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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
| By: | Cavalieri, Duccio |
| Abstract: | This is an analysis of the present unsatisfactory state of the theory of capital and a proposal to reformulate this theory in line with some neglected late-Marxian views on the subject and in the light of the passage of capitalism from the industrial to a post-industrial era characterized by the dominance of speculative finance. The author’s aim is to provide a better integration of the theory of capital with those of money and finance. Attention is focused on a Marxian price index, the monetary expression of labour value, MEV, which accounts for both explicit and implicit cost components and, differently from MELT, does not consider only the money value of living labour time. |
| Keywords: | value; capital theory; post-industrialism; critical Marxism; MEV. |
| JEL: | B12 B13 |
| Date: | 2013–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:51719&r=hme |
| By: | Aedin Doris (Economics,Finance and Accounting National University of Ireland, Maynooth); Donal O'Neill (Economics,Finance and Accounting National University of Ireland,); Olive Sweetman (Economics,Finance and Accounting National University of Ireland,) |
| Abstract: | There is considerable debate about the role of wage rigidity in explaining unemployment. Despite a large body of empirical work, no consensus has emerged on the extent of wage rigidity. Previous attempts to empirically examine wage rigidity have been hampered by small samples and measurement error. In this paper we examine nominal wage flexibility in Ireland both in the build up to, and during the Great Recession. The Irish case is particularly interesting because it has been one of the countries most affected by the crisis. Our main analysis is based on earnings data for the entire population of workers in Ireland taken from tax returns, which are free of reporting error. We find a substantial degree of downward wage flexibility in the pre-crisis period. We also observe a significant change in wage dynamics since the crisis began; the proportion of workers receiving wage cuts more than doubled and the proportion receiving wage freezes increased substantially. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in wage changes, with a significant proportion of workers continuing to receive pay rises at the same time as other were receiving pay cuts. |
| Keywords: | Wage Flexibility, Great Recession |
| JEL: | J31 J38 D31 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:may:mayecw:n244-13.pdf&r=hme |
| By: | Jones, A. |
| Abstract: | The 2007-9 period saw an unprecedented crisis emerge in global financial markets with the collapse of several large western financial institutions, and the nearest moment of systemic crisis yet witnessed in the globalized financial system. The crisis has thus provoked a significant questioning of market theories, and in particular understandings of market within orthodox neoclassical economics. Within the social sciences, a significant element of this response has built on a growing heterodox socioeconomic literature which is heavily critical of hegemonic conceptions of the market within economics. However, whilst a small body of work in economic geography has begun to engage with this literature, geographical thinking has not directly sought to conceptualise the nature and significance of market spatiality. Utilizing a cultural economy approach, this paper therefore argues that economic geographical theories need to foreground the concept of market rather than treat markets as a ‘component’ of wider processes. It further contends that the concept of the ‘market’ needs to be reconceptualised in a way that captures the spatialities of markets and the difference that space makes to market behaviours and outcomes. Drawing on the growing heterodox socioeconomic literature on markets, it thus proposes a practice-oriented ‘socio-spatial approach’ for framing conceptions of market spatiality, arguing that such a spatial epistemology opens up a range of theoretical possibilities for further contesting hegemonic neoclassical theories of the market beyond current socioeconomic critiques. It seeks to illustrate the utility of such a framework through a case study analysis of the limitations inherent in existing policy practices surrounding the early phase of the recent global financial crisis. |
| Keywords: | markets; economic practices; financial crisis; spatiality; cultural economy; actor network theory; performativity |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dip:dpaper:2013-10&r=hme |
| By: | Rodion Belkovich (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Legal Theory and Comparative Law Department. Associate Professor) |
| Abstract: | Traditional ideas sometimes turn into revolutionary ones because of changing circumstances in which they continue to exist. Their revolutionary appearance, however, might be intentionally accentuated by the new followers of these ideas. Consequently, a legitimate and respectable tradition of thought becomes marginal and ridiculed. It is an aim of the history of political thought then to reveal the true origins of these ideas. This paper focuses on one such case, namely, the equitable commerce theory of the first American anarchist Josiah Warren. The study seeks to show that the novel character of this theory is overestimated and that an essentially conservative idea of just price lies in the foundation of the whole American anarchist movement |
