Economic Arguments Research Articles

Rejoinder: Mises’s attempt to scientifically reject socialism failed

Abstract In this rejoinder to Bylund, Lingle and Packard, I explain why Mises’s attempt to scientifically reject socialism failed, commenting on the two specific points they have raised in their reply to my article ‘Technical or Political: the socialist economic calculation debate’.

Modernizing Medical Research to Benefit People and Animals.

Simple SummaryThe use of animals in research has been the subject of significant public debate and concern. Some argue that animal experiments are essential to medical progress, while others believe that this practice is unethical and does not produce results that can be reliably translated to people. A growing range of modern techniques can replace the use of animals and provide results that are more relevant to human patients. These include the use of human cells and tissues, and computer-based methods. Our work aimed to explore the societal benefits of accelerating the replacement of animals with these new research methods. We found that this approach would benefit animal welfare, public health and the economy. We also found that the British public is generally in favor of efforts to replace animals, and that focusing on this area would help to support the British Government’s policy and economic goals. We suggest that the British Government could greatly expedite the replacement of animal experiments by appointing a new minister to take responsibility for this transition.In the context of widespread public and political concern around the use of animals in research, we sought to examine the scientific, ethical and economic arguments around the replacement of animals with New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) and to situate this within a regulatory context. We also analyzed the extent to which animal replacement aligns with British public and policymakers’ priorities and explored global progress towards this outcome. The global context is especially relevant given the international nature of regulatory guidance on the safety testing of new medicines. We used a range of evidence to analyze this area, including scientific papers; expert economic analysis; public opinion polls and the Hansard of the UK Parliament. We found evidence indicating that replacing animals with NAMs would benefit animal welfare, public health and the economy. The majority of the British public is in favor of efforts to replace animals and focusing on this area would help to support the British Government’s current policy priorities. We believe that this evidence underlines the need for strong action from policymakers to accelerate the transition from animal experiments to NAMs. The specific measure we suggest is to introduce a new ministerial position to coordinate and accelerate the replacement of animals with NAMs.

Conflicting Sovereignties: Global Conservation, Protected Areas, and Indigenous Nations in the Peruvian Amazon

Abstract Indigenous organizations, international actors, and national authorities portray different images of Indigenous Peoples’ relationship with the natural environment. Based on these images, these actors deploy ecological, economic, and security arguments to create or transform protected areas. By exploring three cases of conflicts over creation and management of protected areas in the Peruvian Amazon, this article maps the tensions around the different images and explores how Indigenous organizations and state authorities—backed by international actors—engage with security, economic, and ecological rationales from their own sovereignty standpoint. I argue that the state weakens Indigenous political aspiration of sovereign territorial control by translating this agenda into depoliticized mechanisms and assumptions of modern international environmentalism, which ultimately limits their capacity to truly contribute to conservation goals. A “nation-building” approach to conservation, by conceiving Indigenous Nations as sovereign partners in environmental management, might give legitimacy to environmental initiatives.

Why Do People under Community Supervision Work and Earn So Little? And What Can Policy Do to Increase Their Employment and Earnings?

In this article, I review what we know about the impacts of felony convictions and incarceration on later employment and earnings, particularly for those under community supervision. I then discuss what employers and public policymakers can do to improve these outcomes. First, I review the basic empirical facts on the employment and earnings of returning citizens, various hypotheses that could explain these facts, and the available evidence that support those hypotheses. Second, I review why people under community supervision may have either similar or different employment outcomes from those of returning citizens more broadly. Third, I consider the perspectives of employers and why it might be in their interests to reduce hiring penalties associated with earlier incarceration (especially in tight labor markets). Fourth, I consider what we know about policies to reduce these penalties and improve outcomes. In sum, I argue that both moral and economic arguments exist for a general reduction of hiring penalties that would improve employment outcomes.

Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy

Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy

The Role Of The Economic Arguments In Determining The Outcome Of The Scottish Referendum (2014)

In 2014, the issue of Scottish referendum shook the British establishment to its roots. Those wanting independence argued passionately for the benefits of divorce from the United Kingdom, and their vision stood in stark contrast to those who outlined the terrible costs of independence. As a majority of Scottish voters chose to remain part of the United Kingdom, it seemed that the Scottish nationalists made errors of judgement. In that decision, economic arguments were back to the fore. Therefore, this article looks exclusively at the economic calculations behind the referendum results and tries to explain how some economic factors played a decisive role in choosing “no” for a majority of Scottish voters.

Gender and Entrepreneurship: Exploring High Growth WomEntrepreneurs Socio-Economic myth and Gender stereo-types

The rise of women entrepreneurship as an economic stimulator globally as seen recently is not only heard in social or economic debates, but also in gender related issues. Thus, this paper argues the need for WomEntrepreneurs contribution to the economy and society in general to be recognized and at the forefront. Women are one of the groups that are underrepresented and under-researched in entrepreneurship studies. They are classified and treated under the same umbrella of beings with no capability of managing and growing a business beyond profit making with employees than their male counter-parts. Even though, they have different backgrounds, are brought up differently, accessed opportunities (including their access to different market) and resources differently.
 
 Research indicate, women are better educated, skilled and start businesses that have growth potential. That is, there are a select few High-Growth and Impact WomEntrepreneurs among the female population. These High Growth and Impact WomEntrepreneurs, even strive under great resource scarcity and high uncertainty. This is despite the challenges of stereo types that want women to constantly prove themselves. The word “WomEntrepreneur, High Growth and Impact WomEntrepreneur and WomEntrepreneurship” has been coined by the researcher to identify opportunity driven women entrepreneurs within the “high growth” women entrepreneurship space which adds as a contribution, and might also prove useful in entrepreneurship studies.
 
 Gender plays a huge role in society, as men tend to have easy access to education, business, family and financial support and their businesses are growth driven and perform very well financially. While on the other hand, data indicate that, women find it difficult to secure financial resources. Hence, the aim of this paper is to discuss High-Growth and Impact WomEntrepreneurs, as a recognized gender of recent times in growing global economies and the individual factors (tested: confidence and risk-taker, reliability and determination) that drive this phenomenon. The paucity of studies addressing women theories and individual WomEntrepreneurs entrepreneurial attributes has led the call for incorporating the validated SIGMO Model, which considers the individual, the firm and the environment, as tested in South Africa which is considered as an economy that is still developing, using data collected from WomEntrepreneurs. WomEntrepreneurs are identified as highly educated than their male counter-parts.
 The paper addresses High Growth and Impact WomEntrepreneurship as a gender issue and also looks at the individual factors that influence and propel WomEntrepreneurs into High-Growth and Impact WomEntrepreneurs. Thus, in order to answer the research question of this study: How High-growth and Impact WomEntrepreneurs contribute to economic growth? The study undertook a quantitative research method, where online surveys were undertaken to access High Growth and Impact WomEntrepreneurs individual factors that positively contribute to High Growth Formation in firms managed by High Growth and Impact WomEntrepreneurs. Recommendations to policy makers have been drafted, which will encourage and support such an activity to sustain, grow and remove stereo types.

Embodied Rationality Through Game Theoretic Glasses: An Empirical Point of Contact.

The conceptual foundations, features, and scope of the notion of rationality are increasingly being affected by developments in embodied cognitive science. This article starts from the idea of embodied rationality, and aims to develop a frame in which a debate with the classical, possibly bounded, notion of rationality-as-consistency can take place. To this end, I develop a game theoretic description of a real time interaction setup in which participants' behaviors can be used to compare the enactive approach, which underlies embodied rationality, with game theoretic approaches to human interaction. The Perceptual Crossing Paradigm is a minimal interaction interface where two participants each control an avatar on a shared virtual line, and are tasked with cooperatively finding each other among distractor objects. It is well known that the best performance on this task is obtained when both participants let their movements coordinate with the objects they encounter, which they do without any prior knowledge of efficient interaction strategies in the system. A game theoretic model of this paradigm shows that this task can be described as an Assurance game, which allows for comparing game theoretical approaches and the enactive approach on two main fronts. First, accounting for the ability of participants to interactively solve the Assurance game; second, accounting for the evolution of choice landscapes resulting from evolving normative realms in the task. Similarly to the series of paradoxes which have fueled debates in economics in the past century, this analysis aims to serve as an interpretation testbed which can fuel the current debate on rationality.

