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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2014‒12‒08
sixteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Ho Fai Chan; Bruno S. Frey; Jana Gallus; Markus Schaffner; Benno Torgler; Stephen Whyte |
| Abstract: | The external influence of scholarly activity has to date been measured primarily in terms of publications and citations, metrics that also dominate the promotion and grant processes. Yet the array of scholarly activities visible to the outside world are far more extensive and recently developed technologies allow broader and more accurate measurement of their influence on the wider societal discourse. Accordingly we analyze the relation between the internal and external influences of 723 top economics scholars using the number of pages indexed by Google and Bing as a measure of their external influence. Although the correlation between internal and external influence is low overall, it is highest among recipients of major key awards such as the Nobel Prize or John Bates Clark medal, and particularly strong for those ranked among the top 100 researchers. |
| Keywords: | academia; scholarly importance; role of economics; social importance of economists; external; internal influence; academic performance; awards |
| JEL: | A11 A13 Z18 Z19 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2014-17&r=hme |
| By: | Rowena Pecchenino (Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, National University of Ireland, Maynooth); |
| Abstract: | This paper examines despair from the perspectives of many disciplines to define despair and to characterize the despairing individual, his motivations, and his capacity for decision-making. Two models incorporating despair as a key element are then proposed. Using these models as a framework, the economics literature is examined to determine the extent to which economics has, at least implicitly, recognized despair, without necessarily confronting it either in theory or policy design, and argue why this failure has weakened both our theory and our policy. The paper concludes with the suggestions that economics can and, perhaps, should incorporate despair, narrowly, and economic agents’ emotional state, generally, into its theoretical and policy analyses. |
| Keywords: | Despair, existential state, suicide, long-term unemployment |
| JEL: | Z1 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:may:mayecw:n254-14.pdf&r=hme |
| By: | O'Neill, Donal (National University of Ireland, Maynooth) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses economists' support for the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, by examining the characteristics of almost 1000 economists who signed open letters either supporting or opposing the Bill prior to a Senate debate on the legislation. In contrast to previous work, which found that economists' disagreements were surprisingly random, I find systematic differences between those economists supporting the legislation and those opposing it. There is evidence of a saltwater-freshwater divide in attitudes, with support for the Bill stronger for economists located further from Chicago. In addition support for the legislation is higher among females and those who obtained their PhD outside the US. Financial economists are more likely to oppose the Bill, while those specialising in labour economics are more likely to support it. Furthermore the support among labour economists is strongest for academics who have received their PhD in recent years. This may reflect the impact of recent work in labour economics challenging the traditional competitive model of labour markets. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, schools of thought |
| JEL: | J38 A23 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8601&r=hme |
| By: | Ziggers, Gerrit Willem |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to provide firms in the food and agricultural sector a model that enables them to assess their corporate social initiatives in conjunction with their stakeholders. Building on the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate social performance (CSP) and the relational view the paper argues that firms can improve the results of their corporate social initiatives by setting up a dialogue with their stakeholders and to relate this to their internal organizational delivery system. The CSP model is based on the SERVQUAL methodology. The model addresses how a potential (mis)match between a firm’s CSR initiative and stakeholders expectations and experiences is related to four gaps in the firm’s internal organizational delivery system and how this effects the firm’s CSP. CSP measurement is a fundamental part of a firm’s strategy if one accepts the tenet that firm survival and growth depends on the ability of firms to meet the needs of their stakeholders and to manage corporate image. It is to the firm to make stakeholder’s expectations transparent and plan action in alignment with the firm’s business strategy. The paper contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of CSP measurement by linking a firm’s CSP to the firm’s delivery system. It addresses how CSP can evolve over time by putting the dialogue with stakeholders central. |