| Keywords: | Josiah Warren, anarchism, individualism, just price, equitable commerce, paleoconservatism |
| JEL: | Z19 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:18/law/2013&r=hme |
| By: | Sudharshan, Devanathan; Furrer, Olivier; Arakoni, Ramesh A. |
| Abstract: | Performance is the lifeblood of a firm's management. Performance itself depends on the adaptation of strategy, based on learning and the environment. An important way that firms adapt their strategy is through imitation or mimetic isomorphism. Imitation implies a referent for such adaptations. This article seeks to determine who or what should serve as that referent. Accordingly, this research (1) develops a broad and rich model of industry dynamics, bringing together literature from industrial economics, strategic groups, learning, and resource-based theories; (2) examines the robustness of imitations strategies; and (3) develops a framework of the managerial implications of imitative behavior in varying industry conditions. |
| Keywords: | Imitation; Strategy Dynamics; Resources; Strategic Change; Performance |
| JEL: | L10 L21 L24 M21 |
| Date: | 2013–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fri:fribow:fribow00446&r=hme |
| By: | Silvia Del Prete (Bank of Italy); Maria Lucia Stefani (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Italy ranks among EU countries with the fewest women on bank boards. Using a rich dataset on Italian banks that combines individual data on bank governance with different measures of performance and risk, this paper analyses the determinants of the gender gap in top positions. Econometric results suggest that there is a “second glass ceiling” as they confirm a significantly lower probability of women holding top decision-making positions (Chairman, CEO, General Manager), other individual characteristics and bank features being equal. Moreover, results show that the number of women at the top is greater a) in banks belonging to the major banking groups, with larger and younger boards; and b) in banks that are more cost efficient or in those with a larger share of risky loans in the past (in need of restructuring). Preliminary evidence from performance equations suggests that the presence of women is negatively correlated with indicators of ex post riskiness, implying that credit policies are more stringent when women are on the board, possibly due to their higher risk aversion. |
| Keywords: | banking, corporate governance, gender diversity, board of directors. |
| JEL: | G21 G34 J16 |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_175_13&r=hme |
| By: | Rodion Belkovich (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Legal Theory and Comparative Law Department. Associate Professor) |
| Abstract: | The emergence of the Tea Party movement in recent years has shown that under the surface of mainstream political life in the USA there exists a different layer of ideas, which cannot be satisfactorily described in terms of the Republican/Democrat dichotomy. These ideas have their origins in the foundation of the American Republic, which owes a lot to ancient and mediaeval political theory. In the twentieth century there was a revival of these ideas in the form of the so-called “paleoconservative” movements which rediscovered their ancient and mediaeval heritage. This paper focuses on one of them, the Southern Agrarian movement, as exemplary of this radical intellectual project |
| Keywords: | paleoconservatism, southern agrarians, south, slavery, civil war. |
| JEL: | Z19 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:15/law/2013&r=hme |
| By: | Lundvall , Bengt-Åke (CBS, Aalborg University, Denmark); Vang , Jan (Copenhagen Institute of Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark); Joseph , KJ (Centre for Development Studies (CDS), India); Chaminade , Cristina (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper links innovation system analysis to economic development. Both fields are young and interdisciplinary. In the recent years, there has been a renewed interest on applying the innovation system concept in developing countries. In the first part of this paper we try to specify the conditions under which innovation systems can be used in a developing country context; and we do so in a dialogue with critiques developed within the community of evolutionary and development scholars. In the second part of the paper we give a brief assessment of how development economics has evolved and we draw some lessons for a research strategy. We will argue that the crisis of the first generation of development economics that was represented by scholars such as Nurkse, Myrdal, Hirschman, Singer and Sen has left a void in development economics that cannot be filled neither by mainstream neoclassical economics nor by ‘new growth theory’. We see the innovation system approach as a serious candidate to fill this void |
