Journal of Economic Issues articles from December 2005

Journal of Economic Issues archives from December 2005

Why is central bank independence so widely approved?
December 1, 2005... If all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they still wouldn't reach a conclusion. --George Bernard Shaw When I ask two economists a question I get two different answers, unless one of them is Lord Keynes, in which case I...

The microeconomic foundations of business cycles: from institutions to autocatalytic networks.
December 1, 2005... In his seminal book Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Joseph Schumpeter argued that the very nature of capitalism is economic change and that capitalism never was nor will it ever be stationary (1976). Large-scale fluctuations are one of...

Generalizing Darwinism to social evolution: some early attempts.
December 1, 2005... Richard Dawkins coined the term universal Darwinism (1983). It suggests that the core Darwinian principles of variation, replication, and selection may apply not only to biological phenomena but also to other open and evolving systems,...

Is there an institutional theory of distribution?
December 1, 2005... Income distribution is a primordial question. "Who gets what" is a universal, unremitting source of resentment and social discord. Economic science is nominally concerned with the "positive" aspects of the problem. That is, what forces...

Why Is China a high-Lambda society?
December 1, 2005... Cultural and social values influence the level of cooperativeness in society, which in turn determines the level of lambda. Lambda ([lambda]) represents the parameter used to determine the degree of cooperativeness among a particular societal...

Sustainable development--an institutional enclave (with special reference to the Bakun dam--induced development strategy in Malaysia).
December 1, 2005... Analysis of sustainable development has always been the Achilles' heel of the science of economics. Despite a plethora of attempts to articulate its theoretical concepts more closely and rigorously, the notion of sustainable development remains...

Can Caribbean education attract knowledge-based foreign direct investment?(Caribbean education to determine, skilled workers and to make the region more attractive to foreign direct investment)
December 1, 2005... Institutionalists have long recognized the importance of education to a country's development. Thorstein Veblen argued that the immaterial equipment of a nation might be the most significant category of its assets and that its embodiment in...

The impact of institutions on economic growth: the case of transition economies.
December 1, 2005... Economic transition, a phenomenon that has marked the development of the bigger part of Europe in the past decade, is above all a problem of coordination. Economic transition is a process of institutional change, a process of building new...

The short supply of tall people: competitive imbalance and the National Basketball Association.
December 1, 2005... In recent years a wealth of literature has been offered examining the economics of professional team sports. Much of this work follows in the neoclassical tradition, employing the standard assumptions and focusing primarily on the impact of...

Changes in occupational earnings along the U.S.-Mexico border between 1900 and 1920.
December 1, 2005... Impoverished conditions on the U.S. side of the Mexican border have recently been identified and analyzed by a host of social scientists and policy makers. Ensuing policy prescriptions generally hinge on promoting business and population...

Cordes on Veblen's "instinct of workmanship".(Notes and Communications)
December 1, 2005... I am both amazed and pleased that young scholars throughout the world continue to try to make sense of, and to find provocative ideas in, Thorstein Veblen's century-old writings in convoluted English. I am neither amazed nor pleased that they...

What orientation for interpreting Veblen? a rejoinder to Baldwin Ranson.
December 1, 2005... Thorstein Veblen's approach to economics is currently gaining new attention in the economic community in the context of a conceptual and methodological debate about how Darwinian concepts should be harnessed to further develop economic theory....

John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics, by Richard Parker. New York, N.Y.: Farar, Straus, and Giroux. 2005. Trade, hardcover, ISBN 9780374281687, $35.00. 820 pages. This hefty biography befits its subject in all ways:...

Corporate Governance in Russia.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Corporate Governance in Russia, edited by D. J. McCarthy, S. M. Puffer, and S. V. Shekshnia. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 1843762056, $125. 421 pages. The transition from "administrative-command," or Soviet-style,...

Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism, by Charles Perrow. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. 2002. Paper, ISBN 0691123152, $18.95. 259 pages. We live in a nation where large corporations...

Debt for Sale: A History of the Credit Trap.(Paying with Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing, 2d ed. )(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Debt for Sale: A History of the Credit Trap, by Brett Williams. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 0812218868, $24.95. 154 pages. Paying with Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing, 2d ed.,...

Birthquake: The Baby Boom and Its Aftershocks.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Birthquake: The Baby Boom and Its Aftershocks, by Diane J. Macunovich. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 2002. Cloth, ISBN 0226500837. 314 pages. Diane Macunovich studied with Richard Easterlin at University of Southern...

Pay without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Pay without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation, by Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 0674016653, $24.95. 278 pages. A Long and (Dis)Respectful Tradition ...

Thorstein Veblen, John Dewey, C. Wright Mills, and the Generic Ends of Life.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Thorstein Veblen, John Dewey, C. Wright Mills, and the Generic Ends of Life, by Rick Tilman. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2004. ISBN 0742532844, $65.00. 295 pages. Rick Tilman's book is a scholarly examination of the...

The Economic Systems of Foraging, Agricultural, and Industrial Societies.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... The Economic Systems of Foraging, Agricultural, and Industrial Societies, by Frederic L. Pryor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2005. Cloth, ISBN: 0521849047, $75.00; paper, $29.99. 316 pages. Frederic L. Pryor is an incredibly...

Re-examining Monetary and Fiscal Policy for the 21st Century.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Re-examining Monetary and Fiscal Policy for the 21st Century, by Phillip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer. Cheltenham, U.K., and Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 1843765837, $95.00. 210 pages. J. M. Keynes once stated that one...