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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2016‒03‒29
thirteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Galanis, Giorgos; Veneziani, Roberto; Yoshihara, Naoki |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a formal dynamic analysis of exploitation, class inequalities and profits. A stylised model of a capitalist economy with two classes - workers and capitalists - is considered which extends Roemer [26, 27]. First, a dynamic generalisation of a key Marxian insight is provided by proving that the profitability of capitalist production is synonimous with the existence of exploitation. Second, it is shown that, in a competitive environment, asset inequalities are fundamental for the emergence of exploitation, but they are not sufficient for its persistence, both in equilibria with accumulation and growth, and, perhaps more surprisingly, in stationary intertemporal equilibrium paths. Finally, it is shown that labour-saving technical progress may yield persistent exploitation by ensuring the persistent abundance of labour. |
| Keywords: | Dynamics, accumulation, exploitation, classes |
| JEL: | E11 D51 D63 C61 B24 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:636&r=hme |
| By: | Claudia Olivetti; Barbara Petrongolo |
| Abstract: | Women in developed economies have made major inroads in labor markets throughout the past century, but remaining gender differences in pay and employment seem remarkably persistent. This paper documents long-run trends in female employment, working hours and relative wages for a wide cross-section of developed economies. It reviews existing work on the factors driving gender convergence, and novel perspectives on remaining gender gaps. The paper finally emphasizes the interplay between gender trends and the evolution of the industry structure. Based on a shift-share decomposition, it shows that the growth in the service share can explain at least half of the overall variation in female hours, both over time and across countries. |
| JEL: | E24 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21887&r=hme |
| By: | Sudhanshu Handa; David Seidenfeld; Amber Peterman; Juan Bonilla; Rosa Castro Zarzur; Claire Nowlin; Hannah Ring |
| Abstract: | This paper reports findings from a mixed-methods evaluation of the Government of Zambia’s Child Grant Programme, a poverty-targeted, unconditional transfer given to mothers or primary caregivers of young children aged 0 to 5. Qualitatively, we found that changes in intrahousehold relationships were limited by entrenched gender norms, which indicate men as heads of household and primary decision-makers. However, women’s narratives showed the transfer did increase overall household well-being because they felt increased financial empowerment and were able to retain control over transfers for household investment and savings for emergencies. The study found that women in beneficiary households were making more sole and joint decisions, although impacts translated into relatively modest increases. |
| Keywords: | cash transfers; decision making; household income; women's empowerment; |
| JEL: | D1 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa796&r=hme |
| By: | Eduard Braun (Abteilung für Volkswirtschaftslehre, Technische Universität Clausthal (Department of Economics, Technical University Clausthal)) |
| Abstract: | The enterprise is an historical phenomenon specific to capitalism. It is a fictional agent created by accounting and sanctioned by law. It is based on capital and its purpose is to yield monetary profit. Within the framework of the market economy, production is organized according to the decisions and actions of the aggregate of these artificially created agents. This paper demonstrates that the “entrepreneur” as used in economic theory is nothing but a personification of the enterprise. In the most renowned economic theories of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurs are supposed to be in possession of the resources they employ. Yet the functions which these theories ascribe to the entrepreneurs implicitly presuppose that the latter not only possess resources, but that they actually own them. Without capital, which grants the power to obtain property rights in resources, entrepreneurs would not be able to bear the losses that come along with the entrepreneurial functions. The theories violate their own definitions by changing their object from a “pure” and property-less entrepreneur to a capital-owning agent. These theories can be reinterpreted, therefore, as applying not to the pure entrepreneur but to the capital-based enterprise. They then become theories of how and according to which principles enterprises organize the production process in capitalism. In contrast to the theoretical construct of the entrepreneur, enterprises are even present, though only implicitly, in neoclassical equilibrium analysis. They provide the setting of optimal decision making and therein constitute the tacit rationale of the notorious assumptions of complete foresight and perfect rationality. |
| Keywords: | Theory of the entrepreneur; Capitalist enterprises; Equilibrium |
| JEL: | D50 L26 P12 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuc:tucewp:0016&r=hme |
| By: | BAZHAL, IURII |
