the 40 neoclassical aggregate theory of production the assumption that production in an economic system may be described by an aggregate neoclassical production function is at the heart of most modern equilibrium neoclassical business cycles and growth models its validity requires stringent assumptions on individual production functions and market structure in this article the likelihood that an aggregate neoclassical production function could emerge from a simple heterogeneous production system is assessed by the use of computer simulations the conclusion is that there exists a world of significant size for which the aggregate neoclassical theory of production does not hold

quantifying economic sustainability implications for free enterprise theory policy and practice article i nfo in a previous paper ulanowicz goerner lietaer and gomez 2009 we combined thermodynamic network and information theoretic measures with research on real life ecosystems to create a generalized quantitative measure of sustainability for any complex matter energy flow system the current paper explores how this metric and its related concepts can be used to provide a new narrative for long term economic health and sustainability based on a system s ability to maintain a crucial balance between two equally essential but complementary factors resilience and efficiency this generic explanation of the network structure needed to maintain long term robustness provides the missing theoretical explanation for what constitutes healthy development and the mathematical means to differentiate it quantitatively from mere growth matching long standing observations of sustainable vitality in natural ecosystems and living organisms the result is a much clearer more accurate understanding of the conditions needed for free enterprise networks to produce the kind of sustainable vitality everyone desires one which enhances and reliably maintains the health and well being of all levels of global civilization as well as the planet

examining the role of economic opportunity and amenities in explaining population redistribution abstract this paper develops a model of migration integrating equilibrium and disequilibrium components in which individuals and firms form rational expectations about future opportunities levels of migration are derived as functions of variations in factors influencing migrant labor demand economic opportunity and migrant labor supply residential amenities the model is used to estimate the extent to which migration in the united states over the period 1950 1980 is determined by these two classes of exogenous factors

solvency rule versus taylor rule an alternative interpretation of the relation between monetary policy and the economic crisis one of the more debated interpretations of the economic crisis that started in 2007 08 is based on the taylor rule equation namely the idea that over the period 2002 05 the fed has implemented a low interest policy that has led to the housing bubble and finally to the great recession this paper shows that the taylor rule equation not only rests on the so called new consensus macroeconomics but also on the neoclassical theory of growth the various criticisms raised against these theoretical foundations suggest that interpretations of the great recession based on the taylor rule equation are building their arguments on shaky theoretical premises furthermore this paper shows that an equation formally similar but logically alternative to the taylor rule can be regarded as the expression of a general condition of solvency of firms and workers according to this solvency rule the prevailing outcome of monetary policy decisions is the regulation of insolvencies

inter linking issues and dimensions in sustainability reporting during the last decade sustainability reporting sr has been increasingly adopted by corporations worldwide this is evidenced by the adoption of several guidelines such as the iso 14000 series the social accountability 8000 standard and the gri sustainability guidelines sr shows promise to help corporate leaders and their employees to contribute towards achieving sustainable societies however most of the guidelines and standards address sustainability issues through comparmentalisation thereby leading to the separation of the economic environmental and social dimensions due to these divisive approaches holistic assessments of the effects of their efforts are seldom properly integrated into coporate decisions and procedures to make improvements for example through cleaner production worker health and safety consumer safety and reductions in the negative short and long term social and environmental impacts this paper analyses sr reports from three companies with the help of grounded theory s constant comparative analysis this analytical framework helped the authors to systematically assess the degree to which the companies addressed economic ecological and social issues separately or in an integrated and inter linked manner from the inter linkages found a new category is proposed to be added to future sr this new category can help corporate sr planners and researchers on sustainability reports to better understand how the company leaders understand their responsibilities with regard to sd these inter connectednesses are highly relevant in many short and long term dimensions of supply chain management global warming ecological disruption and societal equity issues especially with regard to the local national and global energy issues of fuels and oils the central themes of the conference at which this paper was originally presented it also plays a key role in real long term changes towards sustainability where the time dimension plays a key role in human survival on planet earth

