Innovation for a steady state: a case for responsible stagnation

The proponents of responsible innovation (RI) have often opened their discussions with the reassurance that while they are against irresponsible innovation, they are not advocating irresponsible stagnation. In the two-by-two matrix generally used to illustrate this model of innovation, the quadrant for responsible stagnation has so far gone largely unmentioned, let alone explored. This paper draws on existing real-world cases to examine what arguments drawn from ecological economics might contribute to the discussion of RI. It questions the present growth-driven paradigm and asks whether opening the black box of ‘responsible stagnation' might also open the door for a reasoned discussion about resource consumption and pace of development in over-productive or too-risky sectors and technologies, as an intrinsic part of responsible innovation, rather than its opposite.     

The Private Interests of Public Officials: Financial Regulation in the US Congress

Legislators' private financial holdings affect policy decisions. Due to financial self‐interest, we theorize that legislators whose personal investment portfolios include equities from firms affected by proposed policies vote for legislation that benefits those firms. We also theorize that legislators with greater personal exposure to equity investments support policies that benefit equities markets generally. We create a novel data set of legislators' personal stock investments and examine major congressional actions since the 1990s on financial deregulation and market intervention. US House members who own stocks in firms who benefit from financial deregulation vote for deregulation. House members with greater exposure to financial and automotive stocks support the financial and auto bailouts, respectively. General exposure to equities markets is also associated with support for key legislation boosting markets. The normative implications are significant, as legislators' private interests influence decisions in the public sphere.     

论搜查中对公民财产权的保障——法经济学的考量

法经济学分析方法为研究刑事诉讼法提供了分析结构与观察问题的全新的思维方式。以法经济学分析为视角,重新审视我国的搜查制度,对于在搜查中容易遭到侵犯的公民的财产权问题进行研究,进而提出保障被搜查人财产权的制度措施。     

法经济学基本定理在环境法上的应用

对于先天缺少法律基石和理论依据的环境法来说,它的研究方法有必要运用法经济学中的基本原理、定理、分析工具和标准研究分析生态环境领域的经济活动和经济关系的规律性,环境与经济的内在联系和相互作用的关系表明了发展经济与保护环境必须协调发展的客观规律,运用经济规律、价值规律等在环境保护领域中发挥引导作用,为制定环境保护方针、技术经济政策、环境规划提供理论根据。对环保领域进行经济效益、社会效益的分析,即以法律经济学的思维方式来审视环境问题,运用经济手段和方法进行环境管理,研究环境措施的经济效果,为制定最佳环保方案提供依据。     

专业建设视阈下本科院校应用经济学学科建设的思考

学科水平是衡量学校办学水平的标准,专业建设则是衡量人才培养质量的标准。以山东青年政治学院为例,探索并思考本科院校应用经济学学科建设,并提出:学科建设与专业建设是协同共生的统一体,要统筹规划,整体推进;专业建设的核心是人才培养模式改革和课程建设,精品课程建设是课程建设的重要任务;对地方新建本科院校经济学专业来说,应注重实验教学,构建"双线式"实践教学体系。     

Sentencing white-collar criminals: when is shaming viable?

When does shaming work as an alternative to incarceration and fines in sentencing white-collar criminals? In the light of recent economic downturn and highly publicised instances of white-collar crime, public opinion has demanded harsher sentences for white-collar criminals. In order to appease this demand, as well as consider the pressing problem of prison overpopulation, alternative sanctions, such as formal shaming, have been increasingly studied. Through examination of the costs and consequences of incarceration and shaming, this article will explain that since the costs of shaming sanctions are largely fixed, shaming sanctions are most viable when used in conjunction with alternative sanctions so that courts can impose sanction bundles of costs commensurate with the level of offense committed by an offender.     

慈善事业的经济学分析

慈善事业是社会保障的重要组成部分。作为第三次分配的重要载体,慈善事业具有增加社会福利和社会总消费等方面的经济功能。我国慈善事业的发展时间虽然不长,但发展速度很快,同时也凸显了善款运作方面的问题。文章从产生慈善行为的经济动因出发,揭示了慈善事业对经济发展的影响,并在分析慈善资金供给与需求的基础上,对资金的合理使用与慈善组织的有效监督提出了政策建议。     

Performing the economy,performing science: from neoclassical to supply chain models in the agrifood sector

Abstract

Callon and Hilgartner, respectively, have argued that the economy and technoscience are performed and that neoclassical economics (NE) and scientific reports should be interpreted as performances. Building on that theme, it is argued here that the ongoing transformations collectively known as globalization signal a new way of thinking about and performing both economics and technoscience: supply chain management (SCM). A comparison of SCM with NE models reveals shifts in both the theoretical focus of its proponents and the reactions of critics. Recent developments in the agrifood sector are used to illustrate the argument.     

Economics and the ‘nonsense’ of law: the case of the Chicago antitrust revolution

Abstract

The Law and Economics movement that emerged in the University of Chicago through the 1940s and 1950s, around Ronald Coase's example, is a manifestation of the neo-liberal project of applying neo-classical economics to state sovereignty. In the 1970s and 1980s, Law and Economics ideas revolutionized the application of antitrust laws in the United States. However, this achievement came about not through a transformation in economic orthodoxy, but through persuading legal experts to recognize the inherent ‘nonsense’ at work in their own normative assumptions. The Chicago antitrust revolution is therefore symptomatic of trends that Foucault viewed as definitive of neo-liberalism more broadly.