Skidelsky's Keynes: a review essay

Abstract

The paper examines the pro-work doctrines of four writers who were connected with the ‘utopian’ and ‘romantic’ critique of classical economics in the nineteenth century. These authors are Charles Fourier, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and William Morris. All four argued that the problem of work aversion stemmed from the existing institutions of capitalist society, and could be overcome by the creation of an alternative system of production. Their aim was to create a future society in which work could be experienced as a positive activity. The paper argues that the views of the aforementioned authors provided an important counterchallenge to the classical economists' conception of work as a disutility.     

A Sraffian interpretation of classical monetary controversies

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the contrasting views of inflation, exchange rate misalignments and determinants of gold flows held by different branches of the classical school during the first half of the nineteenth century. The properties of money neutrality and money endogeneity within the classical system are studied by reinterpreting these controversies through the analytical framework of the surplus approach as reconstructed by Sraffa [Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960] and his followers.     

Generalized beta distributions for describing and analysing intraday stock market data: testing the U-shape pattern

There is an impressive body of empirical evidence which indicates the existence of an intraday U-shaped curve in stock prices. In an effort to shed additional light on the U-shaped curve a new procedure for U-shape testing is introduced. From careful analysis of intraday data it is observed that minimum or maximum stock prices can occur several times during the day. Here, attention is focused on the first time during the day that the maximum or minimum stock price occurred. Because of the importance of the first time during the day that the maximum or minimum stock price occurred, an attempt is made to model these two characteristics with probability distributions. The objective of this study is to use a generalized beta distribution to examine the intradaily behaviour of stocks, using closing stock prices for each one-minute interval, using data from Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). This generalized beta distribution has not been used before to model U-shaped behaviour. The results are consistent with the intraday U-shaped curves, i.e. the time to first maximum (or minimum) stock prices follows a U-shaped pattern. In addition, some potential applications of the generalized beta distribution are discussed and exemplified by analysing the relationship between herd behaviour and U-shaped.     

推动先进生产力发展是中国的必然选择

要认清当代先进生产力,首先要解决方法论问题。只有正确认识和理解先进生产力及其现代特征,才能代表先进生产力的发展要求。先进生产力是指那些先进的科学技术含量高的生产力,是由具有现代思想观念、现代价值追求、现代科技知识的高素质的劳动者所掌握和运用的生产力,而先进生产力的发展要求是指适应先进生产力发展的生产关系和上层建筑。     

The Outsourcing of Manufacturing and the Rise of Giant Global Contractors: A Marxian Approach to Some Recent Transformations of Global Value Chains

This article aims to show that the Marxian ‘law of value’ can provide solid foundations for the comprehension of the constitution and dynamics of Global Value Chains (GVC). It offers an explanation of the social processes of ‘value creation and capture’ within a chain based on the system-wide motion of global capital accumulation. A firm connection is thus established between the particular dynamics internal to each industry and the general dynamics of the ‘system as a whole’, which is, precisely, where the greatest weakness of the GVC approach lies. Furthermore, the usefulness of those general theoretical insights is then shown through a more empirical discussion of recent transformations in the composition and governance structure of GVC resulting from two interrelated processes: the tendency for a growing de-linking between innovation and manufacturing and the rise of highly concentrated global contractors. These phenomena have paradigmatically developed in the electronics industry, giving rise to the formation of the so-called modular or turnkey production networks. The discussion therefore focuses on that particular industrial sector.     

论我国行政强制程序谦抑

在国家行政管理中,行政强制也是一种有限的社会资源。行政强制以及实施程序的谦抑性也就成为现代行政强制程序所追求的价值目标,也是行政强制立法者所应当具备的理念。程序的存在是对权力的规制、抑制、平衡、指引,程序强调限制恣意和防止权力滥用,可以防止立法或者行政机关觊觎专擅,侵害民权的坚实堡垒。我国行政强制法中所体现的程序谦抑,结合我国社会实践中特殊典型的案例,对我国行政强制程序进行研究思考,提出完善我国行政强制程序的谦抑性的构想。     

The Quantitative Law of Network Information Growth

Based on the assumptions of ＂information transfer＂ and ＂information creation＂, this paper educes the multiplied growth mechanism of network information： that the gross quantity of network information （Im） is about n times as much as the quantity of real network information （Ir）. According to this theoretical model, we give a uniform explanation to all kinds of information growth models in existence, and put forward some proposals, such as ＂forbidding information transfer＂ and ＂building up the central information base＂, to control the repeated information flooding on the network and facilitate the full use of network information.     

论生物安全法之宽容原则

宽容的法律化不是一个简单的移植过程,而是在法律的层面上如何赋予宽容的法律含义,并且能够行之有效地指导立法和法律实践的借鉴和修正的过程。以传统主客体语境为特征的法理学,始终将自然、生态置放于权利客体的法律地位,从而难以在人类与自然以及生态安全保护方面取得突破性的进步与拓展。宽容原则在生物安全法中的确立,旨在彰显生物安全立法的安全价值,强调在尊重现代生物技术价值正当性的同时,将生物安全风险程度降到最低,在保障人类基本权益的同时,强调对自然资源、生态系统安全的尊重和保护,突出宽容原则在生物安全法中的人性化表达和生态化变迁,在合理的限度内确立生物安全法律规范体系。     

Productivity and Employment in the Information Economy: What Kaldor’s and Verdoorn’s Growth Laws Can Teach the US

During the last decade of the 20th century the US economy experienced the longest economic boom since World War II. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are seen as one of the main reasons for this development and it is still an open question how ICT will affect growth and employment in the future. To evaluate this process Kaldors growth laws, especially Verdoorns law are reconsidered. It will be discussed which changes in the Verdoorn-Coefficient (VC) and the employment threshold (ET) can be expected due to ICT. Induced technical progress and increasing returns to scale could make future economic growth to be less labor-intensive. A simple OLS estimation using data for the US non-farm sector indicates that the VC increased in the second half of the 1990s. Thus, more output growth is required to keep employment constant.The author gratefully acknowledges the most valuable comments from two anonymous referees and the participants of the Annual Meeting of the Austrian Economic Association (NOeG) at the Vienna University of Economics (WU), May 21–22, 2004. Any remaining errors are my own.     

Testing the significance and the non-linearity of the Phillips trade-off in the Euro Area

This paper tests the significance and the non-linearity of the Phillips trade-off in the aggregate Euro Area, in an unobserved components model of stochastic NAIRU and trend output featuring the Phillips equation and the Okun law as main identifying equations, with quarterly data for 1970:I-2002:III. The Phillips curve turns out to be linear and its trade-off statistically significant, while non-linearity shows up in the Okun relation. The results prove to be robust to alternative lag length structures of the model, and to alternative non-linear functional forms. The trend-cycle decompositions estimated with the model capture the main features of the Euro Area’s recent macroeconomic record.First version received: 1 September 2003 / Final version received: June 2004CEMPRE - Centro de Estudos Macroeconómicos e Previsão - is supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the Programa Operacional Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (POCTI) of the Quadro Comunitário de Apoio III, which is financed by FEDER and Portuguese funds.We thank comments on earlier versions by Fabio Canova, Miguel St Aubyn, Alvaro Almeida, Pete Richardson, Kevin Ross, and two anonymous referees. We acknowledge James D. Hamilton’s help with the confidence bands. The usual disclaimer applies.