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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Alain Béraud (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | Walras defines the goods of public interest as those of whom the need is smelt in all its extent only by the community or the State. The article studies the coherence of this definition, its implications and its relationships with the definitions which the economists had given or give public goods today. Walras et le concept de bien d’intérêt public. Résumé : Walras définit les biens d'intérêt public comme ceux dont le besoin n'est senti dans toute son étendue que par la communauté ou l'Etat. L'article étudie la cohérence de cette définition, ses implications et ses rapports avec les définitions que les économistes avaient données ou donnent aujourd'hui des biens publics. |
| Keywords: | Walras, public goods |
| JEL: | B3 H |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2013-13&r=hpe |
| By: | Alain Béraud (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | Dans le développement des théories de l’équilibre général, Hicks et Allais ont joué un rôle essentiel. On étudie ici les contributions qui furent les leurs respectivement dans Valeur et Capital (1939) et dans le Traité d’économie pure (1943). L’accent est mis sur trois points : la théorie du bien-être, la stabilité de l’équilibre et la construction d’un modèle dynamique. The development of general equilibrium theory: Allais and Hicks contributions In the development of the general equilibrium theories, Hicks and Allais played an essential role. We are studying here the contributions which were theirs respectively in Value and Capital (1939) and in the Traité d’économie pure (1943). The accent is put on three points: the theory of welfare, the stability of equilibrium and the construction of a dynamic model. |
| Keywords: | équilibre, utilité, optimum, surplus, stabilité |
| JEL: | B20 B31 C62 D50 D60 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2013-09&r=hpe |
| By: | James Alm (Department of Economics, Tulane University) |
| Abstract: | Taxpayers face well-known and well-identified individual motivations in their compliance decisions, motivations that originate with the standard economic model of tax evasion in which financial incentives are shaped by audit, penalty, and tax rates. However, there is growing evidence that these individual incentives, while important, are not always decisive. Individuals do not always behave as the selfish, rational, self-interested individuals portrayed in the standard neoclassical paradigm, but rather are often motivated by many other factors that have as their main foundation some aspects of social norms, morality, altruism, fairness, or the like, factors that I broadly and no doubt imprecisely lump together as group motivations. I argue that the compliance puzzle can be explained, at least in part, by expanding the standard analysis of individual compliance behavior to incorporate the important ways in which individual decisions are shaped by group motivations. I also provide empirical and experimental evidence to support these arguments, and, I suggest – and predict – some promising lines of future research. |
| Keywords: | tax evasion, behavioral economics, experimental economics |
| JEL: | H2 H26 D03 C9 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1309&r=hpe |
| By: | Alain Béraud (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | This contribution analyzes how Keynes and the keynesians asked the question of the choice of the unit of measure of the macroeconomic aggregates. Underlining the narrow relationships which exist between the lectures which Keynes professed between 1933 and 1935 and the diverse versions of the model IS-LM, it shows that the problems arise from the way Keynes had approached this problem. To argue about the monetary value of the aggregates leads to dichotomiser the model and does not allow to analyze correctly the interdependence between the labor market on one hand and the goods markets and the money market on the other hand. The model so formulated does not allow to treat in a rigorous way the effects of a variation of the monetary wage. It lets think, wrongly, that there is inevitably a full employment equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Keynes, IS-LM, units of measure. |
| JEL: | B22 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2013-11&r=hpe |
| By: | Pilon , André Francisco |
| Abstract: | Problems of difficult settlement or solution in the world cannot be solved by segmented academic formats, market-place interests or mass-media headlines; instead of dealing with taken for granted issues (the apparent “bubbles” in the surface), public policies, research and teaching programmes should detect the issues and deal with them deep inside the boiling pot. Policy discussions and policy making require new paradigms of growth, power, wealth, work and freedom embedded into the cultural, social, political and economical institutions (more critical than individual motives and morals). Urban planning cannot be subordinated to the interests of business corporations, cities cannot remain as privileged centers for profit and capital accumulation, transforming citizens in mere users and consumers, but must preserve and develop mankind heritage, encompassing history, values, architecture, landscapes, the arts, the letters. Being-in-the-world is more than living on it, it demands an ecosystemic approach, the construction of a new social fabric, as new structures emerge in the socio-cultural learning niches and develop critical capacities to operate changes in the system. Problem solving implies dynamic and complex configurations intertwining four dimensions of being-in-the-world, as they combine, as donors and recipients, to induce the events (deficits and assets), cope with consequences (desired or undesired) and contribute for change (diagnosis and prognosis): intimate (subject’s cognitive and affective processes), interactive (groups’ mutual support and values), social (political, economical and cultural systems) and biophysical (biological endowment, natural and man-made environments). An integrated ecosystemic approach to education, culture, environment, health, politics, economics and quality of life should develop the connections and seal the ruptures between the different dimensions of being-in-the-world, in view of their mutual support and dynamic equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | culture, politics, economics, environment, ecosystems, education |
| JEL: | I00 Q28 Q51 Q56 Q58 Z1 Z13 |
| Date: | 2013–03–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45360&r=hpe |
