“发展理论与中国现代化”研讨会在京召开——日本社会学家富永健一应邀作学术报告

和平与发展问题是当今世界最重大的两个问题。近年,中国的现代化问题及与此相关的发展理论引起了国家决策部门和社会的普遍关注。社会学、经济学、历史学、政治学等各界学者陆续开展了发展理论及各国发展进程、发展战略等问题的研究。在哲学社会科学“七·五”规划中,社会学、经济学和历史学都有这方面的课题被列入国家重点课题,从不同学科角度进行分别和综合研究。     

消费主义与符号拜物教

任何一个由商品和价格引导的社会,都无一例外地难以避免物欲横流和消费主义之痛。滥觞于欧美的消费主义一词,本来是西方特别是美国社会极度商业化的必然结果。消费主义的经济学含义,简单来说,就是指人们对于日常生活基本需求满足之后,也即在追求使用价值的消费之后,越来越多地把消费兴趣转移到商品的符号意义层面。正是这后一种意义创造并依托的符号体系,形成了消费主义的编码规则,构筑起商品消费的“符号帝国主义”的社会学和经济学需求范畴。由是对商品符号意义的消费转变成对人的欲望本身的消费,成为对欲望构想的虚幻的满足和无止境的物…     

经济学视角浅析吉列经典策略

本文旨在以经济学的观点和视角对营销经典案例吉列的定价策略案例进行分析。针对吉列剃须刀的刀片和刀柄的定价策略,用经济学中的相关理论例如需求弹性理论、价格歧视理论等等,给予相应的分析和解读。     

消费主义与符号拜物教

任何一个由商品和价格引导的社会,都无一例外地难以避免物欲横流和消费主义之痛.滥觞于欧美的"消费主义"一词,本来是西方特别是美国社会极度商业化的必然结果.消费主义的经济学含义,简单来说,就是指人们对于日常生活基本需求满足之后,也即在追求使用价值的消费之后,越来越多地把消费兴趣转移到商品的符号意义层面.正是这后一种意义创造并依托的符号体系,形成了消费主义的编码规则,构筑起商品消费的"符号帝国主义"的社会学和经济学需求范畴.由是对商品符号意义的消费转变成对人的欲望本身的消费,成为对欲望构想的虚幻的满足和无止境的物质补偿.它不仅是今天消费主义社会文化意识形态的特征之一,而且也是理解现代消费社会和消费主义文化意识形态的关键词汇.     

理性选择研究在经济社会学中的核心地位与方法错位

1994年 ,在美国社会学年会上 ,布劳 (PeterM .Blau)、古德 (WilliamJ.Goode)、哈勃 (JoanHuber)、瑞利(MatildaWhiteRiley)、苏特 (JamesF .Short)和荣格 (DennisH .Wroog)等 6位著名社会家 ,以“理性选择与社会学”为题展开了一场热烈讨论。他们对古典和新古典经济学的理性选择概念、经济学理性选择理论的原则与方法、理性选择研究与社会学的关系、当代社会学在理性选择研究方面的新趋向等问题进行了内容丰富的争论。这 6位社会学家中有 5位曾经担任美国社会学会会长 ,在美国社会学界具有很重要的学术地位 ,他们的观点引起了广泛的…     

住宅社会学的兴起及在中国的发展

住宅社会学的兴起与住宅问题研究紧密相连,其正式命名是在1978年印度新德里召开的国际建筑研究与文献委员会上。我国学者在本世纪20年代初对住宅问题已开始研究,80年代已来对住宅社会学的研究有长足进展。当前着重研究的问题是:学科建设、住宅建没预测、住宅社会消费、住房政策上体现社会公正。作者认为,住宅社会学是用社会学的理论和方法,研究住宅的历史、作用、地位以及人与住宅、住宅与社会的相互关系的科学。它属于应用社会学的分支,是介于建筑学、规划学、经济学、消费学、人类学、生态学等的边缘科学。     

关于在青年社会学中导入角色理论的理论思考

社会学的青年研究如何从“青年学”中分化出来 ,青年社会学如何理论化 ,这些是我们正面对的课题。事实上 ,这也是各国社会学界的研究者们在不断思考、探索的问题。本文意在说明将角色理论 ,特别是“角色类别”概念导入青年社会学的理论意图 ,并尝试着提供一个运用角色类别概念考察中国青年问题的视角。一、角色类别 :一个视角“角色”(ｒｏｌｅ)概念在社会学中被广泛运用 ,其理论的展开也呈现多种多样的面貌。通常 ,角色被看作为联结社会与个人所不可缺少的因素 ,亦即社会与个人的媒介。更有意见认为 ,“角色并不只是作为性格结构与社会结构…     

对哈里森·怀特市场模型的讨论:解析、探源与改进

哈里森·怀特的“市场从哪里来?”一文在经济社会学的市场理论中占有重要地位,怀特从社会学的视角对经济学的基础领地——市场——进行了结构主义的重新构建。然而,该文发表至今已整整四分之一世纪,社会学界对怀特市场模型的理论探讨却甚为有限。本文尝试深入到怀特建构生产市场模型的整个过程,重新疏理、解释模型的构建逻辑;探寻该模型与经济学、社会学(尤其是社会网络理论),以及自然科学(主要是物理学和生态学)的理论方法渊源;探讨怀特的市场理论在理论假设、模型表述与方法上存在的问题与不足,并提出对模型进行改进与完善的部分初步方案。     

论社会学理论研究与经验研究的结合

理论研究与经验研究是社会学研究的两个方面,两者如何结合,一直是社会学方法论的一个重要问题。因此,社会学在我国恢复以后,理论研究与经验研究的结合一直是人们关注的问题。在我国社会经济体制改革的实践中,社会学应该扮演更重要的角色,去探索和研究社会发展进程中出现的新情况、新问题,并能够科学地预测社会发展的前景。但是目前社会学的     

“嵌入性”:两种取向及其分歧

本文辨析了波兰尼和格兰诺维特的嵌入性思想,指出他们在市场与社会关系问题上代表两种不同的学术取向:社会构件论的市场观与社会建构论的市场观。前者系市场的实体嵌入,未给隔离于社会的自主性市场留下任何可能性;后者系市场的形式嵌入,在一定程度上给市场保留了社会因素无法进入、依自身逻辑运作的硬核。批评者眼中波兰尼的"市场悖论"建基于市场的形式嵌入,而在波兰尼那里实无真正意义上的"脱嵌的市场"存在,这一悖论不过是由其分析技艺所造成的假象。格兰诺维特取向的经济社会学研究带回了经济学所缺失的"背景"分析,虽然更具分析力和解释力,但其针对经济学所试图做出的替代性解释却不够彻底。而波兰尼取向的经济社会学研究尽管可被赋予厚望,但也还面临着相当艰难的理论与实践困境。     

Symbolic meanings of prices: Constructing the value of contemporary art in Amsterdam and New York galleries

This article develops a sociological analysis of the price mechanism on the market for contemporary art. On the basis of in-depth interviews with art dealers in New York and Amsterdam, I address two pricing norms: one norm inhibits art dealers from decreasing prices; the other induces them to set prices according to size. To account for these pricing norms, I argue that price setting is not just an economic but also a signifying act: despite their impersonal, businesslike connotations, actors on markets manage to express a range of cognitive and cultural meanings through prices. Previously, meanings of prices have been recognized in signaling theories within economics. However, these meanings are restricted to profit opportunities. Within the humanities, by contrast, meanings of prices are restricted to contaminating or corrosive meanings. The sociological perspective I develop claims that prices, price differences, and price changes convey multiple meanings related to the reputation of artists, the social status of dealers, and the quality of the artworks that are traded.     

PRICING UNDER FEDERAL MILK MARKET REGULATION

Federal milk market regulation sets the wholesale price of most fluid milk in this country. This paper explores the purposes served by price-setting procedures under regulation and their quantitative impact. The institutional and theoretical background is provided, and an econometric model of a regulated milk market is estimated. The latter demonstrates that actual prices are consistent with those which would maximize producer benefit in 1960 and 1970, and that regulation produces quite substantial effects on prices and quantities within markets, on price patterns among markets, and on income distribution and economic efficiency.     

ECONOMIC LOSSES DUE TO FORECASTING ERROR AND THE U.S. POPULIST MOVEMENT

A farmer's crop mix is affected by the expected relative prices of the crops. A price forecasting error results in economic loss from planning a suboptimal mix. A new method of estimating economic loss due to forecasting error indicates that economic loss increased during the height of the Populist movement and then decreased. Using data for Kansas counties from 1882 to 1907, I estimate agricultural crop mix functions using a SUR (Seemingly Unrelated Regression) procedure and calculate the economic loss due to forecasting error. Although new market opportunities must have made farmers better oth these nnnnrtunities increased the cost of price uncertainly.     

Measuring the impact of prices on inequality: With applications to Thailand and Korea

This paper develops a new methodology to compute social cost of living indices. These indices indicate whether or not price changes have a favourable (or unfavourable) impact on the welfare of the poor. The indices are derived on the basis of two alternative classes of social welfare functions. The methodology developed in the paper is applied to compute social cost of living indices for Thailand and Korea. The empirical results show that changes in prices have generally affected the poor more adversely than the non-poor.     

