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The article addresses a controversy among marketing students, some who believe that economic theory encompasses marketing theory, and others who think that there is little application of economic theory to marketing problems. The author of this article refers to neoclassic economic literature, particularly that of Alfred Marshall, to prove that economists are aware of the impact that selling efforts and costs have on economic activity, as well as the relationship between increasing returns and selling costs. The article discusses Marshall's work and his treatment of marketing issues and conditions, concluding that the claim that economists have not considered marketing conditions is false.

The article reports on the rise in popularity of consumption economics education and consumer research literature. Additionally, the author reports books have been published which treat advertising as propaganda and seek to make consumers wary of free advice. The similarities between consumption economics and marketing are noted; the criteria for classifying a writer's work as scholarly and scientific are presented. They involve accurate, logical and fair analysis. The work of Leland J. Gordon and Charles S. Wyland in "Economics for Consumers" and "The Economics of Consumption" are evaluated for their criticism of advertising.

The prevalence of civil wars-and the massive human and economic costs that they impose-has attracted the attention of many scholars, including economists. This article briefly introduces three strands in the economics literature on civil war-causes, consequences and solutions-and identifies potential gaps in the existing literature which may be useful to students who are keen on pursuing further research on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economics literature includes several critiques of the dominant utilitarian position, as respectively offered by Posner (1979), Rawls (1971), Sen (1987) and institutionalist followers of John Dewey. There is also now a rapidly growing literature on the economics of happiness. Another quite distinctive position of social importance on these issues is provided by Joseph Ratzinger, also known as Pope Benedict XVI. It offers an alternative conception of ontology and teleology, and reflects conceptions of freedom, happiness, man and rationality different from those found in orthodox economics, and different too from those found in the above-mentioned critiques. It intersects with recent writings of Lawson (2003), Nelson (2010) and Tilman (2008).In order to promote critical scrutiny of the a priori positions embedded in contending schools of economic thought, it follows that the implications of this Ratzinger critique should be consciously confronted by economists, including institutionalists, with whom various starting points are shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews Bob Tollison’s conjoined contributions to the scholarly literature in the closely related fields of economic history and history of economic thought, underscoring his integration of public choice and interest-group analysis into the historian’s purview. It identifies the overarching themes of his research and summarizes the major findings of his key publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We comment on the Shoham, Powers, and Grenager survey of multi-agent learning and game theory, emphasizing that some of their categories are important for economics and others are not. We also try to correct some minor imprecisions in their discussion of the economics literature on learning in games. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Editor's Note The Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) regularly reviews books of interest to the economics profession. The Economic Report of the President (ERP) falls under that purview. I have asked a handful of very prominent economists to review the 2006 ERP. Reviewers were chosen to reflect expertise on what I guessed would be key issues. The ERP in principle should provide an accurate assessment of the consensus professional views of economists on any given issue, based on the research to date. Reviewers were asked to evaluate whether the discussion in the ERP in fact accurately summarizes what we as economists know? Reviewers were given free rein over what material they would review in the ERP but were urged to focus on their areas of particular expertise. In the reviews that follow, Martin Feldstein reviews the overview chapter as well as topics relating to macroeconomics. Alan Auerbach reviews the ERP's discussion of tax-related issues, while Ken Rogoff reviews the ERP's discussion of international economic topics. Rebecca Blank writes on labor market issues in the ERP, and Michael Katz reviews the ERP's discussion of health care issues. Many thanks to the reviewers for the quick turnaround. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donald F. Gordon hypothesized that mathematical complexity in economics is inversely related to operationalism. Here we (i) operationalize Gordon's hypothesis, (ii) test for the significance of trends in complexity for the American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Political Economy, and Quarterly Journal of Economics, and (iii) test Gordon's hypothesis by conducting analyses of the contents of articles from the American Economic Review (AER), as well as the contents of articles citing the AER articles. The results do not refute the hypothesis that complexity crowds out operationalism in economics. Additionally, the presence of significant, positive trends toward complexity suggests that the magnitude of the crowding out is on the rise in these journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents a list of readings that may be especially useful to teachers of undergraduate economics, as well as other articles that are of broader cultural interest. 'The Economist' has another of those wonderful surveys by Frances Cairncross. This one is a survey of retirement titled 'Forever Young.' As usual it is a combination of surprising facts and clear analysis. A wonderful article illustrating entry and competition is 'In Chinatown, a $10 Trip Means War: Weary Owners Struggle to Stay Afloat in Cutthroat Competition' by Michael Luo, in the February 21, 2004 issue of the 'The New York Times'. To get the feel of a real Dutch auction, in which the auctioneer starts with a high price and then reduces it until a bidder accepts, students might enjoy an article by Elizabeth Pope, 'Let a Billion Flowers Bloom' in the Travel section of the March 28, 2004 issue of 'The New York Times'. Paul R. Portney labels his 'Market-based Approaches to Environmental Policy' as a refresher course. It belongs on the reading list of undergraduate courses. A number of economists are taking advantage of the Internet to post reflections and connections to economic news and events. Bill Goffe's Resources for Economists on the Internet even has a section for blogs and commentaries.

