Ludwig M. Lachmann Against the Cambridge School
Pages 251-267
Carmelo Ferlito

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-7092.2015.04.25

Published: 14 December 2015

Abstract: While in the early 1930s Keynes and Hayek were the major figures in a heated academic debate about money and capital, in which Keynes also and especially involved the Italian Piero Sraffa, it might seem at first sight that the Austrian economist set aside an organic demolition of the ideas expressed in 1936 by his rival in the General Theory. Hayek himself, in the future, would regret not having devoted an organic work to criticising the new Keynesian theories. However, as demonstrated in Sanz Bas (2011), although it is not possible to find a debate such as the one on the Treatise on Money, Hayek’s subsequent works do include timely and reasoned criticisms as regards the main conclusions of the new Cambridge macroeconomics.

But the ‘Austrian knight’ of a new Vienna-Cambridge debate, in the subsequent decades, was the German economist Ludwig M. Lachmann (1906-1990), a student of Hayek at LSE during the 1930s and later a professor in Johannesburg and New York. Lachmann was one of the protagonists of the Austrian revival after 1974 and the founding leader of the ‘hermeneutic stream’, opposed by the Rothbardian stream.

Lachmann, defending Keynes’s subjectivism and expectation theory, revived the Vienna-Cambridge controversy, criticising not Keynes but his followers, in particular the ‘new’ Cambridge School, developed by Joan Robinson and Piero Sraffa. Lachmann’s life sight was to build a new economics paradigm, centred on the idea of market process, expectations and kaleidic society (Shackle); in order to do so he developed a deep attack toward the new Cambridge macroeconomics mainstream, arising from World War II ashes during the 1950s and 1960s. His polemic toward the ‘modern’ macroeconomics can be read in all his books and papers, but it is particularly evident in Lachmann (1973, [1986a] 1994).

His preferred targets were Sraffa and Joan Robinson, ‘guilty’, according to Lachmann, to overcome Keynes’s subjectivism and to develop a new Neo-Ricardian approach. The resulting macroeconomics is accused to be excessively formalist, ignoring the microfoundations that are at the very root of human action and choice.

But Lachmann’s attack was not only an epistemological one. He intensively tried to demolish all the pillars of the Cambridge macroeconomics: capital as aggregate, long run equilibrium, the absence of innovation and technological change and the conception of rate of profit. His starting point was an economics based on human expectations as the only possible source of human actions. A source, however, never at rest, and continuously influenced by technological change and changing information.

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Amily Fikry and Mohd Rozi Ahmad

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-7092.2019.08.78

Published: 02 December 2019

Abstract: Researchers have long been interested in understanding young consumers’ purchasing behaviour, especially in terms of their purchasing preferences and decision-making styles. Zooming to hijab preferences, different angles of hijab have been studied. Out of 32.4 million of total population, Islam is the most widely professed religion in Malaysia. Thus, this research aims to obtain young consumer preferences of hijab. It was conducted through focus group interviews in one of the public university located in Selangor, Malaysia. The focus group interviews were audio taped and transcribed. There were 13 Malaysian female respondents; students of aged 20 to 25 years old. The findings thus far revealed that young consumer’s selection of hijab to wear and attend lectures is highly influenced by easiness to wear hijab, boost confidence as well as their moods and face shape. These factors make them feel more comfortable to move around with their active lifestyle as university students. Limitations and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

Keywords: Hijab, Malaysia, Muslim, young consumers, preference.

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Van Dung Ha

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-7092.2020.09.21

Published: 04 June 2020

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on cash holdings of top 50 listed firms in Vietnam Stock Exchange. The average of natural logarithm of inflation rate, change in exchange rate, deficit to GNP, and external debt to GNP ratio is used for macroeconomic uncertainty while the ratio of cash and cash equivalent to total assets measures firm cash holdings.Using a dataset of 300 observations from top 50 listed firms in both Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange and Hanoi stock Exchange from 2013-2018, the paper employs the basic quantitative methods of Pooled Ordinary Least Squared, Fxed effects model, and Random effects model for analysis. The results indicate that higher macroeconomic uncertainty may lead to higher cash holdings of listed firms in Vietnam Stock Exchange. Some other determinants of firm cash holdings can be named as firm size, the ratio of market and booked value of firm, cash flow, net working capital, firm investment, leverage, and firm dividend. One macroeconomic indicator (the growth rate of money supply) is also found to have positive impacts of cash holdings of firms in Vietnam Stock Exchange.

Keywords: Cash holdings, Macroeconomic uncertainty, Firms, Dividend, Money supply.

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Sergii P. Stetsenko, Viktoriya V. Tytok, Olena M. Emelianova, Olha Yu. Bielienkova and Tetiana Yu.Tsyfra

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-7092.2020.09.15

Published: 21 Febraury 2020

Abstract: Motivation: We note significant problems of developing countries, including Ukraine, with the adaptation of organizational and economic mechanisms of the construction industry to increase impact of digital technologies on their economic systems and construction sectors.

Novelty: The scientific novelty is a set of management activities for the adaptation of organizational and economic mechanisms of Ukrainian construction companies to the development of digital technologies.

Methodology and Methods: The research methods used in this study are a quantitative analysis of statistics on the dynamics of world GDP, the global construction industry, the construction industries of developing countries, including Ukraine, the global digital market, digital markets in developing countries, including Ukraine, for ten years using one-dimensional statistical methods (UT) based on random sampling. The paper also uses the correlation and regression analysis, namely the linear regression model, as well as the statistical verification of the obtained model by calculating the pair correlation coefficient, the coefficient of determination and the Chaddock scale in the study of the impact of digital technology development on the Ukrainian construction industry.

Data and Empirical Analysis: To conduct the study, data were collected and an empirical analysis was conducted regarding the dynamics of world GDP, the world construction industry, the construction industries of developing countries, including Ukraine, the global digital market, digital markets in developing countries, including Ukraine, in 2009-2018 according to statistics from Knoema, The World Bank, Deloitte, State Statistics Service of Ukraine, UNCTAD, International Data Corporation, Gartner.

Policy Considerations: The economy of the country and the construction sector requires development and implementation of a set of management activities to adapt organizational and economic mechanisms of construction in Ukraine to development of digital technologies.

Keywords: Construction, developing countries, organizational and economic mechanisms, digital technology.

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