|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2015‒02‒28
twenty-six papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Cedrini, Mario ; Fontana, Magda (University of Turin ) |
| Abstract: | There is considerable discussion on the so-called “mainstream pluralism”, which stems from the growth and coexistence of new research programs in economics that significantly deviate from the neoclassical core. Other disciplines have actively contributed to the birth of such programs, that are carried on by different, often separated communities of researchers. Although “mainstream pluralism” is not the pluralism heterodox economists and students groups have sought for in the recent decades, its persistence over time might provide a possible precondition for the advent of pluralism in economics. While the literature tends to regard mainstream pluralism as a transitory state towards a new, post-neoclassical, mainstream, this paper contributes to the debate by bringing in a different perspective, focusing on economics’ fragmentation and the necessity of specialization. We adopt a “late Kuhnian” framework (derived from Kuhn’s late works on specialization), considering not scientific revolutions but specialization as key engine of progress in science, and interpret mainstream pluralism as the result of economics’ recent growth in size and dive rsity. To account for the necessity of specialization in economics, we employ Ronald Heiner’s work on the competence-difficulty gap, as well as the evidence offered in some recent studies about the impact of the “burden” of previously accumulated knowledge on innovative behaviour. After a bird’s eye view on the recent history of economics in relation to other disciplines (and an analysis of Herbert Gintis’s “unity of behavioral sciences” proposal as possible new mains tream), we discuss the possibility that today’s “mainstream pluralism” might persist over time. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201510&r=hme |
| By: | Heiwai Tang (Johns Hopkins University and Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research ); Fei Wang (University of International Business and Economics ); Zhi Wang (United States International Trade Commission ) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes methods to incorporate firm heterogeneity in the standard input-output table¡Vbased approach to portray the domestic segment of global value chains in a country. The analysis uses Chinese firm census data for the manufacturing and service sectors, along with constrained optimization techniques. The conventional input-output table is split into sub-accounts, which are used to estimate direct and indirect domestic value added in exports of different types of firms. The analysis finds that in China, state-owned enterprises and small and medium domestic private enterprises have much higher shares of indirect exports and ratios of value-added exports to gross exports compared with foreign-invested and large domestic private firms. Based on input-output tables for 2007 and 2010, the paper finds increasing value-added export ratios for all firm types, particularly for state-owned enterprises. It also finds that state-owned enterprises are consistently more upstream while small and medium domestic private enterprises are consistently more downstream within industries. These findings suggest that state-owned enterprises still play an important role in shaping China¡¦s exports. |
| Keywords: | Value-Added Trade, Global Supply Chain, Intra-National Trade, State Capitalism |
| JEL: | F1 C67 C82 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hkm:wpaper:052015&r=hme |
| By: | Randall Jackson (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University ); Christa Court (MRI Global ) |
| Abstract: | Although the literature has provided steps in the right direction, conceptual shortcomings still exist in the cross-hauling adjustment methods that are currently being applied in the literature. This paper represents an attempt to 1) characterize the cross-hauling adjustment methods that exist in the literature; 2) identify the shortcomings that exist with the most widely applied method, CHARM; 3) provide an empirical analysis to tackle the notion of just how ubiquitous crosshauling is and the potential impact it has on input-output multiplier estimates; and 4) suggest directions for future conceptual and theoretical development that will lead to consistent cross-hauling measures for use. |
| Keywords: | Input-output, Cross-hauling, CHARM, regional economics |
| JEL: | C67 O18 R15 R1 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rri:wpaper:2015wp01&r=hme |
| By: | Auspurg, Katrin ; Iacovou, Maria ; Nicoletti, Cheti |
| Abstract: | Using an experimental design, we investigate the reasons behind the gendered division of housework within couples. In particular, we assess whether the fact that women do more housework than men may be explained by differences in preferences deriving from differences in gender identity between men and women. We find little evidence of any systematic gender differences in the preference for housework, suggesting that the reasons for the gendered division of housework lie elsewhere. |
| Date: | 2015–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2015-03&r=hme |
