From Mill to Weber: the meaning of the concept of economic rationality

Weber recognized explicitly that his concept of ideal-type is directly borrowed from economic theory and as it is commonly admitted from the German-speaking ‘marginalist school’. Nevertheless, the construction of ideal-types reminds greatly the definition of economic rationality made by John Stuart Mill, who also built up a concept to explain, in individualistic terms, the real world in a given historical and geographical context. The position defended here is that Weber generalizes Mill's methodological proposition of concept formation regarding economic rationality to accomplish his much larger project of determining the social factors responsible for the rationalization of the Western civilization.     

Moral Dilemmas and Factual Claims: Some Comments on Paul Krugman's Defense of Cheap Labor

In 1998, Paul Krugman published a collection of short polemical essays on economic themes under the title The Accidental Theorist And Other Dispatches from the Dismal Science . Among those essays was one entitled "In Praise of Cheap Labor: Bad Jobs at Bad Wages Are Better than No Jobs at All". This brief article is an extended comment on that piece, which happened to contain factual claims central to the empirical research program of one of us, and ethical and political issues of concern to us both. Our view is that in his essay on cheap labor, (as indeed in many of the others in the collection), Krugman makes some pungent and telling criticisms of other writers on economic matters and—in this particular case—of some analytically weak and ethically dubious claims which are frequently espoused by contemporary anti-capitalist and anti-globalization radicals conventionally regarded as being on the political left. But at the same time—or so we shall argue—his own polemic is, in important ways, undermined by the narrowness of the theoretical framework within which it is constructed, and most especially, by Krugman's almost total lack of an historical perspective in which to see either contemporary debates over global capitalism or the ethical issues at their heart.     

Conceptual Displacement: From the Natural to the Social

This paper distinguishes between epistemological naturalism, which it supports, and ontological naturalism, which it opposes. It sketches the emergence of anti-naturalist social theory among nineteenth-century African-American intellectuals and its refinement by twentieth-century feminists. These movements challenged ontological naturalism in the social sciences by substituting social constructionist concepts of race and gender for naturalist ones. Economics awaits a similar liberation. The paper identifies four naturalist concepts—atomism, determinism and biologically determined race and gender differences—as structuring mainstream economic theory. It concludes that ontological naturalism is inconsistent with the application of the epistemology of the natural sciences to the social sciences.     

Women's Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economic Progress of Women in America,by Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Christine Stolba

We analyze a comprehensive set of labor economics and industrial relations articles by authorship affiliation (economist vs. noneconomist) and discuss the relative openness of economists to variety in methodology and data sources.     

“国家创新系统”方法论的讨论

为什么有的国家取得了技术创新、经济发展的巨大成功,而另外一些国家却遭遇到种种困难？国家创新系统的提出便是为了研究解决这一问题的。本文从国家创新系统的提出,它的政策功能以及国家间的比较研究等方面讨论了国家创新系统作为方法论的重要意义。     

关于转轨经济的初步研究

社会主义国家始于20世纪50年代的变革探索已延续了半个世纪，世界上30多个国家、1/4的人口卷入了这场探索，这些国家可以统称为转轨经济国家，它们的经济运行既不能简单地用发达经济、发展中经济来界定，也不适合用市场经济，计划经济来界定，而是体现出特有的转轨经济共性，转轨经济应该成为一个独特的研究对象，转轨经济的研究不能局限于从传统理论或已有体制的视角出发，而应该立足于转轨经济国家已经走过的实际历程。归纳可以作为规律性的东西，寻求方法论上的创新，本文对开展这一研究的初步思考以整个转轨经济国家为背景，而以中国经济转轨为个案。     

The estimation of union wage differentials and the impact of methodological choices

This paper demonstrates that methodological differences can matter a lot in the estimation of union/non-union wage differentials. Using individual-level data from the 1991 Wave of the British Household Panel Survey and a model evolved from replicating six existing British studies, we find that the model specification adopted has an important impact on the estimated differential and that the choice of which group means to use when evaluating the mean differential in multi-equation models is of considerable importance. There are also important differences between membership and coverage differentials and the earnings measure used and sample selected also make a difference. However, apart from firm size, the contents of the control vector used is not found to be of great importance.     

“统计学是研究方法论的科学”之说辨正——与杨缅昆、游玲杰先生商榷

本文从科学研究的任务是探求客观事物发展规律的观点出发,论述了规律的涵义,统计学是探求客观规律的科学,而背离客观规律的统计科研成果都是不非科学的。     

Objects in the rearview mirror may appear closer than they are

This paper addresses the use of historical methods in the context of retail management studies. It acknowledges the research activity which has already taken place and the number of calls for further research which have been made. However, it also notes that historical method still remains an under-exploited means of understanding retailing. The paper explores the problems of integrating historical method within retail studies and the inhibitors which have restricted the use of this approach to research. The paper explores the problems associated with methodological assumptions and the future direction which historical studies may take if they are to make a contribution to retail management studies.