bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Inner and the Outer: Kant's ‘Refutation’ Reconstructed
Authors: Hanna Robert
Published: March 2003

In Skeptical idealism says that possibly nothing exists outside my own conscious mental states. Purported refutations of skeptical idealism – whether Descartes's, Locke's, Reid's, Kant's, Moore's, Putnam's, or Burge's – are philosophically scandalous: they have convinced no one. I argue (1) that what is wrong with the failed refutations is that they have attempted to prove the wrong thing – i.e., that necessarily I have veridical perceptions of distal material objects in space, and (2) that a charitable reconstruction of Kant's ‘Refutation of Idealism’ in fact provides a sound refutation of skeptical idealism.
Semantic Primitivism and Normativity
Authors: Hohwy Jakob
Published: March 2003

Kripke‐Wittgenstein meaning scepticism appears as a serious threat to the idea that there could be meaning‐constituting facts. Some people argue that the only viable response is to adopt semantic primitivism (SP). SP is the doctrine that meaning‐facts are sui generis and irreducibly semantic. The idea is that by allowing such primitive semantic facts into our ontology Kripke's sceptical paradox cannot arise. I argue that SP is untenable in spite of its apparent resourcefulness. No version of SP can account for the normative and practical aspects of meaning while remaining non‐reductive. A sparse, basic SP does not adequately deal with the sceptical paradox. A richer SP, with an added intuitive epistemology, can only explain the practical aspect of meaning by aligning itself with reductive use‐based accounts of meaning. SP with essential relations between meanings and meaning‐bearers could possibly avoid these problems, but we have no reason to think such a version of SP is really non‐reductive. I conclude that Kripke‐Wittgenstein meaning scepticism should not lead us to adopt SP, instead we should re‐examine use‐based, dispositionalist accounts of meaning.
Should we be Kantians? A Defence of Empricism (Part Two)
Authors: Philipse Herman
Published: March 2003

In his book Mind and World (1994), John McDowell defends the Kantian position that the content of experience is conceptual. Without this Kantian assumption, he argues, it would be impossible to understand how experience may rationally constrain thought. But McDowell's Kantianism is either false or empty, and his view of the relation between mind and world cannot be stated without transcending the bounds of sense. McDowell's arguments supporting the Kantian thesis, which are very different from Kant's arguments, essentially involve a fallacy of ambiguity. In order to understand how thought may be rationally constrained by experience we should become empiricists.
Rouse‐ing out the Legitimation Project: Scientific Practice and the Problem of Demarcation
Authors: Slowik Edward
Published: March 2003

This essay critically examines Joseph Rouse's arguments against what he dubs the ‘legitimation project’, which are the attempts to delimit and justify the scientific enterprise by means of global, ‘a priori’ principles. Stipulating that a more adequate picture of science can be obtained by viewing it as a continuously transforming pattern of situated activities, Rouse believes that only by refocusing attention upon the actual practice of science can philosophers begin to detach themselves from the irresolvable epistemological problems that have remained the primary byproduct of the traditional philosophical approach. On closer inspection, however, Rouse's project appears susceptible to the criticism that it is either too relativistic to do the work he envisioned for it, or that it participates in the very same legitimation venture that it was intended to replace (in addition to its own brand of metaphysical/epistemological problems). This unexpected outcome, moreover, suggests that such legitimation projects may be an integral component of the very practice of science, contrary to Rouse's estimate.
The Place of Religious Arguments in Civic Discussion
Authors: Räikkä Juha
Published: March 2003

I shall consider whether morality requires citizens of democratic societies to advance secular reasons in public debates on political questions. Is it wrong to give purely religious reasons in political discussion? I shall argue that the moral acceptability of public religious arguments that are not supported with secular reasons depends on the political context we are discussing, and that often there is nothing wrong with using religious considerations. I shall also discuss the so‐called shared premises requirement in political argumentation. The overall aim of the paper is to clarify intuitions concerning the ideals of public reason on the one hand, and the commitment to religious liberty on the other.
Valuations – or How to Say the Unsayable
Authors: Von Wright Georg Henrik
Published: March 2003

In this paper, the author revisits “the emotive theory of value” and argues that values are not entities but nothing other than “linguistic fictions”. Accordingly, valuations—i.e., valuing actions—can be defined as approving or disapproving attitudes of a subject to some object. In this perspective, values cannot be true or false: What we can do is just compare them with regard to strength. As a consequence, value judgments are to be understood as sentences which are used either to say that a subject s values an object o positively or negatively, or to express (evince) a valuation. The author then shows some relations between normative and evaluative discourses. First, he claims that norms as well as valuations are not true or false. Second, he argues that both may be explained or justified, even if the former are usually justified teleologically whereas the latter are explained referring back to the subject's background and life‐style. Third, he notes that a legal order originates from the fact that valuations “crystallize” into norms. Finally, the author examines some further questions related to his analysis. In particular, he argues that the different realms of values, e.g., morals, aesthetics, politics, etc., do not correspond to different evaluative attitudes, but to different phenomena and diverse spheres of human life.
Phronesis and Forensics
Authors: Niemi Matti Ilmari
Published: March 2003