We measure the past production of research articles by current members of European economics institutions. All EconLit journals are used, weighted to reflect differences in quality. Both a long (1971–2000) and a short (1996–2000) time period are considered. We also provide production indices that take into account the authors' career length. The total output of each research center is measured as well as its production per member. The focus is on 600 centers from eighteen European countries (EU 14, Israel, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey). European centers are compared to the top sixty U.S. economics departments. Statistics regarding the concentration of article production across researchers, institutions, and countries are provided, as well as on publication habits. (JEL: A14, L11, R32) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I study the production of academic research by economics departments and economists. Worldwide rankings are provided based on both citations and publications. These rankings reveal a dominant position of the United States in the production of economics literature. Over time, however, the extent of this dominance is decreasing. (JEL: A10, A14) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is still debatable whether scientific diversity is a virtue or a disadvantage for the development of a discipline. Nonetheless, diversity among scientists with respect to their journal quality perceptions plays an important role in hiring and promotion decisions. In this article we examine the degree of diversity within economics based on the journal quality perceptions of 2,103 AEA economists worldwide. Specifically, we empirically test for factors that might explain differences in an economist's journal quality perceptions. These factors include an economist's geographic origin, school of thought, journal affiliation, field of specialization and research orientation. Indeed, we find that a significant degree of diversity in journal quality perceptions exists between economists that belong in different subgroups. These results might explain the frequent debates in tenure and promotion committees where journal standings are used for the evaluation of a researcher's output. (JEL: A12, D12) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on factors contributing to growth of small and medium size business enterprises (SME). Discussion of the behaviorist approach to corporate growth; Details of corporate growth discussed in classic economic theory; Analysis of economist Robert Gibrat's approach to corporate growth in his Law of Proportional Effect.

In this paper we point to special problems faced by economists in ‘peripheral’ fields (like development economics), particularly those at early stages of their career, in publishing their research results in mainline journals, and how this creates a kind of vicious circle that may be damaging to our profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant discourse in economic theory in Great Britain from the 1940s to the 1970s was Keynesian. The making of economic policy resulted from a complex interplay of economic, political and personal factors. The making of macroeconomic policy implies decisions made by politicians on the basis of advice from generalist Treasury officials. The problem for the substantial literature on Keynesian ideas and macroeconomic policy is to check whether economic advisers within the Keynesian tradition managed to influence the final decision takers. Analytical approaches need to be made explicit so that opportunistic selection of evidence, the use of initial assumptions to determine conclusions and the creation of straw women can all be avoided.