| Keywords: | Innovation systems; development economics; developing countries |
| JEL: | O30 |
| Date: | 2013–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2013_033&r=hme |
| By: | John C. Driscoll; Ruth A. Judson |
| Abstract: | We examine the dynamics of eleven different deposit rates for a panel of over 2,500 branches of about 900 depository institutions observed weekly over ten years. We replicate previous work showing that rates are downwards-flexible and upwards-sticky, and show that a simple menu cost model can generate this behavior. The degree of asymmetric rigidity varies substantially by deposit type, bank size, and across branches of the same bank. In the absence of such stickiness, depositors would have received as much as $100 billion more in interest per year during periods when market rates were rising. These results also suggest that deposit rates are likely to lag increases in policy and market rates in future tightening cycles. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2013-80&r=hme |
| By: | Caterina Calsamiglia; Maia Güell |
| Abstract: | El Programa para la Evaluación Internacional de Alumnos (PISA) realizado por la OCDE en los últimos diez años revela que las chicas de 15-16 años presentan un peor (mejor) desempeño que los chicos en matemáticas (lectura) en la mayoría de los países que participan en el programa de evaluación. Durante más de una década, investigadores de la materia han prestado atención a estas diferencias de género (Goldin 1994; Hausmann et al. 2008) como posibles indicadores de desigualdades de género en las etapas tempranas de la vida. Entender estas diferencias de género es importante desde una perspectiva económica y social, ya que en última instancia pueden afectar a sus futuras decisiones tanto en el terreno educativo como en el profesional. En particular, el peor rendimiento de las chicas con respecto a los chicos en matemáticas podría en cierto modo explicar por qué las mujeres en la mayoría de los países industrializados todavía están significativamente infra-representadas en carreras universitarias más técnicas como ingeniería o matemáticas (Peri 2012; Anelli, Cecci & Williams 2007). Además, estas discrepancias a la hora de elegir las materias de estudio afectan a la carrera profesional posterior y también pueden ayudar a explicar las diferencias de género observadas en el mercado de trabajo en términos de salarios, promoción, estabilidad laboral y status. |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2013-10&r=hme |
| By: | Tom Coupe (Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv Economics Institute); Claire Monteiro (Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we compare the charitable behavior of billionaires who inherited their wealth to the charitable behavior of those billionaires who made their own wealth. Self-made billionaires are found to be more likely to sign the ‘Giving Pledge’ and more likely to be in the Million Dollar Gifts lists or the Philanthropy Top 50 list of big givers, even after controlling for many other variables that can affect charitable behavior. They also are found to give more conditional on giving. This finding, which is consistent with ‘mental accounting’ occurring even at extremely high stakes, means policy makers in many emerging markets with ‘new’ billionaires better quickly modernize their outdated charity laws. |
| Keywords: | billionaires, Forbes, mental accounting, fundraising |
| JEL: | J81 D63 C14 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kse:dpaper:51&r=hme |
| By: | Hyeongwoo Kim |
| Abstract: | Global food prices have recently exhibited highly volatile and very persistent dynamics. Greater fluctuations in food commodities than manufacturing goods often put more serious hardship to poor countries that tend to specialize in raw commodity industries. The present paper attempts to identify the factors that help explain recent phenomena in world commodity markets. We first document strong dynamic correlations (Engle, 2002) between food commodity prices and the US dollar exchange rate. Employing the PANIC method (Bai and Ng, 2004), we then estimate a latent common factor from 27 food and beverage commodity prices, which seem to be closely related with the exchange rate. Once controlled for the effect of the common latent factor, idiosyncratic components of food commodity prices show substantially lower volatilities and persistence. Recent trends in global food commodity prices, therefore, seem to be well explained by a fairly simple but influential factor, that is, highly volatile and persistent movements of the US exchange rate since the recent financial crisis. Other than that, we do not see any compelling evidence of higher volatility or greater persistence in price dynamics. Our findings also call for special attention on the importance of financial markets in addition to factors that influence economic fundamentals. |
| Keywords: | Global Food Prices; Volatility; Persistence; US Dollar Exchange Rate; DCC; PANIC |
| JEL: | C51 F31 Q02 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abn:wpaper:auwp2013-22&r=hme |