Assesses the NAIRU framework for analysing the determinants of equilibrium unemployment, as expressed in Layard, Nickell and Jackman's Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market. It is argued that the NAIRU has produced many useful insights regarding the effects of...

Considers two main strands of literature. The first deals with the tension between the falsificationist view of how economic know-ledge could or should be acquired, and the view that economics is a separate, deductive science. The second concerns the metaphors used in economic analysis, the main...

Looks at the relevance to economic systems of force field equilibrium metaphors. Points out that the force field view of physical reality developed in nineteenth century physics does not necessarily involve homeostasis and reversible time paths. Illustrates the properties of force fields with...

This paper advocates the use of what we term a CC (command control) method for explaining the behavior of economic systems in the transition from command to market economies. The specific implementation involves controlling Polish money balances for the effects of price deformation or shortage...

This paper attempts to cast light on the debate about the existence and size of a monetary overhang in household money balances in command economies. Four measures of shortage or price deformation are constructed for the Polish economy and used to test for the existence of ''shortage''money...

This paper elucidates hysteresis using a simple model of market entry and exit. A procedure for calculating hysteresis indices for economic time series is outlined. Some preliminary results assess the explanatory power of hysteresis variables in determining the equilibrium rate of unemployment...

This paper considers three pillars of contemporary economic wisdom that form part of the so-called 'Washington consensus': that free markets work best; that price stability is a good thing; and that deregulated financial markets work best. We argue that these propositions apply in certain...

This essay considers the Soros critique of the epistemological and analytical foundations underlying theories of rational expectations equilibria and efficient markets. Similarities between Soros and Keynes are found. It is pointed out that Soros is guarded rather than nihilistic about the...