Journal of Economic Issues articles from December 2006

Journal of Economic Issues archives from December 2006

Behind Malaysia's "miracle": a Veblenian perspective on Mahathir's era of economic modernization.
December 1, 2006... Thorstein Veblen was one of the most original American socio-economic thinkers. It may be said that he was ahead of his time in explaining many of the theoretical problems of today's economics. In the Theory of the Leisure Class, for instance,...

Institutions, recessions and recovery in the transitional economies.
December 1, 2006... In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the break-up of the Soviet Union, many economists argued that the post-communist countries could rapidly develop a capitalist and market system. (1) Some held the market order would...

The two transitions in Central and Eastern Europe as processes of institutional transplantation.
December 1, 2006... In the euphoria of the early 1990s the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (in the following: CE and EE) were generally expected to quickly turn into democracies with market economies. The experience of the last 15 years,...

The more things change, the more they stay the same: institutional transfers seen through the lens of reforms in Russia.
December 1, 2006... Reforms in most post-Soviet countries did not lead, contrary to widely cherished expectations, to the emergence of democracy and a full-fledged market. On the contrary, the elements of democracy, however weak and imperfect they have been since...

Ex-urban sprawl as a factor in traffic fatalities and EMS response times in the southeastern United States.
December 1, 2006... Many different writers (Atkinson and Oleson 1996; Barnett 1995; Burchell and Lisotkin 1995; Burchell et al., 1998; Carruthers and Ulfarsson 2002; Ciscel 2001; Ewing 1997; and Glaeser and Kahn 2003) have examined the direct and indirect costs of...

State lotteries: using state power to fleece the poor.(Survey)
December 1, 2006... "A Lottery is Taxation, Upon all the Fools in Creation; And Heav'n be prais'd, It is easily rais'd, Credulity's always in Fashion; For, Folly's a Fund, Will never lose Ground; While Fools are so rife in the...

Evolution of Macao's Casino industry from monopoly to oligopoly: social and economic reconsideration.
December 1, 2006... Interdependence is the occasion for both cooperation and conflict.--Allan Schmid If one would understand the corporation problem, he must learn the peculiar feature of this form of business,...--Walton Hamilton The evolution of an...

Economic consequences of conflict: the rise of Iraq's informal economy.
December 1, 2006... Iraq's economy has undergone a number of profound changes over the last several decades, many of which have had significant implications for the manner in which the country's informal economy has evolved. The statist, heavy-handed economic...

Cultural lag: in the tradition of Veblenian economics.
December 1, 2006... The purpose of this paper is two-fold: one is to demonstrate that the concept and theory of cultural lag is in the tradition of Veblenian economics; and secondly, that while cultural lag theory delineates and explains problems, it does not...

Budget constraints and business enterprise: a Veblenian analysis.
December 1, 2006... "It takes money to make money" as Poor Richard might say. Business opportunities multiply as the capital at hand increases, whereas they dwindle to little or nothing when capital is relatively insubstantial. While this aphorism, qualified in...

John R. Commons' successful plan for constitutional, effective labor legislation.
December 1, 2006... Efforts to establish labor legislation in the nation during the early 1900s faced difficulties. A more compelling argument justifying a need for such legislation was lacking, its proponents knew, and while some labor legislation had been...

Why is economics not a complex systems science?
December 1, 2006... In 1898, Thorstein Veblen posed a fundamental question: "Why is economics not an evolutionary science?" Following dramatic advances in evolutionary biology in the latter half of the nineteenth century, this was a question that a number of...

Motives and social capital consequence.
December 1, 2006... Allan A. Schmid (2002) discussed distinguishing motives from the outputs of social capital in a recent issue of the Journal of Economic Issues. Most social capital researchers view social capital as social connectedness that, at the individual...

Activist management: Henry S. Dennison's institutional economics.
December 1, 2006... Henry S. Dennison (1877-1952) was a Boston paper-products manufacturer (1) who, in a career spanning some fifty years, was a devoted exponent of scientific management, a pioneer advocate of unemployment insurance, and a leading corporate...

