Uma Análise Crítica da Função de Produção Neoclássica - O processo de produção na indústria e na agricultura

Paradoxalmente, a satisfação dos economistas com a linguagem meramente simbólica nunca foi tão patente como no caso da função de produção. Em contraste, tal linguagem foi freqüentemente contestada no caso da função-utilidade e a existência desta função já foi excessiva e minuciosamente discutida. Provavelmente, esta assimetria não existe. sem razão. Os economistas matemáticos dirigiram seus maiores esforços no sentido de defender a função-utilidade, na medida que passaram a sofrer críticas contundentes daqueles que se opunham ao uso do instrumental matemático na Economia, sob alegação de que o comportamento humano não pode ser analisado através de leis matematicamente rígidas. Conquanto seja discutível a validade desta explicação, o fato é que o conceito de função de produção tem sido tratado de uma forma bastante insatisfatória

Adam Smith’s Green Thumb and Malthus’ Three Horsemen: Cautionary tales from classical political economy

This essay identifies a contradiction between the flourishing interest in the environmental economics of the classical period and a lack of critical parsing of the works of its leading representatives. Its focus is the work of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus. It offers a critical analysis of their contribution to environmental thought and surveys the work of their contemporary devotees. It scrutinizes Smith's contribution to what Karl Polanyi termed the "economistic fallacy," as well as his defenses of class hierarchy, the "growth imperative" and consumerism. It subjects to critical appraisal Malthus's enthusiasm for private property and the market system, and his opposition to market regulation. While Malthus's principal attraction to ecological economists lies in his having allegedly broadened the scope of economics, and in his narrative of scarcity, this article shows that he, in fact, narrowed the scope of the discipline and conceptualized scarcity in a reified and pseudo-scientific way

Toward a theory of restraint

Consumption largely remains a black box in the population, environment, and global change debates. The dominant perspective takes insatiability as axiomatic and assumes that reduced consumption will only happen through scarcity or the impositions of external authority. Yet humans often exhibit resource limiting behavior that is not the result of external controls nor is it altruistic or aberrant. This article develops the concept of restraint as an evolutionarily and culturally significant behavior, yet one that in modern times has been relegated to a regressive, if not trivial, status. The article defines restraint, hypothesizes its historical and evolutionary roots, lays out the conditions under which it can occur, and develops a theoretical parallel to cooperation in international relations theory.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43491/1/11111_2005_Article_BF02208422.pd

Accounting: A General Commentary on an Empirical Science

Many researchers have questioned the view of accounting as a science. Some maintain that it is a service activity rather than a science, yet others entertain the view that it is an art or merely a technology. While it is true that accounting provides a service and is a technology (a methodology for recording and reporting), that fact does not prevent accounting from being a science. Based upon the structure and knowledge base of the discipline, this paper presents the case for accounting as an empirical science