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The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, better known as the RCEP, is a free trade agreement signed by 15 countries from the Asia-Pacific region in November 2020. It took effect in January 2022. After presenting an overview of the agreement, this paper looks at the negotiations and the current state of the RCEP. It then focuses on its basic content, particularly from a legal standpoint, as it analyses the institutional framework, the decision rule, its legal sources and the dispute settlement system, without omitting to look at the agreement from an economic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2015, the 2030 Agenda was presented, which establishes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that all countries and stakeholders must meet by the year 2030. It is an apparently transformative and inclusive proposal; however, interpreting its essence is of notable importance for underdeveloped societies, since it reveals that the agenda favors capital management. This paper addresses, from the critique of political economy, the essence of the «new» agenda. Although it recognizes that the SDGs can constitute a step forward in overcoming many of the problems inherent to under development, it states that the SDG respond to power relations corresponding to the logic of reproduction of capital on an international scale. Fulfillment of the SDGs must have as basis the distinction between essence and appearance, only then can it truly contribute to the development of nations, and especially those that advocate the socialist alternative to the logic of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part of this paper, a "Habermas-way" diagnosis is made: uncertainty as the climate of an interconnected world without a common basis, the crisis of successful "Enlightened Reason", including its techno-scientific expression, and critical reason. In the second part, it discusses the paradoxical outcome of modernity and its unfulfilled promises, as well as the crisis of modern reason which, despite the postmodern reaction, addresses the search for the foundation of discourse ethics and the problem of presuppositions, demonstrably valid norms, the importance of language, communicative action and parliamentarism. The third section presents three final reflections, including the need to continue the struggle for emancipation, the complexity of putting this diagnosis into practice, and the criticism that Habermas has received for ignoring cultural differences and reducing communication to a linguistic exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop the idea of the Sraffian Supermultiplier, presenting it as an alternative to traditional neoclassical thought about economic growth and economic policy. Thus, a brief introduction is made about the importance of economic growth for classical economists, followed by the development of Harrod's model and the different solutions that have raised for sorting the problem of instability. Finally, we present the supermultiplier model of Serrano together with international empirical evidence that supports it and some proposals of economic policy are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of marketing and production integrates functions that generate profits in the business environment and provide organizational value toward a competitive advantage in the sector. Identifying opportunities in the design of new products corresponds to a task consistent with studying the factors involved in the strategies of participation and competitiveness in the different markets. The challenge is to determine the incidence factors in the productive processes and marketing activities, for which the objective of this study was to identify and analyze the most outstanding scientific publications between 2000 and 2021 in the Scopus database to establish the attributes of the most significant scientific relevance called research perspectives. Methodologically, a scientific mapping and network study was carried out to determine the documents and essential characteristics such as number of publications, most relevant authors, H index, institution of belonging, and countries of origin. Likewise, the tree metaphor and the R-studio software were applied to identify basic articles, structure, current articles, and research perspectives. The results suggest the existence of three lines of research that relate to the success of marketing and production: theories of production and marketing, optimal control of systems, and relationship models. Finally, an agenda of papers concerning future lines of research is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds light on an overlooked issue in economics, namely the social responsibility of central banks in a democracy. We consider central banks as institutions of power, and, as such, neither are they nor their policies neutral, in the sense that there are inevitable winners and losers. We explain why and how their power should be regulated and controlled by society. Specifically, we focus on the income distributive nature of monetary policy to demonstrate this assertion. From this, we explain that the time is ripe to build a new framework for central banking aiming at improving central banks' social responsibility consistent with the spirit of a democratic system, and resting on new rules, new types of inner organization and, more broadly, an ethics of responsibility of a new kind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that this year's "Nobel" prize in economics celebrates one of the weakest aspects of modern macroeconomic thinking: its limited ability to understand the macro-financial instability of modern capitalism. Instead of challenging the stubborn refusal to take seriously thinkers who confront the essential importance of finance and its dangers for the modern world, such as Hyman Minsky or Hyun Song