nep-hme New Economics Papers
on Heterodox Microeconomics
Issue of 2016‒03‒06
fourteen papers chosen by
Carlo D’Ippoliti
Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”

  1. Frederic S. Lee and His Fight for the Future of Heterodox Economics By Jo, Tae-Hee
  2. Pluralism in the Market of Science? A citation network analysis of economic research at universities in Vienna By Florentin Gloetzl; Ernest Aigner
  3. Blended automation: integrating algorithms on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange By Daniel Beunza; Yuval Millo
  4. Mexican manufacturing and its integration into global value chains By Castillo, Juan Carlos; Szirmai, Adam
  5. CREDIT, SHARES AND GOODWILL: A VEBLENIAN TRINITY By Marion Dieudonné
  6. Gender inequalities in pensions: Are determinants the same in the private and public sectors? By Carole Bonnet; Dominique Meurs; Benoît Rapoport
  7. Mettre en pratique des principes alternatifs dans un contexte de concurrence entre mutuelles : un défi impossible?Le cas des mutuelles étudiantes en France. By Y. Bousalham; Bénédicte Vidaillet
  8. Paradox lost By Colin Peter Green; John Spencer Heywood; Parvinder Kler; Gareth Leeves
  9. When alternative organizations compete together: The case of the French mutual insurance sector for students By Y. Bousalham; Bénédicte Vidaillet
  10. Temps, travail et régulations : en quête du processus d'action multi-scalaire By Jens Thoemmes
  11. Pôle territoriaux de coopération économique : l’entrepreneuriat territorial au risque de la transformation sociale et de l’alternative économique By Myriam Matray; Jacques Poisat
  12. Monopoly Capital and Capitalist Inefficiency By Lambert, Thomas; Kwon, Ed
  13. Nicaragua: Evolución de la Pobreza Multidimensional, 2001-2009 By Espinoza-Delgado, José Luis; López-Laborda, Julio
  14. Quality of employment regimes and diversity of emerging countries By DEGUILHEM Thibaud; FRONTENAUD Adrien

  1. By: Jo, Tae-Hee
    Abstract: Frederic S. Lee (1949-2014) was a dedicated captain of the heterodox economics movement over the past thirty years. In his unfaltering fight for the future of heterodox economics, Lee contributed to both the development of heterodox microeconomic theory and the establishment of a global community of heterodox economists. This short tribute delineates Lee’s unique and important contribution that should be remembered and renewed in order to reproduce heterodox economics.
    Keywords: Frederic S. Lee, Heterodox Economics, Heterodox Microeconomics
    JEL: B21 B31 B50
    Date: 2016–01–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68800&r=hme
  2. By: Florentin Gloetzl (Vienna University of Economics and Business, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, Austria); Ernest Aigner (Vienna University of Economics and Business, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, Austria)
    Abstract: Pluralism has become a central issue not only in the public discourse but also in heterodox economics, as the focus on impact factors and rankings based on citations continues to increase. This marketization of science has been an institutional vehicle for the economic mainstream to promote its ideas. Citations thus have become a central currency in economics as a discipline. At the same time they allow to investigate patterns in the discourse. Analyzing articles published by the two major economics departments and the more interdisciplinary Department for Socioeconomics in Vienna, this paper is novel in applying both bibliometric techniques and citation network analysis on the department level. We find that (1) Articles in heterodox journals strongly reference the economic mainstream, while the mainstream does not cite heterodox journals, (2) Articles written by researchers of the Department of Socioeconomics cite more heterodox journals irrespective of whether they are published in mainstream or heterodox journals, (3) The economics departments display a citation network exhibiting a clear ‘mainstream core – heterodox periphery’ structure, as Dobusch & Kapeller (2012b) suggest the overall discourse in economics to be, while the Department of Socioeconomics could be described as a plural though not pluralistic department with many distinct modules in the network , reflecting various disciplines, topics and schools of thought.
