Quality Competition and Social Welfare in Markets with Partial Coverage: New Results*

We use a vertical product differentiation model under partial market coverage to study the social welfare optimum and duopoly equilibrium when convex costs of quality provision are either fixed or variable in terms of production. We show the following new results. First, under fixed costs, the social planner charges a uniform price for the single variant that just covers costs of quality provision. Like the duopoly equilibrium, this socially optimal pricing entails a partially uncovered market, but a smaller share of the market is served compared with the duopoly equilibrium. Second, for the variable cost case, it is socially optimal to provide both high‐ and low‐quality variants, but market shares need not be equal. This differs from the result in fully covered markets. Third, in the duopoly equilibrium, the quality spread is too wide under variable costs relative to the social optimum. Under fixed costs, the duopoly produces two variants, but quality is too low relative to the social optimum, which has only one variant.     

The role and place of research and intellectual discourse in the reproduction of social relations of racial domination in South Africa

The South African research community which undertakes all research activity in the social and natural sciences, with and without state and corporate sponsorship, draws its membership mainly from the dominant social group. In this country, the dominant group is both economically and racially determined. Consequently, the white minority dominates the research community and intellectual discourse as it does other socio‐economic and political spheres of society. This situation guarantees the constant reproduction and perpetuation of the social relations of racial domination.

As an agent that generates knowledge and new ideas, research as an academic and intellectual tool of enquiry is an instrument of social control, producing new concepts, language and theoretical abstractions which are not accessible to those outside its multi‐farious disciplines. Insofar as the largest proportion of practitioners of these specialised disciplines is drawn from the dominant group, research has itself become a pivotal part of the dominant ideology. Its role is inevitably and inextricably bound up with the processes of systematic reproduction of the relations of domination.

The aim of this viewpoint is therefore to explore various ways in which research bodies and intellectual discourse in general in South Africa can be deracialised and be made more representative of the social make‐up of society.     

Struggling to save our kids

Many more than ever face the crises of childhood: violence, drugs, bad schools, poverty, divorce, or two parents at work. And no one seems to care.     

Country size and ‘insulation’ from external disturbances

Summary This paper considers the relationship between economic size and vulnerability to external disturbances. In order to analyze this issue effectively a model comprising three different-sized economies is constructed. The issue of economic size and insulation is approached from this alternative perspectives depending upon the relative size of (a) the `recipient' country and (b) the transmitting country. The results of the analysis indicate that, contrary to popular belief, a small country under floating exchange rates is less severely affected by external economic events than a large economy regardless of the type of external disturbance and the degree of domestic wage indexation.This paper has been improved by the helpful comments of a referee. We alone are solely responsible for all remaining errors.     

生态文化旅游的价值评价研究

旅游业已经成为现代经济增长一个新的亮点,特别是生态文化旅游的增长速度更是惊人,而其发展的价值平衡是生态学和经济学必须面对的一个难题。本文依据意大利经济学家帕累托的不均匀分布定律,运用埃奇渥斯盒状分析图,在某一选定的生态资源环境的承载量既定的基础上,从生态文化旅游的价值交换的角度考虑,并且从定性研究转向定量研究,分析研究生态文化旅游的价值帕累托最优曲线,用以筛选生态文化旅游的工程项目。     

De produktiestructuur van Nederland in de periode 1950-1966

Summary In 1961 Arrow, Chenery, Minhas and Solow presented their C.E.S. production function, which was based on the relation between the real wage rate and the average labour productivity. They argued that, if the aggregate production function is continuous, lineair and homogeneous, then, with perfect competition and profit maximalization prevailing, the relation between the real wage rate and the average labour productivity is reflection of the production structure. This relation can, therefore, be used for specifying the production structure.In the present paper, the same line of thought is applied to the Dutch economy. Several hypotheses on the relation between wage rate and average labour productivity are tested. Statistically, it turns out that in the Dutch economy the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour is not a constant: it declines with increasing capital-labour ratio. Two statistically acceptable production equations that have this feature are presented.The efficiency parameter appearing as an integration constant in both production equations shows a decline: with labour productivity constant, the capital-labour ratio is falling over time. This means that the relation between labour productivity and capital-labour ratio shifts over time. Another outcome of this study is that technical progress is capitalaugmenting and that it brings about 50 percent of the growth in the labour productivity.De schrijvers zijn dank verschuldigd aan Prof. Dr. F. J. de Jong voor zijn stimulerende kritiek en aan de heren J. G. Althuis, F. J. van Bolhuis, J. D. Flikweert, H. Jager en B. S. Wilpstra, assistenten bij de afdeling Algemene Economie van de Economische Faculteit der Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen, voor hun bereidwillige medewerking aan dit onderzoek.     

Gedragsmodellen van de Economische Groei

Summary Two behavioural models of economic growth are developed: a neo-classical and a neo-keynesian (Kaldorian) one.In the neo-classical model consumers aspire to a certain level of consumption. Savings and supply of labour (man-hours) are the means for reaching this level.In the neo-keynesian model firms and households have a certain aspiration level with respect to profits and consumption, respectively. To reach these levels firms decide to invest and households to supply man-hours.In both models growth is entirely dependent on the parameters of the behaviour equations. In this respect they differ from the traditional neo-classical and neo-keynesian (Kaldorian) models, in which growth is eventually determined by autonomous technical progress and growth of the labour force.     

Half the power,half the income and half the glory,the use of microeconomic theory in women's emancipation research

Summary Major fields of economic research to understand the development of women's integration into the economy and women's economic independence can be categorized into three main groups. First, theories that attempt to explain wage and earnings differences according to gender; second, theories that attempt to explain the division of work within the family, and third, theories that attempt to explain the determination of fertility and the combination of work and motherhood. This paper offers a review of these three areas of neo-classical theory as well as an evaluation as to what extent the theories are adequate to answer the questions of women's emancipation research.This article is a revised version of my inaugural speech held on May 30th, 1990, at the official assumption of the chair of Labour market issues with special attention to women's emancipation, at the University of Amsterdam. Comments on earlier drafts have been received by Marga Bruyn-Hundt, Joop Hartog, Jan Hoem, Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink, Notburga Ott, Hettie Pott-Buter, Jolande Sap, Kea Tijdens, the participants of the demographic colloquium at Stockholm University, and the editor ofDe Economist.