| By: | Sotarauta, Markku (University of Tampere, School of Management ) |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that obstruction of agency, intention and interest is a weakness in institutional studies in geography. There is a need to systematically anchor a role for agency in institutionally oriented combinatorial knowledge dynamics studies, and thus to reach beyond snapshots of top-down institutions, and to produce a more nuanced view on institutions bottom up. Without in-depth studies on how actors perceive institutions, reflect upon them and either comply with them or aim to push for institutional change, it may impossible to fully understand the true impact of them. The aim here is to construct a link between agency and institutions in the context of combinatorial knowledge dynamics. To elaborate the conceptual link between institutions and combinatorial knowledge dynamics, this paper discusses three intertwined theoretical lenses. First, a conceptual distinction between cumulative and combinatorial knowledge dynamics is introduced; second, the basic tenets of institutions in regional economic development are discussed; and, third, a conceptual framework to study institutions in the context of combinatorial knowledge dynamics is constructed. The main scientific motivation here is to open a bottom-up view on institutions by linking them to the combinatorial knowledge dynamics approach by using agency as an intermediating framework. |
| Keywords: | Institution; agency; knowledge base; combinatorial knowledge; institutional entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | B52 O30 O38 O43 R11 R50 |
| Date: | 2015–02–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2015_005&r=hme |
| By: | Lazo, Lucita |
| Abstract: | The paper argues for increasing women`s economic opportunities in the APEC region and states that women`s participation in the economy is skewed toward micro and small enterprises and they are mostly self-employed entrepreneurs in the informal economy. It summarizes the challenges commonly encountered by women entrepreneurs in the APEC economies and recommends actions to address these at the Philippine economy level and at the APEC regional level. |
| Keywords: | APEC, Philippines, informal economy, women, micro and small enterprises |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2015-18&r=hme |
| By: | Chapra, M. Umer (The Islamic Research and Teaching Institute (IRTI) ) |
| Abstract: | The generally recognized economic problem of mankind is how best to satisfy the basic needs of all people around the world in spite of the prevailing scarcity of resources. Since this is not happening, the paper argues that the primary reason is the secular worldview which has weakened the social and ethical foundations of human life and placed primary reliance on the market mechanism to ensure efficiency as well as justice in the use of resources. This has inadvertently ended up providing sanctity to the social-Darwinist principles of ‘struggle for existence’ and ‘survival of the fittest’. The result is that the concepts of economic man and the serving of self-interest by maximizing wealth and want satisfaction have gained supremacy. In sharp contrast with this, the worldview of most religions, and particularly that of Islam, emphasizes the concepts of human brotherhood and the well-being of all and provides certain moral restraints on the serving of self-interest. While it recognizes the important role of the market mechanism for this purpose, it does not consider it to be sufficient. It provides a moral orientation to all human activity, including the market mechanism, so that they operate within the framework of moral principles emanating from Divine revelations which treat all human beings as brothers and the resources at their disposal as a trust from God. The whole paper hovers around a discussion of how such a worldview can help solve the economic problem efficiently as well as equitably. |
| Date: | 2015–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:irtiwp:2011_001&r=hme |
| By: | Arnstein Aassve ; Giulia Fuochi ; Letizia Mencarini ; Daria Mendola |
| Abstract: | BACKGROUND It is increasingly acknowledged that not only gender equality, but also gender ideology plays a role in explaining fertility in advanced societies. In a micro perspective, the potential mismatch between gender equality (i.e. the actual sharing taking place in a couple) and gender ideology (i.e. gender equality in attitudes, as proxy for gender equity), may drive childbearing decisions. OBJECTIVE This paper assesses the impact of consistency between gender equality in attitudes and equality in the division of household labour on the likelihood of having another child, for different parities. METHODS Relying on two-wave panel data of the Bulgarian, French, Czech, Hungarian and Lithuanian Generations and Gender Surveys, we build a couple typology defined over gender attitudes and housework sharing.The typology identifies four types of couples: 1) gender unequal attitudes and gender unequal housework sharing; 2) gender equal attitudes and gender unequal housework sharing; 3) gender unequal attitudes and gender equal housework sharing; 4) gender equal attitudes and gender equal housework sharing. The couple types enter into a logistic regression model on childbirth. RESULTS The impact of the typology varies with parity and gender: taking as reference category the case of gender equal attitudes and gender equal division of housework, the effect of all the other couple types on a new childbirth is strong and negative for the second child and female respondents. CONCLUSIONS The consistency between gender equality in attitudes and the actual equality in housework sharing is only favourable for childbearing as long as there is gender equality in both the dimensions. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, gender equity, gender equality, gender couple typology, GGS survey |
| JEL: | J13 J12 J16 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:376&r=hme |
| By: | Lucero Hernández Zúñiga |
