This article explores the different and sometimes conflicting explanations of the success of the collective enterprises (town-village-enterprise) in China during the first phase of transition (1979-1995). It is argued that explanations, relying on cultural variables are not sustainable and this...

Since the work of Cobb and Douglas [18], two main innovations have been introduced in applied factor demand analysis, i.e. the use of flexible functional forms and the modelling of dynamics, expectations, and the interrelatedness of the adjustment process. Recently, cointegration theory has...

This paper begins by addressing the central questions underlying the country-specific essays in this volume: what was the relationship between agricultural development and the development of other sectors? Did agricultural growth support or compete with industrial development? And, was an...

Happiness in philosophical ethics and utility or satisfaction in economics have much in common. The paper investigates the ethical economy of happiness as a joint topic of ethical and economic theory. It shows that limits of the calculus of utility maximization also apply to concepts of the...

This paper reports on results of surveys of hundreds of students in Italy, Ireland and the United States that show that if simply confronted with questions about their preferences for high relative income at the expense of absolute income that a) a substantial fractiongive inconsistent answers...

Markets work best when the rules of the game are stable, property rights are secure and contracts are observed. These conditions are promoted by the rule of law in the classical liberal sense of the supremacy of general laws over public and private authority. Devices such as mixed government and...

Das Leitbild der Wirtschafts-und Sozialordnung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, die Soziale Markwirtschaft, wird durch die Idee des sozialen Ausgleichs von Einkommensunterschieden durch die progressive Besteuerung, durch die umlagefinanzierte Altersvorsorge, durch die Mitbestimmung der...

This paper studies extremist behaviour, and its connection to authoritarianism. I divide extremists into two groups, leaders, who demand extremist acts such as assassinations, suicide terror or other forms of political violence from followers, who supply them. I assume that both the leaders of...

Economic ethics describes the interaction of ethics and economics in explaining human action and in giving normative advice to ethically justifiable and efficient choices of action. As ethical economy, it analyses the ethical conditions of coordination in markets and the economic conditions of...

The purpose of this article is to discuss Posner's economic analysis of law and to analyse the differences between his economic analysis of law and law and economics. We propose and demonstrate a twofold original argument. First, we show that Posner does not only propose an economic analysis of...