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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2014‒11‒17
nineteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Esteves, Luiz A. |
| Abstract: | The economic literature has spent decades of analytical effort in order to provide theoretical and empirical evidence on behavior differences between firms managed by capital (conventional capitalist firms) and firms managed by labor (including cooperatives and professional associations), mainly in respect to their goals. Conventional capitalist firms aim to maximize profits, while the cooperative firms aim employment and output stability. The antitrust policy have replicated the same treatment used to analyze conventional capitalist firms in order to analyze cooperative firms. Such behavior can increase the probability of type I and type II errors. In terms of public policy, the conclusion of this article is that a concentration or coordination between cooperative or professional associations is not, per se, a necessary and sufficient condition to cause competitive harm. The idiosyncrasies of these types of organizations require specific analysis and application of the rule of reason. |
| Keywords: | Antitrust; Cooperatives; Monopolies; Cartels |
| JEL: | D42 K21 P13 |
| Date: | 2014–09–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:58908&r=hme |
| By: | Altman, Morris |
| Abstract: | Cooperatives represent an alternative to large-scale corporate farms and plantations as well as to independent unaffiliated small private farms. This paper presents a comparative modeling narrative on cooperative organizational forms’ potential impact on equitable rural development. This speaks to issues of both increasing the size of the economic pie and how this income is distributed. The case is made the cooperatives can potentially generate higher rates of growth and more equitable growth, even in competitive economic environments. An important type of cooperative that is focused upon is one based on the linking of smaller farms into a cooperative. Economies economics of scale and scope as well in transaction costs can be captured by the cooperatives. Given cooperative governance, one would also expect higher levels of x-efficiency. Overall, cooperatives can generate relative high incomes to cooperative members, whilst remaining competitive with the traditional privately owned large farms. Critical to the success of the cooperative, is a set rules and regulation that place them on a level playing field with the privately owned farm. In addition, the implementation and practice of cooperative principles is key to the success of the cooperative farm and rural cooperatives, more generally speaking. |
| Keywords: | Cooperation, Cooperatives, Economics of Scale and Scope, Fairness, Transaction Costs, Cooperative Principles, X-Efficiency, Dynamic Efficiency, Income Equality, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vuw:vuwecf:3625&r=hme |
| By: | Moodysson , Jerker (CIRCLE, Lund University); Sack , Lionel (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the evolution of a ‘protected label of origin’ cluster in France with a particularly homogeneous and explicit institutional framework, which has given birth to significant incremental and radical changes in recent decades. By providing insights into these change processes and their institutional preconditions, the study provides an operational framework that disentangles different types of institutional change that are shaped by preconditions in the cluster - but that also shape the cluster on an aggregate level. The study distinguishes between institutional triggers for change of incremental versus radical nature, mainly focusing on inefficiencies that emerge over time in a given institutional framework. It suggests that incremental change processes have their main origin in developments on the regulative and normative dimension of institutions within the cluster, whereas more radical change processes require a wider set of preconditions, of which change on the cognitive dimension is crucial. |
| Keywords: | cluster; evolution; institutions; path dependence |
| JEL: | L66 O31 |
| Date: | 2014–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_023&r=hme |
| By: | Gawlik, Remigiusz; Gołębiowski, Kamil |
| Abstract: | The paper discusses common approaches to quality of life and human well – being issues. It provides a literature overview of most recent concepts in this field. The idea of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index has been opposed to the most popular measure of human life quality – the Gross Domestic Product. Moreover, it aims at attiring the attention of economists to the need for enlarging their quantitative research instrumentarium by qualitative indicators. Finally, the authors propose their own index, that incorporates both qualitative and quantitative drivers of well – being into one aggregated measure. |
| Keywords: | Human Life Quality, Determinants of Well – Being, Qualitative & Quantitative Research |
| JEL: | C45 I31 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:58587&r=hme |
| By: | Estrada, Fernando; González, Jorge Iván |
| Abstract: | The article is divided into two parts. The first describes Hayek's critique of the progressive tax system since its conception of social order and fiscal rationality. Hayek thinks about a key principle in liberal democracies: majority rule. And stretching comments to the influence of morality in taxation decisions. The second is aimed at analyzing the reception of Hayek in constitutional economics Brennan and Buchanan. However, in the interpretation of tax policy has decisively if governments reflect a tyrant or benevolent Leviathan State. The Fiscal Constitution must be accompanied by a monetary constitution. Both constitutional forms are related and prevent leviathánico power of governments, especially when they are short stay. Although, for the authors, the Fiscal Constitution has important implications for monetary constitution. |
| Keywords: | Power Tax, Hayek, Buchanan, Brennan, Progressive Tax. |
| JEL: | B13 B15 B25 B41 E42 E62 E64 H3 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59075&r=hme |
| By: | Mariana Mazzucato (SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK); Cateano C.R. Penna (SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK) |
| Keywords: | state investment banks, development banking, public finance, market failure, mission-oriented finance |
| JEL: | G20 O16 O38 L52 P16 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:2014-21&r=hme |
| By: | Germán Darío Valencia Agudelo |
| Abstract: | Resumen: Albert Hirschman fue un economista poco convencional. Su metodología de investigación y exposición se distancia abismalmente de la utilizada por la corriente principal en la ciencia económica. El artículo hace una aproximación a la cuestión metodológica en Hirschman. Aunque no se encuentra un tratado escrito por el autor para discutir el tema, sus trabajos son claros ejemplos de como abordar metodológicamente los objetos sociales de estudio: esta se sintetiza en partir de la realidad para diagnosticar problemas y proponer soluciones, utilizando la teoría económica y buscando en otras disciplinas la forma de complementar los análisis y recomendaciones. Además su método de exposición se caracteriza por dirigirse a todo público de manera clara y simple. |
| Keywords: | Epistemología económica; Economía política; Metodología de la economía; Albert Hirschman. |
| JEL: | B41 B59 D82 D86 |
| Date: | 2013–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000418:012242&r=hme |
| By: | Wayne, James J. |
| Abstract: | Recent experience of the great recession of 2008 has renewed one of the oldest debates in economics: whether economics could ever become a scientific discipline like physics. This paper proves that economics is truly a branch of physics by establishing for the first time a fundamental equation of economics (FEOE), which is similar to many fundamental equations governing other subfields of physics, for example, Maxwell’s Equations for electromagnetism. From recently established physics laws of social science (PLSS), this paper derives a fundamental equation of economics, which is the one mathematic equation that governs all observed economic phenomena. FEOE establishes a common entry point to solve all economic problems without any exception. We show that establishing FEOE clarifies many open questions regarding the foundation of economics. For example, the number one question for all economists ought to be what can be forecasted and what cannot be forecasted in economics. Without FEOE and PLSS, this number one question cannot be answered scientifically within the existing framework of economics. While FEOE re-affirms many existing economic theories, we also have found that many other popular economic theories are not compatible with FEOE, and we conclude that FEOE comes with its own version of microeconomics and macroeconomics. In microeconomics, the framework of laws of supply and demand and market equilibrium, which is traditionally assumed by most economists as the foundation of economics, is replaced by a new model called indeterministic supply demand pricing (ISDP) model. ISDP model is far more precise and universal mathematical abstraction of market reality than the framework of Marshall’s market equilibrium and laws of supply and demand. In macroeconomics, a new macroeconomic model called indeterministic balance sheet plus (IBS+) model can be derived from FEOE. Unlike the popular DSGE and Agent-based Computational Economic (ACE) models, the IBS+ model is universally applicable in any kind of economy, empirically falsifiable, making forecasts with reasonable accuracy, truthful abstraction of reality, capturing macroeconomic dynamics accurately, and most importantly based on a sound theoretical foundation. In conclusion, this paper shows that FEOE provides a solid physics foundation for both theoretical and practical economics. Therefore, after establishing the fundamental equation of economics in this paper, there should be no doubt that economics is simply a branch of quantum physics in parallel with chemistry and optics. Over last four hundred years, there are many schools of thoughts emerged in economics while there is only one school of thought by Newton-Einstein-Bohr survived the experimental and theoretical scrutiny in physics over the same period. The logic conclusion is that there must be only one school of thought allowed in economics as a subfield of physics. |
| Keywords: | causality, econophysics, economic forecast, laws of supply and demand, market equilibrium, macroeconomic model, laws of physics, physics laws of social science, fundamental equation of economics |
| JEL: | A12 C1 |
| Date: | 2013–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59574&r=hme |
| By: | BRESSER-PEREIRA, Luiz Carlos |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses distribution and the historical phases of capitalism. It assumes that technical progress and growth are taking place, and, given that, its question is on the functional distribution of income between labor and capital, having as reference classical theory of distribution and Marx’s falling tendency of the rate of profit. Based on the historical experience, it, first, inverts the model, making the rate of profit as the constant variable in the long run and the wage rate, as the residuum; second, it distinguishes three types of technical progress (capital-saving, neutral and capital-using) and applies it to the history of capitalism, having the UK and France as reference. Given these three types of technical progress, it distinguishes four phases of capitalist growth, where only the second is consistent with Marx prediction. The last phase, after World War II, should be, in principle, capital-saving, consistent with growth of wages above productivity. Instead, since the 1970s wages were kept stagnant in rich countries because of, first, the fact that the Information and Communication Technology Revolution proved to be highly capital using, opening room for a new wage of substitution of capital for labor; second, the new competition coming from developing countries; third, the emergence of the technobureaucratic or professional class; and, fourth, the new power of the neoliberal class coalition associating rentier capitalists and financiers |
