Creating Capitalism: Using Growth Models to Assess Transition

Five generic reforms, price liberalization, property privatization, macroeconomic stabilization, microeconomic restructuring and trade liberalization, are integrated into both exogenous and endogenous growth models. This integration allows one to assess the implications of each reform for a representative consumer. If one assumes that in assessing a prospective reform each voter, given his unique characteristics and circumstances, acts as if he were the representative consumer, then this framework allows one to evaluate quantitatively the prospects of each reform for each distinct group. This model can be used to forecast how different voters, young-old, flexible-rigid, working-retired, taxpayer-transfer recipient, will respond to each proposal. This can in turn be used to determine the likelihood of success of a democratic polity in transition to capitalism.transition; reforms; exogenous growth models; endogenous growth models

Depreciation, Deterioration and Obsolescence when there is Embodied or Disembodied Technical Change

The paper considers how to measure capital in a model where technical progress is either embodied in new units of capital or it is "disembodied" and simply causes the price of capital services to fall. The disembodied case is considered in sections 2-4. Sections 2 and 3 set out standard vintage capital aggregation models when there is no embodied technical progress. Section 4 discusses disembodied obsolescence in more detail. Section 5 introduces new (more efficient) models of the capital good so that technical progress is embodied in the new models. Section 6 shows how the parameters in the Jorgenson model of capital services could be estimated by statistical agencies if their investment surveys covered sales and retirements of used assets as well as purchases of new assets. Section 7 concludes.Aggregation of Capital, embodiment of technical progress, depreciation, deterioration, obsolescence, index number theory

Creating Capitalism: Politics, Reforms, and Economic Performance

Building on a model that integrates reforms into exogenous and endogenous growth models, this paper designs an econometric model of the interplay between economic reform measures, political decisions and economic performance. Several key hypotheses about transition are tested using two-stage least squares on a logit model using data for six countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Russia and Slovakia) over their first ten years of freedom. We draw three conclusions from the empirical evidence. (1) Contrary to the litany that everyone favors reforms, we find that voting for strong reform parties leads to more reforms. (2) History matters, even in a model of forward looking rational agents. Where communism was relatively popular, Russia, Hungary and Bulgaria, reform is slower, more problematic, and aimed toward a welfare state not US-style capitalism. The cost of debunking communist ideology evidently slows progress considerably. (3) Better economic performance does not result quickly from reforms. From a public choice perspective the immediate identifiable social costs of reforms often appear stronger than the eventual diffuse benefits. Though not surprising this result does not auger well for reformers. Finally, critical macroeconomic data for the earlier years around the transition period are very poor quality. Indeed economic data seems to be too poor to reveal much about changing economic circumstance. Measured output may actually move in the opposite direction of realized output. International agencies could contribute greatly to analysis of transition by quickly and deeply engaging the local statistical agencies.transition; reforms; growth; voting; public choice; Central Europe; Russia; two stage least squares; logit

Energy, Obsolescence, and the Productivity Slowdown

The growth rate of output per worker in the U.S. declined sharply during the 1970's. A leading explanation of this phenomenon holds that the dramatic rise in energy prices during the 1970's caused a significant portion of the U.S. capital stock to become obsolete. This led to a decline in effective capital input which, in turn, caused a reduction in the reduction in the growth rate of output per worker. This paper examines a key prediction of this hypothesis. If there is a significant link between energy and capital obsolescence, it should be revealed in the market price of used capital: if rising energy costs did in fact render older, energy-inefficient capital obsolete, prospective buyers should have reduced the price that they were willing to pay for that capital. An examination of the market for used capital before and after the energy price shocks should thus reveal the presence and magnitude of the obsolescence effect. We have carried out this examination for four types of used machine tools and five types of construction equipment. We did not find a general reduction in the price of used equipment after the energy price shocks. Indeed, the price of used construction equipment - the more energy intensive of our two types of capital - tended to increase after 1973. We thus conclude that our data do not support the obsolescence explanation of the productivity of slowdown.

Cancer stem cell metabolism: A potential target for cancer therapy

© 2016 The Author(s). Cancer Stem cells (CSCs) are a unipotent cell population present within the tumour cell mass. CSCs are known to be highly chemo-resistant, and in recent years, they have gained intense interest as key tumour initiating cells that may also play an integral role in tumour recurrence following chemotherapy. Cancer cells have the ability to alter their metabolism in order to fulfil bio-energetic and biosynthetic requirements. They are largely dependent on aerobic glycolysis for their energy production and also are associated with increased fatty acid synthesis and increased rates of glutamine utilisation. Emerging evidence has shown that therapeutic resistance to cancer treatment may arise due to dysregulation in glucose metabolism, fatty acid synthesis, and glutaminolysis. To propagate their lethal effects and maintain survival, tumour cells alter their metabolic requirements to ensure optimal nutrient use for their survival, evasion from host immune attack, and proliferation. It is now evident that cancer cells metabolise glutamine to grow rapidly because it provides the metabolic stimulus for required energy and precursors for synthesis of proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. It can also regulate the activities of some of the signalling pathways that control the proliferation of cancer cells. This review describes the key metabolic pathways required by CSCs to maintain a survival advantage and highlights how a combined approach of targeting cellular metabolism in conjunction with the use of chemotherapeutic drugs may provide a promising strategy to overcome therapeutic resistance and therefore aid in cancer therapy

Macroeconomics : theory, evidence, and policy

vii, 518 p.; 22 cm