| Abstract: | Resumen El modelo clásico de la familia ha cambiado y se observa una marcada tendencia a las familias con jefatura femenina. La familia continúa siendo la unidad productora y proveedora de servicios sociales como el cuidado de niños, adultos mayores, personas enfermas o con discapacidad, tarea que está a cargo de la mujer. Sin embargo, el papel de la misma se ha sobrecargado, superando los límites del ámbito doméstico sin remuneración, y por consiguiente, sin seguridad social; evidentemente, su rol de mujer cuidadora la incluye en la esfera de la fuerza laboral, aumentando las desigualdades de género. La familia se convierte entonces en un pilar del bienestar social, por lo cual se hace necesario analizar una política social orientada a resolver las desigualdades generadas en el ámbito económico. Se requieren nuevos modelos de política de familia orientados al aseguramiento de ingresos y a mejorar la calidad de vida laboral de la mujer para establecer un nuevo contrato social “amigable” con ella. Mejorando el bienestar medio de las mujeres, se mejora el bienestar de sus hijos y familiares, lo cual lleva al bienestar colectivo. |
| Keywords: | Familia, pilar, Política Social, protecciónsocial, servicios sociales |
| Date: | 2013–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000464:012555&r=hme |
| By: | Anastasia Cozarenco ; Ariane Szafarz |
| Abstract: | The evidence on gender discrimination in lending remains controversial. To capture gender biases in banks’ loan allocations, we observe the impact on the applicants of a microfinance institution (MFI) and exploit the natural experiment of a regulatory change imposing a strict EUR 10,000 loan ceiling on microcredit. Descriptive statistics indicate that the presence of the ceiling is associated both with bank-MFI co-financing and with harsher treatment of female borrowers. To investigate causal links, we develop an econometric approach that addresses the concerns of selection biases, multicollinearity, and endogeneity. Our empirical findings suggest that the change in the MFI’s gender-related attitude was triggered by banks through co-financing. Hence, we speculate that co-financing pushes ceiling-constrained MFIs to import whatever biases in loan granting that the banks are prone to. Overall, this paper stresses that apparently benign regulations such as loan ceilings can significantly harm the women’s empowerment efforts made by MFIs. |
| Keywords: | Microcredit; bank; loan ceiling; gender; France |
| JEL: | G21 J16 M13 L51 G28 O52 I38 |
| Date: | 2015–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/194618&r=hme |
| By: | Daniela Parisi (Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore ) |
| Abstract: | The sciences tell us that fears are physical feelings and mental emotions that play a key role in any society. Not many issues related to fear are explored by economists today. The aim of this paper is to go backwards through the history of economic thought, and examine if and how Adam Smith considered fear in his work: in effect, he devoted a great deal of attention to the concept of fear. This paper does not intend to cover the whole of the topic at hand as it would also be useful to investigate the connections between fear and all the other feelings that pervade Smith's thought. |
| Keywords: | Adam Smith, Human Passions, Fear, Sociology, Psychology, Neurosciences |
| JEL: | B12 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def008&r=hme |
| By: | Albers, Scott ; Albers, Andrew |
| Abstract: | In Part One of this paper we use the harmonic analogy of a musical octave to analyze mathematic ratios of U.S. real GNP. These ratios are generated by bringing together figures for U.S. real GNP over intervals of time – “spreads of years” – as numerator and denominator in a single fraction. Using a range of 7-year to 18-year “spreads,” we find that this approach provides strong evidence that American economic history is composed of four 14-year quarter-cycles within a 56 year circuit in the real GNP of the United States, 1869-2007. These periods correlate closely with analysis by Nickolai Kondratiev and provide a framework for predicting an annual steady state rate of growth for the United States falling between 3.4969% and 3.4995% per year. In Part Two of this paper we provide three postscripts including: (1) correlations / speculations on the political and social consequences of this model, (2) simplification / expansion of the geometries implied, and (3) analysis / prediction based upon this approach as concluded by a brief afterword and an extensive Appendix. These post-script refinements narrow the steady state rate of growth predicted to between 3.4969% and 3.4973% per year correlating closely with the 3.4971% rate for annualized quarterly data calculated for Okun’s Law, 1947-2007. The size and interconnectedness of world economies, and the virtually exact correlations provided herein, suggest that the dates predicted for future crises will see changes which are unexpectedly global, dramatic and fierce. |
| Keywords: | Real GNP, Golden Mean, Phi, Kondratiev Wave, Global Financial Crisis, American Economic History, GNP Spiral, Okun’s Law, Revolution |
| JEL: | B41 B5 C01 C02 C50 C63 E00 E01 E10 E19 E30 N00 N01 N11 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–02–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62118&r=hme |