| By: | Roberta Calvet (Department of Business Management and Communication, Lesley University); James Alm (Department of Economics, Tulane University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of "empathy" and "sympathy" on tax compliance. We run a series of laboratory experiments in which we observe the subjects' decisions in a series of one-shot tax compliance games presented at once and with no immediate feedback. Importantly, we employ methods to identify subjects' sympathy, such as the Davis Empathic Concern Scale and questions about frequency of prosocial behaviors; we also use priming in order to promote subjects' empathy. Our results suggest that the presence of sympathy in most cases encourages more tax compliance. Our results also suggest that priming to elicit empathy also has a positive impact on tax compliance. These results support the inclusion of noneconomic factors in the analysis of tax compliance behavior. |
| Keywords: | Tax evasion; Emotions; Morality; Identity; Behavioral economics; Experimental economics |
| JEL: | H26 C91 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:1310&r=hpe |
| By: | Skouras, Thanos |
| Abstract: | In the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse, Germany's insistence that each country was to defend its banking system on its own rather than by the European Union acting jointly, is what triggered the euro crisis. This is because it made it inevitable that the weakest countries with the least healthy public finances would sooner or later come under attack. It is argued that the root of the crisis is not excessive sovereign debt but the deficient construction of the euro and, more specifically, the absence of a common treasury. The main lessons of the crisis are then briefly presented and a less evident lesson, at least for economists, is discussed at length. This is that national pride and prejudice can influence the unfolding of events in uncertain and dangerous ways that do not make rational sense. In the concluding sections, the present state of the crisis and the future prospects for Europe are examined and, finally, Greece’s future is assessed in the light of this analysis. |
| Keywords: | crisis, European Union, debt, policy making, prejudice |
| JEL: | E65 F36 G01 |
| Date: | 2013–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45221&r=hpe |
| By: | Schuster, Charlotte Leonie |
| Abstract: | Even if today's successful companies operating in the market were start-ups at some time, so far, no consensus could be found, if entrepreneurship is to be understood as an independent research discipline. Should entrepreneurship have its own theory based on generally accepted assumptions and constructs or should the field of research rather convince with an integrated perception and interfaces to many related disciplines? The terminological and conceptual difficulties come along with methodological challenges. In addition, data bases in entrepreneurship are often small and difficult to access and therefore restrict the choice of analytical methods. Which methodological problems must be addressed and what opportunities and prospects arise for empirical entrepreneurship research? Based on a literature review and an outline of the state of research, it will be discussed whether entrepreneurship could be established as an independent research discipline. Moreover, the use of data analysis methods to study entrepreneurship are surveyed to stress occuring problems and draw implications for the future of entrepreneurship research, as well as for the practice. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship Orientation, Research methods, Research discipline, data analytic trends, research design, methodological issues, methodological challenges, theory building, cross-disciplinary review |
| JEL: | L1 L2 M1 M2 O1 O3 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45472&r=hpe |
| By: | Omerčević, Edo |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this study is to review the literature on monetary issues and discuss how money and monetary systems contribute to the achievement of sustainable growth and inclusive economic development. The paper is based on an extensive review of literature that deals with monetary issues with the objective of building a case that the achievement of sustainable growth and inclusive economic development requires the right monetary system to be put in place which supports those objectives. The review of literature and theoretical reasoning assert that in order to achieve the stated economic objectives there is a need to develop and implement a different concept of money than the existing one. This study shows that the current monetary system does not provide a platform to achieve the desired economic objectives, irrespective of whether conventional or Islamic banking is the major banking and financial services provider. Theoretical models are outlined which can provide the foundation for healthy economic environment for sustainable growth and development. This including the discussion on a return to metallic moneys in form of the Islamic Gold Dinar system, a fiat monetary system based on the concept of Free-Money and a monetary model which is built on a commodity-based information system that can be easily implemented using today’s existing information and communication technology. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth, economic development, monetary systems |
| JEL: | E40 E42 |
| Date: | 2013–01–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44559&r=hpe |
| By: | Alain Béraud (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | Mill on the crisis of 1825 This article studies the crisis which, in 1825, affected the English economy and the works that John Stuart Mill, Thomas Tooke and John Ramsay McCulloch dedicated to its analysis. McCulloch and Tooke maintain that the organization of the English banking system played, if not in the origin at least in the development of the crisis, a remarkable role. Mill, on the contrary, thinks that the crisis is the effect of over-trading and that it would have developed as well in a system where the currency would have consisted in species. This crisis is for him a credit crisis. This analysis which seems the best to give a full account of this crisis is, besides, the most innovative. The article clarifies its implications for the monetary theory and for the analysis of business cycles. |
| Keywords: | Crisis, Financial Crisis, Overtrading, Mill, Tooke, McCulloch. |
| JEL: | B12 B31 E32 G01 N13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2013-12&r=hpe |
| By: | Jeffrey V. Butler (EIEF) |
| Abstract: | In this study I present experimental evidence of a novel channel yielding inequality persistence. In an initial experiment, results suggest that individuals respond to salient inequality by adjusting their performance beliefs to justify the inequality. Subsequent experiments reveal: i) that it is beliefs about relative ability, an ostensibly stable trait, rather than effort provision that respond to inequality; and that ii) unequal pay in an initial task affects willingness to compete on a subsequent task for male participants. Taken together, these patterns may cause inequality to become self-perpetuating. I conclude by discussing some implications of these findings. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eie:wpaper:1305&r=hpe |