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Copyright of People & Nature 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.)

But before getting to these criticisms, it is necessary to understand Tang's main target: the New Institutional Economics (NIE). By putting more focus on individual self-interest and bottom-up development than their OIE predecessors, it has been argued that NIE economists implicitly make the case for a government that is limited to the protection of property and contract enforcement. In I The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development i , Fudan University Professor Shiping Tang presents a detailed description of the way institutions impact economic development. [Extracted from the article]

Is mainstream economics only about growth, efficiency, and sustainability? Many critics contend so, but the recent state of the art in economics suggests not. Respectively drawing on reformist neoclassical economics, neoclassical microeconomics "proper," and behavioral economics, major studies show that mainstream economics provides theories of inequality and unsustainability. However, the theories of causation utilized remain largely neoclassical. Similarly, the bases for repairing the harms are grounded in neoclassical reasoning, while the mechanisms for restoration—ranging from minimalist interventions and income and substitution effects to behavioral nudges—are still mainstream. Fundamentally, they say little or nothing substantial about ecological imperialism, at the heart of which are rent theft and ecological debt, two critical cornerstones of world ecological crises. Therefore, mainstream economists certainly have, use, and apply theories of inequality and unsustainability, but mainstream economists neither have, use, nor apply transformative theories of social stratification, nor ecological imperialism generally. The overall effect of this disconnect from real‐world ecological crises is not simply that conventional environmental policies are incomplete, but that mainstream economics and conventional policies deflect attention from ecological imperialism behind veils of rhetoric, prices, and behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compare the high degree of inequality in the Nordic countries to three countries with much lower Gini coefficients, which means a more equal distribution of wealth: Japan (0.631), Australia (0.658), and Italy (0.689). Land Value as Location Value Even though land is a free gift of nature, there is plenty of land where the location value is negative. That needs to be emphasized because it is so rarely understood: location has value relationally, which means that land in a city has value I only i because of the value contributed by surrounding activity. While it is possible that high marginal income tax rates and more public services might move society in the direction of greater wealth equality, the high Gini numbers for Nordic countries indicate that that policy direction is inadequate. [Extracted from the article]

Since the economic reforms of the 1970s, local Chinese urban authorities have requisitioned rural land near cities. To protect their land from these practices, many urban village collectives have established a cooperative shareholding system, but their motives remain unclear. Neoclassical economics suggests that such enterprises seek to maximize profits. Guided by the original institutional‐economics approach, I investigate this question empirically by interviewing residents of Mengke village in Chaoyang city, Liaoning Province, northeast China. These data reveal four startling findings about the motives behind the shareholding system. First, collective economic organizations do not simply seek the maximization of profit. Second, the shareholding cooperative system adopted by village collectives helps villagers resist external threats such as land loss. Third, the collective economic organization is not merely a firm or a single market; it may work as a firm and a market simultaneously. Finally, managing of common property contributes to maintaining the identity of the collective. These findings suggest that the theories of neoclassical urban economics and new institutional economics fundamentally mischaracterize urban cooperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness and housing insecurity in the United States are not so much a housing problem or a poverty problem as a visible sign that growing wealth inequality has left millions of people unable to earn enough to afford adequate housing. The classical economists David Ricardo and Henry George linked wealth inequality by arbitrage to unequal income and wages. The greater the inequality of wealth, the greater the inequality of income and the lower the wages at the bottom. Neoclassical economics has largely obscured this relationship. Consequently, proposals from both conservatives and liberals to address homelessness focus narrowly on housing. Ultimately, reducing wealth inequality requires national tax reform and a return to vigorous antitrust enforcement. However, cities can reduce local inequality by making property tax assessments uniform, or, better yet, by shifting to taxing land only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transaction cost economics, neoclassical economics, and the firm capabilities literatures propose theories of the firm that typically depict firm boundaries determined by a dichotomous choice: the make or buy decision. However, none of these theories presents a satisfying explanation as to why firms would concurrently source, i.e., simultaneously make and buy the same good. This study combines these organizational economics theories and compares when firms make, buy, and concurrently source through surveying small manufacturing firms. Support was shown for aspects of all three theories, with evidence indicating that concurrent sourcing is a distinctly different choice, rather existing along a make/buy continuum. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problems in the micro-foundations of neoclassical theory, especially in partial equilibrium analysis, are being imported into the resource-based view. This paper critiques neoclassical theory and proffers new concepts more suited to strategy scholars. In particular, we develop the concepts of simple rents, rent sensitivity analysis, and the payments perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

