|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2014‒08‒09
eighteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Stefano Zambelli; Thomas Fredholm; Ragupathy Venkatachalam |
| Abstract: | We propose a measure of technological progress based on the information embedded in standard input-output tables. A connection is established between the quantities necessary as inputs, the associated output and auxiliary prices. It is argued that the wage-profit frontiers and the associated production prices together provide a robust basis for measuring technological progress and productivities. The computation of the wage-profit frontiers is a non-trivial exercise because of high combinatorial complexity. An algorithm that renders this computation feasible is presented. We analyze technological progress and productivities among 30 countries between 1995-2009 using the latest multi-regional input-output data. |
| Keywords: | Technological Change, Input–Output analysis, Wage Profit Frontier, Production Prices, Computational Techniques |
| JEL: | C61 C63 C67 O47 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpas:1404&r=hme |
| By: | Stefano Zambelli |
| Abstract: | Standard postulates concerning the aggregate production function are about marginal productivities - and the associated demand of labor and capital – which are to be negatively related to factor prices, namely the wage rate and the profit rate. The theoretical cases in which these neoclassical properties do not hold are regarded as anomalies. We compute the aggregate values for capital, production and labour and find that the neoclassical postulates do not hold for the whole dataset under consideration. |
| Keywords: | Aggregate Neoclassical Production Function, Cobb-Douglas, CES, Technological Change, Macroeconomics, Growth. |
| JEL: | C61 C63 C67 O47 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpas:1405&r=hme |
| By: | Eric Hilt |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an overview of the history of corporate governance in the United States, emphasizing the period before the advent of federal securities laws and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Recent research has overturned many widely accepted beliefs about corporate governance during this period. In particular, the evolution of American corporate governance has not followed a simple, linear trajectory, beginning with small, well-governed firms and ending with large, poorly governed ones. Over time, economic and institutional changes have given rise to successive generations of corporations with their own governance problems and their own mechanisms to address those problems. When existing governance mechanisms failed, the United States experienced corporate governance crises—episodes that shattered investors’ faith in corporate management and the legal institutions intended to protect their rights. The resolutions of these crises have sometimes been found in legal innovations, and in other cases, in institutional or market-based solutions. |
| JEL: | G3 N21 N81 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20356&r=hme |
| By: | Jimmy A. Saravia; Silvia Saravia-Matus |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) theory of capital structure and finds that for the case of equity the usual TCE logic is not fully worked out. In particular, an analysis of the key issue of bilateral dependency between the firm and its shareholders is absent. To fill this gap in the literature, the paper further develops the theory of the equity governance structure by taking account of the concept of bilateral dependency over the lifecycle of the firm. The paper finds that, both theoretically and empirically, contractual hazards are indeed mitigated for the case of fast growing young firms which are dependent on shareholders to finance future growth. In contrast, for the case of mature firms, which in virtue of their large free cash flows are independent from shareholders, contractual safeguards are altered to the disadvantage of shareholders and consequently managerial discretion costs increase. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Governance, Transaction Cost Economics, Free Cash flows, Firm Valuation |
| JEL: | D23 G31 G32 G34 |
| Date: | 2014–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000122:011997&r=hme |
| By: | José Gabriel Palma |
| Abstract: | Latin America is a region whose critical social imagination has stalled, changing from a uniquely prolific period during the 1950s and 1960s — revolving around structuralism, ‘dependency analyses’, Baran and Sweezy’s-type analysis of ‘monopoly capitalism’, French structuralism, the German Historical School, Keynesian and macroeconomics, and the ideas of endogenous intellectuals (such as Mariátegui) — to an intellectually barren one since the 1982 debt crisis and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Although this has happened in most of the world, in Latin America both the process of re-legitimisation of capital, and the downswing of the cycle of critical thinking have been particularly pronounced as neo-liberalism has conquered the region, including most of its progressive intelligentsia, just as completely (and just as fiercely) as the Holy Inquisition conquered Spain — transforming critical thinkers into an endangered species. As pre-1980 critical analytical work had been characterised by an unremitting critique of the economy, once the mainstream left conceded the economy as the fundamental hub of the struggle, there seemed to have been little else left in terms of basic