what is this school called neoclassical economics what is this school called neoclassical economics does it exist should it where does the term neoclassical economics come from and is there any connection between any of the current interpretations of the term and its original meaning how do we make sense of competing current interpretations is there a sustainable formulation these and related questions are raised and answered in an attempt to bring clarity to ongoing economic discussion and debate thereby to under labour for a more relevant academic economics discipline

an application of a stated preference method to value urban amenities this is a case study analysis of how residents value the amenities of a small us city missoula montana a measure of a community s amenity values is needed in city planning so as to protect those

pasinetti versus rebelo two different models or just one abstract pasinetti s pasinetti l l 1960 a mathematical formulation of the ricardian system review of economic studies 27 78 98 model formalizing ricardian growth theory and one of the simplest models developed within the new growth theory rebelo s 1991 long run policy analysis and long run growth journal of political economy 99 500 521 are shown to share the same structure this enforces the thesis according to which many endogenous growth models have a classical flavour the main difference from pasinetti s to rebelo s framework may be interpreted as reflecting the change in the consumption pattern of workers from early to late industrial societies

sustainability in mining minerals and energy new processes pathways and human interactions for a cautiously optimistic future the supply of minerals and energy is critical to global society however this supply is associated with social and environmental impacts leading to concerns of generational and intergenerational equity in light of these concerns a call for papers for a special volume on the mining industry was issued with the view that such academic work could assist in reducing the negative impacts associated with this industry this paper introduces the special volume the sustainability agenda of the minerals and energy supply and demand network an integrative analysis of ecological ethical economic and technological dimensions the special volume contains 84 articles divided into several themes sustainability accounting and reporting corporate social responsibility future mining challenges integrative frameworks for sustainability management aspects mining in a developing context and new frontiers in the oil and gas industry the special volume also includes two letters on contemporary issues with commentaries on these from experts in the fields viz community conflict and land rehabilitation insights obtained across these themes are summarized and recommendations are made of what is needed to build upon the findings of this special volume a research agenda is proposed for the future from the gaps and synergies identified the overall contribution of this special volume is that it renews the debate on the sustainability challenges for the mining industry and provides transdisciplinary insights into resolving some of these challenges

cradle to cradle design creating healthy emissions a strategy for eco effective product and system design eco effectiveness and cradle to cradle design present an alternative design and production concept to the strategies of zero emission and ecoefficiency where eco efficiency and zero emission seek to reduce the unintended negative consequences of processes of production and consumption eco effectiveness is a positive agenda for the conception and production of goods and services that incorporate social economic and environmental benefit enabling triple top line growth eco effectiveness moves beyond zero emission approaches by focusing on the development of products and industrial systems that maintain or enhance the quality and productivity of materials through subsequent life cycles the concept of eco effectiveness also addresses the major shortcomings of eco efficiency approaches their inability to address the necessity for fundamental redesign of material flows their inherent antagonism towards long term economic growth and innovation and their insufficiency in addressing toxicity issues a central component of the eco effectiveness concept cradle to cradle design provides a practical design framework for creating products and industrial systems in a positive relationship with ecological health and abundance and long term economic growth against this background the transition to eco effective industrial systems is a five step process beginning with an elimination of undesirable substances and ultimately calling for a reinvention of products by reconsidering how they may optimally fulfill the need or needs for which they are actually intended while simultaneously being supportive of ecological and social systems this process necessitates the creation of an eco effective system of nutrient management to coordinate the material flows amongst actors in the product system the concept of intelligent materials pooling illustrates how such a system might take shape in reality 2006 published by elsevier ltd

profit rent and the terms of trade a reply abstract andrews 1985 investigates the theoretical coherence and policy relevance of our 1982 model and concludes contrary to our own findings that a positive rate of profit is not necessary to obtain a two signed derivative of the profit rate with respect to agriculture s terms of trade she characterizes the model as neo ricardian on the grounds that the technology is the culprit and also questions the empirical relevance of our fixed profit equilibrium or land price treadmill we show here that if a viability condition stated in our original paper holds parameter values of the model must yield a positive rate of profit if the profit rate is to fall following an improvement in the terms of trade we then contrast our model with a more neoclassical one in which the sign of the derivative does strictly depend on the technology that is upon factor intensities finally we present empirical evidence from a detailed study of the u s economy based on our original model these data support the existence of a land price treadmill in agriculture especially for countries in which workers are successful in defending a given real wage

