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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
| By: | Schilirò, Daniele |
| Abstract: | Structural change indicates essentially a qualitative transformation and evolution of the economic systems, usually marked by technological progress and organizational changes. Technological factors, knowledge, institutions are all elements that contribute to the process of structural change. Schumpeter (1912, 1939) has certainly been one of the most influential economists who analyzed and explained the process of development and at the same time took into consideration the mechanisms of transformation of the production system. This contribution focuses on the models of structural analysis, particularly on the methods and principles that such models adopt; in this context, structural change becomes the underlying dominant theme of the present work. The investigation of the models of structural analysis and of theories of structural changes carried out in this contribution has a double meaning. On the one hand, it allows to pick up several essential principles that characterize these models, on the other hand, it should allow us to examine some important methodological issues, such as different methods of decomposition of the productive systems, the problem of complexity and the strategies to reduce complexity. |
| Keywords: | structural change; structural analysis; analytical principles; complexity; methods of decomposition; |
| JEL: | L16 O41 D57 O43 B41 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:41817&r=hme |
| By: | Irene Sotiropoulou (Dept. of Economics - University of Crete) |
| Abstract: | That a solidarity economy cannot but include fair and just prices only, is an essential assumption � however, it is simply an assumption, in any case. After we explore what a fair and just price might be, we dedicate this paper to the examination and study of the possibilities to have really such prices in solidarity economy. Our main concern stems from the fact that all initiatives of solidarity economy have to be established within non-solidary contexts, whether those might be capitalist, or non-capitalist but competitive and/or exploitative in one or another way. We also include in this inquiry the term "social economy" because, just like with the "solidary", using the adjective "social" does not by itself make the economy any better in practical terms. At the end of the day, the inquiry becomes one of political economy: our quest for fair and just prices reminds us of the need to define whom and what each concept of economy is constructed for. It seems that solidarity economy raises through the issue of prices the claim for a fair and just economy in general. |
| Keywords: | solidarity economy, fair prices, just prices |
| Date: | 2012–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crt:wpaper:1208&r=hme |
| By: | Nathalie FERREIRA; Sophie BOUTILLIER (Laboratoire de Recherche sur l'Industrie et l'Innovation. ULCO) |
| Abstract: | L'objectif des entreprises de l'économie sociale et solidaire est théoriquement de contribuer à l'amélioration du bien-être social. Dans les faits, nous constatons cependant que leur comportement réside dans la recherche du profit et la conquête de nouveaux marchés. Dans une économie basée sur la concurrence, le comportement des firmes a des points communs : faire des profits, stratégies de croissance et innovation. L'étude de Montragon et d'Euresa est riche d'enseignements. La théorie de la firme apporte des outils d'analyse. Si certains économistes ont fortement critiqué la théorie néo-classique de la firme en montrant que les firmes n'avaient pas un seul objectif (maximiser leur profit), ils n'ont pas cependant affirmé que l'entreprise ne pouvait pas ne pas faire de profit. Theoretically, the objective of non-profit (or social) enterprises is to contribute to the social welfare. Nevertheless, in the facts, we observe that they have to achieve profit and to conquest new markets. In an economy based on competition, the behaviours of the enterprises have common traits: making profit, strategies of growth and of innovation. We can draw several lessons from the study of Mondragon and Euresa cases. The theory of the firm gives analyzing tools. If some economists have criticized the neo-classical theory of the firm, to show that firms not only have one goal (to maximize their profit), they also explain that firms can't exist without making profits. |
| Keywords: | histoire entrepreneur, économie sociale et solidaire, théorie de la firme |
| JEL: | B19 D21 L2 L26 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rii:riidoc:245&r=hme |
| By: | Chris Doyle; Martijn A. Han; ; |
| Abstract: | Retailers may enjoy stable cartel rents in their output market through the formation of a buyer group in their input market. A buyer group allows retailers to credibly commit to increased input prices, which serve to reduce combined final output to the monopoly level; increased input costs are then refunded from suppliers to retailers through slotting allowances or rebates. The stability of such an “implied cartel” depends on the retailers’ incentives to secretly source from a supplier outside of the buyer group arrangement at lower input prices. Cheating is limited if retailers sign exclusive dealing or minimum purchase provisions. We discuss the relevancy of our findings for antitrust policy. |
| Keywords: | buyer groups, collusion, exclusive dealing, minimum purchase clauses, rebates |
