2/4/2018 Intermission




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The Nature of Economics (7)

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The Nature of Economics (7) Neoclassical economics does not consider efficiency of the whole economy because the production function and utility function are exogenously given. Since I do not think that this point is made clear in books or papers, I would like to discuss it in some detail. Consider two economies E1 and E2. The workers in E1 are more cooperative and hard-working. Those in E2 are selfish and lazy. Hence, the labor productivity in the firm in E1 is higher for equally given levels of physical inputs. However both economies are efficient in neoclassical economics! Both E1 and E2 are efficient as far as all firms maximize their profits subject to exogenously given (different) production functions! It is obvious that E1 is more affluent than E2. I would like to emphasize that efficiency differs from affluence in neoclassical economics. Next consider two economies E3 and E4. The people in E3 are more harmonious and other-regarding within the household. Those in E4 ar...
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Shusaku Endo’s Silence and Christianity (2)

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Shusaku Endo’s Silence and Christianity (2)               Shusaku Endo wrote Silence by assuming that all what Christians do is right and that a ban on Christianity is wrong. This is the fundamental reason why it is biased. It may be enjoyable for Christians to write and read such a novel but it is quite childish to do so. From the facts and logic discussed above, it is obvious that the author himself is wrong. Christian faith makes people blind to real facts. What is heinous regarding the work is that Endo describes the missionaries with dignity but both Japanese Christians and non-Christians with coarseness. This is more conspicuous in the movie by Martin Scorsese. Kichijiro, a very important fictitious supporting actor, plays a role of dishonoring Japanese people. But there have been very few Japanese like Kichijiro. Japanese Christians were known as honest and earnest. This was a reason exceptionally many died...
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The Nature of Economics (5)

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The Nature of Economics (5) We see here a good example for the fact that the values researchers possess affect their choice of the topic and method of research generating bias in ‘scientific works.’ 　 Researchers who want to support individualism do not analyze firms or households seriously. They simply introduce exogenously given production functions and utility functions. Economists tend to ignore or distort social aspects that are inconvenient to build models with conclusions they like. It is really hard to establish social sciences that are value-free. Researchers need to recognize this. On the other hand, a unified theoretical model may be formed to explain the cultural difference mentioned in the example given in the above third reason. It may be done by introducing a measure of the degree of cooperativeness as an exogenous variable. In such a model different types of equilibrium may arise for different values of the measure. If we can endogenize the variable for that m...
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