Journal of Economic Issues articles from September 2006

Journal of Economic Issues archives from September 2006

Editor's note.(Editorial)
September 1, 2006... This is the last issue of the JEI that will be produced at the University of Nevada, Reno. I deeply appreciate the trust that the members of AFEE have placed in me during these six years. The success of a journal depends on authors and...

Cultural species and institutional change in China.
September 1, 2006... The State of the (Economic) Art: Reviving Culture without Cultural Analysis Culture is back in economics, with seminal contributions originating in different subdisciplines such as the new institutional economics, applied game theory, and...

Self-organization and design in capitalist economies.
September 1, 2006... Fluctuations in aggregate variables like output, prices, and employment pervade economic dynamics at all time scales: from minute-to-minute change in a stock price, monthly swings in industrial production, and annual variations in GDP to the...

The "job-loss" recovery: not new, just worse.
September 1, 2006... Starting in November 2001, the U.S. economy found itself in the weakest employment recovery since World War II. During the first four year of the business cycle, private-sector employment remained below its prior peak. To maintain consumption,...

Asset price instability and policy responses: the legacy of liberalization.
September 1, 2006... The problem of asset price bubbles, and more generally of instability in the financial system, has been a matter of concern since the 1980s but has only recently moved to the center of the macroeconomic policy debate. Among the events...

Veblen's radical theory of social evolution.
September 1, 2006... The Red Threads in Veblen: Anarchism and Socialism Thorstein Veblen wove two red threads into his tapestry of social theory--anarchism and socialism. They held his theoretical system--his tapestry--together. But they did not fit into the...

Varieties of scientific system: from veblen to the postmoderns.(Thorstein Veblen )
September 1, 2006... Thorstein Veblen called for an "evolutionary social science." I respond, because we have yet to reconcile the factors of permanence and change in human behavior, evolutionary science, a systematic account of socioeconomic change, must still be...

An intellectual history of abundance.
September 1, 2006... Putting Abundance in Context The purpose of this brief exercise in the history of economic thought is to demonstrate that the concept of scarcity has no right to a monopoly position in academic economics. While scarcity has dominated...

Technology stability and change: an integrated evolutionary approach.
September 1, 2006... Today the situation is very different. Tools such as... agent-based economic computational modeling can be used to put Hamilton's views on evolutionary economic change into action so that heterodox economists can compete more successfully in...

An institutional critique of recent attempts to measure technological capabilities across countries.
September 1, 2006... This paper will be guided by recognition of two points, both of which feature prominently in institutional economics, or, as it is sometimes called, institutionalism. The first point has to do with the centrality of technology to economic...

Erring on the side of caution? The heterogeneity of public perceptions of biotechnology applications in the European Union.
September 1, 2006... The increasing development of new technologies related to the health and food industries involves both policy makers and society as a whole in decisions on the safety and marketing regulations of new biotechnology products. However, the...

Human capital attainment and female labor force participation--the Kerala puzzle.
September 1, 2006... An important policy prescription for improving the status of women in India is to improve their educational attainment. Human capital theory suggests that education and training are significant determinants of employment and earnings....

Economic forecasting evaluation: re-examination of the track record of macroeconomic forecasting.(Notes and Communications)
September 1, 2006... When a forecasting technique is selected, economists and statisticians would like to evaluate the technique for its ability to forecast accurately. Normally an error--a difference between the actual value and its forecast--is assessed in...

Can The Wall Street Journal's economic forecasters predict turning points?(Notes and Communications)(Statistical table)
September 1, 2006... In this issue of the Journal of Economic Issues, Dr. Taseen has taken The Wall Street Journal survey forecast data originally analyzed by Mark Greer (1999) and extended Greer's analysis to the issue of the prediction of turning points in...

Public subsidies of low-wage employment: the case of uncompensated health care.(Notes and Communications)
September 1, 2006... As real wages have fallen or stagnated for workers at the lower end of the skill distribution and compensation packages have become less likely to contain employment-based health insurance (EBHI), many workers and their families are becoming...