| By: | Karolina Goraus (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw ); Magdalena Smyk (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw ); Lucas van der Velde (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw ) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how women’s attitude and realization of choices towards equal participation in the labor market changes with age, and how these patterns differ between generations in transition and Western economies. As transition countries experienced a drop in employment rates regardless of gender, we study the relative change in the position of women, compared to similarly endowed men. We find that disentangling age, time, and cohort effects is necessary to appropriately assess women’s progress on labor markets in transition. The results indicate that in Western Europe countries women born later have much more equal position on the labor market as compared to older birth cohorts, but this is not the case in transition economies. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, women empowerment, women labor force participation |
| JEL: | J21 J71 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2015-04&r=hme |
| By: | Cortés Borda, Daniel Enrique ; Ruíz Hernández, Antonio ; Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo ; Llop Llop, Maria ; Guimerà Manrique, Roger ; Sales Pardo, Marta |
| Abstract: | Global warming mitigation has recently become a priority worldwide. A large body of literature dealing with energy related problems has focused on reducing greenhouse gases emissions at an engineering scale. In contrast, the minimization of climate change at a wider macroeconomic level has so far received much less attention. We investigate here the issue of how to mitigate global warming by performing changes in an economy. To this end, we make use of a systematic tool that combines three methods: linear programming, environmentally extended input output models, and life cycle assessment principles. The problem of identifying key economic sectors that contribute significantly to global warming is posed in mathematical terms as a bi criteria linear program that seeks to optimize simultaneously the total economic output and the total life cycle CO2 emissions. We have applied this approach to the European Union economy, finding that significant reductions in global warming potential can be attained by regulating specific economic sectors. Our tool is intended to aid policymakers in the design of more effective public policies for achieving the environmental and economic targets sought. |
| Keywords: | Escalfament global, Unió Europea, Països de la, Canvis climàtics -- Aspectes econòmics -- Unió Europea, Països de la, 33 - Economia, 504 - Ciències del medi ambient, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/246959&r=hme |
| By: | Blake Edward Taylor |
| Abstract: | This study analyses thousands of corporate annual reports and financial data from 1960-2000 to propose an early history of the term ‘shareholder value’ in the United States. Scholarly interest in ‘shareholder value’ has burgeoned since 2000, but still little is known about the term’s origins. My findings suggest that corporate managers’ intentional and repeated use of the term did not begin until the early 1980s and was not widespread until the 1990s. Further, my analysis of General Electric Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, and The Coca-Cola Company suggests that adopting ‘shareholder value’ rhetoric likely had little impact on the performance of these case study firms. |
| Keywords: | corporate governance; shareholder; corporations; firm behaviour; corporate payout; corporate control; firm objectives; management |
| JEL: | F3 G3 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:60967&r=hme |
| By: | Xueting Zhao (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University ) |
| Abstract: | This study focuses on the measure of inter-regional trade of virtual water, defined as the freshwater consumed for producing traded goods and services, to explain the relationship between China’s regional virtual water and the increasing water demand. By using the multi-regional input-output (MRIO) tables of 2002 and 2007 with the regional sectoral water use, this study analyzes virtual water in trade, domestic trade in virtual water, and the regional trade balance of virtual water. The results show that: (1) water use efficiency has increased in China; (2) the major source of the regional virtual water in trade are domestic inter-regional trade; and (3) a region’s virtual water depends on its water resources availability, economic structure, as well as the region’s position in domestic supply chain. |
| Keywords: | virtual water, multi-regional input-output(MRO)model, China |
| JEL: | C67 Q25 R11 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rri:wpaper:2014wp04&r=hme |
| By: | Demeritt, Allison ; Hoff, Karla |
| Abstract: | One of the most fruitful advances in modern economics has been the introduction of psychological realism into the model of"economic man."The World Development Report 2015 organizes the evidence about how humans actually think and make decisions into a coherent framework useful for designing development policy. This paper elaborates on the three principles of human thinking that constitute the report's intellectual framework: Human thinking is dual process -- automatic as well as deliberative (thinking automatically); it is conditioned by social context and the salience of social identities (thinking socially); and it is shaped by mental models that are socially constructed (thinking with mental models). Behavioral insights create scope for policy interventions that produce"miracles"from the perspective of traditional economics. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Educational Sciences,Knowledge for Development,Primary Education |
| Date: | 2015–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7197&r=hme |
| By: | Emily Murphy ; Daniel Oesch |