This paper deals with the concept of practical wisdom and its applications in the field of jurisprudence. The starting point is the Aristotelian idea that a skill to understand and apply law is an embodiment of practical sense. racticality of law has many dimensions. One important dimension is contextuality. Contextuality appears as the situation dependence of interpretation. Hence, the ultimate content of law is context dependent, too. I try to elucidate the essence of practicality of law and its interpretation by examining a precedent of the Finnish Supreme Court (KKO 1997: 87). It is a case involving the distribution of an estate among heirs. The main idea of that decision is that the proper values of inheritance‐shares depend on the utilization values of them and the whole economic situation among heirs. What is just depends on a situation. Taken seriously, the practicality and contextuality of law forces us to adopt an unconventional conception of jurisprudence. First, it is doubtful if one can point to any scientific method at all. Second, according to this conception, legal dogmatics is not a description of law. Rather, it is a skill of argumentation, the skill of taking considered steps from different kinds of arguments to conclusions. The purpose of legal dogmatics is to offer valid and useful arguments to be used in different situations.
Fundamental Rights: Between Morals and Politics
Authors: Martínez Gregorio Peces‐Barba
Published: March 2003

Starting from the impossibility of understanding fundamental rights from the standpoint of natural law doctrine or positivism, the author tackles the issue of rights from a realistic point of view, that is to say from the perspective of law and politics on the one hand, and from the perspective of public morality, on the other. Thus the foundation of fundamental rights is the meeting point of conceptions of social morality that are current in the modern world and the political aspect of the conception of pluralist democracy. Moreover, fundamental rights are considered an instrument to enable the social and moral development of human beings.
The Place of Form in the Fundamentals of Law
Authors: Summers Robert S.
Published: March 2003

The author explains that there is scope for a general theory about the nature and place of form in the fundamentals of law. Form organizes the institutions, rules and other varieties of law, and the system as a whole. All such constructs have non‐formal elements, too, but form unifies each construct and provides its criteria of identity. Appropriate form makes a system of law possible. It also tends to beget good content in the law. It is indispensable to the basic needs of a legal system, and when such an end is organizational, as with democracy, liberty, and the rule of law, form is end as well as means.
Holmes, Langdell and Formalism
Authors: Kelley Patrick J.
Published: March 2003

Both Holmes and Langdell believed that science was the model for all human inquiry and the source of all human progress. Langdell was influenced by an unsophisticated scientism, which led him to attempt to identify the true meaning of legal doctrines. Holmes was influenced by the sophisticated positivism of John Stuart Mill, which led him to attempt to reduce legal rules and doctrines to scientific laws of antecedence and consequence, justified only by their social consequences. Both Holmes and Langdell concluded that judges ought to decide a case by applying the rules established by precedent, without appeal to any special claims of justice and without appeal to any higher‐order normative principle.
Improving Reading Attainment in a Small Island State
Authors: Berry Chris
Published: March 2003

How can reading achievement be improved across a school system or education authority? Chris Berry here describes the way this was approached in one particular system and presents evidence concerning the effectiveness of the input provided in this case.
Raising Boys’ Attainment in Reading: some principles for intervention
Authors: Moss Gemma
Published: March 2003

This article uses research data to suggest a new basis for understanding gender differences in girls’ and boys’ achievements in reading. It argues that how well children can read is always a prime issue in school settings. But boys and girls react differently to the judgements made about their proficiency as readers, judgements which are often rendered highly visible in the classroom. This in turn has far more impact on their respective progress in reading than the inclusion of their preferred reading materials on the school reading curriculum; or the presence or absence of gender‐specific role models provided by adult readers. The article argues that raising levels of attainment across the board depends on building an active reading culture in the classroom which can encompass the broadest range of resources and opportunities for their use. The structure of the literacy hour and the emphasis on work encompassing word, sentence and text levels for all pupils provides new opportunities to put this into place.
Learned Helplessness and Dyslexia: A Carts and Horses Issue?
Authors: Kerr Hugo
Published: March 2003

A survey into attitudes towards and beliefs about dyslexia among ABE teachers and providers is reported. This research appears to reveal doubt, uncertainty and confusion about dyslexia and considerable misgiving as a consequence. A marked degree of learned helplessness was apparently induced in respondents when faced with a student with a diagnosis of dyslexia. Tuition was greatly simplified and expectations lowered. Attribution theory and learned helplessness are discussed in the context of ABE. It is argued that a diagnosis of dyslexia may be a maladaptive attribution and so inevitably induce learned helplessness. Increased scepticism towards dyslexia in ABE is recommended.
Controlled Openness and Foreign Direct Investment
Authors: Aizenman Joshua , Yi Sang‐Seung
Published: March 2003

