Going, going, gone: the effects of aid policies on graduation at three large public institutions

This paper exploits uniquely detailed data and cross-institution variation in aid for three large public universities to identify the effects of aid on the probability of college graduation. The results indicate that need-based and merit-based aid both increase graduation rates at large public institutions, but primarily through the types of students that ‘select’ these institutions. Merit-based aid facilitates an institution attracting students who have higher observed academic ability that raises the probability of graduation. Need-based aid enables an institution to attract students with non-academic attributes such as social and cultural networks that, while often unobserved, improve graduation success. Broadly, our results suggest that recent aid policy that has moved away from need-based aid for low-income students (reducing their ability to find the best institutional match) and toward merit-based aid (that alters the distribution of high ability students across colleges) could foster stagnant graduation rates even with rising enrollment rates that have been observed over the last three decades.

意识形态理论的对立与批判——马克思主义与新制度经济学

新制度经济学意识形态理论包含有新制度经济学对意识形态及其基本取向的认知,与马克思主义意识形态理论具有本质不同。基于马克思主义意识形态理论,借由对新制度经济学意识形态理论之理论预设、方法论、意识形态基本功用、意识形态变迁推动力、理论构建语境、理论旨趣、理论实践目标冲突的解读,可以发现其在如下方面存在问题:理论预设缺乏经验事实支持、方法论个人主义与意识形态的社会性相抵牾、以降低交易成本为意识形态的基本功用、以非阶级因素为意识形态变迁推动力、以西方世界为理论构建的基本语境、以解释西方世界为基本目标、以资本主义意识形态为永恒存在。对这种对立的批判性比较研究有利于清晰认识新制度经济学意识形态理论的本质,以更好维护我国意识形态安全。     

A note on household approach to credit rationing in agrarian economies

Using clues from transaction cost economics this note develops an intertemporal agricultural household model to explain the demand-side credit rationing from formal financial institutions in agrarian economies. The model employs ex-ante transaction costs, namely search cost and negotiation cost to explain this phenomenon. The model shows that with market failure an agricultural household's production decision is not separate from its consumption decision. This is when the policy analysis household approach, which includes simultaneous decision making in production and consumption side, becomes essential.     

Some issues on the Internationalization of Chinese Economics Periodicals

The internationalization of Chinese economics periodicals is a process of being well known, accepted and applied worldwide. It is affected by many factors, such as the Chinese scientific development level, the difficult extent of cultural communication, transmission methods, self-quality, the extent of openness, and the size of international targets. In particular, transmission methods and self-quality are two controllable variables. Digitization can accelerate the internationalization process of Chinese economics periodicals in form. The essence of internationalization of Chinese economics periodicals is to make it an international periodical that can be possessed, shared and applied together all over the world. Only when the Chinese national features are integrated with the international community can the Chinese economics periodicals really reach a higher level in its internationalization.     

“Supporting me through emotional times,all different kinds of behaviour.” Forensic mental health service users understanding of positive behavioural support

This service evaluation project explored service users’ experiences of positive behavioural support (PBS) within a medium secure mental health service. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse interviews with ten service users. Four main themes emerged from the data: My plan; How I understand PBS; How PBS has helped me, the benefits; and Making the plan work. Overall, service users viewed their experience of having a PBS plan positively. They reflected that the plans offered staff greater understanding of their behaviours and needs, enabling them to receive appropriate support. Service users valued the experience of being involved in the process, offering important insights into their experiences. They also expressed frustrations about staff not following the plan and not understanding why they had a plan whilst others did not. Limitations of the study, clinical implications and ideas for future research have been discussed.     

重建和发展马克思经济学的研究思维——从本质到现象的研究路线是如何消逝的？

马克思在经济分析中实际上使用的是从本质到现象的研究路线,这种研究路线与社会经济现象这一研究对象相适应;不幸的是,这种研究路线在古典主义后期还没有发展成熟就逐渐蜕化了,以致现代主流经济学的研究方法与研究内容之间存在着严重脱节。究其原因主要有四：一是经济学者的知识素养日益狭隘而使得本质研究被抛弃;二是经济学纯理论化的努力而日益抽象化;三是马克思具体观点的教条化理解和发展窒息了该研究路线的蜕化;四是经济学研究对象从公共领域转向了私人领域而导致社会关怀的丧失。     

Critical theory and the capitalist state

This article is an overview of Michel Callon's contribution to the reformulation of economic sociology and anthropology. It contextualizes Callon's concepts within science and technology studies, and indicates the main lines of influence on his thinking about economic processes. Callon's work also opens up a number of debates and challenges to current perspectives within economic sociology. Finally, the article considers the way in which Callon's perspective reconfigures both the relation of politics and economics, and the nature of politics itself.     

Callonistics: a disentanglement

A critical response is offered to the special issue of Economy and Society devoted to Michel Callon's economics. The continuing weaknesses of his approach, as adopted and adapted from actor-network theory and the study of science and technology, are highlighted, together with the weaknesses of the economics itself. In addition, the latter is shown to conform heavily with recent developments within and around mainstream economics. The conclusion that capitalism does not exist, and so does not need a political economy, is argued both to disarm social theory in face of the current, virulent assault from economics imperialism and to waste the opportunity to offer an alternative economics of its own.     

The political economy of class conflict

Texts reviewed:

C. Crouch (1977) Class Conflict and the Industrial Relations Crisis, Heinemann Educational Books.

F. Hirsch and J. H. Goldthorpe (eds) (1978) The Political Economy of Inflation, Martin Robertson.     

On Marx's theory of agricultural rent: A reply to Ben Fine

This article criticizes both the 'Marxist' and 'sociological' conceptualizations of money to be found in the recent debate between Fine, Lapavitsas and Zelizer in Economy and Society . They neglect important contributions to the theory of money, especially the 'credit' and 'state' theories of money in the social sciences. These emphasize, as did Keynes, the central theoretical importance of money of account . These approaches were banished from orthodox economics and lost to sociology in the post- Methodenstreit division of intellectual labour in the social sciences. Marxist economics has never properly addressed this monetary analysis. Although neglected, it is not obscure and informs the more widely known post-Keynesian theory of money. This article argues that these heterodox theories of money are essentially sociological in that they involve the conceptualization of money as abstract value constituted by the social relation of the 'promise to pay'.