Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Arab Economies At A Tipping Point, Marcus Noland, Howard Pack

Marcus Noland

The Arab world is experiencing an economic boom of historic proportions. The tiny Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai is emblematic. Boasting the world's only seven-star hotel, its massive land reclamation project, allegedly the only man-made structure visible from the moon, is whimsically creating parcels shaped like continents and palm trees. With oil hovering above $90 a barrel and the Egyptian stock market up 1,800 percent in the last five years, one might ask what problems World Bank President Robert Zoellick perceives that would justify making the economic revitalization of the Arab world one of the cornerstones of his new administration.1 …

Comentario Del Artículo De Alfonso Herranz-Loncán "Railroad Impact In Backward Economies: Spain, 1850 - 1913", Javier Agudo

Javier Agudo

Herranz-Loncán concluye que el ferrocarril sí tuvo un importante impacto en la economía española, pero no superior al experimentado en otros países como, por ejemplo, Inglaterra. ¿Cómo se explica entonces que el ferrocarril tenga el mismo impacto en un país que no tenía apenas vías de comunicación alternativas que en Inglaterra, donde ya existía una extensa y densa red de canales? La respuesta es que el transporte por ferrocarril tenía una importancia muy reducida en el total del PIB español. La economía española era una economía atrasada, y una gran parte de ella permaneció ajena al ferrocarril hasta mucho más …

Comentario Del Artículo De Joan R. Rosés Y Blanca Sánchez-Alonso "Regional Wage Convergence In Spain 1850 - 1930", Javier Agudo

Javier Agudo

Entre los años 1850 y 1930, España experimentó una importante convergencia de los salarios en las distintas regiones, al nivel de otros países europeos, si bien hay que destacar el periodo excepcional de la I Guerra Mundial, en el que aumentaron las divergencias. Los movimientos migratorios no son una variable explicativa importante en el caso de España puesto que, exceptuando los años posteriores a la I Guerra Mundial, no fueron de suficiente entidad. Hay que buscar en la creación de un mercado nacional sin barreras la causa explicativa de la convergencia de los salarios.

The Changing Role Of The State In The British Economy Between 1914 And 1921, Javier Agudo

Javier Agudo

The First World War represented the first high profile war that took place after the developed world had experienced the Industrial Revolution, and the international economic relations between countries had never been so strong. Based principally in the work by R. H. Tawney "The abolition of economic controls, 1918-1921" (Tawney; 1943), I am going to try to explain in this essay the role of the state during the conflict and how the Government reacted to the different problems that aroused in this period.

Comentario Del Artículo De Joan R. Rosés "Why Isn’T The Whole Of Spain Industrialized? New Economic Geography And Early Industrilalization, 1797-1910", Javier Agudo

Javier Agudo

España se convirtió en un mercado plenamente integrado a la lo largo del siglo XIX. Rosés no tiene ninguna duda de este hecho. Por ello, las teorías de los historiadores que intentan explicar el desarrollo de las regiones como entidades separadas no tienen ninguna consistencia. Es a través de la nueva geografía económica como puede darse una respuesta coherente y completa a por qué no toda España está industrializada.

Histéresis Y Desempleo: El Caso De Francia Y Ee.Uu., Javier Agudo

Javier Agudo

La histéresis es un fenómeno por el cual los shocks afectan a la tasa de desempleo de manera permanente, de manera que cuando la economía logra recuperarse no le es posible retomar los niveles de empleo existentes antes de la recesión. La literatura afirma que el mercado laboral europeo presenta una histéresis que no existe en Estados Unidos, donde los niveles tienden a retornar a la tasa natural de desempleo. La hipótesis de histéresis se asocia a la presencia de raíces unitarias mientras que la hipótesis de tasa natural de desempleo se corresponde con un proceso estacionario. En nuestro trabajo, …

La Economía Navarra: Productividad Y Competitividad Del Sector Exterior, Javier Agudo

Javier Agudo

La economía Navarra es una economía fundamentalmente industrial. Debido a esta característica, Navarra podría sufrir de una manera muy dura los efectos de una deslocalización industrial, más por ejemplo que una región cuya principal fuente de ingresos sea el turismo. Por estas razones, Navarra debe estar especialmente preocupada por la pérdida de productividad de la economía española y, sobre todo, debe plantearse muy seriamente qué medidas tomar para solucionarlo.

