Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate critically the validity of rival theorisations of the hidden economy that variously read this sphere as a leftover from a previous era, a by-product of a new emergent form of capitalism, a complement to formal employment or an alternative to the formal...

The different types of estimators of rational expectations models are surveyed. A key feature is that the model's solution has to be taken into account when it is estimated. The two ways of doing this, the substitution and errors-in-variables methods, give rise to different estimators. In the...

Purpose – To explain a fiscal rule that functions in a different way from a constitutional ideal of a welfare state, as Japan's case, and to give a literary examination of that kind of thoughts in modern economics and theory of public finance. Design/methodology/approach – Compares...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on links between former “Heilbronn Symposia” on social, economic and political changes, and evolutionary concepts of the nineteenth and early twentieth century to solve the “Social Question” (“S. Qu.”) in Germany....

Purpose – This paper suggests that an adequate understanding of the notion of the social market economy, which has become a prominent aspect of debates on the social model of the European Constitution, is to be assessed in the context of the historist tradition in German economic and social...

Purpose – The paper aims to provide an overview of the Austrian School's approaches to the social question before World War I. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes the form of a comparative study. Findings – In his contributions Friedrich von Wieser supported co-operative...

Purpose – The paper aims to study the relevance of the German historical school and American Institutionalism for contemporary research in social sciences. The subject scope of the paper is to trace how concepts, ideas, and frameworks trickle from the historical school into later research...

Purpose – This paper is devoted to the question of what motivates man in his pursuit of economic activities. Particular attention is given to the notion that economic activities of individuals may not be motivated by their self-interest alone. Design/methodology/approach – Using literary...

This paper is a review essay of Leeson, R. (Ed.), Keynes, Chicago and Friedman (2 volumes), Pickering and Chatto, London, 2003. These volumes contain a comprehensive collection of previously published papers, and also some interesting new materials, relating to the controversy about the accuracy...

Purpose – To analyse some proposals of the Younger German Historical School as to how to reduce unemployment and to examine them with regard to their application to contemporary unemployment. The more general issue of this paper is: Can we learn from the Younger Historical School how to solve...