ideological principles to hold onto in a thoughtful way — i.e., it was as if the mainstream left had lost not just some but all its ideological relevance, making it particularly difficult for them to move forward in an innovative way. As a result, in terms of development strategies and economic policies both the traditional and the ‘new-left’ are in one way or another still stuck in the past. While in some countries the former basically wants to recreate the past, in others the latter seems to be unable to do anything more imaginative than to attempt to create a future which is simply the exact opposite of that past — the main guiding economic policy principle being to transform practically anything that before was considered “virtue” into “vice”, and vice-versa. This narrow ‘reverse-gear’ attitude of the ‘new-left’ has delivered not only a disappointing economic performance (particularly in terms of productivity-growth), but also rather odd political settlements characterised by a combination of an insatiable capitalist elite, a captured and unimaginative progressive political élite (the dominant classes are quite happy to let them govern as long as they do not forget who they are), passive citizens, and a stalled social imagination — a dull mélange that from time to time is sparked off by spontaneous outbursts of students’ discontent. Meanwhile, the world (with its new technological and institutional paradigms) moves on, and Asia forges ahead. |
| Keywords: | Latin America, Ideology, Critical Thinking, Structuralism, Dependency,Neoliberalism,Fundamentalism, ‘New Left’, Top 1%, Keynes, Foucault, Prebisch, Hirschman. |
| JEL: | B5 D3 E2 F13 F59 J20 L52 N16 N36 O16 O4 P5 |
| Date: | 2014–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1416&r=hme |
| By: | Jaylson Jair da Silveira; Gilberto Tadeu Lima |
| Abstract: | Motivated by a considerable (experimental and empirical) evidence on endogenous labor effort and inter- and intra-industry wage differentials, this paper explores implications for income distribution, capacity utilization and economic growth of firms using different strategies to elicit effort (and hence productivity) from workers. The frequency distribution of effort-elicitation strategies in the population of firms is governed by a replicator dynamics that generates wage differential as a long-run, evolutionary equilibrium outcome. Although firms willing to elicit more labor effort have to compensate workers with a higher wage rate, a larger proportion of firms adopting such strategy will not necessarily produce a higher wage share in income and thereby higher rates of capacity utilization and economic growth. The intuition is that, depending on the accompanying rise in average labor productivity, the wage share in income (and hence the aggregate effective demand) may not vary positively with the proportion of firms paying higher wages. Therefore, endogenous labor productivity and wage differentials carry relevant theoretical and policy implications for a wage-led growth regime. |
| Keywords: | Labor effort; wage differentials; income distribution; capacity utilization; economic growth. |
| JEL: | O11 O41 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–07–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2014wpecon10&r=hme |
| By: | Carlo Drago (University of Rome “Niccolò Cusano”); Livia Amidani Aliberti (Nedcommunity – amministratori non esecutivi ed indipendenti); Davide Carbonai (Universidade Federal do Pampa) |
| Abstract: | In recent literature a relevant problem has been the relationship between career/personal contactnetworks and different career paths. In addition the recent advances in social capital theory have shown the way in which networks impact on personal careers. In particular women’s careers appear to be negatively affected by the informational network structure. The main contribution of this work is to propose empirical evidence of this phenomenon by considering the gendered directorship network with relation to Austria and to show the structural differences by gender in the network. By using community detection techniques we have found various communities in which females seem not to be present at all, where females show significantly fewer contacts than males in the network, and finally where the proportion of males exceeds 91%. The results show the predominant role in the network of male directors;these differences are very relevant if we consider the network as a tool of vehicle information and as a power mechanism. In this paper we wish to make an original contribution to the debate of the well-known “glass-ceiling” effect. |
| Keywords: | Glass ceiling, Gender Diversity, Social Network Analysis |
| JEL: | M14 M5 C60 C4 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2014.61&r=hme |
