The Design of Free-Market Economies in a Post-Neoclassical World

The ‘Washington Consensus’ supporting competitive frames and market solutions in economics and law was shown inadequate to address social problems in non-U.S. settings. So would diversity and dynamics suggest theories in need of adjustment to other realities such as culture, increasing returns and market power. Reform must account for an economics of falling cost, ecological limits and complementarity in our relations. Such shall open new applications for economics and law. In this paper a theory of planning horizons is introduced and then employed to raise some meaningful questions about the neoclassical view with respect to its substitution, decreasing returns and independence assumptions. Suppositions of complementarity, increasing returns and interdependence suggest that competition is inefficient by upholding a myopic culture resistant to change. Growth – though long believed to rise from markets and competitive values – may not derive from these sources. Instead, as civilizations advance, shifting from material wants to higher-order intangible output, they evolve from market tradeoffs (substitution and scarcity) into realms of common need (complementarity and abundance). If so, then neoclassical arguments shall no longer apply to any advanced information economy also restrained by its ecology. Indeed, this paper opens standard theory into a more general framework constructing ‘horizon effects’ into a case for cooperation – as more efficient than competition for all long-term problems of growth. The case is made that competition is keeping us stupid and immature, rewarding a myopic culture at the expense of learning and trust, therefore retarding economic growth instead of encouraging it as believed. The policy implications of horizonal theory are explored, with respect to regulatory aims and economic concerns. Such an approach emphasizes strict constraints against entry barriers, ecological harm, market power abuse and ethical lapses. Social cohesion – not competition – is sought as a means to extend horizons and thereby increase efficiency, equity and ecological health. The overriding importance of horizon effects for regulatory assessment dominates other orthodox standards in economics and law. In sum, much of the reason for the failure of the Washington Consensus stems from myopic concerns central to any horizonal view. Reframing economics along horizonal lines suggests some meaningful insight to how regulations should be designed to keep pace with this approach in economics and law

Convergence in Models with Bounded Expected Relative Hazard Rates

We provide a general framework to study stochastic sequences related to individual learning in economics, learning automata in computer sciences, social learning in marketing, and other applications. More precisely, we study the asymptotic properties of a class of stochastic sequences that take values in $[0,1]$ and satisfy a property called "bounded expected relative hazard rates." Sequences that satisfy this property and feature "small step-size" or "shrinking step-size" converge to 1 with high probability or almost surely, respectively. These convergence results yield conditions for the learning models in B\"orgers, Morales, and Sarin (2004), Erev and Roth (1998), and Schlag (1998) to choose expected payoff maximizing actions with probability one in the long run.Comment: After revision. Accepted for publication by Journal of Economic Theor

Effective student motivation commences with resolving 'dissatisfiers'

The evolution in students' expectations based on Maslow's theory of human motivation shows a transition from expectations having an effect upon motivation towards those providing a satisfactory experience. Maslow's argument was that once the lower level needs, such as physiological and safety needs, are met other higher needs emerge. In the context of student motivation, once environmental conditions are satisfied, the individual becomes dominated by the unsatisfied needs and other hygiene factors related to their studies dominate their experience and expectations. However, the environmental conditions must be satisfied before progress to other levels will succeed. Failure to address these basic issues at the commencement of a student's course of study can lead to absence and the subsequent lack of academic integration is a significant contributor to withdrawal

Poverty and aspirations failure

We develop a model of internal constraints to show that a greater degree of initial disadvantage results in a higher likelihood of low aspirations and low achievement. Our model and results are supported by evidence from anthropology, sociology and social psychology. Our analysis suggests that internal constraints are a key ingredient in perpetuating poverty traps. We show that a poor person will choose to restrict her cognitive window (the set of other individuals who are her role models) and study the conditions under which a role model could alter her aspirations and achievement. We show how enodgenously chosen cognitive windows interact with the inital distribution of status to determine whether or not a society is connected, and hence the transmission of aspirations across individuals in that society. Our work provides a normative justification for programs that aim at empowering disadvantaged individuals by directly shocking their aspirations

Rethinking the education of chemists - the odyssey is over, time for action!