    Date: 2015–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwiee:ieep5&r=hme
  3. By: Daniel Beunza; Yuval Millo
    Abstract: The recent automation of the American stock market has replaced floor intermediaries with trading algorithms, calling into question the sociological claim that markets are structured by networks of intermediaries. Our study examines the social nature of markets in automated settings with an inductive, qualitative study of the automation of the NYSE during the period 2003-12. It proposes the concept of blended automation to denote an automation design that preserves the social structure of a market. Our analysis of the Flash Crash of 2010 suggests that such design offers greater resilience to economic shocks. Our study contributes to the literature on technology in organizations by characterizing a novel automation design that reconciles technology with social relations, and contributes to economic sociology by outlining how automated markets can remain socially structured, pointing to role of politics, ideology and design in market automation.
    JEL: R14 J01 J50
    Date: 2015–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:65090&r=hme
  4. By: Castillo, Juan Carlos (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Szirmai, Adam (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University)
    Abstract: This paper studies the value added contributions to final manufacturing output produced in Mexico. It distinguishes between contributions originating from foreign producers located in different major regions of the world economy and contributions made by domestic producers. The analysis is performed for the main two components of Mexican manufacturing: assembly plants producing for export markets (Maquiladora industry) and manufacturing firms mainly producing for the domestic market (Domestic Manufacturing). To this end, Mexico (Maquiladora) and Mexico (Domestic Manufacturing) are separately included into World Input-output Tables (WIOT) from 1998 to 2011. The empirical analysis shows that the structure of value added contributions with regard to the final output of the Mexican domestic sector has remained unaltered, while the structure of value added contributions to the final output of the Maquiladora sector has drastically changed over time. For its own final output, Mexico (Domestic) has the largest share of value added contributions with some increase in the value added contributions of producers in foreign countries (notably, the USA). With regard to the final output of Mexico (Maquiladora) there was a shift from a dominance of US value added in all the manufacturing sectors (70% in 1998) to a much more diversified structure of value added contributions. By 2011, the East Asian share in value added was the largest in the Electrical and Optical equipment sector. Mexico (Domestic Manufacturing) and Mexico (Maquiladora) had the largest value added contributions in the Transport Equipment sector, while the US continued to account for the lion's share of value added in the textile industry. In our view, those changes in the structure of value added contributions have to do with decisions by US firms to reallocate production to low-cost countries in Asia. They reflect changing patterns of the integration of Mexico in global value chains.
    Keywords: Global Value Chains, Export processing, World Input-output Tables, Manufacturing, Mexico
    JEL: C67 L60 F20
    Date: 2016–01–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2016001&r=hme
  5. By: Marion Dieudonné (LEDA-SDFi - LEDA-SDFi - Université Paris IX - Paris Dauphine, PSL - Université Paris-Dauphine)
    Abstract: Thorstein Veblen published an important book in 1904, The Theory of Business Enterprise, in which he focused on the financial theory of the business enterprise. Although this book was an early contribution to corporate finance, it is little-known compared with Absentee Ownership, published in 1923. From the perspective of his institutionalist tradition, Veblen observes and describes the transition of business enterprise to corporation finance. We can identify a trinity: credit, shares and goodwill. For Veblen, this trinity refers to predation, oligarchic power and goodwill-seeking, which are the guiding principles of the new era of corporate governance. Our aim is to bring to the light the links established by Veblen between credit, shares and goodwill that seem too little explored in the literature. According to Veblen, credit, shares and goodwill form a system which lay at the heart of American business in the early 20th century. Through his work The Theory of Business Enterprise, Veblen gives us an early and significant U.S analysis of the two-sided concept of goodwill. The book was one of the first institutionalist studies of the firm, opening the way for many other works on behavior within and between companies. In order to highlight this, we propose a literature review allowing a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the concept of goodwill, its definition, valorization, and ambiguities. This overall perspective is not made by the literature.
