Economics and underdetermination: a case study of urban land and housing economics

Underdetermination, associated with the Duhem–Quine thesis,is a familiar if under-researched theme in economics. In thelight of this, we examine the development of urban land andhousing economics. Through its Cartesian dualistic delineationof theory and data, the contemporary mainstream approach appearsunable to circumvent the problem of underdetermination. In effect,it employs the strong version of Duhem–Quine in its retentionof the assumption of a single, unitary competitive market (andassociated access–space trade-off). Conversely, we highlightthe affinity of Ely's (and the later Columbia School's) approachto pragmatists Dewey and Peirce, which provides a more fruitfulbasis for explanation.     

Richard Y.Lee：Act today to Presume Tomorrow

Like many other entrepreneurs, Richard Lee＇s road to success is full of adventures and difficulties.     

Of lessees,lessors, and discount rates and whether pigs have wings

Recent articles on leasing suggest five principles that should aid analysts to understand this durable, much misunderstood financial instrument. The principles are 1) the lessor must be happy too, 2) the operating inflows have nothing to do with the case, 3) financial, like physical, matter tends to be preserved, 4) debt is a function of after-tax flows, and 5) inability to use tax shelters cuts two ways. In this paper we illustrate these principles and use illustrations to demonstrate that each of these principles has merit. We argue as well that the impression, often left by the principles, that leasing seldom benefits all parties to the transaction is incorrect.     

Political risk analysis for Canada and Mexico

A new methodology for political risk analysis was developed and applied to Canada and Mexico. The ideas of an interdisciplinary team of corporate and country experts were obtained in mid-1982 via a two-round Delphi inquiry on socioeconomic change and a survey on business contingencies in Canada and Mexico. The information provided by the panelists was used to describe possible future conditions in Canada and Mexico in the context of alternative U.S. and international conditions.     

A new approach for measuring wage ignorance in the labor market

In this article we offer a new econometric approach to the evaluation of information content within labor markets. We define ignorance as the difference between the wage (price) individuals earn (pay) with full information and the wage (price) they actually receive (pay) given their limited information stocks, and we make use of a frontier production function approach to measure ignorance for various markets. Our empirical results are highly consistent with the analytical results in six areas of search theory. Furthermore, our results suggest a new interpretation of the role of unions.     

Modelling organizational buying as a sequence of decisions

Organizational buying consists of several stages, each of which yields a decision. These decisions may be linked together in a sequence to form a simple yet powerful model that marketers can use to predict outcomes of proposed marketing programs and to diagnose problems in existing programs. The model may be used with qualitative or quantitative data. The model helps both practitioners and scholars to identify research needs and opportunities.     

Florida in the Global South: How Eurocentrism Obscures Global Urban Challenges—and What We Can Do about It

According to Richard Florida, the world is in the grip of a ‘New Urban Crisis’. In his most recent book Florida recounts a visit to Medellín that provoked an epiphany in which he realized that the New Urban Crisis is global in scope. Unfortunately, Florida's discovery of the global South is informed by a deeply Eurocentric understanding of urbanization. This leads him to conclude that Southern cities should ‘unleash’ creativity, and he proposes that the United States should develop a global urban policy that would export a version of American urbanism. In this essay we deconstruct Florida's notion of the New Urban Crisis and show that its Eurocentric assumptions obscure the very real environmental, economic and political challenges facing cities in the global South and their residents.     

Competition in government and industry procurement contracting

This study explores government and industry procurement official's perception of inhibiting factor importance to competition in Federal contracting. Within the government sector as well as the industrial sector there are no significant differences in perceived factor importance. However, between the industry and government sectors significant differences in perceived factor importance do exist. The study also reveals some commonality of factors identified by both sectors as important inhibitors to competition.     

Cobden's stance on the currency and the political forces behind the approval of the Bank Charter Act of 1844

Contemporary scholars consider the banking legislation of the first half of the nineteenth century, to have inhibited the development of British industry, However, some doubts about this conception should have arisen due to Richard Cobden's stance on the currency question in general and on the Bank Charter Act of 1844 in particular. Cobden, who is usually viewed as a representative of industrial interests, was expected to oppose the Bank Act. However, he did not.

This paper attempts to show how can Cobden's views regarding monetary policy be reconciled with his stand as one of the most prominent leaders of industry at the time.     

Richard Kahn's fellowship dissertation: The fate of ‘The Economics of the Short Period’

Abstract

In 1930, Richard Kahn became a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, on the basis of his book-length dissertation ‘The Economics of the Short Period.’ It was finally published in the 1980s. Why did he not publish his thesis in the 1930s, when it would have made a substantial impact? We present two arguments. In 1932/33, Joan Robinson published many of Kahn's main ideas, rendering subsequent publication by him derivative. And by the mid-1930s, Kahn discovered that parts of his dissertation left untouched by Robinson were no longer new or distinctive because of rapid progress in research on imperfect and monopolistic competition.