|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2015‒03‒13
nineteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Jo, Tae-Hee; Todorova, Zdravka |
| Abstract: | In this introduction we highlight Frederic Lee’s contributions to heterodox economics in terms of theory and community, which should be acknowledged and, more importantly, carried on by those who are concerned with the advancement of heterodox economics as an alternative critical theory to the status quo. |
| Keywords: | Frederic S. Lee, Heterodox Economics, Heterodox Microeconomics, Social Provisioning Process |
| JEL: | B0 B4 B5 |
| Date: | 2015–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62568&r=hme |
| By: | Zdravka Todorova (Wright State University) |
| Abstract: | The artical presents a further articulation of the monetary theory of production inspired by the writings of Thorstein Veblen. Particularly I offer a formulation of the monetary theory of production as part of broader theorizing about social provisioning and the life process. This includes an analytical focus on non-commodities; an extension of the Veblenian dichotomy to non-market activities; discussion of Veblen's theory of social valuation in connection to monetary theory of production and class; delineation of as social process that constitute social provisioning and their commodity and non-commodity aspects. The goal is bridging the gap between monetary theory of production and analysis of 'the social'. |
| Keywords: | Monetary theory of production, Thorstein Veblen, capitalism, heterodox economics, social provisioning, class, political economy |
| JEL: | B15 B41 B52 B54 P16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp1501&r=hme |
| By: | Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont |
| Abstract: | The goal of theoretical economics is to explain how the actual economy works. Since Adam Smith economists have consistently failed to clarify the nature and magnitude of overall profit. No economist, though, would deny that profit is an important phenomenon. Yet, obviously economists are still mired in utter confusion about the most fundamental concept of their discipline. Hence, in the strict sense, there is no valid economics. From all this follows for a methodologically ambitious Constructive Heterodoxy that the accustomed foundations of Orthodoxy have to be replaced. In technical terms this is what a paradigm shift is all about. |
| Keywords: | new framework of concepts; structure-centric; Structural Law of Supply and Demand; monetary profit; distributed profit; Law of Overall Profit; economic stability; positive feedback |
| JEL: | B59 E10 |
| Date: | 2015–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62694&r=hme |
| By: | Mark Setterfield; Shyam Gouri Suresh |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the concept of path dependence in macrodynamics, and identifies practical difficulties associated with building path-dependent macrodynamic models of the sort that Keynesians and Schumpeterians regard as necessary for the successful study of long-term growth and development. It is suggested that multi-agent systems (MAS) analysis can help address these difficulties, and therefore provides a useful tool for advancing path-dependent macrodynamic analysis. An illustrative example is provided in the form of a MAS model of path-dependent aggregate fluctuations. |
| Keywords: | Multi-agent systems, agent based models, path dependence, macrodynamics |
| JEL: | B41 C63 E12 E32 E37 O41 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dav:wpaper:14-11&r=hme |
| By: | Anne Neumann; Sophia Rüster; Christian von Hirschhausen |
| Abstract: | Long-term contracts are an important element of all economic activity and, thus, critical for understanding modern economic structures. The natural gas industry provides particular insights into the functioning and dynamics of long-term contracts and industry structures, in a sector that is globally important. This Data Documentation provides a survey of the literature on long-term contracts in the natural gas sector, as seen from an institutional and industrial economics perspective; we also add suggestions for further research. The core of the documentation is a detailed database of 426 long-term contracts struck between sellers and buyers between 1965 and 2014. Though not comprehensive, the database covers a large share of contracts, both for pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG). |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwddc:dd77&r=hme |
| By: | Humphries, Jane (Oxford University); Weisdorf, Jacob (Odense and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents two wage series for unskilled English women workers from 1260 to 1850, the first based on daily wages and the second on the remuneration per day implied in annual service contracts. These two series are compared and the series for women’s daily wages is also compared with evidence for men, revealing interesting trends in the gender gap. These comparisons inform several recent debates first whether or not “the golden age of the English peasantry” included women; and, second whether or not protoindustrialization and early industrialization provided women with greater opportunities. Our contributions to these debates have implications for wider analyses of growth and wellbeing. For example, historians have argued that the rise in wages that followed the Black Death enticed female servants to delay marriage so contributing to a European Marriage Pattern, a demographic regime believed to enable modern economic growth. However, our findings suggest that servants did not benefit much in the post-plague era and so offers little in support of a ‘girl-powered’ economic breakthrough in England. Similarly, historians have hypothesized that high wages in the eighteenth century explain the labour-saving technological changes which kick-started the industrial revolution and, recently, that women shared in these high wages. Again our findings suggest a less rosy scenario with women who were unable to commit to full-time work losing ground relative to men and to their less constrained peers; such women fell increasingly adrift from any High Wage Economy. |
| Keywords: | Black Death; England; gender wage gap; industrial revolution; wages; women. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:215&r=hme |
| By: | Makovi, Michael |
