Real-world economies are open-ended dynamic systems consisting of heterogeneous interacting participants. Human participants are decision-makers who strategically take into account the past actions and potential future actions of other participants. All participants are forced to be locally constructive, meaning their actions at any given time must be based on their local states; and participant actions at any given time affect future local states. Taken together, these essential properties imply real-world economies are locally-constructive sequential games. This paper discusses a modeling approach, (...) Agent-based Computational Economics, that permits researchers to study economic systems from this point of view. ACE modeling principles and objectives are first concisely presented and explained. The remainder of the paper then highlights challenging issues and edgier explorations that ACE researchers are currently pursuing. (shrink)

The phrase 'economic system' refers to the organizational arrangements and processes through which a society makes its production and consumption decisions. In this book, Professor Conkin explores the diversity of economic systems and the choices societies must face in determining the economic systems best suited to their needs. He discusses the alternative objectives and alternative decision modes that are available to societies. Objectives such as efficiency, growth, liberty, and equality - though themselves desirable - frequently involve (...) trade-offs; the more complete attainment of any one objective may involve the partial sacrifices of another. In pursuit of its objectives, each society uses a combination of decision modes. Professor Conklin examines six of these: free enterprise, price controls, subsidies, taxation, non-price regulations, and public enterprise. He ends with a discussion of the processes societies use to make their choice among objectives and decision modes. (shrink)

New trends in the economic systems management in the context of modern global challenges: collective monograph / scientific edited by M. Bezpartochnyi, in 2 Vol. // VUZF University of Finance, Business and Entrepreneurship. – Sofia: VUZF Publishing House “St. Grigorii Bogoslov”, 2020. – Vol. 1. – 309 p.

This essay is concerned with the question of what kind of economic system would be needed in order to realize Rawls’s principles of social justice. Hitherto, debates about ‘property-owning democracy’ and ‘liberal socialism’ have been overly schematic, in various respects, and have therefore missed some of the most important issues regarding the relationships between social justice and economic institutions and systems. What is at stake between broadly capitalist or socialist economic systems is not in fact a (...) simple choice in a single dimension, but rather a range of choices across a range of different dimensions. This essay, then, has a dual objective: first, it aims to provide a richer account of this normative territory, while showing how issues of economic democracy, decommodification and the limits of markets, and the role of democratic economic planning, all raise questions of justice that are not well captured by focusing only on questions of ownership. Second, it aims to show how the case for democratic socialism can be developed from Rawlsian foundations, in a way that is sensitive to the normative affinities between Rawlsian liberal egalitarianism and democratic socialism, and which attends carefully to the different kinds of institutional elements which a stable, just, and democratic society would require. Taking these aims together, the hope is that we can move onward to a richer debate about the ways in which the realization of democratic socialist institutions may be seen as a requirement of social justice. (shrink)

Hinduism is above all a way of life and a philosophy of life. Looking more closely, we can see that in India life and religion are inseparable. The objective of this paper is to analyze the influences of religion, in time, on the economic growth of India, a continuously changing country. The Indian economy is an economy of contrasts due to its caste system and its legal aspects that govern the society and which have been imposed since ancient (...) times. After analyzing the Hindu culture and civilization and seeing the impact of religion in the social sphere, we can say that, indeed, Hinduism represents a part of the socio-economic system, a way of life. This country was contemporary with the glory of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome and it saw all of them disappear. No doubt that it is hiding a secret in its way of life and in its spirituality. The secret of life without death, which India knows, results from the primacy of the spirituality. (shrink)

One striking feature of the contemporary modelling practice is its interdisciplinary nature. The same equation forms, and mathematical and computational methods, are used across different disciplines, as well as within the same discipline. Are there, then, differences between intra- and interdisciplinary transfer, and can the comparison between the two provide more insight on the challenges of interdisciplinary theoretical work? We will study the development and various uses of the Ising model within physics, contrasting them to its applications to socio-economic (...) systems. While the renormalization group methods justify the transfer of the Ising model within physics – by ascribing them to the same universality class – its application to socio-economic phenomena has no such theoretical grounding. As a result, the insights gained by modelling socio-economic phenomena by the Ising model may remain limited. (shrink)

