Economia Politica. Rivista di teoria e analisi
Abstracts of articles published in no.3, 1998
Sommari degli articoli pubblicati nel n.3, 1998
Summaries
Introductory Note
The International Monetary System in Transition
by Robert Guttmann
The stagflation of the 1970s and early 1980s created a dynamic of financial instability and regulatory erosion which destroyed the postwar monetary regime of nationally administered credit-money. Since then the international monetary system has become increasingly privatized, deregulated, and globally integrated. That combination has created a new environment in which financial capital has become a dominant force in the growth dynamic of the world economy. This is an ominous development, since it threatens the public-good quality of money and the stability conditions conducive for long-term investments on a worldwide basis. Reform initiatives to stabilize the international monetary system have been lagging and need to be advanced in a more coherent fashion to deal with a rapidly evolving global-deflation scenario.
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Articles
Knowledge and Information in F.A von Hayek (J.E.L.: A12, B25, D80)
by Stefano Fiori
The thesis sustained is that in Hayek's work two concepts of knowledge are described. The first is an informational knowledge (or simply, information), which consists in a set of "data" dispersed among a multitude of agents. The second is an abstract knowledge, known in specialistic literature as "inarticulate knowledge", characterised as ability to use and re-elaborate profitably the exogenous "data". The notion of information emerges from criticism of the neo-classical tradition, and defines important features which reflect the general exigence of conceiving of a market dynamic theory. Nevertheless it remains a quantitative notion, whereas inarticulate knowledge, partially explained by the evolution of social general rules, is not measurable. In our opinion such concepts are not sufficiently differentiated in Hayek's analysis, although they evidently are strictly connected. Finally we sustain that M. Polanyi's "tacit knowledge" differs from Hayek's "inarticulate knowledge" and that Polanyi's point of view could suggest a new approach both to the knowledge-information problem and to the market co-ordination question.
The Rational Behaviour of the Policy Maker (J.E.L.: B4, D8, E61)
by Silva Marzetti
This article is a reflection on the present state of normative macroeconomics regarding rationality. In referring to the general concept of instrumental rationality, at present normative macroeconomics is characterised by a body of economic theories that, from the point of view of rationality, it is impossible to analyse according to a sole criterion. Therefore, macroeconomic policy accepts two different and antagonistic criteria of rationality: Bayesian reductionism and rational dualism. The first one follows "classical theory" and accepts only substantive criteria; the second one accepts both substantive and procedural rationality. Specifically, after having distinguished between the altruistic policy-maker and the opportunistic or partisan policy-maker, we show that rational dualism in static is at the basis of Tinbergen's Theory of economic policy, and in dynamics it identifies substantive rationality with Sargent's rational expectations hypothesis. Finally, as for the practical application, we show that the existence of concrete limits to a policy-maker's rationality favours individual and procedural rationality.
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