The paper investigates why a developing country may adopt a partial reform. A country is considered where the ruling elite (referred to as state capital) prevents the entry of foreign capital, and taxes the private sector before reform. A higher productivity of foreign capital always increases the attractiveness of a partial reform under which state capital can control the inflow of foreign capital, but can reduce the attractiveness of a full reform under which the entry of foreign capital is unregulated. Hence, state capital’s control over foreign capital may be a necessary condition for the reform to take place at all.
Japanese and US Trade with China: A Comparative Analysis
Authors: Fung K. C. , Iizaka Hitomi
Published: March 2003

The paper provides a simple comparative analysis of Japanese and US trade with China. In recent years, Japanese exports to China had been growing faster than US exports, but Japanese imports from China had been growing more slowly. A large amount of US and Japanese exports were first shipped to Hong Kong, and then re‐exported to China. In 1994, Japan's largest export item to China was general machinery, while US largest export item to China was transportation equipment. According to the rivalry index constructed in the paper, competition in 1994 between US and Japanese firms was most intense in the chemical goods sector.
Structural Adjustment Programs: Some New Findings
Authors: Mukhopadhyay Hiranya
Published: March 2003

Recent studies of structural adjustments highlight two results: intensive adjustment‐lending countries performed better than nonadjustment‐lending countries during the late 1980s, and middle‐income countries performed better than low‐income countries. However, the methodology has ignored the distribution of the growth rate in a country over the period 1985 to 1990. When this distribution of the growth rate is taken into account, low‐income adjustment‐lending countries performed better than middle‐income countries during the late 1980s, especially when the growth rate of high‐income economies is held constant.
Environmental Policy in Developing Countries: A Dynamic Analysis
Authors: Batabyal Amitrajeet
Published: March 2003

A dynamic model is constructed of the environmental policy formulation process in a stylized developing country (DC). The paper analyzes the employment and output effects of three pollution control policies. These policies embody different assumptions about the DC government's ability to commit to its announced course of action. The timepath of the government's policy variable is characterized. Optimality calls for an activist policy, irrespective of the length of time to which the government can commit to its announced policy. However, the effects of this activist policy depend fundamentally on the government's period of commitment.
China’s Experience with Indexed Government Bonds, 1988–1996: How Credible Was the People’s Republic’s Anti‐Inflationary Policy?
Authors: Burdekin Richard C. K. , Hu Xiaojin
Published: March 2003

The People’s Republic of China introduced indexed government bonds in the face of the inflation panic of 1988–89 and reintroduced them when inflation surged upward again in 1993. Measures of inflation expectations—as derived from the trading prices of these indexed bonds—suggest that the government gained credibility from its ability to contain inflation in 1989. But the government’s failure to quickly halt the 1993–95 inflation led, by late 1994, to soaring inflation expectations and, ultimately, a heavy financial penalty for the government as the 1992 and 1993 bond issues matured while inflation was still high.
Income Variation and Health Expenditure: Evidence for OECD Countries
Authors: Rivera Berta , Currais Luis
Published: March 2003

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role health investment plays in human capital accumulation, and in so doing to demonstrate that education is not the only factor affecting the performance of the labor force and productivity. Estimates are made for the OECD countries for the period 1960–90. Investment in health contributes in a significant way to explaining variations in output through human capital, even in those countries which presumably have high levels of health.
The Role of Agricultural and Female Labor Mobility in Taiwan’s Industrialization: 1976–91
Authors: Levenson Alec R.
Published: March 2003

The period 1976–91 in Taiwan was one of rapid economic growth. Agricultural employment fell from 29% to 13% of the workforce, while the employment rate for prime‐age females increased from 43% to 55%. These figures suggest widespread net movements of labor out of agriculture. In reality the net increase in nonagricultural jobs was filled by new labor‐market entrants, not by net transfers of labor out of agriculture. Some women from agricultural households transferred into manufacturing. However, their role in fueling the industrial labor boom was dwarfed by the employment increases for women from nonagricultural households.
Trade Policy, Foreign Direct Investment, and Convergence
Authors: Silvestriadou Kyriaki , Balasubramanyam V. N.
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the hypothesis that countries which pursue export‐promoting (EP) policies are much more likely to converge than countries which pursue import‐substituting (IS) policies. The hypothesis is tested statistically in the context of a sample of developing countries which have in the recent past pursued inward‐looking or outward‐looking or export‐promotion (EP) policies. The empirical eviddence supports the hypothesis EP countries converge at approximately 1.9% per annum, while IS countries converge at approximately 0.9% per annum.
Caste at Birth? Redefining Disparity in India
Authors: Deshpande Ashwini
Published: March 2003