Rawls’s consideration not to include the choice of economic systems as part of a theory of justice is inconsistent with his comments on redistribution and the political effects of economic inequality. When Rawls’s discussion of economic systems and his discussion of economic inequalities is examined, it is apparent that the selection of economic systems is a pertinent topic for a theory of justice. The propensity for the primary social good of self-respect to be satisfied can (...) be affected by the selection of economic systems. Rawls has incorrectly determined the selection of economic systems to be unimportant if different economic systems can be more advantageous to the satisfaction of self-respect than others. When socialism and Rawls’s version of regulated capitalism are compared, socialism is a maximin solution, and accordingly will be selected by people within the original position under the veil of ignorance. (shrink)

This chapter was written by He Chuantian and has been translated by Li Jinxin. It first describes the European economy from the European Community (EC) to the European Union (EU), including the development from one to the other, as well as the Customs Union, the Common Agricultural Policy, and the fiscal systems. The economies in four major European countries, Germany, France, the UK, and Russia, are outlined, as is the American economy.

This chapter provides an introduction to the theoretical lenses and methodological framework applied consistently throughout the practical examples included in the book, centred around the key concepts of resources and agents, and modelling and simulation of their interactions.This approach is supported by the resource-dependence theory and resource-based theory, the behavioural decision theory and the anticipatory systems theory, and by qualitative and quantitative system dynamics and agent-based modelling and simulation apparatus.Also, the chapter highlights the key complex adaptive features of the (...) socioeconomic systems and gives an overview of their characteristics within the context of important spheres of society like healthcare and pharmaceuticals, financial markets, art, culture and sociology, public education and social networks. (shrink)

_Comparison of Economic Systems: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches_ offers a profound exploration of the analytical frameworks and methodologies that define the field of comparative economics. Emerging from a University of Michigan research conference, the book charts the evolution of comparative economic systems as a discipline, initially focused on evaluating grand “isms” like capitalism and socialism. It shifts the focus toward a nuanced understanding of the traits, institutions, and decision-making mechanisms that influence economic behavior and performance across different (...) systems. By examining theoretical models, such as those proposed by Koopmans, Montias, and Hurwicz, the volume highlights the interplay of variables like property relations, incentive structures, and resource allocation methods within mixed economic systems. The book seeks to bridge ideological labels with empirical data, fostering a more sophisticated analysis of economic systems in practice. This collection is not just an academic critique of economic ideologies but also a practical guide to comparing performance metrics like growth, efficiency, and stability across national economies. It delves into contemporary challenges, including decision-making in large bureaucracies, the role of public versus private ownership, and the impact of technological advancement on economic organization. With contributions from leading economists and case studies, such as Bergson's work on the Soviet Union and the United States, the book underscores the necessity of interdisciplinary approaches to refine the methodologies of comparative economics. It is an essential resource for economists and policy analysts seeking to understand the complexities of economic systems and their implications for global development. (shrink)

The morality of an economic system characterized as an Adam Smith type system is compared with one characterized by central planning. A prima facie case is made that, while the latter has attributes that satisfy a necessary condition for having moral attributes, the former does not and, as a result, has no moral attributes. But then a deeper look at the situation reveals that the directed systems really do not satisfy the necessary condition either. Both the directed (...) and undirected systems end up in the same boat. Neither have any moral attributes. (shrink)

An ongoing debate in the United States relating to COVID-19 features the purported tension between containing the coronavirus to save lives or opening the economy to sustain livelihoods, with ethical overtones on both sides. Proponents of opening the economy argue that sustaining livelihoods should be prioritized over virus containment, with ethicists asking, “What about the risk to human life?” Defendants of restricting the spread of the virus endorse saving lives through virus containment but contend with the ethical concern “What about (...) people’s livelihoods and individual freedoms?” A commonly held belief is that political ideology drives these differential preferences: liberals are more focused on saving lives, whereas conservatives favor sustaining livelihoods with no additional government intervention in the free-market economy. We examine these lay beliefs among US residents in four studies and find that economic system justification (ESJ), an ideology that defends the prevailing economic system when under threat, is a reliable psychological predictor beyond political ideology. Specifically, compared to those who scored low on ESJ, people who scored high on ESJ judged China as more justified in downplaying the spread of virus to protect its interest in the global free-market economy, supported in-person over online learning, viewed shelter in place as less desirable, and perceived the opening of the Texas economy as more legitimate. We also find that multiple psychological mechanisms might be at work—resistance to market interventions, perceived legitimacy of opening the economy, perceived seriousness of the health crisis, and violation of human rights. (shrink)