Shin, it flaunts the tendency to ignore them. And it argues that if the Prize Committee had wanted to reward those who seek to understand the dynamics of the modern global financial system and its interconnections with the real economy, it should have given it to the BIS team, which dates back to the time of William White, and to academic economists associated with the BIS such as Hyun Song Shin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking Guatemala as a case study, this paper reflects on the neoliberal power and knowledge elite. Based on Michael Mann's theory of social power and research on power structure, as well as network analysis, the study explores Guatemala's domestic network of right-wing/neoliberal think tanks and detects the key links and core nuclei within it. Using real data, the analysis reveals the business connections between the staff of these neoliberal think tanks. The paper is thus the first reflection on those in privileged positions of power within the think tank network and the capacity this gives them to establish contacts and transfer knowledge to the fields of economic and ideological power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exposes a relation between the accumulation and dispossession process of land in Colombia as a product of war, from a perspective of space. The theoretical frame of this paper assumes that coloniality of power is a complex form of dissociation of the land, one that transforms the experience of serfdom. Via reading thinkers like Marx, Harvey, Castro-Gómez, and Mariátegui, this paper problematizes the experiences of dispossession of land in Colombia and the economy of power that it engenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main telecommunication companies in Argentina have had transnational shareholders since the 1990's and have achieved a very high level of concentration and growth due to national state laws. Telefónica Argentina is one of the most important companies that has been favoured by different governments ensuring a great business development and a dominant market position. This paper presents a critical analysis of the public communication policies in Argentina between 1989 and 2021 using Telefónica as case study, under the political economy perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the time oil was discovered off the Ghanaian coast in 2007, the capacity of elections to encourage alternation between government by the two main political parties was already clear. This paper aims to investigate the terms in which the debates have developed around the relationship between natural resources and democracy in Ghana. Three main issues have been addressed: the capacity of democratic institutions to condition and shape the social and political effects of the oil industry in the country; the potentially perverse effects of oil extraction on democratic institutions; and the role of international actors and the international arena in forming the political economy of oil in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a reading of Keynes according to which the General theory paves the way for an investment theory of aggregate income and a financial theory of investment, this paper focuses on an issue that is usually ignored by the currently trendy economic theories: the transcendental role played by financial institutions and money in a capitalist economy. Due to a failure of these institutions' assets to perform that induces a diminishment in the flow of cash and increases their aversion to risk, there comes a decrease in the financing of consumption and investment spending through these intermediaries; this, in turn, leads to declines in investment and consumption spending, which affects the flow of profits and wages available. The notion that this economy enjoys a general equilibrium should be discarded; likewise, the quantitative theory of money should be dispensed with. At the same time, once that we eliminate the assumption that the future is perfectly foreseeable, it is possible to conclude that these institutions are inherently plighted by a great uncertainty. The general performance of an economy improves insofar as the state successfully intervenes in order to sustain solvency, strengthening the resources via substantial spending, and does not limit itself to the financing of consumption. This paper considers the financial structure and the flow of income (especially aggregate profits), and then proposes an integrated model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the French Revolution (1789) and the outbreak of the Springtime of the Peoples (1848), European economic thought debated between the defense of protected markets and the proper opening of capitalist markets. In this paper, we address this process specifically in the framework of the German intellectual scene, from the bibliographic debates of the time, as a historical marker for a more complete understanding of the Hegelian conceptualization of political economy, its scope, limitations, and projections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sraffa rescues the classical analysis and puts it in discussion with mainstream theory. The thesis of this paper is that his ontological analysis, specified in the market snapshot, allows us to understand Sraffa's theoretical position and, in turn, is a method to assess his traditional interpretations as well as the new perspectives arising from the reading of his drafts. Its position is not entirely precise, so it is necessary to include conventions, which open the way to institutional analysis. Finally, starting from the contrast with other interpretations, it proposes to defend the coherence between the vision of the world and the ideas developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economics is a policy discipline that deals with the problems of social organization and the general good. It co-evolves with circumstances, and