National Economics
Pages 48-83
James H. Hughes

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-7092.2014.03.06

Published: 20 March 2014

Abstract: With the slow recovery from the Global Economic Recession that began in 2008 and its lingering high unemployment in the United States and Europe, in spite of the best efforts of governments and central banks to remedy it, it may be helpful to suggest some adjustments in current economic thinking.

One adjustment may be found in the introduction of National Economics, in addition to macro and micro-economic theory, to better engage issues of free trade, the international outsourcing of manufacturing and research and development known as globalization, protectionism, Chinese mercantilism, and national investment policies, which may accompany the preparation of economic stimulus packages.

While free trade is generally acknowledged as a positive factor in contributing to economic growth, it has been used by mercantilists, both countries and corporations, as a cloak to achieve a National Income redistribution to enrich themselves at the expense of reducing employment, and wages and salaries within a country, and to substitute poorly made or low quality goods for goods of better quality.

One issue of National Economics that stands to be addressed is the contribution of Chinese mercantilism to the Global Economic Recession and its effect on unemployment rates. A major trading partner with the United States, Europe, and other countries, China uses a substantially undervalued currency compared to the U.S. dollar to increase its export of manufactured goods and economic growth rate, while suppressing the manufacturing sector in its trading partners.

Within many countries, large trade imbalances with China play a role in the distribution of National Income by depressing employment, wages, salaries, and investment. While mercantilists claim that these reductions in employment, wages, and salaries are offset by the proliferation of inexpensive Chinese goods, low quality goods do not compensate for reductions in employment and investment.

A second issue of National Economics that stands to be addressed, at least within the United States, is the need to prepare economic stimulus packages that represent a balance of new spending along with adjustments in entitlement programs and a reworking of the current regulatory environment, which policymakers use to reward corporate dinosaurs and financial manipulators, while the constrict the ability of small banks and lending institutions such as credit unions to make consumer loans and finance mortgages, with the effect of repressing the nation's economy.

Finally, some thoughts are given regarding the effect of Chinese mercantilism on Taiwan's economy, and Japan's effort to renew its economy.

How Should Journal Quality be Ranked?An Application to Agricultural, Energy, Environmental and Resource Economics
Pages 33-47

Chia-Lin Chang and Michael McAleer

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-7092.2014.03.05

Published: 20 March 2014

Abstract: The Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (hereafter ISI) category of Economics has one of the largest numbers of journals, at 304 (as of 2011) and 333 (as of 2013), of any ISI discipline, and hence has wide coverage. The paper analyses the leading international journals in the Economics sub-disciplines of Agricultural, Energy, Environmental and Resource Economics using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAMs),and highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAMs.The RAMs are based on alternative transformations of citations and influence taken from the ISI database. Alternative RAMs may be calculated annually or updated daily to answer the perennial questions as to When, Where and How (frequently) published papers are cited. The RAMs include the most widely used RAM, namely the classic 2-year impact factor including journal self citations (2YIF), 2-year impact factor excluding journal self citations (2YIF*), 5-year impact factor including journal self citations (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor, Article Influence, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors), 2-year Self-citation Threshold Approval Ratings (2Y-STAR),HistoricalSelf-citation Threshold Approval Ratings (H-STAR), Impact Factor Inflation (IFI), and Cited Article Influence (CAI). As data are not available for 5YIF, Article Influence and CAI for one of the 20 journals considered, 13 RAMsare analysed for 19 highly-cited journals in Agricultural, Energy, Environmental and Resource Economics in the ISI category of Economics. The harmonic mean of the ranksof the 13 RAMs for the 19 highly-cited journals are also presented. It is shown that emphasizing the 2-year impact factor of a journal, which partly answers the question as to When published papers are cited, to the exclusion of other informative RAMs, which answer Where and How (frequently) published papers are cited, can lead to a distorted evaluation of journal impact and influence relative to the harmonic mean of the ranks. The “age” effect of journals, that is, the number of years for which the journals have been included in ISI, on the RAMs is also examined to check whether the RAMs are being compared fairly.