While literature on the research productivity of economists in general is significant, very little is known about the research productivity of black economists. This paper examines the research productivity of black Ph.D. economists employed in academic institutions. Based upon bibliographic data reported in the Journal of Economic Literature's (JEL) EconLit Database, we provided rankings across four different measures of research productivity. We also provided a ranking of Ph.D.-granting institutions based on the number of black economists produced, and on the number of black economist alumni who are ranked as individual researchers. We find that William Darity Jr. is the highest ranked black economist, regardless of the measure of research productivity used. Darity's alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has produced the largest number of ranked black economists. Other institutions that have been quite successful in producing ranked black economists include Harvard, University of California-Berkeley, Stanford, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Property rights are fundamentals to economic analysis. There is, however, no consensus in the economic literature about what property rights are. Economists define them variously and inconsistently, sometimes in ways that deviate from the conventional understandings of legal scholars and judges. This article explores ways in which definitions of property rights in the economic literature diverge from conventional legal understandings, and how those divergences can create interdisciplinary confusion and bias economic analyses. Indeed, some economists' idiosyncratic definitions of property rights, if used to guide policy, could lead to suboptimal economic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the journal of economic literature related to time discounting and time preference in the U.S. It defines intertemporal choices as decisions involving tradeoffs among costs and benefits occurring at different times. In this article, the authors review empirical research on intertemporal choice, and present an overview of recent theoretical formulations. In section 2, the authors review the perspectives on intertemporal choice of John Rae and nineteenth- and early twentieth-century economists, and describe how these early perspectives interpreted intertemporal choice as the joint product of many conflicting psychological motives. In section 3, they examine the various assumptions underlying the discounted-utility (DU) model. The remaining sections reviews DU anomalies, the numerous alternative theoretical models and reviews attempts to estimate discount rates.

Discusses the life and times of economist Zvi Griliches of Kaunas, Lithuania, and his contribution to economics literature. Griliches' interest in agriculture; Views on the use of price series and hedonic analysis of economics; Griliches' elaboration and extension of the basic framework for growth accounting, total factor productivity and equivalently; Views on various econometric issues, in particular, distributed lags.

If there are people born under a lucky star, there must be books that are lucky too. Foundations of Economic Analysis, was one such. Unlike a biological embryo, this work had no definite moment of conception. Gradually, over the period 1936 to 1941, it got itself evolved. As the author was mastering the existent corpus of economic theory, he recognized that a limited number of qualitative truths obtained, along with a greater number of indefinite relationships. Puzzled to understand this, the author ransacked the mathematical libraries of Chicago, Illinois and Harvard, Massachusetts to explain to him what made the difference. According to the author, publications flowed merrily from his pen. It was his good luck to be appointed as the first proper economist to Harvard's prestigious Society of Fellows, 24 youthful princes in all fields, free to work on whatever they liked, but forbidden for three years to work toward any degree or Ph.D. dissertation. For the author, those 1937-40 years were veritable heaven, and had he been offered the Faustian bargain of staying a Junior Fellow forever, he would have joyfully embraced it, according to him.

There are only a few fields in economics whose antecedents can be traced to a single, seminal article. One such field is natural resource economics, which is currently experiencing an explosive revival of interest; its origin is widely recognized as Harold Hotelling's 1931 paper, "The Economics of Exhaustible Resources." Although Hotelling's paper appears a half-century ago, the current wave of interest in natural resource economics is less than 10 years old. Events of the 1930's of course brought other concerns, and serious attention to problems of resource depletion had to wait for the energy and environmental. Though the basic idea is first stated non-technically, much of the article is an exercise in the calculus of variations--a mathematical tool not commonly found in economics journals until the 1950's, at the earliest. He thus showed that the competitive resource owner would deplete at a socially optimal rate. Therefore, the conservationists' pleas for public intervention cannot be based on any inherent tendency for competition to exploit a resource too rapidly, assuming no divergence between the private and social discount rates.