it is historically contingent. The world to which economic policies are ultimately addressed is a complex system. Yet economists seeking to develop appropriate policies are necessarily guided by simplifications and heuristics. The question before the discipline is to decide what sort of simplification is best suited to the task. In the spirit of modern science, this paper argues that appropriate generalizations, simplifications, heuristics, and principles are to be derived from a study of the actual world. While these may deploy mathematical tools and draw on insights from the behavior of mathematical systems, the latter by themselves are inadequate, especially where they start from the dead dogmas of the neoclassical mainstream: ex nihilo nihil fit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream economic theory is replete with assumptions that feed into structural or systemic racism. It supports an economic system that severely disadvantages people at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, which in the U.S. includes a disproportionate number of Hispanics, indigenous people, and descendants of slaves ((would Afro-Americans be more appropriate?)). The paper discusses 15 such assumptions that are generally trivialized, including the crucial role information costs play in decision making. In turn, costly information implies that its acquisition by poor people requires a greater share of their income, making it more difficult for them to make well-informed decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic crises can be analyzed as part of the economic cycle and from different theoretical perspectives. The article considers economic crises or recessions, in general, as capitalism's own mechanisms to alleviate its contradictions and restore, at least partially, the previous accumulated imbalances. The period 1970 to 2020 covers eight economic crises, some of which determine changes in the internal structure, economic policy trends and the functioning of the U.S. economy, as the main center of the world economy. The purpose of this paper is to examine the set of economic crises of the last fifty years in a panoramic manner, to evaluate them as part of the process of major economic transformations and associated economic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between poetry and economics in Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar, a long narrative work in prosimetrum form composed in Iceland during the first half of the 13th Century. The study assesses the role of versifying as an economic activity as well as it provides information about production, consumption and exchange in the poems of the saga. Furthermore, it considers the relationship between the material aspects of life as displayed both in the saga prose and in its poetry. The analysis suggests that both are generally congruent, and thus the saga provides the audience with a sense of narrative and ideological unity in regard to these economic matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the characteristics and challenges of public and private migration policies developed in Andalusian municipalities. The methodologies focus on bibliographic reviews and dialogue with selected local governments, public and private organizations, and Andalusian universities. It is concluded that local migration policies consider the socio-legal migrant condition in the access to basic rights, that is necessary to go beyond the recreational in the intercultural activities to achieve migrant integration at the local level; and, that a mestizo vision is required at the Andalusian level as a tool to demystify cultural essentialism that makes unfeasible egalitarian intercultural dialogues. The originality of this work lies in a direct dialog with the main local agents in migrant integration in Andalusia, and its limits consist of the need to continue researching the relationship between the intercultural, solidarity economies, decrease, and co-development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the implementation of the European Higher Education Area, university teachers have had to develop and apply new teaching methods in their educational practice that enable students to learn from a more didactic approach. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the effects of the implementation of teaching innovation projects on academic performance in a sample of 1,546 students from three universities and four different degree programmes. To this end, we studied the performance of an experimental group that carried out a practical activity in which they had to relate the victory of the Spanish national soccer team in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with how the main functions of a company's management are executed. The experimental group was compared to a control group that studied the same topic in a traditional master class. The results show that the academic performance of the experimental group was superior to that of the control group. Therefore, it is concluded that the development and implementation of teacher innovation projects carried out in the classroom improve the academic performance of university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines China-Latin America relations through the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in the 2011-2018 period. In this context, the main perspectives on integration and regionalism are discussed, and CELAC is shown to possess the characteristics of a regional body. It is proposed that the relationship China seeks through this body can be explained by its interest in institutionalising a mechanism for rapprochement with Latin America and the Caribbean. It is noted that CELAC is seen by China as a strategic vehicle that allows it to engage bilaterally with various countries and develop an economic strategy under structurally asymmetric conditions. However, its