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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2016‒03‒23
fourteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Melendez-Plumed, Vicenc |
| Abstract: | We begin the article with a probe of commensurability of production prices and labour values and by describing useful new concepts such as total or cumulated profits and surplus value. We then compare the results of a capitalist economic system through balances and imbalances of the data in production prices and labour values. We detect new relations between the two ways of measurement with reference to the values that the rate of profit in prices may take. A specific wage (in labour value terms) could be found that allows the coincidence of both Marxian equalities: total prices and total labour values and total surplus value and total profits, which corresponds to a Golden ratio between the surplus value and the wage in labour units. We relate the concepts employed with those of other visions of the transformation of values in prices: the use of a monetary expression of labour time (MELT) and the establishment of the value added of one period as the only subject of transformation. |
| Keywords: | Commensurability; Production prices; Labour values; Transformation; Rate of surplus value; Golden ratio; MELT; Single system labour theory of value (SS-LTV) |
| JEL: | B51 |
| Date: | 2016–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69839&r=hme |
| By: | Yoshihara, Naoki |
| Abstract: | This report explores the development of exploitation theory in mathematical Marxian economics by reviewing the main controversies surrounding the proper definition of exploitation since the contribution of Okishio (1963). The report first examines the debates on the Fundamental Marxian Theorem and Class-Exploitation Correspondence Principle, developed mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by the property relation theory of exploitation by Roemer (1982). Then, the more recent exploitation theory proposed by Vrousalis (2013) and Wright (2000) is introduced. Finally, the report introduces and comments on recent axiomatic studies of exploitation by focusing on the work of Veneziani and Yoshihara (2015). |
| Keywords: | Proper Definitions of UE Exploitation, Property Relations Definition of Exploitation, Profit-Exploitation Correspondence Principle |
| JEL: | D63 D51 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:632&r=hme |
| By: | Alexandru Mandes (University of Giessen); Peter Winker (University of Giessen) |
| Abstract: | Agent based models of financial markets follow different approaches and might be categorized according to major building blocks used. Such building blocks include agent design, agent evolution, and the price finding mechanism. The performance of agent based models in matching key features of real market processes depends on how these building blocks are selected and combined. For model comparison, both, measures of model fit and model complexity are required. Some suggestions are made on how to measure complexity of agent based models. An application for the foreign exchange market illustrates the potential of this approach. |
| Keywords: | Agent based modeling, model selection, complexity |
| JEL: | C63 C18 C58 G17 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201528&r=hme |
| By: | Anna Kowalska-Pyzalska; Karolina Cwik; Arkadiusz Jedrzejewski; Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron |
| Abstract: | We extend a recently developed agent-based model of innovation diffusion by linking the opinions of potential consumers with their market behavior via the concept of reservation prices. Through a dynamic mechanism that takes into account social influence, the agents in our model can both increase or decrease their product appraisal. Considering complete graph network structures and using mean-field treatment we find that the model can exhibit a plethora of scenarios, observed empirically but not attainable within the classical Bass model. We also show the existence of a critical market price above which the innovation cannot diffuse. |
| Keywords: | Word-of-mouth; Innovation diffusion; Agent-based model |
| JEL: | C63 O33 Q55 |
| Date: | 2016–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wuu:wpaper:hsc1603&r=hme |
| By: | Stephan Klasen (Georg-August University Göttingen); Rahul Lahoti (University of Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | Income-based as well as most existing multidimensional poverty indices (MPI) assume equal distribution within the household and thus are likely to lead to yield a biased assessment of individual poverty, and poverty by age or gender. In this paper we first show that the direction of the bias depends on how these measures use individual data to determine the poverty status of households, while the impact of these assumptions on inequality between individual cannot be determined a priori. We then use data from the 2012 Indian Human Development Survey to create a standard household-based MPIs closely related to the MPI proposed by Alkire and Santos (2014) as well as UNDP (2014), and compare that to an individual level MPI that individualizes education and nutrition and some aspects of the living standards dimensions. We find that the poverty rate of females is 14 percentage points higher than that of men in our individual MPI measure but only 2 percentage points higher when using the household-based measure. Similarly, the age differentials in poverty are much larger using the individual-based measure. Using a decomposable inequality measure, we find the contribution of intrahousehold inequality to the total inequality in the individual deprivation score inequality to be 30% and total inequality is also some 30% higher using the individual-based measure, while inequality among the poor is found to be 5% smaller using the individual measure. |