The purpose of this article is to present in nontechnical language an overview of some of the recent economic literature relating to women. The article identifies the range of topical interests of economists and spells out some of the findings. The authors' own views are contained primarily in the section on market differentiation (Kohen) and in the final section (Kahne). The review cannot cover all of the economic areas bearing on women. It looks primarily at the literature relating to women's economic roles and omits a number of areas where a general theoretical or analytic framework also has relevance for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the view on the article by Paul Samuelson, published in a 1971 issue of "Journal of Economic Literature." The author objects to Samuelson twinning Piero Sraffa's, an economist, name with that of Wassily Leontief, another economist, in order to label for their age. According to the author, Sraffa's work "Production of Commodities By Means of Commodities," does not appear to have penetrated very deeply into the consciousness of the economics profession in North America. To give a person's name to an age is to concede a commensurate measure of fame of notoriety to that person. Piero Sraffa stand in that tradition that gave us a model of price determination in which relative price configuration is a supply side phenomena.. It is a tradition in which distributive shares are exogenous to the commodity-price determining apparatus and also outside the ambit of the marginal productivity principle. Sraffa's classical observation on the predominant influence of cost of production in the determination of normal value of commodities, was made in the course of discussion of the "laws of returns" that subsumed both the variable-proportions case and returns to scale.

The paper presents abstracts of various articles published in the December 1973 issue of the Journal of Economic Literature. The article Prestige Economics by H.W. Arndt focuses on a question whether economists have given sufficient attention to "status" or "prestige" as a motive in economic life. It is suggested that prestige is relatively important in primitive societies where the range of goods available for enjoyment is narrow, so that any surplus above minimum needs tends, to be used for display and again in affluent societies as affluence comes up against the satiability of human wants. The article "Impact of Space on World Development," by G. Stever discusses the idea of space becoming not just a medium but also an exploitable resource. Therefore what is necessary is a space ethic to guide actions and decisions. It attempts to show how the space ethic can help identify the proper aims of development and cope with change caused by space activities. The paper "Teaching the History of Economic Thought in the USSR," by V.G. Treml and D.M. Gallik consists of two parts. The first part outlines the history of teaching of economics and of history of economic thought with particular reference to Moscow University.

Spiegel's professional life and contributions were outstanding and worth remembering. Spiegel's emigration from Europe to the United States was typical of many other émigré economists who were threatened by the turmoil in Europe during the 1930s. Spiegel was trained as a lawyer but not allowed to practice his trade simply because he was Jewish. But on arrival in the United States, he refocused his abilities from the legal field to the academy as an academic economist with a specialty in the fledgling field of development economics. Spiegel's originality as an historian of economics is revealed by his economists-on-other-economists projects that established a new genre of literature in economics. Spiegel's The Growth of Economic Thought is a masterful treatise on the history of economics, it is his greatest legacy and is still used in college teaching. This book is in print and supplies a descriptive rather than analytic approach to the story of how economics developed. In its breadth of coverage and links to sociology, philosophy, and even law, it is one of the best balanced treatments available. The current plans of economists in the People's Republic of China to translate the work into Chinese are noteworthy. As might be expected, Spiegel loved to collect books, and in his personal life with Cecile set aside time for warm companionship and a cultured life style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article profiles economist Henry George from the point of view of economic theory. In order to understand Henry George's central message, it is important to anchor it in the ocean of economic literature. Henry George was not making a modest tax proposal. He was not an expert in real estate taxation, as one might think upon reading many renditions of his scheme. Henry George proposes a fiscal constitution which, due to the single tax requirement and the specific meaning he gives to the notion of land is indeed a self-enforcing system of rules. It appears that the George system is particularly well-suited for promoting economic development, and most particularly in those precise circumstances where a market economy is in need of further growth and development Criticism of Henry George's tax proposal is widespread. In principle, there are three basic substantive arguments aimed at his work and one that had better be termed "rhetorical." Joseph A. Schumpeter, who also has lavish praise for George, offers all four arguments. The first quote from Schumpeter contains both the first and substantive argument as well as the rhetorical charge typically leveled against George.