institutional nature has prevented it from serving these interests. As per the methodology, documentary and qualitative data analysis is made using the systematisation of an unpublished database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the heir of political philosophy, the English post-commercialist economy and the French physiocracy, since its origin, political economy has integrated production, circulation and the theory of value into the theories of the modern state and capitalist society. In this paper it is argued that, in political economy, the conceptions of the State and of society are related to the theory of surplus. It criticizes the marginilist notion of society, emphasizes the centrality of the theory of surplus, explained in the conflict between State and society, and identifies the limits of the principle of effective demand of Keynes and Kalecki. The main conclusion is that economic policy recommendations based on inflation, wage deflation and containment of public spending goals seek to increase the surplus in the crisis and recession phases of the economic cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesoamerica emerged in regional relations thanks to different cooperation strategies between Mexico, Central America, Colombia and the Dominican Republic that have resulted in what is known today as the Mesoamerica Integration and Development Project. However, ten years after its creation, most of the studies in this regard are descriptive and use an institutional approach that does not distinguish other relevant aspects such as the inclusion of nongovernmental actors and their participation in this regional program. In order to make a first approach to these aspects within the Mesoamerica Project, this paper proposes the use of the International Political Economy theoretical approach of British origin, in the interest of identifying those analytical elements that will go beyond the traditional approach and deepen our knowledge of this program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Will underdeveloped economies be able to achieve development in the twenty-first century? To advance towards a potential response to this question, this paper analyzes some aspects of the development processes of South Korea and China, pointing to the exceptional geopolitical and strategic conditions behind why their models are unsuitable to emulate. It also highlights the state authoritarianism, strict planning and discipline of both the ruling and ruled classes to guide investment and the growth of specific economic sectors. From this perspective, the paper then discusses some proposals formulated for the region by neo-developmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic thought evolved over the past two centuries to focus on individual behavior as the basis for all economic activity. Some heterodox economists have pointed to the importance of group behavior and the influence of organizations on economic activity, but the neoclassical paradigm, with the rational isolated individual as its main actor, prevails in mainstream economics. This paper presents a "sociology of economics" to explain why the prevailing paradigm of economics does not allow seeing and studying group behavior. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the paper details the habitus, the system of beliefs and the symbolic violence against those who question them. Also, it highlights the support of commercial and financial interests to the dominant culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional competitiveness evolves in close parallel to productivity, which, at present, is increasingly tied to creativity and innovation. A range of studies on the theme recognize that the spatial concentration of creativity drives productivity; nevertheless, few have managed to quantify the magnitude of this relationship. Via a stochastic production frontier analysis, this paper evaluates the levels of technical efficiency and productivity found across Mexico's 59 metropolitan regions (mr) and measures the contribution of the creative activities located in each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes the nature of the Mexican ethnic economy developing in the cities of Huntington Park and Lynwood, California, in the United States. Using census databases and the results of 145 surveys administered to and 25 interviews with a range of people in 2012, this paper documents the existence of a Transnational Ethnic Economy (TEE), which goes further than the traditional definition of the "ethnic economy" concept" and is organized and develops in such a way that includes individual businesses, businesses with multiple branches, supermarket networks, and a commercial consortium in the study zone, with bonds and relationships that transcend national borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Talcing as a reference a simple oligopoly model with differentiated products, in which there are three firms, the purpose of this paper is to complement the existing literature on mergers by proving that the traditional merger paradox can be avoided by assuming that, after the merger, the merging firms increase the existing bilateral product differentiation. In this context, it is proved that a merger could be welfare enhancing by increasing both consumers surplus and merging and non merging firms profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks for empirical evidence to show if a very interventionist government stimulates or not private investment in Latin America. Using the same model as Caballew-Urdiales y López-Gallardo (2012), we extend their analysis from five Latin-American countries to all Latin America. The results from our estimated elasticities show evidence in support of three hypothesis: (1) that tax burden (taxes on income and consumption) has significant effects on privateinvestment; (2) that public investment has a crowding out effect with