| Keywords: | SERVQUAL, Corporate Social Responsibility, relational capabilities, Corporate Social Performance, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iefi13:164732&r=hme |
| By: | Ce Wang; Hua Liao; Su-Yan Pan; Lu-Tao Zhao; Yi-Ming Wei (Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | The fluctuations of China's energy intensity have attracted the attention of many scholars, but fewer studies consider the data quality of official input-output tables. This paper conducts a decomposition model by using the Divisia method based on the input-output tables. Because of the problems with input-output tables and price deflators, we first produce constant prices to deflate the input-output tables. And then we consider different levels of biased technical change for different sectors in the adjusting the input-output table. Finally, we use RAS technique to adjust input-output matrix. Then the decomposition model is employed to empirically analyze the change of China's energy intensity. We compare the decomposition results with and without biased technical change and do sensitive analysis on the level of biased technical change. The conclusions are that during 2002-2007, except crude oil and refined oil, the energy intensity increased and the changes were mostly attributed to the structural change, while the changes in the production technology actually decreased the energy intensity. Furthermore, compared to the decomposition without biased technical change, the degree of the influence from structural change on the changes in energy intensity depends on the level of biased technical change. |
| Keywords: | Biased Technical Change, Divisia Decomposition, Input-Output Analysis, Energy Intensity, China, RAS Technique |
| JEL: | Q40 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:biw:wpaper:56&r=hme |
| By: | Juan Pablo Durán Ortiz |
| Abstract: | Resumen: Epistemológicamente, el sistema económico puede ser entendido a través de dos enfoques: biología y física. En este trabajo, se utiliza el enfoque biológico para ilustrar la financialización, que es el proceso por el cual se reorientan todos los recursos económicos hacia el mercado especulativo. En este trabajo se compara el sistema económico con el cuerpo humano con el fin de estudiar la financiarización y sus efectos en el sistema económico. En particular, se explica cómo la financiarización se desarrolla en la economía de una manera similar a la forma como el SIDA se propaga dentro del cuerpo humano, tanto en la forma como crece dentro del sistema, como también por las consecuencias que genera dentro del mismo. Finalmente se proponen algunas acciones que pueden minimizar los riesgos de las crisis dentro de la economía partiendo de sus verdaderas causas. |
| Keywords: | La financiarización; El SIDA; El sistema económico; Crisis, AIDS economic system |
| JEL: | B5 E5 G1 A2 |
| Date: | 2014–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000418:012299&r=hme |
| By: | Adsera, Alicia (Princeton University); Ferrer, Ana (University of Waterloo) |
| Abstract: | We use the confidential files of the 1991-2006 Canadian Census, combined with information from O*NET on the skill requirements of jobs, to explore whether Canadian immigrant women behave as secondary workers, remaining marginally attached to the labour market and experiencing little career progression over time. Our results show that the labor market patterns of female immigrants to Canada do not fit the profile of secondary workers, but rather conform to patterns recently exhibited by married native women elsewhere, with rising participation (and wage assimilation). At best, only relatively uneducated immigrant women in unskilled occupations may fit the profile of secondary workers, with slow skill mobility and low-status job-traps. Educated immigrant women, on the other hand, experience skill assimilation over time: a reduction in physical strength and an increase in analytical skills required in their jobs relative to those of natives. |
| Keywords: | skill assimilation, labour market outcomes of immigrant women, wage gaps, female labor force participation, Canadian migration |
| JEL: | J01 J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8407&r=hme |
| By: | Rashid, Amjad |