Much has been written in recent years concerning the issue of capital punishment. The major argument on the side of the retentionists appears to revolve around deterrence. Using postulates from modern welfare economics the authors demonstrate that the deterrence question is largely irrelevant. Attention is also given to extracting materials from the writings of earlier economists from Petty to Mill which may be helpful in resolving the issue. The conclusion which emerges is that capital punishment is not justifiable on economic grounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When discussions in economics turn to the problem of land, its allocation, and monopoly rent, the ideas of economist Henry George quickly appear on the agenda: George's association with land tenure systems is well established. It is as though his arguments could be applied to little else. Because of this single-minded association there are some who would relegate George and his theories to a position among those who offered interesting yet impractical schemes for the solution of social ills. Still others find new applications for his ideas and thus view his writings as a valuable contribution to the field of economics. In this article authors show how George's policy pronouncements regarding property rights relate themselves to problems of water quality and the current literature in that field. By so doing, they present an argument that leads inexorably to the conclusion that his contribution may be a foundation for the analysis of any environmental resource. According to authors, perhaps the most common criticism made of economists is the failure to state explicitly the assumptions. However, the failure to recognize the contributions of Henry George to environmental analysis has occurred because of a lack of clearly stated assumptions.

Several articles have studied the relative publishing performance of economists associated with the economics departments of U.S. universities. This article presents an alternate method of quantifying the publication performance of academic departments and demonstrates that this alternative procedure produces significantly different results when compared with the usual method. The paper also discusses how these data can be interpreted as measures of interinstitution flows of publishing faculty. Examination of these data in this light provides evidence of systematic patterns of such human capital flows over the 1960-79 period. This study has compiled data on the volume of journal publication during the 1970-79 period for the current faculties of the economics department at those U.S. institutions offering graduate degrees in economics.

The article focuses on how the matter of military expenditures of less developed countries (LDCs) does not command much attention among economists and in the economics literature. For the overwhelming majority of LDCs, military-capital expenditures account for only a relatively minute percentage of total military expenditures. It is also estimated that 95 % of LDCs military expenditures are personnel-related. Further, according to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency data for 1988, a mere twelve of the roughly 125 LDCs accounted for fully two-thirds of all arms imports by such countries. Two aspects of the military expenditures of LDCs, other than arms imports, urgently require serious economic analytical investigation. First is the relation between economic growth and military expenditures in LDCs. Second is the question of government budgetary tradeoffs between allocations to the military sector and nonmilitary sectors such as health, education, and infrastructure investments. Especially in these critical areas, the current level of knowledge is appallingly inadequate.

The article presents information on Sidney Weintraub, the economist. The late economist explored the link between wages and inflation; he proposed a tax-based incomes policy as a remedy. His friend of forty years, Professor Arthur Bloomfield of the University of Pennsylvania said that Sidney Weintraub was one of the leading American exponents of large and growing body of thought that has come to be known as post-Keynesian economics. His extensive writings over the last forty years, his many guest lectures and lecture tours at home and abroad has earned him an international reputation as a keen and imaginative economic theorist, a hard-hitting critic of the so-called neo-classic synthesis and of monetarism. Sidney Weintraub in course of his career, wrote or edited 17 books, published 100 articles in professional journals, and published over 200 pieces in more popular outlets. In 1959 the publication of "The General Theory of the Price Level," presenting the theory and evidence linking the money wage to the price level, and challenging the quantity theory with an alternative wage-cost markup theory of inflation.

Presents a selection of articles by elite economists that have been rejected by scholarly journals in economics. Refereeing process in the publication of articles in scholarly journals; Preference for writing books over articles; Experiences of winners of the Nobel Prize and the John Bates Clark Medal.

This section will list readings that may be especially useful to teachers of undergraduate economics, as well as other articles that are of broader cultural interest. In general, the articles chosen will be expository or integrative and not focus on original research. As a rule of thumb, articles listed in this section appear in journals that are not indexed by the Journal of Economic Literature (which focuses on the research journals) and are similar to many of the articles published in this journal. They may include survey articles, discussion of related subjects in which economists might have an interest or analyses of economics from other perspectives. The intention is to publish a selective list of 15 to 20 articles per issue, with the selections depending heavily on input from readers. If you write or read an appropriate article, please send a copy of the article (and possibly a few sentences describing it) to Bernard Saffran, c/o Journal of Economic Perspectives, Department of Economics, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on several articles about economics and other related fields of interest to teachers and students of economics. Rent control is an issue that economists often use in the classroom to illustrate the inefficiencies that can occur when the market is interfered with. Typically, the argument is based on a priori assumptions with little examination of the evidence. A conference was organized to examine the international experience of housing economy in Ontario, Britain, Sweden and Israel. The conference papers are in the November 1988 issue of "The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics." "Monetary Aggregates: A User's Guide," is a handy reference for detailed descriptions, sources of data, availability and use of the monetary aggregates. The article by John R. Walter appears in the January/February 1989 issue of the periodical "Economic Review." In the article "The Passing of the Guard in Economics," Paul Samuelson discusses some of the economists that he has known from 1930-80, with a focus on their personality traits as well as their scientific achievements.

