Journal of Economic Issues articles from September 2000

Journal of Economic Issues archives from September 2000

Do Consumers in Developing Countries Gain or Lose from Globalization?
September 1, 2000... In this paper, I argue that neoclassical consumption theory cannot serve as a framework for answering the question posed in the title because the theory cannot deal with the features of globalization that bear on consumers in poor countries....

The Social Significance of Consumption: James Duesenberry's Contribution to Consumer Theory.
September 1, 2000... Late nineteenth century economists gave little consideration to claims that consumer demand could often be determined by the social needs and aspirations of individuals, and this reluctance to discuss the social dimensions of consumption became...

Economic Power and the Firm in New Institutional Economics: Two Conflicting Problems.
September 1, 2000... The problem of the nature of the firm is at the origin of the research program of New Institutional Economics (NIE). The problem was first addressed by R. H. Coase [1937], who explored the reasons why authority and direction are economically...

Do Taxes and Bonds Finance Government Spending?
September 1, 2000... Debates over the impacts of various ways of financing government deficits and about the relative impact of monetary and fiscal policy have, unfortunately, been carried out without recognition of the institutional process by which modern...

The Menace of Competition and Gambling Deregulation.
September 1, 2000... Why regulate gambling? The industry does not have the characteristics of a natural monopoly as in the case of public utilities. Casinos have neither the fiduciary responsibilities of banks or insurance companies nor the public safety...

The Rise and Fall of Investment Companies in Slovakia.
September 1, 2000... In the early period of post-communist reform, many authors were optimistic about Czechoslovakia's prospects for rapidly privatizing its state property. Unlike Poland or Hungary, Czechoslovakia had experienced little liberalization of its...

Game, Set, and Match for Mr. Ricardo? The Surprising Comeback of Protectionism in the Era of Globalizing Free Trade.
September 1, 2000... One of the central aspects of economic globalization is increasing free trade. Since Adam Smith [1776] and David Ricardo [1817] armed advocates of free trade with the theorem of comparative advantage, they have been "winning every battle in the...

Reassessing the Labor Supply Curve.
September 1, 2000... It is no exaggeration to state that the supply and demand model of price determination is the most widely accepted theory in contemporary economics. In the professional and textbook literature, this model is used to determine the price of every...

National Inequality and the Catch-Up Period: Some "Growth Alone" Scenarios.
September 1, 2000... At the close of the millennium, the unanimity over the major "systemic" alternatives available for economic advancement was, arguably, greater than at any time during the twentieth century. In the wake of the collapse of the Eastern bloc, there...

Schumpeter's Entrepreneurs and Commons's Sovereign Authority.
September 1, 2000... In 1934, Joseph Schumpeter argued the following: If someone who has never seen or heard of such a state were to observe that a farmer produces corn to be consumed as bread in a distant city, he would be impelled to ask how the farmer knew...

The Effects of the Minimum Wage: A Business Response.
September 1, 2000... A common refrain from politicians who oppose increases in the minimum wage is that an increase will hurt small businesses, possibly affecting their ability to remain in business [Wiseman 1998]. And yet, very little information about what...

Garneft and Cullenberg on Postmodernism, Value, and Overdetermination.
September 1, 2000... I cannot be the only non-Marxist heterodox economist who still remembers Marxism as the study of laws of motion, class struggle, and the labor theory of value. Like many of us, I read some Marx in graduate school and have referred to him...

Editor's Notes.
September 1, 2000... Because this is the last issue of the JEI that will be published under my editorship, I am taking the liberty of moving this expanded version of "Editor's Notes" to the beginning of the issue. A review of the JEI over the nine years that I have...

UNDERSTANDING MODERN MONEY: THE KEY TO FULL EMPLOYMENT AND PRICE STABILITY.(Review)
September 1, 2000... UNDERSTANDING MODERN MONEY: THE KEY TO FULL EMPLOYMENT AND PRICE STABILITY. By L. Randall Wray. Northhampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar, 1998. Pp 198. $20.00 (cloth). This book combines Chartalist monetary theory with Abba Lerner's "functional...

EVOLUTION AND ECONOMICS: ON EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMICS AND THE EVOLUTION OF ECONOMICS.(Review)
September 1, 2000... EVOLUTION AND ECONOMICS: ON EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMICS AND THE EVOLUTION OF ECONOMICS. By Geoffrey M. Hodgson. Cheltenbam, U.K., and Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar, 1999. Pp. x, 345. This book is a "synthesis" of essays originally drafted...

KAPITALIZM: RUSSIA'S STRUGGLE TO FREE ITS ECONOMY.(Review)
September 1, 2000... KAPITALIZM: RUSSIA'S STRUGGLE TO FREE ITS ECONOMY. By Rose Brady. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. How many pages? Price? Rose Brady charts Russia's economic and social transformation from 1992 to 1997 by interviewing...

INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS: SOCIAL ORDER AND PUBLIC POLICY.(Review)
September 1, 2000... INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS: SOCIAL ORDER AND PUBLIC POLICY. By Wolfgang Kasper and Manfred E. Streit. Cheltenham, U.K., and Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar, 1998. Pp. 544. $100. A number of textbooks have appeared with titles like...

STATE-MAKING AND LABOR MOVEMENTS: FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES, 1876-1914.(Review)
September 1, 2000... STATE-MAKING AND LABOR MOVEMENTS: FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES, 1876-1914. By Gerald Friedman. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998. Pp. 317. $55.00 (cloth). This is a complex book that challenges the conventional wisdom of labor...

THE BANK MERGER WAVE: THE ECONOMIC CAUSES AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF FINANCIAL CONSOLIDATION.(Review)
September 1, 2000... THE BANK MERGER WAVE: THE ECONOMIC CAUSES AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF FINANCIAL CONSOLIDATION. By Gary A. Dymski. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. 1999. Pp. 344. $65.95 (Hardcover), $24.95 (Paperback) The number of commercial banks in the...

THE ECONOMICS OF INCOME DISTRIBUTION: HETERODOX APPROACHES.(Review)
September 1, 2000... THE ECONOMICS OF INCOME DISTRIBUTION: HETERODOX APPROACHES. Edited by Joep T.J.M. van der Linden and Andre J.C. Manders. Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar, 1999. Pp. 209, ix. The editors of this work are from the Department of Social...

ECONOMICS AND UTOPIA: WHY THE LEARNING ECONOMY IS NOT THE END OF HISTORY.(Review)
September 1, 2000... ECONOMICS AND UTOPIA: WHY THE LEARNING ECONOMY IS NOT THE END OF HISTORY. By Geoffrey M. Hodgson. New York and London: Rout-ledge, 1999. Pp. 337. $100 (cloth), $25.99 (paper). Geoff Hodgson's latest book raises a host of issues, many...