Playing safe in coordination games:: the roles of risk dominance, payoff dominance, and history of play

This paper presents results from a series of experiments designed to test the impact on subject behavior of changes in the risk dominance and payoff dominance characteristics of two player coordination games. The main finding is that changes in risk dominance significantly affect play of the subjects, whereas changes in the level of payoff dominance do not. Observed history of play also has an important influence on subject behavior, both when subjects are randomly rematched after each game and when they remain matched with the same individual for a sequence of games.     

中华民族的伟大复兴，呼唤马克思主义及其经济学的指导

中国的经济快速增长，正在和平崛起，但中国目前仍是一个发展中国家，人均GDP较低。中华民族需要复兴，但这需要马克思主义及其经济学的指导。西方经济学有其不可克服的阶级局限性，它维护私有制而反对公有制，承认差别而不主张共同富裕，主张自由竞争而反对政府调控，维护发达国家利益而无视发展中国家利益，更无解决“三农”问题之策，等等。所以，我们必须坚持特别是要发展马克思主义及其经济学，当然还需注意吸收西方经济学的可取之处。公有制与市场经济的结合、公平与效率的协调、市场调节与宏观调控的关系、城乡关系、地区关系、政企关系、官民关系等一系列重大问题，都需要马克思主义及其经济学进一步作出科学回答。     

技术变革与经济学研究的理论创新

以大机器为代表的工具技术变革和由此而诞生的现代工业经济体系,以及建立在工业及后工业时代基础之上的传统经济学理论,已经无法适应建立在数字技术、基因技术变革基础之上的新经济发展的实践。在传统经济学理论基础之上,构筑与新经济时代相适应的经济学理论体系,实现经济学研究的理论创新,是当代经济学人的重要历史使命。     

Don’t kill the messenger! Whistle-blowing in America — A review with recommendations

Whistle-blowing in America business and industry has increased as interest in ethical business behavior and the cost of unethical behavior have grown. Whistle-blowing plays the important role of helping to fill the gaps in the regulatory system that is designed to check the abuse of organizational power. However, the practice of whistle-blowing is controversial and whistle-blowers often pay a high price for their actions. Firms can engage in a number of actions to encourage whistle-blowing. Creating a climate that encourages employees to report organizational wrong doing and that protects the whistle-blower is critical. To create such a climate the organization must build trust and cooperation by educating employees in the benefits of ethical and legal behavior.     

改革开放实践中的马克思主义经济学--关于实施马克思主义理论研究和建设工程的几点思考

中国改革开放的目的在于走共同富裕之路，达到全面小康。这要求在实践中坚持立党为公、执政为民、以民为本，创造出社会主义条件下社会经济发展新模式。马克思主义经济学思想的发展是在全新的经济发展的物质基础发生转换时提出的，建设一个有诚信的市场体系，是发展经济的当务之急。任何改革都必须从立党为公、执政为民的高度来设计方案，以科学发展观评判结果。马克思主义经济学理论研究必须坚持它的阶级性、科学性、实践性的高度统一。     

论环境经济的市场机理

本文以现代产权经济理论为基础,以排污权交易为主要对象,论述了环境经济市场机理的形成基础、作用特点及交易边界等方面的问题。     

The Nonparametric Approach to Applied Welfare Analysis

Changes in total surplus are traditional measures of economic welfare. We propose necessary and sufficient conditions for rationalizing individual and aggregate consumer demand data with individual quasilinear and homothetic utility functions. Under these conditions, consumer surplus is a valid measure of consumer welfare. For nonmarketed goods, we propose necessary and sufficient conditions on input market data for efficient production, i.e. production at minimum cost. Under these conditions we derive a cost function for the nonmarketed good, where producer surplus is the area above the marginal cost curve. We are greatful to helpful remarks and comments of the referees and the editor. The work is partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, through Grant BEC2002-2130, the Generalitat de Catlaunya, through Grant 2005SGR-00454 and the Barcelona Economics Program (CREA).     

Robust political economy

This paper introduces the idea of “robust political economy.” In the context of political economic systems, “robustness” refers to a political economic arrangement's ability to produce social welfare-enhancing outcomes in the face of deviations from ideal assumptions about individuals' motivations and information. Since standard assumptions about complete and perfect information, instantaneous market adjustment, perfect agent rationality, political actor benevolence, etc., rarely, if ever actually hold, a realistic picture and accurate assessment of the desirability of alternative political economic systems requires an analysis of alternative systems' robustness. The Mises-Hayek critique of socialism forms the foundation for investigations of robustness that relax ideal informational assumptions. The Buchanan-Tullock public choice approach complements this foundation in forming the basis for investigations of robustness that relax ideal motivational assumptions. JEL Code B53, P16, P26     

Entrepreneurship,Austrian Economics,and the Quarrel Between Philosophy and Poetry

I consider whether entrepreneurship is a distinct category within economic theory. More generally, I consider the links between discussions of entrepreneurship and philosophic debates over the nature of the aesthetic. For instance, Kant's attempt to elevate the category of the aesthetic has much in common with Kirzner's attempt to elevate the concept of the entrepreneur. Shackle's theory of choice refers very directly to the notion of the aesthetic. Theories of the aesthetic and theories of the entrepreneur have common strengths and weaknesses.     

Simon's and Siegel's responses to the 'mixed strategy anomaly': a missed case in the sensitivity of economics to empirical evidence

In some of their papers published in the 1950s, Herbert Simonand Sidney Siegel responded to the so-called mixed strategyanomaly in ways which deserve more attention. They producednot only (i) immediate defences of the economic theory of theirown time, but also (ii) ideas and solutions that have laterturned out to be significant contributions to the developmentof the economic theory of choice and decision-making and theseparation of experimental economics from experimental psychology.These observations suggest that economics can be more responsiveto empirical anomalies than has been assumed. Furthermore, knowledgeof the desirable responsiveness to anomalies can provide meansof avoiding the non-desirable immunity to anomalies.