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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2015‒12‒01
twelve papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Silvestri, Paolo (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The paper aims to address the following two questions: what kind of discourse is that which attempt to found or defend the autonomy or the boundaries of a discipline? Why do such discourses tend to turn into normative, dogmatic-excommunicating discourses between disciplines, schools or scholars? I will argue that an adequate answer may be found if we conceive disciplines as dogmatics, where such discourses often take the form of a discourse on the foundation of a discipline, a foundation in the name of which the scholar speaks and with which he/she entertains an identity relationship. To this purpose I will re-examine the methodological discourses of (and debates between)Pareto, Croce and Einaudi on the demarcation issue between philosophy, economics and value-judgments as highly instructive to understand such issues. |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:cesmep:201504&r=hme |
| By: | Aamanda Shantz; Kerstin Alfes; Catherine Bailey; Emma Soane |
| Abstract: | This article sheds new light on an understudied construct in mainstream management theory, namely, work alienation. This is an important area of study because previous research indicates that work alienation is associated with important individual and organizational outcomes. We tested four antecedents of work alienation: decision-making autonomy, task variety, task identity, and social support. Moreover, we examined two outcomes of alienation: deviance and performance, the former measured 1 year after the independent variables were measured, and the latter as rated by supervisors. We present evidence from a sample of 283 employees employed at a construction and consultancy organization in the United Kingdom. The results supported the majority of our hypotheses, indicating that alienation is a worthy concept of exploration in the management sciences. |
| Keywords: | alienation; deviant behavior; management history; task performance |
| JEL: | R14 J01 J50 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:64449&r=hme |
| By: | Hederos Eriksson, Karin (SOFI, Stockholm University); Stenberg, Anders (SOFI, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Bertrand et al. (2015) show that among married couples in the US, the distribution of the share of the household income earned by the wife exhibits a sharp drop just to the right of .50. They argue that this drop is consistent with a social norm prescribing that a man should earn more than his wife. We repeat this analysis for Sweden, ranked as one of the world's most gender equal countries. Analyzing Swedish population register data, we do not find support for the norm that a man should earn more than his wife. |
| Keywords: | gender roles, marriage market, gender gap, gender identity |
| JEL: | D10 J12 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9533&r=hme |
| By: | Panos Mavrokonstantis |
| Abstract: | In this paper I investigate the intergenerational transmission of gender norms. The norm I focus on is the traditional view that it is the role of the mother to look after young children and the role of the father to be the breadwinner. I develop a model of identity formation where a child's gender norm is endogenous to two main sources of socialisation: her family on the one hand, and society at large on the other. Using data from the Next Steps survey and the International Social Survey Programme, I examine the intergenerational transmission of gender norms in England when the norms of the family, and the society it is embedded in, are oppositional. My findings indicate between-sex heterogeneity in the transmission of gender norms from parents to children. Boys raised in modern families (i.e. where the mother is the breadwinner) are less likely to develop traditional norms. However, compared to those in traditional families, girls raised in modern families are actually more likely to be traditional; in opposition to their family's but in line with society's norm. Examining further outcomes associated with gender norms, I find that girls raised in modern families are also less likely to state that being able to earn high wages is important for them, and are less likely to pursue a science degree at university level. I use my identity formation model to argue that these results can be explained by heterogeneity in preferences for conformity to the family, and present empirical evidence that indeed, girls in modern families are less conformist than those in traditional families. Using a regression discontinuity design, I further show that this weaker preference for conformity is in fact a result of the treatment of living in a modern family. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational transmission, gender norms, gender inequality |
| JEL: | D10 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stippp:27&r=hme |
| By: | Daniela Piazzalunga (University of Turin, Italy); Maria Laura Di Tommaso (University of Turin, Italy) |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the gender wage gap in Italy during the 2008-2012 economic crisis, using cross-sectional EU-SILC data. The gender wage gap increased from 4\% in 2008 to 8\% in 2012, while for most European countries the gap decreased over the same period. After 2010 the growth of the Italian gender wage gap (and its unexplained component) was particularly high in the upper part of the wage distribution. In 2010-2011 a wage freeze in the public sector was introduced as an austerity measure, and the average public sector premium dropped from 15\% to 11\%. Using counterfactual analyses, we show that the wage freeze has been one of the major causes of the growth of the gender wage gap, disproportionately affecting women, who are more likely to be employed in the public sector. This `policy effect' accounts for more than 100\% of the increase between 2009 and 2011, while other changes, if anything, would have reduced the gender gap. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap, Great Recession, public sector premium, decomposition, counterfactual analysis. |
| JEL: | J31 J71 J16 J45 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2015-381&r=hme |
| By: | Bart Cammaerts |
| Abstract: | This article aims to understand the dialectic between the visible and the invisible in relation to the post-hegemonic nature of neoliberalism and the role of mediation in that process. The neoliberal ideological project is geared towards making itself invisible, positioning itself as quintessentially anti-ideological and natural rather than ideological. However, the post-hegemonic status of neoliberalism and capitalism requires its constitutive outsides to struggle for visibility so as to be able to make itself invisible. Mainstream media plays a pivotal role in this regard not only in terms of invisibilizing capitalist interests, but also in terms of providing (negative or positive) visibility to the constitutive outsides of capitalism. Mediation also implicates audiences and publics, who could be approached as an increasingly angry and frustrated Spivakean subaltern, distrustful of democracy and of the media. It is argued that a new democratic imaginary is needed, deterritorialized from the market imaginary and mobilizing the discontented subaltern. The question remains, however, whether it is überhaupt possible to unsettle the post-hegemonic status of the neoliberal ideological project. |