| Abstract: | In this paper, which was delivered as the V.V. Giri Memorial Lecture at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (IJLE), the author presents a vision for building a humane and just society in which the rights of working people are heard and respected. He argues that this would necessitate replacing the current pursuit of unbridled growth based on the economics of greed with the pillar of social justice. In his view, an effective means of moving towards this goal is through the creation of decent work, as it is the most effective means of ensuring inclusive, sustainable, and equitable growth. In this context, the author reviews the work of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) undertaken under the World Employment Programme (WEP), mainly in the 1970s and 1980s in order to make employment central in economic policy-making, the main finding of the ILO's research and the reasons as to why it achieved limited success in influencing the policies of developing countries. He then discusses in detail the concept of decent work which the ILO came up with in the late 1990s in which the focus changed from generating not just any employment but decent employment for women and men which was based on the four pillars of rights at work, productive and remunerative employment, social protection, and social dialogue. The author then presents the key elements of an employment strategy, which, in his view, would promote a virtuous circle of productivity, employment and output growth while also leading to the creation of decent work in the economy. |
| Keywords: | Social justice, Decent work, Labour market institutions, Rights at work, Employment, Labour absorption |
| JEL: | J08 |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60072&r=hme |
| By: | Vassili Joannides (GDF - Gestion, Droit et Finance - Grenoble École de Management (GEM)); Nicolas Berland (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - CNRS : UMR7088 - Université Paris IX - Paris Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | Purpose - This paper contributes to the sociology-of-science type of accounting literature, addressing how accounting knowledge is established, advanced and extended. Design/methodology/approach - The research question is answered through the example of research into linkages between accounting and religion. Adopting an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) approach, we follow the actors involved in the construction of accounting as an academic discipline through the controversies in which they engage to develop knowledge. Findings - We show that accounting knowledge is established, advanced and developed through the ongoing mobilisation of nonhumans (journals) who can enrol other humans and nonhumans. We show that knowledge advancement, establishment and development is more contingent on network breadth than on research paradigms, which appear as side-effects of positioning vis-à- vis a community. Research limitations - In our analysis, we followed humans and were able to let them share their strategies with us and validate our ex post facto reading of their papers. We were unable to do the same with nonhumans because of their intrinsic properties. Practical implications - This paper provides scholars with analytical tools that could help them position their research projects within a scientific network and understand the need for interactions with other actors in establishing, advancing and developing knowledge. Originality value - The originality of this paper is twofold. Firstly, we apply ANT to accounting knowledge, whereas the accounting literature applies it to the spread of management accounting ideas, methods and practices. Secondly, we develop an original methodology for data collection by inviting authors from the network to give a reflexive account of their writings at the time they joined the network. Well diffused in sociology and philosophy, such an approach is, albeit, original in accounting research. |
| Keywords: | Research network; Accounting research; Knowledge; Actor-network theory; Controversies; Translation; Knowledge management |
| Date: | 2013–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00824632&r=hme |
| By: | Earl, Peter E. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the research area identified by Frey and Gallus (Aggregate Effects of Behavioral Anomalies: A New Research Area, 2014) and the relationship between it and the choices that economists make. It supports the Frey and Gallus view that, as a consequence of individuals employing external inputs rather than relying upon their own judgemental capacities, the quality of decision-making may differ at the market and macro levels from what has been observed in laboratory experiments. It seeks to forestall potential moves by rational choice theorists to argue that such processes, imposed by competitive pressures, will swiftly eliminate anomalous behaviour. But it questions Frey and Gallus's use of conventional rational choice theory as the reference point for judging the quality of real-world decisions. It argues that choice is an activity based on evolving sets of habits and rules, rather than based on give preference systems, and that Frey and Gallus's failure to consider alternative reference points is itself a manifestation of anchoring. |
| Keywords: | Heuristics and biases,infinite regress,rationality |
| JEL: | A10 B00 D70 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201437&r=hme |
