Economic Revolution Research Articles

No Longer the Gold Standard

No Longer the Gold Standard

Training biochemistry undergraduate students to be teachers

In the last few decades the economic revolution has contributed for significant changes in the global scene. The speed and mobility of the information have fortified the competition and increased the competitiveness through the knowledge applied to the science and technological innovation. In this context, in 2008, a graduation course of Biochemistry at UFSJ was created, with the objective to form professionals to research and education in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. One of the tools used to develop the skills of education of our students is their participation in an optional discipline aiming at developing and implementing practical and theoretical winters courses for High School students. The content of the discipline consists of choosing themes, selecting and organizing the topics, preparing written material, establishing the methodological strategies, planning the evaluation tools and, finally, as teachers, conducting the course. In the last two years the themes consisted in free radicals, bioactives, bioenergy, DNA, biotechnology of microorganisms, genetics of cancer, cellular therapy, and medicinal chemistry. The evaluation of the experience by biochemistry and high school students was very positive. Biochemistry students considered this experience to be unique and recommended it to their schoolmates; the high school students gave very high scores to the courses and the teachers. In conclusion this course was a great experience for both undergraduate students that might become teachers and for high school students that have rare opportunity to participate in science and technology practical classes, which are normally insufficient in their formation.

Environment correspondents in China in their own words: Their perceptions of their role and the possible consequences of their journalism

There is widespread dismay at the effects of Chinese economic development on the environment. The government is cognisant of the issues and seeking to raise awareness. Among the means are the media, such that a new specialism has appeared in China in recent years, that of the environment correspondent. This study gives voice to these specialists in order to understand their attitudes towards the environment, their means of operation and their views on the significance of their own work. The findings of the study are that Chinese environment correspondents are tentatively exploiting the opportunities that the government’s worry about the environment may give them, even as they doubt their capacity to respond adequately to the challenges posed by taking the environment seriously and the responsibility for raising awareness and identifying transgressions. Just as journalists became the evangelists of China’s economic revolution, so they may be becoming the promoters of environment awareness. In the course of so doing, it may be that they are among those contributing to a new consensus about how decisions are being taken, and should be made, in their society.

What Happened to Knightian (and Keynesian) Uncertainty Post WWII?: A Philosophic History

In this paper I argue that in the period after 1945 in the main currents of academic (technical) economics a commitment to-so-called Knightian uncertainty got displaced by two strategies: i) a simple displacement strategy (heavily promoted by Arrow and Samuelson), in which un-measurable uncertainty simply got treated as quantifiable risk; ii) a sophisticated displacement strategy (due to Alchian), which turned uncertainty into randomness understood as a stochastic process. The point of my narrative is to illustrate what a so-called “Kuhn-loss” looks like in practice. In the philosophy of science literature, insights of discarded theories that cannot be articulated or recognized by the new theory are instances of Kuhn-losses. A Kuhn-loss is often accompanied by the suppression of long-standing objections or even reliable alternative approaches. This is not merely of philosophic interest; Kuhn helped popularize a view of paradigms that allowed social-scientific practitioners to claim that they need not answer all objections. This paper proceeds as follows in three main sections: first, I briefly use a remarkable, recent self-study by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) as an exemplar of the re-discovery of uncertainty in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and, in particular, to illustrate how difficult it is for these policy economists to find a way to describe it with their conceptual apparatus. Second, I briefly sketch the pre-1945 approach to uncertainty. In doing so I make two main points: A) uncertainty was accepted by thinkers as politically and intellectually diverse as Frank Knight and John Maynard Keynes. B) I distinguish between epistemic and metaphysical versions of uncertainty. Third, I describe what happened with uncertainty in the context of the formal revolution in economics. I describe the simple displacement strategy in general outline. I then analyze the sophisticated displacement in some more detail. I argue that uncertainty got displaced by successor concepts that are neither identical to it nor to each other.