Abstract--Using data from a sample of the economic literature published over the years 1950 through 1988, we find substantial support for an environmental theory of idea entrepreneurship among economists. In particular, we show that the percentage of economic articles devoted to the topics of inflation and employment are related directly to the actual inflation and unemployment rates in the economy and indirectly to the growth rate of aggregate real income. Moreover, we are able to provide evidence of undirectional causality running from changes in the economic environment to changes in the composition of the economic literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Otto Eckstein, economist, made significant contributions to three areas of economics. His early works on benefit-cost analysis contributed to the development of that area of public finance. His published papers on wage-price models represented a significant step forward in the empirical analysis of inflation. His crowning achievement was the construction and subsequent development of a large scale macroeconometric model of the U.S. economy. Eckstein's major contributions to economics literature over the past 27 years include eight books, editorship of three additional book six major public reports, and thirty journal articles and contributions to books. Although most these contributions were single-authored, he also collaborated with many other individuals on wide range of topics. In each of these areas he carried out perceptive policy analyses. In each of these areas his works exemplify the art and science of applied economics at its best. One of Eckstein's major professional concerns throughout his career was the analysis of inflation.

The article focuses on surveys of theoretical work by economists on consumer information acquisition. Traditionally economists and consumer researchers have studied consumer behavior, under imperfect information, without paying a great deal of attention to one another. Recent work by economists has shown that market outcomes are very sensitive to consumer information acquisition strategies. Yet the economics literature has little to say about actual consumer behavior. Applying the concepts of search and experience to attributes instead of goods eliminates the difficulty altogether and permits a unified treatment of consumer behavior. The consumer uses a rule of thumb because inspection costs make instantaneous and perfect evaluation impossible. While economists have recently paid some attention to individual consumer behavior under imperfect information, a substantial effort has also been devoted to characterizing market organization when agents are imperfectly informed. The observation that price is fixed is, in a sense, a technical weakness. Other weaknesses, perhaps less obvious to economists, are associated with assumptions governing consumer behavior.

Profiles economist Jelle Zijlstra, member of the board of editors of the journal "De Economist." Family and academic background; Work experiences; His contribution to the field of economics.

The article presents information on several research abstracts. "The Relative Quality of Economics Journals: An Alternative Rating System," by B.B. Billings and G.J. Viksnins. According to the abstract rating system suggested in this article uses a cross-reference count of publications in leading journals as a quality index. References to other journals were tabulated for the official organs of three major professional societies to which English-speaking economists typically belong. According to another abstract, "Simple and General Non-Substitution Theorems For Input-Output Models," by L. Johansen, the article first considers non-substitution in an input-output model with one scarce primary input and no joint production. A very general version of the non-substitution theorem is proved with very elementary methods. In addition to that, the article presents information on several other abstracts.