And, certainly, Florio is true to the framework for this as it emerged most prominently from the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill accident, through the 1993 report on this disaster by the prominent panel of economists led by Nobel Laureates Kenneth Arrow and Robert Solow. The notion of bringing the economist's cost-benefit lens to the large projects that comprise contemporary scientific research infrastructure threatens to challenge the very pursuit of I veritas i as an intrinsic value. Many a scientist will resist the idea of such a book as this. [Extracted from the article]

Why does capital not flow to developing countries as predicted by the neoclassical model? What are the direction and degree of capital misallocation across nations? We revisit these questions by removing public capital from total capital to achieve a more accurate estimate of the marginal productivity of private capital. We calculate marginal product of capital schedules in a large sample of advanced and developing countries. Our main result is that, in terms of the Lucas Paradox, private capital is allocated remarkably efficiently across nations. Tentative estimates of the marginal productivity of public capital suggest that the deadweight loss from public capital misallocation across countries can be much larger than that from private capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neoclassical theory of production establishes a dual relationship between the profit value function of a competitive firm and its underlying production technology. This relationship, commonly referred to as duality theory, has been widely used in empirical work to estimate production parameters such as elasticities and returns to scale. We generate a pseudo-dataset by Monte Carlo simulations, which, starting from known production parameters, yield a dataset with the main characteristics of U.S. agriculture in terms of unobserved firm heterogeneity, decisions under uncertainty, unexpected production and price shocks, endogenous prices, output and input aggregation, measurement error in variables, and omitted variables. Production parameters are not precisely recovered when performing econometric estimation based on the duality approach, and the elasticity estimates are inaccurate. Deviations of own- and cross-price elasticities from initial median values, given our parameter calibration, range between 6% and 690%, with an average of 90%. Also, own-price elasticities are as imprecisely recovered as cross-price elasticities. Sensitivity analysis shows that results still hold for different sources and levels of noise, and sample size used in estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the problems neoclassical economic theory has in explaining the real world stem from its narrow view of human nature—the "rational economic man" model, which forces economists to exclude social and historical context. Every social theory starts with a view of human nature that necessarily comes from outside the social sciences. Philosophy and theology are the sources of our ideas about the nature of humans, society, and the good that humans pursue. Catholic Social Thought has a rich understanding of human nature, which includes both the uniqueness of persons and their inherently social nature. Starting from this foundation, economists can develop a deeper understanding of the nature of the economy. Catholic Social Thought does not offer a different economic theory or model, but it does provide an alternative vision upon which more adequate and realistic economic theories can be constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoclassical economic theory delivered upon its promise. It showed how the liberation of markets from government constraints could bring about a rapid expansion in the production of consumer goods. That was a major accomplishment. However, it came with a price in terms of social fragmentation, economic inequality, and a planetary ecosystem that is now overwhelmed by human activity. Continuing to follow the course plotted by conventional economics is a path to disaster. The world needs alternatives. Marxism has been tried and found wanting in many respects, including its abysmal environmental record. This article offers help from an unlikely source: insights of Reformed Protestantism that can be traced back to John Calvin in the 16th century. Although Calvin and Calvinism are better known for a harsh view of human sinfulness, Calvin also contributed to the development of liberal democracies by advocating representative government, universal education, and greater participation by more people. Reformed theology emphasizes the importance of widespread participation in decisions, including economic decisions, at every level of society, and provides a positive role for institutions, including government, to protect the common good. It also points toward the need to situate economic policy in the larger domains of social and ecological health. Above all, it denies the validity of any economic system that deifies economics as such, and provides criteria for judging the effectiveness of economic systems as well as the evils of externalizing social and environmental costs in the name of a false efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several articles published within issue on topics related to limitations of neoclassical economics (NCE); and failure of mainstream economics in bringing in the balance with social and ecological goals.