| Abstract: | George Orwell's famous fictions, Animal Farm and Nineteen-Eighty Four were intended to advocate democratic socialism by portraying undemocratic forms of socialism as totalitarian. For Orwell, democracy was a political institution which would limit the abuse of power. But there are several problems with democratic socialism which ensure its failure. In Orwell's novel A Clergyman's Daughter, Orwell's views of economics and politics are inconsistent and conflicting in a way that ensures democratic socialism will not succeed on Orwell's terms. Democratic socialism in general is criticized according to F. A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom and John Jewkes's The New Ordeal by Planning, whose arguments differ crucially from those against market socialism by Andrei Shleifer and Robert W. Vishny. An economic analysis of the political institutions of democratic socialism shows that democratic socialism must necessarily fail for political (not economic) reasons even if nobody in authority has ill-intentions or abuses their power. |
| Keywords: | Orwell; Hayek; democratic socialism; market socialism; totalitarianism |
| JEL: | A12 B24 B25 B31 B51 B53 D70 I2 I20 J00 J20 J30 J47 P10 P20 P30 P50 Z11 |
| Date: | 2015–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62527&r=hme |
| By: | Campaña, Juan Carlos; Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio; Molina, José Alberto |
| Abstract: | We analyze differences by gender in the time dedicated to total work (paid and unpaid) by families in Latin America, with particular attention to the effect of social norms. To this end, we use survey data on time use in Mexico (2009), Peru (2010), Ecuador (2012) and Colombia (2012), to estimate differential equations through OLS. Our results reveal differences between countries in terms of the gender distribution of total work (paid work plus unpaid work), with Colombia and Peru being more equitable. These two countries could be approaching a situation of "iso-work", or equality of work, in the sense that men and women spend similar amounts of time in total work. When considering the social norms that explain gender differences in the time spent in total work, we use data from the last wave (2010-2014) of the World Values Survey (WVS). Our results indicate that the more egalitarian countries exhibit the highest levels of equality in the distribution of work. It is important to know how men and women from these four countries distribute their time in total work, in order to understand why there are clear differences by gender. |
| Keywords: | Total work, Latin America, differences by gender, social norms. |
| JEL: | D13 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2015–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62759&r=hme |
| By: | Tsoulfidis, Lefter |
| Abstract: | The economic crisis that inflicted Greece is international in character and its cause is in the decreasing profitability of capital which from a certain point onwards leads to the stagnation of profits, discourages new investment, reduces production and increases unemployment. If these are combined with the large public debt and the austerity economic policies that were pursued before and after the advent of the Troika, we may explain the vehemence with which the crisis affected the Greek economy. The crisis may also lead to new class realliances and furthermore show the direction and the requirements for the contemplation of an alternative economic policy. |
| Keywords: | falling rate of profit, investment function, unemployment rate, crisis, debt, Greek economy |
| JEL: | B50 B51 E11 E12 E32 E4 O50 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62692&r=hme |
| By: | María José García López; Oriol Amat |
| Abstract: | In recent years there has been much talk about the ethics of organisations and studies on the subject are plentiful. However, there has been scarcely any research into the perception that companies themselves have of their ethical behaviour. This article presents the results showing the self-perception that listed Spanish companies have of their ethical behaviour, with the observation that, generally, they have a greater perception than the reality of the study actually shows. |
| Keywords: | Ethical code, Listed companies, Spanish companies, Ethics, Sustainability. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1467&r=hme |
| By: | Takeuchi, Laura Rodriguez |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to measure the extent of inequality within households and its contribution to overall levels of inequality in child well-being. The paper analyses the distribution of resources (outcomes) between girls and boys for four indicators: nut |
| Keywords: | inequality, intra-household, child, well-being, multidimensionality |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2015-012&r=hme |
| By: | Makovi, Michael |
| Abstract: | Orwell's famous fictions, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four criticized totalitarian forms of socialism from a Public Choice perspective, assuming that socialism would work as an economic system as long as the proper political institutions were in place to curb the potential for the abuse of power. This is contrasted with two novels by others who took the opposite approach: Richter's Pictures of the Socialistic Future and Hazlitt's Time Will Run Back. These two assumed that the political implementation of socialism would be perfect but that socialism would necessarily turn totalitarian because of the problem of economic calculation. These novels assumed away the Public Choice problem of institutions and the abuse of power and focused on the political implications of socialism as a purely economic system. Contrasting these two sets of novels shows how the Austrian and Public Choice schools criticize socialism in two entirely different ways. |
| Keywords: | Orwell; Richter; Hazlitt; democratic socialism; market socialism; totalitarianism |
| JEL: | A12 B24 B25 B31 B51 B53 D70 P11 P20 P30 Z11 |
| Date: | 2015–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62528&r=hme |
| By: | Hugh Schwartz (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | These are the notes from the first half of a course in behavioral economics offered in Uruguay in November 2014. This part of the course, entirely verbal, was aimed at outlining the essentials of behavioral economics. The principal assignments were from the second edition of Edward Cartwright’s Behavioral Economics. The second part of the course, taught by Dr. Martin Egozcue, is not included. It emphasized prospect theory, mental accounts and inter-temporal decision making, and featured substantial mathematical input. |
| Keywords: | behavioral economics, perception, heuristics, empirical verifications, prospect theory, visceral and emotional considerations |