| By: | Pedro Albarrán; Raquel Carrasco; Javier Ruíz-Castillo |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes a sample of economists from two sources: faculty members workingin 2007 in a selection of the 81 top Economics departments in the world, and fellows of theEconometric Society active at that date but working elsewhere in other institutions. Productivity ismeasured in terms of a quality index that weights the publications of each individual in four journalequivalent classes. We identify three elites consisting of the 123, 332, and 908 most productiveresearchers in a total sample of 2,605 scholars that have published at least one article in theperiodical literature up to 2007. We investigate the following six questions. (1) The "funnelingeffect" from countries where elite members obtain their first degree, to countries where theyobtain a Ph.D. and, finally, to countries where they work in 2007. (2) The extent of the researchgap between the U.S. and the EU. (3) The clustering of elite members in a few top U.S. EconomicsDepartments in order to pursue their Ph.D. and to work in 2007. (4) The geographical distributionof the elite into the following three groups: those who study and work in the same country (stayers),those who study the Ph.D. abroad but come back to the country where they obtained a first degree(brain circulation), and those who complete their education at home but move abroad after thePh.D., plus those who leave their country to study the Ph.D. and remain abroad in 2007 (twodifferent forms of brain drain). The last two groups of economists taken together are referred to asmovers. (5) The characteristics of the elites in Economics with the elites in other scientificdisciplines and, especially, with the elites in Mathematics and Physics for which we havecomparable data. (6) Finally, we investigate questions 1 to 4 above for subsets of "young people",defined as the economists in our original samples that obtained a Ph.D. at most 25 years before2007. |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we1414&r=hme |
| By: | Trevor Jones (CREME, University of Birmingham); Monder Ram (CREME, University of Birmingham) |
| Abstract: | To what extent does ethnic minority entrepreneurship promote socio-economic advancement? An implicit narrative of ethnic minority enterprise as a catalyst for social mobility has held sway in academic and policy discourse. It is fuelled by a largely-US inspired literature that emphasises ‘ethnic resources’. We evaluate this question by drawing on recent theoretical developments that seek to embed ethnic minority entrepreneurship more clearly in the various contexts in which they are embedded. These contexts, rather than resources that may or may not exist amongst ethnic minority groups, are found to be more persuasive in accounting the nature of minority enterprise. |
| Keywords: | ethnic minority enterprise, discrimination, social mobility |
| JEL: | Z13 |
| Date: | 2013–10–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:enr:rpaper:0011&r=hme |
| By: | Sanchari Goswami; Anirban Chakraborti |
| Abstract: | In this article, we briefly review the different aspects and applications of kinetic exchange models in economics and sociology. Our main aim is to show in what manner the kinetic exchange models for closed economic systems were inspired by the kinetic theory of gas molecules. The simple yet powerful framework of kinetic theory, first proposed in 1738, led to the successful development of statistical physics of gases towards the end of the 19th century. This framework was successfully adapted to modeling of wealth distributions in the early 2000's. In later times, it was applied to other areas like firm dynamics and opinion formation in the society, as well. We have tried to present the flavour of the several models proposed and their applications, intentionally leaving out the intricate mathematical and technical details. |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1408.1365&r=hme |
| By: | Eleonora Patacchini (Cornell University, EIEF and CEPR); Edoardo Rainone (Banca d'Italia and Università di Roma "La Sapienza") |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the importance of social interactions for the adoption of financial products. We exploit a unique dataset of friendships among United States students and a novel estimation strategy that accounts for possibly endogenous network formation. We find that not all social contacts are equally important: only those with a long-lasting relationship influence financial decisions. Moreover, the correlation in agents' behavior only arises among long-lasting ties in cohesive network structures. This evidence is consistent with an important role of trust in financial decisions. Repeated interactions generate trust among agents, which in turn aggregate in tightly knit groups. When agents have to decide whether or not to adopt a financial instrument they face a risk and might place greater value on information coming from agents they trust. These results can help to understand the growing importance of face-to-face social contacts for financial decisions. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eie:wpaper:1404&r=hme |
| By: | Payne, Abigail; Scharf, Kimberley (The University of Warwick); Smith, Sarah (University of Bristol) |
| Abstract: | Online platforms provide an opportunity for individuals to fundraise for their favourite charities and charitable causes. In recent years, individual charity fundraising through these platforms has become a mass activity. Using JustGiving, the UK’s biggest charity fundraising platform, 21 million people have raised £1.5 billion for over 13,000 charities and causes since the website was set up in 2001. Recent figures suggest that online donations are still a relatively small part of overall giving; an estimated 7% of the total dollar amount given in the US and used by 7% of UK donors. But online and text giving are growing at a faster rate than total donations, indicating that this share will grow. In this paper, we present insights on individual fundraising from micro-econometric analysis of JustGiving data. The analysis exploits a number of different data sub-samples. The largest comprises 416,313 fundraisers who were active JustGiving users at the time of an online survey that ran from October 2010 – April 2011. We