Political Economy Commons^™

Designing International Institutions For Global Security, Rupayan Gupta

Fall 2012 Faculty Showcase

This talk focuses on the challenges inherent in designing international institutions for global security. The area of inquiry is interdisciplinary in nature, incorporating insights from economics, international relations, and mathematics (game theory). It is argued that this line of research would benefit from greater incorporation of techniques from bargaining theory and mechanism design. An agenda is proposed for interdisciplinary collaboration and some interesting results are presented from author’s published and ongoing research.

International Political Economy Reference Sources: An Annotated Bibliography, Theodore C. Schwitzner, Chad M. Kahl

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

International political economy is an emerging yet specialized field that combines political analysis with the study of markets, trade, and development. With the global economy having an interdependent effect on politics, environment, and society, and with several major economic events of the last 20 years, the authors perceived a need to provide a guide to the sources in this field. This paper seeks to address this issue. The authors identified resources using WorldCat and standard reference sources, such as American Library Association's Guide to Reference Books; the annual American Libraries’ “Outstanding Reference Sources” articles; American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) volumes; …

(Review) A Short History Of Ethics And Economics: The Greeks, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Labor Culture: Labor Morality Under Socialism, Vladimir Magun

Russian Culture

Soviet leaders had always taken a keen interest in workers' behavior and labor motives and sought to keep labor morality under strict state control. A complex network of values and regulations was developed for this purpose after the October Revolution of 1917. They were best articulated in the "political economy of socialism" which purported to present a scientific picture of the country's economic life. Textbooks on socialist economy were widely circulated in the Soviet Union and appropriate courses included into a core curriculum for all higher education institutions in the country. Basic tenets of socialist political economy were taught in …

Pointless?, Jonah Yuen

CMC Senior Theses

A fundamental question in politics that has no conclusive answer to this day is whether or not campaign expenditures are pointless. Determining the role of campaign contributions and spending in elections is important for formulating campaign finance reform policy and also for understanding the public choice economics behind elections. Politicians seem convinced that money is an important component in any successful election as illustrated by numerous fundraisers and lofty goals of raising $1 billion for presidential campaigns, yet the empirical research on money’s role in elections has not reached a consensus. This project seeks to further explore the relationship between …

Democratic Strength And Terrorism: An Economic Approach, Brian P. Winter

CMC Senior Theses

There has been much literature about the economic effects of terrorism in democratic countries, but this literature often considers democracy to be a binary variable. This paper sought to explore how the effects might differ depending on the strength of a democracy. In the end, I found that the numbers of attacks and the effects of those attacks do not follow a linear path. The results for autocracies and anocracies require further analysis, but democracies have revealed interesting results. It seems that democracies as a whole have more terrorist attacks, but, within this group, the more democratic a country is …

Monetary Policy Essay, Dan Brocklehurst

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Determinants Of Housing Prices In Pittsylvania County, Jason Hall

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research is to determine the implicit factors influencing housing prices in Pittsylvania County, a rural county in Southside Virginia. Currently in Pittsylvania County there is a debate over whether or not to mine what is believed to be the largest deposit of uranium in the United States, containing approximately 119 million pounds of uranium ore at an estimated value of $7 billion to $10 billion. The Virginia Coal and Energy Commission issued its final approval for the National Academy of Sciences to study the debate from a socio-economic standpoint. The $1.2 million study is currently taking …

Shaping Economic Practices In China’S Post-Command Economy Period: The Interaction Of Politics, Economics And Institutional Constraints, Tonia Warnecke, Alain Blanchard

Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Publications

Although much has been published on China's economic transition, less research has focused on how Chinese culture and the Communist political system have interacted to shape the new Chinese economy. In this paper, we argue that China's post-command economy period reflects not only the 'new' infusion of neo-liberal ideology into the country, but also the consistent filtering of economic practices through a historical and complex institutional arrangement of cultural and political norms. The tensions between neo-classical free market principles and the overarching authority of the Communist state explain the variety of institutional constraints on actual economic practices in China. While …

Ua37/29 Gary Ransdell - Fed. Reserve Board - Ben Bernanke Confirmation Hearing Q&A, St. Louis Federal Reserve Board

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Question and answers from Ben Bernanke's confirmation hearing as distributed to members of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Board.

Tolerance, Democracy And Fundamentalism(S) : Challenges In Time Of Systemic Bifurcations, Guillermo C. Hansen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Human Rights Abuses Along The Dominican-Haitian Border, Calla Cloud

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A 122 mile-long border separates the Dominican Republic and Haiti on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Of the two countries, Haiti’s human rights abuses are much more somber than the emerging developments of the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s stagnant economic situation has contributed to perennial political instability and lack of infrastructure, having a particularly confounding affect on the rights and labor conditions of Haitian citizens. There are a myriad of reasons why Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Two of the most prominent include its violent political history and the gradual deterioration of its economy. In the context …

Voting In Kenya: Putting Ethnicity In Perspective, Michael Bratton, Mwangi S. Kimenyi

Economics Working Papers

Do Kenyans vote according to ethnic identities or policy interests? Based on results from a national probability sample survey conducted in the first week of December 2007, this article shows that, while ethnic origins drive voting patterns, elections in Kenya amount to more than a mere ethnic census. We start by reviewing how Kenyans see themselves, which is mainly in non-ethnic terms. We then report on how they see others, whom they fear will organize politically along ethnic lines. People therefore vote defensively in ethnic blocs, but not exclusively. In Decem- ber 2007, they also took particular policy issues into …

The Economic Foundations Of Contemporary Slavery, Justin Guay

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“Slavery existed before money or law” (Hochschild 2005). Indeed the “peculiar institution” is one of humanity’s oldest. It has, however, evolved and manifested itself quite distinctly in different periods of history. In contrast to historical views of slavery that are associated with Chattel Slavery, numerous forms fall under the umbrella term of contemporary slavery. The United Nations (U.N.) Working Group recognizes such radically new forms as: child labor, children in conflict, trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, and the sale of children. The International Labor Office (ILO) approaches the topic through the lens of forced labor. The ILO recognizes slavery and …

[Introduction To] The Wealth Of Nations, Adam Smith, Jonathan B. Wight

Bookshelf

The Wealth of Nations is a treasured classic of political economy. First published in March of 1776, Adam Smith wrote the book to influence a special audience - the British Parliament - and its arguments in the early spring of that year pressed for peace and cooperation with Britain's colonies rather than war.

Smith's message was that economic exploitation, through the monopoly trade of empire, stifled wealth-creation in both home and foreign lands. Moreover, protectionism preserved the status quo, and privileged a few elites at the expense of long run growth.

Smith wrote, "It is the industry which is carried …

Tolerance And Democracy Instead Of Fundamentalism And Empire, Guillermo C. Hansen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Rights-Based Approaches To Development: Introduction, Sarah Hamilton

Human Rights & Human Welfare

This digest offers a multidimensional, well-chosen, and timely compilation of resources analyzing the myriad relationships between fields devoted to the realization of human rights and human development. I appreciate having the opportunity to introduce the issue for two reasons. First, the contributors perform a tremendous service to both fields. They have created an accessible pathway to works that engage: the normative, substantive, and empirical dimensions of the human rights/development nexus; key debates among theoreticians, policy-makers, and practitioners concerning this nexus; inclusive analysis of institutional frameworks and actors; and attention to both opportunities for, and challenges to, the realization of increasingly …

(Review) Self-Interest Before Adam Smith: A Genealogy Of Economic Science, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Pierre Force, Self-Interest Before Adam Smith: A Genealogy of Economic Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. ix, 279, $65.00. ISBN 0-521 83060-5.

Soziale Arbeit Und Ökonomie : Politische Ökonomie - Arbeitsmärkte - Sozialpolitik Grenzen Der Ökonomisierung - Soziale Ökonomie Gemeinwesenentwicklung - Bürgergesellschaft, Susanne Elsen, Dietrich Lange, Isidor Wallimann

Books

Globalization has seen the removal of borders and increased global flows of capital and goods and services, changing the employment landscape, pressuring revenues and social-welfare spending of modern welfare states. This collection of essays brings together perspectives from different disciplines to discuss the role globalization has had on social policies of the modern welfare state and the changing relationship between social policy, social work and the economy, describes its consequences and presents innovative approaches for action.

How Not To Prevent Oil Crises: Challenge For An Education President, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes several problematic approaches that are components of lay psychology.

Adam Smith On The Virtues: A Partial Resolution Of The Adam Smith Problem, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Adam Smith's definition of justice as a moral virtue based on the "passion" of resentment in 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments' (1759), despite seeming contradictions, supports his analysis of an acquisitive, commercial society in 'The Wealth of Nations' (1774) partly by precluding the concept of a just price.

Slavery, Adam Smith’S Economic Vision And The Invisible Hand, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Smith was against slavery on moral and economic grounds. The "invisible hand" in societies which allow slavery, operates in such a way that increases in the wealth of the rich, leads to increased misery for the poor free citizens as well as for the slaves themselves. It seems that the beneficial workings of the "invisible hand" are dependent upon commercial societies which arc not based upon the institution of slavery.

Attitudes Towards The Market And The State In Post-Communist Europe, David S. Mason

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This paper examines the level and sources of suppon for the market-oriented reforms in East-Central Europe and the relationship between these attitudes and political trust in the governments. The analysis is based on data collected in a common public opinion survey on social, economic and political justice implemented in the spring and summer of 1991 in eleven countries: Russia. Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany (east and west), Holland, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States.

The survey results suggest some measure of caution and concern regarding the possibilities for a successful transition to market democracy in the former …

Political Vs. Economic Incentives, B. Delworth Gardner

Faculty Publications

H this paper is the best challenge that can be brought against the New Resource Economics (NRE) and its advocacy for privatization of the public lands, we are likely to see both around for a long time. If there is fallacy in the idea of privatization, it is not illuminated in the arguments of this article. The paper misrepresents what the NRE is, shows little comprehension of the basic concepts on which it rests, and completely reverses the basic nature of the privatization solution. I hope to demonstrate as much in this critique.

Christian Solutions To Modern Problems, F. W. Mattox

Stone-Campbell Books

No abstract provided.

The True Method Of Political Economy, William W. Folwell

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.