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Presents a list of several books related to anthropology. "Beyond Lines of Control: Performance and Politics on the Disputed Borders of Ladakh, India"; "Creole Economics: Caribbean Cunning Under the French Flag"; "Rethinking the Mediterranean"; "Landlords and Lodgers: Socio-Spatial Organization in an Accra Community."

These comments focus on some issues raised in the papers by Dimand, Peart and Levy, Cot, and Leonard. These papers are fascinating, but not without weaknesses. It is argued that Dimand's presentation of what he calls the “general principle” of classical economics is misconceived. There is a confusion in this paper between the classical view of equal capacity and the much newer concept of equally rational actual performance. Peart and Levy discuss the idea of unequal capacity for pleasure in Edgeworth, but do not draw a link back to the idea in J. S. Mill of different qualities of pleasure. Cot and Leonard provide informative accounts of the American eugenic movement and its links to progressivism, but with an insufficient degree of distinction between the various positions and agendas that were concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades system dynamicists have experimented with approaches to achieve more involvement of their clients in the model building process. As a result the number of reports in the literature on the use of system dynamics as an organizational intervention tool has increased dramatically. From the literature we have identified 107 cases that provide details on the modeling process and the assessment of results. The cases show a wide variety in the way the interventions are reported and assessed. From a research point of view this is clearly an undesirable state of affairs. This article reports on a meta analysis of findings of these studies and tries to provide an overview of outcome studies on system dynamics interventions. It attempts to draw some preliminary conclusions on the effectiveness of system dynamics modeling interventions, to clarify differences in definitions of outcomes, and to provide guidelines for more standardized assessments and reports. Rather than remaining in the stage of single case descriptions, the latter will enable the accumulation of research results in the future, a prerequisite for institutional learning within the system dynamics community. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replies to the comments made by Thomas Mayer (2004) regarding the productivity of economic research. Optimal rate of scientific exploration and little evidence of socially efficient investment, at least with respect to economics; Technical issues raised by Mayer; Increased production of highly-cited papers.

The editors of the journal "Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics" call for papers for a special issue on the topic 'Innovations in the public, co-operative and social economy.' The texts should integrate a theoretical argumentation and empirical data in a qualitative or quantitative analysis perspective. They must make a significant original contribution on the subject of social innovation. Texts may be in English or French, with a maximum of 20 pages.

Social psychological scholarship has emphasized the importance of effective leadership during the COVID‐19 pandemic. However, the wider material contexts of these dynamics have often remained understudied. Through a critical discursive lens, this paper investigates differences in the social constructions used by leaders of richer and poorer nations during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We identify a sharp economic bifurcation in global discourses of pandemic leadership. Pandemic leadership in wealthier nations exercises power in abundance by mobilizing institutions and inspiring communities through discursive frames of coordination and collaboration. Conversely, pandemic leadership in poorer settings negotiates agency amid scarcity by tactically balancing resources, freedoms and dignity within discursive frames of restriction and recuperation. Implications of these findings are unpacked for understanding leadership especially during an international crisis, highlighting the need for critical sensitivities to wider societal structures for a genuinely global social psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent paper by Faria ( Bulletin of Economic Research, 57 (2005), pp. 1–12) deals with the interplay between editors and authors. This research is a welcome addition to the literature on formal analyses of academic markets. This note points out a potential discrepancy in Faria's derivation of the equilibrium journal quality and clarifies the conditions under which journal quality responds to changes in editor's impatience and in author's impatience. Specifically, the effect of a change in author's impatience on journal quality is shown to be not unambiguous. Some implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Berichte zur Wissenschafts-Geschichte is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents updates on the "Pacific Economic Review" journal. It reports that the journal has been included in the Social Sciences Citation Index. An information on the Best Paper Prize in Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the "Pacific Economic Review," is provided. It also reports on the plan of Blackwell Publishing to digitize the entire run of "Pacific Economic Review" back to volume one, issue one.

The article presents the editorial policy of KYKLOS, one of the best ranked general economics journals in Continental Europe. A refereed economics review, the journal provides significant advantages to the authors, apart from the high quality and wide publicity. In accepting manuscripts for publication, based on the referee reports, the editors decide whether the paper is, in principle, suitable for publication.

This article presents information on the editorial policy of the journal KYKLOS. It is informed that KYKLOS is a refereed economics review with a large readership and circulation in Europe, North America and elsewhere around the globe. It is proud of being one of the best-ranked general economics journals in Continental Europe. Based on the referee reports about the general quality of the papers submitted, the editors decide, usually within about two months of submission, whether the paper is in principle suitable for publication in KYKLOS. To speed up the process, in obvious cases oral reports by the referees are sufficient.

