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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | U. Witt |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the way of thinking about economic problems and the research agenda associated with the evolutionary approach to economics. The general focus of this approach is on the processes that transform the economy from within and on their consequences for firms and industries, production, trade, employment and growth. The entry highlights the major contributions to evolutionary economics and explains its key concepts together with some of their implications. |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2006-05&r=hpe |
| By: | Aiyer Ghosh, Rishab (UNU-MERIT); Soete, Luc (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the contribution of 'golden papers' - seminal works whose ideas remain as fresh and relevant today as when they were first published decades ago - and which continue to dominate academic discourse among successive generations of scholars. The authors analyse why two works written within an industrial development context: The simple economics of basic scientific research, by Richard Nelson (1959) and Kenneth Arrows Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention (1962), are so relevant in today’s knowledge-driven economic paradigm. Focusing on the papers’ application to current global policy debates on information/knowledge and intellectual property, they argue that while the context has changed the essential nature of innovation - driven by widespread access to the ability to replicate and improve - remains the same. Hence a focus on endogenous innovation policy is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. |
| Keywords: | knowledge economy, science and technology, innovation, intellectual property rights, institutional change |
| JEL: | O31 O34 O32 O17 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2006029&r=hpe |
| By: | Paul Gopuran Devassy Bino; Sasidharan Subash; Ananthakrishnan Ramanathan |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the degree of author concentration in seven economics journals, which were published in India during 1990-2002. To measure the degree of author concentration, Lotka's Law was used. Moreover, we also make an exploratory analysis of the geographic, economics subfield and institutional concentration in 704 economics journals. An important finding of this paper is that specialized journals in the sample report the highest degree of author concentration. This result is quite similar to the findings by Cox and Chung (1991). Furthermore, there are several instances showing that the journals lean towards certain norms; this may affect the flow of innovative ideas into economics. We conclude that a knowledge activity, involving the high degree of concentration and a biased publication process, may affect the flow of new ideas into the discipline. |
| JEL: | A14 B50 B52 |
| Date: | 2005–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:liu:liucej:23&r=hpe |
| By: | Peter J. Sloane (University of Wales Swansea and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Simon Rottenberg’s seminal 1956 article in the Journal of Political Economy, 1956, is generally accepted as the starting point for the development of the economics of sport. While he recognised that certain features of professional sports leagues were unusual he saw little reason to treat this industry any differently from a conventional industry. He discusses the importance of uncertainty of outcome, the monopsonistic nature of the labour market, the nature of the product and demand (attendances). He considers alternatives to the reserve clause, such as equal revenue sharing, maximum salary limits, equal market franchise distribution and roster limits. Each of these is rejected in favour of a free market solution which, on the basis of the invariance principle, he suggests will perform just as well as the reserve clause in allocating talent to where it is most productive. The ensuing literature has focused on all these issues, many of which have created considerable debate amongst sports economists. In particular the assumption of profit maximisation has been challenged and a divergence of views, reflected in the so-called North American and European models of sports leagues has emerged. Over the last 50 years sports leagues have expanded, TV markets have opened up and legal challenges to existing practices have multiplied. This paper seeks to evaluate Rottenberg’s contribution to a rapidly expanding field and to judge its relevance today. |
| Keywords: | sport, monopsony, monopoly power |
| JEL: | J0 L0 L8 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2175&r=hpe |
| By: | Stefan Hedlund |
| Abstract: | Ongoing discussions between Russia and the EU on the formation of a Common European Economic Space bring back to mind Alexander Gerschenkron's classic essay on economic backwardness in historical perspective. This paper argues that the institutions that once produced a specific kind of catch-up economics in Czarist Russia still remain largely the same. Unless negotiations between Moscow and Brussels take into consideration such fundamental institutional incompatibility, attempts at harmonization, expressed by Brussels as an attempt tp spread Western values, will be doomed to fail. A cynical conlusion views potential convergence as adaptation by Brussels to traditional Russian institutional patterns of rule evasion, rather than a Westernization of Russia |
| JEL: | P26 N23 P52 P48 |
| Date: | 2006–06–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:liu:liucej:27&r=hpe |
| By: | Jan-Peter Olters |
| Abstract: | Whereas the economics discipline possesses a highly refined theoretical apparatus to analyze the effects of government behaviour on the economy, it has not (yet) managed to fully develop a positively formulated "economic theory of politics" that would permit the integration of the decision-making processes of voters, parties and governments with those of consumers and firms. Considerable recent advances notwithstanding, the large and heterogeneous body of literature has (so far) remained outside the economic mainstrain. The paper surveys the main approaches used to endogenize democratic elements and assesses the underlying reasons for researchers' renewed interest in this field. |
| Keywords: | Economic policy , Public sector , Business cycles , Economic models , |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:01/10&r=hpe |
| By: | C. Cordes; P. J. Richerson; R. McElreath; P. Strimling |
| Abstract: | One reason why firms exist, this paper argues, is because they are suitable organizations within which cooperative production systems based on human social predispositions can evolve. In addition, we show how an entrepreneur – given these predispositions – can shape human behavior within a firm. To illustrate these processes, we will present a model that depicts how the biased transmission of cultural contents via social learning processes within the firm influence employees’ behavior and the performance of the firm. These biases can be traced back to evolved social predispositions. Humans lived in tribal scale social systems based on significant amounts of intra- and even intergroup cooperation for tens if not a few hundred thousand years before the first complex societies arose. Firms rest upon the social psychology originally evolved for tribal life. We also relate our conclusions to empirical evidence on the performance and size of different kinds of organizations. Modern organizations have functions rather different from ancient tribes, leading to friction between our social predispositions and organization goals. Firms that manage to reduce this friction will tend to function better. |
| Keywords: | Theory of the Firm, Cultural Evolution, Entrepreneurship, Firm Performance, Cooperation |
| JEL: | L25 D21 M13 M14 C61 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2006-06&r=hpe |