This discussion paper is a draft of the general commentary for Paul Anthony Samuelson: Critical Assessments, which Routledge will publish in October 2004. The three-volume set is a collection of theoretical and applied articles, published between 1988 and 2003, that is intended to assist...

As human traits and preferences were shaped by natural selection, there is substantial potential for the use of evolutionary biology in economic analysis. In this paper, we review the extent to which evolutionary theory has been incorporated into economic research. We examine work in four areas:...

China is transitioning toward more inward-focussed growth, causing adverse changes in the product and financial terms of trade in the advanced economies. At the same time, international financial markets tussle between tightening forces associated with the US recovery on the one hand and...

Falling transport costs and the rise of global production networks have reshaped world trade. But endowments still determine production locations for fuels and minerals. Moreover, because they are often bulky or dicult to store, unit transport costs for natural resources may still be very large....

Carbon emission reduction could be achieved through extensive cooperation between relevant groups such as businesses, governments and consumers. Generally, carbon emissions stem from consumer behavior. To tackle the increasingly serious energy crisis and climate change in China, it is thus vital...

This paper explores the effects of different language home environments provided by English-speaking and non-English-speaking migrant domestic workers (MDWs) on Hong Kong children’s ability to speak English. To isolate MDWs’ language effect from parental and family effects, I use...

Cornelsen et al. (2014) and Green et al. (2013) provide a comprehensive review/summary of a large number of recent estimates of the price responsiveness of food consumption using a meta-regression approach. For seven food items, they present uncompensated elasticities that include both the...

China’s pension system is in need of comprehensive reform in that it is fragmented in its coverage and significantly under-funded. Attempts to improve the coverage will likely exacerbate the financial strains. Thus it is urgent to improve the financial sustainability of the system and one...

During the 1970s and 1980s, the external debt levels of poor countries rose to a level constituting a ‘debt crisis.’ The main source of the supply of external debt was the surplus revenue generated by the OPEC through significant increases in the price of oil during the 1970s. Unfortunately,...

China’s local government debt (LGD) has recently become the focus of economic policy debates. However, information about LGD and its impact on economic growth in the Chinese economy is scarce. This paper attempts to present an empirical investigation of the impact of China’s LGD on economic...