Potential benefits and risks from Poland’s accession to the euro area

This paper reviews the selected issues related to the potential benefits and risks of Poland’s accession to the euro area. Poland has joined the European Union in 2004. Being a member of the Economic and Monetary Union, Poland was obliged to adopt the euro as its currency, but the date of the above currency introduction was not specified. Poland’s joining the euro area is often discussed in political and economic debates. Such debates benefit primarily from politics and ideology, and the economic issues, associating possible benefits and risks resulting from Poland’s accession to the euro area. The opponents of the common currency deal with issues related to the financial crisis in the territory of the euro zone counties. According to the study conducted in 2010 by the Public Opinion Research Center, it was observed that the number of Poles supporting Poland’s accession to the euro area was decreasing. The survey conducted by CBOS in 2017 showed that the number of respondents who were against Poland’s accession to the euro area was 72%. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the basic benefits and costs that result from the adoption of the common currency by Poland.

Globalization and climate change: State of knowledge, emerging issues, and policy implications

AbstractIn an integrated global economy, trade policy and climate policy are closely intertwined. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach to provide an overview of the key debates in economics, political science, and legal studies related to globalization and climate change. We identify a number of emerging issues that deserve increased attention in future research in this direction. These include international financial flows, migration, telecommunication, and digitization as well as changing lifestyles and consumption patterns across the globe. We also present potential research question regarding the diversification of import and export portfolios in the face of growing climate impacts and the decarbonization of industry, aviation, and shipping. Finally, we discuss how these recent developments could shape trade and climate policy formulation. We conclude that ambitious climate policies seem more likely to flourish in an open world trading system which provides sufficient flexibility for individual countries to adopt nationally appropriate climate policies.This article is categorized under: Climate Economics > Economics and Climate Change

The Dynamic Link of Energy Consumption, Economic Growth and Poverty in Eastern Indonesia: Panel VECM and FMOLS Approach

This study aims to investigate the pattern of dynamic relationships between energy consumption, economic growth, and poverty in panel data set of 12 provinces of Eastern Indonesia during the period 2009-2019. PVECM and FM-OLS were applied to analyze the dynamic link of the variables both in the short and long term. All secondary data used were collected from BPS and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. The results of this empirical study in the short term corroborate the neutrality hypothesis, which reveals that there is no short-term relationship in the case of energy-growth nexus, energy-poverty nexus, and poverty-growth nexus. In the long term, empirical evidence corroborates the feedback hypothesis in the case of the energy-growth nexus and poverty-growth nexus. Concerning the long-run energy-growth nexus, the increase in energy consumption has a positive effect on the acceleration of economic growth, and also the increase in economic growth requires the fulfillment of adequate energy consumption. Furthermore, a feedback relationship is found in the poverty-growth nexus case which explains that the progress of poverty reduction is significantly determined by sustainable economic growth that supports several previous studies and the trickle-down economics argument or pro-growth-poverty. On the other hand, widespread poverty has a negative impact on the achievement of economic growth.

