Sickonomics : Diagnoses and remedies

Original article can be found at: http://www.tandfonline.com/ Copyright Taylor & FrancisIn their recent analysis of the alleged decay in modern economics, Ben Fine and Dimitris Milonakis claim to find its source and origin in the "marginal revolution" of the 1870s. They argue that this development led to "methodological individualism" and the detachment of economics from society and history. I contest their account of the marginal revolution and of the role of Alfred Marshall among others. They also fail to provide an adequate definition of methodological individualism. I suggest that neoclassical economics adopted a denuded concept of the social rather than removing these factors entirely. No such removal is possible in principle. It is also mistaken to depict neoclassical economics as the science of prices and the market. In truth, neoclassical economics fails to capture the true nature of markets. I consider some sketch an alternative explanation of the sickness of modern economics, which focuses on institutional developments since World War II.Peer reviewe

Machine learning uncovers the most robust self-report predictors of relationship quality across 43 longitudinal couples studies

Given the powerful implications of relationship quality for health and well-being, a central mission of relationship science is explaining why some romantic relationships thrive more than others. This large-scale project used machine learning (i.e., Random Forests) to 1) quantify the extent to which relationship quality is predictable and 2) identify which constructs reliably predict relationship quality. Across 43 dyadic longitudinal datasets from 29 laboratories, the top relationship-specific predictors of relationship quality were perceived-partner commitment, appreciation, sexual satisfaction, perceived-partner satisfaction, and conflict. The top individual-difference predictors were life satisfaction, negative affect, depression, attachment avoidance, and attachment anxiety. Overall, relationship-specific variables predicted up to 45% of variance at baseline, and up to 18% of variance at the end of each study. Individual differences also performed well (21% and 12%, respectively). Actor-reported variables (i.e., own relationship-specific and individual-difference variables) predicted two to four times more variance than partner-reported variables (i.e., the partner’s ratings on those variables). Importantly, individual differences and partner reports had no predictive effects beyond actor-reported relationship-specific variables alone. These findings imply that the sum of all individual differences and partner experiences exert their influence on relationship quality via a person’s own relationship-specific experiences, and effects due to moderation by individual differences and moderation by partner-reports may be quite small. Finally, relationship-quality change (i.e., increases or decreases in relationship quality over the course of a study) was largely unpredictable from any combination of self-report variables. This collective effort should guide future models of relationships

The Enforcement of Contracts and Property Rights : Constitutive versus Epiphenomenal Conceptions of Law

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713427609--Copyright Taylor and Francis/ InformaThis paper considers the status of laws and legal institutions in modern socio-economic systems, particularly those laws relating to property, contracts and trade. Are such laws mere reflections of other socio-economic relationships between individuals or social classes, or is law itself a part of the underlying socio-economic reality? Albeit in different ways, both Marxists and individualists (in an analytical sense considered here) have typically favoured the idea that law is an epiphenomenon. In contrast, it is argued in this paper that legal relations are partly constitutive of reality. This argument is extended to support Karl Polanyi’s proposition that markets cannot function properly without some intervention by the state.Peer reviewe

I Wanna Hold Your Hand: Handholding is Subjectively Preferred to Stroking in Acute Emotion Regulation

Social touch is an important form of interpersonal emotion regulation. Existing models illustrate that both the toucher and the person being touched should sense each other to provide mutual feedback. We tested the importance of this mutuality using two well-studied types of touch: handholding and stroking (specifically of skin with C-tactile afferents, i.e. C-touch). We hypothesized that to regulate acute emotions, participants would prefer handholding, which allows for better two-way tactile communication than stroking. In four pre-registered studies (total N=287), participants rated handholding and stroking as emotion regulation methods. We examined touch preference in hypothetical emotional and physical situations (Studies 1-2), in hypothetical injection situations using participants with blood/injection phobia (Study 3), and during recalled childbirth situations (Study 4). In all studies, participants preferred handholding over stroking. This was especially evident in Studies 1-3 in emotionally intense situations. These results demonstrate the importance of two-way sensory communication for consoling touch

Fractionalization and long-run economic growth: webs and direction of association between the economic and the social -- South Africa as a time series case study

Recent cross-sectional growth studies have found that ethnolinguistic fractionalization is an important explanatory variable of long-run growth performance. In the present article, we follow the call of earlier studies to conduct a more detailed clinical analysis of the growth experience of a specific country. South Africa constitutes an interesting case in which to explore these questions. The results of this study provide important nuance to the existing body of evidence. We find that fractionalization is subject to strong change over time. In addition, we find strong evidence of webs of association between the various social, political and institutional dimensions. Thus various forms of social cleavage tend to go hand in hand, which presents the danger of spurious inference of association. Further, the direction of association in the preponderance of cases runs from economic to social, political and institutional variables, rather than the other way around. However, there remain significant impacts from some, but only some fractionalization indexes on economic growth. Which social cleavage, when, how and for what period of time will depend on the historical path of specific societies.