Feeding the World: An Economic History of Agriculture, 1800-2000.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Feeding the World: An Economic History of Agriculture, 1800-2000, by Giovanni Federico. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. 2005. Cloth, ISBN 069112051X, $45.00. 416 pages. From 1800 to 1900, world population doubled from...

The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century, by James Howard Kunstler. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. 2005. Cloth, ISBN 0871138883, $23.00. 320 pages. Before writing this review I paused for a...

The Ecological Economics of Consumption.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... The Ecological Economics of Consumption, edited by Lucia A. Reisch and Inge Ropke. Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 1843765128, $110.00. 259 pages. The Ecological Economics of Consumption, edited by Lucia Reisch and Inge...

The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry, by William K. Black. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 2005. Cloth, ISBN 0292706383, $24.95. 286 pages. William K. Black...

Evolution and Economic Complexity.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Evolution and Economic Complexity, edited by J. Stanley Metcalfe and John Foster. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 1843765268, $100.00. 227 pages. The book, edited by J. Stanley Metcalfe and John Foster, focuses on the...

Review of Theories of Financial Disturbance: An Examination of Critical Theories of Finance from Adam Smith to the Present Day.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Review of Theories of Financial Disturbance: An Examination of Critical Theories of Finance from Adam Smith to the Present Day, by Jan Toporowski. Cheltenham, U.K., and Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar. 2005. Cloth, ISBN 1843764776, $80.00. 195...

Adam Smith's Moral Philosophy: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective on Markets, Law, Ethics, and Culture.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Adam Smith's Moral Philosophy: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective on Markets, Law, Ethics, and Culture, by Jerry Evensky. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2005. Cloth, ISBN 0521852471, $75.00. 331 pages. It is unlikely that any...

A Guide to What's Wrong with Economics.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... A Guide to What's Wrong with Economics, edited by Edward Fullbrook. London: Anthem Press. 2004. Paper: ISBN 1843311488, $29.95. 323 pages. This is a collection of twenty-seven essays plus an introduction entitled "Broadband versus...

Restoring Trust in American Business.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Restoring Trust in American Business, edited by Jay W. Lorsch, Leslie Berlowitz, and Andy Zelleke. Cambridge: The MIT Press. 2005. Paper, ISBN 0262740273, $16.00. 185 pages. This book, sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,...

Understanding Lewis Mumford: A Guide for the Perplexed.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Understanding Lewis Mumford: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Kenneth R. Stunkel. Lewiston, N.Y.: The Edwin Mellon Press. 2004. Cloth, ISBN 0773465588, $119.95. 290 pages. This book is a welcome survey of the key ideas and themes that...

Der Geist des Kapitalismus und der Aufbau Ost (The Spirit of Capitalism and the Building up of the East).(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Der Geist des Kapitalismus und der Aufbau Ost (The Spirit of Capitalism and the Building up of the East), by Robert Bohmer. Dresden: Thelem. 2005. ISBN 3937672427, 35 [euro]. 311 pages. The Spirit of Capitalism and the Building up of the...

Democratizing Innovation.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Democratizing Innovation, by Eric von Hippel. Cambridge: The MIT Press. 2005. ISBN 0262002744, $29.95. 204 pages. Traditional models of innovation have failed to keep pace with changes in how and where and by whom innovation takes place....

Political Crises, Social Conflict and Economic Development: The Political Economy of the Andean Region.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Political Crises, Social Conflict and Economic Development: The Political Economy of the Andean Region, edited by Andres Solimano. Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. 2005. Cloth, ISBN 1845421965, $135.00. 343 pages. ...

Leviathans: Multinational Corporations and the New Global History.(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Leviathans: Multinational Corporations and the New Global History, edited by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., and Bruce Mazlish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Cloth, ISBN 0521840619, $65.00; paper, ISBN 0521549930, $22.99. 249 pages. ...

Books received.(List)
September 1, 2006... ABBOTT, FREDERICK M., CHRISTINE BREINING-KAUFMANN, and THOMAS COTTIER, eds. International Trade and Human Rights: Foundations and Conceptual Issues. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. Pp. 383. Cloth $80.00. ARESTIS, PHILIP,...