Using household information in the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) 1992/93 data, this paper examines regional variations in intercaste disparity in India. Based on five variables that are indicators of the standard of living of the three major caste/tribe groups identifiable in the data, a “caste deprivation index” is constructed that can be reversed to read as a “caste development index.” Mapping the regional variation in this index, the paper makes a plea for focusing on caste as an essential ingredient in the study of stratification patterns in India’s population.
Time‐Series Wage Differential in Taiwan: The Role of International Trade
Authors: Chen Been‐Lon , Hsu Mei
Published: March 2003

Rising relative wages between skilled and unskilled workers in developed countries has been a popular subject of recent studies. This paper analyzes Taiwan, a semi‐developed economy, where the relative wage reveals a declining trend since the mid‐1980s. The authors study the role of international trade. A major point of departure is to distinguish the effects of net exports to OECD countries from those to non‐OECD countries. The paper also differentiates the effects of net exports to China from those to non‐OECD countries except China. It is found that net exports to the OECD countries raise the relative wage of skilled workers, whereas net exports to non‐OECD countries and China diminish the relative wage. Moreover, the impacts of net exports to China are much larger than those to OECD and other non‐OECD countries. The documented wage effects of international trade in this work diverge from what existing works have argued based on Heckscher–Ohlin theory.
Should I Stay or Should I Go? On Relative Deprivation and Migration Dynamics
Authors: Mehlum Halvor
Published: March 2003

An overlapping‐generations model for rural to urban labor migration is developed. In the migration decision the potential migrants consider both the absolute income gain and the relative deprivation associated with moving to town. It is shown that the relative deprivation mechanism introduces a positive externality between generations of migrants that can generate dual equilibria.
Solidarity, Transfers, and Poverty
Authors: Díaz Antonia , Echevarria Cristina
Published: March 2003

There is abundant evidence that inter‐vivos transfers are more important in low‐income countries than in industrialized countries. The authors use a new specification of altruism to explain this stylized fact. Under this specification, individuals feel altruistically towards other individuals genetically related to them. However, they worry about them only when their relatives’ consumption falls below a certain level. Simulation results mimic the stylized facts concerning the relation between inter‐vivos transfers and income.
Fortress Europe: Jericho or Château d’If?
Authors: Desruelle Dominique , Richardson Martin
Published: March 2003

Traditional analysis of customs union formation suggests that it leads to an increase in members’ external tariffs. This paper stresses two aspects of European trade and trade policy—a large volume of intra‐industry trade between similar countries and a political motivation for tariffs—and highlights a role for tariff coordination in a model of differentiated products in which tariffs affect domestic costs and thus export prices and the magnitude of monopolistic rents. We show that when workers choose the tariffs and receive but a small portion of tariff revenues, the union’s tariff wall falls.
Do Unfairly Traded Imports Injure Domestic Industries?
Authors: Kelly Kenneth , Morkre Morris
Published: March 2003

There is a widespread popular belief that American industry is being destroyed by unfairly traded imports, that is, those that are subsidized or dumped. This claim is tested with data (where available) from all ÃÂÃÂnal US government countervailing duty and antidumping duty investigations between 1980 and 1988. Using a computable partial equilibrium model, upper bounds of the impact of unfairly traded imports on the revenue of competing domestic industries are computed. It is found that for most industries the effect of unfairly traded imports is minor.
International Transfers from Rich to Poor Nations
Authors: Tan Kim‐Heng
Published: March 2003

A major shortcoming of the theoretical literature on international transfers is that it is not at all clear whether the welfare results obtained are consistent with transfers flowing from rich to poor nations. This is because economists hardly ever model the difference in wealth between the donor and recipient nations. This paper shows that, contrary to the literature, when international transfers are modeled explicitly to flow from rich to poor nations, donor‐enriching recipient‐impoverishing international transfers may not exist in a world which is accumulating capital.
Increasing Returns and International Trade
Authors: Kemp Murray C. , Shimomura Koji
Published: March 2003

The paper develops a model of international trade with increasing returns toscale by taking into account the possibility of cooperation among agents in an egalitarian economy. It is shown that each country gains from trade in a trading world in which there are arbitrary numbers of increasing‐returns‐to‐scale goods, constant‐returns‐to‐scale goods, factors of production, and countries.
Fiscal Stabilization in the EMU
Authors: Aarle Bas van , Garretsen Harry
Published: March 2003

