework to address a policy of climate change, thus aiming at balancing the environmental imbalances.     

The euro: Major policy implications for Europe and the global economy

The paper examines the potential of the euro as an international currency. Owing to a large home base the long‐run potential is substantial. Much depends on whether the European Central Bank will be able to gain the reputation of a tough authority that issues a stable currency. Based on a comparison with the concepts of monetary targeting and inflation targeting, it is argued that the ECB's policy strategy is inferior as regards providing guidance to inflation expectations. The paper also discusses exchange rate policy and concludes that it is unlikely that Europe will join a new international exchange rate system.     

The demand for money in an open economy: the United Kingdom

Most previous studies have estimated the demand for money without paying too much attention to developments in the foreign exchange markets. In light of the fact that any development abroad and in the foreign exchange markets could have implications for domestic stabilization, we make an attempt to incorporate such developments into the demand for money in the United Kingdom. More precisely, after incorporating a measure of real effective exchange rate of the British Pound into a dynamic money demand function, we estimated it for the UK using quarterly data over 1973–87 period. By relying upon the Akaike' Final Prediction Error criteria to select the optimum number of lags, it is shown that in addition to income and interest rate, the real effective exchange rate exerts significant effect on the UK demand for money in the short run as well as long run.     

Civil economy: definition and strategies for sustainable well-living

The civil economy paradigm presented in this paper has two main characteristics. First, it identifies the philosophical roots of the limits of our socioeconomic system in the reductionist views of human beings, corporations, and well-being. The three reductionist views not only fail to capture an important part of the reality, but also produce poverty of sense of life (also defined as eudaimonic well-being) and of life satisfaction, thereby generating a suboptimal level of well-being. The civil economy paradigm proposes an alternative where it is acknowledged that (1) part of the individuals depart from purely self-regarding preferences and develop other-regarding and relational skills enabling them to overcome social dilemmas, (2) part of the productive system depart from the profit maximization paradigm and aim to satisfy the interests of a wider range of stakeholders beyond shareholders, and (3) well-being is, beyond GDP, the stock of cultural, environmental, spiritual, and economic resources that a community can enjoy. The second qualifying point of the civil economy paradigm is that it proposes a richer four-hand approach to political economy (as an alternative to the traditional two-hand approach) where actions of the traditional invisible hand of the market and the visible hand of institutions in solving failures are complemented and supported by the complementary action of the two additional hands of grassroot citizens’ participation and socially and environmentally responsible companies. In our paper, we explain and document that these two additional hands are already at work, thereby confirming that the reductionist hypothesis on individuals and corporations is rejected by empirical evidence. In the paper, we argue that the civil economy paradigm, by increasing social participation and generativity of all actors, has the power of bridging the gap between the current suboptimal and the socially optimal sense of life (well described in the concept of “common good”). We as well provide evidence showing that the paradigm is far from being unrealistic and that its sprouts are already working in several fields of our society, preparing a more thorough transformation and full replacement of the old paradigm at a theoretical level that is near to come.     

Fragile democracies and constitutional crises: a laboratory for studying the role of constitutional constraints

Constitutional Political Economy -