The Creative Industries Concept: Stakeholder Reflections on Its Relevance and Potential in Australia

The creative industries concept or term continues to attract attention in both developed and developing economies worldwide. However, it is not universally applied, with other terms such as cultural industries, arts and culture, copyright industries, or the experience economy used in various global locations. There is also ongoing debate and critique in relation to the creative industries concept, given that it emphasises employment and wealth creation and gathers together a range of disparate disciplines. This article explores these issues via interviews with twenty-two key leaders representing fifteen different industry organisations, advocacy groups, and government funding bodies in the Australian creative industries sector. The findings reveal only a moderate level of understanding and application of the creative industries concept, with a range of views on its relevance and utility for those working in the sector. In addition, the findings propose that there is significant potential and need for the sector to work towards a stronger advocacy position and profile within the broader economy. However, this represents a major challenge for the creative industries sector, given the existing vertical and horizontal power structures within this complex and diverse area of the economy.     

对波斯纳与科斯法经济学范式的解析

波斯纳以经济学打开法学的"黑箱",科斯以法学打开经济学"黑箱",作为经济学和法学交叉学科的法经济学由此形成两种理论范式,即法律的经济分析和经济的法律分析.波斯纳创立的法律的经济分析范式在为繁荣法经济学研究作出巨大贡献的同时也带来了极大的误区.重新繁荣法经济学研究,必须进行经济的法律分析.     

Institutions and Economic Performance: The Use and Abuse of Culture in New Institutional Economics

Important research programs within New Institutional Economics advance culturalist arguments to explain failures of economic development. Focusing on the work of Douglass C. North and Avner Greif, this article argues that such arguments rely on an essentialist conception of culture that is both historically inaccurate and analytically misleading. Greif’s work in particular rests on a selective use of empirical data that ultimately distorts the deductive models that are at the core of his work. As a result, both scholars use culture to account for outcomes that are more adequately explained as the product of social conflict and political struggles—struggles in which culture plays a far more contingent and destabilizing role than the one they attribute to it. What is needed, I argue, is to link arguments about the persistence of inefficient institutions with a sociologically informed conception of culture as an ensemble of resources that enhance rather than constrain the scope of individual agency. To come to terms with the effects of culture on institutional formation and change it is necessary to replace the essentialism articulated by North and Greif with a strategic-instrumentalist view in which culture is compatible with a wide spectrum of economic behaviors, individual actions, and thus institutional trajectories.

Lessons of Russian in Afghanistan

The experience of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan (1979–1989) is considered through the prism of institutional transfers. Afghanistan has a long history of attempts to implement Muslim, Soviet and Anglo-Saxon institutional designs. Most of them have failed. This failure can be attributed to the lack of ‘elective affinity’ between traditional and new institutions imported from more developed countries. It is argued that a careful examination of the degree of elective affinity must precede any attempt of institutional transfers. An analysis of Ph.D. dissertations defended by Afghan students at Soviet and Russian universities complements logical arguments and references to historical facts.

现代经济学的方法论特征

注重研究方法的科学性和自洽性;突出模型分析和数学方法及数理逻辑的应用,并把对经济现象和经济活动的研究过程纳入一个可控制的系统中,这不仅增强了理论本身的可靠性,同时又使之获得了广阔的发展空间.     

效率视野中的食品召回制度——一种法经济学理论的证成进路

2007年7月26日颁布并实施的《国务院关于加强食品等产品安全监督管理的特别规定》第9条首次确立了我国的食品召回制度。食品召回制度为何建制,其存在的根基及其体系的支撑,都需要证成。以"效率"的角度从法经济学的理论出发分析食品安全问题可以得出结论,食品召回制度对于"外部性"的有效处理,实现了"卡尔多-希克斯效率"的良好状态。     

论当代中国马克思主义政治经济学的新境界

政治经济学与经济学的主要区别在于是否研究生产关系。马克思主义政治经济学用唯物主义的自然史的方法论述经济关系。当代中国马克思主义政治经济学有如下新境界：准确把握中国社会主要矛盾的变化,准确把握中国经济新常态,创新宏观调控思路和方式等。历史发展没有止境,当代中国马克思主义政治经济学新境界的开拓也没有止境。而要不断开拓当代中国马克思主义政治经济学的新境界,需要有科学的方法论和正确的思考方式,既着眼当前又立足长远,做到“六个坚持”,具有批判精神,尤其是必须深入学习马克思主义政治经济学的基本原理和习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想。     

“一带一路”背景下国际发展经济学学科综述

国际发展研究是反映现实世界变化的窗口之一。最近几年的发展经济学文献对诸如援助的动因、援助有效性等传统议题的研究更为深入,对新议题的探索也逐渐涌现。移民问题、局部地区的战争与恐怖主义活动与援助的相互关系,援助是如何塑造受援国行为及其所产生的效果,是反映援助国政治诉求的现实性研究。除此之外,源自其他学科的新研究方法也丰富了学者们对传统议题研究手段,补充了传统研究方法在诸如内生性等问题上存在的缺陷。     

Promoting customer engagement: A new trend in utility regulation

This paper traces a new development in regulation that encourages utilities to engage more directly with their customers. We make four contributions: First, we perform a comprehensive analysis of how regulators are using customer engagement, and offer a simple model for understanding different customer engagement initiatives. Second, we review assessments of customer engagement. We find that there are no quantitative, empirically robust assessments of the effectiveness of customer engagement as a regulatory tool. Third, we develop two detailed case studies of an energy regulator and a water regulator that are in the forefront of customer engagement efforts. We find that there is no direct link between the engagement strategy used and the economic incentives received by a firm. Finally, we propose a framework for improving the customer engagement process. The new framework relies on microeconomics, modern tools of program evaluation, and supplying the regulated firm with direct incentives to engage with the customer.     

货币演进的历史观与货币创造的政治经济学

一种流行的对现代货币理论的批评认为,现代货币理论忽视了金融市场在货币创造中的主体地位;现代货币理论的错误认识会导致政府对市场的过度干预。这种反对意见不仅误解了现代货币理论,而且建立在错误的历史观上,忽视了政府在市场经济中的重要作用。首先,现代货币理论形成了包括商业银行和政府在内的对货币等级结构的完整认识。其次,在历史上,财政作为货币创造主体的作用并没有让位于商业银行体系,相反,随着布雷顿森林体系的解体,国家财政的作用获得了极大的解放。再次,政府的货币创造具有生产性的一面,它在推动创新和生产力发展上扮演着重要角色;政府创造和回收货币并不是剥削,而是国家的公共目的所使然。最后,货币创造主体的制度设计及其争论的问题本质上是更深层次的政治经济学问题。