The article lists several books that appeared in the December 1972 issue of the Journal of Economic Literature. Some of the books are, Current Periodical Publications in Baker Library, 1971-1972, Current Economic Problems: A Book of Readings, edited by Royal Brandis and Steven R. Cox, Survey of Economic Principles. Irwin Series in Economics, by Gary D. Brown, The Evolution of Economic Society. An Introduction to Economics, by Martin Gerhard Giesbrecht, Managing the Modern Economy: A Short Handbook of the New Economics, by Jan S. Hogendorn, The Yam Factor, and Other Insights Into the Lives and Customs and Status Symbols of the Executive Tribes of America, by Martin Page, Elementary Economics: A Mathematical Approach, by Ralph W. Pfouts, Autobiography of an Economist, by Lord Robbins, Studies in Economics and Economic History. Essays in Honor of Professor H.M. Robertson, edited by Marcelle Kody, The Objectives of Macro-Economic Policy, by Ajit K. Dasgupta and A.J. Hagger, The Dynamics of Business Motivation. Its Impact on the Economic Climate, by Eric D. Bovet.

The article focuses on production of economic literature. The cumulative stock of journal articles doubles every fourteen years. But far from constituting a new phenomenon, the stock of articles has expanded at this rate with surprising regularity for at least the better part of this century. The supply of economists, whether measured by membership in the American Economic Association or the stock of PhDs, has also been characterized by steady growth. If there have been scientific revolutions and counter-revolutions in economics, they have not left their mark on the aggregate data. As emphasized by economist Derek Price, the fact that the number of scientists has grown faster than the aggregate population for several generations implies that there must inevitably be a retardation in the rate at which labor resources are applied to the production of knowledge. The article explores the manner in which the output of economic knowledge responds to a reduction in the supply of scholars, as might be occasioned by a fall in the birth rate, a shift in occupational taste, or a reduction in funds available for research.

Only since the 1930's has the name of economist Vilfredo Pareto become a household word among English-speaking economists who bandy it about in such combinations as "Pareto ranking order"; "Pareto marginal rate of substitution conditions"; "Pareto-efficient production-possibility curves"; "Pareto satisfactoriness"; "Pareto's Law"; and, of course; "Pareto optimality." According to the author, many questions arises related to economic theory as, whether the rendition under review is adequate for conveying to the English-speaking economists what Pareto had to say in his definitive treatise on economic theory. The importance of this question, which is the principal concern, according to the author of this article, lies in the fact that unwary readers to whom original texts in foreign languages are inaccessible are prone to accept uncritically versions worded in their own language as if these versions invariably transmitted the message of the foreign authors in full measure and to the letter.

Since 1960 many papers have been published dealing with the demand for international liquidity and the adequacy of its supply. There exist at least three explicit reviews of the literature by economists H. Glower and R. Lipsey. The main justification for writing a fourth review at this time is that since completion of the last two surveys several papers have become available which have contributed substantially to the stock of knowledge in this field. Very important contributions, they have given new direction to the research on international reserve adequacy by showing that econometric estimates of demand functions for reserves based on past experience cannot provide information about optimal reserve supplies in the future. This important point and its implications are discussed in this article. The review of the literature on the demand for international reserves leads to many conclusions. The early studies of demand and prospective adequacy of reserves using ratios are based on a theoretically inadequate foundation. Even the most sophisticated econometric analysis of trends in ratios, needs to be combined with other information about the performance of the international economy to permit useful policy inferences to be made.

The article presents a comment on a previous article that appeared in the December 1971 issue of the Journal of Economic Literature. According to author, his "The Value Added Tax--A Short Review of the Literature," was just that and nothing more. Hopefully, the original piece reflects his aim of briefly setting out a host of findings and interpretations by competent taxmen and economists relative to the value added tax (VAT), a tax that has turned out to be a most provocative and prolific raiser of government revenues. As a portion of the exercise, the author also induced his own VAT proclivities, for he had been much too involved in VAT explorations to pose as a bystander. According to the author his "Review" included some opinion that indicated doubts about this. In other words, the characteristics of VAT are such that private source factor income could decrease through reduced money income, with the value of money remaining constant, rather than through inflation. According to the author it is his conviction that technique and institutional framework is a part of the consideration of the economic desirability of tax policy, even as it is of monetary policy.

