Back to Buchanan? Explorations of welfare and subjectivism in behavioral economics

In light of behavioral findings regarding inconsistent individual decision-making, economists have begun to re-conceptualize the notion of welfare. One prominent account is the preference purification approach (PP), which attempts to reconstruct preferences from choice data based on a normative understanding of neoclassical rationality. Using Buchanan’s notion of creative choice, this paper criticizes PP’s epistemic, ontological, and psychological assumptions. It identifies PP as a static position that assumes the satisfaction of given ‘true preferences’ as the normative standard for welfare. However, following Buchanan, choice should be understood dynamically as a process whereby preferences constantly regenerate. Accordingly, the meaning of welfare emerges from an ongoing quest for individual self-constitution. If this holds true, then rationality axioms cannot serve as a priori normative standards. Instead, creative imagination and learning processes must remain central to any understanding of welfare in economics.     

关于奥地利学派制度变迁理论方法论的初步分析

奥地利学派的制度变迁理论其方法论主要有三大"基石"构成,即,主观主义、方法论个人主义、演进理性主义。它对于其学派的制度变迁理论的渲化具有特殊意义。     

不正之风与建国初期的当代文坛

本文勾勒了建国初期主观主义、宗派主义、官僚主义等不正之风在当代文坛的表现，分析了不正之风产生的原因及给当代文学造成的危害。     

门格尔的经济学方法论

卡尔·门格尔开启了奥地利学派经济学家重视方法论和哲学基础的传统,并与德国历史学派进行了西方经济学发展史上第一次方法论争论。他的经济学方法论主要体现在如下几方面：基于因果关系的主观主义、以经济学为典型的社会科学研究中密切结合演绎法和归纳法并给予演绎法应有的重视、赞同方法论个人主义,发展出社会制度形成与演化的有机秩序理论。     

Bioeconomics as economics from a Darwinian perspective

Bioeconomics—the merging of views from biology and economics—on the one hand invites the 'export' of situational logic and sophisticated optimization developed in economics into biology. On the other hand, human economic activity and its evolution, not least over the past few centuries, may be considered an instance for fruitfully applying ideas from evolutionary biology and Darwinian theory. The latter perspective is taken in the present paper. Three different aspects are discussed in detail. First, the Darwinian revolution provides an example of a paradigm shift which contrasts most significantly with the 'subjectivist revolution' that took place at about the same time in economics. Since many of the features of the paradigmatic change that were introduced into the sciences by Darwinism may be desirable for economics as well, the question is explored whether the Darwinian revolution can be a model for introducing a new paradigm in economic theory. Second, the success of Darwinism and its view of evolution have induced economists who are interested in an evolutionary approach in economics to borrow, more or less extensively, concepts and tools from Darwinian theory. Particularly prominent are constructions based on analogies to the theory of natural selection. Because several objections to such analogy constructions can be raised, generalization rather than analogy is advocated here as a research strategy. This means to search for abstract features which all evolutionary theories have in common. Third, the question of what a Darwinian world view might mean for assessing long term economic evolution is discussed. Such a view, it is argued, can provide a point of departure for reinterpreting the hedonistic approach to economic change and development. On the basis of such an interpretation bioeconomics may not only go beyond the optimization-cum-equilibrium paradigm currently prevailing in economics. It may also mean adding substantial qualifications to the subjectivism the neoclassical economists, at the turn of the century, were proud to establish in the course of their scientific revolution.     

门格尔的经济学方法论

卡尔·门格尔开启了奥地利学派经济学家重视方法论和哲学基础的传统,并与德国历史学派进行了西方经济学发展史上第一次方法论争论。他的经济学方法论主要体现在如下几方面:基于因果关系的主观主义、以经济学为典型的社会科学研究中密切结合演绎法和归纳法并给予演绎法应有的重视、赞同方法论个人主义,发展出社会制度形成与演化的有机秩序理论。     

Constitutional Implications of Radical Subjectivism

This paper examines the role that creative choice, as stressed by Shackle, plays in the generation of economic value. In particular, we evaluate the relationships between creative choice, economic value and the institutional structure of an economy.     

Regulations and Technology Diffusion: Cross Subsidies and Digital Infrastructure Creation

Using contemporary historical data, the analysis has examined the impact of cross‐subsidization on technology diffusion within telecommunications networks for local exchange sector telecommunications firms in the United States for the years 1995 to 2000. Firms obtaining greater cross‐subsidies engage in greater technology diffusion via network modernization using digital technologies. Contingent on the institutional setting, cross subsidies have risen. These amounts have been put to relevant use in the diffusion of technology via deployment of digital infrastructure. The principles of subsidization are considered negatively as they have presumed anti‐competitive consequences. In technology diffusion they have played a positive role, as the evidence shows. From a radical subjectivist perspective, cross subsidies generate financial capital for firms, which permits them to deploy high quality technology investments such as broadband and these investments can be used for entrepreneurial experiments in providing several customer services.