|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2016‒03‒17
eleven papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Freeman, Alan |
| Abstract: | These educational notes were prepared for a summer camp organised by Ideas Left Out at Elbow Lake, Ontario in the summer of 2015. I suggested to the organisers that I could produce a fairly simplified introduction to the discussion which would be pluralist, in the sense that it would introduce the various conflicting ideas about the cause of crisis and the special role that the rate of profit plays within it. I promised, after the discussion, that I would make the notes available for those who expressed interest but could not attend. Here they are. This article contains a shameless amount of self-reference. This is not just because the referenced articles of my own contain more explanation than is reasonable in a 101 introduction, but because these articles also contain bibliographies which will allow the reader to explore the subject in her own chosen way and at her own chosen pace. |
| Keywords: | TSSI, Value Theory, Rate of Profit, Marx, Geopolitical Economy |
| JEL: | E11 E12 E22 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69649&r=hme |
| By: | Tiago Camarinha Lopes (FACE-UFG, Ciências Econômicas) |
| Abstract: | This article develops the idea that the current social struggle for land integrates two contradictory elements, which necessarily exclude each other as capitalism advances: the Bourgeois Revolution and the Socialist Revolution. To explore this prospect, which may elucidate existing internal conflicts within the movement of struggle for land, the text provides a brief theoretical review on the element land in Book 3 of Capital. It then summarizes the trajectory of the debate in the twentieth century. The notion that the organization of land use by society is no longer placed as a condition for capitalist development, but as a political element between two mutually exclusive projects (capitalism and socialism), is developed in the conclusion. |
| Keywords: | Political Economy, Agrarian Question, land, revolution, Lenin, Kautsky |
| JEL: | B51 Q10 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ufb:wpaper:044&r=hme |
| By: | E. Roy Weintraub |
| Abstract: | Historians of the social sciences and historians of economics have come to agree that, in the United States, the 1940s transformation of economics from political economy to economic science was associated with economists’ engagements with other disciplines—e.g. mathematics, statistics, operations research, physics, engineering, cybernetics—during and immediately after World War II. More controversially, some historians have also argued that the transformation was accelerated by economists’ desires to be safe, to seek the protective coloration of mathematics and statistics, during the McCarthy period. This paper argues that that particular claim 1) is generally accepted, but 2) is unsupported by good evidence, and 3) what evidence there is suggests that the claim is false. |
| Keywords: | Cold War, McCarthyism, mathematical economics, mathematization of economics, history of philosophy, RAND, Cowles Commission, Paul Lazarsfeld |
| JEL: | B2 B4 B5 C02 C10 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hec:heccee:2016-18&r=hme |
| By: | Inomata, Satoshi |
| Abstract: | Despite the fact that input–output (IO) tables form a central part of the System of National Accounts, each individual country's national IO table exhibits more or less different features and characteristics, reflecting the country's socioeconomic idiosyncrasies. Consequently, the compilers of a multi-regional input–output table (MRIOT) are advised to thoroughly examine the conceptual as well as methodological differences among countries in the estimation of basic statistics for national IO tables and, if necessary, to carry out pre-adjustment of these tables into a common format prior to the MRIOT compilation. The objective of this study is to provide a practical guide for harmonizing national IO tables to construct a consistent MRIOT, referring to the adjustment practices used by the Institute of Developing Economies, JETRO (IDE-JETRO) in compiling the Asian International Input–Output Table. |
| Keywords: | Input-output tables, National accounts, International trade, Global value chains, MRIOT |
| JEL: | C67 F14 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper555&r=hme |
| By: | Ana Karaman (University of Washington Bothell) |