Exchange Rate Volatility, Inflation and Economic Growth in Developing Countries: Panel Data Approach for SADC

In the Southern African Development Community, the relationships between exchange rate instability, inflation and economic growth remain at the forefront of economic debate because of the historical antecedent and economic clustering of member countries. Nonetheless, much is not known regarding the complexity, complementarity or substitutability of exchange rate instability and inflation on economic growth for SADC countries. This article examined the influence of exchange rate instability on the inflation–growth nexus of the region for the period of 2000 to 2018. Three major techniques of analyses, Pooled Mean Group (PMG), Generalised Moments (GM) and Dynamic Fixed Effect (DFE), were employed in achieving the goal of the study, but the Pooled Mean Group estimator of the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag was favoured by the Hausman test as the main instrument. The GARCH (1, 1) was also employed to generate exchange rate instability. The findings of the study showed that exchange rate instability and inflation have a negative relationship with economic growth of the region. Results further show evidence that economic growth of the region is adversely influenced by the consequential effect of exchange rate instability on inflation: the higher the level of instability in exchange rate, the worse the inflationary-growth relationship of the region. This confirms the menu cost theory of price setting: the higher the rate of inflation, the quicker the exchange rate pass-through effect. It is therefore recommended that policies to ensure appreciation of local currencies should be the priority of member nations.

Coordinating markets for reliability: Resource adequacy as a public good

In parts of the United States where competitive wholesale electricity markets support prior state decisions to embrace retail choice, market-based reliability planning ensures the lights stay on. The assumption that a spot price alone would incentivize both efficient short-term market operations and drive long-term investment decisions was key to economic arguments for restructuring. However, separate capacity markets are needed to ensure that generation resources are available to meet a peak load plus a defined reserve margin, since a spot price alone is insufficient to enable long-term investment decisions. The debates over the future of markets for resource adequacy in wholesale power markets continue to rely on the idea that a market price alone can enable the energy transition. This is especially true in arguments that focus only on adding a price on carbon. At the heart of these assumptions, but largely unrecognized, is the idea that generation resource adequacy is a private good. Transitioning the electricity sector is critical to meeting economy-wide decarbonization targets. Recognizing the limits of prices alone to ensure the public good aspects of electric system reliability is key.

Capitalism and crises: A comparative analysis of mainstream and heterodox perceptions and related ethical considerations

AbstractThis paper analyses the main perceptions of capitalism and crises from a mainstream and heterodox perspective. Broadly defined within the neoclassical structure, the mainstream approaches support the idea of long‐term stability of capitalism and describe crises as exogenous events. The heterodox perceptions, on the contrary, perceive crises as an internal feature of capitalism and propose to reframe the global economy within the limits of the socio‐environmental systems. Despite the historical recurrence of crises, the neoclassic capitalist framework and the related mainstream perceptions are still dominating the international economic debate. Most of the crises have then been addressed with reforms oriented to adjust some elements of the system without changing the overall economic structure. On the contrary, limited numbers of initiatives have been implemented to reorganise the economy according to the heterodox perspectives. Within this context, further analysis would be needed to investigate the feasibility of the proposed heterodox solutions. By discussing the main perceptions of capitalism and crises and by considering the ethical implications of the mainstream and the heterodox approaches, the present paper contributes to the existing debate around stability of capitalism and provides a starting point for analysis oriented to investigate the feasibility of alternative economic structures.

F.A. Hayek on the political economy of endogenous preferences: An historical overview and contemporary assessment

In this paper, we analyse Hayek's views on endogenous preferences. Perhaps surprisingly in the light of his remarks that economists ought to take people's preferences as given, there are several places in Hayek's economics and political economy where preference endogeneity plays a significant role. We begin by documenting those cases, providing an historical overview of Hayek's views on preference endogeneity. We then go on to argue that in his work on theoretical psychology Hayek provides an account of the causal mechanisms through which people's preferences can change in response to their social context. Finally, we assess Hayek's views on preference endogeneity in the light of more recent work on the topic in behavioural economics, before going on to consider what Hayek's analysis can add to contemporary debates in political economy.

Health Equity: What the Neuroradiologist Needs to Know.