A substantial empirical literature exists on ranking the published research output of individual academic economists and individual university Economics departments, including Australian work in Economics. However, very little corresponding effort has been directed at examining trends in the nature of published articles, and this embryonic literature is exclusively focused on a handful of top-ranked journals to the exclusion of Australian Economics journals. This note seeks to fill this gap by adopting the methodology developed by Coelho et al. (2005) in their analysis of the decline in critical commentary and applying it to Australian Economics journals for the period 1962 to 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

George Soros's reflexivity theory is quite compatible with second order cybernetics. Indeed his work shows how to apply ideas in second order cybernetics to economics, finance and political science. This paper briefly reviews three theories of reflexivity in cybernetics. It provides an introduction to Soros's version of reflexivity theory and reviews applications in economics and finance. Soros's approach to economics is based on different assumptions about information and about human behaviour. His approach to finance is more holistic than most current work in finance. He does not emphasize mathematical models but rather sees finance as a human player game with himself as a participant. The paper concludes that Soros's work is a very important contribution to and expansion of contemporary social science. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delineates three kinds or senses of the cycle concept as used in social science theory and research. Cycles of the weak or first kind merely refer to fluctuations or state changes. Cycles of the moderate or second kind refer to fluctuations with some constant periodicity in fact or in principle. Cycles of the strong or third kind have several analytical properties that require explanation. I argue that the term cycle should be reserved for cycles of the second or third kinds and that the terms fluctuation or alternation should be used for cycles of the first kind. The paper concludes with some comments on sources of resistance to the cycle concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previous systematic reviews considered the relationship between socioeconomic status and obesity, almost 200 peer-reviewed articles have been published since the last review on that topic, and this paper focuses specifically on education, which has different implications. The authors systematically review the peer-reviewed literature from around the world considering the association between educational attainment and obesity. Databases from public health and medicine, education, psychology, economics, and other social sciences were searched, and articles published in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish were included. This paper includes 289 articles that report on 410 populations in 91 countries. The relationship between educational attainment and obesity was modified by both gender and the country's economic development level: an inverse association was more common in studies of higher-income countries and a positive association was more common in lower-income countries, with stronger social patterning among women. Relatively few studies reported on lower-income countries, controlled for a comprehensive set of potential confounding variables and/or attempted to assess causality through the use of quasi-experimental designs. Future research should address these gaps to understand if the relationship between educational attainment and obesity may be causal, thus supporting education policy as a tool for obesity prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contributing to the literature on knowledge infrastructure maintenance, this article describes a historical longitudinal analysis of revenue streams employed by four social science data organizations: the Roper Center for Public Opinion, the Inter‐university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the UK Data Archive (UKDA), and the LIS Cross‐National Data Center in Luxembourg (LIS). Drawing on archival documentation and interviews, we describe founders' assumptions about revenue, changes to revenue streams over the long term, practices for developing and maintaining revenue streams, the importance of financial support from host organizations, and how the context of each data organization shaped revenue possibilities. We extend conversations about knowledge infrastructure revenue streams by showing the types of change that have occurred over time and how it occurs. We provide examples of the types of flexibility needed for data organizations to remain sustainable over 40–60 years of revenue changes. We distinguish between Type A flexibilities, or development of new products and services, and Type B flexibilities, or continuous smaller adjustments to existing revenue streams. We argue that Type B flexibilities are as important as Type A, although they are easily overlooked. Our results are relevant to knowledge infrastructure managers and stakeholders facing similar revenue challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on the editorial policy of the periodical "Kyklos." "Kyklos" is considered as one of the best ranked general economics journal in Continental Europe. The basic principle of the journal is that the authors should be able to convey their ideas to the public. More information on the subject matter is discussed.