The nature of the challenge to mainstream economics needs to be carefully considered. This article presents an overview of the challenge, emphasizing that it is not just a matter of heterodox economists developing non‐neoclassical economic theories. The embrace of a pluralist method and pedagogy is equally significant. The development of a transdisciplinary approach adds further to the breadth of the challenge. Weaving these elements together as political economy provides an alternative paradigm to mainstream economics. Extending its influence requires focus on adult education, the media, and public policy, as well as sustained efforts within universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microeconomics requires a new grounding or formulation that can account for a broader range of socioeconomic behavior than neoclassical economics does. The core of the neoclassical economics research program—the theory of rational choice—has offered insights into the determination of socioeconomic behavior. But other elements need to be integrated into a coherent microeconomic perspective. We introduce such a perspective in which neoclassical economics becomes a special case. This advances our understanding of the determinants of behavior in a coherent and integrated manner. This perspective may form the foundation of an evolutionary and institutional perspective on socioeconomic systems. This has practical value in designing strategy and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoclassical economics is based on and structured around the notion of homo economicus. The theory of consumer choice, the theory of the firm, industrial organization, and welfare theorems all require the assumption that agents act in accordance with the scheme of individualistic rational optimization. In this context, our contribution is threefold. First, we delimit the notion of homo economicus according to five characteristics or dimensions. Second, we critically review this anthropological scheme from five distinct approaches, namely, behavioral economics, institutional economics, political economy, economic anthropology, and ecological economics. Third, we conclude that the scheme of homo economicus is clearly inadequate and deficient. However, despite its inadequacies, it remains one of the fundamental pillars of the neoclassical paradigm in economics, which allows us to discuss why we have not yet overcome this paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great deal of recent research has been concerned with the effect of inflation on economic variables such as the interest rate, the premium for risk, and the value of the firm. Many of these articles have argued that, except for depreciation effects, the value of future investments in a world with taxes is unaffected by a change in the rate of inflation. Since it is difficult to discuss in depth the work of many writers, we will zone in on the reasoning of this type employed in only one paper, the recent article by Gandolfi. However, we believe that the discussion presented here has implications formerly other articles as well. As is common in the literature, Gandolfi builds his macromodel in two steps. First, he sets up the investment, consumption and other schedules as functions of simple parameters such as income and the rate of interest. Second, he combines the schedules to determine the equilibrium values of these parameters. This note is only concerned with part of the first step since we merely want to reevaluate the investment schedule. Since we believe that the use by Gandolfi and others of the IS/LM and/or the neo-classical growth model for the second step is correct, we leave it to future research to place our amended investment schedule in the appropriate model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on three papers within the issue: "Long-Term Effects of Government Deficits on the U.S. Output Potential," by George von Furstenburg, "Capital Formation and the Recent Productivity Slowdown," by Peter Clark, and "U.S. Productivity Growth Recession: History and Prospects for the Future," by Michael McCarthy. The author discusses each article and criticizes their shortcomings. He looks at von Furstenburg's use of the Phelps-Shell model of dynamic economic growth and notes the usefulness of neoclassical growth theory. The author feels that his discussion on the effects of government deficits on output growth or productivity represent a fruitful economic analysis innovation.

Two puzzling aspects of the behavior of interest rates are the response of the real rate of interest to changes in the supply of money and the response of the nominal rate of interest to changes in the expected rate of inflation. The empirical data suggest that, in contrast to the implication of the IS-LM model, the real rate of interest, after an initial decline (increase) in response to expansionary (contractionary) monetary policy and prior to a complete adjustment of commodity prices, experiences a complete return or "snap back" to its original-level. The data also indicate that, in contrast to the implication of neo-Classical theory, the nominal rate of interest, at least until several years or even decades have passed, changes by only a fraction of a change in the expected rate of inflation. In this analysis, the interest-induced wealth effect has been introduced into the analysis of three exogenous changes, two involving a change in the supply of money and one involving a change in the expected rate of inflation. The analysis of the effects of these changes, when the interest-induced wealth effect is introduced, provides an explanation of both the snap back response of the real rate of interest to a change in money and the delay in the response of the nominal rate to a change in inflationary expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In I A Community of Advantage i , Robert Sugden addresses economists' struggle to find an approach to normative economics that robustly reconcile insights from economics and psychology. Sugden argues that these are "horses for courses", that is, the appropriateness of each model depends on the problem and these models are not mutually exclusive and, in practice, modern democratic politics is about a combination of executive action, debate and negotiation. Sugden argues that market transactions can be understood in this light - market transactions are not dog-eat-dog zero-sum games, and market games are as much about cooperation and mutual advantage as are ultimatum, trust and public goods games. [Extracted from the article]

Since he won the Nobel Prize and joined the World Bank as Chief Economist, most of us see Stiglitz as a policy-oriented economist clearly aligned with the political left. To those with preconceived ideas about Stiglitz's world-view, it may come as a surprise that Stiglitz argues strongly in favour of competition - very much in line with what we teach in first-year economics classes. I feel that in large parts, and as sometimes quite explicitly stated by Stiglitz, Australia is an example of the policies Stiglitz advocates. [Extracted from the article]

