Journal of Economic Issues articles from December 2004

Journal of Economic Issues archives from December 2004

Embedded economies, democracy, and the public interest.
December 1, 2004... Over the past four decades, observers have lamented the lack of participation in democratic processes among large segments of the U.S. population. (1) This lack of political engagement seems particularly puzzling, given the growing gap between...

Designing an environmental mitigation banking institution for linking the size of economic activity to environmental capacity.
December 1, 2004... While heterodox economics streams have widely recognized the role of institutions in influencing the behavior of an economy, a large part of the writings in institutional economics is devoted to interpreting classical thought on institutions...

Deeply rooted traditions and the will to change--problematic conflicts in three swedish health care organizations.
December 1, 2004... The Need for Change in Swedish Health Care Organizations The health care sector in Sweden has had two major problems to deal with during the last decade. The first is long waiting lists at hospitals, and the second is recurrent deficits in...

On operationalisms and economics.
December 1, 2004... Most writers on economic methodology tell essentially the same story about "operationalism." Operationalism was the philosophy of science popularized by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Percy Bridgman; the main text was his Logic of Modern...

Veblen and Sweezy on monopoly capital, crises, conflict, and the state.
December 1, 2004... In the 1960s and 1970s there was a revival of non-neoclassical political economy, or heterodox economics, in many nations which has continued to this day. Original institutionalists started their own organization, the Association for...

Katharine Coman: America's first woman institutional economist and a champion of education for citizenship.
December 1, 2004... Who was the only woman among the American Economic Association founders in September 1885? Who, in the early 1890s, became the first American woman professor of statistics? Who authored, in 1905, the first major industrial history of the United...

An evaluation of the role of the state and property rights in Douglass North's analysis.
December 1, 2004... This paper intends to show that the role Douglass North has attributed in his latest works to the modern State in the working of economic system permits the development of a political economy theory which joins the political and economic...

Fear prudence: Hobbes and Williamson on the morality of contracting.
December 1, 2004... Theories of new institutionalism, and specifically Oliver Williamson's theory of transaction cost economics, argue that complete presentiment in contracts is an abstract design of classical economics, not a pragmatic product of contingent...

The Russian obshchina as an economic institution.(Notes and Communications)
December 1, 2004... Anton Oleinik's article "Model of Network Capitalism: Post-Soviet Evidence" suggested that there was an ongoing continuity between some prerevolutionary Russian economic institutions and some post-Soviet economic practices, in particular...

On universal versus specific categories of network capitalism: a reply to V. Barnett's note.(Notes and Communications)
December 1, 2004... In his note, Vincent Barnett raises an important issue: how to set a limit with respect to analogies while inquiring into history or making cross-cultural comparisons. Historians and sociologists are especially skeptical about finding...

Dewey and Ayres, Webb and DeGregori: at odds over technical terms.(Notes and Communications)(John Dewey)(James Webb)(Thomas DeGregori)(Clarence Ayres)
December 1, 2004... Science uses its technical names efficiently. Such names serve to mark off certain portions of the scientific subjectmatter as provisionally acceptable, thereby freeing the worker's attention for closer consideration of other portions that...

Reply to Baldwin Ranson: new continua are not a substitute for Deweyan inquiry.
December 1, 2004... I appreciate Baldwin Ranson's care and irenic intent in his comments on my article and subsequent commentary (Webb 2002; DeGregori 2003; Webb 2003). But I must reject his premise that terminological inadequacy is the primary problem affecting...

More than definitions: real differences that matter.(Notes and Communications)
December 1, 2004... In his thoughtful and provocative submission, "Dewey and Ayres, Webb and DeGregori: At Odds over Technical Terms," Baldwin Ranson notes the lack of meeting of the minds and hopes to work out some compromise between us by generating a matrix of...

Outcomes assessment in trade policy analysis: a note on the welfare propositions of the "gains from trade".(Notes and Communications)
December 1, 2004... It is rarely acknowledged that any of a number of what ethicists term objects of value could be used for outcomes assessment in trade policy analysis. These might include consumption of various commodities and services, workplace qualities,...

An analysis and comparison of wheat production competitiveness between China and the USA.(Notes and Communications)(wheat production cost)
December 1, 2004... Before China joined the World Trade Organization, there was a prevailing viewpoint for a long time in both China and the United States that U.S. wheat was more competitive in price than that of China. As a result, U.S. farmers held a high...