Relating the institutional approach in management accounting to institutional economics: an essay on dual-mode rationality.
December 1, 2006... In management accounting literature an institutionalist stream is emerging that generates intense discussions and research (Scapens 1994; Burns and Scapens 2000; Duindam and Verstegen 2000). Although the discussion in the discipline of...

Comment on Geoffrey M. Hodgson's "What are institutions?".
December 1, 2006... This comment argues a point that may seem obvious to some readers. Hodgson's definition of "institutions" is best understood by situating his theory within the larger intellectual context of the ontological movement in philosophy and social...

Neo-Liberal Economic Policy: Critical Essays.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Neo-Liberal Economic Policy: Critical Essays, edited by Phillip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar. 2004. Cloth: ISBN 1 84376 794 5, $100.00. 241 pages. This is another in the series of...

The Consumer Trap: Big Business Marketing in American Life.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... The Consumer Trap: Big Business Marketing in American Life, by Michael Dawson. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 2005. Paper: ISBN 0 252 07264 2, $17.95. 174 pages. American business spends over a trillion dollars a year on...

The Evolving Pension System: Trends, Effects, and Proposals for Reform.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... The Evolving Pension System: Trends, Effects, and Proposals for Reform, edited by William G. Gale, John B. Shoven, and Mark J. Warshawsky. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. 2005. Paper: ISBN 0 8157 3117 5, $26.95. 226 pages. The...

Joan Robinson's Economics: A Centennial Celebration.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Joan Robinson's Economics: A Centennial Celebration, edited by Bill Gibson. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2005. Hardback: ISBN 1 84376 932 8, $130.50. 416 pages. This is a welcome collection celebrating the work of a very important...

Policymaking for a Good Society: The Social Fabric Matrix Approach to Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Policymaking for a Good Society: The Social Fabric Matrix Approach to Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation, by F. Gregory Hayden. New York: Springer-Verlag. 2006. Hardcover: ISBN 0 387 29369 8, $84.95. 251 pages. Hayden's new book is the...

The Evolution of Institutional Economics: Agency, Structure and Darwinism in American Institutionalism.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... The Evolution of Institutional Economics: Agency, Structure and Darwinism in American Institutionalism, by Geoffrey M. Hodgson. Routledge, London and New York: Routledge. 2004. Cloth: ISBN 0 415 32252 9, $180.00. 512 pages. Paper: ISBN 0 415...

Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Development?(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Does Foreign Direct Investment Promote Development? edited by Theodore H. Moran, Edward M. Graham and Magnus Blomstrom. Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics and the Center for Global Development. 2005. Paper: ISBN 0 881 32381...

Technology, Institutions, and Economic Growth.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Technology, Institutions, and Economic Growth, by Richard R. Nelson. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press. 2005. Hardcover: ISBN 0 674 01916 4, $49.95. 312 pages. Richard R. Nelson's general theory is similar to that of...

Institutions, Industrial Upgrading, and Economic Performance in Japan: The 'Flying Geese' Paradigm of Catch-up Growth.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Institutions, Industrial Upgrading, and Economic Performance in Japan: The 'Flying Geese' Paradigm of Catch-up Growth, by Terutomo Ozawa. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar. 2005. Hardback: ISBN 1 84376 959, $90.00. 234 pages. In this book,...

Capital and Collusion: The Political Logic of Global Economic Development.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Capital and Collusion: The Political Logic of Global Economic Development, by Hilton L. Root. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. 2006. Cloth: ISBN 0691124078, $35.00. 335 pages. In Capital and Collusion, Hilton Root asks,...

How Society Makes Itself.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... How Society Makes Itself, by Howard J. Sherman. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. 2006. Paper: ISBN 0 7656 1652 1, $24.95. 236 pages. Cloth: ISBN 0 7656 1651 3, $64.95. 248 pages. The basic conundrum addressed in this excellent book resides in...

The Ethics and Economics of the Basic Income Guarantee.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... The Ethics and Economics of the Basic Income Guarantee, edited by Karl Widerquist, Michael Anthony Lewis and Steven Pressman. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. 2005. Cloth: ISBN 0 754 64188 0, $114.95. 334 pages. Simply put, a basic income guarantee...