    Keywords: earning capacity, credit,common shares and preferred shares, corporate finance, goodwill, insiders and outsiders, Veblen
    Date: 2016–01–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01264730&r=hme
  6. By: Carole Bonnet; Dominique Meurs; Benoît Rapoport
    Abstract: While the average gender gap in pensions is quite well documented, gender differences in the distribution of pensions have rarely been explored. We show in this paper that pension dispersion is very similar for men and women within the French pension system of a given sector (public or private). However, the determinants of these gender inequalities are not the same. Using a regression-based decomposition of the Gini coefficient, we find that pension dispersion is mainly due to dispersion of the reference wage. Gender differences are less marked among civil servants. For women, pension dispersion is also due to dispersion in contribution periods. We also decompose the Gini coefficient by source of income to measure the impact of institutional rules on the extent of pension inequality. Unexpectedly, we find that the impact of pension minima is limited, although slightly larger for civil servants than for private sector employees.
    Keywords: Pension, Private and Public sector, Gender gap, Gini coefficient, Decomposition.
    JEL: J14 J16 H55
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2016-8&r=hme
  7. By: Y. Bousalham (Université de Rouen); Bénédicte Vidaillet (IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12)
    Abstract: Interest in alternative organizations and their emancipatory potential has grown significantly among critical scholars. Among current inquiries, it has been shown that these organizations may be " contaminated " (i.e.: implement anti-alternative practices and/or adopt capitalist values) when competing, on their markets, with traditional capitalist organizations. But what happens when alternative organizations compete with one another or operate in a market that consists exclusively of other alternative organizations? Does their alternative nature help them deal differently with the competition-related issues they face, to develop solutions and practices other than those they would implement if they were competing with privately-owned capitalist enterprises? In this research, we have explored a sector – that of student healthcare in France – that involves two alternative, mutualist organizations competing directly and exclusively with each other. Focusing on the relations of competition between these mutuals, we observed in the field that their practices and methods greatly contrasts with the mutualist values and principles those organizations claim to stand for, in particular with the principles of solidarity between members and of non-commercialization of health care. This case shows how the alternative nature of an organization becomes diluted in the issues of competition even though the market is shared by two alternative non-profit organizations. We suggest that the situation of direct competition by itself, and not only competition with traditional capitalist organizations, is a key determinant of alternative organizations' ability to put into practice their distinguishing principles.
    Abstract: Mettre en pratique des principes alternatifs dans un contexte de concurrence entre mutuelles : un défi impossible ? Le cas des mutuelles étudiantes en France. L'intérêt pour les organisations alternatives (mutuelles, coopératives, etc.) et leur potentiel émancipateur s'est beaucoup développé auprès des chercheurs critiques. Si ceux-ci ont insisté sur la congruence nécessaire entre valeurs et pratiques pour juger du caractère alternatif d'une organisation, les écarts entre ces deux dimensions ont généralement été attribués au fait que ces organisations étaient en concurrence, sur leurs marchés, avec des organisations capitalistes classiques susceptibles de les « contaminer ». Mais que se passe-t-il quand des organisations alternatives se font concurrence entre elles ou évoluent dans un marché principalement constitué d'autres organisations alternatives ? Leur caractère alternatif leur permet-il d'imaginer d'autres solutions, d'autres pratiques, que celles qu'elles mettraient en oeuvre si elles étaient en concurrence avec des organisations capitalistes privées ? Une autre question peu abordée dans ces recherches sur les organisations alternatives est celle du rôle joué par les modes spécifiques de gestion des ressources humaines dans la manière dont ces organisations s'adaptent (ou non) lorsqu'elles se trouvent dans un contexte concurrentiel. Dans cette recherche, il s'agit d'une part d'examiner la capacité d'organisations alternatives à rester cohérentes avec leurs principes alternatifs lorsqu'elles sont en concurrence entre elles ; et d'autre part de comprendre le rôle spécifique des modes de gestion des ressources humaines dans ce processus. Nous avons eu accès à un terrain de recherche mettant en scène deux organisations alternatives – des mutuelles-en relation de concurrence directe sur un même marché – celui de la santé étudiante en France-, sur lequel elles n'ont pas d'autres concurrents. Nous montrons que les pratiques et modes de GRH observés contrastent très largement avec les valeurs et principes mutualistes revendiqués par ces mutuelles. Un apport majeur de cette recherche est de montrer que le contexte et notamment le fait qu'il crée une situation de concurrence directe est un élément essentiel conditionnant la possibilité pour des organisations de mettre concrètement en pratique les principes alternatifs qui les distinguent des organisations capitalistes traditionnelles.
