Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Theory Without A Movement, A Hope Without A Name: The Future Of Marxism In A Post-Marxist World, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Just as Marx's insights into capitalism have been most strikingly vindicated by the rise of neoliberalism and the near-collapse of the world economy, Marxism as social movement has become bereft of support. Is there any point in people who find Marx's analysis useful in clinging to the term "Marxism" - which Marx himself rejected -- at time when self-identified Marxist organizations and societies have collapsed or renounced the identification, and Marxism own working class constituency rejects the term? I set aside bad reasons to give on "Marxism," such as that the theory is purportedly refuted, that its adoption leads necessarily …

Human Capital Formation And Economic Development In Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis, Muhammad Irfan Chani, Mahboob Ul Hassan, Muhammad Shahid

Muhammad Irfan Chani

This study investigates the casual relationship between economic development and formation of human capital in Pakistan. Based on endogenous growth theory, this study empirically tests the standard growth model consisting of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita as a dependent variable and human capital formation, investment in physical capital and labor force as independent variables. Autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to cointegration is used to check the long-run equilibrium relationship between the variables included in the model. For checking the causal relationship between economic development and human capital formation, pair-wise Granger causality test is used for time series …

Some Socio Economic Determinants Of Fertility In Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis, Muhammad Irfan Chani, Muhammad Shahid, Mahboob Ul Hassan

Muhammad Irfan Chani

This study aims to investigate the role that various socioeconomic factors like female education, urbanization and female labour force participation play in determining fertility of women in Pakistan. ARDL bound test approach to cointegration is used to analyze the long-run relationship of the variables by using the data for the period from 1980 to 2009. The empirical results show that there exists a long-run as well as short-run relationship between fertility and urbanization, female labour force participation and female education in Pakistan. The analysis indicates there is a negative relationship between all 3 determinants with fertility. Female education and urbanization …

The Historical Background Of The Communist Manifesto, George R. Boyer

George R. Boyer

[Excerpt] The Manifesto of the Communist Party, published 150 years ago in London in February 1848, is one of the most influential and widely-read documents of the past two centuries. The historian A. J. P. Taylor (1967, p. 7) has called it a "holy book," and contends that because of it, "everyone thinks differently about politics and society." And yet, despite its enormous influence in the 20th century, the Manifesto is very much a period piece, a document of what was called the "hungry" 1840s. It is hard to imagine it being written in any other decade of the 19th …

The Poor Law, Migration, And Economic Growth, George R. Boyer

George R. Boyer

The loss to the English economy caused by decreased migration resulting from relief payments to agricultural laborers is estimated. I conclude that, at worst, the Poor Law had a small negative impact on national product. If poor relief and wages were substitutes, the Poor Law may have had a positive impact on capital formation and economic growth.

New Estimates Of British Unemployment, 1870-1913, George R. Boyer, Timothy J. Hatton

George R. Boyer

We present new estimates of the British industrial unemployment rate for 1870- 1913, which improve on the Board of Trade's prior estimates. We use similar sources, but our series includes additional industrial sectors, allows for short-time working, and aggregates the various sectors using appropriate labor-force weights from the census. The resulting index suggests a rate of industrial unemployment that was generally higher, but less volatile, than the board's index. We then adjust our series to an economywide basis, and construct a consistent time series of overall unemployment for 1870-1999.

Collective Choice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

This short nontechnical article reviews the Arrow Impossibility Theorem and its implications for rational democratic decisionmaking. In the 1950s, economist Kenneth J. Arrow proved that no method for producing a unique social choice involving at least three choices and three actors could satisfy four seemingly obvious constraints that are practically constitutive of democratic decisionmaking. Any such method must violate such a constraint and risks leading to disturbingly irrational results such and Condorcet cycling. I explain the theorem in plain, nonmathematical language, and discuss the history, range, and prospects of avoiding what seems like a fundamental theoretical challenge to the possibility …

Determination Of Import Demand In Pakistan: The Role Of Expenditure Components, Muhammad Irfan Chani, Zahid Pervaiz, Amatul R. Chaudhary

Muhammad Irfan Chani

The paper uses imperfect substitution approach to derive the aggregate import demand function on the basis of disaggregated expenditure components. This derived import demand function is then empirically tested for Pakistan by using co-integration and error correction mechanism. The empirical results show that elasticity of import demand with respect to different macro components of final expenditure is different. The import demand in Pakistan is affected positively and significantly by all expenditure components. The relative prices have negative but insignificant relationship with import demand in Pakistan. The findings indicate that use of aggregate expenditure variable in the aggregate import demand function …

Poverty, Inflation And Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence From Pakistan, Muhammad Irfan Chani, Zahid Pervaiz, Sajjad Ahmad Jan, Amjad Ali, Amatul R. Chaudhary