Business students appear predisposed to select disciplines consistent with pre-existing worldviews. These disciplines then further reinforce the worldviews which may not always be adaptive. For example, high levels of Social Dominance Orientation is a trait often found in business school students :691–721, 1991). SDO is a competitive and hierarchical worldview and belief-system that ascribes people to higher or lower social rankings. While research suggests that high levels of SDO may be linked to lower levels of empathy, research has not (...) established the potential relationship between another related adaptive trait in the workplace, compassion. Compassion facilitates workplace performance by lowering levels of litigation, easing stress, and facilitating cooperation. Accordingly, the following study aimed to examine the relationship between SDO and compassion while hypothesizing Economic Systems Justification would mediate this relationship. Because of the importance of compassion in the workplace, the prevalence of SDO in the business academic community and the topicality of ESJ, we conducted our study with business school students. Results confirmed all but one hypothesis. (shrink)

This chapter presents and discusses the possibilities of obtaining various benefits from the increasing integration between the analyzed economic systems.

The metrology literature neglects a strong empirical measurement tradition in economics, which is different from the traditions as accounted for by the formalist representational theory of measurement. This empirical tradition comes closest to Mari's characterization of measurement in which he describes measurement results as informationally adequate to given goals. In economics, one has to deal with soft systems, which induces problems of invariance and of self-awareness. It will be shown that in the empirical economic measurement tradition both problems have (...) been on the agenda for a long while, and that the proposed solutions to these problems provide clues for the directions in which one could develop a measurement theory that takes account of soft systems. (shrink)

This article raises the issue of confidence in the global system, especially in its ability to deliver the goods: both material and moral. It reflects our concern, and Ronald Preston's concern, that faith insights should be incorporated into the substance of our economic policies. In response, two discrete but inter-related strategies are pursued. The first is called ‘radical participation seeking consensus’. The second is the constant effort at many levels to balance and counterbalance power. Without the one we (...) shall not draw out the wisdom we require. Without the other, before we even seek that wisdom, we shall demonstrate that we are not wise. (shrink)

"Canada, like other industrial nations, is undergoing widespread social change at a faster pace than ever before. Many features of our basic institutions are being transformed and some of the values on which they were based are being weakened or swept away to be replaced by others. As this Royal Commission indicated in its first report, Challenges and Choices, the scope and implications of these changes call "into question basic assumptions, values, and institutions at every level of society, from the (...) shop floor to the cabinet room, to the international economic system," but while many values change, others endure."--. (shrink)

This thesis addresses one of the most pressing philosophical and political challenges of the 21st century: how to reconceptualize moral agency and stakeholder rights in socio-economic systems to include non-human entities—artificial intelligence, ecosystems, and corporations—without undermining human dignity or democratic accountability. Through a comprehensive analysis of existing literature and the development of novel theoretical frameworks, this work proposes the Graduated Agency-Dignity Matrix (GADM) and the Multispecies Stakeholder Democracy (MSD)model as innovative solutions to this complex challenge. -/- The thesis argues (...) that traditional binary conceptions of moral agency and personhood are inadequate for addressing the realities of AI consciousness, ecosystem rights, and corporate moral agency. Instead, it proposes a graduated approach that recognizes multiple forms and degrees of agency while maintaining human dignity through a novel framework of Dignified Coexistence. The MSD model introduces a nested representation architecture that preserves democratic legitimacy while incorporating non-human interests through human advocates and institutional mechanisms. -/- Key contributions include: (1) the development of a Triadic Legitimacy Model that integrates democratic, stakeholder, and systemic legitimacy; (2) a Graduated Rights Architecture that allocates rights bundles based on agency capacity; (3) a Nested Accountability Framework that maintains democratic oversight while enabling non-human representation; and (4) a comprehensive Implementation Pathway Model for practical realization of these theoretical innovations. -/- The thesis demonstrates that expanding moral consideration to non-human entities is not only compatible with human dignity and democratic accountability but may be essential for addressing contemporary challenges including climate change, AI governance, and corporate responsibility. Through rigorous philosophical analysis and practical institutional design, this work provides a roadmap for creating more inclusive and sustainable socio-economic systems while preserving the fundamental values of human dignity and democratic governance. (shrink)