unemployment and the inter regional mobility of labour the relationship between unemployment and interregional labor migration in the united kingdom is explored using data from the labour force survey for 1984 and 1977 the authors conclude that the experience of unemployment increases the likelihood of migration and that households in areas of high unemployment are more likely to move they also find that during periods of higher overall unemployment migration propensities are reduced annotation

capitals and capabilities a framework for analyzing peasant viability rural livelihoods and poverty abstract on the basis of themes emerging in current debates on rural development in latin america this paper develops an analytical framework for analyzing rural livelihoods in terms of their sustainability and their implications for rural poverty the framework argues that our analyses of rural livelihoods need to understand them in terms of a people s access to five types of capital asset b the ways in which they combine and transform those assets in the building of livelihoods that as far as possible meet their material and their experiential needs c the ways in which people are able to expand their asset bases through engaging with other actors through relationships governed by the logics of the state market and civil society and d the ways in which they are able to deploy and enhance their capabilities both to make living more meaningful and to change the dominant rules and relationships governing the ways in which resources are controlled distributed and transformed in society particular attention is paid to the importance of social capital as an asset through which people are able to widen their access to resources and other actors

the classicals and the neoclassicals a rejoinder to frank hahn refutes the classical and marxist analysis of prices and competition presentation of an intertemporal equilibrium model in a simple formalism possibility of locating prices of production and a distributed profit rate in an intertemporal equilibrium relationship between prices in intertemporal equilibrium and prices of production ebsco

wages rents and the quality of life this study focuses on the role of wages and rents in allocating workers to locations with various quantities of amenities the theory demonstrates that if the amenity is also productive then the sign of the wage gradient is unclear while the rent gradient is positive the theory is extended to include the housing market and nontraded goods these extensions require little modification of the conclusion the empirical work on wages shows that the regional wage differences can be explained largely by these local attributes with the use of site price data implicit prices are estimated and quality of life rankings for the cities are computed

piero sraffa and the true object of economics the role of the unpublished manuscripts this special issue is concerned with the work of piero sraffa and with recent developments in its interpretation occasioned by the opening of the sraffa archives in late 1993 1 it brings together some of the contributions to a workshop on this theme that was sponsored by the cambridge journal of economics and held in july 2010 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of piero sraffa s major work production of commodities by means of commodities pcmc the original workshop on new perspectives on the work of piero sraffa was aimed at sraffa scholars who had taken the opportunity to engage with materials in the sraffa archives and who were interested in exploring their potential for revisiting and placing pcmc in the wider context of ongoing debates on economic philosophy economic theory and economic policy as is usually the case not all presentations made at the workshop were advanced for consideration in this special issue nor could all invitees attend heinz kurz as chief editor of the sraffa archives agreed to present his view on the relevance of the sraffa archives to research on sraffa and to comment on contributions at the workshop as well as on their final versions submitted for publication in this special issue kurz s contribution to this special issue was thus written in the short time available between the receipt of final versions and publication deadlines we are indebted to him for his cooperation in the preparation of this special issue we are especially grateful for his patience in the time taken to bring this project to publication this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

sraffa s system equal rate of profits and the notion of center of gravitation abstract this paper argues that the condition of uniform rate of profits in sraffa s system is not based on his implicit assumption that the system is at the equilibrium or the center of gravitation it is rather a logical requirement of a reproducing system of basic goods as long as prices are not imposed from outside the system this condition holds irrespective of supplies being equal to their respective effectual demands it conjectures that sraffa could have arrived at this conclusion through his analysis of the standard system on the basis of this result a critique of the received interpretation led by garegnani of sraffa s prices is developed

flexible parametric estimation of duration and competing risk models in this paper we specify and estimate a flexible parametric proportional hazards model the model specification is flexibly parametric in the sense that the baseline hazard is non parametric while the effect of the covariates takes a particular functional form we also add parametric heterogeneity to the underlying hazard model specification we specify a flexible parametric proportional competing risks model which permits unrestricted correlation among the risks unemployment duration data are then analysed using the flexible parametric duration and competing risks specifications we find an important effect arising from the exhaustion of unemployment insurance and significantly different hazards for the two types of risks new jobs and recalls

