Economic Norms Research Articles

Contractual Origins of Anti-Americanism: Pew 2013 Results

Economic Norms Theory (ENT) implies that anti-modernist and anti-market values flourish in countries where the central authority poorly monitors contracts that bind economic transactions. Decades of research show that ENT astutely predicts civil war and interstate war incidents, as well as people’s support for war, and suicide bombing in defense of Islam. This paper investigates the association between contract enforcement and anti-Americanism, which is the ENT’s core, yet is a statistically under-evaluated implication. Accordingly, in countries with poor economic contract monitoring, power-contending elites can attribute the resultant loss of prosperity to the USA and relatedly spread anti- American values among citizens. It is the urban poor who are cognitively most available to adopt such elite-driven anti-Americanism since they tend to be hurt most socially and economically by unfulfilled market contracts. To investigate this argument, I statistically estimate random intercept models on a sample of Pew Global Attitudes Project’s 2013 survey results. I observe that a three-way interaction among individuals’ urbanity, poverty, and their nations’ poor contract enforcement indicators increase anti-Americanism.

‘100 large fruit trees cut down by ISAF’: land, infrastructure and military violence

This article examines the military violence of land use and infrastructure. The analysis discusses the case of the British Army’s Royal Corps of Engineers in 1860s British Columbia and in Helmand, Afghanistan following the post-2001 invasion. It charts how across British colonial and liberal military projects, military infrastructure activities have mobilised towards the goal of capitalist development. Drawing analytic lines between the Royal Engineers’ activities establishing the settler colony and colonial capitalism in British Columbia and their role in imposing liberal social, political and economic norms in Helmand, the article puts forward an account of why, how and with what effect military violence can include things such as the felling of trees, the issuing of private land title, the use of topsoil for road fill or prohibiting local farmers from growing tall crops near a roadway. The central argument of this article is that we should conceptualise and understand military activities such as these as violence. This analysis develops understandings of violence within scholarship addressing coloniality, liberal war, settler colonialism; and land, territory and infrastructure. Beyond the immediate analysis of specifically military violence, this discussion has broader implications for understanding the nexus of infrastructure, land and violence.

Критерии и показатели оценки параметрических реформ в жилищно-коммунальном хозяйстве Беларуси

The article examines the initial stage of housing and communal services reforming in Belarus. The subject of the study is based on parametric reforms of the sphere. Under parametric reforms the author understands the regulatory effects of state bodies on the object of management within the framework of the current system of economic relations. In the course of parametric reforms, there is a purposeful change in economic norms, standards, tariffs, prices, and the amount of budget financing, which partially stabilizes the situation in the industry under consideration. In the course of the study, the author proposed a scheme for harmonizing the economic interests of housing and communal services company and consumers in the service market and a graphical model of planned loss-making enterprise functioning. These tools make it possible to solve the problems of cross-subsidization when paying for housing and communal services and planned loss-making enterprises in the industry. The author suggests the following criteria for evaluating parametric reforms in housing and communal services of Belarus: paternalism, subsidized costs and budget revenues effectiveness. Based on these criteria, the author substantiates such indicators as paternalism level, subsidization coefficient of costs and budget revenues profitability. These proposals make it possible to justify not only the priority parametric reforms of housing and communal services of Belarus, but also to outline the approaches to structural and institutional reforms.

Input allocative efficiencies for operation and maintenance of rural piped water supply systems in highland areas of Vietnam