| Abstract: | In the last four decades, women have made major inroads into occupations previously dominated by men. This paper examines whether occupational feminization is accompanied by a decline in wages: Do workers suffer a wage penalty if they remain in, or move into, feminizing occupations? We analzye this question over the 1990s and 2000s in Britain, Germany and Switzerland, using longitudinal panel data to estimate individual fixed effects for men and women. Moving from an entirely male to an entirely female occupation entails a loss in individual earnings of twelve percent in Britain, six percent in Switzerland and three percent in Germany. The impact of occupational feminization on wages is not linear, but sets apart occupations holding less than 50 percent of women from those with more than 60 percent of women. Only moving into the latter incurs a wage penalty. Contrary to the prevailing idea in economics, differences in productivity – human capital, job-specific skill requirements and time investment – do not fully explain the wage gap between male and female occupations. Moreover, the wage penalty associated with working in a female occupation is much larger where employer discretion is large -the private sector – than where wage setting is guided by formal rules – the public sector. These findings suggests that wage disparities across male and female occupations are due to gender devaluation. |
| Keywords: | occupations, gender, wages, discrimination, sex-segregation |
| JEL: | J16 J21 J23 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp731&r=hme |
| By: | Irene Guijt ; UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre |
| Abstract: | Using participatory approaches in impact evaluation means involving stakeholders, particularly the participants in a programme or those affected by a given policy, in specific aspects of the evaluation process. The term covers a wide range of different types of participation and stakeholders can be involved at any stage of the impact evaluation process, including: its design, data collection, analysis, reporting and managing the study. |
| Keywords: | evaluation; participatory impact assessment; participatory research; research methodology; |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:metbri:innpub750&r=hme |
| By: | Alexander James |
| Abstract: | A surprising feature of resource-rich economies is slow growth. It is often argued that natural-resource production impedes development by creating market or institutional failures. This paper establishes an alternative explanation - a slow-growing resource sector. A declining resource sector is disproportionately reflected in resource-dependent countries. Additionally, there is little evidence that resource dependence impedes growth in non-resource sectors. More generally, this paper illustrates the importance of considering industry composition in cross-country growth regressions. |
| Keywords: | Resource Dependence, Economic Growth, Resource Curse |
| JEL: | Q2 Q3 O1 |
| Date: | 2014–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:oxcarre-research-paper-147&r=hme |
| By: | Joan Crespo ; Frédéric Amblard ; Jérôme Vicente |
| Abstract: | The economic return of cluster policies has been recently called into question. Essentially based on a “one size fits all” approach consisting in boosting R&D collaborations and reinforcing network density in regions, cluster policies are suspected to have failed in reaching their objectives. The paper proposes to go back to the micro foundations of clusters in order to disentangle the links between the long run performance of clusters and their structural properties. We use a simple agent-based model to shed light on how individual motives to shape knowledge relationships can give rise to emerging structures with different properties, which imply different innovation and renewal capabilities. The simulation results are discussed in a micro-macro perspective, and the findings suggest reorienting cluster policy guidelines towards more targeted public-funded incentives for R&D collaboration. |
| Keywords: | cluster policy, networks, micro-behaviours, structural properties, agent-based model |
| JEL: | B52 O32 R12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1503&r=hme |
| By: | Rodrik, Dani |
| Abstract: | I document a significant deindustrialization trend in recent decades, that goes considerably beyond the advanced, post-industrial economies. The hump-shaped relationship between industrialization (measured by employment or output shares) and incomes has shifted downwards and moved closer to the origin. This means countries are running out of industrialization opportunities sooner and at much lower levels of income compared to the experience of early industrializers. Asian countries and manufactures exporters have been largely insulated from those trends, while Latin American countries have been especially hard hit. Advanced economies have lost considerable employment (especially of the low-skill type), but they have done surprisingly well in terms of manufacturing output shares at constant prices. While these trends are not very recent, the evidence suggests both globalization and labor-saving technological progress in manufacturing have been behind these developments. Premature deindustrialization has potentially significant economic and political ramifications, including lower economic growth and democratic failure. |
| Keywords: | Deindustrialization; industrialization |
| JEL: | O14 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10393&r=hme |