In his recent review of the literature on value added taxation, Professor R.W. Lindholm provided economists with an account that demonstrates some confusion presently surrounding this important policy matter as well as the extent of the current interest in it. Unfortunately, after reading Professor Lindholm's review, one is still all too likely to be numbered among those perplexed by the value added tax (VAT) concept and its probable economic consequences. This comment aims to dispel such lingering confusion by presenting a brief alternative analysis of the nature and significance of value added taxation. After clarifying the nature of VAT and of certain other key concepts, authors show that much of Lindholm's review is vitiated by a failure to consider VAT in a general equilibrium framework. A few comments are also made on other aspects of the Lindholm review. The basic problem with Lindholm's review of the value added tax is precisely that, to use his own words, it combines "into one skein many economic interrelations" and hence, authors conclude, confuses rather than clarifies the issues.

The article discusses the far-reaching and enduring effects of revolutionary war on economists and the field of economics. It cites the reduction of economics to a subservient art and the demise of economic journals of continental Europe. The opportunity for objective study has been seriously impaired. Emotion, prejudice and narrow nationalism are being used to discuss economics. The competitive elements of contemporary economic life failed to effectively integrate with the regulated and controlled elements. The diversity in administrative forms and friction in the relations among economic elements make more difficult the task of understanding.

The death of Professor Charles Gide in Paris on March 18, 1932 marked the end of a long and distinguished career. Gide well deserved to be regarded as the most eminent of contemporary French economists. He played a central role in the development of modern economic thought and teaching in France. Professor Lamke of the Brookings Institute says in "Incidence of Real Estate Taxes" (American Economic Review, September, 1932, page 468) that "land taxes might be so reduced that they could be shifted to tenants." He can hardly mean land value taxes, since there is scarcely any doctrine so universally affirmed as that taxes on land value or on land rent, cannot be shifted. But taxes on improvements or on rent of improvements are admitted to be shifted, however reduced.

This article focuses on books related to general works, theory and its history. About the book "Principles of Economics," by Raymond T. Bye, it says that among the dozens of recent textbooks on Principles of Economics, this book stands out as one of the few that offer anything really new or significant. It is not put out as an original contribution in economic theory, yet there are a number of significant ideas in the book which the reviewer has not seen elsewhere. There are some points at which the author will meet criticism. The inclusion of land as a kind of capital, while devoting separate chapter to land and capital, and to rent and interest, will be confusing, at least to economists of classical training. The author admits that the value, of the incomes derived from them, land and capital, cannot be explained on the same principles. Professor Bye at several points makes a distinction between pure and applied economics, and seems to intend that his principles shall cover the former, while a later volume will take up the problem of applied economics. The article also provides information about new books on the subject.

In the book "Die monographische Darstellung der Aktiengesellschaften," by Otto Warschauer. The theme should in itself command attention. He urge. the importance of the corporation as a subject of economic research and presents a specific program to that end. That economists have not yet begun to enquire seriously into the economic significance of the modern revolutionist in the forms of organization can scarcely be questioned. In the U.S. as well as in Germany some seemingly pathological aspects of corporate organization have received much attention. But the enormous possibilities of the study of what for the lack of a better term might be called the economics of the corporation have been neglected. The effects of the form of business organization itself upon production, distribution, saving, crises, economic opportunity, social stratification, and a host of other things, have not been thoroughly and seriously weighed. Here again German scholarship has such slight margin of advantage as there is.

The article focuses on the use of various publications by physiocrats in the eighteenth century to spread their beliefs and doctrines related to economics. In the eighteenth century, the physiocrats faced the problem of finding an appropriate media of expression. The books which the physiocrats wrote had a limited number of readers. Desiring wider public attention, the physiocrats found acceptance among the readers of an already well established periodical, that is, "Le Journal économique." As economist François Quesnay's group of devoted disciples grew in number and strength, the Journal became alarmed by the program of Quesnay's economic school. In 1763, "La Gazette du commerce," a biweekly newspaper, was launched. The physiocrats took advantage of this opportunity to promote their beliefs alongside opposing views and succeeded in making an impression. The year 1776 marked the physiocrats' official exit as a school of economic thought. That year also marked the beginning of the classical school of economic thought with the publication of Adam Smith's book "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations."