| REVISTA DE ECONOMÍA
INSTITUCIONAL No. 8, FIRST SEMESTER 2003
The Political
Economy of Social Exclusion in Colombia 
Luis Jorge Garay [pdf] [html]
[Key words: social exclusion, economic development, democracy,
social transformation, JEL: E69, O10, O29]
Colombia is a society with grave problems of social exclusion.
However it is possible to work toward social inclusion if
the political and economic forces of the country restructured
democratically. It is necessary to create a comprehensive
system of social protection and social security, adjust
public finances, establish justice and defense as the two
pillars of a state based on law enforcement, work toward
economic and political democratization, without interrupting
the development of the market regime with appropriate regulation
of the State. It is only possible to construct a political,
economical and social democracy with a profound social transformation.
New Theories
and Conceptual Approaches on Regional Development: ¿Towards
a New Paradigm?
Édgard Moncayo Jiménez [pdf] [html]
[Key words: regional development, economic geography, territory,
economic growth, JEL: 018, R12, R19]
Space, geography and territorial organization have gained
importance in recent studies on economical and political
development. This reveals a (re)territorialization of the
theoretical approaches of development. This paper systematically
studies new theories of economic growth, analysis of State
transformation, neoinstitutionalist approaches and the environmental
perspective. Though these theories come from different disciplines,
they converge in a new paradigm of development. In this
new approach, the territory is not considered a receptacle-perimeter
of productive activities and sociopolitical process, but
as an explanatory element of development.
Institutional Changes of
the Russian Economy: From Market Policies to Monetary
Consolidation
Isabel Pla Julián [pdf] [html]
[Key words: economic transition, monetary markets, barter
economy, JEL: E42, L22, P26, P39]
The main characteristic of the transition from a planned
to a market economy in Russia has been the barter economy.
Firms are using non-monetary transactions as a result of
the scarcity of the means of payment and as a means to avoid
taxes and reduce fiscal obligations. The barter economy
is a rational mechanism of survival and protection from
new market reforms, and for taking advantage of the networks
inheritated from the centralized period. This non-monetary
functioning of the Russian economy has increased the costs
of the economic system and new market economy reforms concentrated
on monetary consolidation haven’t produced the expected
results, because public polices were not credible and policy
makers didn’t anticipate the appearance of new firms
in the transition period.
Original Institutional Economics
and New Institutional Economics: Revisiting the Bridges
(or the Divide)
Jairo Parada [pdf] [html]
[Key words: New Institutional Economics, Original Institutional
Economics, neoclassical economics, evolutionary economics,
JEL: E11, E13, E19]
The purpose of this paper is to present the main differences
between New Institutional Economics, NIE, and Original Institutional
Economics, OIE, and to question some of the proposals that
call for the gap between the two approaches to be bridge.
This does not preclude the possibilities of a dialogue.
Without ignoring some important theoretical developments
in North’s work, the author claims that NIE is a school
that operates in the periphery of the neoclassical economics
paradigm, and shares its ontological and methodological
foundations; however these are very different from the evolutionary
(Darwinian) economics of Thorstein Veblen. Though the task
of integrating the OIE and NIE seems impossible following
the road of eclecticism, a dialogue between them could open
new perspectives and enrich institutional economics.
Institutions, Transaction
Costs and Public Policy: A Perspective
Xosé Carlos Arias y Gonzalo Caballero [pdf] [html]
[Key words: economic models, public policies, transaction
costs, rules, commitments, JEL: D72, D23, L14]
Recently a new approach to political economy has been consolidated.
The political analysis of transaction costs is an attempt
to solve some of the problems which arise in economic theories
of public policy. This paper deals with the notions of transaction
costs, institutional efficiency, governance structures and
commitment value; and defines political interchange as political
contracts. Political transactions have high transaction
costs and the efficiency of the “political market"
requires a democratic system with institutions that favour
reasoned decisions and prevents democratic delegation from
becoming abdication. This article surveys literature with
a transaction cost perspective and shows that it has been
very useful for the theoretical explanation of the role
of political agents and the evolution of rules that guide
their interaction. The main challenge is to provide empirical
evidence to the theoretical proposals.
Interpersonal Comparisons
and the Evaluation of Alternative Social States
Andrés Fernando Casas, Darwin F. Cortés
y Luis Fernando Gamboa [pdf] [html]
[Key words: welfare economics, alternative social states,
interpersonal comparisons, JEL: D60, D63, I39]
This document outlines the basic concepts of economic theory
that are used to evaluate alternative social states, based
on the formulation of a social welfare function that either
permits or denies interpersonal comparisons of utility.
Specially, it shows different approaches of old and new
welfare economics. And concludes that Amartya Sen’s
contribution to the concept of welfare as functioning and
of justice as capacity to choose among different functionings,
makes it possible to consider agents differently and to
evaluate alternative options of life conditions.
Two Sides of
Entrepreneurship:
Towards the Need to Distinguish Between a Popular Label
Dieter Bögenhold [pdf] [html]
[Key words: entrepreneurship, self-employment, economic
policy, service sector trends, labour market, JEL: D29,
J49, L89]
Entrepreneurship has become a prominent and strategically
important issue when talking about the driving forces of
prosperity and job creation. However, entrepreneurship seems
to be poorly defined. The paper studies central assumptions
by questioning what many contemporaries take for granted.
The paper shows that it is necessary to define the term
“entrepreneurship". Recent arguments should
distinguish the difference, sometimes contradictory, between
the phenomenon of dynamic fast growing firms and that of
the emergence of new microenterprises of the self-employed
that have neither the intention nor the possibility of growing.
Economic policy debate should specify more precisely what
is really meant when talking about entrepreneurship. |
