富裕社会中贫困的消除：加尔布雷思的探究及启示

贫困表现为人的基本需要得不到满足,“富裕社会”中的贫困表现为私人生产、物质生产的过剩和公共生产、精神生产的不足。加尔布雷思认为,美国“富裕社会”中贫困的原因是不平衡的“二元经济体系”,只要实行“新社会主义”,实现“计划体系”和“市场体系”的平衡,就能解决“富裕”背后的贫困问题。由于这一设想是以不改变资本主义的经济基础为前提的,所以,只能是一种治标不治本的改良。只有扬弃经济学的“传统智慧”,建构以促进“每个人的自由发展”为目标的“全面生产”经济学,才能从根本上消除“富裕社会”中的贫困问题。     

Poverty and educational achievement in the US: A less-biased estimate using PISA 2012 data

In the current paper, we employ the most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data to calculate a less-biased estimate of poverty on US achievement. The PISA was specifically chosen as it is an assessment removed from a specific curriculum and instead focuses on concepts that students should know in order to participate in a global economy. Using a propensity score matching approach, our findings suggest that US students in poverty have notable educational attainment deficiencies compared to a matched group of students who are not in poverty. In other words, when we select two students who have a great deal in common but for the fact that one comes from a poverty background, the student in poverty is expected to perform nearly 28 points, or about a quarter of a standard deviation lower, on the PISA assessment. In real terms, this puts math achievement for children not in poverty on-par with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average, while children in poverty are well below the OECD average.     

Reciprocal relationships in tax compliance decisions

Reciprocity considerations are important to the tax compliance problem as they may explain the global dynamics of tax evasion, beyond individual tax evasion decisions, toward a downward or upward spiral. To provide evidence on reciprocity in tax compliance decisions, we have conducted a laboratory experiment in which we introduced two types of inequities. The first type of inequity is called vertical, because it refers to inequities introduced by the government when it sets different fiscal parameters for identical taxpayers, while the second type of inequity is called horizontal because it refers to the fact that taxpayers may differ in tax compliance decisions. In this setting, taxpayers may react to a disadvantageous or advantageous inequity through negative or positive reciprocal behaviors, respectively. Our results support the existence of negative and positive reciprocity in both vertical and horizontal cases. When both inequities come into play and may induce reciprocal behaviors in opposite directions, the horizontal always dominates the vertical.     

The Sociology of International Migration: Where We Have Been; Where Do We Go from Here?1

Controversies about international migration expose the changing structure of and underlying assumptions about societal membership in many nations. The sociology of international migration has emerged as an increasingly important subfield over the past decade in large part because it has tended to move beyond more narrow economic and demographic problems and has begun to address this fundamentally sociological issue. In the future it will be particularly important that sociologists pay attention to how demographically changing societies define who is and is not a member. As such, legal status and the role of the state has become critically important.     

Trust and Estate Planning: The Emergence of a Profession and Its Contribution to Socioeconomic Inequality1

This article offers a new perspective on the connection between socioeconomic inequality and occupations by examining the impact of trust and estate planners on global wealth stratification. While many studies treat the professions as mirrors of inequalities in their environments, this article looks at the ways professionals participate in the creation of stratification regimes. Trust and estate planners do this by sheltering their clients' assets from taxation, thereby preserving private wealth for future generations. Using tools such as trusts, offshore banks, and shell corporations, these professionals keep a significant portion of the world’s private wealth beyond the reach of the state. Trust and estate planning thus contributes to creating and maintaining socioeconomic inequality on a global scale. The significance of the profession has grown as wealth itself has become more fungible, spurring innovation in legal, organizational, and financial strategies, and thwarting a myriad of laws and policies designed to limit enduring inequality in modern, democratic societies.     

Bargaining over waiting time in ultimatum game experiments

While preference-based explanations play an increasing role in economics and sociology, the accurate measurement of social preferences deserves more attention. Most laboratory experiments measure social preferences by studying the division of “a cake that nobody had to bake” (Güth and Kliemt, 2003). This article reports results of the first ultimatum game experiment with bargaining over waiting time. The experiment was created to avoid effects of windfall gains. In contrast to donated money, time is not endowed by the experimenter and implies a natural loss to subjects. This allows for a better measurement of the inherent conflict in the ultimatum game. We implemented three anonymity conditions; one baseline condition, one condition with anonymity among subjects and one double-blind condition in which the experimenter did not know the division of waiting time. While we expected to observe less other-regarding behavior in ultimatum game bargaining over time, our experimental results rather confirm previous ultimatum game experiments, in which people bargained over money. The modal offer was half of the waiting time and only one offer was rejected. Interestingly, anonymity did not change the results significantly. In conclusion, our experiment confirms other-regarding behavior in the ultimatum game.     

民族乡经济发展探究——基于区域经济学的视角

民族乡虽然只是区域经济范畴中的一些较小区域,但它们却是我国民族经济、民族政策的重要组成部分,因而民族乡区域经济发展研究十分重要。本文基于区域经济学的视角,探讨了"十一五"时期以来我国民族乡经济发展的显著成效,分析它们存在的主要问题,总结民族乡经济发展的经验和教训,提出民族乡区域经济发展方式优化调整的建议,以便更好地促进民族乡经济社会的科学发展。     

宪政经济学述评

“宪政经济学”是20世纪70年代以来发展起来的一门新兴的学科,是当代西方经济学和法学理论中的一个非常重要的学术流派。通过对宪政经济学的历史渊源、形成和发展的讨论,进而对其学科性质、研究方法及应用做相应的评述。     

应对危相：经济学的时代转折

国际金融危机的爆发给予现代经济学界重要启迪：自20世纪新技术革命至今，经济学的研究必须要跟随自然科学的进步实现时代转折。应对此次国际金融危机的挑战，现代经济学的研究至少要在经济人假说、加深对虚拟经济的理解和认识、明确中间效用的适度性、应对现代信用的高度发展、遏制金融衍生品市场泛滥、科学认识现代货币的虚拟性、建立虚实一体化的宏观调控体系、以劳动作为经济学的最基础范畴等方面实现根本性的认识创新。     

Economics,psychotherapy and politics

The paper explores the application of ideas derived from psychotherapy to questions of economic and social policy. It is argued that disputes concerning human nature underlie many debates on economic theory. Class is reviewed from internal and emotional perspectives. Psychological obstacles to the achievement of economic inequality are explored and ways of overcoming them critically discussed. Particular attention is paid to the operation of economic sadism in the behaviour of individuals and societies. A range of possible gender differences in relation to money is reviewed. Inherited wealth is explored from the perspective of ‘therapy thinking’. The paper proposes that we reconsider what is deemed to be realistic and what is deemed to be (hopelessly) idealistic in thinking about economics. The paper concludes by proposing a deeper discussion of the problematic of sacrifice in connection with sustainable economics.