This paper analyzes the effects of macroeconomic shocks in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) using a stylized two‐country model. First, it is shown how asymmetries between countries might matter in terms of the resulting business cycle fluctuations. More specifically, country‐specific shocks are allowed for as well as cross‐national differences in wage behavior. Second, it is shown by means of numerical simulations how national and federal fiscal stabilization policies can be used to dampen business cycle fluctuations in various (a)symmetric settings. The main innovation of the paper is to illustrate how structural differences between countries help to determine the impact of macroeconomic shocks and the effectiveness of fiscal policy.
Learning by Consumers in the Demand for Japanese Cars
Authors: Wojcik Charlotte
Published: March 2003

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the impact of consumer learning over time on the demand for Japanese cars, using both a multinomial logit demand model and the Berry–Levinsohn–Pakes demand model (Econometrica, vol. 63, 1995, 841–90). The data suggest that learning about particular models, manufacturers, and Japanese cars as a group had a positive impact on the demand for individual models during the 1970s and 1980s.
Panel Unit‐Root Tests of OECD Stochastic Convergence
Authors: Fleissig Adrian , Strauss Jack
Published: March 2003

This paper uses three panel unit‐root tests and finds that real per capita GDP for OECD countries and a European subsample converge stochastically for the period 1948–87 but not for the entire sample of 1900–87. For the postwar period, the differential in income gaps or speed of adjustment is eliminated at an annual rate of 4–8% for OECD economies, and 6–9% for European economies.
Increasing Wealth and Increasing Instability: The Role of Collateral
Authors: Tse Chung Yi , Leung Charles Ka Yui
Published: March 2003

In development economics, growth in credit is generally associated with faster long‐run growth as financial intermediation improves the efficiency of channeling capital to productive investment. Yet, among developing countries high growth in credit almost always guarantees the outbreak of a financial crisis. The authors attempt to reconcile the two seemingly contradictory facts with an endogenous growth model in which entry to international borrowing entails some significant fixed cost. The poorest countries are excluded from international borrowing because of the fixed cost. The higher‐income developing countries will find it optimal to sink the fixed cost to borrow internationally, growing faster as a result, but also become prone to fluctuations arising from shocks to the international financial market.
Strategic Policy Towards Multinationals for Oligopolistic Industries
Authors: Lai Edwin L.‐C.
Published: March 2003

The author considers an environment with two firms, one domestically owned and one a foreign‐owned multinational corporation (MNC), both producing in the host (domestic) country. It is found that there are three distinct dimensions that affect a country’s strategic policy towards domestically‐owned firms and foreign‐owned firms: the number of policy instruments available to the host government (whether or not it can tax/subsidize both types of firms), the location of the market (in the host country or a third country), and the extent of spillover of the foreign‐owned firms’ production.
Eastern Enlargement of the EU: How Much Is It Worth for Austria?
Authors: Keuschnigg Christian , Kohler Wilhelm
Published: March 2003

For present member countries, eastern EU enlargement entails gains from integration as well as fiscal costs. The authors use a calibrated model to quantify the dynamic effects of discriminatory trade liberalization and immigration from eastern applicants. It is found that enlargement is expansionary and yields a remarkable fiscal dividend. Surprisingly, integration compresses the wage spread between skilled and unskilled labor. Overall, the (dynamic) gains from integration clearly outweigh the fiscal cost. While ambiguous a priori, enlargement is found to hold a remarkable net welfare gain for Austria.
Industrial Property and Structural Change of Manufacturing: a Relative‐Cost Analysis
Authors: Zhu Jieming
Published: March 2003

Structural change in manufacturing is gaining momentum in many developed as well as developing cities due to an emerging phenomenon of international division of production. As an advanced developing city‐state, Singapore has had the same experience. Labor cost has been an obvious major factor responsible for the structural change in manufacturing since the 1970s. However, having seen that industrial property as a vital factor in manufacturing production is neglected in research, this paper explores the role of the industrial property market in the process of structural change in Singapore's manufacturing sector. On a background of land scarcity and rapid growth, it is found that Singapore industrialists must invest more in premises than previously. There are indications that changing industrial property prices have affected manufacturing groupings unevenly and thus led to structural changes in the use of industrial properties. Space has been transferred from less competitive sectors to more competitive ones due to comparative advantages in its utilization enjoyed by efficient sectors. Therefore, the general trend of rising land costs has contributed, to a certain extent, to the restructuring of Singapore's manufacturing sector.
Total Factor Productivity Growth and Urbanization Economies: A Case of Indian Industries
Authors: Mitra Arup
Published: March 2003

Based on panel data for fifteen major states in India, this paper provides evidence in favor of the existence of urbanization economies. In eleven of seventeen two‐digit industry groups, total factor productivity growth is responsive to urban population or industrial spread. Although the impact of these variables taken to capture agglomeration economies on total factor productivity growth is not monotonic, economic policy would yield a sub‐optimal outcome by ignoring the positive effect of the size factor. Urban population or industrial spread benefits firms by possibly improving the quality of labor and enhancing the productive utilization of resources.
Industry Mix, Wages, and the Divergence of County Income in Pennsylvania
Authors: Latzko David A.
Published: March 2003