also analyse data on 10,597 fundraisers who ran in the 2010 London marathon and from a sample of 39,238 fundraisers who had linked their fundraising pages to their Facebook page. Details on all these samples are given in the Appendix. The focus of the analysis is what determines fundraising success. The "perfect ask" in the title of the paper suggests that there may be a winning formula that could easily be replicated. In practice, much of the power of individual fundraising comes from its very personal – and idiosyncratic – nature, but there may nevertheless be some useful lessons to be learned from studying how fundraisers and donors behave. A "typical" fundraising page (the median) has 14 donations and raises £245. But, as shown in Table 1, there is substantial variation in the number of donations and the amounts raised. The top 10% of pages raise £1,343 or more; the bottom 10% manage less than £38. In this paper, we show that at least some of this variation can be linked to specific factors having to do with the individual’s fundraising strategy (for example, the type of event they do and whether or not they set a fundraising target). We also show that social interactions are crucially important – whether between the fundraiser and donors or between donors. Individual fundraising is a uniquely personal and interactive form of fundraising, introducing new social dynamics into fundraising. |
| Keywords: | Online giving; Fundraising; Social groups; Donations; Charity; Warm glow |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:194&r=hme |
| By: | Rocío del Pilar Moreno-Sánchez; Jorge H. Maldonado; Camilo Andrés Gutiérrez; Melissa Rubio |
| Abstract: | La valoración económica tradicional (VE) se ha constituido en una herramienta fundamental para apoyar el establecimiento de áreas marinas protegidas como la estrategia preferida para la conservación de los ecosistemas marinos y costeros y de los servicios que éstos proveen. Sin embargo, generalmente, estos ejercicios estiman los beneficios que la conservación genera a actores situados fuera de las mismas, quienes no hacen uso extractivo de los recursos como su principal fuente de alimento e ingresos, y han ignorado los valores que las comunidades locales otorgan a los ecosistemas que las rodean, o los costos de oportunidad que las comunidades locales, usuarias de recursos, asumen cuando deben enfrentar las restricciones que imponen las AMPs en el acceso a los recursos. Adicionalmente, se ha cuestionado la pertinencia de realizar VE en contextos locales porque su implementación aún enfrenta desafíos prácticos, metodológicos, éticos y políticos. Siguiendo las recomendaciones de The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), este estudio propone una metodología de valoración económica que es innovadora, porque combina herramientas cualitativas de valoración que permiten capturar la importancia relativa que los usuarios locales otorgan a los ecosistemas, y a los diversos servicios que proveen, con herramientas cuantitativas estándares de la VE, experimentos de elección, que permiten capturar la disponibilidad a aceptar restricciones en el uso de recursos impuestas por el establecimiento de AMPs. La metodología propuesta incorpora enfoques de valoración colectiva y deliberación grupal, en donde la construcción participativa de los escenarios de base y de cambio permite un mejor entendimiento, por parte de los usuarios de recursos, de la situación hipotética a valorar. |
| Keywords: | Valoración participativa, comunidades locales, experimentos de elección, métodos de asignación de puntajes, Colombia |
| JEL: | C25 C81 Q01 Q22 Q51 Q56 |
| Date: | 2013–11–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:011936&r=hme |
| By: | Lutter, Mark |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes how social network structures affect career success in a projectbased labor market. The literature on team success has shown that teams perform well if they integrate both weak and strong ties simultaneously. Applying the literature to careers in the creative industries, the study suggests that creative artists are more likely to receive critical recognition if they build their careers in both familiar project networks and heterogeneous sets of creative conventions. It is argued that familiarity and diversity operate as complementary elements in the development of innovative ideas. While diversity is important to maximize the flow of new ideas, it needs to be embedded within trustworthy and familiar network structures in order to fully develop its creative potential. The suggested mechanism is tested by means of full career data of 55,097 film directors, covering 478,859 directing jobs in 330,142 film productions during the years 1900-2010. It is shown that familiarity and diversity explain a considerable part of a director's critical success. Results from interaction effects show that diversity has greater effects on critical success if it is socially embedded within familiar social structures. The article contributes to the emerging understanding of the role of group processes and network structures in explaining individual career success. -- Dieser Artikel untersucht, wie soziale Netzwerkstrukturen Karriereerfolg auf einem projektbasierten Arbeitsmarkt bestimmen. Auf der Grundlage von Forschung zu Teamerfolg argumentiert der Beitrag, dass Karriereerfolg in Kreativberufen wahrscheinlicher wird, wenn Karrieren sich sowohl in vertrauten als auch in diversen, mit heterogenen Konventionen ausgestatteten Projektnetzwerken bewegen. Vertrautheit und Diversität