Cost–benefit analysis: New foundations on shifting sand

New Foundations of Cost–Benefit Analysis, by Matthew Adler and Eric Posner, represents the most ambitious and credible effort to date to build a solid theoretical defense of the use of cost–benefit analysis (CBA) in evaluating government regulation. In this review, three cost–benefit “skeptics” offer their reactions to this ambitious and important book. We note its virtues – its humility, its scrupulousness, its open‐mindedness. We also explore its vices. If preferences are to be “laundered,” is it intellectually defensible to remove the bad but not consider adding the good? Does Adler's and Posner's welfarism really play the limited role they suppose, or does it risk “crowding out” other important deontological and distributional values? If CBA is merely a decision procedure that provides an imperfect proxy of welfare – the moral criterion we really care about – how do we know that the proxy it provides in practice will actually be accurate enough to be useful? Isn't this at bottom an empirical question that cannot be answered by this thoroughly theoretical book? If CBA is no more than an imperfect proxy for welfare, then alternative imperfect decision procedures may perform better in the real world.     

The German Gemeinwirtschaftslehre: Implications for modern nonprofit economics

This article examines the way modern nonprofit economics can be informed by the Gemeinwirtschaftslehre, a strand of public and nonprofit economics that was popular in German‐speaking countries until the 1980s. Despite its present decline, the Gemeinwirtschaftslehre yields a valuable implication that nonprofit firms address market failure by supplanting the pecuniary entrepreneurial motivation with a nonpecuniary one. In this article, this implication is used to reconsider two central and controversial issues in modern nonprofit economics: the rationale behind the nondistribution constraint in nonprofit firms, and the integration between the market failure and supply‐side theories of the nonprofit sector. The article concludes by discussing the emerging prospects for empirical research.     

游客信息与湖泊旅游风景区开发中的生态建设--以云南抚仙湖为例

目前,在我国不少江河湖海风景区的开发中,往往对区域景观与旅游布局的协调性、旅游服务的对象即游客的旅游需求和心理动态信息注意不够,在风景区的旅游功能塑造和旅游建设中带有很大的随意性,这就容易导致旅游开发中的破坏性.根据当地自然和人文景观的特点,把旅游特色的塑造与生态建设结合起来,才是旅游业可持续发展的正确途径.     

“Institutions and Economic Performance: The Use and Abuse of Culture in New Institutional Economics”: A Response to Heydemann

Applications of institutional analysis to the explanation of economic performance come in many flavors. Some economists have made use of an economics-oriented flavor in treating culture as one component of that analysis. Steven Heydemann uses a more political flavor of institutional analysis to argue that two of these economists, Douglass North and Avner Greif, have overly simplified and homogenized the concept of culture and the way in which it affects economic performance. He goes on to identify several instances in both the economic history and contemporary experience of the Middle East where he claims that such over-simplification has led to shortcomings in the analysis. This paper suggests that while some of Heydemann’s claims have merit, several others are exaggerated.

经济哲学和科技哲学

国外学者一般以科学哲学为范例研究经济哲学问题,近年来国内关于经济哲学的研究也有类似的主张。本文通过科学哲学与科学和经济哲学与经济学二者关系的比较研究,认为经济哲学的学科性质不同于科学哲学,在研究对象、研究内容和研究方法方面也与科学哲学不具有相似性。     

20世纪中叶新马华人社会与华南互动之探讨

本文着重探讨新马华人社会的社会群体及经济组织在新马及华南的互动中所扮演的角色及依赖的基础,希望弥补以往研究新马华人社会与华南侨乡互动时只注重实际交往的不足,而进一步探讨这一实际交往的基础即无形的信息流动。另一方面,跨国社会联系又是建立在国家的基础上,因此希望能在探讨跨国社会网络的同时也回到国家层面,进一步揭示国家在网络发展中所起的作用。     

新制度经济学发展观透视

新制度经济学是现代经济学最重要的发展。新制度经济学以现实的人的行为假定为基础,以制度为研究对象,在新古典经济学分析框架中引入交易成本和产权这两个重要范畴,建立了将制度内生化的经济发展理论。新制度经济学发展观的主要贡献在于提出制度结构、制度安排、制度变迁等制度因素是经济和社会发展的重要源泉。     

行为法经济学视角下的人性假设理论框架研究简

行为法经济学视角下的人性假设理论框架主要包括四种偏离传统经济学“理性人”模型的行为模式：一是有限理性,指人们有限的认知能力;二是有限意志力,指人们有限的自制力;三是有限自利,指人们关心公平和他人的幸福;四是情境问题,指个人偏好会受情境影响.这一理论框架是规范研究的基础,也是学科体系的重要组成部分.     

自由权的受益权功能之省思——以住宅自由的功能为例

住宅自由属于典型的自由权,虽然它也有些许受益权的功能,但并不能从中解读出国家帮助公民获得住宅的义务。自由权的受益权功能理论产生于德国基本法的特定背景之下,并不符合我国宪法的基本权利理论。它混淆了权利与权利的条件,也没有我国宪法文本上的依据。     

社区居民委员会与业主委员会的权利结构及其在北京市政策执行中的演化

在城市社区中,居民委员会和业主委员会是两个非常重要的自治组织,这两个理论上看似相辅相成的自治组织在现实中却关系复杂,复杂关系的背后实际上是政府的政策在左右。本文通过对北京市社区中居民委员会和业主委员会相关政策的研究,特别是对政府政策取向以及相关组织的利益关系的剖析,发现政府厚此薄彼的政策取向以及控制寻租机会是问题的核心,解决问题的关键在于政策设计应以尊重权利为要义,在具体的制度安排上应以控制腐败、防止附加性政策为核心,在具体行政活动中应以依法行政为基本操守,唯其如此才能防止魔鬼隐藏在政策细节中作祟。