Analysing The Evolution Of Industry: The Relevance Of The Telecommunications Industry

This paper analyses the fundamental forces involved in the evolution of the telecommunications industry. It is suggested that there are five major forces that together drive the evolution of this industry: specialisation, competition, financial markets. endogenous consumer demand and permeable industry boundaries. An important research task is to further elaborate on the boundaries of not only the industry but of the industrial system taken as a whole.     

Learning to choose a commodity-money: Carl Menger's theory of imitation and the search monetary framework

This paper studies Carl Menger's theory of the emergence of a commodity money. We propose an interpretation of Menger's learning by imitation process based on the search theoretical formal framework. We show that there exists a tension between the importance of intrinsic properties of commodities and the pure conventional self-fulfilling expectations of agents. This confirms the role of imitation in the emergence of monetary equilibria in search theory. We conclude that Menger's approach may support the idea that the fundamental property of a commodity-money (namely its great liquidity) is the result of its emergence process and not necessarily of its original intrinsic properties.     

Economists on Darwin's theory of social evolution and human behaviour

Abstract

This article analyses Darwin's image among economists with a specific focus on his theory of social evolution as presented in the Descent of Man (1871). We propose an analysis of the way and context in which economists refer to Darwin, mention his name and quote his writings. It then appears that Darwin is most of the time viewed as a biologist only, who never developed his own theory of social evolution. He is thus quoted as a biologist who either borrowed concepts from economists who developed a theory of social evolution, or laid the basis for biological theory of social evolution developed by others, Spencer, in particular. It is only recently that eventually the twofold dimensions—biological and social—of Darwin's general theory of evolution are considered together by bioeconomists.     

Conversion of the Cuban Economy to Soviet Orthodoxy

Our hypothesis is that both the transition phases and the diversity of trajectories of post-communist countries are the result of a significant difference in actors' strategic behavior. If we apply game theory to the socioeconomic context of post-communist evolution, this difference reflects the two main models of cooperation, namely the prisoner's dilemma and the stag hunter. The prisoner's dilemma, which becomes the dominant strategy under the conditions of high social heterogeneity and broken informational channels, implies that it is profitable not to cooperate. Under the stag hunter model — a model involving a common goal and a common project — cooperative strategies are more advantageous. The various post-communist countries in different transition phases can be approximated to either one of those two games — the prisoner's dilemma or the stag hunter. The alternation of the games is conditional on the existence of external and internal social anchors.     

Contemporary Economic thought. The Contribution of Neo-Institutional Economics

This article examines the historical developments of the institutionalist theory of the business enterprise since the early 1900s in order to demonstrate its distinctive characteristics that are often overlooked or belittled by some institutional-evolutionary economists and most mainstream economists. I argue that the institutionalist theory is an evolving and emergent theory, which bears a reciprocal, evolutionary, and cumulative relationship between the business enterprise and society. The institutionalist theory is, therefore, suitable for the understanding of the real-world business enterprise as it can be modified and refined along with the evolution of capitalism. The article begins with a discussion of the present state of the institutionalist theory. The following section is devoted to the major contributions to the institutionalist theory situated in the evolution of U.S. capitalism. The penultimate section provides a critical discussion of new institutional and evolutionary approaches to the firm. The article concludes with a brief discussion as to what should be done for the further development of the institutionalist theory of the business enterprise.     

Monopoly Power and Stagflation

Post Keynesian economists have followed Joan Robinson's criticism of general equilibrium theory as abolishing history by allowing all contracts to be executed today for all future contingencies. This was the justification for the support of financial innovation to provide for the completeness of futures markets. The recent crisis has shown that force of history. Instead, many evolutionary and Keynesian economists have suggested the approach of cumulative causation as an approach that includes history and eschews equilibrium. This approach may provide a way to take history seriously in economic analysis.     

International Monetary Reform: A Review Article

Original institutional economics (OIE) has three significant, but apparently contradictory, definitions of institution(s) stemming from Thorstein Veblen, John Commons, and J. Fagg Foster. In this first installment of a two-part paper I address this apparent contradiction by developing an "irenic reconciliation" of these definitions using a methodological approach I call "critical institutionalism"— a synthesis of the OIE in the tradition of the Veblen, Commons, and Foster, the pragmatism theory of Charles Sanders Peirce and John Dewey, the critical realist methodology of Margaret Archer, and the critical realism of Roy Bhaskar. In so doing, I provide an alternative discussion to that of some current institutionalists who propose to replace the existing OIE definitions of institution(s) with "consensual definitions" developed in the discourse with non-OIE traditions. I propose that there is still considerable analytical value in the OIE definitions, and that replacing them with non-OIE-originating concepts would unnecessarily carry OIE away from its methodological and philosophical roots. In the second installment of this paper (yet to be published), I proceed to demonstrate the analytical value these "reconciled" definitions have for the OIE project.     

生态伦理：从生态理想到生态文明

人与自然的和谐是一种生态理想,生态文明是生态理想的现实化,生态理想的现实化有赖于制度变革和制度安排,制度安排应当遵循生态伦理的基本原则。     

上海城市跨江发展过程及驱动机制研究

运用历史分析方法,借助RS、GIS等手段,对上海市跨黄浦江发展过程和机理进行分析和探讨。结果表明,上海市跨江发展经历了萌芽、发育、加速发展和稳定发展4个阶段;各阶段在空间形态、产业发展与布局、空间拓展强度等方面有较大差异;由于社会背景、经济水平不同,在不同发展阶段推动跨江发展的主导驱动力各不相同。而在加速发展过程中,城市发展需求是上海跨江发展的原动力,全球化、国家发展战略需求以及政策和市场机制等因素是其跨江发展的重要推动力。     

企业价值网低碳共生演化的序参量控制机理研究——“后危机时代”工业发展模式转型研究

每一次经济危机都会带来产业结构的大调整,并诱发工业发展模式的大转型。本文基于协同学的研究视角,选取了企业价值网作为研究对象,研究在后危机时代企业价值网实现低碳共生演化的序参量控制机理,进一步揭示企业价值网微观运行机理,为企业及政府在后危机时代实现企业价值网的低碳共生演化和低碳发展模式转型提供决策理论依据。