Post-modernism and the notion of rationality in economicsSofianou, Evanthia;
doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035319pmid: N/A
The article assesses contributions from economists who see the post-modernist framework as providing a viable alternative to the behaviouristic model of action in economics. It is found that although post-modernism identifies many of the problems of mainstream economics it too remains unable to sustain the notions of choice and agency which it preaches because it fails to escape the anthropocentrism of positivist philosophy. Once this anthropocentrism is abandoned, it can be seen that agency lies not only in linguistic redescription but also in the understanding of real causal mechanisms which exist and act independently of any individual human agents.
The rhetoric of McCloskey's rhetoric of economicsStettler, Michael;
doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035320pmid: N/A
McCloskey's project of a rhetoric of economics contains a rejection of traditional epistemology in favour of a form of pragmatism. He uses, however, ‘effective persuasion’ and ‘community’ as surrogates for the epistemologist's ‘method’ and ‘truth’. Equipped with these surrogates, he declares the good health of economics. At the heart of his argument is an analogy according to which discourse in economics is like a market for ideas. That analogy justifies established paradigms despite the rejection of their methodological underpinnings. The paper analyses McCloskey's own rhetoric in his defence of the intellectual direction taken by economics.
The rise and fall of customary wage differentials among nursing personnel in US hospitals: 1956–1985Krall, Lisi;
doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035321pmid: N/A
Between 1956 and 1985 the employment of registered nurses (RNs) relative to other nursing personnel rose despite constant relative wages among RNs, licensed practical nurses and nurses' aides. Over this 30-year period, hospital management proclaimed chronic shortages of RNs. Economists have used monopsonistic models to explain the persistence of these shortages. As an alternative to the monopsonistic model this paper presents an institutional argument for why hospital management sought to maintain relative wages among classes of nursing personnel while at the same time successfully raising the relative use of RNs through a variety of non-wage inducements and manipulations of RN supply.… in most contexts the wage does not, and cannot, function to equate supply and demand. Instead, wage rates perform certain basic social and institutional functions. They define relationships between labor and management, between one group of workers and another … (Michael Piore, 1979, p. 6)Historically hospital administration seems to have been reluctant to grant salary increases to professional nurses. The size of the group and hence the high visibility to all employees of upward wage adjustment may have played a part in the decision. (Luther P. Christman, nursing educator, and Richard C. Jelinek, industrial engineer, 1967, p. 81)
The internationalisation of capital and Marxian value theoryBryan, Dick;
doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035322pmid: N/A
Marxist value analysis has paid little attention to the international movement of capital. This paper contends that there are different but compatible concepts of international capital movement in value theory, which are associated with different meanings of ‘capital’ in each volume of Marx's Capital. With particular emphasis on a Volume III conception of international prices of production, the paper contends that exchange rates and a nationally determined value of labour power express an underlying contradiction between the internationality of value and the role of the nation state in the regulation of accumulation.
Small firms in economic theoryYou, Jong-Il
doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035323pmid: N/A
This paper is a survey of the theories of the determinants of firm size and the distribution of firm sizes, with a special emphasis on small firms. The diverse literature surveyed here is classified into four approaches. The first is the conventional microeconomic approach (or the technological approach) in which firm size is determined by technical and allocational efficiency. The second is the transaction cost approach (or the institutional approach) in which firm size is determined by transaction cost efficiency. The third is the industrial organisation approach in which firm size and its distribution (market structure) are determined by market power. The fourth approach is that of the dynamic models of the size distribution of firms, including stochastic models, life-cycle models and evolutionary models. The concluding section summarises the implications of various theories for the study of the small firm sector.
Outside the mainstreamKing, J. E.
doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035324pmid: N/A
The article summarises the contents of Josef Steindl's Economic Papers 1941–1988 and assesses the book's significance for current theoretical and policy debates. It discusses Steindl's (over-modest) autobiographical article and his critical appraisals of Sraffa, Keynes and Kalecki. It identifies the Kaleckian roots of Steindl's early work on the firm and regrets that here (and elsewhere) he failed to locate his own original ideas in the broader literature. It outlines Steindl's often rather under-developed views on growth and stagnation, and on saving and economic policy, and concludes by endorsing Steindl's unabashedly heretical programme for an alternative to the sterility of mainstream economics.