The essays in this book discuss human behavior and the institutions of capitalism. The essays are non-technical and are written so as to be accessible to students of all disciplines and to all other persons interested in capitalism and in economic behavior. They often present unconventional views of the topics they discuss. Those containing unconventional views discuss self-interested behavior, selfish gene theory, the meaning and social function of private ownership, the externality problem, the nature of the firm and the (...) rise of capitalism. The essays are not meant to be a textbook, but they offer a useful supplementary reading source for courses in business, economics and law that deal with human behavior in the marketplace and with capitalism, ownership, markets and firms. (shrink)

Ecologic-economic systems tend to exhibit greater complexity than systems that are purely ecological or economic. The interactions between the two types often generates nonlinear relations that lead to various kinds of complex dynamics that complicate management and decisionmaking regarding them. Of these, forests have characteristics that lead them to have special problems not usually encountered in the management of such systems. A central one is the long time periods involved managing forests compared to most other such systems. This (...) means that the issues regarding determination of discount rates for valuing future outcomes are more important for forestry management than for many other systems. Also, forests generate a wider range of externalities than do most other ecologic-economic systems, with implications for various hierarchical levels of management. This paper considers the array of these problems as they appear for a variety of forestry management issues. (shrink)

The aim of the article. The aim of the article is to identify the components of social and economic systems life cycle. To achieve this aim, the article describes the traits and characteristics of the system, determines the features of social and economic systems functioning and is applied a systematic approach in the study of their life cycle. The results of the analysis. It is determined that the development of social and economic systems has signs of (...) cyclicity and is explained methodologically by the axiomatics, rules and laws. Understanding of circular patterns has been formed long ago and now is recorded by scientists monitoring the properties of natural and artificial environment of human activity. During the study, it was found out that in scientific literature there is no unified description of the life cycle elements of social and economic systems at personal, micro, meso, macro and global levels. The paper investigates the cyclical patterns in multilevel social and economic systems for a human, employee, family, product, company, city, industry, elite, macroeconomic indicators, humanity, global processes, global economic system and the Universe. It is noted that at grass-roots administrative levels of the global environment of a human life activity system, a thesis about the cyclicity of development and the stages of the life cycle is considered by a wide circle of scientists and is doubtless. On hierarchically higher management levels of the global environment of human activity system, the scientists noticed the similar patterns of the cyclical nature. Problematic and discussion questions about cyclic development of social and economic systems are identified: the uncertainty of the driving force source of repeated changes; the vague distinction between systemic (internal) and off-system (external) influence on development; the lack of a unified description of development nature at different managerial levels; the use of different descriptive terms for the same constituent elements of repeated changes (period, stage, phase, wave, cycle); the uncertainty of the number of repeated changes constituent elements; the absence of an identification mechanism of the exact time of changes in the constituent elements of repeated changes; the surface description of out-of-system period of the subjects activity («before-system» period of creation and «after-system» period of liquidation); attaching more importance to primary and less importance to ultimate component elements of the repeated changes; the lack of reliable mechanism for predicting and forecasting the dynamics of constituent components of repeated changes. It is noted that all social and economic systems are developed within repeated changes and they have the same attributes of cyclicity: the fluctuation of indicators is marked that characterize the condition of the subject; the presence of system (from creation to liquidation) and out-of-system (creation – «design» and liquidation – «disposal») periods are noted; the subjects are created by the actions of other subjects (that is, subjects do not arise «out of nowhere», but are the result of actions of other subjects – «constructors»); after cessation of subjects functioning, their resources are used by other subjects (that is, the subjects do not disappear «nowhere», and they are transformed into the resources of other subjects – «recovery»); a unidirectional life cycle from «birth» to «death» is observed in the subjects; the subjects do not have to undergo the whole life cycle (each time might be the last); the subjects display similar changes of the indicators during their activity; ascending, peak and descending fluctuations of indicators are observed in the subjects; minor fluctuations occur in the constituent elements; the subjects have individual nature of indicator fluctuations and duration of activity. Conclusions and directions of further researches. The scientific novelty of the study is identification structure of life cycle of social and economic system with definitions of: common («before-system state», «growth», «stabilization», «reduction», «after-system state») and specific («creation», «slow growth», «rapid growth», «growth stabilization», «short stabilization», «rapid reduction», «slow reduction», «liquidation») constituent elements of repeated changes; marginal borders of indicators; dynamics of constituent elements of life cycle; key points of changing nature of the indicators dynamics. Identification of the life cycle of social and economic systems characterizes potentially possible limits of their activity in time and provides the possibility of further research of aspects of the cyclical development for methodological basis formation and the development of applied measures of systemic development in the areas of marketing and management innovations. (shrink)