Per capita incomes have diverged across Pennsylvania counties. County incomes may differ because of differences in industrial structures and because of differences in earnings within industries; a county may have a below‐average income because its industry mix is comprised of low paying jobs or because county jobs pay low wages compared to the same jobs in other counties. A procedure developed by Hanna (1951) is utilized to separate income differences into these two components by constructing two counterfactual incomes for each county. The handful of high‐income counties in Pennsylvania have favorable wages while the counties with incomes below the state average, although with employment mixes comparable to the overall state mix, tend to have workers who receive low wages relative to the state industry average. Wages are low in the relatively poor counties due to less investment in physical and human capital.
A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis of Efficiency Improvements at Japanese Ports
Authors: Doi Masayuki , Tiwari Piyush , Itoh Hidekazu
Published: March 2003

In this paper we investigate the system‐wide impact of increased efficiency of ports in Japan using a computable general equilibrium model developed for 1995. The Japanese Ministry of Transport has been implementing programs of the Ninth Seven‐year Port Development Plan to improve port efficiency. The technological efficiency in the ports reduces the cost of shipping transportation, and the forward and backward linkages of imports and exports introduce some positive gains in the national GDP. Our analysis proves that the spillover effects are substantial on shipping transportation and to a lesser extent on the Japanese economy.
Sustainable Development and Globalization in a World with Unequal Starting Points
Authors: Liddle Brantley
Published: March 2003

We develop a simulation model by integrating aspects of economics, demography, and environmental science. The model is used to explore the challenges of development for countries with different initial conditions (i.e., natural resource endowment, physical and human capital, technology, and population) in a world with movement of goods, people, and capital, free substitution in production, flexible economic structures, and the ability to upgrade input factors via investment. We find that the impact of globalization on various countries differs depending on their starting points. In general, capital flows (when accompanied by technology transfer) tend to benefit all countries, migration tends to benefit the destination countries (particularly the aging, rich) and the migrants themselves, and the benefits of trade can be either positive or negative depending on country endowments. A basic revelation of the explicit dynamics is that history matters, a finding that is often highly counter–intuitive from the point of view of conventional models.
‘Black Theology Then and Now: A Second Generation Assessment’
Authors: Pinn Anthony B.
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

Dwight N. Hopkins, Heart and Head: Black Theology Past, Present and Future
Biased Technical Change and the Malmquist Productivity Index
Authors: Färe Rolf , Grifell‐Tatjé Emili , Grosskopf Shawna , Knox Lovell C. A.
Published: March 2003

The Malmquist productivity index has many attractive features. One is that it can be epxressed as the product of a technical efficiency change index and a technical change index. In this paper we express the technical change index as the product of a magnitude index and a bias index. We then express the bias index as the product of an output bias index and an input bias index, and we state conditions under which each bias index makes no contribution to productivity change.
Climbing Career Steps: Becoming a Full Professor of Economics
Authors: Tasiran Ali C. , Veiderpass Ann , Sandelin Bo
Published: March 2003

Event history analysis is used to examine the process of becoming a full professor of economics in Sweden. The data encompass 256 Swedish doctors' dissertations in economics between 1951 and 1989. A piecewise constant exponential model is specified for the transition risk of becoming a full professor. The risk decreases with age at the defense of a doctoral thesis and increases with the current popularity of the chosen topic and with the number of times appointed faculty opponent. There is no indication of individual‐specific unobserved heterogeneity in the preferred model.
The Economics of Poverty in Poor Countries
Authors: Dasgupta Partha
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the links that have recently been studied between poverty, high fertility and undernourishment, on the one hand, and degradation of the local environmental‐resource base and civic disconnection, on the other, in poor countries. An account is offered of a number of pathways involving positive feedbacks that create poverty traps, in which certain identifiable groups of people in an economy can get caught even when the economy in the aggregate experiences economic growth. The relevant policy implications are noted.
Nominal Interest Rates as Indicators of Inflation Expectations
Authors: Söderlind Paul
Published: March 2003

The properties of nominal interest rates as indicators of inflation expectations are evaluated. Are they unbiased? How precise are they? To arrive at robust results, a range of different methods are applied on several US and UK data sets. The results show that the interest rate level is a reasonably good indicator of the level of inflation expectations. However, changes in interest rates are poor indicators of changes inflation expectations.
The Rise, Fall and Sustainability of Capital‐Resource Economies
Authors: Pezzey John , Withagen Cees A.
Published: March 2003