| Date: | 2014–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:eesptd:372&r=hme |
| By: | Gordon Anderson; Alessio Farcomeni; Grazia Pittau; Roberto Zelli |
| Abstract: | Classifying agents into subgroups in order to measure the plight of the "poor", "middle class" or "rich" is common place in economics, unfortunately the definition of class boundaries is contentious and beset with problems. Here a technique based on mixture models is proposed for surmounting these problems by determining the number of classes in a population and estimating the probability that an agent belongs to a particular class. All of the familiar statistics for describing the classes remain available and the possibility of studying the determinants of class membership is raised. As a substantive illustration we analyze household income in Urban China in the last decade of the 20th Century. Four income groups are classified and the progress of those "poor", "lower middle", "upper middle" and "rich" classes are related to household and regional characteristics to study the impact of urbanization and the one child policy on class membership over the period. |
| Keywords: | Poverty Frontiers, Mixture Models, Class membership, Urban China. |
| JEL: | C14 I32 O1 |
| Date: | 2014–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-521&r=hme |
| By: | Ozsoz, Emre |
| Abstract: | One of the most cited criticism for US fashion brands is their exploitation of workers in their overseas manufacturing facilities. This paper studies whether such textile and apparel production facilities (also known as “sweatshopsâ€) lead to lower education and thus a lower socio-economic status for women working in them. Results suggest it is not as a clear-cut conclusion. Evidence suggests a higher ratio of women receive primary education as apparel and textile exports increase while at the secondary level of education however, the results suggest the opposite. We also evaluate to see if women marry at a later age as a result of working in these factories, yet fail to find any conclusive evidence. |
| Keywords: | sweatshops, economic development, |
| JEL: | O1 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:58125&r=hme |
| By: | Anne Revillard (Observatoire sociologique du changement) |
| Abstract: | Dans leur policy brief intitulé « Pourquoi les femmes occupent-elles moins de postes à responsabilité ? Une analyse des promotions universitaires en économie 1» reprenant les conclusions d’un working paper récemment publié dans le cadre du LIEPP (Bosquet, Combes, & Garcia Penalosa, 2014), Clément Bosquet, Pierre-Philippe Combes et Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa apportent une contribution importante à l’analyse des inégalités de genre dans l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche (ESR) en France. Sur le plan méthodologique, les deux atouts majeurs de leur démarche résident d’une part dans le volume et la qualité de la base de données utilisée et d’autre part dans l’intégration, dans l’analyse des promotions, d’une mesure de la production scientifique des candidat.e.s. Cette discussion revient sur l’intérêt des résultats de l’exploitation de ces données et sur les explications proposées, avant de proposer un élargissement du questionnement à partir d’une problématisation du concept de genre. En effet, alors que les auteur.e.s tendent à le réduire à une caractéristique descriptive des individus, l’analyse sociologique du genre comme système social permet d’interroger les ressorts institutionnels des inégalités constatées. |
| Keywords: | Genre; Gender |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7bha6m6829el8e94uqmo4qp6c&r=hme |
| By: | Javier Lopez Bernardo (Kingston University); Felix Lopez Martinez; Engelbert Stockhammer |
| Abstract: | In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the French economist Thomas Piketty develops a new and rich set of data that deals with income and wealth distribution, output-wealth dynamics and rates of return, and has proposed as well some "laws of capitalism". At the core of his theoretical argument lies the "fundamental inequality of capitalism", an empirical regularity that states that the rate of return on wealth is higher than the growth rate of the economy. This simple construct allows him to conclude that increasing wealth (and income) inequality is an inevitable outcome of capitalism. While we share some of his conclusions, we will highlight some shortcomings of his approach based on a Cambridge post-Keynesian growth-and-distribution model. We argue, first, that r>g (i.e. that the rate of return on wealth is greater than the growth rate of the economy) is not necessarily associated with increasing inequality in functional distribution; second, Piketty commits a fallacy-of-composition argument when he says that the necessary condition for r>g is that capitalists have to save a high amount of their capital income; third, post-Keynesian economists can learn from Piketty’s insights about personal income distribution and incorporate them into their models; and, fourth, we reiterate the post-Keynesian argument that a well-behaved aggregate production function does not exist and it therefore cannot explain the distribution of income. |
| Keywords: | Rate of return, income distribution, post-Keynesian growth and distribution models, Cambridge equation, Pasinetti's theorem |
| JEL: | B22 B50 E12 O40 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp1411&r=hme |