“A Public Domain, once a velvet carpet of rich buffalo-grass and grama, now an illimitable waste of rattlesnake-bush and tumbleweed, too impoverished to be accepted as a gift by the states within which it lies. Why? Because the ecology of the Southwest happened to be set on a hair trigger.”.

“A Public Domain, once a velvet carpet of rich buffalo-grass and grama, now an illimitable waste of rattlesnake-bush and tumbleweed, too impoverished to be accepted as a gift by the states within which it lies. Why? Because the ecology of the Southwest happened to be set on a hair trigger.”.

We propose an axiomatic approach to constructing the dynamics of systems, in which one the main elements 9e8 is the consciousness of a subject. The main axiom is the statements that the state of consciousness is completely determined by the results of measurements performed on it. In case of economic systems we propose to consider an offer of transaction as a fundamental measurement. Transactions with delayed choice, discussed in this paper, represent a logical generalization of incomplete transactions and allow (...) for a more rigorous approach to studying the properties of the algebra of economic measurements. Considering the behavior of an object as a sequence of actions and choices allows extending the obtained results to random systems, which include the subject's consciousness as one of its elements. The specifics, on which the description of fundamental measurements is based, allows easily transferring the formalism of Schwinger's theory of selective measurements (and the consequent quantum-mechanical formalism) to the economic and social systems. (shrink)

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease that was first recognized in China in late 2019. Among the primary effects caused by the pandemic, there was the dissemination of health preventive measures such as physical distancing, travel restrictions, self-isolation, quarantines, and facility closures. This includes the global disruption of socio-economic systems including the postponement or cancellation of various public events (e.g., sporting, cultural, or religious), supply shortages and fears of the (...) same, schools and universities closure, evacuation of foreign citizens, a rise of unemployment, changes in the international aid schemes, misinformation, and incidents of discrimination toward people affected by or suspected of having the COVID-19 disease. The pandemic has brought to the fore unpreparedness in critical areas that require attention, amid prospects and challenges. Moreover, considerable reorganization efforts are required with implications for assets, resources, norms, and value systems. COVID-19 is challenging the concept of globalization and stimulating responses at the levels of local and regional socio-economic systems that lead to the mobilization of assets that have been unrecognized earlier on, such as various forms of economic capital, social capital, cultural capital, human capital, and creative capital. For example, through digital channels, local groups are forming to create schemes of support for physical and mental wellbeing. These emerging exchanges lead to various social and technological innovations by building on skills and assets that are less important in the free-market economy, such as empathy, skills for crafts, making and fixing; locally grown microgreens; and micromanufacturing. Isolation and local living are also making it much harder to ignore the civic responsibilities towards communities, meant as individuals, vulnerable groups, and local businesses. Whilst the pandemic is limiting physical participation, this challenging time is uncovering alternative ways of mutual support, which may create long-term benefits for socio-economic systems, including environmental and biodiversity protection, reduction of the air pollution, and climate action. The pandemic’s threat to public health will hopefully be overcome with implications for disruption for an extended period that we are unable to forecast at this stage. It is key to focus on studies recognizing the activities and interventions leading to the recovery of socio-economic systems after the pandemic. Reflecting and planning on how societies and economies will go back to “business as usual” requires new forms of communication and cooperation, imaginative design thinking, new styles of management, as well as new tools and forms of participation in various public policies. Many questions related to the care of the vulnerable, economic restart, and the risk of future pandemics, to mention but a few, are already occupying the academic, scientific, experts, and activist communities, who have started to imagine the “new normal.”. (shrink)

The declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, led to unprecedented events. All regions of the world participated in implementing preventive health measures such as physical distancing, travel restrictions, self-isolation, quarantines, and facility closures. The pandemic started global disruption of socio-economic systems, covering the postponement or cancellation of public events, supply shortages, schools and universities’ closure, evacuation of foreign citizens, a rise in unemployment and inflation, misinformation, the anti-vaccine movement, and incidents of (...) discrimination toward people affected by or suspected of having coronavirus disease. Attempts have been made to protect the oldest age group at risk, but in many cases, this has led to over-restriction and age discrimination. The rationale for working on the Research Topic "Socio-economic systems in the post-pandemic world: Design thinking, strategic planning, management, and public policy" was the need to start reflecting on resilience and lessons learned from this public health event that revealed the global unpreparedness in critical areas. Also, the pandemic triggered both top-down and bottom-up responses that needed more in-depth analyzes. This Research Topic covers interdisciplinary contributions addressing new thinking, challenges, and transformations required for post-pandemic global, national, regional, and local realities. The presented Research Topic combines studies focused on recognizing the actions and interventions leading to the recovery of socio-economic systems during the tail end and after the pandemic. The studies delivered recommendations regarding, among others, the care of vulnerable, planning socio-economic restart, and imagining the "new normal.". (shrink)

The activity of any socio-economic system is associated with the instability of the external environment and the presence of negative factors influencing its functioning, which, in turn, can provoke the emergence of crisis phenomena, slows down the process of development of the organization and makes it less effective. The prerequisites for this may be factors that are formed not only in the external, but also in the internal environment. This issue is of particular relevance today, in the context (...) of the existence of the consequences of the pandemic in the world. Many years of experience in the activity of socio-economic systems in a market environment shows that this problem remains relevant to them even now in today's postmodern world. Successful overcoming of crisis situations depends on the effectiveness of anti-crisis management and management of anti-crisis potential, the type of crisis. After all, each crisis situation, which is formed under the influence of specific factors, has a clear characteristic and belongs to a certain category. With this information, you can form a clear plan of management actions to effectively overcome the crisis in socio-economic systems. But in order to determine what types of crises affect the activities of socio-economic systems, it is first of all necessary to determine the types of crises in socio-economic systems. The article analyzes the main features of the functioning of today's socio-economic system and the impact of such post-pandemic consequences on it. (shrink)

Total factor productivity is not only the core of high-quality economic development but also a core indicator for measuring the quality of economic development. Improving total factor productivity is one of the most critical points in building a modern economic system. Firstly, this paper uses the DEA-Malmquist index method to measure and decompose the total factor productivity of China’s 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions from 2001 to 2017 and analyzes the characteristics of its temporal and (...) spatial changes. From a spatial perspective, the regional gap is relatively large. Secondly, we construct the index system of five dimensions and use this index system to comprehensively evaluate the improvement degree of China’s modernized economic system. The results show that the overall level of the improvement degree of China’s modernized economic system is relatively low, and the differences between provinces are great. Thirdly, this paper uses static and dynamic spatial econometric models to empirically analyze the effect of total factor productivity on the improvement degree of the modern economic system. The results show that the improvement degree of the modern economic system in China has obvious characteristics of time spillover and space spillover. Finally, we put forward countermeasures and suggestions on how to perfect the modern economic system. (shrink)

