Categoria: wp2009

Jan Fagerberg  and Martin Srholec

Abstract:  This paper explores the possibility that technological capabilities, to lead to development, need to be accompanied by a broader set of “social capabilities”, reflecting not only the
quality of governance but also the spread of values, beliefs and institutions that encourage members of society to actively contribute to the development process. To investigate this issue, a set of empirical indicators, reflecting the capabilities that have been emphazised in the literature as being important for development, was identified.

A review essay on Luca Fantacci (2005) La moneta: Storia di un’istituzione mancata (Money: History of a Missing Institution) (Venezia: Biblioteca Marsilio).

Abstract: In this paper I am going to explore some of the major theoretical concepts and ideas in Luca Fantacci’s work devoted to the history of money. As a historical check on Fantacci’s theory I will present various moments in Russian monetary history interpreted in the light of the ideas of the La moneta: storia di un’instituzione mancata. I will compare Fantacci’s theory of division between the unit of account and the medium of exchange with those of Walther Eucken and the Austrian School as well as of some other contemporary authors. A new institutional reading of the evolution of money “money as an institutional compound” is proposed.

This paper proposes a two-step aggregation method for measuring long-term income inequality and
income mobility, where mobility is defined as an equalizer of long-term income. First, the income
stream of each individual is aggregated into a measure of permanent income, which accounts for the
costs associated with income fluctuations.

Consequently, mobility will have an unambiguously positive impact on social welfare in the sense that for two societies that have identical short term income distributions, the social welfare will be greatest for the socie ty which exhibits most mobility.

Abstract: A logistic function framework is used to allocate European Union Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP) direct payments to farmers among the different member
states. Total CAP expenditure is the starting point for the process, which contemplates
two phases.

In Phase 1 expenditure is allocated by taking into consideration the
economic dimension of farms in each country. In Phase 2 the amount allocated to each
member state is further modulated to accommodate both economic efficiency and green
house gas emissions generated by the country