Journal of Economic Issues articles from September 2005

Journal of Economic Issues archives from September 2005

Two sets of twins? An exploration of domestic saving-investment imbalances.
September 1, 2005... The United States is on course to increase its net external liabilities to around 40 percent of GDP within the next few years-an unprecedented level of external debt for a large industrial country. This trend is likely to continue to put...

The concept of uncertainty in Post Keynesian theory and in institutional economics.
September 1, 2005... There seems to me to be no other economist with whose general way of thinking I feel myself in such genuine accord. --Keynes to Commons, 1927 John Maynard Keynes and the Post Keynesians demonstrate that, in an uncertain and unknown...

Financial illusion: accounting for profits in an Enron world.
September 1, 2005... The rapidity of Enron's decline is an effective illustration of the vulnerability of a firm whose market value largely rests on capitalized reputation. The physical assets of such a firm comprise a small proportion of its asset base. Trust and...

Behavior and rationality in corporate governance.
September 1, 2005... The governance debate identifies the central problem of the separation of ownership and control in the large corporation and centers on the alignment of the agent's interests with those of the principal. Key factors in monitoring senior...

Dynamic analysis of an institutional conflict: copyright owners against online file sharing.
September 1, 2005... Online music-sharing networks have been used by millions of people since they first appeared in 1999 (Leuf 2002; Associated Press 2004). The popularity of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology and the low-cost music distribution channel it created...

A framework for the analysis of stability and change in formal institutions.
September 1, 2005... Formal institutions play a central role in many spheres of life and are consequential in both economic activity and public policy. Despite the early example of John R. Commons, formal institutions have received limited explicit treatment in the...

Behavioral economics, power, rational inefficiencies, fuzzy sets, and public policy.
September 1, 2005... A fundamental difference between mainstream or traditional neoclassical theory and the various variants of behavioral economics is that to behavioral economics assumptions matter substantively to the construction of economic models (Altman...

Life on the edge: a look at ports of trade and other ecotones.
September 1, 2005... Conjunctures create opportunity. This paper examines both natural and institutional conjunctures that provide unique and valuable opportunities whose beneficiaries range from bugs to businesses. Thorstein Veblen, for example, argued that with...

Thorstein Veblen and human emotions: an unfulfilled prescience.
September 1, 2005... By centering on instinct as a prime mover in economic behavior, Thorstein Veblen tapped into the function of the mind itself-in particular, the commanding role of the unconscious in human motivation and behavior. In this paper, I expose his...

Stylistic sabotage and Thorstein Veblen's scientific irony.(Thorstein Veblen)
September 1, 2005... Thorstein Veblen was, perhaps, the first theorist of the "post-modern era." By saying that, I do not mean to impose our belated historical categories upon his work; the hazards of such an abstract historicism are well known. But Vebten himself...

Polanyi, Chayanov, and lessons for the study of the informal sector.
September 1, 2005... Far from withering away, the informal sector continues to occupy an important place within economies in general (Castells and Portes 1989) and within the so-called developing economies in particular (de Soto 1989). As one now-classic work puts...

The future of retirement security in the United States: laying the groundwork for public discussion.(Notes and Communications)
September 1, 2005... Retirement-related policies and programs have changed greatly throughout the past century. That's true for both the public and private sectors. As a result, the connections and fit between government policies and private retirement programs...

What do sports teams produce?(Notes and Communications)
September 1, 2005... Economists are notoriously vague as to what a sports team produces. The most popular measure of output is winning percentage, but winning percentage is not the only candidate for measuring sporting contest output. Other suggestions include...

Performance when it counts? The myth of the prime time performer in professional basketball.(Notes and Communications)
September 1, 2005... The neoclassical vision of the world rests upon the notion that economic actors "know that which they do." In contrast, as James Peach and Richard Adkisson (1997) have noted, the work of such institutionalists as Thorstein Veblen, Clarence...

Institutions, network relations, and economic systems: a counter to Oleinik's reply.(Notes and Communications)(Anton Oleinik)
September 1, 2005... What is the most fundamental aspect or building block of economic activity? Is it human instinct, the institution, the network, the overall system structure, or some other aspect of human behavior? Or even a mutual interrelation of a number of...

"Small" society and networks: on the meaning lost in semiotic translation.(Notes and Communications)
September 1, 2005... The continuous proliferation of publications makes scientific communication extremely difficult: "The contemporaries read each other much less than we usually suppose; most of what they learn about each other is gathered ex auditu from what...

Conflict and Cooperation: Institutional and Behavioral Economics.(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Conflict and Cooperation: Institutional and Behavioral Economics, by A. Allan Schmid. 2004. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1405113561, $39.95. A. Allan Schmid's book provides a readable introduction to institutional economics...

Organized Crime, Prison, and Post-Soviet Societies.(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Organized Crime, Prison, and Post-Soviet Societies, by Anton N. Oleinik. Aldershot: Ashgate. 2003. ISBN 0754632512, $99.95. 307 pages. It is widely known that the transition process, especially in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union republics,...

Public Funding of Higher Education: Changing Contexts and New Rationales.(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Public Funding of Higher Education: Changing Contexts and New Rationales, edited by Edward P. St. John and Michael D. Parsons. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. 2004. Cloth: ISBN 0801879736, $40.50. 252 pages. As a faithful reader of the...

The Institutionalist Tradition in Labor Economics.(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... The Institutionalist Tradition in Labor Economics, edited by Dell P. Champlin and Janet T. Knoedler. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe. 2004. Paper: ISBN 0765612879, $29.95. 357 pages. Institutionalists once dominated the field of labor economics....

Media, Technology, and Copyright: Integrating Law and Economics.(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Media, Technology, and Copyright: Integrating Law and Economics, by Michael A. Einhorn. Northampton, Mass: Edward Elgar. 2004. Cloth: ISBN 1843766574, $35.00. 209 pages. The rise of the information economy brings with it a slew of...

Worker Displacement in the US/Mexico Border Region: Issues and Challenges.(Book Review)
September 1, 2005... Worker Displacement in the US/Mexico Border Region: Issues and Challenges, edited by Jose A. Pagan. Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. 2004. ISBN 1843767651, $65.00. 144 pages. The purpose of this book is to analyze worker...

Books received.
September 1, 2005... ADNETT, NICK, and STEPHEN HARDY. The European Social Model: Modernisation or Evolution? Chelten-2005. Pp. 244. Cloth $95.00. AGELL, JONAS, MICHAEL KEEN, and ALFONS J. WEICHENREIDER, eds. Labor Market Institutions and Public Regulation....