立场与方法学的映照

沟口雄三试图撇清马克思主义和西方汉学对中国近现代史的论断,力图发现中国内发性的变动,这提供了一个全新的视角和立场,对中国近现代史的走向具有相当的解释力度,同时也会遇到一些解释困境。     

社会主义财技术及其“大金融”观

本文提出了“社会主义财技术”的新思想,倡言社会主义光明的未来,主张树立“大金融”观,实施“大融合”方略,以推动中国经济突破极限,走向光明的未来     

The price effect of allowing non-pharmacy outlets to sell OTC drugs in Korea

By the amendment of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act in 2012, non-pharmacy outlets (confined to 24-hour convenience stores) in Korea were permitted to sell 13 over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. This article empirically examines the effect of the regulatory reform on OTC drug prices. To do so, we use county-level price data of 7 OTC drugs for the years of 2012 and 2013. Among them, 2 OTC drugs are available at non-pharmacy outlets due to the deregulation, and the remaining 5 are still only available at pharmacies. Employing a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, we find that after the regulatory reform, prices of the 2 OTC drugs increased by only 1.1% while those of the rest 5 increased by 6.5%. This result has implications for the government’s policy of designating non-pharmacy outlets that can sell OTC drugs from the viewpoint of consumer welfare.     

Morphogenetic economics: Change- amplification by causal loops

The monetarist, Keynesian, and supply side theories are based on the concept of equilibria. But in reality the relations among variables may build causal loops that are change-amplifying. The morphogenetic economic the ory includes in its analysis both change-amplifying and change-counteracting causal loops. In the existing economic theories, the major policy tools are money supply and government expenditure. But in the morphogenetic economics, some other elements can be seen as effective policy tools, depending on the node factor, the velocity, and the strength of the causal loops they belong to. The present overdependence on money supply or government expenditure as main tools of economic policy is inadequate. Furthermore, the morphogenetic economics differs from the existing economic theories in its calculation of the level of equilibria and of crowdingout effects.     

支持物流系统的智能化方向

介绍了ＣＡＬＳ在物流领域的应用前景，论述了物流技术发展及其智能化方向的理想，概念等有关问题，最后介绍了假想物流系统技术的概念和发展及其应用的意义。     

Between Collapse and Survival in North Korea: an Economic Assessment of the Dilemma

The current North Korean reform focuses on an open door policy without much import liberalization and on a partial domestic liberalization limited to the consumer sector. This can be considered a variant of the so-called East Asian growth model pursued in South Korea, Taiwan, and China. Although the basic directions of such a model are understandable, the intensity of the reform measures is not radical and strong enough, and the economy has exhausted domestic resources to rely on and is having difficulty in getting access to external resources. Collaboration from the US and South Korea is the most critical elements for the success of North Korean strategy since these will lower political uncertainty and give the regime access to international capital and markets.They may have at most two or three years to rely on and try a big push from the outside, which can hopefully give the system a new momentum for recovery. Otherwise, collapse is certain since they do not have their own ability to revitalize the economy. Success or failure of the next three-year reform will determine the future of North Korea. Failure, including the sudden stop of the reform by internal coup, could lead to collapse of the North Korean regime (hard landing), which will bring in radical reforms either by a new North Korean leadership or by a South Korean takeover. Success could lead to a widening and deepening of reforms to deal with the main body of the domestic economic system (Chinese style soft landing), or alternatively give room for stop-go style (Romania or Cuba style) muddling through.     

Strategic paradigms as a frame of explanation of innovations: a theoretical synthesis

Innovation has mainly been analysed as a rather narrow phenomenon. This has been an obstacle to a more operationally useful understanding of innovation processes. Two main approaches to explain innovation exist, namely economic innovation theory and the theory of entrepreneurship. Both are criticized in the article, the economic innovation theory for being based on a technological reductionism, the entrepreneurship theory for being based on an individualistic determinism. The two theories have not been coordinated to form a more comprehensive synthesis. The concept of technological paradigm within the economic innovation theory and the concept of entrepreneurial networks within the entrepreneurship theory mark some improvement in establishing a broader understanding of innovation, but have not yet been synthesized. The idea of paradigms is used in the article for a broader, synthesizing conception of innovations as being determined by shifts in strategic paradigms. A theoretical model of factors causing shifts in the strategic paradigm is set up.     

New product introduction with costly search

In the usual model of product market search, a low search cost can turn out to have detrimental incentives on new product introduction as the low search cost erodes firms’ market power, attenuating the profit from innovation. This paper studies a model of monopolistic competition with costly search, where the point of departure is that of a fixed cost of initiating search. In this environment, a low search cost could turn out to be favorable to innovation. At a low search cost, more consumers may decide to start searching, possibly resulting in higher profits for firms in the larger market, despite the erosion of market power.