    Keywords: concurrence,Mutuelles de santé,organisation alternative
    Date: 2015–11–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01270156&r=hme
  8. By: Colin Peter Green; John Spencer Heywood; Parvinder Kler; Gareth Leeves
    Abstract: The greater job satisfaction reported by female workers represents a puzzle given, on average, their worse labour market outcomes. Using the original data source of Clark (1997), we show that over the last two decades the female satisfaction gap has largely vanished. This reflects a strong secular decline in female job satisfaction. This decline happened for younger women in the 1990s as they aged and because of new female workers in more recent years that have lower job satisfaction than their early 1990s peers. Decompositions make clear that the decline does not reflect deteriorating job characteristics for women but rather their increasingly harsh evaluation of jobs characteristics. These findings fit with the suggestion that women in the early 1990s had a gap between their labour market expectations and actual experience that has since closed and that the gender satisfaction gap has vanished as a consequence.
    Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Gender, Expectations
    JEL: J16 J28
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:107134075&r=hme
  9. By: Y. Bousalham (Université de Rouen); Bénédicte Vidaillet (IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12)
    Abstract: Interest in alternative organizations and their emancipatory potential has grown significantly among critical scholars. Among current inquiries, it has been shown that these organizations may be " contaminated " (i.e.: implement anti-alternative practices and/or adopt capitalist values) when competing, on their markets, with traditional capitalist organizations. But what happens when alternative organizations compete with one another or operate in a market that consists exclusively of other alternative organizations? Does their alternative nature help them deal differently with the competition-related issues they face, to develop solutions and practices other than those they would implement if they were competing with privately-owned capitalist enterprises? In this research, we have explored a sector – that of student healthcare in France – that involves two alternative, mutualist organizations competing directly and exclusively with each other. Focusing on the relations of competition between these mutuals, we observed in the field that their practices and methods greatly contrasts with the mutualist values and principles those organizations claim to stand for, in particular with the principles of solidarity between members and of non-commercialization of health care. This case shows how the alternative nature of an organization becomes diluted in the issues of competition even though the market is shared by two alternative non-profit organizations. We suggest that the situation of direct competition by itself, and not only competition with traditional capitalist organizations, is a key determinant of alternative organizations' ability to put into practice their distinguishing principles.
    Keywords: duopoly,alternative organization,competition,mutual sector,mutual principle,critical management studies
    Date: 2015–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01270189&r=hme
  10. By: Jens Thoemmes (CERTOP - Centre d'Etude et de Recherche Travail Organisation Pouvoir - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UTM - Université Toulouse 2 Le Mirail - UPS - Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse 3)
    Abstract: Nous voudrions reprendre le périmètre de l’action comme fil conducteur pour l’analyse. Cette perspective voudrait mobiliser d’autres auteurs qui permettent de penser l’action comme un processus se poursuivant à travers les échelles et niveaux comme Jean-Daniel Reynaud (1997 ; 1999) (théorie de la régulation sociale, TRS) et Gilbert de Terssac (2011) (théorie du travail d’organisation, TTO). L’objectif est de prolonger la réflexion proposée par Bruno Maggi (2011a) (théorie de l’agir organisationnel, TAO) suivant Max Weber en mettant la focale sur le processus d’action et non sur le résultat. L’un des obstacles de ce passage de l’action à l’agir concerne l’enfermement de l’analyse de l’action dans des échelles particulières. Le point de vue que nous voudrions développer est que la spécialisation sur un niveau d’action, comme par exemple la situation de travail ou la négociation collective d’entreprise, ne devrait pas limiter le regard sur d’autres niveaux permettant de comprendre le processus d’action.