| JEL: | K21 L13 L41 L42 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2012-059&r=hme |
| By: | Samia GHARBI (Laboratoire de Recherche sur l'Industrie et l'Innovation. ULCO) |
| Abstract: | Le présent travail propose de s’interroger sur le rôle des pouvoirs publics par l’intermédiaire de différents organismes et institutions dans une approche d’appropriation de l’innovation du secteur pharmaceutique en Algérie. L’étude tente de répondre à la question suivante : Quel rôle jouent les pouvoirs publics dans une approche d’un système sectoriel pour promouvoir le secteur pharmaceutique algérien ? L’étude sera réalisée par une analyse du système sectoriel pharmaceutique en Algérie en appliquant la théorie de la sectorialisation de l’innovation. Puis elle examinera les flux de connaissances entrants d’autres secteurs et/ou sous-secteurs qui alimentent les processus d’innovation dans la production du médicament. Enfin, elle mettra l’accent sur les efforts réalisés et à entreprendre afin de renforcer le secteur pharmaceutique en mettant en avant ce que nous enseigne l'approche par les systèmes sectoriels d'innovation. The present work deals with the role of the public authorities through various bodies and institutions in an approach of the appropriation of innovation in the pharmaceutical sector in Algeria. The study tries to answer the following question: what is the role that the public authorities play in a sectoral system approach to promote the Algerian pharmaceutical sector? The study will first realize an analysis of the pharmaceutical sectoral system in Algeria by applying the theory of the “sectorialisation” of innovation. It will then examine the flows of incoming knowledge from other sectors and/or sub-sectors that feed the processes of innovation in the production of the drug. At the end of the research, we will emphasize the efforts realized and that have to be undertaken in order to strengthen the pharmaceutical sector by applying the lessons drawn from the sectoral systems of innovation approach. |
| Keywords: | système sectoriel d’innovation, industrie, secteur pharmaceutique, Algérie |
| JEL: | L65 O31 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rii:riidoc:258&r=hme |
| By: | Lee, Frederic; Pham, Xuan; Gu, Gyun |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to delineate an empirically grounded, structure-causal going concern recursive model of UK economics that, in the context of the RAE and local department decision-making, explains the progressive elimination of heterodox economics, the progressive homogenization of mainstream economics from 1992 to the present, and the continued rise to dominance of a select group of departments, and indicates whether these ‘regularities’ will continue under the Research Excellence Framework selectivity exercise in 2014. |
| Keywords: | UK Economics; Research Assessment Exercise; Critical Realism |
| JEL: | B50 A14 A11 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:41842&r=hme |
| By: | Pangaribowo, Evita Hanie |
| Abstract: | Using the Indonesian setting with its cultural heterogeneity, this paper examines women’s bargaining power in the distribution of household expenditures. Women’s share of assets and participation in community-based organizations and development in the village is used to approach bargaining power. This study employs the Indonesian longitudinal dataset from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS). The results show that women’s share of assets has negative effect on adult goods expenditure. This finding confirms that women’s share of asset explicitly increase women autonomy not to allocate the budget share on adult goods expenditure which is identical to male domination. Women’s share of assets also has positive and substantial effect on richer nutrients expenditure such as meat and fish and dairy products. It is also found that women participation in the community-based organization in the village has negative and significant effect on budget share of staple food and adult goods expenditure. This finding embraces the importance of women’s power in the household particularly in terms of distribution of household expenditures to the spending that increase the welfare of the household. |
| Keywords: | intrahousehold power, women’s asset, social capital, expenditures, Consumer/Household Economics, D13, |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc12:135521&r=hme |
| By: | Scherger, Simone; Hagemann, Steffen; Hokema, Anna; Lux, Thomas |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates paid work beyond retirement age in Germany and the UK. This comprises a combination of work, payments from a pension (or several pensions) and old age which is counter to the assumed finality of retirement and the corresponding standardised passage from end of work into retirement and receipt of a pension. Paid work beyond retirement has not only become more frequent in the last decade, but is also part of heated policy debates on pension reform. The paper first gives a comprehensive literature review, presenting empirical results, conceptual differentiations and theoretical approaches to post-retirement work from previous studies. A heuristic model summarises the most important individual and structural influences on post-retirement work. Thereafter, the most important features of the pension systems and labour markets in Germany and in the UK are outlined. In terms of institutional settings, the