| Keywords: | Democracy; ideology; mediation; neoliberalism; post-hegemony |
| JEL: | L91 L96 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:64480&r=hme |
| By: | Heinrich, Torsten |
| Abstract: | Discontinuities as a crucial aspect of economic systems have been discussed both verbally - particularly in institutionalist theory - and formally, chiefly using catastrophe theory. Catastrophe theory has, however, been criticized heavily for lacking micro-foundations and has mainly fallen out of use in economics and social sciences. The present paper proposes a simple catastrophe theory model of technological change with network externalities and reevaluates the value of such a model by adding an agent-based micro layer. To this end an agent-based variant of the model is proposed and investigated specifically with regard to the network structure among the agents. While the macro level of the model produces a classical cusp catastrophe - a result that is preserved in the agent-based form - it is found that the behavior of the model changes locally depending on the network structure, especially if networks with features that resemble social networks (low diameter, high clustering, power law distributed node degree) are considered. While the present work investigates merely an aspect out of a large possibility space, it encourages further research using agent-based catastrophe theory models especially of economic aspects to which catastrophe theory has previously successfully been applied; aspects such as technological and institutional change, economic crises, or industry structure. |
| Keywords: | network structures; agent-based modeling; catastrophe theory; information and communication technology; preferential attachment networks; technological change |
| JEL: | C63 D85 L14 L86 |
| Date: | 2015–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68089&r=hme |
| By: | Kristel Maasen; Karel Verhaeghe |
| Abstract: | The report presents a definition of a worker cooperative and its distinctive characteristics; four orientations within the field; an overview of practices of worker cooperatives in Flanders regarding workers' participation in capital, decision making and profit sharing, regarding work organisation and human relations management; the current institutional and support framework in Belgium/Flandres; and strategies for an increase in worker cooperatives in the near future based on successful examples abroad. |
| Keywords: | worker cooperatives; coopératives de travail |
| Date: | 2015–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/218272&r=hme |
| By: | Andreassen, Leif; Di Tommaso, Maria Laura; Maccagnan, Anna (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to measure men’s capability to provide unpaid work, considering both childcare and housework. The definition of capability is based on Sen’s Capability Approach which points out the importance of studying what people are free to do and to be (the capability sets), rather than what they do and who they are (the achieved functionings). In order to operationalizing the Capability Approach, we use random scale modelling. The use of random scale modelling within the Capability Approach framework represents an advancement in the literature related to work and family and has two main implications. First, it allows us to study whether and to what extent men are restricted in their freedom of providing unpaid and paid work and we describe their restrictions; second, we analyze men’s preferences in combining different levels of paid and unpaid work, given their capability sets. The dataset used is the Spanish sample of the Multinational Time Use Survey (MTUS), a cross-country harmonised set of time use surveys composed of comparably recoded variables. Our findings suggest that even though men do relatively little childcare, it is important to them. So men do care to care. Our estimates show that only about 15% of men are totally unrestricted in their capability sets. 35% of men are restricted to provide little time to unpaid work. Our estimates suggest that both individual, household and institutional variables are important drivers in shaping restrictions and preferences. |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201545&r=hme |
| By: | Luisa Montuschi |
| Abstract: | Cuando se habla de progreso social se apunta al hecho de que se hace referencia a un proceso por el cual la sociedad, los individuos o ambos están sujetos a cambios que se consideran positivos. Y, en consecuencia, este concepto lleva siempre implícito juicios de valor. Una cuestión que no aparece claramente explicitada en los estudios referidos al progreso social es la de la pobreza. Y la pobreza constituye un problema de extrema seriedad en cualquier sociedad, que la limita y que obstaculiza el sendero hacia el progreso social. Mucho se ha dicho respecto de la pobreza pero el punto esencial e ineludible es que la verdadera solución del problema consiste en remover los factores que la sostienen a lo largo del tiempo. Y esta sería la única forma posible que podría ayudar a un país a emprender la senda hacia el progreso social. Y aparece por demás claro que el PIB no puede constituir una medida razonable y aceptable de los niveles de pobreza de un país. |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:576&r=hme |
| By: | Coral del Rio (Universidade de Vigo and EQUALITAS, Spain); Olga Alonso-Villar (Universidade de Vigo and EQUALITAS, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at quantifying the welfare loss that a society can experience due to the segregation of the demographic groups that comprise it. In aggregating the well-being losses (gains) of the groups derived for being concentrated in low-status (high-status) organizational units, this paper embraces the distributive approach adopted in the literature on economic deprivation and poverty. In addition to developing several measures, this paper explores the welfare losses that the United States has experienced over the last decades due to occupational segregation by both gender and race/ethnicity. The analysis is undertaken at both a national and a regional level since occupational segregation along these lines is far from been a homogenous phenomenon across the country. |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2015-378&r=hme |
| By: | Petreski, Blagica; Petreska, Despina |
| Abstract: | Many families in Krushevo (small city in Macedonia) are struggling with unemployment and poverty, seeking a way to address these bitter social problems. The main objective of the intervention is economic empowerment of women. The social entrepreneurship model has been applied among 25 unemployed women from Krushevo who produce traditional, homemade products divided in several categories: homemade pasta, berries products and natural teas. The model involves horizontal clustering through interconnections among individual producers and the community, as well vertical clustering through networking with the local caterers. Hence, applied approach composes of: capacity building, mentoring, piloting and promotion. The income of the women increased on average more than six times, the number of new buyers increased by 80%. At the same time, skills for packaging and sale significantly improved. Vertical clustering diversifies existing and enable new channels on sale, and horizontal clustering improved their products with joint brand, slogan and logo. |
| Keywords: | social entrepreneurship, economic empowerment, women, mini-clustering, traditional products |
| JEL: | E2 J16 J24 P36 |
| Date: | 2015–11–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68085&r=hme |