Rezensionen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

COMPLEX DYNAMICS IN A SIMPLE INPUT-OUTPUT MODEL WITHOUT THE FULL CAPACITY UTILIZATION HYPOTHESIS

The paper takes up a multi-sectoral dynamic input-output model of Duchin and Szyld (⇐A dynamic input-output model with assured positive outputs ⇒, Metroeconomica, vol. 37, 1985) and develops it further in two respects. On the one hand, also a decrease of productive capacities is allowed for. On the other hand, an endogenously determined ⇐ correction term ⇒ is built into the investment function. It reflects a certain kind of risk-aversion and serves to absorb the explosive tendencies to be found in the original model. Subsequently the one-sector version, which nevertheless comprises already four state variables, is studied by means of computer simulations. Depending on the choice of a behavioural parameter, persistent but seemingly quite irregular cycles are generated. For a more sophisticated investigation spectral analysis is employed. The model itself could succintly be characterized as an elaborated multiplier-accelerator model.     

The two limits debates: “Limits to Growth” and climate change

In this article we compare the current debate about global warming with the earlier discourse of Limits to Growth (LtG) of the 1970s. We are especially interested in the similarities of and differences between the two cases and therefore compare the policy challenges and lessons to be drawn. While the two debates differ on important issues, they share a technocratic orientation to public policy, and susceptibility to similar pitfalls. In both debates alarming scenarios about future catastrophes play an important role. We suggest that climate change policy discourse needs to focus more closely on the social, economic, and political dimensions of climate change, as opposed to its excessive emphasis on emission reduction targets. We also argue that an excessive faith in the market mechanisms to supply global warming mitigation technologies is problematic. In this respect, we provide a reality check regarding the political implications of emission targets and timetables and suggest how policy issues can be moved forward.     

The results of Manila

The proceedings at UNCTAD V and its results have come in for much harsh public criticism in the world. In view of its modest results it must be asked whether future world trade conferences cannot be rendered more effective.     

Culture, economic development, and national ethical attitudes

To understand the influence of culture on ethical attitudes, a variety of countries must be compared simultaneously to avoid confounding of cultural dimensions. This study uses data from the World Values Survey to develop a measure of ethical attitudes that shows partial measurement invariance across 44 countries. Regressing the resulting latent means on four cultural dimensions [Hofstede G. Culture's Consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. 2nd ed. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 2001] and per capita gross domestic product (PCGDP) reveals effects that are not suggested by examining the predictors in isolation, and explains more variance than analysis of the raw means. However, the model does not account for ethical attitudes reported in Brazil, Japan, and the Philippines. In the remaining 41 countries, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and PCGDP are found to have negative influences on national ethical attitudes.     

The incentive effects of levelling the playing field – an empirical analysis of amateur golf tournaments

Levelling the playing field is an important policy instrument to guarantee an equitable competition among heterogeneous individuals. However, the incentive effects of those policies are usually not explicitly addressed in empirical studies. In this article the performance in amateur golf tournaments is analysed to gain insights into the incentive effects of those types of policies. The empirical analysis takes advantage of the fact that tournaments in amateur golf are of two distinctive types that apply different scoring rules: while one scoring rule is based on gross scores, i.e. the total number of strokes of a player, the second scoring rule is based on net scores where the total number of strokes is normalized with respect to the respective player's handicap. Performance comparisons of players who participated in both types of tournaments suggest that levelling the playing field, as in tournaments based on net score, has positive and significant performance effects.     

Technical Change and a Falling Wage Share if Profits are Maintained

In the framework of a multi-sectoral and fixed-coefficients Leontief model with capital stock matrix B, the paper addresses the issue of the impact of technical change on income distribution. Comparing two steady-state positions, it is shown that with cost-reducing, capital-using and (uniformly) labour-saving technical change the equilibrium rate of profit will fall, if it is the aggregate wage share which remains fixed, not the absolute level of the real wage. Conversely, the wage share falls if the profit rate does not change. The reactions are ambiguous if, instead of the coefficients of the matrix B, the coefficients of the input–output matrix A increase.     

Coevolution and stable adjustments in the cobweb model

The paper is concerned with genetic algorithm learning in a cobweb economy. Besides discussing several specification details in the genetic operators, the model includes four different types of firm forecasting rules and subjects the demand side to serially correlated random shocks. The main finding of the simulation experiments is that the genetic algorithm is a reasonably good approximation of the moving Walrasian equilibria, and that this process is characterized by the coevolution of different strategies. Accordingly, it is just the persistent heterogeneity of firms, and the persistently changing composition of this heterogeneity, that achieves stability. In this world, convergence is improved by weak, rather than strong, evolutionary pressure.