countries represent opposing cases whose comparison helps to better understand the institutional factors shaping employment beyond retirement age. In the second half of the paper, data from the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) serve to empirically describe paid work beyond retirement age. In addition to the demographic and regional distribution of postretirement work, particular attention is paid to the socio-economic status of people working past retirement, in comparison to those who do not work. Other important areas studied are non-paid activities of post-retirement workers, their health and living arrangements as well as their life satisfaction and subjective reasons for employment. On the one hand, the results of the empirical description confirm the privileged situation of many post-retirement workers who, for example, tend to be more highly educated and have better health than their non-working counterparts. On the other hand, some post-retirement workers work for financial reasons and in the low-paid service sector. There are some indications that the latter group, who experience post-retirement work more often as a burden, or at least in a more ambivalent way, is larger in the UK than in Germany, mainly for institutional and structural reasons. -- Dieses Arbeitspapier beschäftigt sich mit Erwerbsarbeit jenseits der Rentengrenze in Deutschland und Großbritannien. Mit Erwerbsarbeit jenseits der Rentengrenze ist eine Kombination von bezahlter Arbeit, Rentenzahlungen und Alter gemeint, die im Kontrast steht zur Endgültigkeit des Ruhestands und dem entsprechenden standardisierten Übergang aus der Erwerbsarbeit in den Ruhestand und zum Empfang von Rentenzahlungen. Erwerbsarbeit jenseits der Rentengrenze ist in den letzten zehn Jahren nicht nur häufiger geworden; sie wird auch intensiv debattiert, etwa im Rahmen von Diskussionen zu Rentenreformen. Das Arbeitspapier gibt zunächst einen umfassenden Literaturüberblick, der bisherige empirische Ergebnisse, konzeptuelle Differenzierungen und theoretische Annäherungen an Erwerbsarbeit jenseits der Rentengrenze einschließt. Ein heuristisches Modell fasst die wichtigsten individuellen und strukturellen Einflüsse auf Arbeit jenseits der Rentengrenze zusammen. Anschließend werden sowohl die Rentensysteme als auch die Arbeitsmarktstrukturen Deutschlands und Großbritanniens in groben Zügen beschrieben. Was den institutionellen Rahmen angeht, repräsentieren die beiden Länder zwei gegensätzliche Fälle, deren Vergleich dazu beiträgt, die institutionellen Faktoren zu verstehen, welche Erwerbsarbeit jenseits der Rentengrenze prägen. In der zweiten Hälfte des Arbeitspapiers werden Daten des Deutschen Alters-Surveys (DEAS) und der English Longitudinal Study of Ageing dazu genutzt, Erwerbsarbeit jenseits der Rentengrenze empirisch zu beschreiben. Über die soziodemographischen Charakteristika von erwerbstätigen Rentnern und die regionale Verteilung dieser Form von Arbeit hinaus wird dem sozio-ökonomischem Status erwerbstätiger Rentner im Vergleich zu anderen Rentnern besondere Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet. Außerdem werden unbezahlte Aktivitäten erwerbstätiger Rentner, ihre Gesundheit und Lebensformen sowie ihre Lebenszufriedenheit und die subjektiven Gründe für ihre Arbeit beschrieben. Einerseits bestätigen die Ergebnisse der Beschreibung die eher privilegierte Situation erwerbstätiger Rentner, die beispielsweise eine bessere Bildung aufweisen und gesünder sind als nicht-erwerbstätige Rentner. Andererseits gibt es erwerbstätige Rentner, die aus finanziellen Gründen und im schlechtbezahlten Dienstleistungssektor arbeiten. Einiges deutet darauf hin, dass die letztgenannte Gruppe, die ihre Arbeit häufiger als eine Bürde oder zumindest ambivalent erlebt, in Großbritannien größer ist als in Deutschland, und zwar vor allem aus institutionellen und strukturellen Gründen. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zeswps:042012&r=hme |
| By: | Stefano Federico (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of competition from low-wage countries on domestic activity, using data on 230 Italian manufacturing sectors between 1995 and 2007. We find that low-wage import penetration is negatively related to employment and other measures of activity. The effect is significantly lower in more skill, capital and R&D-intensive sectors and in more vertically differentiated sectors. There is also evidence of significant effects of low-wage competition through inter-industry linkages: employment is negatively related to low-wage import penetration in downstream sectors but positively related to low-wage import penetration in upstream sectors. |
| Keywords: | import penetration; low-wage country competition; factor proportions; inter-industry linkages. |
| JEL: | F16 F14 L60 D57 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_879_12&r=hme |
| By: | Zurimendi, Aitor; Ciarreta Antuñano, Aitor; Espinosa Alejos, María Paz |
