Journal of Economic Issues articles from December 2008

Journal of Economic Issues archives from December 2008

Beware those offering "gold standards": evidence-based medicine and the potential for institutional change in clinical-medical provision.
December 1, 2008... According to its advocates, Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) represents an attempt to democratize health care (EBM Working Group 1992; Sackett et al. 1996, see also Oliver and McDaid 2002) by providing both patients and clinicians with better...

Universal health care and the economics of responsibility.(Report)
December 1, 2008... Nearly a century ago, the American Association for Labor Legislation (AALL) began a campaign for universal health insurance based on the notion that health care is the joint responsibility of employers, workers, and the state (Chasse 1994). At...

The invisible hands behind the student evaluation of teaching: the rise of the new managerial elite in the governance of higher education.
December 1, 2008... The amount of academic research on the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is staggering. Perhaps the fascination with SET stems from the very introspective nature of the issue: academics researching themselves. While previous research has...

The feminist political economy of the rent-seeking society: an investigation of gender inequality and economic growth.
December 1, 2008... The question of why hierarchies evolve and persist is an old one in economics. Neoclassical treatments in what came to be known as the "new institutional economics" explain the evolution of hierarchy in the firm (Coase 1937) and the family...

Women as wives, mothers or workers: how welfare eligibility requirements influence women's labor force participation--a case study of Spain--.(Survey)
December 1, 2008... For the last few decades, social policy practitioners and economists have waged a continual, open debate about the amount of responsibility a state can and should have with regard to welfare provision. This debate was largely provoked by the...

Innovation and economic activity: an institutional analysis of the role of clusters in industrializing economies.
December 1, 2008... The current use of "cluster" is often closely associated with Michael Porter's (1990; 1994; 1997; 1998; 2000a; 2000b; 2003a; 2003b) reconceptualization of the foundations of modern capitalist economies as varying and dynamic mixtures of...

Structure, agency and the role of values in processes of institutional change.
December 1, 2008... The idea that institutions matter, nowadays, is commonplace. This should not be taken to imply that widespread agreement exists among the social sciences or even within disciplines about the nature and the role of institutions. Following the...

The borrower of last resort: international adjustment and liquidity in a historical perspective.
December 1, 2008... If the operation of the gold standard from the last two decades of the nineteenth century, until the outbreak of the world war was in essence a sterling standard, the Bretton Woods system instituted after the Second World War in effect forged a...

Currency crises in transition economies: some further evidence.
December 1, 2008... One of the biggest desires of policy makers around the world is to develop a warning system of currency crisis. Such a task requires their ability to analyze potential causes and symptoms of currency crises. Since the 1970s there have been...

Endogenous institutions and the politics of property: comparing and contrasting Douglass North and Karl Polanyi in the case of finance.
December 1, 2008... Indeed, in a sense we rely on governmental management and policing of our most-used system of resource management, namely, private property; we might think of the private property regime, taken as a whole, as a 'public property' owned and...

Trade agreements and labor problems: the current bearing of a commons proposal.
December 1, 2008... A hundred years ago, in a symposium on tariffs, John R. Commons pointed out that contrary to predictions of advocates, high tariffs did not help workers in protected industries (Commons 1908). After their victory in the Homestead strike,...

Do you prefer having more or more than others? Survey evidence on positional concerns in France.(Notes and Communications)(Survey)
December 1, 2008... There is considerable evidence that people compare themselves to others and enjoy having more than others in some domains (Veblen [1899] 1970; Hirsch 1976; Solnick and Hemenway 1998; 2005). Individuals derive utility not only from their...

Globalization and capitalism.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... This is an extended review article of the following books: On Capitalism, edited by Victor Nee and Richard Swedberg. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 2007. Paperback: ISBN 978-0-8047-5665-5, $24.95. 368 pages. Inequality,...

Capital Rules: The Construction of Global Finance.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Capital Rules: The Construction of Global Finance, by Rawi Abdelal. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2007. Hardcover: 0 674 02369 2, $49.95, 304 pages. In today's economy, international organizations generally encourage the free...

Escape from Empire: The Developing World's Journey Through Heaven and Hell.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Escape from Empire: The Developing World's Journey Through Heaven and Hell, by Alice H. Amsden. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 2007. ISBN 0 262 01234 0 / 978 0 262 01234 8, $27.50. 197 pages. In her brief, engaging essay, Alice H. Amsden...

Reintroducing Macroeconomics: A Critical Approach.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Reintroducing Macroeconomics: A Critical Approach by Steven Mark Cohn. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2006. Paperback: ISBN 978-0765614513, $35.95. 368 pages. Unlike most economics books, Reintroducing Macroeconomics, is actually organized in a...

What Do We Know About Globalization?: Issues of Poverty and Income Distribution.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... What Do We Know About Globalization?: Issues of Poverty and Income Distribution, by Guillermo de la Dehesa. Singapore: Blackwell Publishing. 2007. Hardcover: ISBN 9781405136693, $ 29.95.384 pages. Writers have spilled much ink over the past...

Real World Economics: A Post-Autistic Economics Reader.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Real World Economics: A Post-Autistic Economics Reader, edited by Edward Fullbrook. London, New York, Delhi: Anthem Press, 2007. Hardcover: ISBN 1 84331 247 6, $80.00. Paperback: ISBN 1 84331 236 0, $29.95. 496 pages. In June of 2000, a...

Institutions and Norms in Economic Development.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Institutions and Norms in Economic Development, edited by Mark Gradstein and Kai A. Konrad. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Pres. 2006. Cloth: ISBN 978 0 262 07284 7, $30. 256 pages. Because of the complexity of subject matter, the literature on...

Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics, edited by Donald MacKenzie, Fabian Munieza and Lucy Siu. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Hardcover: ISBN 9780691130163, $60.00, 373 pages. This thought-provoking book...

The Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Vocation of Business: Social Justice in the Marketplace, by John C. Medaille. New York: Continuum. 2007. Paper, ISBN: 0826428096, $34.95. 359 pages. It has long been an accepted tenant of Institutionalist economics that the State is...

The Economy of the Earth: Philosophy, Law, and The Environment.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Economy of the Earth: Philosophy, Law, and The Environment, 2nd edition, by Mark Sagoff. Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press. 2008. Paper: ISBN 978-0-521-68713-3. 266 pages. Index. The first edition of this book was published in...

The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 2008. Hardcover: ISBN 978 0 393 06701 9, $???. 192 pages. This was a difficult book to review...

The Feminist Economics of Trade.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... The Feminist Economics of Trade, edited by Irene Van Staveren, Diane Elson, Caren Grown and Nilufer Cagatay. Colchest: Francis Taylor Group, 2007. ISBN 978 0 415 43637 3, 352 pages. This latest book from the IAFFE book series "Advances in...

Moral Markets: The Critical Role of Values in the Economy.(Book review)
December 1, 2008... Moral Markets: The Critical Role of Values in the Economy, edited by Paul J. Zak. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2008. Hardcover: ISBN 978 0 691 13522 9, $???. Paper: ISBN 978 0 691 13523 6, $???. Pages xli + 344. This is an...