wirken als komplementäre Elemente in der Entwicklung innovativer Ideen. Zwar fördert das Element der Diversität den optimalen Austausch neuer Ideen, allerdings muss es, damit sich sein kreatives Potenzial vollständig entfalten kann, zugleich in vertrauensvollen Netzwerkstrukturen eingebettet sein. Anhand eines vollständigen Karrieredatensatzes, der Karriereprofile von 55.097 Filmregisseuren in 478.859 Engagements und 330.142 Filmproduktionen in den Jahren 1900 bis 2010 einbezieht, wird dieser Mechanismus getestet. Es zeigt sich, dass sowohl Vertrautheit als auch Diversität einen Großteil des Kritiker- und Karriereerfolgs der Regisseure erklären. Interaktionseffekte zeigen zudem, dass Diversität einen stärkeren Effekt auf künstlerischen Erfolg ausübt, wenn sie in vertrauten Strukturen eingebettet ist. Insgesamt erweitert die Studie unser Verständnis davon, wie Gruppen- und Netzwerkstrukturen individuellen Karriereerfolg beeinflussen. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:1411&r=hme |
| By: | Gaddour, Inès |
| Abstract: | This study develops and empirically tests a model in order to study the dysfunctional behaviors of senior auditors in the French context. The related literature is then reviewed in the first section. The next section identifies the factors influencing the dysfunctional behaviors. The variables are then defined before a presentation of the empirical tests. Finally, the summary and the conclusion are presented. The results show that the dimension of Leader Member-Exchange (LMX), namely Loyality, has a significant effect on the reduction of adaptive behaviors (Quality-Threatening Behaviour: QTB, mismanagement of the audit team: MGE and unprofessional behaviors: CNP). Also, results highlight that under the effect of mimetic and professional skills adopted by a superior, the CNP as well as the MGE are significantly reduced. This result is also confirmed between managerial behavior and supervisor CNP. In addition, demographic variables, namely gender, experience as a senior and experience in the audit have been proven to have a significant impact on adaptive behaviors. Eventually the analysis confirm the results of previous research concerning the impact of the style assessment based on technical criteria, affective commitment, budget pressure and deadline pressure on such types of behavior. |
| Keywords: | Qualité d’audit; Comportements dysfonctionnels; Théorie LMX; Modèle de rôle; Perception du style d’évaluation; Audit Quality; Dysfunctional behaviors; LMX theory; Role modeling; Perception of evaluation design; |
| JEL: | M12 M42 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dau:papers:123456789/13774&r=hme |
| By: | Roy, Tirthankar (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The historiography of the development and diffusion of technology in the modern world has grown as a collection of discourses, which differ in points of emphasis. The three common points of emphasis are state intervention, cultural makeup of societies, and economic calculations. The disjointedness characterizes the literature on colonial India (1857-1947) as well, complicated further by the need to understand the role that British colonial rule played in these processes. The present survey discusses, compares, and evaluates the diverse narratives. |
| Keywords: | Colonial India, Technology |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:198&r=hme |
| By: | Alberto Jaramillo; Isabel Montes; Sandra Milena Chica G.; José David Garcés C. |
| Abstract: | El presente artículo examina cuáles son los factores institucionales que tienen relación con el rendimiento académico en matemáticas. Para ello se tomó un corte transversal de 1653 estudiantes que presentaron el examen de Estado de la educación media (Saber 11) en el 2010, provenientes de 44 instituciones educativas de la ciudad de Medellín - Colombia. La estimación se hizo por medio de un Modelo Lineal Jerárquico cuyas variables independientes se clasificaron en dos niveles: estudiante e institución. Los principales resultados evidencian que el 31,4% del rendimiento de los estudiantes en matemáticas es explicado por variables institucionales como el número de horas de matemáticas, el pertenecer a colegios privados y de un solo género, el uso de texto guía y el tamaño del colegio. |
| Keywords: | Rendimiento académico, factores institucionales, modelos lineales jerárquicos/ academic achievement, institutional factors, Hierarchical Linear Models |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2014–06–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000122:012000&r=hme |
| By: | Fairlie, Robert |
| Abstract: | Using confidential microdata from the Characteristics of Business Owners, we examine why African-American owned businesses lag substantially behind white-owned businesses in sales, profits, employment, and survival. Black business owners are much less likely than white owners to have had a self-employed family member owner prior to starting their business and are less likely to have worked in that family member's business. Using a nonlinear decomposition technique, we find that the lack of prior work experience in a family business among black business owners, perhaps by limiting their acquisition of general and specific business human capital, negatively affects black business outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Business, entrepreneurship, black business, human capital, business human capital, inequality, race |
| Date: | 2014–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucscec:qt86r7z28d&r=hme |