Health equity means that everyone has the opportunity to be as healthy as possible, but achieving health equity requires the removal of obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, unsafe environments, and lack of access to health care. The pandemic has highlighted the awareness and urgency of delivering patient-centered, high-value care. Disparities in care are antithetical to health equity and have been seen throughout medicine and radiology, including neuroradiology. Health disparities result in low value and costly care that is in conflict with evidence-based medicine, quality standards, and best practices. Although the subject of health equity is often framed as a moral or social justice issue, there are compelling economic arguments that also favor health equity. Not only can waste in health care expenditures be countered but more resources can be devoted to high-value care and other vital national economic interests, including sustainable support for our health system and health providers. There are many opportunities for neuroradiologists to engage in the advancement of health equity, while also advancing the interests of the profession and patient-centered high-value care. Although there is no universal consensus on a definition of health equity, a recent report seeking clarity on the lexicon offered the following conceptual framework: "Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments, and health care."1 This definition contrasts with that of health disparities that contribute to inequitable care as a result of demographic differences among populations such as those attributable to race, sex, access, residence, socioeconomic status, insurance status, age, religion, and disability.2,3 In effect, the greater the health disparities and negative social determinants of health, the greater the health inequities will be.

Alfred Marshall's Last Challenge: His Book on Economic Progress

Alfred Marshall's Last Challenge: His Book on Economic Progress

Diversity, media and racial capitalism: a case study on publishing

ABSTRACT This article demonstrates the ambivalence of diversity in the cultural industries, and racial capitalism more broadly. Based upon an empirical study of the production of writers of colour in UK trade publishing, the article highlights how diversity acts as a form of racial governance but is also a source of anxiety for the dominant culture. Opening with an overview of critical approaches to diversity, we then introduce the study, based upon in-depth interviews with 113 people, which explores how publishers make sense of diversity, which includes moral and economic arguments. While publishers are convinced that both the moral and economic cases for diversity are aligned, we argue that they exist in a tension, which results in mostly reductive outcomes for minoritized authors. But the article also highlights how diversity potentially disrupts the liberal sensibilities of the dominant culture, especially their sense of publishing as meritocratic.

A Literature Review of Pandemics and Development: the Long-Term Perspective.

Pandemics have been a long-standing object of study by economists, albeit with declining interest, that is until COVID-19 arrived. We review current knowledge on the pandemics’ effects on long-term economic development, spanning economic and historical debates. We show that all economic inputs are potentially affected. Pandemics reduce the workforce and human capital, have mixed effects on investment and savings, but potentially positive consequences for innovation and knowledge development, depending on accompanying institutional change. In the absence of an innovative response supporting income redistribution, pandemics tend to increase income inequalities, worsening poverty traps and highlighting the distributional issues built into insurance-based health insurance systems. We find that the effects of pandemics are asymmetric over time, in space, and among sectors and households. Therefore, we suggest that the research focus on the theoretical plausibility and empirical significance of specific mechanisms should be complemented by meta-analytic efforts aimed at reconstructing the resulting complexity. Finally, we suggest that policymakers prioritize the development of organizational learning and innovative capabilities, focusing on the ability to adapt to emergencies rather than developing rigid protocols or mimicking solutions developed and implemented in different contexts.

The emerging contours of a post-Brexit Britain

Abstract:This paper introduces a set of papers analysing the likely economic impact of Brexit across key aspects of the UK economy as the country comes to the end of its first full year outside the European Union. The Brexit vote in 2016 was not just a vote on the UK’s relations with the institutions of the European Union but was also a referendum on the fractured state of the UK as a nation. The resulting conflation of Brexit with domestic economic policy debates is reflected in this issue. A first cluster of papers focuses on the consequences of choosing to abandon the ‘four freedoms’ enshrined in the Treaty of Europe, the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labour across the EU, and a second is concerned with the indirect effects of Brexit in those areas of domestic policy that have been opened up by the Brexit decision. The economic consequences of Brexit are only just emerging, but these papers provide an informed perspective on the state of debate, and the likely implications of Brexit across a range of policy areas, both international and domestic.