Institutions and land use conflicts.(Notes and Communications)
December 1, 2004... Joshua M. Duke's recent JEI article on institutions and land use conflicts (2004) runs along lines largely congruent with my own thinking, though his excellent general theory is far better thought out and written than I could do. I applaud his...

The Economic Dynamics of Environmental Law.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... The Economic Dynamics of Environmental Law, by David M. Driesen. Cambridge: MIT Press. 2003. Cloth, ISBN 0262042118, $62.00; paper, ISBN 0262541394, $24.95. 268 pages. Institutionalists have a longstanding interest in technology and...

The Decline of U.S. Labor Unions and the Role of Trade.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... The Decline of U.S. Labor Unions and the Role of Trade, by Robert E. Baldwin. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics. 2003. Paper, ISBN 0881323411, $20.00. 89 pages. Can Labor Standards Improve under Globalization? by...

Economics, Bureaucracy, and Race: How Keynesians Misguided the War on Poverty.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Economics, Bureaucracy, and Race: How Keynesians Misguided the War on Poverty, by Judith Russell. New York: Columbia University Press. 2004. Paper, ISBN 023111253X, $24.50; cloth, ISBN 0231112521, $62.50. 304 pages. This year marks the...

Globalisation, Social Capital, and Inequality: Contested Concepts, Contested Experiences.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Globalisation, Social Capital, and Inequality: Contested Concepts, Contested Experiences, by Wilfred Dolfsma and Charlie Dannreuther. Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar. 2003. ISBN 1840645148, $85.00. 189 pages. This volume contains a fine...

Money, Finance, and Capitalist Development.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Money, Finance, and Capitalist Development, edited by Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer. Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2001. Cloth, ISBN: 1840645989, $95.00. 269 pages. This book presents revised and updated versions of six...

The Revival of Laissez-Faire in American Macroeconomic Theory: a Case Study of the Pioneers.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... The Revival of Laissez-Faire in American Macroeconomic Theory: A Case Study of the Pioneers, by Sherryl Davis Kasper. Cheltenham, U.K., and Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar. 2002. Cloth, ISBN 1840646063, $80.00. 177 pages. This is a nicely...

Rio plus Ten: Politics, Poverty, and Environment.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Rio plus Ten: Politics, Poverty, and Environment, by Neil Middleton and Phil O'Keefe. London: Pluto Press. 2003. Paper, ISBN 0745319548, $22.50; hardback, ISBN 0745319556202, $75.00. 216 pages. Rio plus Ten: Politics, Poverty, and the...

Corporate Governance and Capital Flows in a Global Economy.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Corporate Governance and Capital Flows in a Global Economy, edited by Peter K. Cornelius and Bruce Kogut. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. Paper, ISBN 0195161718, $32.50. 506 pages. This work, edited by Peter K. Cornelius (World...

Careful Economics: Integrating Caring Activities and Economic Science.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Careful Economics: Integrating Caring Activities and Economic Science, by Maren A. Jochimsen. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2003. ISBN 1402074670, $71.00. 136 pages. In Careful Economics, Maren A. Jochimsen examines a very important...

Economics as Ideology: Keynes, Laski, Hayek, and the Creation of Contemporary Politics.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Economics as Ideology: Keynes, Laski, Hayek, and the Creation of Contemporary Politics, by Kenneth R. Hoover. Lanham, Md.: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2003.Trade paper, ISBN 0742531139, $27.95. 352 pages. Economics as Ideology,...

The Theory of the Individual in Economics: Identity and Value.(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... The Theory of the Individual in Economics: Identity and Value, by John B. Davis. New York: Routledge. 2003. Paper, ISBN 0415202205, $31.95. 240 pages. John Davis has written a fascinating book. Put most simply, he explores the concept of...

How to Reduce Unemployment in Europe.
December 1, 2004... How to Reduce Unemployment in Europe, edited by Mario Baldassarri. Central Issues in Contemporary Economic Theory and Policy Series. Houndmills, Basingstoke, U.K., and New York: Palgrave, in association with Rivista di Politica Economica, Rome....

In memory.(Obituary)
December 1, 2004... Walter C. (Terry) Neale 1925-2004 Walter C. (Terry) Neale, AFEE's 1989 Veblen-Commons Award recipient, died July 31, 2004, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He had been on the faculty of the University of Tennessee since 1968 and was professor...