on the keynesian notion of equilibrium and dynamics harrod had always maintained that keynes s treatise was much more amenable for dynamic analysis than the general theory however in much of the later work on keynesian dynamics the general theory became the foundation in this paper i argue that recent developments in neoclassical general equilibrium theory have the effect of undermining the conventional keynesian conception of dynamics based on the general theory and recasting keynes as a coarse precursor of modern general equilibrium analysis opposing this renewed orthodox reinterpretation of keynes might require a reconsideration of the treatise as the foundation for an alternative keynesian dynamics 1996 academic press limited

local economic conditions and wage labor decisions of farm and rural nonfarm couples effects of geographical differences in local economic conditions on wage labor demand and wage labor participation decisions of rural couples are examined for current population survey households 1978 82 wage premiums are shown to exist for localities anticipating labor demand growth higher unemployment rates larger share of employment in services and higher costs of living these effects are stronger for males than females effects of local economic conditions on the probability of wage work are consistent with expected market wage and reservation wage effects and for farm households the probability of wage work increases when expected farm output prices decline or the wage increases

sraffian indeterminacy in general equilibrium the indeterminacy claim for competitive price systems made by sraffa 1960 is examined by placing sraffa s work in an intertemporal general equilibrium model we show that indeterminacy occurs at a natural type of equilibrium moreover the presence of linear activities instead of a differentiable technology is crucial and the indeterminacy is constructed as in sraffa by fixing some or all of the economy s aggregate quantities on the other hand an extra condition that some factors have inelastic excess demand is necessary and unlike sraffa s model relative prices must be allowed to vary through time sraffian indeterminacy and the generic finiteness of the number of equilibria are reconciled by showing that indeterminacy occurs at a measure zero set of endowments we use an overlapping generations model to show that these endowments nevertheless arise systematically and that indeterminacy does not occur when relative prices are constant through time near the beginning of his production of commodities by means of commodities 1960 sraffa specifies a system of equations that prices must obey if the capital invested in each sector of an economy is to earn the same rate of profit the system contains one more unknown than equation leading sraffa to conclude that prices and wage and interest rates in particular are indeterminate sraffa s book has since been read as arguing that some outside non economic consideration must therefore set prices and the distribution of income part of the controversy the book has provoked is due to sraffa s apparent agreement with the neoclassical emphasis on optimization and competitive markets the standard sraffian system of equations is nothing other than the first order conditions that hold for price taking profit maximizing firms using linear activities but if sraffa s assumptions are in accord with neoclassical theory how can his assertions of indeterminacy be correct i examine sraffa s indeterminacy argument and his critique of neoclassical economics by embedding his equations in a general equilibrium model as we will see the indeterminacy claim properly interpreted correctly describes the equilibria with strictly positive prices moreover the indeterminacy demonstrated here closely duplicates the indeterminacy sraffa claimed first it is prices alone that are indeterminate i follow sraffa s striking procedure of fixing the quantities of goods produced an infinity of normalized price vectors support a single vector of aggregate quantities second sraffa seemed to claim and his advocates e g robinson 1961 have certainly claimed that his book is a critique of marginal productivity theory correspondingly indeterminacy in the present model hinges on marginal products not being everywhere well defined when there are linear activities with smooth production sets our indeterminacy arguments do not work third the dimension of the indeterminacy i demonstrate matches sraffa s accounting of the dimension of indeterminacy

wages rents and amenities differences among workers and regions what explains persistent regional earnings differences this paper argues that regional differences in amenities can account for the wage differences in contrast cost of living variations do not account for wage differences but actually exacerbate them this conclusion results from a model in which variations in rents and wages are equalizing differences for amenity differences empirical results are consistent with the model

permanent differences in unemployment and permanent wage differentials this paper tests for the existence of wage premiums based on geographic and industry unemployment differences these differences are broken down into permanent and transitory components in equations controlling for variation in state generosity of unemployment insurance benefits findings indicate that wage premiums arise for long run unemployment differences but that negative short run shocks to industries generate wage cuts while positive shocks generate wage hikes therefore labor contracts accommodate long term anticipated unemployment and entail sharing of short term unemployment risks

asymptotic properties of a leontief economy abstract in this paper we discuss the asymptotic properties of equilibrium quantities of a leontief economy when agents have additively separable utilities we estimate the rate of growth of equilibrium quantities and prices that either tend to zero or infinity or remain bounded below and above by strictly positive vectors in the case of homogeneous preferences we prove that the quantities of any equilibrium converge to those of an equilibrium that grows at a constant rate

landscape amenities and local development a review of migration regional economic and hedonic pricing studies abstract with rapid urban expansion and loss of open space attractive local landscapes will continue to gain importance in location decisions and on political agendas the present study reviews the evidence on the local economic role of landscape amenities from two major strands of empirical research migration and regional economic models and hedonic pricing models following common amenity definitions we identify 71 relevant peer reviewed studies and systematically assess the reported effects of the landscape amenity variables the migration and regional economic studies suggest that migrants are attracted by amenities nearly as often as by low taxes reported effects of amenities on income and employment are less consistent the hedonic studies suggest that nature reserves and land cover diversity have mostly open space and forest often and agricultural land rarely positive effects on housing prices studies at larger geographic scales and studies involving urban areas were more likely to identify significant amenity effects some limitations of the evidence may be overcome with better datasets and modeling approaches however in line with other recent work the limitations also highlight the need for complementary information from the analysis of political preferences for land use management

the contemporary relevance of a cambridge tradition economics as political economy political economy as social theory and ethical theory in this review essay i set out key aspects of nuno martins the cambridge revival of political economy in so doing i also provide some comments on the current state of economics since these provide some context for an appreciation of what martins is trying to achieve martins is focused on making the positive case for classical political economy cpe as a form of theory that is quite different from the modern mainstream for martins that difference is based on its approach to the distribution of a surplus expressed through a social ontology that is based on historical open systems and in which the key aspect of open systems is the institutional and hence deliberative activity by which the surplus is decided which is ultimately an issue for ethics it is through a cambridge tradition focusing on sraffa keynes lawson and sen that cpe a classical social theory and ethical deliberation are brought together bringing them together is an act of synthesis and i conclude by providing a constructive critique of the terms of this synthesis

the role of amenities and quality of life in rural economic growth a structural model of regional economic growth is estimated using data for 2243 rural u s counties five indices designed to capture specific amenity and quality of life characteristics are constructed using fifty four separate indicators results suggest that amenity characteristics can be organized into consistent and meaningful empirical measures that move beyond ad hoc descriptions of amenities in addition to insights into the influence of local characteristics ranging from tax burdens to income distribution on regional economic growth results suggest that predictable relationships between amenities quality of life and local economic performance exist

the neo ricardians focuses on the neoclassical theory of economics in great britain calculation for the standard commodity assumptions of piedro sraffa on the cycle of production functions of the rate of return ebsco

migration fixed costs and location specific amenities a hazard analysis for a panel of males this article presents econometric estimates of the adult working age male hazard function of interstate migration fitted to data obtained from migration decisions of adult males over a twenty year period the results show a strong negative effect of the real wage difference between origin and destination and of fixed costs associated with a move on the hazard rate of interstate migration farmers and other self employed males and males who have school age children have unusually low hazard rates of interstate migration although a high crime rate is shown to increase the real wage it also has a separate positive effect on the hazard of migration

sustainability as it pertains to minerals and energy supply and demand a new interpretative perspective for assessing progress this paper addresses the pressing research gap that demands an overarching framework to assess the progress of mining minerals and energy supply and demand networks towards sustainable development the framework proposes a hierarchy from sustainable development which begins at the global scale to operating sustainably which begins at the level of unit operations the two concepts overlap in the middle with a focus upon regional economies guidance is provided to assess the performance of both dynamic dimensions sustainable development is assessed in terms of equity and operating sustainably is assessed in terms of the changing states of maturity of the activities being monitored the papers from this special volume were the input sample to assess the extent to which these performance dimensions were being addressed in analysing the progress towards sustainable development it was found that papers were mainly focussed on equity within supply countries but they provided little attention to the other three equity conditions proposed demand met at a reasonable price future needs met and profitable transfer agents the transition towards operating sustainably was promising with results that revealed progress along the proposed four stage maturity journey which includes 1 solely profit maximising 2 efficiency focussed 3 integrating by connecting and 4 adaptable resilient a comprehensive definition for operating sustainably is proposed for discussion and refinement it is suggested that the definition proposed can be used for selecting appropriate indicators for measuring and documenting progress

rural population growth 1950 1990 the roles of human capital industry structure and government policy human capital raises rural incomes but this effect is swamped by higher returns to human capital in urban markets this leads to brain drain from rural areas populations grow more rapidly in rural counties that have a diversified employment base farm population grows faster or declines more slowly in counties with relatively high farm income and nonfarm populations grow faster in counties with relatively high nonfarm income however higher farm incomes lead to slower nonfarm population growth and vice versa rural county government services financed by local taxes or debt have neutral or negative effects on population growth rural population in the united states increased 53 between 1900 and 1990 this increase is concentrated in the nonfarm rural sector where population has grown to three times its turn of the century level nevertheless there exists a concern that rural areas are threatened by population declines that will gradually erode the ability of communities to provide public services necessary for their citizens eventually the fear is that these communities will become too small to be selfsustaining and will disappear one might ask why these concerns exist in the face of slowly rising rural populations one reason is that the overall rural population increase masks a huge migration of labor off the farm the rural farm population has fallen to one tenth its 1900 level if a strong farm economy is necessary to sustain rural communities then the farm population decline is a threat to the future viability of rural communities on the other hand off farm employment opportunities are increasingly important to the

sraffian indeterminacy a critical discussion this paper is aimed at discussing mandler s interpretation of sraffa s price theory in particular we will analyse mandler s idea that an institutional determination of distribution suggested by sraffa could be solidly advanced only in the case of equilibrium price indeterminacy in intertemporal sequential models first it will be shown that this kind of indeterminacy arises from an arbitrary use of the tendency to a uniform rate of return on the supply prices of capital goods second it will be remarked that when sraffa s contribution is placed as it should within the classical theory of value and distribution no price or sraffian indeterminacy will result finally we will argue that mandler s emphasis on the non arbitrariness of the capital goods endowments which is at the root of his indeterminacy result naturally leads to refer to those normal positions of the economy whose only possible consistent determination is sraffa s price theory copyright the author 2011 published by oxford university press on behalf of the cambridge political economy society all rights reserved oxford university press

skill transferability migration and development evidence from population resettlement in indonesia we use a natural experiment in indonesia to provide causal evidence on the role of location specific human capital and skill transferability in shaping the spatial distribution of productivity from 1979 1988 the transmigration program relocated two million migrants from rural java and bali to new rural settlements in the outer islands villages assigned migrants from regions with more similar agroclimatic endowments exhibit higher rice productivity and nighttime light intensity one to two decades later we find some evidence of migrants adaptation to agroclimatic change overall our results suggest that regional productivity differences may overstate the potential gains from migration

on the present state of the capital controversy the post war capital controversy seems to have had two distinguishable stages thanks to the unambiguous phenomena of reswitching and reverse capital deepening the first stage was conclusive in discarding from pure theory the traditional versions of neoclassical theory that relied on the notion of capital as a single quantity subsequently however when the implications of those phenomena took centre stage in the controversy together with the reformulations of the theory which intended to do away with the quantity of capital several misunderstandings prevented i shall contend decisive progress in the analysis and we entered an inconclusive phase of the discussion

employment status and the decision to migrate the purpose of this paper is to examine the demographic and socioeconomic determinants of migration for both the employed and unemployed hypotheses concerning the effects of age education and public services are developed and tested using data on interstate migration of the u s labor force from 1965 to 1970 for individuals at risk to either primary or repeat migration the age and education selectivity of migration were in general confirmed however for unemployed potential primary migrants education selectivity was not observed it was also found that the provision of welfare services have little or no impact on the migration decision of the unemployed however unemployment was shown to significantly affect the role played by educational quality and training accessibility within the migration decision excerpt