| Keywords: | multi-dimensional poverty; poverty measurement; intra-household inequality; India |
| JEL: | I3 I32 D1 D13 D6 D63 O5 O53 |
| Date: | 2016–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:200&r=hme |
| By: | Luz Magdalena Salas |
| Abstract: | I study whether modifications to the framing of a commitment savings product affects savings accumulations and other poverty-linked outcomes for low-income individuals in newly-formed Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in Colombia. The experiment tests whether behavioral responses vary depending on whether subjects are led to label and create ‘mental savings accounts’ in private versus public ways. Individuals in the private labeling treatment stated accumulation targets and earmarked savings for a particular purpose, but this was shared only privately with a member of the research team. Individuals in the public labeling treatment received the same intervention but publicly revealed and announced their goals to other members of their savings group. The average treatment effect of the public-labeling intervention are very strong and significant. Savings accumulations increased by an average of 35% and savings goals were 8.5% more likely to be reached in comparison to those untreated. Further explorations strongly suggest evidence of differentiated behavioral responses of individuals in the private-labeling treatment group: private commitment to a savings goal is more effective for individuals who, after random assignment but prior to the intervention, were less constrained by extant economic circumstances and institutional barriers. The analysis and interpretation of results was enriched by mixed methods for data collection: households’ survey data, administrative records and qualitative data from focus groups discussions. |
| Keywords: | Behavioral economics, microfinance, randomized controlled trial, savings, mental accounting, labeling, self-control. |
| JEL: | C93 D03 D14 D91 O16 |
| Date: | 2015–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000416:014296&r=hme |
| By: | Leonardo Bargigli (Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa); Luca Riccetti; Alberto Russo; Mauro Gallegati |
| Abstract: | We allow firms and banks to entertain multiple credit connections in a financially constrained production framework, resorting to a random network model whose parameters are calibrated with real data. The calibration is successful since the network model is able to reproduce the degree and strength (debt and loan) distributions of the Japanese credit market. We run simulations over the parameter space using an efficient design, and compare a number of alternative statistical metamodels in order to select the best specification for the relationship between the parameters and a set of endogenous variables of the model. We show that the metamodeling approach can be usefully extended to economic models in order to bridge the gap between micro and macro variables through a rigorous statistical analysis of ABMs, without imposing unrealistic restrictions on the micro model such as the representative agent hypothesis. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2016_01.rdf&r=hme |
| By: | Amin,Mohammad; Islam,Asif Mohammed; Sakhonchik,Alena |
| Abstract: | For a sample of 53 developing countries, the results show that women's employment among private firms is significantly higher in countries that mandate paternity leave versus those that do not. A conservative estimate suggests an increase of 6.8 percentage points in the proportion of women workers associated with the mandating of paternity leave. |
| Keywords: | Gender and Development,Labor Policies,Gender and Law,Labor Markets,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2016–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7588&r=hme |
| By: | Marianne Bertrand; Esther Duflo |
| Abstract: | This article reviews the existing field experimentation literature on the prevalence of discrimination, the consequences of such discrimination, and possible approaches to undermine it. We highlight key gaps in the literature and ripe opportunities for future field work. Section 1 reviews the various experimental methods that have been employed to measure the prevalence of discrimination, most notably audit and correspondence studies; it also describes several other measurement tools commonly used in lab-based work that deserve greater consideration in field research. Section 2 provides an overview of the literature on the costs of being stereotyped or discriminated against, with a focus on self-expectancy effects and self-fulfilling prophecies; section 2 also discusses the thin field-based literature on the consequences of limited diversity in organizations and groups. The final section of the paper, Section 3, reviews the evidence for policies and interventions aimed at weakening discrimination, covering role model and intergroup contact effects, as well as socio-cognitive and technological de-biasing strategies. |