| Abstract: | This paper comprises translation into English the preface of Iurii Bazhal to the first Ukrainian edition of Joseph Schumpeter’s famous fundamental book “The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle” that was translated in Ukrainian and published in 2011 in commemoration of its 100th anniversary. The paper reveals the contemporary significance of this classical book as the challenger on replacing the neoclassical approaches in capacity to become the mainstream of modern economic theory. It is shown the Schumpeter’s approach gives a new vision of driving forces for economic development where a crucial conceptual place belongs to category the innovation. Second part of the paper reviews modern Neo-Schumpeterian approaches which have substantiated the importance of the structural innovation technological change of national economy for economic development. The government must permanently analyze a compliance of the actual production structure in the country with the current and future technological paradigms. |
| Keywords: | Schumpeter, Dynamics of economic development, Innovation theory, Technological paradigm, Innovation policy |
| JEL: | B31 O11 O30 O40 |
| Date: | 2016–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69883&r=hme |
| By: | Elsässer, Lea; Schäfer, Armin |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we take up the burgeoning debate about the underrepresentation of the working class in politics. In the literature section we discuss theories of group representation and look at recent empirical studies of responsiveness that have begun to disaggregate public opinion by sociodemographic categories. Empirically, we analyze a dataset of more than 700 survey items collected in Germany between 1980 and 2012. The analysis shows that respondents within one social class are more similar to each other than to members of other classes and that class-based differences outweigh those of education, region, or gender. While opinion differences are not always large, they can reach 50 percentage points. There are frequently gaps of between 20 or 30 percentage points in support for or opposition to policy changes. Since workers' opinions tend to differ from the opinions of those groups who are well represented in parliament, their numerical underrepresentation might bias decisions against them, as recent studies suggest. |
| Abstract: | In diesem Discussion Paper greifen wir die aktuelle Debatte über die politische Unterrepräsentation der Arbeiterklasse auf. Im Literaturteil stellen wir Kernargumente der Theorien deskriptiver Repräsentation dar und verknüpfen diese mit aktuellen Studien aus der empirischen Responsivitätsforschung. Im empirischen Abschnitt analysieren wir einen von uns erstellten Datensatz mit mehr als 700 Sachfragen, die jeweils nach der Zustimmung oder Ablehnung einer vorgeschlagenen Politikänderung fragen. Die Sachfragen stammen aus Umfragen, die zwischen 1980 und 2012 erhoben wurden. Wir zeigen, dass sich die Befragten innerhalb einer sozialen Klasse in ihren Einstellungen systematisch ähnlicher sind als Befragte aus unterschiedlichen sozialen Klassen. Zudem sind Einstellungsunterschiede zwischen sozialen Klassen größer als zwischen anderen sozialen Gruppen (Bildung, Region, Geschlecht); sie betragen häufig mehr als 20 oder 30 Prozentpunkte. Da Arbeiter sich von den Gruppen unterscheiden, die zahlenmäßig stark im Parlament vertreten sind, könnte dies vermehrt zu Politikentscheidungen ent gegen ihren Interessen führen. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:163&r=hme |
| By: | Andrea Roventini (Laboratory of Economics and Management (Pisa) (LEM)); Maria Enrica Virgillito; Manoela Carrera Pereira (Universidade Estadua del Campinas); Giovanni Dosi (Laboratory of Economics and Management) |
| Abstract: | Wages are an element of cost crucially affecting the competitiveness of individual rms. But the wage bill is also a crucial element of aggregate demand. Hence it could be that more “flexible"and fluid labour markets, while allowing for faster inter-firm reallocation of labour, may also render the whole economic system more fragile, more prone to recession, more volatile. In this work we investigate some conditions under which such a conjecture applies. The paper presents an agent-based model that investigates the effects of two “archetypes of capitalism", in terms of regimes of labour governance - defined by the mechanisms of wage determination, firing, labour protection and productivity gains sharing - upon (i) labour market regularities and (ii) macroeconomic dynamics (long-term rates of growth, GDP fluctuations, unemployment rates, inequality, etc..). The model is built upon the \Keynes meets Schumpeter" family of models (Dosi et al.,2010), explicitly incorporating different microfounded labour market regimes. Our results show that seemingly more rigid labour markets and labour relations are conducive to coordination successes with higher and smoother growth. |
| Keywords: | Involuntary unemployment; Aggregate demand; Wage determination; Labour market regimes; Keynesian coordination failures; Agent based models |
| JEL: | C63 E2 E12 E24 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/9d007rc2q9huruni0kde2vr73&r=hme |
| By: | Daniela Campus |