This paper discusses estimation methods for models including an endogenous spatial lag, additional endogenous variables due to system feedback and an autoregressive or a moving average error process. It extends Kelejian and Prucha's, and Fingleton and Le Gallo's feasible generalized spatial two-stage least squares estimators and also considers HAC estimation in a spatial framework as suggested by Kelejian and Prucha. An empirical example using real estate data illustrating the different estimators is proposed. The finite sample properties of the estimators are finally investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulation. Resumen. Este artículo discute métodos de estimación para modelos incluyendo un intervalo espacial endógeno, variables endógenas adicionales debido a retroalimentación del sistema y un proceso autorregresivo o uno de error de media móvil. Amplia Kelejian y Prucha's, y los estimadores de mínimos cuadrados bietápicos espaciales generalizados factibles de Fingleton y Le Gallo y considera también la estimación HAC en un marco espacial tal y como sugieren Kelejian y Prucha. Proponemos un ejemplo empírico utilizando datos de bienes inmuebles ilustrando los diferentes estimadores. Las propiedades en muestras finitas de los estimadores se estudian finalmente mediante simulación de Monte Carlo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have found that the returns to education in rural China are far lower than estimates for other developing economies. In this paper, we seek to determine why previous estimates are so low and provide estimates of what we believe are more accurate measures of the returns. Whereas estimates for the early 1990s average 2.3 percent, we find an average return of 6.4 percent. Furthermore, we find even higher returns among younger people, migrants, and for post-primary education. The paper demonstrates that, although part of the difference between our estimate and previous estimates can be attributed to increasing returns during the 1990s, a larger part of the difference is due to the nature of the data and the methodological approaches used by other authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses economic evaluations by distinguishing evaluative statements from actual value judgments. From this basis, it compares four solutions to the value neutrality problem in economics. After rebutting the strong theses about neutrality (normative economics is illegitimate) and non-neutrality (the social sciences are value-impregnated), the paper settles the case between the weak neutrality thesis (common in welfare economics) and a novel, weak non-neutrality thesis that extends the realm of normative economics more widely than the other weak thesis does. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ludwig von Mises is often regarded as a “champion” of laissez faire. This characterization seems to contradict Mises's clear statement that economics is value free. The aim of this paper is to resolve this apparent contradiction. We accomplish this by distinguishing, as Mises did, between the advocacy of specific laissez-faire policies and the advocacy of a laissez-faire ideology vis-à-vis the alternative ideologies of socialism and interventionism. Mises argued that the logic of a value-free economics could be used to show that socialist and interventionist policies would not achieve a goal that the socialists and interventionists implicitly or explicitly aim to achieve, that of progress in terms of material wealth for the members of society. Thus, Mises resolved the contradiction by shifting the debate from the welfare analysis of particular policies to a logical analysis of the ends of a particular ideology and the means available to achieve those ends. In a seminal paper in neo-Austrian economics, Murray Rothbard criticized Mises. We analyze Rothbard's argument partly as a means of elucidating Mises's views and argue that Rothbard misinterpreted Mises and quoted him out of context. Rothbard failed to adequately support his claim that Mises held the beliefs that Rothbard attributed to him. Moreover, Rothbard's paper undermined the value freedom that Mises regarded as a crucial characteristic of economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many transition policies, based on the existing neoclassical economic theories, failed in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and China. This paper argues that the failure is due to the implicit viability assumption of neoclassical economics. The existing neoclassical economics implicitly assumes that a firm is expected to earn a socially acceptable profit in an open, competitive market as long as the firm has normal management. However, many firms in socialist as well as transitional economies are not viable, that is, they will not be able to earn a socially acceptable profit in an open, competitive market even if they are under normal management because they are in sectors that are inconsistent with their economies' comparative advantages. Under the viability assumption, neoclassical-based reform policies focus on issues related to property rights, corporate governance, government interventions and other issues that may obstruct a firm's normal management. However, many of these issues are in fact endogenous to the firms' viability problem. Therefore, without resolving the firms' viability problem, such reforms fail to achieve their intended goals. Not only in socialist and transition economies but also in many developing economies there exist many nonviable firms. This paper suggests that the viability assumption in neoclassical economics should be relaxed when analyzing socialist, transition and developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys what can be learned from recent advances in the incomplete contract literature to understand how public goods are or should be provided. The paper starts with a section on the full information case that presents and discusses the classical Samuelson condition on the optimal provision of public goods. The rest of the paper presents results under asymmetric information. It is constituted of two main parts. In the first one, the social planner has complete contracting ability. We discuss the basic setting and assumptions of this comprehensive contracting approach and study the trade-offs it generates. The second part of the paper is devoted to the study of contracting incompleteness. Such incompleteness can emerge from various sources, which we present and discuss. We then study the case of a politically chosen decision-maker and the consequences of its inability to commit for more than one period and of the ability for individuals to form groups. Finally, we address the problem of the choice between public and private forms of public good provision. The concluding section summarizes the main policy lessons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents several abstracts of articles related to social science including Development Economics and the Compensation Principle by Ravi Kanbur.