Strengthening the functioning of existing rural piped water supply systems is a critical strategy for ensuring household water security, particularly in water-scarce contexts. Improving operation and maintenance (O&M) of the systems is an important area of focus, commonly plagued by poor reliability and functionality over time. From an economic perspective, there is an opportunity to optimise O&M input efficiencies as a foundation for improved management. This paper presented challenges and opportunities to optimise O&M input efficiencies based on an analysis of water supply systems in Vietnam’s highland areas characterised by mountainous terrain and water scarcity. The analysis focused on state-based agencies for O&M given their mandate for restoring the inefficient systems and identified input norms for guidance on how to optimise O&M activities. We applied an input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) model under constant returns to scale assumption to estimate technical, economic and allocative efficiencies. The results identified efficiency levels of 90%, 30% and 33% respectively. The study suggests a 10% reduction in general input amounts and identified efficient input target values reveal potential reduction rates for technical labour (12%), electricity (12%), as well as the technical and economic norms of technical labour (0.86 person- day∙(100 m3)–1 water sold) and electricity (0.53 kWh∙m–3 water sold). The policy implications for O&M state-based agencies include the adoption of input-based contracting mechanisms, while the government is encouraged to approve water tariffs and provide compensation based on input items to promote water service supply as a public good in water- scarce and challenging areas.

Impact of Regional Economic Integration on Trade and Investment

Economies that have a negotiated regional trade agreement (RTA) are liberalising various economic norms among member nations (including trade, investment, environment and other strategic parameters) to strengthen long-term flows of goods, services and capital. Hence, numerous studies have been conducted to empirically examine the impact of regional integrations on trade and investment using various econometric tools and techniques. The present study was an attempt to state and identify the contribution of such studies. An insight into the existing literature depicted varied results; rather than: some studies stated that the regional economic integration is facilitating world trade and also supporting the flow of capital among member nations, whereas few studies depicted a non-collaborated association between RTA and trade/investment. Further, a review of the literature depicted that few RTAs still need to work towards enhancing the depth of trade and investment provision to further strengthen the flows of trade and investment in the years to come.

Impact of New Zealand teenagers' fertility intentions on childbearing.

To assess the impact of age 15 fertility intentions on childbearing outcomes three decades later. Evidence is mixed about the implications of teenage fertility intentions on later childbearing. Taking a prospective life course approach to assessing intentions and outcomes may help clarify these mixed findings. A general population birth cohort (born 1972/73) was asked about their fertility intentions at age 15 and 775 of this sample (384 women, 391 men) provided data on their childbearing between ages 15 and 45. At age 15, almost all of the sample indicated they would like to have children in the future (93%). Most (79%) reported having had a biological child by they time they were 45; but those who professed to not wanting children as teenagers were significantly less likely to have had a child three decades later. Fertility intentions during adolescence are probably influenced by social, political and economic norms and may influence later childbearing decisions. This may be particularly true for those whose intentions counter established norms around childbearing. A life course framework is useful for examining the relationship between hypothetical fertility intentions and outcomes.

Crucibles of Craft: Home Workshops and Leisurely Striving in Twentieth-Century U.S. Woodworking Magazines.

With more leisure time in the early to mid-twentieth century, more people in industrialized countries took up hobbies. One hobby-woodworking-became a favorite among men, especially homeowners. Beyond the familiar "do-it-yourselfers" there was an audience eager to learn about woodworking, and magazine publishers encouraged them to acquire new skills and home machinery. American publishers led the way, but workshop converts in English-speaking countries like Canada and the United Kingdom got the magazines and the message. The promise of creative leisure at home did not democratize the hobby. Monthly features and awards praising accomplished amateurs did not challenge social and economic norms but defined leisure success in conventional terms. Those with the income and space to maintain a hobby served as models for others whose circumstances were less ideal. Through its flagship publication, a machine manufacturer often acquiesced to the industrial-era pressures that hobbies sought to alleviate.

ПРОБЛЕМИ ТА ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ ГЛОБАЛІЗАЦІЇ, ГЛОБАЛЬНІ ПРОБЛЕМИ ЛЮДСТВА

The article examines the problems and prospects of globalization, identifies the problems associated with the impact of globalization processes on the development of world and national economies. It is noted that each state formulates and implements a rational strategy of economic development taking into account the priorities and norms of behavior of the main participants in global economic activity. It describes important global problems that affect people's lives, the functioning of national economies, affect both the Earth's surface and the world's oceans, etc. The Globalization Index of the countries of the world (KOF Globalization Index) was analyzed, the analysis was carried out using the assessment of 24 indicators, which are grouped into three main groups of global integration: economic, social and political globalization. The countries with the highest Globalization Index in 2022 and in recent years and the countries with the lowest Globalization Index are determined. The position of Ukraine in the general rating of globalization according to the indicators of the general index of globalization, economic globalization, social globalization and political globalization is considered. It was revealed that the created legislative and institutional mechanism for promoting globalization is insufficiently involved in economic, social and political processes. The main global problems are described: the demographic problem, the food problem, the energy and raw materials problem, the problem of peace and disarmament, ensuring environmental stability, social and economic problems, political problems and a number of others. All global problems are intertwined and cover the demographic, political, ecological, economic and social spheres of human life. There are ways to solve global problems that cannot be solved quickly, but a single international solution and regulation mechanism is needed, the definition of international legal and economic norms, the development of a set of specific measures to comply with environmental standards by the countries of the world is expedient, the future depends on the joint efforts of the peoples of the world the future of humanity.

Синергія управлінських ефектів в аспекті забезпечення оптимального рівня транспарентності розвитку промислових підприємств на основі тестування наявності ß-конвергенції

It is determined that the implementation of a qualitative analysis of the formation of strategic guidelines for the convergence of investment processes makes it possible to ensure the appropriate strategically relevant level of financial and economic sustainability of industrial enterprises and investment and innovation development; target strategic level of profitability; creation of an information-adaptive platform for the flexibility of the system for management of the investment processes. The dominant strategic directions for achieving the conditions for convergence of investment processes of industrial enterprises are the timely identification of synergy of managerial effects of development transparency on the basis of testing the presence of ? convergence. At this, a strategically important factor of synergistic influence is both external one, which is aimed at checking the compliance of transparent economic results of enterprises and a certain ? level of convergence of investment processes with the current adaptive-established norms, and the internal factor, the purpose of which is to ensure the implementation of transparent decisions, as well as to prevent undesirable consequences when changing the strategic and economic norms of the level of transparency of development. It is concluded that the economic identification of structuring the synergetic relationship of managerial effects and ? convergence covers their strategic dominants, which form the integrity of the transparency of development, their relations with other dominants of convergent influences and the external environment. Synergy of managerial effects and testing of ? convergence are taken into account as factors that can increase the level of competitiveness, the level of price/quality ratio and the level of cost/quality (the former is determined by consumers, we are talking about the price they are willing to pay and the quality they trust, the latter is production), and the level of efficiency of the process organization, which defines them as the highest priority criteria for transparency in the development of enterprises in terms of vector and rank orientation. Thus, in order to increase the level of variability of the impact of the synergy of managerial effects of transparency in the development of industrial enterprises on the level of ? convergence, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the industry and the real conditions of industrial enterprises, to develop and implement a strategically relevant set of measures, among which the strategically dominant directions are, as a matter of course, increasing the level of profitability in the context of convergence of investment processes.

미국의 국내 경제 규범 역외적용에 관한 통상법적 평가

Purpose - This study aims to analyze the application of domestic economic norms beyond national boundaries from the perspective of international trade law, with a focus on the United States' extension of its domestic economic norms to other countries, particularly considering the expanding use of economic sanctions under pretexts such as security and environmental concerns.
 Design/Methodology/Approach - The research adopts a legal analysis approach, evaluating the issue of the extraterritorial application of domestic laws concerning economic norms within the framework of international trade law. The study considers recent instances where the United States has employed economic sanctions justified by security and environmental concerns against other nations, and assesses the legal mechanisms that facilitate this extension, aiming to evaluate associated risks and propose strategic responses.
 Findings - The study finds that the United States has increasingly applied its domestic economic norms beyond its borders, using justifications such as security and environmental concerns. This has led to the establishment of new trade barriers and a growing atmosphere of protectionism on the international stage.
 Research Implications - The study emphasizes the need for urgent evaluation and strategic planning by nations, including Korea, to tackle the implications of applying domestic economic laws beyond borders. It calls for in-depth analyses, especially in international trade law, to understand the growing reach of these applications and the impact on global trade dynamics. Additionally, proactive approaches and thorough legal assessments are recommended to navigate and respond effectively to this changing legal landscape.

A contribution to scientific studies of norms in economics inspired by JN Keynes and Popper

ABSTRACT This paper defends JN Keynes’s argument that normative economics can be objective. It begins by exploring Keynes’s view on the positive/normative distinction in economics. After discussing its originality and advantages, the paper recognizes that the Keynesian distinction does not explain the exact nature of the relationship between positive and normative economics. Thus, it tries to improve Keynes’s position using Popper’s contributions to economics. It shows that for Popper, advances in normative social science are the main steppingstone to resolving disagreements over the choice of the norms underlying the reform of social situations. The final two parts of the paper draw on the contributions of Keynes and Popper to the study of norms to explain why normative economics can more easily approach objectivity by concentrating on highly delimited topics. The last part relies on Popper’s concept of avoidable unhappiness to offer one method of restraining the tasks of normative economics.

Impact of Social Responsibility as a Driver of Business Performance in Indonesian Smes

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to shape Indonesia's trajectory, with projections indicating its influence for the next 4-5 years, prompting a paradigm shift across all spheres, including the economy. Companies find themselves at a crossroads, tasked with aligning profitability with the evolving needs of communities, while simultaneously meeting ethical obligations to society and the environment. Consequently, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has taken on a dynamic role, expanding beyond large corporations to encompass Small-and-Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Nevertheless, the intricate interplay between CSR, SME resilience, and the capacity to endure economic downturns remains largely unexplored.This study endeavors to bridge this research gap by delving into the impact of CSR on the financial performance of SMEs in the face of economic challenges. As the Covid-19 pandemic persists, Indonesian SMEs must navigate an altered economic landscape. Although the concept of CSR has gained prominence, its precise influence on SMEs' ability to weather economic adversities and attain sustained financial success remains enigmatic. Consequently, this research aims to uncover the factors that shape the adoption of CSR practices among SMEs, while also investigating the extent to which CSR implementation correlates with financial performance. By elucidating this relationship, the study aspires to provide valuable insights into fortifying the sustainability and resilience of SMEs within the dynamic framework of evolving economic norms. Keywords: Decarbonization, Malaysia, Net-zero emissions, Corporate practices

DESIGN OF ECONOMIC INTELLIGENCE AND COMPARATIVE STATIC ANALYSIS IN ADVANCED AND EMERGING MARKET ECONOMIES

Purpose- In this study, it is aimed to examine the consistency of the economic intelligence systems applied in national economies by taking into account their macroeconomic performance in ordinary and extraordinary periods. Methodology- In this study, a comparative analysis of macroeconomic statistical data of advanced and emerging countries that have an economic intelligence system was performed. In this context, the difference between a country that practices economic intelligence and a country that does not practice it is evaluated by performing a static analysis on the macroeconomic indicators of the United States and Brazil. Findings- As a result of the analysis of the economic actors, it is seen that the areas of economic vulnerability should be regulated in order to bring the interests of the stakeholders within the system together in a common center. At the same time, it was concluded that the preferences and priorities of stakeholders should be directed in order to regulate macroeconomic vulnerabilities. In emerging economies, it is being pioneered in order to conduct a positioning study on which macroeconomic indicators should be interpreted in the process of analyzing the preferences and priorities of stakeholders. Conclusion- Considering the comparative macroeconomic analysis, it is seen that the countries applying the economic intelligence system have a warning system because they can examine the conditions before the economic crises. This warning system ensures that stakeholders are compliant in accordance with the conditions.Due to these developments, it is thought that a break from Neo-Classical economic rules, which gained importance after the 1980s, has begun to occur. Although this break is not a complete break, it shows that there is a search for a new economic norm. In the process of searching for this norm, it is seen that the economic intelligence system is important. Keywords: : Economic intelligence, political economy, intelligence,security and defense, national economy JEL Codes: F52, F62, F63

How to identify norms, laws, and regulations that facilitate illicit financial flows and related financial crimes

PurposeIllicit financial flows are targeted by the United Nations’ (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, these illicit flows are not entirely understood. Furthermore, they can benefit from economic norms, laws and regulations that lack mechanisms to detect and penalize them. This paper aims to investigate whether a recent test, the embezzler test, can be used to identify regulatory architectures that facilitate illicit financial flows and related financial crimes.Design/methodology/approachThis paper develops a more advanced version of the embezzler test in terms of definitions and practical implementation methodology.FindingsIn this test, the definition of embezzlement can be understood to be the occurrence of illicit financial flows crossing the boundaries of organizations and/or countries. This is a multistage test, which intentionally simulates illicit financial flows to observe how well equipped is the regulatory architecture to deal with other financial offences that are related with these flows, such as theft, money laundering, fraud, corruption, market manipulation and tax evasion.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research can use the version of this test to stress test a large range of economic norms, laws and regulations.Social implicationsThis test’s new version can assist achieve the UN SDGs’ illicit financial flow reduction target. Furthermore, it can be used to study both existing and proposed norms, laws and regulation.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first explicit test that has been presented to identify norms, laws and regulations that facilitate illicit financial flows and related financial crimes.

Vampires: Outside Life, Outside Control

Vampires: Outside Life, Outside Control

Повседневность неолиберального субъекта: взаимодействие макро- и микроструктур идеологии

Neoliberalism can be understood both as a practice of governance organized around economic norms of competition, flexibility and risk calculation, and as a technique of shaping and transforming modes of subjectivation. These two interpretations are closely intertwined: the institutions that capture neoliberal discourses become the starting point for the formation of a particular subjectivity known as human capital. At the same time, labour is understood very broadly: even pre-reflexive behavioural practices (e.g., sleep) are included in the idea of human capital. The purpose of this article is to analyse and criticise the neoliberal subject’s image of the life-world. The life-world is understood as an area of everyday human activity within which the pre-predicative resources of “common sense” are at work. The author takes an integrative approach, combining ideological theory and the study of everyday life. M. Foucault’s series of lectures, ‘The Birth of Biopolitics’, is used as the main source of content for the theory of neoliberalism. The critique of the neoliberal subject’s life-world is carried out through the ontological argumentation of the Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis. The imperative of neoliberal ethics calling for unlimited pleasure is clearly evident in the mode of existence of consumer products. A certain commodity exists as a negation of its own idea: non-alcoholic wine, for example, is a negation of the idea of wine itself. In this sense, pleasure is stripped of any barriers, but just as importantly, the process of its reception becomes a meaning-in-itself that is institutionally supported. Pleasure is linked to the structurally constitutive absence of the object of desire. Thus, a critical analysis of ideology actualises the category of alienation. The overcoming of neoliberal subjectivity is only possible through the acceptance of a fundamental rupture (alienation) as the ontological basis of identity, a position that has been called an object-disoriented ontology.

Welcoming refugee children with a moral, rather than merely legal, right to education: Ideas for a cosmopolitan design of education

In this paper, we argue for the moral and not merely the legal right to education for refugee children. National education in many countries is challenged by refugee flows and influx of displaced people. However, there is a tendency to think of refugee flows as isolated events rather than parts of the dynamics of a world society that national education systems needs to respond responsibly to and build capacity for. Consequently, there is a gap between the legal right to education for refugee children and its practical realization, and granting refugee children access to national education systems is becoming part of the problem and not only a solution to the de-territorializing and cosmopolitan challenges of refugee flows and displaced people. We argue that education for children of refugees’ need to meet with a cosmopolitan design of education in order to respond responsibly to the right to education for refugee children. In the first part, we discuss the legal right to education for refugee children, and moral challenges with regard to its practical realization in nation-centred school systems and schools. In the second part, we discuss de-territorializing effects of refugees in education by reviewing research on refugee education, refugee children’s experiences of education and by discussing refugee education in Sweden as a case. In the final part, we discuss ideas for a cosmopolitan design of education. We argue for a moral commitment to the education of refugee children in order for us to respond responsibly to their legal and moral rights and situation, but also to the legal and moral rights, and situations of those affected in host countries. We also argue for the importance of critical cosmopolitan imagination in education that does not restrict education to norms of national loyalty and national integration, or to economic norms of competitiveness and effectiveness.

Policy and Populism: Analysing Support for Die Linke

Defining ‘radical left’ political actors by their challenge to contemporary economic norms, this article draws the example of Die Linke in Germany and analyses explanations for this party’s support. Two theories are tested. First, the policy-proximity account, building off the Downsian spatial model and tested with three policy dimensions relating to economics, cultural policy, and migration policy. Second, the populism-based account, which defines this as a conflict between ‘the people’ versus ‘elites’. Using German Longitudinal Election Survey data, this article carries out a large-N analysis of support for Die Linke. It uses multiple linear regression to test how far support for this party is explained by proximity between voters and the party, or by levels of populism among voters. Results showed greater support for Die Linke from proximal voters on each dimension; however, highly populist voters were not found to be more supportive of Die Linke. The article concludes in favour of a policy-proximity explanation but suggests the party’s well-established nature may have altered voters’ policy preferences, potentially leaving a reverse causal relationship and leaving in doubt the role of policy-proximity on radical left support.

Nancy Kingsbury Wollstonecraft and the Logic of Freedom as Independence

When the writings of Nancy Kingsbury Wollstonecraft surfaced in 2019, having been almost wholly neglected by scholars since their publication in the 1820s, they invited an inevitable and tantalizing comparison with her far more famous sister-in-law, Mary Wollstonecraft, especially since Kingsbury had written an article on "The Natural Rights of Woman." Irrespective of the Wollstonecraft connection, however, Kingsbury's writing stands on its own merits as deserving of serious scholarship by historians of women in philosophy. Nevertheless, reading Kingsbury in the light of her predecessor is highly instructive and helps both bring out what is distinctive about her conclusions and place her in the context of post-Wollstonecraftian thought in the nineteenth century. Kingsbury draws on a similar set of foundational principles as Wollstonecraft, which I place within the republican tradition of political philosophy—freedom, equality, virtue, the common good. Together, these make up an ideal of freedom as independence. Focusing on the issue of education, she argues that increasing women's access to education will do little to improve their intellectual development unless there is an accompanying and extensive restructuring of social and economic norms. In applying the logic of freedom as independence, Kingsbury takes further this aspect of Wollstonecraft's thought and anticipates and prefigures some of the later arguments of feminists and abolitionists writing in the same tradition, including especially Frederick Douglass.

“Homosexuals in Adolescent Rebellion”

In the late 1950s and 1960s, hustlers and street queens staged countless food riots, sit-ins, and pickets in downtown “vice” districts across the United States. One cannot appreciate the indignation and rage that sparked these rebellions without understanding the moral values and economic norms shared by those who took collective action: the self-defined “kids on the street” who often traveled from central city “tenderloin” to “tenderloin,” connecting far-flung districts through migratory circuits. Sustaining themselves through sex work and other criminalized economies, kids created in these districts a distinct counterpublic with its own moral norms, performance practices, rituals for renaming new members, conventions for collective housing, and networks for pooling resources. Urban renewal and increased policing in US cities violated these norms, providing the anger and indignation that fueled central city uprisings during the long 1960s. Understanding the anger that prompted street kids to rebel allows one to grasp what the author calls their performative economy: the reciprocities, obligations, and moral norms shared by the kids on the street and the ways they were materialized and transmitted intergenerationally via performance.