| JEL: | J0 J01 J1 J15 J16 J7 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22014&r=hme |
| By: | Audrey Berry (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - AgroParisTech - CIRAD - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Y Jouffe (LAB'URBA - LAB'URBA - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12); Nicolas Coulombel (LVMT - Laboratoire Ville, Mobilité, Transport - IFSTTAR - Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - PRES Université Paris-Est); Celine Guivarch (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - AgroParisTech - CIRAD - Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the issue of fuel poverty and of its measurement in the transport sector. We seek to identify households who run the risk of facing difficulties if fuel prices increase. We show that fuel poverty indicators from the domestic sector are not satisfactory in this regard. They fail to take into account three specificities of the transport sector: (1) the diversity of travel needs, (2) restriction behaviours, and (3) variable capacities to adapt. We propose a composite indicator that targets factors of vulnerabilities. In contrast to the previous indicators, it does not solely focus on budgetary aspects but also reflects conditions of mobility. Three levels of exposition to rising fuel prices are considered, depending on the combinations of factors. We test this indicator on French data and find that 7,8% of French households are identified fuel poor, a further 7,4% fuel vulnerable and a further 3,7% fuel dependent. |
| Keywords: | Fuel poverty,Vulnerability,Transport,Measurement |
| Date: | 2015–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:ciredw:hal-01277414&r=hme |
| By: | Deckers, Thomas; Falk, Armin; Kosse, Fabian; Szech, Nora |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how individual characteristics, institutions, and their interaction influence moral decisions. We validate a moral paradigm focusing on the willingness to accept harming third parties. Consequences of moral decisions are real. We explore how moral behavior varies with individual characteristics and how these characteristics interact with market institutions compared to situations of individual decision-making. Intelligence, female gender, and the existence of siblings positively influence moral decisions, in individual and in market environments. Yet in markets, most personalities tend to follow overall much lower moral standards. Only fluid intelligence specifically counteracts moraleroding effects of markets. |
| Keywords: | homo moralis,moral personality,real moral task,markets and personality,trade and morals |
| JEL: | D02 D03 J10 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbeoc:spii2016302&r=hme |
| By: | Meinen, Philipp |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes markup responses of Danish firms to Chinese imports. Besides negative markup responses due to competitive pressure, we present some evidence for marginal cost savings related to Chinese intermediate goods imports which tend to raise firm-level markups. |
| Keywords: | Chinese Imports,Markups |
| JEL: | D22 F14 L25 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bubdps:022016&r=hme |
| By: | Emanuele Ciani (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | I estimate the effect of retirement on housework by exploiting the discontinuity in pension eligibility generated by the Italian social security rules. Using microdata from the 2007 wave of the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), I show that women increase their time spent on home production by more than 400 minutes per week. For men, there is on average no evidence of a significant change, which differs from the results of studies in other countries. However, estimates are heterogeneous by marital status, suggesting that married men do not increase time spent on household production because they can rely on their spouses. I also discuss other possible explanations, in particular men dedicating their time to ‘semi-leisure chores’ that do not fall under the definition of housework used in SILC. Overall, results suggest that retirement does not lead to a more equal distribution of ‘core’ household chores between genders. |
| Keywords: | retirement, house work, regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | J22 J26 D1 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1056_16&r=hme |
| By: | Daniele, Vittorio |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the hypothesis of secular stagnation. Firstly, the debate on stagnation, from Alvin Hansen (1938) to Marxists and more recent interpretations is illustrated. Then, the demographic and macroeconomic trends of Italy, Japan and the United States are examined in relationship with the secular stagnation hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Stagnazione secolare; disuguaglianze; crescita economica; Italia; invecchiamento popolazione |
| JEL: | B10 B22 B24 B5 E22 O11 |
| Date: | 2015–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69997&r=hme |