Transaction cost economics (TCE), as developed and operationalized by Oliver Williamson, is one of the most prominent and influential developments in the social sciences. In recent years, on the basis of many empirical studies, it has been claimed that the evidence has corroborated TCE. If so, this would have major implications for the debate between TCE and other approaches to understanding the nature of the firm. In this paper we submit the most prominent TCE empirical work to critical scrutiny, on the basis of the standards and predictions in Williamson's own writings. We find a much more mixed picture, with few studies giving unambiguous support to Williamson's TCE. Furthermore, a significant number of the studies can be reinterpreted in terms of a competence or capabilities approach. We conclude that the empirical evidence does not decisively support Williamson's TCE and we stress the importance of an empirical program of joint testing of rival theoretical approaches. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

David Newbery's (1975) paper on the economics of free-access resources devotes considerable space to critical comments on my (1972) paper on the same topic. I shall deal first with Newbery's criticisms, all of which I believe to be invalid. I shall then assess his distinction between "over-exploitation" and "congestion", and show the close relation between Newbery's principal theorem and the main point of my own analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers hints for prospective authors of KYKLOS, one of the best ranked general economics journals in Continental Europe. The paper must address succinctly with a topical economic and/or social issue of interest to general readers. Analyses on a certain topic must bear originality and the paper must go beyond the narrow boundaries of prevailing economics. Theoretical propositions should be backed by econometric tests and historical or circumstantial evidence.

Cites the different types of contributions preferred by the editors of the periodical "Kyklos". Papers that deal succinctly with a topical economic and/or social issue of interest to general readers; Papers that analyze a topic in an original way; Suggestion that papers dealing with specific issues for only one particular country are less desirable.

This article focuses on several abstracts on sociology. "Ontology matters: The relational materiality of nature and agro-food studies," by David Goodman examines This paper examines the question of ontological choice in agro-food studies, and emphasizes that such choices are consequential, determining analytical points of entry, arenas of theory and praxis, and normative positioning. These questions are explored by examining the privileged place of the labor process in the development of agro-food studies and, as a more specific illustration, in analyses of agro-biotechnology. It is suggested that the modernist ontological priorities embedded in the unreconstructed conceptualization of the labor process not only have been ignored but also have found an unexamined place in post-structuralist agrarian political economy. The discussion closes by reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of actor-network theory as an alternative avenue of critical engagement with the new bio-politics of agro-food networks. "A matter of life and death? Men, masculinities and staying behind in rural Ireland," by Caitriona Ni Laoire is set within the context of a growing interest in the gendered nature of rurality and of rural life, and in particular in the context of an emerging literature on rural masculinities. It focuses on rural men and in particular on the phenomenon of rising male rural suicide rates.