private investment; (3) and that in order to stimulate private investment, the government should have very little intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revives Fernando Fajnzylber's methodology, used to characterize Latin America's development pattern from the nineteen-sixties to the nineteen-eighties, leading him to describe it as a non-equitable growth pattern, which he termed the empty box. This time around, we analyze the last thirty years, aiming to reveal how the development pattern in the region has fundamentally changed, if it has changed at all, and find evidence as to whether the empty box, pursuant to its original definition, persists or not. Implicitly, the task is to propose a critical analysis of Latin American economic development in line with a classic structuralist work, as Fajnyzylber's research is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking into account the concept of imagined water communities elaborated by Benedict Anderson (1983) in this paper, we have studied cases about originary communities that have developed identity processes and collective legitimacy forms through the ownership and property of water resources. Through this perspective it was possible to identify how communities located within the State of Mexico territory have gained power and have had empowerment of water resources. These communities have also gained other capabilities such as control, management, access and the collection of water users payment for the drinking water service they receive. Through imagined communities perspective it also helps to identify identity processes and legitimacy processes within originary communities. This paper concludes that access, operation and management of the drinking water supply service by water committees is useful to built water communities that become active participants in the relationship State-nature. This paper was elaborated with information obtained from interviews carried out in 2008, 2009 and 2010 in three communities from the State of Mexico. These communities share similar characteristics in terms of their water management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the use of differential equations and finite difference methods for solving several problems in the field of Economics and Business Administration. Economics usually needs to study the evolution of the values which are taken by a given variable in different moments. If the time variable works in a continuous way, its evolution is studied by differential equations. Otherwise, time is a discrete variable and finite difference methods must be used. In addition, to expound the evolution of the notions of differential and difference equations, the goal of this paper is to show a general view (but not comprehensive) of their many applications for explaining economical and financial phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to draw attention on the political origin of the concept of development. It shows that, more than a concept, development could be understood as a paradigm that determines the way we see, define and intervene the world. Moreover, the paper makes a historical review of how gender perspective has been included in the study of poverty, and the resulting policies directed to attend this phenomenon. Additionally, the paper mentions the contributions of gender perspective to the study of poverty in an ampler sense than the intervention one. Finally, it presents further questions about the course that poverty studies with a gender perspective should follow, and the need of a new paradigm -altemative to the development one- that will help us understand, redefine and change social reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financialization has transformed public spending into the guarantor of financial profit. One of the expressions of this process is the partnership between public spending and private capital, which has underpinned the securitization of public assets. In the road sector, structured financing constrains the availability of public resources, permits the emergence of new sources of profit for financial monopolistic capital, and drives up the cost of infrastructure. The objective of this paper is to analyze how public-private partnerships (ppp) operate in the Mexican road sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most explanations of stock market booms and busts are based on contrasting the underlying ‘fundamental’ logic of the economy with the exogenous, non-economic factors that presumably distort it. Our paper offers a radically different model, examining the stock market not from the mechanical viewpoint of a distorted economy, but from the dialectical perspective of capitalized power. The model demonstrates that (1) the valuation of equities represents capitalized power; (2) capitalized power is dialectically intertwined with systemic fear; and (3) systemic fear and capitalized power are mediated through strategic sabotage. This triangular model, we posit, can offer a basis for examining the asymptotes, or limits, of capitalized power and the ways in which these asymptotes relate to the historical and ongoing transformation of the capitalist mode of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After twenty-five years of the end of the Cold War, the impact of the rise of China in the international system can be analyzed from material and ideational elements of power. This article seeks to identify whether China's importance is internationally overrated, or if this country can really challenge U.S. hegemony. Most of the literature on Chinese potential has overlooked its internal policy, which is a determining factor in the international system, according to the realist perspective. Using the inductive method, this paper will attempt to establish the causal relation between domestic and international politics. This will highlight China's need to solve border disputes