In debates about green accounting it is sometimes argued that a positive value of aggregate investments indicates that an economy is developing sustainably. Asheim (1994) and Pezzey (1994) have shown that this is wrong, using a version of the well‐known Dasgupta–Heal economy (with one capital and one non‐renewable resource stock) as a counterexample. Asheim’s proof referred to the unproved assumptions that in such an economy a higher rate of time preference induces higher initial consumption and vice versa, and that “optimal” consumption is initially rising and then falling. Here we show that these assumptions do hold true under certain circumstances, thereby also proving some of Dasgupta and Heal’s other conjectures about sustainability.
Implications of Economic Interdependence for Endogenous Wage Indexation Decisions
Authors: Bryson Jay H. , Chen Chih‐huan , VanHoose David D.
Published: March 2003

This paper shows how economic interdependence affects the indexation decisions of atomistic wage setters in an environment in which monetary authorities do not observe stochastic disturbances before making their policy choices. If stochastic disturbances are common across countries, interdependence has no effect on equilibrium indexation choices in identical countries. However, if disturbances are country specific, numerical simulations show that interdependence is likely to reduce equilibrium indexation choices relative to a small open economy. We also show that indexation choices may be either strategic complements or strategic substitutes, but that strategic complementarity becomes more likely as the degree of interdependence rises.
Another Nail in the Coffin? Or Can the Trade Based Explanation of Changing Skill Structures Be Resurrected?
Authors: Desjonqueres Thibaut , Machin Stephen , Van Reenen John
Published: March 2003

The skill structure of wages and employment has altered markedly in recent years. In some countries (most notably the UK and the US) wage inequality has risen sharply and in most countries relative demand has shifted unfavourably against the less skilled. In this paper we reassess the evidence that rising international competition from developing countries is the crucial factor underpinning these changes. Our results, based on newly constructed internationally comparable industry data, find little support for the predictions of the basic Heckscher‐Ohlin (H‐O) trade model.

JEL classification: J31; F14
Intergenerational Altruism and the Environment
Authors: Jouvet Pierre‐Andre , Michel Philippe , Vidal Jean‐Pierre
Published: March 2003

We construct an overlapping generations model of pollution externality in which individuals are altruistically linked to their offspring as in Barro (1974). It is shown that steady‐state consumption may be a decreasing function of the intergenerational degree of altruism. Despite individuals' altruism, the competitive equilibrium is not optimal. We thus study the social optimum and show that it can be decentralized.

JEL classification: D62; D64; D91
Rent Control and Prices of Owner‐occupied Housing
Authors: Haèckner Jonas , Nyberg Sten
Published: March 2003

We examine the relation between rent control and prices of owner‐occupied housing in the presence of different qualities of housing. While a rent ceiling and the price of condominiums are substitutes if housing is undifferentiated, it is shown that this is not necessarily the case when housing differs in quality. A complete dismantling of rent control may in fact increasethe price of condominiums.

JEL Classification D45; D49; R21
A Contribution to the Theory of Welfare Accounting
Authors: Weitzman Martin L.
Published: March 2003

A kind of “unified theory” is proposed as a dynamic generalization of the standard consumer‐surplus methodology for evaluating welfare changes. The “unified theory” allows rigorous dynamic welfare comparisons to be inferred between any two economic situations—from just knowing current incomes and observing a short‐run market demand schedule. Essentially, the change in present discounted future utility is exactly captured by the formula: difference in current income plus consumer surplus. This well‐known formula is thereby shown to cover a far wider class of welfare comparisons than is customarily treated in the textbook static case.
Till Death Do Us Part or I Get My Pension? Wives' Pension Holding and Marital Dissolution in the United States
Authors: Ono Hiromi , Stafford Frank
Published: March 2003

Wives' financial independence gained from their pension may increase the risk of marital dissolution, especially when wives are approaching retirement age (the older wives' independence hypothesis). Applying single and simultaneous equations probit models to data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we investigate the effect of wives' pension holding in 1984 on the risk of subsequent marital dissolution. Results from the single equation model appear to support the older wives' independence hypothesis. However, results from the simultaneous equations model suggest that interpreting the single equation results as a sign of older wives' economic independence may be misleading.

JEL classification: C33; D31; J12; J32
Changes in the Finnish Wage Structure: Will Demand and Supply Do?
Authors: Uusitalo Roope
Published: March 2003

This study addresses changes in the wage structure in Finland between 1977 and 1995, and provides a simple explanation based on the demand for and supply of skills. The single index model of Card and Lemieux (1996) is augmented by incorporating changes in the supply of skills. The augmented model adequately accounts for the changes in relative wages between groups of different education and experience, but does not capture the changes in the within‐group distribution.