Within a second-best duocentric urban economics framework where labor income taxation distorts workplace choices on account of commuting costs, this paper studies a commuting subsidy, which distorts land use. It is shown that a commuting subsidy increases welfare if and only if it shifts labor supply from less to more productive business districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-examines the non-distribution constraint as a key structural feature of non-profit organization. It argues that its traditional understanding as a trustworthiness-enhancing device is incomplete. This paper shows that the non-distribution constraint is also a reflection of the directly utility-enhancing character of involvement in non-profit firms for their key stakeholders. This alternative explanation allows one to solve the central puzzle of trustworthiness theory: why doesn't the non-distribution constraint destroy entrepreneurial motivation? Additionally, it helps one to understand the role of the non-distribution constraint in economic theories of non-profit organization that do not rely on trustworthiness theory. Finally, it enables one to logically integrate the different economic theories of non-profit organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been an article of faith amongst regional economists that increasing returns to scale are necessary to explain the punctiform location of economic activity and population. However, there is no consensus in the empirical literature over whether returns to scale are constant or increasing. A notable example of this lack of agreement is provided by the static-dynamic Verdoorn law paradox. While the dynamic Verdoorn law (specified using growth rates) yields estimates of substantial increasing returns to scale, the static Verdoorn law (specified using log-levels) indicates only the presence of constant returns to scale. In this paper, we explain the static-dynamic Verdoorn law paradox by showing that estimates of returns to scale obtained using the static law are subject to a spatial aggregation bias, which biases the estimates towards constant returns to scale. We illustrate our arguments by means of simulation exercises. The results obtained hold general lessons for applied economic analysis using spatial data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the themes of rationality and legitimation in the discourse of sustainable development. We start by constructing ideal types of interpretation of sustainable development (weak and strong) and rationality (value rationality and instrumental rationality) as conceptual and theoretical ‘tools’ for our further analysis. We then discuss the role of and analyze the construction of rationality and legitimation in the sustainable development discourse. We explore the ways in which rationality and legitimation are constructed to support one's own interpretation, and, on the other hand, how the rationality and legitimacy of the opposing interpretations are nullified. We then discuss the basis of prudent decision-making, and the possibilities and problems that are bound up in the concept of sustainable development. The paper concludes by stating that when it comes to sustainable development neither societal decision-making nor the actions based on it is currently prudent. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue is special in two major dimensions: the papers range intentionally over a much wider spectrum of social and natural science approaches and disciplines than is normal for the Journal of Agricultural Economics; and, the articles relate to ongoing research rather than completed work. These reflections, perhaps peculiar to a practicing applied economist and policy analyst, concentrate on the lessons to be learned and messages to be heard from the RELU programme, both by those engaged on the programme's research portfolio, and by other researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I provide an example of sorting equilibrium nonexistence in a three-community model of the type introduced in Caplin and Nalebuff (1997; Journal of Economic Theory 72, 306–342). With two communities, such an example has been shown to exist only when the dimension of the policy space is even. It turns out, however, that with three communities existence may fail regardless of whether the policy space dimension is odd or even. This suggests that the original odd/even dichotomy can, at least in part, be explained by the evenness of the number of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that the nature of potential shocks impinging on a set of countries or regions may have important implications for relevant aspects of economic policy. This paper addresses the shocks issue empirically by applying the State Space methodology and the Kalman Filter to the case of the Spanish regions. The main conclusions are as follows: (i) it seems that the shocks affecting the Spanish regions have been mostly symmetric; (ii) their effects have been persistent rather than transitory; and (iii) supply shocks have been slightly more frequent than demand shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the recent political economy literature on countries' incentives to form international unions and/or to disintegrate in smaller jurisdictions. The main factors that affect these incentives are (i) economic integration, (ii) the international order, (iii) international spillovers and (iv) the institutional setting. Some implications are drawn for the current debate in Europe on the political effects of economic integration, on the enlargement process and on the distribution of prerogatives between the European Union and national governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social science literature has done much to document pervasive racial discrimination in Brazil and there is little doubt that a very dark colour is a handicap to social advancement. Nevertheless, very few empirical economic studies have attempted to quantify the impact of ethnic discrimination in Brazil. Using data culled from the Pesquisa National por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD), this paper fills this void by analysing ethnic wage and employment gaps, as well as occupational segregation in Brazil, using the Oaxaca decomposition methodology. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates experimentally a market inspired by two strands of literature: on herd behaviour in non-market situations, and on the aggregation of private information in markets. The first strand suggests that socially undesirable herd behaviour may result when information is private; the second suggests that in a market context the price mechanism may cause the private information to be aggregated correctly and efficiently. This latter therefore suggests that socially undesirable behaviour may be eliminated through the market. We test this experimentally, and find that socially undesirable behaviour may result: the market is misled by agents privately optimizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the Wellington (1993) and Smith and Welch (1989) decompositions of changes in labour market outcomes over time. The two examples considered are differences by gender in educational attainment and the gender wage differential. The results suggest that even though the procedure developed by Wellington (1993) has been favoured in recent research, the Smith and Welch decomposition is a more informative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between interpersonal trust and membership in voluntary associations is a persistent research finding in sociology. What is more, the notion of trust has become a central issue in current social science theorizing covering such diverse approaches as transaction costs economics or cognitive sociology. In different ways and for different purposes, these approaches address the role of voluntary organizations, although, as this paper argues, much of this thinking remains sketchy and underdeveloped. Against an empirical portrait of this relationship, the purpose of this paper is to assess such theorizing. We first set out to explicate major approaches to trust in economics, sociology and political science, using the non-profit or voluntary organization as a focal point. We then examine the various approaches in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, and, finally, identify key areas for theoretical development. In particular, we point to the social movement literature, the social psychology of trust, and recent thinking about civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that recent debates over the future of rural studies have been, in some cases, highly dualistic, claiming that it is necessary to choose between political–economy or poststructuralism and between adopting a structuralist/modernist class–analysis or a poststructuralism/postmodernism in which class does not figure. It is argued that there are good reasons for resisting such constructions of choice, and the paper seeks to demonstrate the value of paying attention to discursive constructions of class. Drawing on four pieces of rural research, it is suggested that class is still a salient discursive construct, both within popular images of rurality and within the descriptions of rural life made by, at least some, rural residents. It is also argued that while many rural residents do explicitly reject class identities, often preferring to construct identities through a range of rural lifestyle discourses, these themselves often draw upon cultural textures of class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the development of industrial capitalism and the development of modern social science in the United States through the writings of two of the best–known writers on social science in the late nineteenth century: Henry George, the apostle of the rights of labor and author of the classic critique of private ownership of land, Progress and Poverty; and William Graham Sumner, the arch defender of the rights of capital and author of a pioneering treatise on Folkways. The paper traces and analyzes their mutual movement away from classical political economy and toward a new social psychology in response to rising economic inequality. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two previously reported experiments, Loomes, Sumner and Sugden have found that choices are systematically non-transitive, following a pattern of 'cycling asymmetry' predicted by regret theory. However, there are other potential explanations for these observations. This paper reports four experiments designed to discriminate between alternative explanations. There are three main findings. First, when the original experiments are replicated, the same cycling asymmetry is found. Second, this pattern is not the result of event-splitting effects. Third, both the frequency and the asymmetry of cycles are greater when choice problems are presented in act/event matrices than when the options are described separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers presents a discussion concerning the issues raised in Black's paper on the types of feedback ignored by previous authors. According to Black, most of the authors who estimated the multipliers of feedback at sub-national levels of aggregation went wrong in estimating the feedback triggered by leakages from the initial injection from the induced investment and into the area including the feedback being called leakage induced repercussion (LIR) effect. But then, it is noted that Black's conclusion that LIR effect's value, highly proportional to other types of feedback, depend upon LIR's definition which he used.