| Abstract: | Women's land titling is recognized as an important tool to promote women's empowerment in agriculture, as well as a means to ght poverty. However, most rural women still have low access to land, despite their crucial role in the agricultural sector. This paper uses the National Demographic and Health Survey (2011) to investigate the role female land rights have in promoting their empowerment - expressed in terms of decision-making power - in Nepal. Our results demonstrate that women 's nal say within the household increases with land ownership. |
| Keywords: | land property rights, Nepal, empowerment, gender |
| JEL: | D13 J16 Q15 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2016_03.rdf&r=hme |
| By: | Richard Hyman |
| Abstract: | The employer-employee relationship involves the right to command on the one hand, the duty to obey on the other. Is democracy at work possible? This article explores some of the contrasting understandings of industrial democracy over time and across countries, discusses how the historical advance of rights and citizenship at work has been reversed under neoliberalism, and ends by considering how labour movements might fight to regain the achievements of previous decades. |
| Keywords: | citizenship; democracy; neoliberalism; solidarity; struggle |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2015–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:65573&r=hme |
| By: | Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez (Department of Finance & Accounting, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Amparo Soler-Domínguez (Department of Finance & Accounting, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Emili Tortosa-Ausina (IVIE, Valencia and Department of Economics, Universidad Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Over the last few years academics and practitioners alike have been analyzing the relative performance of different types of mutual funds, with a particular emphasis on comparing the performance of conventional versus socially responsible investment (SRI). The methods and samples used, as well as the results obtained are diverse, but they generally point to the difficulties found by SRI to yield an equivalent performance as that of its conventional peers—given the investment constraints they face. In this study we focus on the comparative performance of a sample of SRI funds, which we decompose mainly into Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), environmental, and religious, and which invest in three different geographical areas. For these funds we measure not only performance but, more importantly, their persistence—i.e., whether the best (worst) funds are past winners (losers) as well. This twofold objective turns out to be essential to uncover some trends in the industry. Specifically, whereas ESG, in general, outperform their environmental peers, a deeper scrutiny focusing also on performance persistence reveals that this claim should be tempered, since investing in the best past environmental funds yields superior performance than investing in the best past ESG funds. This result, which holds for the two main geographical regions analyzed (Europe and US/Canada), would indicate that the comparison between these two types of funds is more intricate than what we might a priori expect, being particularly relevant to factor in the comparison an evaluation of performance persistence. |
| Keywords: | environmental, ESG, mutual fund, performance, persistence, SRI |
| JEL: | G2 N25 Z12 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2016/01&r=hme |
| By: | Jaelani, Aan |
| Abstract: | The crisis of economy in Indonesia forces the government to reform its economic development paradigm. The new paradigm development refers to great attention of economic-societies such as cooperation. Those involve in the planning of national economic development as well as the planning of society development. This article aims to define the combination between Islamic economic and economic of Pancasila to pressure the identity of Indonesian state in globalization era. |
| Keywords: | Pancasila economic, Islamic economic, globalization, free market |
| JEL: | A11 B0 G18 H1 I2 N2 O57 P4 P5 Z12 |
| Date: | 2016–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69937&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 moral-eroding 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:kitwps:85&r=hme |
| By: | Salvadori, Neri; Signorino, Rodolfo |
| Abstract: | We analyze international trade in a Pasinetti-Ricardo growth model in the world economy scenario in which several small trading countries coexist and international commodity prices are determined by the interplay of supply and demand amongst them. We demonstrate that all the trading countries eventually reach the stationary state, though this process is not monotonic and the dynamics of capital and population may actually push some countries toward the stationary state and others away from it. We also use our model to assess an argument which Malthus employed in the second edition (1803) of An Essay on the Principle of Population to support a policy of agricultural protectionism. |
| Keywords: | Ricardo; Pasinetti; international trade; endogenous growth; world economy; stationary state. |
| JEL: | B12 B51 F10 O41 |
| Date: | 2015–07–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69998&r=hme |