Foundations of Real-World Economics: What Every Student Needs to Know John Komlos argues that many modern textbooks on the principles of economics offer an inadequate and misleading introduction to economics. A number of the shortcomings he identifies are often dealt with in more advanced economics courses, but many students only take one course in economics. [Extracted from the article]

ABSTRACT: This paper presents an extension to the textbook IS‐LM and IS‐MP models that allows the short run effects of an increase in household income inequality to be studied in a simple manner. The income distribution is assumed to be log‐normal, and the coefficient of variation of income is assumed to be exogenous. The latter is used as the measure of income inequality, and enters otherwise standard IS and LM curves in a straightforward manner. While the models are highly stylised, they can easily be extended to more complicated variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern research and innovation policy is largely based on neoclassical welfare economics, in which the diagnosis of market failure in the production of new information is translated into a case for innovation policy. Both New Institutional and Public Choice economics criticise this approach because it tends to assume that policy interventions are largely costless and produce only benefits. An alternative policy model is proposed that focuses on minimising the social costs of innovation policy through efficient choice of institutions. We review the recently released National Innovation and Science Agenda through this lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics 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.)

We use playing time in the National Basketball Association to investigate whether sunk costs affect decision making. Behavioral economics implies that teams favor players chosen in the lottery and first round of the draft because of the greater financial and psychic commitment to them. Neoclassical economics implies that only current performance matters. We build on previous work in two ways. First, we better capture potential playing time by accounting for time lost to injuries or suspension. Second, we use regression discontinuity to capture changes when a player's draft position crosses thresholds. We find that teams allocate no more time to highly drafted players. ( JEL L83, J23, D03) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has recently been suggested that heterodox economics can benefit from an engagement with classical surplus theory. However, caution is often recommended due to the ideological concepts that are embedded in classical political economy. This article argues that many of the ideological concepts that are often attributed to classical political economy are actually not part of classical political economy, but rather of a 'vulgar' form of political economy, a project that emerged after Ricardo. This vulgar project, often termed as 'Ricardian economics,' is often mistakenly taken to be a development of classical political economy, but it is actually a rupture with the classical political economy of Petty, Smith, and Ricardo, as Marx, and later Sraffa, argued. Once this is acknowledged, the relationship between classical political economy and heterodox economics becomes clearer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconstructs the making of the often 'overlooked' institutional theory of social costs based on the unexploited correspondence between John Maurice Clark and Karl William Kapp. The reconstruction demonstrates that the institutional argument on social costs was developed as a critique of neoclassical economics and of post- WWII neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economics has developed extensive modeling of household, firm, and aggregated economy-wide behavior utilizing rational actors. It has not developed social behavior analysis in as great of depth. The model presented here presents justification of the adoption of social norms by the individual as a method of examining the breakdown of social order by self-identified subgroups and society in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Global Financial Crisis' is widely acknowledged to be a tail event for neoclassical economics (Stevens, 2008), but it was an expected outcome for a range of non-neoclassical economists from the Austrian and post-Keynesian schools. This article provides a survey of the post-Keynesian approach for readers who are not familiar with this literature. It will briefly cover the history of how post-Keynesian economics came to diverge so much from the neoclassical mainstream, and focus on post-Keynesian macroeconomics today and its alternative indicators of macroeconomic turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policies have become embedded with market-based mechanisms to radically transform essential goods and services markets. This article proposes a framework for empirical analysis of these markets. Key theoretical propositions are distilled to 12 distinctive properties of markets. These properties foreshadow a set of questions to interrogate a market's structure, operation, participants, behaviors, rules, and price setting to generate a substantive, realistic picture of outcomes. This 'analytical grid' of questions is applied to four Australian essential goods and services markets. The findings unequivocally demonstrate a very different picture of markets from that promulgated by mainstream neoclassical economics and public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neoclassical concept of the market is built on a number of assumptions that lead one to view it as a type of ether, devoid of any institutional content. In opposition to this point of view, this article proposes an alternative characterization of markets based on the fundamental principles of institutional and post- Keynesian economics. After reviewing the main features that characterize the behavior of economic agents, we analyze the set of interrelations between these agents within markets and the role of institutions in the regulation of these interrelations. Finally, we discuss some of the consequences generated by the institutional dimensions of markets with regard to their origins and evolution, the justification for their existence, or the evaluation of their results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the acrimonious debates between the New Classical and New Keynesian economists in the 1980s and 1990s, a consensus developed, namely, the New Neoclassical Synthesis. However, the 2007 credit crunch exposed the severe limitations of this approach. This article presents a methodological analysis of the New Neoclassical Synthesis and how the paradigmatic heuristic of the representative agent, namely, market clearing subject to sticky prices, excluded the Keynesian notion of involuntary unemployment arising from lack of effective demand. It shows these models may be modified to produce Keynesian results, but are ruled out of consideration by proponents of the