Economics and Ethics 1: The Microeconomic Basis

ISBN-13: 9783642534348 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 342 str.

Wilhelm E. Krelle; Wilhelm E. Krelle

Opis

When one gets older, one looks at the science in which one has been working for a long time from a certain distance such that the general approach, the contours of the whole and the connections to other parts of the social sciences come to the foreground whereas the elaboration of the details must be left to younger colleagues. This applies also to this book: details are left to younger colleagues - if they find it worthwhile to try this new approach. I know quite well that the ideas presented here are incomplete and more in the spirit of a research program than a final product in itself. But time runs out. I personally think that this new road is worthwhile trying, but, of course, I, as the author, am not unprejudiced. On the other hand, after a certain age one is not so sensible to be torn to pieces by his critics, nature will do that anyway. I present here only the basic ideas, the "hard core" of the theory and leave out most of the definitional relations which close the system. I leave that to the interested reader and to the scholar who wants to work with the system. There are some repetitions in the book.

Spis treści

1 The Theory of the Household.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Classification of Decisions and of Principles to Rate Them.- 1.3 Private Decisions of Moral Importance.- 1.4 Moral Standards and the Determination of Moral Evaluations of a Decision.- 1.5 A Digression: Explanation of the Transfer Probabilities.- 1.6 The Length of the Economic Horizon.- 1.7 The Relative Frequencies of Personal Decisions.- 1.8 Uncertainty on the Consequences of Decisions.- 1.9 Evaluations in Case of Interdependent Decisions.- 1.10 The General Theory of Household Behavior.- 1.11 Some Further Remarks on Household Theory.- 1.12 Entrepreneurship, Confidence and Trustworthiness.- 1.13 Income and Expenditure of a Household. Some Definitional Relations.- Annex to Section 1.13: Some Details on Income and Expenditure of a Household.- 1.14 Normal Economic Decisions of Private Households and the Budget Constraint.- Annex to Section 1.14: Some Details on Normal Economic Decisions of Private Households and on the Budget Constraint.- 1.15 Consumption and Saving of Private Households.- 1.16 Morality and Criminality in a Society and Their Effect on the Economy.- 1.17 Private Valuations of Collective Issues.- 1.18 Transition to the Next Period: Change of Issues.- 1.19 Collective Decisions.- 1.20 Determination of the Leading Group and of the Influence of Each Person within the Group.- 1.21 Transition to the Next Period: Change of Government.- 1.22 Digression 1: The Interaction of the Spiritual Domain and Economics.- 1.23 Digression 2: The Connection to Sociology and Political Science.- 1.24 The Direct Influence of Ethics on Normal Economic Decisions. A Short Review and Preview.- 1.25 The Conditional Sales or Purchases of Capital Stock and Securities.- 1.26 A Digression: Fixing of the Rates by the Brokers.- 1.27 The Assignment of Households to Decision Situations.- 1.28 The Household Demand as a Function of the Situation of the Economy and of the Characteristics of the Household.- 1.29 A Final Remark: Convergence of Evaluations.- 1.30 Epilogue: The Importance of Humanities and Their Relation to the Natural Sciences.- References.- 2 The Theory of the Firm.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 The Production Department: Production, Capital Equipment, and Replacement.- 2.3 The Production Department: Secondary Inputs.- 2.4 The Production Department: Labor Input.- 2.5 The Handbook of Production.- 2.6 The Inventory Department.- 2.7 The Administration Department: The Organization of a Firm.- 2.8 Some Remarks on Other Characteristics of the Initial Situation of a Firm.- 2.9 The Main Decisions of a Firm Concerning the Real Side.- 2.10 The Initial Situation of a Firm: The Monetary Side.- 2.11 The Possible Decisions of a Firm Concerning the Monetary Sector.- 2.12 Transition of a Firm from One Decision Point to the Next: The Choice Criteria.- 2.13 A Short Look into the Literature.- References.- 3 The Theory of the Banking System.- 3.1 Introductory Remarks.- 3.2 Some Definitions and Relations. A Note.- 3.3 The Balance Sheet of a Commercial Bank.- 3.4 The Profit and Loss Account of a Commercial Bank.- 3.5 The Organization of a Commercial Bank.- 3.6 The Balance Sheet of the Central Bank.- 3.7 The Decision Variables and the Principles of Decision of the Central Bank.- 3.8 The Decision Variables and the Principles of Decision of a Commercial Bank.- 3.9 The Secondary Inputs of a Commercial Bank.- 3.10 A Digression: Dubious Effectiveness of the Discount Policy of the Central Bank.- 3.11 On the Near-Constancy of Some Coefficients in the Monetary Sector of the Economy.- 3.12 A Digression: Some Consequences of the Near-Constancy of Some Coefficients in the Monetary Sector of the Economy; a Simplified Model.- 3.13 A Final Remark.- References.- 4 The Educational System, Development and Research.- 4.1 Some Basic Concepts.- 4.2 Natural Endowments and the School System.- 4.3 Learning by Doing.- 4.4 Development, Research and Technical Progress.- 4.5 Some Remarks on Other Explanations of Technical Progress.- References.- 5 The Theory of the Government.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Digression 1: An Overview on the Development of Technology and Constitutions in the Last Millennium.- 5.3 Digression 2: An Overview on the Relations of the Status of Agriculture and Handicraft and the Constitutions of Feudalism and Absolutism.- 5.4 Digression 3: An Overview on the Relations of the Status of Industrialism and on the Constitutions of Absolutism and Democracy.- 5.5 The Theory of the Government: Some Definitions and Assumptions.- 5.6 Transition to the Next Period: Decisions of the Government Concerning the Real Side.- 5.7 The Government Budget.- 5.8 Transition to the Next Period: Decisions of the Government Concerning the Monetary Side.- 5.9 Determination of the “Leading Group”: Election of the Members of the Government.- 5.10 Some Notes on the Approach Suggested Here in Comparison to Other Approaches.- References.- 6 The Determination of the Wage Rates.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Some Basic Definitions and Assumptions.- 6.3 The Determination of the Time Shape of the Trade Unions’ Demands for a Wage Increase.- 6.4 Determination of the Time Shape of the Employers Concessions for the Wage Levels.- 6.5 Wage Determination: The Wage Rates Offered by the Employers and Demanded by the Trade Unions Are Equal.- 6.6 Criticism of Wage Determination by Agreement of Trade Unions and Employer Associations. A Digression.- 6.7 A Short Look into the Literature.- References.- 7 The Theory of the Price of Securities and of the Interest Rates.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 The Price of Securities. A Theory of the Exchange.- 7.3 The Theory of the Determination of the Interest Rates.- 7.4 The Financial Structure of a Commercial Bank.- 7.5 A Short Look into the Literature.- References.- A Final Remark.

O autorze

The book presents the basic models of the most important economic agents (households, firms, the banking system etc.). The influence of ethics on the decisions of persons is discussed within the context of mutual influences of one person on another. It is shown that this leads to a Markov chain which converges to a final situation which in many cases is independent of the initial conditions. The book helps the reader to understand the interdependence of humanities and economics and how to model this interdependence in economics.