Clive Beed

Underdetermination in Economics. The Duhem-Quine Thesis

This paper considers the relevance of the Duhem-Quine thesis in economics. In the introductory discussion which follows, the meaning of the thesis and a brief history of its development are detailed. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the effects of the thesis in four specific and diverse theories in economics, and to illustrate the dependence of testing the theories on a set of auxiliary hypotheses. A general taxonomy of auxiliary hypotheses is provided to demonstrate the confounding of auxiliary hypotheses with the testing of economic theory.

A Christian perspective on economics

Informed by theological perspectives and influenced by various schools of thought in economics, attempts have been made in recent decades to develop Christian understanding of economic matters. This paper explores some aspects of a Christian philosophy and methodology about economic issues, and concludes that they are incommensurable with secular thinking about the subject. Three propositions are investigated to demonstrate this contention. First is the inseparable interconnection in Christian thinking between the spiritual and material dimensions of human life; second is the normative intention God has for human existence; and third is the tendency for humankind to develop modes of interpreting human behaviour outside the bounds of a Christian framework. These three issues are contrasted with secular thinking in economics with which they are found to be incompatible. Methodological differences are drawn out between the Christian and secular economic frameworks.

Do Value Judgements Affect Testing Economic Theory

Analyses the influence of value judgements in the mechanics of testing econometric theories against empirical data. The orthodox view of mainstream, positive economics is that value judgements play no part in the above process. Contests this view; defines value judgements and shows the orthodox conception to be too narrow, compared with the meaning and use of the term in other disciplines. Reviews many published examples from the 1970s and 1980s and ways in which value judgements have affected testing procedures in economics. Hypothesis testing via econometric techniques is fraught with value judgements because the application of statistical methodology is not a determinate, neutral or objective process.

Is the case for social science laws strengthening

The effectiveness of Kincaids (1996) and McIntyre’s (1996) cases for the possibility and actual existence of laws in social science is evaluated. The ways in which Kincaid and McIntyre argue against the confounding effects of four long-recognised barriers to the existence of social science laws are assessed. A brief review is presented first of definitions of causal (rather than regularity) laws. The four obstacles undermining causal laws are the non natural or social kind nature of the entities with which social science deals, the nature of mechanisms in social explanation, domain restrictions applying to causal explanation in social science, and the openness of the human systems encompassing socio-economic behaviour. Against the arguments of Kincaid and McIntyre, these four issues constitute fundamental a priori problems that continue to undermine the development of laws in social science, beyond those that can be derived by common sense, and that are potentially effective for policy-making.

A Christian perspective on Neoclassical rational choice theory

The Neoclassical approach to analysing personal choice is compared with an approach contained in a Biblical Christian mode of analysis. This paper compares the Neoclassical and Christian positions via analysis of characteristics of the Neoclassical rational choice model. The main characteristic examined is a basic assumption of the rational choice model that human choice is explained as the optimisation of utility via rational self‐interest. The two positions are compared in terms of how they treat self‐interest and rationality, the degree to which basic assumptions about human behaviour are specified, the importance they attach to the realism of assumptions underlying their models, and the explanatory and predictive purposes for which the models are used. The conclusion of the comparison is that the Biblical Christian perspective encompasses the variables regarded as important in Neoclassical explanation, but presents them in the context of a more embracing worldview perspective than the Neoclassical. This Christian belief perspective is applicable to human behaviour in both “economic” and “non‐economic” domains.

TRANSPORT CHARACTERISTICS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR FOUR AUSTRALIAN CITIES

Abstract The smaller capitals have larger levels of vehicular travel per head than the larger capitals and are more dependent on private transport, due mainly to greater non-work trip frequencies. Policy approaches are examined for reducing vehicular travel through increasing travel costs, changing land-use patterns and modifying peoples values and attitudes to urban vehicular travel.

A cost-benefit analysis of increased investment in Melbourne's public transport system

Abstract The paper considers economic effects of increased investment in public transport in Melbourne, based on investment plans of VicRail and the M.M.T.B. over a 5 year period, 1981–5. If the investment were to encourage a shift in patronage from private to public transport, this would change the magnitude of costs associated with passenger transport in Melbourne. Calculations are made of these possible cost savings, given particular levels of shift in patronage. The paper concludes by reviewing the feasibility of achieving given patronage changes.

Work Ownership Implications of Recent Papal Social Thought

This paper examines a particular employment inference of recent Papal social thought, for a Western developed economy context. The Papal documents studied are Centesimus Annus (1991), Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987), and Laborem Exercens (1981). The first and shortest section of the paper outlines a number of principles from the encyclicals aiming to guide employment organisation and policy relevant to Western and all economies. To permit their full consideration, an illustration is given how implications affecting forms of employment organization might be drawn from just one of the principles--the right to private property ownership. Private property ownership rights are argued to be constrained in specific ways, to relate instrinsically to employment organization, and to underpin other principles emphasized in the encyclicals, such as the priority of labor over capital. A selection of recent non-official-Church Catholic Social Thought is compared with the approach here. Since the encyclicals deal with issues only at the level of principle, the paper notes cases where attempts have been made to apply some of the employment organizational implications in practice.

Reducing Vehicular Travel Need through Increasing Travel Efficiency

In Australia, all measures of vehicular travel, both passenger and freight, show large increases on a per capita basis over recent decades, with the growth almost entirely due to road travel. But because vehicular travel inevitably generates external costs these too have risen greatly. Decreases in both primary energy and materials consumption per capita in the advanced industrial countries suggest that the need for vehicular travel could decline if travel efficiency was increased. A definition of travel efficiency is developed, and means are explored by which travel efficiency might be increased.

Transport in Tropical Africa

As defined here, tropical Africa includes all the countries in the continent except Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt, as well as South Africa and Namibia. In I984, the population was just over 400 million, but is expected to reach about 650 million by the year 2000.1 Overall, the region is characterised by low levels of income per head, a high proportion of the workforce employed in agriculture (over 50 per cent everywhere), and correspondingly low levels of urbanisation. Given the great differences between the region and the industralised countries, it is possible that transport policies appropriate to the West may not be particularly relevant.