| By: | Olga Alonso-Villar (Universidade de Vigo, Spain ); Coral del Rio (Universidade de Vigo, Spain and EQUALITAS ) |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to investigate the occupational segregation of white women in the U.S. at the local labor market level, exploring whether the segregation of this group is a homogeneous phenomenon across the country or there are important disparities in the opportunities that these women meet with across American urban areas. An important contribution of this paper is that, apart from quantifying the extent of segregation it also assesses the consequences of that segregation taking into account the ''quality'' of occupations that the group tends to fill or not to fill. The analysis shows that between 20% and 40% of white women working in a metropolitan area would have to shift occupations to achieve zero segregation in that area. Differences regarding the nature of that segregation are even stronger. In some metropolitan areas, the uneven distribution of white women across occupations brings them a per capita monetary gain of about 21% of the average wage of the area while in other metropolitan areas this group has a per capita loss of nearly 11%. |
| Keywords: | Occupational segregation, well-being, metropolitan areas, race, gender, U.S. |
| JEL: | R23 J15 J16 J71 D63 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2015-352&r=hme |
| By: | Anna Shirokanova (Stifterverband ) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with the recently revealed paradox that contemporary Muslims demonstrate a stronger Protestant work ethic (PWE) than contemporary Protestants do. I test whether this paradox is supported in a multilevel analysis on internationally comparative WVS data. According to Inglehart’s theory of post-materialist shift, work ethic should be stronger in the developing societies that do not have enough existential security. Following the debate on the Protestant work ethic I test another hypothesis saying that the effects of PWE extend beyond the religious population of Protestant countries. On waves four and five of the World Values Survey, I compare the strength of work ethic between the Muslims and Protestants in multilevel ordinal outcome models. The models built on 26,156 respondents in 56 countries show no significance in work ethic between Muslims and Protestants, all else being equal. Living in a historically Protestant society does not increase work ethic by itself, but being religious in a Protestant society does. In all developed countries, work ethic is likely to decrease. Overall, the evidence of a stronger work ethic among the Muslims is changeable; in some models, Muslims are likely to have a stronger work ethic than Protestants, but in other models Muslims are not significantly different from Protestants. This poses further research questions about the universal features of different religious ethics and on the non-religious factors explaining the progress linked with the Protestant work ethic |
| Keywords: | work ethic, Islam, Protestantism, religion, ML, WVS |
| JEL: | Z12 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:60/soc/2015&r=hme |
| By: | Ekaterina I. Lytkina (National Research University Higher School of Economics ) |
| Abstract: | Unlike commonly used, anomie and alienation not only have different theoretical backgrounds, but also different indicators and predictors. I examine the highly institutionalized alienation scale originally introduced by Middleton (1963), reapplied as a measurement of alienation (Seeman, 1991) and anomie (Huschka and Mau 2005, 2006) in a very relevant context for an anomic situation – the post-Communist countries Russia and Kazakhstan (round six of the World Values Surveys fielded the alienation question in just these two countries). Based on confirmatory factor analysis and multiple group comparisons, I find that the scale consists of two dimensions, which can be described as an anomie and alienation. The anomic dimension consists of indicators “normlessness” and “powerlessness,” whereas the alienative one is comprised by “social isolation”, “meaninglessness,” and “job dissatisfaction.” Though the structure proves to have full invariance in both countries, the predictors for anomie and alienation are different. For both countries, only income is an important predictor for anomie, and though to a lower degree, for alienation. In Kazakhstan, the level of urbanization also provides an impact on the level of anomie. Apart from income, in Russia alienation can be predicted by gender, and type of occupation (manual or intellectual), whereas in Kazakhstan it can be predicted by age |
| Keywords: | anomie, alienation, Russia, Kazakhstan, measurement invariance |
| JEL: | B14 C38 C39 P20 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:32psy2015&r=hme |
| By: | Tony Irawan (Europäisches Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen (EIIW) ) |
| Abstract: | The impact of information and communications technology (ICT) on economic performance has been an interesting issue in economics. There are at least three key points that can be learnt from the previous literatures regarding ICT and country’s economic performance. First, more developed countries are expected to benefit greater than less developed countries. Second, the impact of ICT will depend on the intensity of ICT utilization. Third, the size and structure of ICT sector of country’s economy does matter. The main contribution of this paper is to evaluate those three points by conducting comparative analysis based on Input-Output (I-O) Table from four ASEAN Member States, namely Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. ASEAN is used because it is one of the regional associations that have a large income gap among its members. The results suggest that more developed countries (which are measured by income per capita) do not always benefit greater than less developed countries from ICT development. The magnitude of ICT impact on the economy depends on the intensity of ICT utilization and the structure of ICT sector |
| Keywords: | ICT, economic performance, economic development, ASEAN |
| JEL: | O14 O53 L63 L86 L96 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwu:eiiwdp:disbei192&r=hme |