Business Commons^™

Economics As A Cultural System, Raymond Benton

Raymond Benton Jr.

This article is an attempt to think about economic theory. The vehicle for thinking about it will be anthropology's concept of culture; the end result will be to suggest that economics is a cultural system, more specifically, that economics is a sacred cultural system. In order to give expression to this view it will be necessary to first sketch the concept of culture as created and historically transmitted systems of symbols and meanings. The argument has been brief and suggestive rather than long and decisive; more exploratory than conclusive. If it is correct, or at least correct in its orientation, …

Globalization, Expectations Model Of Economic Nationalism, And Consumer Behavior, Syed Akhter

Syed H. Akhter

Purpose – The goals of the paper are to propose, measure, and empirically test the expectations model of economic nationalism. The model posits that economic nationalism is reflected in people’s expectations of their government, domestic firms, and the general public, in terms of restricting the activities of foreign firms.

Design/methodology/approach – A confirmatory factor analysis is conducted to test the model, using the LISREL procedure.

Findings – Results show acceptable fit for the proposed model. Reliability of each of the three dimensions of economic nationalism is in the acceptable range. A nomological validity test showed that economic nationalism is related …

The Changing Distributions Of New Ph.D. Economists And Their Employment: Implications For The Future, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Academic careers are no longer the be-all and end-all for economics Ph.D. students, and the findings and background provided by Siegfried and Stock help to explain why this is so. The median age at which individuals receive economics Ph.D.'s in the Siegfried and Stock sample is 32. While they are somewhat surprised at this finding, it parallels the experiences of many other fields. Increasingly, students are working before proceeding to doctoral studies. Often Ph.D. students in economics enter their programs after having spent several years working for government agencies or research consulting companies—work that has whetted their appetites for …

Do Economics Departments With Lower Tenure Probabilities Pay Higher Faculty Salaries?, Ronald Ehrenberg, Paul Pieper, Rachel Willis

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

The simplest competitive labor market model asserts that if tenure is a desirable job characteristic for professors, they should be willing to pay for it by accepting lower salaries. Conversely, if an institution unilaterally reduces the probability that its assistant professors receive tenure, it will have to pay higher salaries to attract new faculty. Our paper tests this theory using data on salary offers accepted by new assistant professors at economics departments in the United States during the 1974-75 to 1980-81 period, along with data on the proportion of new Ph.D.s hired by each department between 1970 and 1980 that …

Sheep And Their Herders: Testing The Myth Of Rational Voters – A Latvian Case Study, Daniel Brou, Kirk Collins, Brent Mckenzie

Daniel Brou

Through the use of a simple behavioural political economy model, we cast doubt on the assumption that voters behave in predictable ways dependent on their expected support for government policies. We show that under certain conditions an unfavourable (i.e. welfare reducing) policy may result, even with well-informed, welfare maximising voters. While true that voter behaviour may align with government policies, this alignment has more to do with a perceived lack of influence, rather than policy support. The case of Latvia's accession to the European Union is used as a case study to evaluate the government's policy in terms of voting …

The Importance Of Financial Market Development On The Relationship Between Loan Guarantees For Smes And Local Market Employment Rates, Ben Criag, William Jackson, James Thomson, Craig Armstrong

James B Thomson

We empirically examine whether a major government intervention in the small firm credit market yields significantly better results in markets that are less financially developed. The government intervention that we investigate is SBA guaranteed lending. The literature on financing small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) suggests that small firms may be exposed to a particular type of market failure associated with credit rationing. And, SMEs in markets that are less financially developed will likely face a greater degree of this market failure. To test our hypothesis we use the level of bank deposits per capita as our relative measure of …

The Long-Run Determinants Of Australian Income Inequality, Noel Gaston, Gulasekaran Rajaguru

Gulasekaran Rajaguru

Recent interest has been stimulated by the growth of income inequality in most developed countries during the 1980s and 1990s. However, considerable uncertainty still exists as to which factors have been the most important causes of this development. This article uses a measure of income inequality derived from taxation statistics and a recently proposed method for testing long-run Granger non-causality to examine the key determinants of Australia's inequality for the years 1970–2001. In line with popular concern, we find that globalisation and technological progress – defined as the global flow of information – has increased income inequality. In contrast, improved …

Domestic Monopoly, Quotas & Contestable Rents, William Rieber

William Rieber