Journal of Economic Issues articles from December 2002

Journal of Economic Issues archives from December 2002

Intended versus unintended consequences: evaluating the New Orleans living wage ordinance.
December 1, 2002... In February 2002, citizens of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, endorsed with a 63 percent majority a ballot initiative that proposed to raise the minimum wage within the city by one dollar above the federal minimum wage. If this proposal were...

Wages in the public interest: insights from Thorstein Veblen and J. M. Clark.
December 1, 2002... The issue of a living wage has generated considerable controversy since the first ordinance was passed in Baltimore in 1994 (ACORN 2001). The living wage controversy, like earlier disputes over a minimum wage and a family wage, is fundamentally...

Analyzing income convergence at the county level: the case of development in Central Appalachia.
December 1, 2002... Theoretical modeling and analysis of long-run economic growth have enjoyed a renaissance, spurred by innovations in theory and the development of large sets of historical data (Barro 1991; Barro and Sala-i-Martin 1995; Baumol 1986; Dowrick and...

Institutional investors: the external costs of a successful innovation.
December 1, 2002... One of the most prominent and important changes in financial affairs during recent decades is the surge of "institutional investors," or "institutionals." This group comprises all investors in financial markets which are neither private...

Coordination and competition in small business policy: a comparative analysis of Australia and Denmark.
December 1, 2002... Small business policy has become a major focus of industrial policy initiatives in the OECD countries (Storey and Tether 1998). A range of policy measures are utilized in support of small business, including direct financial support, the...

The organizational effect of the economic system.
December 1, 2002... Why Do Countries Show Consistently Different Organizations of industry? A peculiar mix of firms of different type and size and characteristic configurations of economic actors are distinctive attributes of the organizational structure of...

Dewey: back to the future.(John Dewey seen as part of the intellectual heritage of institutional economics)
December 1, 2002... Institutional economics, especially the tradition associated with Clarence Ayres, claims John Dewey as an important part of its intellectual heritage. Many institutional economists rely entirely on Ayres' interpretation of Dewey. The following...

Schmoller, Durkheim, and Old European institutionalist economics.
December 1, 2002... Two Institutionalist Concepts In this paper we shall consider the institutional theories of two outstanding European scholars: Gustav Schmoller (1838-1917) and Emile Durkheim (1858-1917). (1) Schmoller's and Durkheim's concepts of...

Alternative visions of change in Douglass North's new institutionalism.
December 1, 2002... The aim of this essay is to explore the implications of the concept of "gradualism" in Douglass C. North's recent works. Such a concept is mostly implied in his discourse, as a logical consequence (or premise) of his reasoning, but despite its...

Theorizing the "third sphere": a critique of the persistence of the "Economistic fallacy".
December 1, 2002... This is a methodological essay on the different ways of theorizing the set of activities that can be captured by neither the price mechanism of the markets nor by governmental transactions. As did Arjo Klamer and Peter-Wim Zuidhof (1998), we...

Sabotage versus public choice: sports as a case study for interest group theory.(government subsidizes professional sports facilities)
December 1, 2002... Most interest groups must look with no small degree of envy at the quite remarkable success of professional sports teams in the United States when it comes to attracting public transfers. Out of twenty-one professional sports facilities under...

Is Fagg Foster still relevant? (Notes and Communications).(on occasion of granting of Fagg Foster Memorial Award in economics)
December 1, 2002... Remarks at the Fagg Foster Memorial Session, Economics Department, University of Denver, April 26, 2002 My congratulations to the 2002 recipients of the Foster Memorial Award: Kelly Stearman, Benjamin Jacobs, and Frederick Schumann. It is...

Durkheim and Veblen on the social nature of individualism. (Notes and Communications).(Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) compared with Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929))
December 1, 2002... A large literature interprets the lives and work of Frenchman Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and American Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), but no systematic comparison of their thought exists. (1) Despite their importance to the history of economics...

Class, Political Economy, and institutionalism: toward a rapprochement?(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... An extended review of two books: The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret by Michael Zweig. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press. 2001. ISBN: 0801487277, $14.95. 208 pages. Political Economy and Contemporary Capitalism: Radical...

Unequal Partners: A Primer on Globalization. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Unequal Partners: A Primer on Globalization by William K. Tabb. New York: The New Press. 2002. Paper, ISBN: 1565847229, $16.95. 273 pages. Professor Tabb is not against globalization. He is against unequal globalization. Tabb is an...

The Social Economics of Health Care. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... The Social Economics of Health Care, edited by John B. Davis. London: Routledge. 2001. Cloth, ISBN: 0415207657, $110.304 pages. This collection of papers is a valuable contribution to a growing literature in alternative views of health care...

The Case of the Minimum Wage: Competing Policy Models. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... The Case of the Minimum Wage: Competing Policy Models by Oren Levin-Waldman. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. 2001. Cloth, ISBN: 079144855X, $62.50. 236 pages. Many academics, writers, and journalists have asked why the...

Capitalism and Its Economics: A Critical History. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Capitalism and Its Economics: A Critical History by Douglas Dowd. London and Sterling, Va.: Pluto Press. 2000. Paper, ISBN: 0745316433, $24.95. 319 pages. Enron Corporation's December 2001 bankruptcy initiated the latest crisis in...

Reflection Without Rules. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Reflection without Rules by Wade Hands. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001. Cloth, ISBN: 0521497159, $92.00. 492 pages. Reflection without Rules has broad historical and topical scope, covering about a century of the history of...

The Evolution of Austrian Economics: From Menger to Lachmann. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... The Evolution of Austrian Economics: From Menger to Lachmann by Sandye Gloria-Palermo. London and New York: Routledge. 1999, Cloth, ISBN: 1840646942, $100.00. 186 pages. This book is intended primarily as a contribution to the history of...

The Lost Art of Economics. (Book Reviews).(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... The Lost Art of Economics. By David Colander. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. 2001. ISBN: 1840646942, $75.203 pages. Alfred Marshall argued that economics is a social science. Thorstein Veblen argued that economics should be a modern science...