JEL classification: J31
Social fear and expressive reactions to social stimuli
Authors: Dimberg Ulf
Published: March 2003

This study explored whether subjects high as compared to low in social fear react with a more negative emotional response, measured as facial electromyographic (EMG) activity, when exposed to social stimuli (pictures of angry and happy facial expressions). It was found that subjects who rated themselves as relatively high in public speaking fear gave larger negative facial EMG responses (Corrugator supercilii muscle activity) to angry faces than did the low fear subjects. Low fear subjects, on the other hand, gave larger positive facial EMG responses (Zygomatic major muscle activity) to happy faces than did the high fear subjects. It was further found that happy stimuli were rated as more hostile and less friendly and happy by the high fear group. Consistent with earlier findings, it was concluded that the facial EMG technique is sensitive to detecting different reactions among subjects relatively high and low in social fear.
Asymmetries in the processing of emotionally valenced words
Authors: Dahl Mats
Published: March 2003

Earlier research has shown a valence dependent encoding asymmetry of emotional words (e.g., Pratto & John, 1991; White, 1996; Stenberg, Wiking & Dahl, 1998). To further study this asymmetry, two word detection experiments were performed based on the following hypothesis: when there is a more thoroughly processing of the valence, in this case a valence categorisation, there will be, in a subsequent task, prolonged latencies for negative words, compared to positive words. The result gave significantly prolonged response latencies for negative words compared to positive ones in the subsequent detection task when using an affective orienting task, something not found using a non‐affective orienting task.

The results support the Mobilization‐Minimization hypothesis (Taylor, 1991), according to which negative events and stimuli occupy more cognitive resources, but with some limitation: the affective asymmetry, with prolonged latencies for negative words, occurs only when there is a deepened encoding of the affective component of the words.
Novice construction of chess memory
Authors: Saariluoma Pertti , Laine Tei
Published: March 2003

Novice acquisition of skilled recall of chess positions was studied in an experiment in which two novices studied a series of five hundred chess positions during a period of several months. They spent fifteen minutes to half an hour a day teaching themselves these positions. As a result their skill in recalling chess positions rose from sixteen percent to somewhere between forty to fifty percent. The learning curve proved to have a shape which indicates that in the beginning learning is very fast but after some 100–150 studied positions the speed of learning decreases substantially.

A computer simulation was used to model the results and analyse alternative explanations. Two alternative ways of thinking were tested. In the first, chunk construction was assumed to be based on the neighbourhood of associated pieces. The second model assumed a frequency‐based correlative association process. Although the learning curves of the two models are very similar in shape to those of the subjects, the frequency‐based associative model gave a better explanation for the data. This is why it is natural to suggest that common co‐occurrence in addition to easily recognizable chess‐specific characteristics, like colour and type of pieces, guide associative processes during chess players’ learning of chess‐specific chunks.
Prenatal drug exposure and the conceptualization of long‐term effects
Authors: Moe Vibeke , Slinning Kari
Published: March 2003

This paper discusses several factors affecting the development of children prenatally exposed to drugs. In the “first generation” of research in this field a main factor model of disease formed the basis for a belief in the feasibility of detecting the direct pharmacological or teratogenic effects of drug exposure on long‐term child development. However, the clustering of confounding variables has constituted a major problem in identifying these effects. In the last few years a “second generation” of research in this field has emerged, and investigators have moved beyond simple main‐effect models. The importance of controlling for confounding variables has been underscored. However, prenatal substance exposure is still often studied within a teratology model where the main goal is the search for unique effects of a specific drug or substance. Based on this review it is suggested that an appropriate model for understanding the development of drug‐exposed children cannot be based on a main‐effect perspective. Rather, such a model must evolve from a contextual perspective, and it is suggested that a transactional model, where both potential risk factors and protective factors are considered, should replace the traditional teratology model in this field.
Fairness heuristic theory: Valid but not empirical
Authors: Árnadóttir Steinvör Pöll
Published: March 2003

Fairness heuristic theory is concerned with how people react to outcomes of their dealings with authorities, and makes some predictions concerning the relationship between perceived fairness of procedures, perceived fairness of outcomes and acceptance of outcomes. Although considerable effort has been put into establishing empirical evidence for the theory, it is argued that such efforts have no bearing upon the truth of the theory. Central propositions of fairness heuristic theory that have recently been tested empirically are examined and found to be non–empirical and noncontingent. The propositions, it is argued, are necessary truths of commonsense psychology that are not falsifiable by empirical outcomes. Hence, empirical research designed to test them, it is argued, is fruitless and misguided.
Ability to take an out–group’s perspective in explaining positive and negative behaviors
Authors: Austers Ivars
Published: March 2003

A total of 251 Latvian and Russian schoolteachers explained positive and negative behaviours from their own perspective and from the perspective of an ethnic out–group. The results were in line with the attributional pattern usually found in studies using Hewstone’s direct perspective of judgement, when participants are asked to take the perspective of an ethnic out–group. That is, there was an outcome effect in causal attributions for in–group actors and a categorization effect for negative behaviour from the imagined (out–group’s) perspective. The attributions from the direct perspective only partly replicated the commonly found pattern. The results support Montgomery’s perspective theory.