Chemistry is a mature discipline with a distinguished pedigree and a long tradition, but times are changing and student numbers in chemistry are declining. The need for a reappraisal of what constitutes chemistry and a chemistry education at the beginning of the new millennium, is apparent. The paper examines some of the current issues surrounding chemistry and chemistry teaching and suggests ways in which we might go forward. A message of vision and imagination, applying a little of the ideals of Zarathustra in the setting of, '2001, A Chemistry Odyssey', is promulgated. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.: 2003, 4, 83-96]

Failure of the market, state and economics from the perspective of the financial crisis

The debate between the advocates of market and interventionist solutions, primarily based on pitting the market against regulation, has escalated as a result of the financial crisis. The objective of the paper is not only to analyze the advantages and drawbacks of alternative regulatory mechanisms in the light of the global economic downturn, but also to evaluate the modern economy from this perspective. The paper focuses on three hypotheses. 1. It is illegitimate to pit the market against regulation. 2. The crisis resulted from the violation of the principles of classical liberalism, which was precipitated both by inadequate policies and by modern economic methodology. 3. Critical analysis of the methodology and logic of the development of 20th century economic thought reveals the existence of a systemic failure of the dominant doctrines in mainstream economics.Spór między zwolennikami rozwiązań rynkowych i interwencjonistycznych, oparty zazwyczaj na przeciwstawianiu rynku i regulacji, uległ zaostrzeniu wskutek kryzysu finansowego. Celem artykułu jest nie tylko analiza zalet i zagrożeń alternatywnych mechanizmów regulacji z perspektywy kryzysu w gospodarce światowej, ale także próba oceny z tej perspektywy współczesnej ekonomii. Rozważania skoncentrowane są wokół trzech hipotez. Po pierwsze, błędne jest przeciwstawianie systemu rynkowego i regulacji. Po drugie, u podstaw kryzysu leży pogwałcenie zasad klasycznego liberalizmu, które ma źródła zarówno w polityce, jak i metodologii współczesnej ekonomii. Po trzecie, krytyczna analiza metodologii i logiki rozwoju myśli ekonomicznej w XX wieku może uzasadniać tezę o systematycznym błędzie doktryn, który zdominowały główny nurt ekonomii

The SCottish Alcoholic Liver disease Evaluation: a population-level matched cohort study of hospital-based costs, 1991-2011

Studies assessing the costs of alcoholic liver disease are lacking. We aimed to calculate the costs of hospitalisations before and after diagnosis compared to population controls matched by age, sex and socio-economic deprivation. We aimed to use population level data to identify a cohort of individuals hospitalised for the first time with alcoholic liver disease in Scotland between 1991 and 2011.Incident cases were classified by disease severity, sex, age group, socio-economic deprivation and year of index admission. 5 matched controls for every incident case were identified from the Scottish population level primary care database. Hospital costs were calculated for both cases and controls using length of stay from morbidity records and hospital-specific daily rates by specialty. Remaining lifetime costs were estimated using parametric survival models and predicted annual costs. 35,208 incident alcoholic liver disease hospitalisations were identified. Mean annual hospital costs for cases were 2.3 times that of controls pre diagnosis (£804 higher) and 10.2 times (£12,774 higher) post diagnosis. Mean incident admission cost was £6,663. Remaining lifetime cost for a male, 50-59 years old, living in the most deprived area diagnosed with acoholic liver disease was estimated to be £65,999 higher than the matched controls (£12,474 for 7.43 years remaining life compared to £1,224 for 21.8 years). In Scotland, alcoholic liver disease diagnosis is associated with significant increases in admissions to hospital both before and after diagnosis. Our results provide robust population level estimates of costs of alcoholic liver disease for the purposes of health-care delivery, planning and future cost-effectiveness analyses

Trace Substances, Science and Law: Perspectives from the Social Sciences

Using advances in analytical technology as a point of departure, Dr. Short reviews what social science research reveals about perceptions, decision making processes and behaviors of organizations and individuals who try to cope with risk and uncertainty