Search

E-commerce and e-business are considered by some as a whole new dimension in terms of economics, while at the same time many professionals see it as a natural evolution of the same raw, basic, traditional economic principles. Although this was the main concept, together with its applicability and manifestation in Romanians environment, of a PhD thesis, the purpose of this article is to capture and highlight some of the most memorable moments and facts that happened during this complex process, a process that was supervised, carefully monitored, guided by one of Romanias well-known personalities in the economic field, Professor Dumitru Patriche.

GDP is a widely used category, which measures economic growth, and the government for public policy decisions uses that, and so on. A well-known fact is, however, that GDP is not a measure of economic welfare. This paper explores weaknesses of the GDP concept: market failures in the measurement of GDP, and (2) the conceptual distortions or limitations viewed from the viewpoint of welfare. Then we deals with one of the recent developments of welfare concern, the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), and the question.

This paper deals with the determination of money wages in a monetary production economy. Based on a Kaleckian-type Kaldorian model, we construct a model of endogenous determination of money wages that reflects Post Keynesian understanding, and test the empirical validity of the money wage function for the case of Japan. The results suggest that this function has an interpretative value both theoretically and empirically.

GDP is a widely used category, which measures economic growth, and the government for public policy decisions uses that, and so on. A well-known fact is, however, that GDP is not a measure of economic welfare. This paper is a brief review of GDP, welfare, and happiness to obtain a clue towards a high quality of life society. First, we explore weaknesses of the GDP concept: (1) market failures in the measurement of GDP, and (2) the conceptual distortions or limitations viewed from the viewpoint of welfare. Second, towards a welfare viewpoint, we explain the measurement of Net National Welfare (NNW) and its question, and the importance of social balance. Third, as the further development we explain some important points of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), social indicators, and happiness research. Finally, we present a brief view what the high quality of life society should have.

This is an empirical research followed on my methodological paper(1999), in which we tried to explain actual mark-up rate fluctuations theoretically. Our model supported procyclical fluctuations of the mark-up rate. Here we calculated five kinds of mark-up rate for Japan and the United States for 1970-98, and the United Kingdom for 1970-96, respectively. Then we made a regression analysis on the mark-up rates. It turned out that actual mark-up rates showed more or less procyclical fluctuations and our regression results confirmed the procyclical movements. This analysis has the limitations of the macro-economic analysis and the three advanced countries for the period from 1970 to 1998. But this may give some hint to clear up the long-pending question (since Kalecki and Harrod) whether the degree of monopoly (the mark-up rate in our context) fluctuates procyclically or countercyclically. We also found a surprisingly strong similarity in the mark-up rate level, which remained a topic for future research, as well as formulating a mark up rate function.