Book Reviews

Richard Steckel of Ohio State University reviews “Economic Evolution and Revolution in Historical Time” by Paul W. Rhode, Joshua L. Rosenbloom and David F. Weiman. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins: Sixteen papers, originally presented at a conference sponsored by Stanford University's Institute for Economic Policy Research in September 2008, address evolutionary economic change, regional development, and revolutions in labor markets. Papers discuss the Stanford tradition in economic history; natural resources and economic outcomes; the institutionalization of science in Europe, 1650–1850; the fundamental impact of the slave trade on African economies; the U.S. Indian policy in light of Australian policy toward Aboriginal peoples; financial market and industry structure--a comparison of the banking and textile industries in Boston and Philadelphia in the early nineteenth century; railroads and the rise of the factory--evidence for the United States, 1850–70; productivity growth and the regional dynamics of Antebellum Southern development; banking on the periphery--the cotton South, systemic seasonality, and the limits of national banking reform; rural credit and mobility in India; labor-market regimes in U.S. economic history; the political economy of progress--lessons from the causes and consequences of the New Deal; teachers and tipping points--historical origins of the teacher quality crisis; inequality and institutions in twentieth-century America; the unexpected long-run impact of the minimum wage--an educational cascade; and America's first culinary revolution. Rhode is Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. Rosenbloom is Professor of Economics and Associate Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Kansas. Weiman is Alena Wels Hirschorn '58 Professor of Economics at Barnard College and an affiliated member of Columbia University's History Department. Index.

Is the economics of time and ignorance a “classic”?

A history of economic thought perspective on The Economics of Time and Ignorance reveals that the book rehabilitates some major themes in the Austrian tradition that were all but lost subsequent to the formalist revolution in economics that took place in the middle of the twentieth-century. The book also anticipates some important ideas that were extended and applied in Austrian economics after it was first published. Reviews have claimed that the book was a “classic” and also “original”. The book is too close in a temporal sense to judge whether or not future generations will canonize it as a “classic”. Using Stigler’s criteria as to what constitutes scientific “originality”, it is concluded that, taken as a whole, the book was not original. From the vantage point of the overall discipline of economics, it was a work advancing controversial ideas that would not easily change the beliefs, practices and interests of economists in general but it offered sound reasons for taking the Austrian thought-trajectory more seriously. It would be more fitting to view the authors as providers of many innovations contributing to the mature Austrian economics of the twenty-first century.

Rational deconstruction of rational reconstruction

Imre Lakatos´ impressive historiographical methodology has served as the foundation of several works in the history of science. The method is closely related to his philosophy of science, the so called methodology of scientific research programmes. This paper attempts to provide a criticism of the Lakatosian method by providing a detailed analysis of a historical case study from the field of the history of economic thought, namely Philip Mirowski´s thesis concerning the impact of physics on the marginalist revolution in economics. I will reconstruct Mirowski´s reconstruction explicitly in Lakatosian terms and show that the consistent application of Lakatos´ historiography leads to contradictions.

How Does the FOMC Learn About Economic Revolutions? Evidence from the New Economy Era, 1994–2001

Forecasting is a daunting challenge for business economists and policymakers, often made more difficult by pervasive uncertainty. One such uncertainty is the reaction of policymakers to major shifts in the economy. We explore the process by which the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) came to recognize and react to the productivity acceleration of the 1990s. Initial impressions were formed importantly by anecdotal evidence. Then, FOMC members—and chiefly Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan—came to mistrust the data and the forecasts. Eventually, revisions to published data confirmed initial impressions. Our main conclusion is that the productivity-driven positive supply side shocks of the 1990s were initially viewed favorably. However, over time they came to be viewed as posing a threat to the economy, chiefly through unsustainable increases in aggregate demand growth that threatened to increase inflation pressures. Perhaps nothing so complicates business planning and forecasting as policymakers who initially embrace an unanticipated shift and later come to abhor the same shift.

A Winning Strategy for India’s North-East

For most Indians, the North East (NE) has remained largely on the fringes of nationhood as well as on the periphery of the country’s geography. This is partly because India has ignored the region politically and economically for a long time, and partly because the complex social and cultural dynamics have made it difficult to integrate the region with the rest of the country. However, India can never achieve sustained high economic growth or become a powerful integrated nation if it continues to think of developing NE as a rural infrastructure project. It is a region of seven states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura – that has four international borders – China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan – and accounts for a major source of hydrocarbons (oil and gas), coal, limestone, tea, bamboo and other resources. A big, bold, tangible, all-encompassing strategy is suggested in this article to kick-start an economic revolution in the NE, using domestic businesses and partnerships neighbouring South East Asian countries. The paper uses the model of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), a $90 billion effort funded jointly by Government of India and Government of Japan to make western India into an economic powerhouse. Part 1 of this paper examines the political and economic landscape of the region and explains how diplomacy, policing and development brought peace to Assam and to NE at large. Part 2 proposes a major new economic plan for the future, with Thailand as partner.

A Chinese Economic Revolution, Rural Entrepreneurship in the Twentieth Century. By Linda Grove. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, Inc., 2006. Pp. xi, 303. $74.00, hardcover.

A Chinese Economic Revolution, Rural Entrepreneurship in the Twentieth Century. By Linda Grove. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, Inc., 2006. Pp. xi, 303. $74.00, hardcover. - Volume 71 Issue 3

Economic evolution and revolution in historical time

Economic evolution and revolution in historical time

Integración regional o marginalidad internacional : las dos opciones de América Latina

At the end of the eighties, Latin America began a process of international reintegration as a result of a confluence of political (democratic recovery and peace processes) and economic factors (structural reforms, adjustments and trade liberalization), in a world context of recovery of growth and investment. The president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Enrique Iglesias, pointed it out very graphically at the time: "We are passing from the lost decade to the decade of hope." Twelve years later, the IDB itself warns us that the region, at the current rate of growth, contrasted with the dynamism of the world economic revolution, would need a century to reach the levels that developed nations have today. Where will they be in a century? And where will Latin America be?

The Role of Industrial Schemes in ASEAN Countries Development: In the Context of New Scheme AFTA

The ASEAN countries have introduced many Industrial development schemes and free trade policies to improve their economic co-operation and strengthen their free trade market. These new schemes were introduced to promote the AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade) among the ASEAN countries, along with the objective of Industrial development between them. These schemes were exactly chartered out in early 1990 when the focus and motive of ASEAN countries, was to promote trade co-operation and achieve economic revolution.

Redeeming economics: rediscovering the missing element

A bold call for a revolution in economics--by retrieving its past. Economics is primed for a revolution, says respected economic forecaster John D. Mueller. To make this leap forward will require looking backward, for as Redeeming Economics reveals, the most important element of economic theory has been ignored for more than two centuries. Since the great Adam Smith tore down this pillar of economic thought, economic theory has had no way to account for a fundamental aspect of human experience: the social relationships that define us, the loves (and hates) that motivate and distinguish us as persons. In trying to reduce human behavior to mere exchanges, modern economists have lost sight of how these essential motivations are expressed: as gifts (or their opposite, crimes). Mueller makes economics whole again, masterfully reapplying economic thought as articulated by Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. Contrarian and compelling, Redeeming Economics covers everything from unemployment, to inflation, to the economics of parenthood, to the greatest geopolitical challenge facing the United States, to flaws in the mega-bestseller Freakonomics, to the author's illuminating exchange with the controversial philosopher Peter Singer.

TOWARDS AN ALGORITHMIC REVOLUTION IN ECONOMIC THEORY

Abstract This is an attempt to tell a coherent story of a possible path towards an algorithmic revolution in economic theory, based on foundational debates in mathematics. First, by exposing the non-computational content of classical mathematics, and its foundations, it is shown that both set theory and the tertium non datur can be dispensed with, as foundational concepts. Next, then, as a natural sequel, it follows that every kind of economic theory that bases its theoretical underpinning on classical mathematics can be freed from these foundations and can be made naturally algorithmic. This will make the subject face, in an all pervasive way, absolutely (algorithmically) undecidable decision problems. The thrust of the path towards an algorithmic revolution in economics lies, then, in pointing out that only a radically new mathematical vision of microeconomics, macroeconomics, behavioural economics, game theory, dynamical systems theory and probability theory can lead us towards making economic theory a meaningfully applied science and free of mysticism and subjectivism.

An Important Problem in the Holistic Study of Marxist Doctrine—The Inner Logic and Implications of Marx's Philosophical and Economic Revolution

马克思的哲学革命与经济学革命的内在逻辑联系，是关于马克思学说整体性研究 中的一个关键性问题。马克思的哲学革命与经济学革命的内在逻辑联系是在马克思 超越政治经济学领域的政治经济学批判和超越哲学领域的哲学批判的过程中展现出来 的，即：在超越哲学领域的哲学批判中构建政治经济学的方法论系统，同时在超越政 治经济学领域的政治经济学批判中丰富和发展初步完成的哲学革命的成果，最后在这 两种“互动”的批判中基本完成经济学革命并使哲学革命的内容和形式趋于完善。马 克思的哲学革命与经济学革命的内在逻辑联系对当代中国马克思主义哲学研究的重要 方法论启示是：作为马克思主义创始人的马克思（和恩格斯），其学说的整体性实际 上包含着对后人研究和发展其哲学的一个最为根本的方法论要求——从其学说的整体 性出发来研究和发展其哲学。为此，就必须形成由批判理念、问题理念和时代理念构 筑而成的跨学科意识。 关键词: 哲学革命 政治经济学批判 跨学科意识 The inner logical connections between Marx's philosophical and economic revolutions are a crucial issue in the study of Marx's theory in its totality. They unfold in the course of Marx's critique of political economy, which goes beyond the domain of political economy, and his critique of philosophy, which goes beyond the domain of philosophy. Specifically, Marx formulated his methodology for political economy in his critique of philosophy and at the same time expanded the achievement of his initial completion of a philosophical revolution in his critique of political economy. Finally, in these two “interactive” critiques, he basically accomplished his economic revolution and perfected both the substance and form of his philosophical revolution. The inner logic connecting Marx's philosophical and economic revolutions offers important implications for research on Marxist philosophy in contemporary China. That is to say, the integrity of the theory of Marx (and Engels), the founder(s) of Marxism, in fact implies a fundamental methodological requirement for later generations in studying and developing Marxist philosophy, namely, that they should always keep in mind the holistic nature of theory. Therefore, we need to have a cross‐disciplinary consciousness which consists of critical awareness, problem awareness and awareness of the times.

To preserve or to develop? East Bay dredging project, South Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands

The Turks and Caicos Islands are currently in the midst of an economic revolution from a marine-based provisional economy to a tourism economy. East Bay, South Caicos, is currently under construction with plans for a 160-unit condominium complex. Included in the project plan is removal of seagrass beds in front of the development to make a sandy beach for tourists. The aims of this study were to (i) describe the bathymetry and benthic habitat coverage of East Bay before dredging takes place and (ii) perform an economic valuation on the turtle grass beds that will be dredged using ecosystem valuation and emergy analysis techniques. The bathymetry survey revealed shallow waters (<1.5 m) until the reef drop off (∼650 m offshore). Benthic habitat exhibits zonation following the general progression: sand plain, algal plain, seagrass, coral rubble and seagrass, rock and turf algae, and reef flat. Ecosystem services valued the proposed dredging area at USD $28,807 per year, compared to emergy analysis, which valued the proposed dredging site at USD $32,060 per year. The baselines presented in the study may facilitate a quantitative assessment of dredging impacts on turtle grass once dredging is complete and an economical cost-benefit-analysis of the dredging project to see whether the economic gains outweigh the ecological costs of dredging in front of the East Bay development.

Happiness: A Revolution in Economics

American Journal of Agricultural EconomicsVolume 93, Issue 1 p. 256-257 Books Reviewed Happiness: A Revolution in Economics Bailey Norwood, Corresponding Author Bailey Norwood bailey.norwood@okstate.edu Oklahoma State Universitybailey.norwood@okstate.eduSearch for more papers by this author Bailey Norwood, Corresponding Author Bailey Norwood bailey.norwood@okstate.edu Oklahoma State Universitybailey.norwood@okstate.eduSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 January 2011 https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aaq129Citations: 7Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume93, Issue1January 2011Pages 256-257 RelatedInformation

Creating the Invisible Hand: The Construction of Property Rights and the Promotion of Economic Growth between State and Interest Groups in the first German Patent Law of 1877

Die Konstruktion von Verfugungsrechten und die Forderung von wirtschaftlichem Wachstum zwischen Stoat und Interessensgruppen im ersten deutschen Patentgesetz von 1877. The introduction and the revisions of patent laws which many nation states undertook in the half of the 19th century strongly confirmed the marriage of science and which is the central element in the sustainable dynamic of the second economic revolution. The German case is of particular interest in this respect, as the Kaiserreich after debates that lasted for decades introduced a highly innovative patent law which differed markedly from those in other countries. Particularly the differentiated regulations to protect inventions in the area of chemistry were identified by economists and historians as instrumental to the immense success of the German chemical industry on the world market. The core of the patent law consisted of a limited protection which gave innovators room to make advancements on the basis of existing inventions. Taking institutional economics and the theory of collective action as a point of departure and tracing the historic events from an actors' perspective, the article aims at explaining the behaviour of leading representatives of the chemical industry who lobbied for a legislation that seemingly contradicted their rational business interests.

&lt;i&gt;The Age of Projects&lt;/i&gt; (review)

Reviewed by: The Age of Projects Charles A. Knight The Age of Projects, ed. Maximillian E. Novak. Toronto: Toronto in Association with the UCLA Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 2008. Pp. x + 404. $85. Perhaps because of its conference origin, the term "projects" takes on various meanings. In its most interesting and successful meaning, "projects" refer to the intellectual framing of practical plans conducive both to the general welfare and to the private welfare of those undertaking the specific project. For others, "projects" is a figurative term that means almost anything—a scientific experiment, an invention, a civic construction, a stockjobbing scheme, architectural plans. Essays organized by the figurative meaning of [End Page 40] "projects," though often informative in themselves, seem attached to the topic by intellectual duct tape. Mr. Novak's arbitrary headings—"Retrieving the Past," "Improving the Present," and "Envisioning the Future"—ably supply an organization for his thoughtful and suggestive Introduction. Beginning with Defoe's Essay upon Projects as a "mixture of hope and optimism with an expectation of failure," he provides sympathetic and perceptive previews of each essay, concluding that "the projects of the age were more often than not the product of the mind imagining possibilities rather than being able to bring them to success." In the category of essays "Retrieving the Past," Margery Kingsley's "Family, Inheritance, and Clarendon's History of the Rebellion" concerns the transmission of values as well as property within families, but not the divinely ordained transmission of patriarchal political authority (Sir Robert Filmer). Clarendon's History itself is a family document—made public by his sons and seeking to instruct and influence his granddaughter, Queen Anne. In the seventeenth century, artifacts became significant devices for asserting authority, creating national identity, and preserving the family. Clarendon saw family inheritance as "a mechanism by which the social structures and institutions of the past could be replicated" in the face of repression. Family history functions as a middle term between individual action and ideology. Paul Hammond's "The Interplay of Past and Present in Dryden's 'Palamon and Arcite"' and Elliott Visconti's "Trojan Originalism: Dryden's Troilus and Cressida" look at Dryden's coded use of the past in classical myth and the past of earlier literary works—in Dryden's translation of Chaucer's "Knightes Tale" and his version of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. While "recovering the past," William Weber's "Canon versus Survival in 'Ancient Music' of the Eighteenth Century" is only loosely connected to projects; it traces the continued performance of earlier music in the changing patterns of concert programs in the eighteenth century. The most interesting and effective essays focus on "Improving the Present." Steven C. A. Pincus's "A Revolution in Political Economy?" explores the connections between the political revolution of 1688-1689 and the economic revolution signaled by the founding of the Bank of England. The conflict was between an idea of the economy as limited and based on land (favored by the Tories and by James II) and an idea of the economy as resting on an expanding commercial society (supported by merchants and by the Dutch). The villainous Tory was Josiah Child, who headed the East-India Company until the revolution. His fall, along with that of James II, therefore signaled a shift in attitudes toward trade. "The Glorious Revolution, then, produced, and by many was intended to produce, a revolution in political economy." The subtitle of Kimberly Latta's, "'Wandering Ghosts of Trade Whimsies': Projects, Gender, Commerce, and Imagination in the Mind of Daniel Defoe" clearly states her interests. Abandoning the mercantilist view that wealth was finite and limited, Defoe saw the imagination as generative rather than merely imitative. The problems for the open-ended creation of meaning by "wit" and of wealth by trade lie in discerning and enforcing appropriate limits. Defoe sought a midpoint between chaotic imagination and tyrannic government. The remaining essays in this section are not concerned with the political and economic senses of "projecting" or with Defoe, and their place in this collection is questionable: David Boyd Hancock's "Living Forever in Early Modern Europe: Sir Francis...