| Abstract: | A reduction of working hours has been historically at the center of the class conflict and the primary issue fought for by the US labor movement during its more glorious years. However, the US labor movement has made no systematic progress in reducing working hours since World War II. Moreover, as labor unions in Western Europe continue their campaigns to reduce working hours even further, the quest for shorter working hours has almost completely ceased from the agenda of the US labor movement. This is despite the ongoing concerns over the future structural unemployment due to the continuing technological progress. This begs a question of why the US labor unions have abandoned an effort to further reduce working hours without a reduction in pay. This paper argues that the post-World War II failure of the US labor movement to build a unified coalition on the political left and the following significant changes in the structural composition of the US labor movement, led to its failure to recognize and advance a further reduction in working hours as a significant socio-economic reform. Specifically, the paper analyzes how the labor unions efforts to reduce working hours were impacted by the anticommunist sentiments during the 1950s, the inability to build a unified coalition cutting across racial, class, and gender differences in the 1960s, and the significant shift to the public sector labor within the US labor movement since the 1970s. |
| Keywords: | US Labor Movement; Reducing Working Hours |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3305751&r=hme |
| By: | Köhler, Jonathan; Braungardt, Sibylle; Hettesheimer, Tim; Lerch, Christian; Nabitz, Lisa; Sartorius, Christian; Walz, Rainer |
| Abstract: | [Introduction] This paper has the objective of extending the System of Innovation (Kuhlmann and Arnold 2001; figure 1) and Technological Innovation System (TIS) (Bergek et al. 2008) approaches to include pathways of development over time and to include considerations of interactions between niches and the regime from the Multi-Level perspective framework on sustainability transitions (Grin et al. 2010). This should include consideration of consumers and the demand side, which is less comprehensively discussed in the SSI and TIS literature than in the sustainability transitions literature. The reason for this paper is that the SSI has no explanation of dynamics. It is really a typology of actor types which are assumed to be necessary for innovation. TIS is an application of SSI to individual technologies and a more detailed analysis of how successful the innovation system is, using the concept of functions of the innovation systems. These functions then have to be performed successfully for the technology to be taken up. However, there is still no analysis of the interactions between the functions or how interaction determines the evolution of the innovation system through time and its success or failure. Also, a critical aspect of the evolution of technologies and the associated social systems is missing: the feedbacks between the dominant design or regime and the new, alternative technology. The current institutional and market setting is taken as exogenous to the innovation system analysis in the TIS. The analysis is limited to identifying those innovation functions which are being successfully undertaken and those which are weak, together with barriers to the uptake of the new technology and proposing measures to overcome these barriers. Here, the MLP on transitions offers an explicit treatment of niche-regime interactions. [...] |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisidp:48&r=hme |
| By: | Paul R. Nail; Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron |
| Abstract: | Models of social response concern the identification and delineation of possible responses to social pressure. Most models are based on simple one-dimensional conceptualizations of conformity and its alternatives even though more sophisticated models have been available for a number of years. The diamond model is perhaps the most refined of the two-dimensional formulations. It is particularly useful in building agent-based models of opinion dynamics because it gives clear and explicit operational definitions of basic types of social response. In fact, the diamond model is actually a ready recipe for a microscopic model of opinion dynamics. Moreover, it fits quite well Einstein's "simple but no simpler" strategy. In this work, we will present the logic of the diamond model as well as its implications for agent-based modeling. |
| Keywords: | Opinion dynamics; Agent-based model; Social response; q-voter model; Diamond model |
| JEL: | C63 D7 D85 |
| Date: | 2016–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wuu:wpaper:hsc1602&r=hme |
| By: | Christophe Muller (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics) CNRS & EHESS); Asha Kannan (United Nations Development Programme, Victoria, Seychelles); Roland Alcindor (United Nations Development Programme, Victoria, Seychelles) |
| Abstract: | The typically used multidimensional poverty indicators in the literature do not appear to be relevant for middle-income countries like Seychelles and can yield unrealistic estimates of poverty. In particular, the deprivations typically considered in such measures little occurs in middle-income economies. In this paper, we propose a new approach to measuring multidimensional poverty in Seychelles based on a mix of objective and subjective information about households living conditions, and on how these households view their spending priorities. The empirical results based on our new approach show that a small but non-negligible minority of Seychellois can be considered as multidimensionally poor, mostly as not being able to satisfy their shelter and food basic needs. Finally, the Seychelles social aid programs run by the Agency for Social Protection is poorly targeted whether evaluated in terms of multidimensional poverty or in terms of one-dimensional monetary poverty. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, Multidimensional wellbeing, Destitution, Seychelles |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1601&r=hme |