How social comparison influences reference price formation in a service context

What is the influence on reference price when the source of price information is anonymous versus social? This article investigates the formation of reference prices given an observed sequence of past prices in a service context. An experimental study suggests that, considering the same price information, if the source is social (i.e., the prices paid by colleagues), then consumers want to pay less. More specifically, social comparison changes the way individuals weigh information, attributing more importance to the lowest historical prices and to the range in price variations.     

Microstructures of economic action: talk,interaction and the bottom line

This paper contributes to an expanding body of research that has analysed the interactional foundations of economic activity, and price determination, by quantifying the financial implications of different micro‐interactional practices. Drawing on video recordings of naturalistic interaction the paper analyses a simple consumer choice, whether to pay one of two prices, the lower ‘standard’ price (£8.00) or the higher ‘gift aid’ (£8.80) price, to enter an arts institution. Utilizing resources from conversation analysis, the paper analyses different ways of posing this choice. It describes how, as interactional constraints tighten, standard prices become less socially desirable and customers increasingly ‘volunteer’ to pay the higher price. The paper contributes to sociological understandings of economic activity, demonstrating how simple one‐off choices, and prices, are accountably responsive to micro‐interactional structures.     

Shoplifting,monitoring and price determination

Shoplifting is a major crime problem costing American retailers more than $10 billion per year. Surprisingly, despite the evolvement of an extensive theoretical literature on the economics of some major economic crimes, shoplifting has failed to attract economists’ attention. The present paper applies the economic toolbox to this problem, developing a principal–agent type model of shoplifting and shoplifting control. The model examines the customer's decision of whether to shoplift or not as well as the store's profit-maximizing price and monitoring intensity. The paper challenges the conventional wisdom that the observed rise in shoplifting calls for intensified monitoring and higher prices, showing that a rational response to increased shoplifting involves a reduction in both monitoring and prices.     

THE DEMAND for ILLICIT DRUGS

This paper estimates the effects of alcohol prices, marijuana decriminalization, cocaine prices, and heroin prices on the demand for these four substances. Both own price effects and cross price effects are estimated. The estimated price elasticities for alcohol, cocaine, and heroin are, respectively, –.30, –.28 and –.94. Marijuana decriminalization was found to increase the probability of marijuana participation by about 8%. The results for the cross price effects provide general evidence of complementarity. It is estimated that decriminalization of cocaine and heroin might lead to about 260,000 new regular cocaine users and about 47,000 new regular heroin users. ( JEL 110)     

Expectations of inflation: The biasing effect of thoughts about specific prices

National surveys follow consumers’ expectations of future inflation, because these may directly affect the economic choices they make, indirectly affect macro-economic outcomes, and are considered in monetary policy. Yet, relatively little is known about how individuals form the inflation expectations they report on consumer surveys. Medians of reported inflation expectations tend to track official estimates of realized inflation, but show large heterogeneity between respondents, due to some expecting seemingly extreme inflation. We present two studies to examine whether individuals who consider specific price changes when forming their inflation expectations report more extreme and disagreeing inflation expectations due to focusing on specific extreme price changes. In Study 1, participants who were instructed to recall any price changes or to recall the largest price changes both thought of items for which price changes were perceived to have been extreme. Moreover, they reported more extreme year-ahead inflation expectations and showed more disagreement than did a third group that had been asked to recall the average change in price changes. Study 2 asked participants to report their year-ahead expectations of inflation, without first prompting them to recall specific price changes. Half of participants nevertheless thought of specific prices when generating their inflation expectations. Those who thought of specific prices reported more extreme and more disagreeing inflation expectations, because they were biased towards various items associated with more extreme perceived price changes. Our findings provide new insights into expectation formation processes and have implications for the design of survey-based measures of inflation.     

Do Fair Trade Pricing Policies Reduce Inequalities in Coffee Production and Trade?

This article assesses the Fair Trade pricing model for coffee, investigating the ability of minimum prices and a social premium to reduce price risk and remedy inequalities. It highlights some of the challenges involved in controlling prices. Inequalities exist among Fair Trade‐certified farmers; some are poorer than others, and the poorer ones typically produce less coffee. If Fair Trade succeeds in its aim of raising the prices received by farmers, this will benefit more those farmers producing greater volumes of coffee and who are typically less vulnerable. In addressing inequalities, the Fair Trade social premium is superior to minimum prices.