Economia Politica. Rivista di teoria e analisi
Abstracts of articles published in no.3, 1999
Sommari degli articoli pubblicati nel n.3, 1999
Summaries
Introductory Note
Articles
Sixteen Years of Economia Politica. An Analysis from 1984 to 1999 (J.E.L.: A1, B0, B4)
by Sandro Montresor
This paper analyses the underlying principles, the contents and the editorial policy of Economia Politica, the Italian 'Journal of Theory and Analysis' established in 1984, and now at its 16th volume. The analysis is 'self-contained', i.e. based on a direct quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the articles which have been published, rather than on an evaluation of their 'impact-effect', a methodology whose advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Strong peculiarities emerge at different levels. The basic principle of 'reconstructing' an appropriate linkage between theory and analysis influences the actual degree of openness of the journal to different theoretical positions, as well as the relevance granted to empirical questions and policy implications. As for the subjects treated, the great attention for historical and methodological problems is the most apparent characteristic of the Articles, while the Review Articles deal mainly with other questions, playing an important complementary role with respect to the former. Indeed, different typologies of articles implement a useful division of labour within Economia Politica, to which corresponds a certain division of competencies between its authors. Important temporal changes are identified at all the levels, and an attempt at upgrading and extending a previous evaluation is carried out.
Specialisation, Growth and the Balance of Payments (J.E.L.: E12, F43, O33, O41)
by Luca De Benedictis
Along the lines of kaldorian tradition, we analyse how specialisation and innovation, on the one side, and the
propulsive role of demand, on the other, determine the rate of growth of an open economy bounded by its
international economic relations. The model used is characterised by some post-keynesian elements :
cumulative causation through Verdoorn law ; static and dynamic economies of scale ; balance of payments
constrained growth. We add to these elements the role of technology, in particular the role of learning by
doing. Using numerical simulations, we highlight the relevance of specialisation in determining the long run
rate of growth, the economic weight of path-dependency and we study possible catching-up phenomena.
Review Article
A Simple Analytical Exposition of the Social Interaction Economics (J.E.L.: C29, D29)
by Edoardo Gaffeo
This paper offers a survey of several analytical methods recently applied in economics to the analysis of
complex systems. Simply stated, the underlying idea is that macroeconomic variables should be considered as
the result of a continuous process of interaction among heterogeneous agents. This view is clearly at odds with
the standard approach, in which the microfoundation of macroeconomic models is obtained by recurring to an
optimizing representative agent. Unfortunately, the mathematical machinery employed in dealing with social
interactions might prove to be unfamiliar to a large portion of the profession. It follows that an effort in
updating the traditional economists' toolbox is in order. This survey aims to accomplish this task by illustrating
as simply as possible some basic notions of the mathematics of social interaction economics.
Index 1999
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