A non-constructive generalization of the 'lone wolf' theorem, which states that in the roommates problem an agent is single in a stable matching if and only if that agent is single in every other stable matching, is presented. The generalization is in two directions: (i) the set of permissible roommates is arbitrary as long as all singles are allowed, and (ii) the set of preference profiles is any subset of the set of all profiles of strict preferences defined over permissible roommates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of heavy- or long-tailed densities (or distributions) has attracted much well-deserved attention in the literature. A quick search in Google using the keywords long-tailed statistics retrieves almost 12 million items. The concept has become a pillar of the theory of extremes, and through its connection with outlier-prone distributions, long-tailed distributions also play a central role in the theory of robustness. The concept of tail heaviness is by now ubiquitous, appearing in a diverse set of disciplines that includes: economics, communications, atmospheric sciences, climate modeling, social sciences, physics, modeling of complex systems, etc. Nevertheless, the precise meaning of 'long-' or 'heavy tails' remains somewhat elusive. Thus, in a substantial portion of the early literature, long-tailedness meant that the underlying distribution was capable of producing anomalous observations in the sense that they were 'too far' from the main body of observations. Implicit in these informal definitions was the notion that any distribution that behaved that way had to do so because its tails were longer than those of the normal distribution. This paper discusses tail orderings and several approaches for the classification of probability distributions according to tail heaviness. It is concluded that an approach based on the limiting behavior of the residual life function, and its corresponding characterizations based on functions of regular variation and asymptotic distribution of extreme spacings, provides the more natural and illuminating concepts of tail behavior. WIREs Comput Stat 2013, 5:30-40. doi: 10.1002/wics.1236 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do economists reach a conclusion on a given policy issue? One way to answer the question is to survey economists at large. Another is to look at the published judgments of economists who have gone on the record. Relative to an anonymous survey, going on the record makes for much greater accountability, and presumably more personal responsibility. I discuss 11 studies of economists' published judgments. Several of them show greater support for liberalization than found among economists at large. This is offered as evidence of what I call the forsaken-liberty syndrome. I discuss the nature of this test of such syndrome and point to some of the larger questions to which it relates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the introduction of the 2011 Special Issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship has frequently emphasized modern states' use of social science to impose universalized conceptions of rationality and order upon diverse, highly localized settings. The New Deal era experiences of William M. Leiserson and David J. Saposs, however, provide an analytical alternative. As students of the pioneering labor economist John R. Commons, Leiserson and Saposs sought to create mechanisms for state oversight of industrial labor relations that recognized local practices and arrangements. Although their approach failed to take hold within the National Labor Relations Board, localized institutional and political contingencies, and not a hegemonic modernism, account best for their frustrated aspirations in the late 1930s. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]