New Neoclassical approach by weak incommensurability. It concludes that because of this the New Neoclassical Synthesis, in spite of its failure to explain the sub-prime crisis, is likely to resist successfully the resurgence in Keynesian economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the welfare properties of the one-sector neoclassical growth model with uninsurable idiosyncratic shocks. We focus on the notion of constrained efficiency used in the general equilibrium literature. Our characterization of constrained efficiency uses the first-order condition of a constrained planner's problem. This condition highlights the margins of relevance for whether capital is too high or too low: the factor composition of income of the (consumptioo-)poor. Using three calibrations commonly considered in the literature, we illustrate that there can be either over- or underaccumulation of capital in steady state and that the constrained optimum may or may not be consistent with a nondegenerate long-run distribution of wealth. For the calibration that roughly matches the income and wealth distribution, the constrained inefficiency of the market outcome is rather striking: it has much too low a steady-state capital stock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Henry George's opposition to free immigration may be surprising in light of his positions on other aspects of economic theory and policy. This essay reviews George's statements on immigration policy, discusses inconsistencies of these statements with his positions on free trade and Malthusian population theory, compares George's views with the neoclassical economic perspective on immigration, and suggests that implementation of George's policy of taxing land values would share the gains from immigration in a manner that might reduce opposition to open borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catholic social thought (CST) looks at economic development from the broader framework of authentic human development. It is only by viewing both man's dignity and his social nature that we include the full nature of the human being. In CST wealth is understood based on its role in promoting authentic human development. Wealth is a gift from God, with humans participating in its creation, and its creation, distribution, and its use must be carried out in a manner that respects God's law (justice and charity). Furthermore, man should never place wealth above God or above humans. Those who control wealth have special responsibilities with regards to their use of it; thus the right of private property is always restricted by the social responsibility to use it towards the common good. The goal must be the development of the whole person and all people. Wealth is socially created and thus must be distributed, at least partially, among the entire community. Economic development needs to be grounded in social justice and its two co-principles, charity and justice. Grounding economic development in the authentic development of the person means placing the people of the poor countries at the center of their development drama, both as the leading actors and as the directors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The notion of frictional unemployment failed to grow into a full-fledged theory in the writings of Beveridge, Pigou and Hicks, as these economists were unwilling and/or unable to go beyond the then-prevailing Marshallian approach. Here, first we make explicit the trade organization assumptions underpinning Marshall's equilibrium theory. Next we examine Beveridge's, Pigou's and Hicks' early works on wages and unemployment. Finally, we look at the seminal papers that paved the way for search literature: McCall, Lucas and Prescott, Mortensen and Pissarides. We show that they succeed in providing an unemployment result, because they indeed depart from the Marshallian trade organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the general systems theory informs institutionalism, a strand of heterodox economic theory founded by Thorstein Veblen that is marked by a critical attitude towards the operation of real-world markets. Focusing on Laszlo's systems philosophy and Bogdanov's Tektology, the paper shows that the general systems theory supports the institutionalist critique of the market but is more explicit about the significance of the market in ensuring the material self-provisioning aspect of society. In line with the institutionalist critique, both Bogdanov and Laszlo share the concern that the market may not deliver the appropriate level of systemic integration within society, nor between society and the encompassing nature. However, both Bogdanov and Laszlo are shown to moderate the institutionalist critique by emphasizing the market's stabilizing and protective role, which is needed to safeguard the maintenance of social and technological complexity. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A general model incorporating rent-seeking activities in the standard neoclassical model of capital accumulation is presented. The welfare of the representative agent is negatively affected by the efficiency of rent-seeking activities. Although intuitive, this result is not obvious because long-run income can be positively affected by more efficient rent-seeking activities. The model is used to provide explanations for some recent experiences in developing countries, including the relative poor performance of economies that experience a move to a more decentralized system and the observed path of total factor productivity (TFP) in countries like Ireland and Venezuela. ( JEL D23, D74, O40, O41, O47) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intangible flow theory explains that flows of economic material elements (such as physical goods; or cash) are consummated by human related intangible flows (such as work flows; service flows; information flows; or communicational flows) that cannot be precisely appraised at an actual or approximate value, and have properties precluding them from being classified as assets or capitals. Thus, although mathematical/quantitative research methodologies are very relevant for science, they are insufficient to study economy and society. Due to its prejudice against non-mathematical/quantitative scientific reasoning, neoclassical economics could not be technologically prepared to reach the intangible flow dynamics of economic phenomena. Furthermore, the neoclassical solution to call people human capital or assets, besides being ethically very questionable, offers performative non-scientific metaphors that intervene in the production of the reality they claim to represent; and sabotages the study of well delimited research questions by scientific approaches outside the realm of neoclassical economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented to several articles in the November 2011 issue of "American Journal of Economics & Sociology," including one on social surplus by Scott Carter, one on social accounting by Erik Olsen, and one on neoclassical economists by Gary Mongiovi.

