Fiscal,financial and monetary foundations for the formation of nation states in the west compared to imperial states in the east c.1415–c.1839

This speech introduces O’Brien’s research approach to the divergence debate and presents the fiscal capacities of the states as the key condition for ushering in modern economic growth in the pre-industrialization West. The concerns of pre-modern European states (1415–1839) were not with economic development, but with external security and internal stability of their kingdoms. Mercantilism prepared European states for capitalist industrialization. Historical evidence supports the hypothesis that effective command and control over sovereign revenues were what gave Britain and other European states the advantage over their oriental counterparts in providing public goods of external security and internal stability, which made the divergence in economic development inevitable.     

Enclave tourism versus agritourism: the economic debate

The approaches to tourism development vary in different settings. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the conversation on the relative economic advantages of enclave and agritourism in a small island context. This study explicitly discusses these two forms of tourism in the island of Mauritius where tourism is a key pillar of the local economy. This study uses a novel format where stakeholder perspectives are reviewed based on a simulated debate between two sets of advocates. The debate arguments rely on a grounded methodology where in-depth interviews were conducted to gather the opinions of three substantial groups of stakeholders: notably, government officials, business interests and local community members. The multi-faceted arguments are built on the identified local concerns and perspectives and provide a forum for the voices of diverse participants from the tourism world of Mauritius. The format offers a rich, realistic set of arguments exploring the economic merits of both forms of tourism in a specific setting. Five main themes influence the economic support for tourism development: certainty of tourism income, scale of tourism development, employment, regional disparity and the challenge of change.     

Adam Smith and the “rich country–poor country” debate: eighteenth-century views on economic progress and international trade

Despite his emphasis on economic development, Adam Smith did not participate in the contemporary “rich country–poor country” debate. Some see the absenteeism as a deficiency, while others assume that Smith propounds a theory of uneven development and agrees with the divergence argument. In this article, Smith's own theory is expounded and related to the contentious points of the “rich country–poor country” debate. It is concluded that Smith's theory does not fit easily into the categories of this debate. He rather takes up a third position, being neither a proponent of pure convergence nor of pure divergence.     

Benchmarking as a Tool for the Modernisation of Local Government

This paper examines benchmarking as a tool of the modernisation process in local government and the contradictory tensions in the Best Value scheme are explored. Benchmarking is shown to encapsulate the dichotomous nature of a modernising philosophy which espouses innovation and local solutions alongside the government's centralising tendencies. One consequence is the advancement of 'compulsory' and 'defensive' modes of benchmarking with local authorities benchmarking for external accountability reasons; issues of tangible improvement are secondary concerns. These tensions are viewed as irreconcilable, the implication is that local government will need to carefully manage and evaluate its benchmarking activities.     

关于模拟辩论的几点看法

模拟辩论既是辩论的一种类型,要符合辩论的一般要求,又是一种比赛项目,要遵循比赛的基本要求,还是对其他辩论类型的模拟,要具有现实性和人道精神.模拟辩论的这些特点要求我们既要重视辩论的目的性,又不能过分计较辩论结果;而应该兼顾两个方面,使之相互促进.     

The “Treasury View”: An (un-)expected return?

Abstract

By examining the rhetorical use of an old piece of economic theory by some contemporary economists, this paper intends to report on “how today's economists conduct a public policy debate”. This paper is neither a scholarly history of the interwar debate nor a sophisticated critique of current economic policy. It is an attempt to link the policy and theoretical arguments of two similar debates separated by nearly 80 years. The second part of the paper demonstrates that the (un-)expected return of the Treasury View is a case study illustrating two very different modelling strategies.     

BP辩论模式对训练大学生思辨能力的作用

BP辩论是仿照英国议会开会议事模式的一种英语辩论形式,通过组织这种活动能够有效培养英语专业大学生分析、评价、阐述、推理、解释、自我调节的思辨能力。     

TRADE,MERCANTILISM AND NATION‐BUILDING

Most treatments of protectionism by economists try to account for the departure on a case‐by‐case basis. However, protectionism is often an element in a systematic political economy. This was developed by authors such as List, and persists today. Debating it requires normative as well as analytical arguments in a political economy approach.     

The Idea of Culture in the Social Sciences

An Institutionalist critique that draws from selected contributions of Veblen and Myrdal initiates a convergence debate. Challenged is a Neoclassical interpretation of economic processes expected to lead toward a catching up with respect to per capita output of Germany's poorer eastern region with the richer western region. Economic method is considered, and the Institutionalist School of Thought rooted in contributions of Veblen as well as Myrdal is touted for offering higher levels of explanatory power than the Neoclassical School. We challenge the usefulness of laws in Economic Science, and especially their applicability to the empirical economy. Instead of automatic forces driving a meliorative trend, we seek to establish that human agency and policy play determining roles in affecting economic and societal outcomes in Germany's eastern region.     

Brunner and Leijonhufvud: friends or foes?

Karl Brunner and Axel Leijonhufvud constantly pointed out the prominence of imperfect information in macroeconomic analysis. This paper argues that, despite strong oppositions related to their rival schools of thought, this emphasis on informational problems led them to adopt similar views on many theoretical and methodological issues. These issues encompass the perception of the economic agent in society, the theory of price inflexibility and unemployment, the role of relative prices, the importance of signal-extraction problems and the position within the Marshall-Walras divide.