Muhammad Irfan Chani

This study aims to investigate the role of economic growth and inflation in explaining the prevalence of poverty in Pakistan. ARDL bound testing approach to co-integration confirms the existence of long run relationship among the variables of poverty, economic growth, inflation, investment and trade openness over the period of 1972-2008. Empirical results show that economic growth and investment have negative and inflation has positive impact on poverty. The effect of trade openness on poverty is insignificant in this study. The short run analysis reveals that economic growth has negative and inflation has positive impact on poverty whereas the role of …

Financial Crises And Economic Growth In Pakistan: A Time Series Analysis, Rauf -I- Azam, Iram Batool, Rabia Imran, Muhammad Irfan Chani, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Javed Mahmood Jasra

Muhammad Irfan Chani

The purpose of this research is to investigate causal relationship between economic growth and major indicators of financial crisis -- inflation rate, interest rate and the volume of foreign debt-- in Pakistan. This study also highlights the stability of the relationship between indicators of financial crisis and economic growth. The annual time series data ranging from 1972 to 2010 is used for the analysis. Johansen's co-integration test is used to check the stability of long nm equilibrium relationship between the variables used in the study. The results indicate that is long nm stable equilibrium relationship between economic growth and the …

Gender Inequality And Economic Growth: A Time Series Analysis For Pakistan, Zahid Pervaiz, Muhammad Irfan Chani, Sajjad Ahmad Jan, Amatul R. Chaudhary

Muhammad Irfan Chani

This paper attempts to analyze the impact of gender inequality on economic growth of Pakistan. An annual time series data for the period of 1972-2009 has been used in this study. We have regressed growth rate of real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita on labour force growth, investment, trade openness and a composite index of gender inequality. The results reveal that labour force growth, investment and trade openness have statistically significant and positive impact whereas gender inequality has a significant and negative effect on economic growth of Pakistan.

A Note On Causal Relationship Between Fdi And Savings In Bangladesh, Mohammad Salahuddin, Muhammad Shahbaz Shahbaz, Muhammad Irfan Chani

Muhammad Irfan Chani

This paper aims to investigate the causal relationship between foreign direct investment and gross domestic savings in Bangladesh over a period of 1985-2007. In doing so, Johansen cointegration technique and error correction methods are employed to examine the long run and short run relationship between foreign direct investment and gross domestic savings. To determine the direction of causality, we used innovation accounting approach. Results suggest that there exist bi-directional causal relationship between foreign direct investment and gross domestic savings but the movement is stronger from domestic savings to foreign direct investment. The result also implies complimentary relationship between them and …

Democracy Autocracy And Macroeconomic Performance In Pakistan, Nasir Iqbal, Sardar Javaid Iqbal Khan, Muhammad Irfan Chani

Muhammad Irfan Chani

Pakistan showed a healthy growth rate of 5.6 percent during the entire history and faced many ups and downs in economic growth due to dramatic changes in political regimes. The literature shows mixed results regarding the impact of autocracy or democracy on economic growth. The aggregate growth of the economy under autocracy remained better as compared to democratic period. Financial indicators show consistent path through out the history of Pakistan. Different trade policies are designed in different regime to run the external sector and the impact of each policy was different.

National Bank Notes And Silver Certificates, James B. Thomson, Bruce A. Champ

James Thomson

From 1883 to 1892, the circulation of national bank notes in the United States fell nearly 50 percent. Previous studies have attributed this to supply-side factors that led to a decline in the profitability of note issue during this period. This paper provides an alternative explanation. The decline in note issue was, in large part, demand-driven. The presence of a competing currency with superior eatures caused the public to substitute away from national bank notes.

Review Of Northern Naval Superiority And The Economics Of The American Civil War By David G. Surdam, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

No abstract provided.

Relativism, Reflective Equilibrium, And Justice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

THIS PAPER IS THE CO-WINNER OF THE FRED BERGER PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY OF LAW FOR THE 1999 AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BEST PUBLISHED PAPER IN THE PREVIOUS TWO YEARS.

The conflict between liberal legal theory and critical legal studies (CLS) is often framed as a matter of whether there is a theory of justice that the law should embody which all rational people could or must accept. In a divided society, the CLS critique of this view is overwhelming: there is no such justice that can command universal assent. But the liberal critique of CLS, that it degenerates into …

What's Wrong With Exploitation?, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Abstract: Marx thinks that capitalism is exploitative, and that is a major basis for his objections to it. But what's wrong with exploitation, as Marx sees it? (The paper is exegetical in character: my object is to understand what Marx believed,) The received view, held by Norman Geras, G.A. Cohen, and others, is that Marx thought that capitalism was unjust, because in the crudest sense, capitalists robbed labor of property that was rightfully the workers' because the workers and not the capitalists produced it. This view depends on a Labor Theory of Property (LTP), that property rights are based ultimately …

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a …

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that …

Review Of Economics As A Coordination Problem: The Contributions Of Friedrich A. Hayek By Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr., Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

No abstract provided.