The Economic Implications Of A North Korean Nuclear Test, Marcus Noland

Marcus Noland

This essay analyzes the economic implications that a North Korean nuclear test would have on Northeast Asia. Main Argument: A North Korean nuclear test would likely have a negative, though noncatastrophic, economic impact on the region: -South Korea would likely suffer from capital flight, consequent declines in asset prices and investment, and possibly a minor budgetary loss associated with existing investment guarantees to companies operating in North Korea. - Japan’s economy would also suffer from capital flight, asset price declines, and a reduction in investment. The most radical consequence, however, would be political: a nuclear test might strengthen Japanese attitudes …

The Economic Possibilities Of Our Grandparents, A Retrospective On John Maynard Keynes's Economic Possibilities Of Our Grandchildren, Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist

Az Alkotmánybíróság És A Közgazdasági Érvelés [Constitutional Courts And Economic Reasoning], Peter Cserne

Péter Cserne

No abstract provided.

Agenda Setting, Issue Priorities, And Organizational Maintenance: The U.S. Supreme Court, 1955 To 1994, Jeff L. Yates, Andrew B. Whitford, William Gillespie

Jeff L Yates

In this study, we examine agenda setting by the U.S. Supreme Court, and ask the question of why the Court allocates more or less of its valuable agenda space to one policy issue over others. Our study environment is the policy issue composition of the Court's docket: the Court's attention to criminal justice policy issues relative to other issues. We model the Court's allocation of this agenda space as a function of internal organizational demands and external political signals. We find that this agenda responds to the issue priorities of the other branches of the federal government and the public. …

Islam, Globalization, And Economic Performance In The Middle East, Marcus Noland, Howard Pack

Marcus Noland

The Middle East is a demographic time bomb. According to the United Nations De¬velopment Program’s (UNDP) Arab Human Development Report 2002, the population of the Arab region is expected to increase by around 25 percent between 2000 and 2010 and by 50 to 60 percent by 2020—or by perhaps 150 million people, a fig¬ure equivalent to more than two Egypts. Even under the UNDP’s more conserva¬tive scenario, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates will be the only Arab countries in 2020 with median ages above 30. These figures suggest that the region as a whole will experience labor …

The Strategic Importance Of U.S.-South Korea Economic Relations, Marcus Noland, Taeho Bark

Marcus Noland

Due to the still critical nature of the United States-Republic of Korea (U.S.-ROK) alliance, diplomatic and economic relations between the two nations assume larger than usual importance. This fourth NBR Special Report examines whether economic ties could diffuse conflict in other aspects of the bilateral relationship, or whether economic irritants might be a source of further bilateral tensions. In the Foreword, Stephen W. Bosworth, former Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and current Dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, places the importance of United States-Republic of Korea relations in the broader context of ongoing changes in Northeast Asia. …

I Don't Know, Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

This is a non-fiction novel, titled I Don't Know. I is in three parts, the first economic (which will seem "liberal" to most), the second political (which will seem "conservative" to most), and the third theological (which will seem weird to most). I think you will find it a fun read, and feel free to distribute it at will.

The Two Koreas: Prospects For Economic Cooperation And Integration, Marcus Noland

Marcus Noland

After nearly a half century of strident adherence to the principles of socialism and self-reliance, North Korea may be on the verge of opening itself to outside aid and advice. Motivators include a decade of economic trouble punctuated by declining output and famine as well as underdeveloped infrastructures and reduction in foreign trade and material support. The limits of national selfsufficiency may finally have become admissible in North Korea, as evidenced by recent diplomatic negotiations and cooperative commercial projects with capitalist nations. South Korea, meanwhile, is struggling to regain ground lost in the financial crisis and to correct faults in …

The Philippines In The Asian Financial Crisis: How The Sick Man Avoided Pneumonia, Marcus Noland

Marcus Noland

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 …

In Defence Of Exploitation, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

The concept of exploitation is thought to be central to Marx's Critique of capitalism. John Roemer, an analytical (then-) Marxist economist now at Yale, attacked this idea in a series of papers and books in the 1970s-1990s, arguing that Marxists should be concerned with inequality rather than exploitation -- with distribution rather than production, precisely the opposite of what Marx urged in The Critique of the Gotha Progam.

This paper expounds and criticizes Roemer's objections and his alternative inequality based theory of exploitation, while accepting some of his criticisms. It may be viewed as a companion paper to my What's …

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 …

From Libertarianism To Egalitarianism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard natural rights argument for libertarianism is based on the labor theory of property: the idea that I own my self and my labor, and so if I "mix" my own labor with something previously unowned or to which I have a have a right, I come to own the thing with which I have mixed by labor. This initially intuitively attractive idea is at the basis of the theories of property and the role of government of John Locke and Robert Nozick. Locke saw and Nozick agreed that fairness to others requires a proviso: that I leave "enough …