This essay introduces a symposium on value and exchange as alternative organizing concepts for the pursuit of economic theorizing. These concepts pertain to two distinct conceptual windows though which economic phenomena can be examined. The immediate inspiration for this symposium was Meir Kohn’s (2004) articulation of the distinction, a distinction that in turn was central to James Buchanan’s...

In this paper we determine the main driving forces underlying the structural transformation and urbanization process in rapidly industrializing countries. We use a dynamic, small open economy model with an abundant supply of surplus labor in rural areas, two types of traded goods manufactured in urban areas, and barriers to both trade and migration. The model is supplemented with quantitative a...

Markets’ two-sidedness has been a much discussed topic in modern economic scholarship. Hundreds of academic papers have been written about it in the last ten years. The concept has also veered into antitrust policy, with applications in major jurisdictions such as the United States (“US”), China, and recently, the European Union (“EU”). At this juncture, the question arises whether the buzz aro...

Abstract: Two economic testing policies for industrial products are considered in discrete time. Based on the usual total time on test (TTT) method, we develop non-parametric statistical estimation algorithms to determine the optimal testing times, minimizing the expected cost function per unit time and maximizing the expected profit function per unit time, given that the complete sample data o...

Sanctions are used ubiquitously to enforce obedience to social norms. However, recent field studies and laboratory experiments have demonstrated that cooperation is sometimes reduced when incentives meant to promote prosocial decisions are added to the environment. Although various explanations for this effect have been suggested, the neural foundations of the effect have not been fully explore...

Willingness to risk is an important characteristic of entrepreneurship and a crucial factor for economic growth and economic development. An experimental study has been performed that demonstrates that people can use even a single old episodes from their own experience where they acted in a risky manner and benefited from that and chose by analogy to act risky in a new situation. Moreover, it h...

This paper examines how a country’s organization of its financial activities its financial structure affects how corporations invest and raise funds. We provide an analysis of how financial structure affects economic growth for a given degree of financial and economic development. Differences in the organization of financial activities are shown to affect the creation of new businesses as well ...

Infrastructure is indispensable to achieve the main development targets in developing countries, such as urbanization, industrialization, export promotion, equitable income distribution, and sustainable economic development. Late developing countries can benefit from previous development experience provided they choose the right model. However, the relationship between infrastructure and econom...