| By: | Scarlato, Margherita; d'Agostino, Giorgio; Capparucci, Francesca |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of Chile Solidario programme on labour market outcomes from a gender perspective. Chile Solidario was implemented as the main anti-poverty programme in Chile in 2002. The purpose of this conditional cash transfer is to provide poor families with auxiliary social services, including support for employment. We compare the gender impact of Chile Solidario using difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity design estimations based on data from the Chile Solidario Panel Survey. We find that the programme has a strong impact on labour market outcomes, but the positive effects are particularly important for men in the beneficiary families. This analysis suggests that cash transfers should be targeted more specifically to women’s needs to contribute to their empowerment. |
| Keywords: | Social Protection; Conditional Cash Transfers; Latin America; Gender; Impact Evaluation |
| JEL: | C10 I38 J16 O15 O54 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59414&r=hme |
| By: | Giacomo Degli Antoni (University of Parma, Department of Law); Gianluca Grimalda (University Jaume I of Castellón - Economics Department) |
| Abstract: | Mancur Olson and Robert Putnam provide two conflicting views on the effect of involvement with voluntary associations on their members. Putnam argues that associations instill in their members habits of cooperation, solidarity and public spiritedness. Olson emphasizes the tendency of groups to pursue private interests and lobby for preferential policies. We carry out the first field experiment involving a sample of members of different association types from different age groups and education levels, as well as a demographically comparable sample of non-members. This enables us to examine the differential patterns of behavior followed by members of Putnam-type and Olson- type associations. Coherently with both the Putnam's and Olson's view, we find that members of Putnam-type (Olson-type) associations display more (no more) generalized trust than non-members. However, when we examine trustworthy behavior we find the opposite pattern, with members of Olson-type (Putnam-type) associations more (no more) trustworthy than non-members. No relevant effect for the intensity of participation in associations emerges.pro-sociality.Length: 37 |
| Keywords: | Trust; Voluntary associations; Putnam; Olson; Field experiment |
| JEL: | A13 D03 C93 Z13 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ent:wpaper:wp57&r=hme |
| By: | Estrada, Fernando |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this paper is to present a reading of The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin in the context of the financial crisis, in particular, reflect from a few fragments of Benjamin's work appear to lie around a Black Swan. The recovery of the fragments of The Arcades seems appropriate at a time when the financial crisis should be taught as a deeper crisis. Walter Benjamin is placed beyond its time, with a powerful sense of observation worthy of emulation analytical. |
| Keywords: | Financial theory, markets, Black swan, stock markets, financial crisis, markets risk, Walter Benjamin, Arcades Project. |
| JEL: | G0 G01 G02 G14 G17 G28 G32 G33 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:58483&r=hme |
| By: | Etienne Wasmer (Département d'économie); Christine Musselin (Centre de sociologie des organisations) |
| Abstract: | Dans cette contribution, nous essaierons de répondre à la question : quelle est la nécessité d’éclairages multiples sur les politiques publiques par différentes disciplines au sein des sciences humaines, c'est-à-dire l'interdisciplinarité ? Faut-il aller jusqu’à un effacement des frontières disciplinaires dans le cas de la transdisciplinarité? Cette question doit être posée car, s’il existe d’une part une littérature assez vaste sur l’évaluation et l’interdisciplinarité en dehors de la science économique, et d’autre part des méthodologies d’évaluation depuis longtemps développées au sein de la science économique, la science économique ne s’est pas réellement emparée de cette question de l'interdisciplinarité: elle semble déjà avoir suffisamment à faire avec la résolution des débats entre expériences contrôlées et estimations de modèles structurels. |
| Keywords: | Interdisciplinarité; Interdisciplinarity; Méthode; Method; Evaluation; Evaluation |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4fd09o0ujh90urgohs89idjfms&r=hme |
| By: | John Cockburn; Ibrahim Kasirye; Jane Kabubo-Mariara; Luca Tiberti; Gemma Ahaibwe |
| Abstract: | Poverty is different for children than for adults. This becomes very clear when we listen to children themselves talking about their experiences of poverty, as they do in the companion piece to this report, “The Voices of Children.” In their own way, children have the ability to cut right to the very core of the crucial problems they face, from worrying how a lack of education will erode their futures, to seeing poor health taking their families livelihoods; of how the hunger they face can be devastating, or their how their experience of violence evaporates hope. Using traditional income poverty measures will not adequately capture these experiences of childhood. The importance of effectively measuring child poverty is underlined by the fact that its impacts are particularly devastating; for children, poverty can last a lifetime. The impacts of poor nutrition, a missed education or poor child health cannot be easily remedied and will change a child’s life chances forever. Further, where child poverty is widespread it can impact on all of society and the economy. As Uganda looks towards middle income status in Vision 2040, ensuring a strong start for Uganda’s children will lay an essential foundation.... |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:pmmacr:2014-03&r=hme |
| By: | NU. CEPAL. División de Asuntos de Género |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col040:5841&r=hme |