| Abstract: | The European Commission Report on Competition in Professional Services found that recommended prices by professional bodies have a significant negative effect on competition since they may facilitate the coordination of prices between service providers and/or mislead consumers about reasonable price levels. Professional associations argue, first, that a fee schedule may help their members to properly calculate the cost of services avoiding excessive charges and reducing consumers’ searching costs and, second, that recommended prices are very useful for cost appraisal if a litigant is condemned to pay the legal expenses of the opposing party. Thus, recommended fee schedules could be justified to some extent if they represented the cost of providing the services. We test this hypothesis using crossâ€section data on a subset of recommended prices by 52 Spanish bar associations and cost data on their territorial jurisdictions. Our empirical results indicate that prices recommended by bar associations are unrelated to the cost of legal services and therefore we conclude that recommended prices have merely an anticompetitive effect. |
| Keywords: | professional associations, recommended prices, anticompetitive conduct |
| JEL: | K21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehu:dfaeii:8765&r=hme |
| By: | Sara L. Burke |
| Abstract: | 2011 was a turning point in what may be described as a crisis of social justice arising from the destructive effects of poverty and inequalities that were intensified by the financial crisis of 2007-08, and that fueled protests, occupations of public spaces and experiments in new organizational forms in North Africa, Europe and the United States (U.S.). This paper examines initiatives within the Occupy Wall Street movement that are having a role in shaping its orientation to the very question of its demands, or rejection of demands, and ultimately to public policy and the state, and asks whether the movement is a potential partner in pre-existing efforts on the part of traditional organizations to shift governments and intergovernmental institutions toward policies to promote social cohesion and economic inclusion. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msm:wpaper:2012/29&r=hme |
| By: | Capelle-Blancard, Gunther; Monjon, Stéphanie |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use online search engines and archive collections to examine the popularity of socially responsible investing (SRI) in newspapers and academic journals. A simple content analysis suggests that most of the papers on SRI focus on financial performance. This profusion of research is somewhat puzzling as most of the studies used roughly the same methodology and obtained very similar results. So, why are there so many studies on SRI financial performance? We argue that the academic literature on SRI is mostly data driven: the famous ‘looking for the keys under the lamppost’ syndrome. The question of the financial performance of the SRI funds is certainly relevant but maybe too much attention has been paid to this issue, whereas more research is needed on a conceptual and theoretical ground, in particular the aspirations of SRI investors, the relationship between regulation and SRI as well as the assessment of extra-financial performances. |
| Keywords: | Socially and responsible investment; investissement socialement responsable; corporate social responsibility; responsabilité sociale des entreprises; business ethics; éthique des affaires; financial performance; performance financière; greenwashing; altruism; altruisme; pro-social choice; choix pro-sociaux; |
| JEL: | A13 G11 G12 G20 M14 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:dauphi:urn:hdl:123456789/7349&r=hme |
| By: | Erik Fjærli and Diana Iancu (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Are investments by new firms constrained by access to financing? If so, are the constraints persistent or do firms overcome their financing problems during the first years of operation? We examine the role of capital constraints by estimating the relation between founders’ initial wealth and firm size during the first years of operation. Similar to previous studies, we find a positive impact of entrepreneurs’ wealth prior to start-up on the start-up size of entrepreneurial firms, but this effect decreases during the first five years of operation. We also document a high degree of economic mobility among entrepreneurial firms during the first years of operation. This is primarily driven by a disproportional increase in debt financing among the smallest firms, indicating that capital constraints for entrepreneurs are transitory. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; borrowing constraints; growth |
| JEL: | L11 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:707&r=hme |
| By: | Bredemeier, Christian (TU Dortmund); Juessen, Falko (TU Dortmund) |
| Abstract: | In Germany, there is a vivid political debate on introducing a general statutory minimum wage. In this paper, we study the effects of minimum wages on labor supply using a structural household model where we distinguish between married and single households. In the model, labor supply of married women reacts positively and relatively strongly to minimum wages which we model as a wage subsidy as proposed in the German political debate. By contrast, other population subgroups show ambiguous reactions. An empirical analysis for Germany shows that minimum wages would affect total labor supply only weakly. Yet, in our baseline experiments, average labor supply of married women increases by 3-5%, whereas hours supplied by married female recipients of the minimum wage may increase by up to 28%. Further, we find that costs of a subsidized minimum wage increase sharply in its level while its effects on labor supply level out. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, wage subsidies, labor supply, gender |
| JEL: | J22 J16 J38 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6892&r=hme |