Industrial and post-industrial economies are characterized by a high degree of structural interdependence. Once an economy attains a level of economic development in which the technology enables a substantial portion of the population to enjoy a standard of living significantly above subsistence, 'the material needs' of the system become difficult to define because they are interconnected with the relations of production in complex ways. In particular, demand comes to play a key role in the subsequent development of the system. This article presents an intersectoral model that integrates Keynesian and Kaleckian elements onto the classical surplus approach. The aim of the model is to provide a non-neoclassical framework that can be used to analyze how demand, income distribution, and production are interconnected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which focused on the feasibility of empirically evaluating the internal dynamics of the Marshallian industrial district. The researchers used a model which is based on a structure-conduct-performance framework with multiple feedbacks. They also estimated the three equations that consist the model with the use of data from a sample of 45 districts found in the region of Castilla-La-Mancha, Spain from 1999 to 2004.

Although industrialization first occurred in England, it is thought that China, not England, may have been the world leader in technology at the time. Yet, China did not industrialize until 150 yr after England and nearly a century after less advanced European countries. This represents a puzzle because two-sector neoclassical growth models, such as Hansen and Prescott (2002) , that accurately match industrialization, require that more technologically advanced countries industrialize at an earlier date. I find that a model that accounts for cross-country heterogeneities in population density accurately predicts the timing of industrialization in China. ( JEL F43, N10, N30, O11, O14, O41) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Built on the fictional concept of equilibrium, mainstream economics provides a method of analysis that, when paired with the calculus, enables relatively easy identification of maximum and minimum values. Lacking empirical evidence of its behavioral assumptions, the profession accepts such familiar claims as consumer maximization of utility and business firm maximization of profit or revenue. In place of the relatively static concept of equilibrium, the Veblen-Myrdal notion of circular and cumulative causation (CCC) arguably has greater descriptive capability and more penetrating insight for policy recommendations. This article traces the historical origins of both concepts and argues that CCC offers considerable potential for a broad, dynamic, interdisciplinary, more thorough, and more accurate analytical framework. Specific examples of work that has been done along with suggestions for future applications of this concept are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies industry-level dynamics and demonstrates the ability of a modified neoclassical growth model to capture a range of empirical facts. The paper begins by using U.S. data to document skilled and unskilled labor trends within industry sector classifications as well as industry sector output trends. Using Current Population Survey data from 1968 to 2004, it is shown that the ratio of skilled workers to unskilled workers employed has risen in all industries. The absolute increase in this ratio was larger in the more skilled industries, while the growth rate was larger in the less skilled industries. Furthermore, using national income account data, it is shown that relatively high-skilled industries have accounted for an increasing share of output over time. A version of the neoclassical growth model is then constructed to match these observations. One important feature of this model is a structure that introduces new goods into the economy at each moment of time. The model is able to capture a rich set of labor market movements between sectors and between skill levels as well as changes in the relative output shares across industries, yet preserves many nice features of the neoclassical growth model.( JEL E13, J20, 030) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the authors discuss the different views on slack resources in health care organizations. It presents the definition of slack and reveals the links between performance and slack resources. It discusses the perspective of organizational slack in neoclassical microeconomic tradition and presents the neoclassical view of efficiency in industrial organization (IO) economics. It discloses the benefits and conditions of promoting slack in the perspective of organizational sociologists.