    Keywords: Processus d'action, Régulation, Travail,Temps
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01240230&r=hme
  11. By: Myriam Matray (EVS - UMR 5600 Environnement Ville Société - ENSAL - Ecole nationale supérieure d'architecture de Lyon - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne - CNRS - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon III - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Etienne - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE] - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon); Jacques Poisat (EVS - UMR 5600 Environnement Ville Société - ENSAL - Ecole nationale supérieure d'architecture de Lyon - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne - CNRS - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon III - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Etienne - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État [ENTPE] - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon)
    Abstract: Les évolutions récentes conduisent à s’interroger sur l’avenir de l’économie solidaire. L’ESS ne risque-t-elle pas progressivement d’être «économicisée», notamment avec le développement, depuis 2011, des Pôles territoriaux de coopération économique (PTCE), inspirés des pôles de compétitivité, et définis dans la loi du 31 Juillet 2014 relative à l’économie sociale et solidaire ? Fondamentalement, les PTCE sont nés de l’ambition d’inventer un développement local participatif, de la volonté de créer un nouveau mode de gouvernance territoriale solidaire, source d’externalités positives, notamment en terme d’activités et d’emploi ; mode dans lequel la société civile jouerait un rôle central. Cependant, au regard de leur évolution concrète, on peut se demander si les PTCE ne tendent pas à être instrumentalisés, institutionnalisés, en s’intégrant aux stratégies publiques territoriales, en adoptant des outils managériaux « classiques » et en devenant un instrument de développement essentiellement économique au détriment de leur dimension politique. Fondamentalement, de quelle évolution de l’ESS la démarche PTCE est-elle potentiellement porteuse ?
    Keywords: Pôle territoriaux de coopération économique, coopération, gouvernance participative, économie sociale et solidaire, institutions
    Date: 2015–05–27
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01216993&r=hme
  12. By: Lambert, Thomas; Kwon, Ed
    Abstract: This paper examines the arguments and assertions of Baran’s and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order (1966) by assessing the degree of economic efficiency or inefficiency in how surplus value and economic surplus were created by 16 major capitalist economies during the 2000s using data envelopment analysis (DEA). After assigning a score to the degree of economic efficiency/inefficiency for each country, one can then assess which factors influence the degree of efficiency/inefficiency. This paper finds empirical support for many of the arguments put forth by the authors, Baran and Sweezy, as well as others regarding the inefficiency of the use of some forms of economic activity to help absorb economic surplus and to create surplus value.
    Keywords: data envelopment analysis, Marxian economics, neoclassical economics, over production, over investment, stagnation thesis, surplus value, under consumption, x-inefficiency
    JEL: B24 B51
    Date: 2014–09–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69570&r=hme
  13. By: Espinoza-Delgado, José Luis; López-Laborda, Julio
    Abstract: In this paper we apply the methodology of measurement put forward by Sabina Alkire and James Foster (2007, 2011) to estimate the incidence, the intensity and the severity of the multidimensional poverty in Nicaragua between 2001 and 2009. We use ten dimensions-indicators and three weighting systems, and compute H, M0, M1, and M2 with data from the last three Living Standards Measurement Surveys (2001, 2005, 2009). In general, our results suggest that the incidence, the intensity and the severity of the multidimensional poverty in Nicaragua decreased over the period of analysis, especially between 2001 and 2005.
    Keywords: Pobreza Multidimensional, Medición de la Pobreza Multidimensional, Metodología Alkire y Foster, Intensidad y Severidad de la Pobreza, Nicaragua.
    JEL: D31 I32 O15
    Date: 2015–12–23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68971&r=hme
  14. By: DEGUILHEM Thibaud; FRONTENAUD Adrien
    Abstract: Emerging countries and their leaders, the BRICS, can be revisited with an institutionalist approach enabling a better recognition of their diversity. Focusing on the composition of their labour nexus, this paper offers to question the category formed by these countries by studying their variety of quality of employment regimes. Two interesting results came out from this study using a Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and a Mixed Clustering (MC) break two institutional dimensions into fourteen indicators. (1) Four specific quality of employment regimes appear, illustrating their heterogeneity and the weakness of this category. (2) The BRICS appear notably scattered over some socio-economic aspects of each leader. Far from composing a coherent and independent regime, BRICS countries dispersion can be explained by a specific combination of socio-economic and institutional factors to each one of them.
    Keywords: Employment regimes, Emerging countries, Quality of employment, Principal Components Analysis, Mixed Clustering.
    JEL: B52 J21 J81 J83 P51
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2016-03&r=hme

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