| By: | Erik Kimbrough (Simon Fraser University); Alexander Vostroknutov (Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | We explore the idea that prosocial behavior in experimental games is driven by social norms imported into the laboratory. Under this view, differences in behavior across subjects is driven by heterogeneity in sensitivity to social norms. We introduce an incentivized method of eliciting individual norm-sensitivity, and we show how it relates to play in public goods, trust, dictator and ultimatum games. We show how our observations can be rationalized in a stylized model of norm-dependent preferences under reasonable assumptions about the nature of social norms. Then we directly elicit norms in these games to test the robustness of our interpretation. |
| Keywords: | experimental economics, norms, social preferences, conditional cooperation, reciprocity |
| JEL: | C91 C92 D03 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp14-06&r=hme |
| By: | Lim, Siew; Wachenheim, Cheryl; Burbidge, Linda; Roberts, David; Jackson, Jeremy |
| Abstract: | Nationally, females account for less than one-third of the students in agricultural economics undergraduate programs. We identified a gender gap in test performance between genders with women in general economics and agricultural economics scoring nearly three percent lower than men. Compared to men, women also tended to be less interested in the subject. Contrary to expectations, interest in economics was not higher among women within business and economic majors than other women. Findings suggest the challenge of increasing women’s interest in economics persists. |
| Keywords: | gender, economics, teaching, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170499&r=hme |
| By: | Mishra, SK |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at locating the practice of micro-credit system into a larger theoretical canvas of economic theory and philosophy. A systems theoretic approach has been adopted. Emergence of the ‘excluded’ class has been explained with the help of the theory of feedback. Individuals have been assumed to be myopic, local optimizer and bounded rational. In this context, the empirical experiences have been viewed and assessed as to their outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Self-organizing system, Systems theory, Micro-credit, economic philosophy, bounded rationality, local goals, theory of groups |
| JEL: | B52 G21 O17 |
| Date: | 2014–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60083&r=hme |
| By: | Giovanni Dosi; Mauro Napoletano; Andrea Roventini; Tania Treibich |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the family of the Keynes+Schumpeter (K+S, cf. Dosi et al, 2010, 2013, 2014) evolutionary agent-based models, which study the effects of a rich ensemble of innovation, industrial dynamics and macroeconomic policies on the long-term growth and short-run fluctuations of the economy. The K+S models embed the Schumpeterian growth paradigm into a complex system of imperfect coordination among heterogeneous interacting firms and banks, where Keynesian (demand-related) and Minskian (credit cycle) elements feed back into the meso and macro dynamics. The model is able to endogenously generate long-run growth together with business cycles and major crises. Moreover, it reproduces a long list of macroeconomic and microeconomic stylized facts. Here, we discuss a series of experiments on the role of policies affecting i) innovation, ii) industry dynamics, iii) demand and iv) income distribution. Our results suggest the presence of strong complementarities between Schumpeterian (technological) and Keynesian (demand-related) policies in ensuring that the economic system follows a path of sustained stable growth and employment. |
| Keywords: | agent-based model, fiscal policy, economic crises, austerity policies, disequilibrium dynamics |
| Date: | 2014–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2014/21&r=hme |
| By: | Edith Archambault (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Après avoir cerné les causes qui expliquent l'invisibilité statistique des organisations de l'économie sociale et solidaire (OESS), et privilégié les conventions des comptes nationaux, (section 1) ce chapitre analyse les progrès réalisés depuis les 20 dernières années, en insistant sur la démarche qui a permis d'atteindre une méthodologie commune, désormais consacrée par l'ONU (section 2). Puis il montre comment l'application de cette méthodologie permet de construire des comptes satellites des Institutions sans but lucratif, puis, dans un futur que l'on espère proche, de l'ESS (section 3). Il insiste finalement sur la délicate mesure du travail bénévole, désormais normalisée par le BIT. |
| Keywords: | méthodologie statistique; Sources statistiques; comptabilité nationale; institutions sans but lucratif; coopératives; mutuelles; fondations; bénévolat |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00966870&r=hme |
| By: | Correa, Romar |
| Abstract: | We model the interaction between capitalists and entrepreneurs as a dynamic game. The open-loop Nash equilibrium and the closed-loop Nash equilibrium are distinguished. The elasticity of intertemporal substitution as well as the level and responsiveness of the wage rate to the accumulation of capital are shown to be important for wage-led growth. |
| Keywords: | capital accumulation,conflict: cooperation |
| JEL: | B51 C73 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201441&r=hme |