Increasing Returns and Economic Analysis

Selected papers from many leading Australian, American, Asian, British and European economists of an international conference at Monash University sparked by the first Australian visit by Kenneth J. Arrow, Nobel Laureate in Economics. Part 1 extends the recently emerged New Classical Economics which uses inframarginal analysis to formally examine classical economic problems of specialization with insights on trade, growth, and many other issues. Part 2 analyses the implications of increasing returns and the associated non-perfect competition on some macro problems like the effects of nominal aggregate demand on output and the price level. Part 3 analyses the relationships of information, returns to scale, and issues of resources and trade.

'...the volume provides a wealth of stimulating material for economists.' - Elet, University of Bologna

Acknowledgements - Preface - Introduction - PART 1: SPECIALIZATION, ORGANIZATION AND GROWTH: NEW CLASSICAL ECONOMICS - Specialization and Division of Labour: a Survey; X.Yang & S.Ng - Comments; J.M.Buchanan - Comments; J.Borland - Specialisation and the Emergence and the Value of Money; W.Cheng - Productivity, Investment in Infrastructure and Population Size: Formalizing the Theory of Ester Boserup; C.Y.C.Chu & Y-C.Tsai - The Inframarginal Analysis of Demand and Supply and the Relationship between a Minimum Level of Consumption and the Division of Labour; M.Lio - Economies of Specialization and Trade; S.Ng - Centralized Hierarchy within a Firm and Decentralized Hierarchy in the Market; H.Shi & X.Yang - An Analytical Framework of Consumer-producers, Economies of Specialization and Transaction Costs; M.Wen - An Extended Ethier Model with the Tradeoff between Economies of Scale and Transaction Costs; K-y.Wong & X.Yang - Policy Analysis in a Dynamic Model with Endogenous Specialization; J.Zhang PART 2: ECONOMIES OF SCALE AND MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION - Increasing Returns, Constant Returns and Micro-Macro Economics; R.Marris - Non-neutrality of Money under Non-perfect Competition: Why do Economists fail to see the Possibility?; Y-K.Ng - Comments; R.Marris - A Dynamic Model of Monopolistic Competition with Trade Externalities and Fiscal Policy; K.N.Cheung - Comments; C-S.Hwang - Industrialisation Policy and the Big Push; J.Gans - Comments; P.A.Trostel - Economies of Scale and Imperfect Competition in an Applied General Equilibrium Model of the Australian Economy; K.A-Silva & M.Horridge - Comments; P.B.Dixon - Variety, Spillovers and Market Structure in a Model of Endogenous Technological Change; P.F.Peretto - Pursuit of Relative Conspicuous Consumption in Monopolistic Competition; J.Wang & Y-K.Ng - Economic Fluctuations and Non-neutrality of Money based upon Imperfect Competition; X.Yin - PART 3: INFORMATION, TRADE, AND RESOURCES - Innovation and Increasing Returns to Scale; K.J.Arrow - Variable Returns to Scale and Factor Price Equalization; M.Kemp, M.Okawa & M.Tawada - The Stolper-Samuelson Theorem in Models with Economies of Scale; P.J.Lloyd & A.G.Schweinberger - Comments; P.M.Sgro - Variable Returns to Scale, Resources and Population; J.Pitchford - Index