with its neighbors, make a commitment to respect human rights, and solve the needs of a population that is highly dissatisfied with the present government due to inequality and corruption. These factors challenge China in its quest to achieve a new distribution of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the presence of calendar anomalies in the main Latin-American stock markets, for the 1993 to 2007 period. The literature has shown that the detection of those effects may depend on error distribution assumptions (Baker et al., 2008), and that their existence could be due to a problem of data snooping (Sullivan et al., 2001). In response to these problems, Cho et al. (2007) introduced a robust non-parametric test, which was adopted in this paper. Results show that calendar anomalies: Monday and Weekend Effects are present in the main Latin-American stock markets, and they are statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A general overview on the macroeconomic context of housing, as well as general aspects on housing policy and goals are shown in the paper together with their position in different socio-economic systems. Four different sets of variables were identified to make the Cuban housing system possible. These are: tenure, including rights and responsibilities inherent to different forms of possession and other legal aspects; land supply, an important element in housing production as a separate element; promotion, production and distribution as one group and lastly, financing, subsidies and payment. The paper also refers to the revolutionary housing policy measures taken and analyzes today's outcomes and contradictions in housing. Some selected results of a recently carried out survey among Cuban experts on housing policy matters applied by the author are compared to the new economic order introduced by the guidelines for the 6th Party Congress. First implementations of these guidelines into laws, decrees and rules are inserted and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some preliminary results of the research project entitled 'Development of a methodology for conducting the inventory, characterization and verification of sites potentially contaminated with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) in major agricultural areas of the state of Sonora': First, some approaches that emerge from the risk society regarding environmental issues in general and POPs in particular. Then, an approach to the problem of POPs that gave rise to the Stockholm Convention; the evidence of such a problem in Mexico, in Sonora and the obligations assumed by subscribing to such agreement. Nationally, the emphasis is placed on the analysis of environmental regulations related to toxics, and at state level, evidence shows the presence of POPs and their impact on the environment and on human health. Finally, the paper presents some reflections on the challenges and areas of opportunity for Mexico when dealing with problems associated to the presence of POPS, on the basis of following international guidelines, official regulations and analysis suggestions from the perspective of risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the classical water-supply looped-network optimization problem is mathematically nonconvex and multimodal, the resulting solution of most approaches is uncertain in the sense of how close it is to the "best" solution. In many cases, this "best"' or "global" solution is invoked and pursued without a clear understanding of its meaning. This paper discusses what is involved in "global" solutions and the role that pipe flow distribution can play to deal with nonconvexity and multimodality in a new context. The author has introduced this new context recently after formulating a new objective function capable of finding that a looped network can be economically more attractive than its related branched one. Therefore, the convenience of an approach dealing with flows and heads, as relevant decision variables, is encouraged in this paper and its advantages enumerated under the new concepts. The entropy approach is studied critically and an example is provided for comparison with the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first application to Colombia of culturomics, a novel research method in the social sciences that describes cultural, social and linguistics trends based on the quantitative analysis of millions of digitized texts. The paper uses all news and editorials published during the past two decades in three national periodicals in order to analyze the trajectories of several social and economic phenomena: corruption, economic optimism, the relative power of the judicial branch, etc. Beyond its specific findings, this paper showcases how culturomics can be used to describe the changing reality of a developing country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic theory of rational choice was accepted for decades as a general theory to explain human behaviour which other social sciences lack. This paper reviews some limitations of the former. Through cognitive psychology, the paper describes the cognitive biases of people when assessing data and making choices, which puts into question the idea that the human mind is programmed to follow the assumptions of rational choice. On the other hand, the increased risks in modern civilization (monetary, ecological, geopolitical) and their global character define our society as "the society of global risk". The author discusses the limits of our rationality in regard to making choices as a troubling issue for coping with increasing global risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents evidence that macroeconomic accounting models helped to anticipate the credit crisis and economic recession, whereas equilibrium models, ubiquitous in mainstream policy and research, did not. This study traces the intellectual pedigree of the accounting