Suchergebnisse

Energy efficiency improvements have become a major hope for decoupling the energy demand from economic growth and for achieving environmental goals. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of policies based on promoting energy efficiency may be undermined by behavioral responses. A more efficiently produced energy service becomes cheaper and economic theory then suggests that consumers should demand more of it, which will cause a loss of the potential technological saving. The phenomenon is called the rebound effect and it has become a focus of energy economists since early 80s. However, even today there is no clear consensus on its importance. Quantification of the rebound effect is mainly hampered by poor data availability and the comparison of results is not straightforward due to methodological differences. Our study concentrates right on the economic theory of the demand for energy services, definitions and their applicability to empirical estimation. It summarizes the state of knowledge and elaborates on plausible models for empirical quantification of the rebound effect which should bear consistent results. Adapted from the source document.

The paper shows the current state of environmental concerns in economic theory. Different economic schools have incorporated the environmental analysis into their theoretical framework. They use different presumptions, focus on different environmental aspects & come to diverse conclusions & political recommendations. However, there are many unclear frontiers between one another. This paper would like to help to understand these differences. It characterizes & compares the main economic schools & theories. The paper focuses on environmental economics, ecological economics, new institutional economics, free market environmentalism, coevolutionary theory in economics & bioeconomics. References. Adapted from the source document.

The paper is concerned with the Czech privatization. According to the author, there was no economic theory of privatization in 1989. Therefore, decision makers in transition economies had to improvise & solve a dilemma: a fast, or slow privatization? The Czech literature on privatization as well as the strengths & weaknesses of privatization methods in the Czech Republic, including of the voucher one, are discussed. The paper argues against the pessimistic view on the Czech privatization, which predominated in the literature in the second half of the nineties. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

The paper is concerned with the economic theory of George Stigler. First part outlines the life of George Stigler. Second part examines his dissertation "Production and Distribution Theories" (1941). Third part discusses his textbook "The Theory of Price" (1946). Fourth part is devoted to his "Essays in the History of Economics" (1965). Fifth part analyzes the work "The Organization of Industry" (1968). Sixth part explains "The Theory of Economic Regulation" (1971). Seventh part discusses Stigler's book "The Citizen and the State" (1975). Eighth part presents his autobiography "Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist" (1988). Stigler has become famous thanks to articles "Economics of Information" (1961) and "Theory of Economic Regulation" (1971), which says that interest groups and other political participants will use the regulatory and coercive powers of government to shape laws and regulations in a way that is beneficial to them. Adapted from the source document.

Panel data are increasingly being used in both macro- & micro-level studies of economic problems. Macro-panel data (i denotes countries) are characteristic by sufficiently long time series to be able to analyze panel spurious regression & panel cointegration. According to the main stream of the economic theory the budget deficits leads to deterioration in the current account balance. The panel long-run causal relation is examined in the case of the four groups of countries. For the Granger causality test the panel cointegration analysis is needed. The panel cointegration relationships were not found in any case. Some similarities in the panels were found in the case of Latin America countries but they are not significant. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

The essay deals with the development of theory in development economics as a subdiscipline of international economics, within the context of general economic theory. Although some authors believe that it started to develop during the 19th century (as some Latin American countries gained their independence at this time), most authors connect its origin with the decolonization process of the 1950s. The first part describes its rather "naive" beginnings, when it was believed that it is possible to discover a universal theory applicable to the whole "third world" -- such as theories of vicious circles of poverty, the best ways & tools for breaking them, etc. The second phase of development economics, spanning approximately 1970-1990, was characterized by disillusionment & produced a lot of mostly analytical works dealing with partial problems. The third stage (1990-present) has been characterized by a growing demand for the so-called new synthesis. As the authors believe, such a goal would be very difficult to achieve, but in essence, it is achievable by means of joint efforts based on the Millennium Development Goals, changes of international economic & political relations systems & changes in a wide range of global issues. Adapted from the source document.