| By: | Christian Gonzales; Sonali Jain-Chandra; Kalpana Kochhar; Monique Newiak; Tlek Zeinullayev |
| Abstract: | This study shows empirically that gender inequality and income inequality are strongly interlinked, even after controlling for standard drivers of income inequality. The study analyzes gender inequality by using and extending the United Nation’s Gender Inequality Index (GII) to cover two decades for almost 140 countries,. The main finding is that an increase in the GII from perfect gender equality to perfect inequality is associated with an almost 10 points higher net Gini coefficient. For advanced countries, with higher gender equity in opportunities, income inequality arises mainly through gender gaps in economic participation. For emerging market and developing countries, inequality of opportunity, in particular in education and health, appear to pose larger obstacles to income equality. |
| Keywords: | Income inequality;Women;Income distribution;Gender;Labor force participation;female labor force participation, gender equity, inequality, gender inequality, labor force, Economics of Gender, Equity, Justice, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement, Personal Income and Wealth Distribution, |
| Date: | 2015–10–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfsdn:15/20&r=hme |
| By: | Thomas Paster |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces Schumpeter’s views on the relationship between business and politics and argues that we can discern a distinct Schumpeterian perspective of business-politics relations. Schumpeter’s views about the pivotal role of entrepreneurs in economic development attracted substantial interest in economic sociology and in political economy. His views about the role of entrepreneurs in politics have so far however hardly been studied. The paper identifies the following four aspects as central to Schumpeter’s perspective of business-politics relations: (a) entrepreneurs and corporations drive economic change, (b) entrepreneurs and corporations are ineffective in defending their political interests and vulnerable to hostile movements, (c) the resulting divergence of the economic and the political impact of entrepreneurs and corporations makes capitalism socio-politically instable, and (d) the relationship of entrepreneurs and corporations to political institutions and public policies is primarily adaptive, rather than causative. The paper proposes a two-dimensional typology of business-politics relations that combines the Schumpeterian focus on adaptation with the Marxian focus on influence. These two dimensions - adaptation and influence - result in four ideal types: business-dominated social compromise, imposed social compromise, business dominance, and political confrontation. Examples from German welfare state history illustrate these four types. The paper suggests that the Schumpeterian and the Marxian perspective, while in contrast to each other, may be complementary and each perspective valid under different socio-political conditions. |
| Keywords: | business and politics, Joseph A. Schumpeter, welfare state politics, political economy of entrepreneurship, history of economic ideas. |
| JEL: | P12 P16 H50 H70 J58 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:444&r=hme |
| By: | Attila Havas (Institute of Economics - Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences); K. Matthias Weber (AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Donau-City-Straße 1, 1220 Vienna, Austria) |
| Abstract: | Forward-looking activities (FLAs) can influence innovation systems in various ways to a significant extent. This paper focuses on changes induced by FLAs in the innovation policy governance sub-systems (IPGSs) of the national innovation system (NIS). Our knowledge is surprisingly limited even on this subset of FLA impacts, despite several decades of practice and non-negligible analytical efforts. We propose new taxonomies of FLAs and IPGSs and explore hypotheses on the likely ‘fit’ between different types of FLAs and various IPGSs. Countries selected to illustrate the relevance of our analytical framework include Germany, Greece, and Hungary. Our intention is contribute to a more refined theory building concerning the role and likely impacts of FLAs. Further, as a better understanding of impacts supports the design of more appropriate and effective FLAs, as well as more insightful evaluation of FLAs, this approach is of practical relevance, too. |
| Keywords: | Forward-looking activities (FLAs); Impacts of FLAs; STI policy governance sub-systems; Tentative taxonomies |
| JEL: | B52 O30 O38 O39 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:1601&r=hme |