| JEL: | C9 Y9 Z |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1414&r=hme |
| By: | Lott, Yvonne |
| Abstract: | Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011), the author scrutinizes the relations between women´s and men´s flexibility and autonomy in working time and two central work outcomes: overtime and income. Previously, research on flexibility and autonomy in working time mostly applied crosssectional data ignoring individuals self-selection into jobs. Furthermore, the association between flexibility and autonomy in working time and income has generally been neglected. Extending this literature, fixedeffects models show that flexible working time and working time autonomy are associated with an increase of overtime and income - but only for men. Whereas women in fulltime positions also increase their time investment with working time autonomy and employeeoriented flexibility to a similar extent, they do not receive similar financial rewards. These results point to gendered costs and benefits of working time flexibility and autonomy. Working time autonomy in particular is a crucial factor that reinforces gender inequality at the workplace and adds to the relatively high gender pay gap in Germany. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wsidps:196&r=hme |
| By: | Aberman, Noora-Lisa; Ali, Snigdha; Behrman, Julia A.; Bryan, Elizabeth; Davis, Peter; Donnelly, Aliveen; Gathaara, Violet; Koné, Daouda; Nganga, Teresiah; Ngugi, Jane; Okoba, Barrack; Roncoli, Carla |
| Abstract: | Using a participatory rural appraisal approach, a series of qualitative studies were conducted in four countries facing negative impacts of climate change—Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya and Mali—in order to determine men’s and women’s perceptions of climate change, adaptive approaches, and the degree to which assets and group participation play a role in adaptation strategies. Similarities were found across countries in terms of perceptions of climate change, impacts, and strategies for adaptation. Farmers and pastoralists, groups heavily dependent on natural resources, are starkly aware of and impacted by subtle climatic changes, and those with a stronger asset base were better able to adapt to changes and shocks. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Women, Climate change, assets, rural areas, Smallholders, Risk, climate adaptation, environmental shocks, |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1412&r=hme |
| By: | Swallow, Kimberly A.; Swallow, Brent M. |
| Abstract: | Bioeconomic models can provide powerful insights into the interactions between people and the natural ecosystems on which they depend. For example, bioeconomic models of fisheries have long been used to provide early warnings about the sustainability of harvest levels or the impacts of new technologies. Less progress has been made in explicitly incorporating inter-agent interactions and institutions in bioeconomic models. This paper offers guidance to future bioeconomic modelling efforts through a review of the ways that institutions are or could be explicitly integrated into bioeconomic models. |
| Keywords: | Governance, Developing countries, Mathematical models, intensification, systematic reviews, institutional change, social-ecological systems, sustainable intensification, |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1420&r=hme |
| By: | Sophie King; Sam Hickey |
| Abstract: | New theories of how democratic development is likely to emerge within developing countries obscure the effects of popular agency, and of ideas, offering an incomplete view of such historical processes and exaggerating the extent to which a particular sequencing of change is required. Insights from the experiences of non-governmental and cooperative organisations in rural Uganda, an unpromising context for the flourishing of democratic development, suggest that certain strategies can achieve meaningful (if limited) forms of progress, particularly where they focus on challenging power relations, developing synergies between civil and political society, and generating ideas that reshape perceptions of subordinate groups. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwp:bwppap:esid-045-15&r=hme |
| By: | Bøler, Esther Ann; Javorcik, Beata; Ulltveit-Moe, Karen-Helene |
| Abstract: | While the impact of globalization on income inequality has received a lot of attention,little is known about its effect on the gender wage gap (GWG). This study argues that there is a systematic difference in the GWG between exporting firms and non-exporters. By the virtue of being exposed to higher competition, exporters require greater commitment and flexibility from their employees. If commitment is not easily observable and women are perceived as less committed workers than men, exporters will statistically discriminate against female employees and will exhibit a higher GWG than non-exporters. We test this hypothesis using matched employer-employee data from the Norwegian manufacturing sector from 1996 to 2010. Our identification strategy relies on an exogenous shock, namely, the legislative changes that increased the length of the parental leave that is available only to fathers. We argue that these changes have narrowed the perceived commitment gap between the genders and show that the initially higher GWG observed in exporting firms relative to non-exporters has gone down after the changes took place. |
| Keywords: | exporters; gender wage gap; globalization |
| JEL: | F10 F14 F16 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10475&r=hme |
| By: | André Gambier Campos |
| Abstract: | De maneira estilizada, este texto apresenta a dinâmica do bem-estar da população brasileira nas últimas décadas, destacando especialmente a de 2000. A intenção, por um lado, é verificar alguns indicadores elementares de bem-estar (ou de sua ausência), como os de pobreza e extrema pobreza. Por outro, é analisar certos fatores responsáveis por este bem-estar, como os associados aos rendimentos da população – advindos do mercado laboral e da política social. In a stylized way, this text presents the dynamics of the welfare in Brazil in recent decades, highlighting especially the 2000’s. Firstly, the purpose is to check some basic indicators of well-being (or of lack of it), as those related to poverty and extreme poverty situations. Secondly, the objective is to analyze some factors responsible for this welfare, as those associated with the household income, which comes from the labor market and from the social policy. |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:2025&r=hme |