In this short paper there will be introduced the stream of economic theory labeled as the New Economic Geography (NEG) & derived the core-periphery model, a flagship of the NEG. It is a model of two regions with imperfect competition & increasing returns to scale, where some properties of the model contrast certain features of basic neoclassic models of regional economics & international trade. The role of monopolistic competition & increasing returns to scale opens the possibility of highly nonlinear effects of production location with respect to barriers of trade. I analyze main mechanisms of the model & discuss the relevance of the NEG for economic policy in the context of European economic integration. Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

Paper deals with the European Monetary Union from perspective of Post Keynesian school of economic thought. It discusses separately arguments often proposed by mainstream economists. After the brief introduction, which highlights main differences between mainstream & Post Keynesian economic theory, work deals in sequence with trade argument often found in discussion about monetary unification, monetary issues mainly with the role of European Central Bank & lastly, work appraises European Monetary Union from international monetary arrangement perspective proposed by Post Keynesian economists. Based on this evaluation, work concludes stating that Post Keynesian economists are more likely not to be overenthusiastic with European monetary unification. References. Adapted from the source document.

The authors of the paper discuss reasons as well as current stage of the regulation of the financial (mostly banking) sector. They are not in favor of strict rejection of the regulation, but they are not in favor of strong regulation of the financial sector either. The article is based on the economic theory that there are objective economic reasons as well as specific financial features which cannot recommend and provide clear, simple, and unilateral solution about what level of regulation is appropriate in the financial market. The authors offer some economic ideas that can be useful for preparing and evaluating new regulation of the banking sector. The paper also defines theoretical assumptions of an ideal financial system. Based on those assumptions, the authors formulate and describe problems of real working financial (banking) system, and these problems create necessary condition, but not sufficient condition for imposing regulation. Finally, the paper describes and discusses impacts of concrete new banking regulatory proposals (increasing capital requirements, creating conservation and countercyclical capital buffers, calculating leverage ratio and liquidity ratio, and imposing bank levy). Adapted from the source document.

The paper is concerned with macroeconomic aspects of fertility. Second section starts by outlining the role of population in the history of economic thought, & continues by examining the theory of demographic transition. The fourth section explores the relation between population & economic growth, distinguishing theoretical approaches & empirical research. The fifth section examines the relation between the birth rate & death rate. The sixth section makes insights into the interdependence of fertility & business cycles. The seventh section takes the fiscal effects of population development into account. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper describes the main theoretical concepts of the competition, which is thought to be the fundamental social process in the economy. The protection of competition (or the competition policy) is the one of the most important parts of economic policy, because the competition ensures the freedom of choice. The theory of competition provides large number of assumptions, which were developed within the frame of various economic schools & approaches. This paper starts with the description of the history of competition policy before the coming of Adam Smith. In the middle part of the work there have been formulated basic ideological theses about economic policy. Represented are, for example, the Classics, Ordo-liberalism or Neo-austrian School. Paper is finalized by the major theses of the Harvard & Chicago school. References. Adapted from the source document.

The paper explains the theory of bureaucracy developed by William A. Niskanen. While sociologist Max Weber's analysis treats bureaucrats as "eunuchs" or automatic machines responsible for public well-being, Niskanen tries to apply standard neoclassical economic models to explain the behavior of bureaucracy as a whole. With this background, he concludes that the bureaucracy will concentrate on bargaining processes with the sponsor & not on improving the quality of its services to the public. This is a simple explanation of why the bureaucratic organization provides systematically worse products & services to its customers than does the standard private firm operating on the market. 19 References. Adapted from the source document.

A comprehensive description of just causes for entering a war within the fundamental sources of early Confucian tradition represents the core of the article. The analysis seeks to underline the significant role of the just war theory in contemporary international politics. The article also highlights the rise of the economic, political and military power of China and emphasizes that the country has the potential to play an increasingly important role in world politics over the next few decades. Thus it is necessary to examine the way China is looking at issues of war and ethics. Since there has been evidence uncovered that Confucianism has started to gain influence in Chinese society again, it seems fully acceptable to analyse just war from a Confucian perspective. The main focus of the research is put on exploring works of the founders of Confucianism, particularly the texts of Confucius and Mencius. The analysis of these works uncovers that the main ethical principles of early Confucian teaching allow for various specific reasons for entering a war. Then in the conclusion there is a list of five different types of conflicts that can be assessed as justifiable under certain conditions in Confucian thought. Adapted from the source document.