approach as an alternative to neo-classical economics, and the postwar rise and decline of flow-of-funds models in policy use. The paper includes contemporary case studies of both types of models, and considers why the accounting approach has remained outside mainstream economics. Finally, it provides constructive recommendations for revising financial stability evaluation methods, and advocates an 'accounting of economics'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its beginnings, and more clearly since the mid 1800, Economics has been resting on the assumption that economic agents make rational decisions, maximizing their utility or well-being according to their own preferences and interests. The economic order resulting from that plurality of rational decisions is regarded as an efficient and Pareto-optimum one. Several authors have questioned the validity of those assumptions, and this has entailed a gradual transformation of the assumptions. This paper discusses the problems faced by the idea of a fully rational Homo economicus, the adjustments and defensive measures adopted by various tendencies within Economics to overcome those problems and counter various related theoretical and methodological criticisms. The paper also discusses more recent conceptions of economic reality that are at variance with the traditional view, especially those linked to behavioural, institutional and evolutionary Economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative view of the training of economists in Latin America, analyzing curricula, commonly utilized textbooks, professors' time-commitments, teaching methods, and the use of technologies and computational tools. Also, following the approach of Colander (2005), the paper presents the results of a survey of Economics students, creating a socioeconomic profile of them and examining their attitudes and opinions. Among the regularities found for the five countries, particularly notable is the lack of connection between students' expectations regarding job market demand for economists and the actual demand by employment sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One goal of this paper is to discussing the macroeconomic impact that an international commodity prices boom has in a small open economy under perfect capital mobility. A Mundell-Fleming model with some adaptations is used for the analysis of this real external shock. There are two effects: the monetary one that is a recessionary impulse, and the one that increases aggregate demand. Also the macroeconomic impact of a real external shock is compared with the effect of a financial external shock (changes in the external rate of interest), in a dollarized economy with a floating exchange rate. The other goal of this paper is to show that central bank sterilized intervention in the foreign exchange market can be an effective policy response to copy with real o financial external shocks. The macroeconomic impact of external shocks depends upon the economic structure, the monetary and fiscal policy mix, and the exchange rate regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to present fuzzy sets theory as a reliable and straightforward methodology to measure poverty, which offers comparative advantages with respect to traditional methods. This paper also shows that fuzzy sets methodology is compatible with census data information to compute poverty indexes. Results of measuring poverty at state, municipal and town levels are presented for the case of Mexico and are compared with official results. Comparison reveals that fuzzy sets theory is an alternative that solve some of the methodological problems present in poverty lines and marginalization indexes, which makes it a helpful tool to evaluate and implement policies aimed at tackling poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores why international economic cooperation is both potentially beneficial and difficult to attain in practice. Taking nation states as unitary actors the paper uses game theory to explore the difficulties states face to sustain cooperation over time. Specifically, the analysis focuses on the incentives for following non-cooperative behavior, as well as on problems of time inconsistency. The paper also discusses how the existence of economic hegemonies can facilitate cooperation, as well as how the existence of international regimes and institutions fosters cooperation by modifying the incentives different states face. Thus, cooperation can be facilitated but never ensured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental idea of this paper is the use of a market mechanism to induce a redistribution of wealth in the exchange economy. In this market, operating parallel to the goods market, consumption rights initially assigned by the planner are exchanged freely. Such trades generate a variety of Walras equilibrium solutions, in a way similar to what can be obtained from lump-sum transfers. In this paper we analyze the special case with an egalitarian initial distribution of consumption rights across the population and applying a simple price rule for consumption rights. This case has the advantage that no information of the population's initial endowments is required to induce a redistribution of wealth that reduces the gap between the rich and the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a detailed presentation of the Skaperdas and Syropoulos model; one of the main models of the theory of conflict and state emergence. First, it describes the model's Nash equilibrium and the relevant effects of comparative analysis. And second, from a new interpretation of the equilibrium and comparisons with other similar models, the paper concludes that it constitutes the most general analytical framework in the subject, which can be understood as the foundations for a general theory of conflict and state emergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]