A sustainable system has all the essential characteristics of an organism?an irreducible whole that develops, maintains and reproduces, or renews, itself by mobilizing material and energy captured from the environment. What is the nature of the material and energy mobilization that makes an organism? I begin with a brief description of a tentative theory of the organism?developed in detail elsewhere (Ho, 1993; 1994a; 1995a,b; 1996b,c)?as a dynamically and energetically closed domain of cyclic non?dissipative processes coupled to irreversible dissipative processes, (...) which effectively frees the organism from thermodynamic constraints so that it is poised for rapid, specific intercommunication, enabling it to function as a coherent whole. I shall then show how this novel theoretical framework may begin to provide normative criteria for sustainable economic systems, thereby also exposing some of the inadequacies of current models and assumptions. (shrink)

(1993). Editorial introduction to special issue on evolution of socio‐economic systems. World Futures: Vol. 37, The Evolution of Socio-Economic Systems, pp. 1-3.

In this book, Frederic L. Pryor uses the concept of structural complexity to show how changes in the population, the labour force, the structure of industry, the financial system, foreign and domestic trade, and the government sector are related to the same general trend in the US economic system. He also investigates the impact of these changes on the functioning of the system, exploring such matters as the long-term rising unemployment rate, the allegedly increasing volatility of (...) the economy, the changing degree of competition, and the evolving economic role of the government. The discussion is aimed at those who wish to view the economy as a whole and who are concerned with problems of understanding an economy that is becoming increasingly complex along many different dimensions. For specialists a number of appendices discuss a variety of technical issues. (shrink)

This book describes and analyses the activities and procedures through which the professional economist may advise on matters of public policy, specifically on the performance of an economic system. The author shows that the decision-making component within a system may be defined in terms of optimal policies for attaining well-specified objectives, but that the choice of rules by which the system is governed must remain 'outside' the system due to its dependence upon the legislative process. (...) He proposes a 'generating mechanism' for arriving at public policy choices based on the interaction between the economic system and the legislative process. (shrink)

The present paper discusses the problem of quantum-mechanical properties of a subject’s consciousness. The model of generalized economic measurements is used for the analysis. Two types of such measurements are analyzed – transactions and technologies. Algebraic ratios between the technology-type measurements allow making their analogy with slit experiments in physics. It has been shown that the description of results of such measurements is possible both in classical and in quantum formalism of calculation of probabilities. Thus, the quantum-mechanical formalism of (...) the description of states appears as a result of idealization of the selection mechanism in the proprietor's consciousness. (shrink)

Marketing communication in modern times is similar to the propaganda model, i.e. persuasive communication in all possible fields of exploitation. The last three decades in Central and Eastern Europe constituted a time of transformation in many areas of social, political and economic life. Thanks to immanent changes depending on the economic situation and the clash of demand and supply, it was possible to create functional models in three selected time intervals distinguished by the author (socialism, transformational period and (...) capitalism). The use of functional models gives the opportunity to indicate how many changes have taken place in such a short period of time both in terms of consumer mentality and in satisfying the needs of producers. The basis for the application of this type of operationalization of the idea is the statement that “the functional model consists in mapping the functioning of a given system. It should give an idea of the functions and processes taking place in a given system” (Sabryła, Trzciniecki 1986). The purpose of this article is also to start a discussion on contemporary models of product communication. (shrink)

The establishment of the Nazi regime was a direct consequence of the power struggle between the divergent political parties during Weimar and, according the Institute, consummated the maturation of capitalism into its higher configuration. Whether this configuration was ‘state capitalist’ or ‘monopoly capitalist’ is subjected to assessment in Chapter 4. Scholarly debates of the twentieth century were spirited and vigorous, oftentimes fierce and violent – the Institute was no exception. After 1937, there was a rift within the Institute between supporters (...) of Neumann, who held onto the belief that power under National Socialism was still decisively in the hands of the monopoly capitalists and big businessmen of Weimar, and those who supported Pollock’s thesis of the primacy of the political and the state. The chapter sheds some light on this internal debate through a detailed analysis of internal relational dynamics and theoretical disputes, revealing the intellectual vitality and complexity of the Institute’s economic discourse. (shrink)