Measurement in Economics and Social Science

The paper discusses measurement, primarily in economics, from both analytical and historical perspectives. The historical section traces the commitment to ordinalism on the part of economic theorists from the doctrinal disputes between classical economics and marginalism, through the struggle of orthodox economics against socialism down to the cold-war alliance between mathematical social science and anti-communist ideology. In economics the commitment to ordinalism led to the separation of theory from the quantitative measures that are computed in practice: price and quantity indexes, consumer surplus and real national product. The commitment to ordinality entered political science, via Arrow’s ‘impossibility theorem’, effectively merging it with economics, and ensuring its sterility. How can a field that has as its central result the impossibility of democracy contribute to the design of democratic institutions? The analytical part of the paper deals with the quantitative measures mentioned above. I begin with the conceptual clarification that what these measures try to achieve is a restoration of the money metric that is lost when prices are variable. I conclude that there is only one measure that can be embedded in a satisfactory economic theory, free from unreasonable restrictions. It is the Törnqvist index as an approximation to its theoretical counterpart the Divisia index. The statistical agencies have at various times produced different measures for real national product and its components, as well as related concepts. I argue that all of these are flawed and that a single deflator should be used for the aggregate and the components. Ideally this should be a chained Törnqvist price index defined on aggregate consumption. The social sciences are split. The economic approach is abstract, focused on the assumption of rational and informed behavior, and tends to the political right. The sociological approach is empirical, stresses the non-rational aspects of human behavior and tends to the political left. I argue that the split is due to the fact that the empirical and theoretical traditions were never joined in the social sciences as they were in the natural sciences. I also argue that measurement can potentially help in healing this split

Colonialism, postcolonialism and the liberal welfare state

This article addresses the colonial and racial origins of the welfare state with a particular emphasis on the liberal welfare state of the USA and UK. Both are understood in terms of the centrality of the commodified status of labour power expressing a logic of market relations. In contrast, we argue that with a proper understanding of the relations of capitalism and colonialism, the sale of labour power as a commodity already represents a movement away from the commodified form of labour represented by enslavement. European colonialism is integral to the development of welfare states and their forms of inclusion and exclusion which remain racialised through into the twenty-first century

Uneven and combined development

Uneven and combined development. Regional Studies. The concept of uneven and combined development (U&CD) interprets dynamic historical change and comparative geographical differentiation in terms of the co-existence of tendencies towards differentiation and equalization of the conditions of production, consumption, distribution and exchange, deriving from capital accumulation and political multiplicity. U&CD entails a conception of the global system as a constellation of interdependent, national institutional configurations and interests that shape international/national/regional trends. To explain geographies of industrialization and urbanization and current trends towards a pluri-centric world, U&CD requires, however, a specification of the underlying causal mechanisms, examined in economic geography, international relations and developmental state theories

Does Political and Economic Freedom Matter for Inbound Tourism? A Cross-National Panel Data Estimation

The paper examines the impact of political and economic freedom on inbound tourism for over 110 countries during 1995-2012. Panel country fixed-effects techniques are utilized to examine the relationship after controlling for other factors that contribute to inbound tourism. The results show that civil liberties and economic freedom (among several other freedom measures) are positively and significantly associated with inbound tourism. Examination of the moderation effect reveals that civil liberties (economic freedom) tend to play a more influential role on inbound tourism when the level of economic freedom (civil liberties) is relatively low

CLIMP-63 is a gentamicin-binding protein that is involved in drug-induced cytotoxicity

Aminoglycoside-induced nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity is a major clinical problem. To understand how aminoglycosides, including gentamicin, induce cytotoxicity in the kidney proximal tubule and the inner ear, we identified gentamicin-binding proteins (GBPs) from mouse kidney cells by pulling down GBPs with gentamicin–agarose conjugates and mass spectrometric analysis. Among several GBPs specific to kidney proximal tubule cells, cytoskeleton-linking membrane protein of 63 kDa (CLIMP-63) was the only protein localized in the endoplasmic reticulum, and was co-localized with gentamicin-Texas Red (GTTR) conjugate after cells were treated with GTTR for 1 h. In western blots, kidney proximal tubule cells and cochlear cells, but not kidney distal tubule cells, exhibited a dithiothreitol (DTT)-resistant dimer band of CLIMP-63. Gentamicin treatment increased the presence of DTT-resistant CLIMP-63 dimers in both kidney proximal (KPT11) and distal (KDT3) tubule cells. Transfection of wild-type and mutant CLIMP-63 into 293T cells showed that the gentamicin-dependent dimerization requires CLIMP-63 palmitoylation. CLIMP-63 siRNA transfection enhanced cellular resistance to gentamicin-induced toxicity, which involves apoptosis, in KPT11 cells. Thus, the dimerization of CLIMP-63 is likely an early step in aminoglycoside-induced cytotoxicity in the kidney and cochlea. Gentamicin also enhanced the binding between CLIMP-63 and 14-3-3 proteins, and we also identified that 14-3-3 proteins are involved in gentamicin-induced cytotoxicity, likely by binding to CLIMP-63

Science and Ideology in Economic, Political, and Social Thought

This paper has two sources: One is my own research in three broad areas: business cycles, economic measurement and social choice. In all of these fields I attempted to apply the basic precepts of the scientific method as it is understood in the natural sciences. I found that my effort at using natural science methods in economics was met with little understanding and often considerable hostility. I found economics to be driven less by common sense and empirical evidence, then by various ideologies that exhibited either a political or a methodological bias, or both. This brings me to the second source: Several books have appeared recently that describe in historical terms the ideological forces that have shaped either the direct areas in which I worked, or a broader background. These books taught me that the ideological forces in the social sciences are even stronger than I imagined on the basis of my own experiences. The scientific method is the antipode to ideology. I feel that the scientific work that I have done on specific, long standing and fundamental problems in economics and political science have given me additional insights into the destructive role of ideology beyond the history of thought orientation of the works I will be discussing

CLIMP-63 is a gentamicin-binding protein that is involved in drug-induced cytotoxicity

Aminoglycoside-induced nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity is a major clinical problem. To understand how aminoglycosides, including gentamicin, induce cytotoxicity in the kidney proximal tubule and the inner ear, we identified gentamicin-binding proteins (GBPs) from mouse kidney cells by pulling down GBPs with gentamicin–agarose conjugates and mass spectrometric analysis. Among several GBPs specific to kidney proximal tubule cells, cytoskeleton-linking membrane protein of 63 kDa (CLIMP-63) was the only protein localized in the endoplasmic reticulum, and was co-localized with gentamicin-Texas Red (GTTR) conjugate after cells were treated with GTTR for 1 h. In western blots, kidney proximal tubule cells and cochlear cells, but not kidney distal tubule cells, exhibited a dithiothreitol (DTT)-resistant dimer band of CLIMP-63. Gentamicin treatment increased the presence of DTT-resistant CLIMP-63 dimers in both kidney proximal (KPT11) and distal (KDT3) tubule cells. Transfection of wild-type and mutant CLIMP-63 into 293T cells showed that the gentamicin-dependent dimerization requires CLIMP-63 palmitoylation. CLIMP-63 siRNA transfection enhanced cellular resistance to gentamicin-induced toxicity, which involves apoptosis, in KPT11 cells. Thus, the dimerization of CLIMP-63 is likely an early step in aminoglycoside-induced cytotoxicity in the kidney and cochlea. Gentamicin also enhanced the binding between CLIMP-63 and 14-3-3 proteins, and we also identified that 14-3-3 proteins are involved in gentamicin-induced cytotoxicity, likely by binding to CLIMP-63