Journal of Economic Issues articles from March 2006

Journal of Economic Issues archives from March 2006

What are institutions?
March 1, 2006... The use of the term institution has become widespread in the social sciences in recent years, reflecting the growth in institutional economics and the use of the institution concept in several other disciplines, including philosophy, sociology,...

Difficulties in adopting formal water trading rules within users' associations.
March 1, 2006... This paper attempts to explain why collective organizations in charge of managing scarce resources can face difficulties in evolving into more efficient institutions. It is framed within a literature strand that asks why institutions fail or...

Of transactions and transaction costs: uncertainty, policy, and the process of law in the thought of Commons and Williamson.
March 1, 2006... Perhaps one of the reasons why judges do not like to discuss questions of policy, or to put a decision in terms upon their views as law-makers, is that the moment you leave the path of merely logical deduction you lose the illusion of certainty...

The political economy of laissez-faire.(analysis of industrial economy)
March 1, 2006... Laissez-faire has several complicated roles in our culture. It is an intellectual construct in the history of economic thought; it has significance for economic theory; it is and has been a policy proposal or position in every public policy...

An economic psychological approach to herd behavior.
March 1, 2006... Herd behavior refers to the phenomenon of people following a crowd for a given period, sometimes "even regardless of individual information suggesting something else" (Banerjee 1992, 798). The phenomenon of herd behavior was among the first...

Colin Campbell on Thorstein Veblen on conspicuous consumption.(criticism on Veblen theory)
March 1, 2006... It is important to note that Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) largely predated the development of the advertising industry whose primary genesis came in the 1920s, a decade noted for its ostentatious display and waste of...

Vital standard and life economy: the economic thought of Lewis Mumford.
March 1, 2006... Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) is best known as a historian of cities and technology, an activist for improvement of urban environments, and the most influential critic of architecture in the twentieth century. His range of ideas and interests,...

The media, the news, and democracy: revisiting the Dewey-Lippman debate.(media coverage of Dewey-Lippman)
March 1, 2006... As an institution, the news media enjoy a special status derived from the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and from the societal expectation that in a democracy a free press is necessary to protect the public interest. As a capitalist...

Psychological and institutional forces and the determination of exchange rates.
March 1, 2006... Neoclassical economists have, by their own admission, had a terrible time explaining foreign-currency prices (Taylor 1995a,b). Not only have they been unable to develop models that explain the past time series of foreign exchange rates with any...

Are labor unions consistent with the assumptions of perfect competition?
March 1, 2006... The percentage of U.S. workers organized by a labor union has steadily declined from a peak of 35 percent in 1954 to 12.9 percent today (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2005). Institutionalists have suggested policies to revitalize the labor...

Property economics versus new institutional economics: alternative foundations of how to trigger economic development.
March 1, 2006... The ex-communist [and developing] countries are advised to move to a market economy, and their leaders wish to do so, but without the appropriate institutions no market economy of any significance is possible. If we knew more about our own...

Descent with modification--continuity and change in evolutionary economics.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... An extended review of The Evolutionary Foundations of Economics, edited by Kurt Dopfer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2005. Cloth, ISBN 0521621992, $110.00. 592 pages. Evolutionary concepts are much in evidence these days,...

The Invisible Hand of U.S. Commercial Banking Reform: Private Action and Public Guarantees.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Invisible Hand of U.S. Commercial Banking Reform: Private Action and Public Guarantees, by Margaret M. Polski. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2003. Cloth, ISBN 140207426X, $71.00. 121 pages. In The Invisible Hand of U.S. Commercial...

In Praise of Nepotism: A History of Family Enterprise from King David to George W. Bush.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... In Praise of Nepotism: A History of Family Enterprise from King David to George W. Bush, by Adam Bellow. New York: Anchor Books. 2004. Paper, ISBN 0385493894, $16.00. 565 pages. As the study of social provisioning, institutional economics...

Central Banking in the Modern World.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Central Banking in the Modern World, edited by Marc Lavoie and Mario Seccareccia. Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 1843766418, $110.00. 296 pages. This book puts together several articles that provide a concise and clear...

Social Science Knowledge and Economic Development: An Institutional Design Perspective.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Social Science Knowledge and Economic Development: An Institutional Design Perspective, by Vernon W. Ruttan. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. 2003. Cloth, ISBN 0472113550, $80.00. 364 pages. What can various social science...

The Distribution of Wealth.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Distribution of Wealth, by Michael Schneider. Northhampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar. 2004. ISBN 1840648147, $82.25. 148 pages. The author claims this slender volume represents the first "comprehensive treatment of the personal distribution...

Innovation--The Missing Dimension.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Innovation-The Missing Dimension, by Richard K. Lester and Michael J. Piore. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 0674015819, $24.95. 223 pages. This is an interesting and stimulating book. It argues that...

When All Else Fails: Government as the Ultimate Risk Manager.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... When All Else Fails: Government as the Ultimate Risk Manager, by David A. Moss. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2004. ISBN 0674016092, $18.95. 456 pages. This is a useful and worthwhile book for anybody interested the evolution of...

Contemporary Post Keynesian Analysis.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Contemporary Post Keynesian Analysis, edited by L. Randall Wray and Mathew Forstater. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Press. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 1843764601. $135.00. 356 pages. This volume has a history, and it is important to understand its...

The New Ruthless Economy: Work and Power in the Digital Age.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The New Ruthless Economy: Work and Power in the Digital Age, by Simon Head. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Cloth, ISBN 0195166019, $28.00. 189 pages. Simon Head, the director of the Project on Technology and the Workplace at the...

Economic Nationalism in a Globalizing World.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Economic Nationalism in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Helleiner and Andreas Pickel. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. 2005. Paper, ISBN 0385721862, $14.00. 271 pages. The globalization phenomenon is a hard one to spin into a...

Books received.
March 1, 2006... ACEMOGLU, DARON, and JAMES A. ROBINSON. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pp. 416. Cloth $35.00. ACOCELLA, NICOLA. Economic Policy in the Age of Globalisation. New York: Cambridge...