|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2016‒08‒07
nineteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | David Cayla (Granem - Groupe de Recherche ANgevin en Economie et Management - UA - Université d'Angers - Agrocampus Ouest - Institut National de l'Horticulture et du Paysage) |
| Abstract: | Paru en 2011 aux États-Unis, le livre de David Graeber a suscité de nombreux commentaires tant par son contenu que par la personnalité militante de son auteur. Mais ce livre est loin de n’être qu’un plaidoyer pour l’annulation des dettes. Sous son apparence accessible de « best seller » il s’agit en fait d’un livre très difficile dont le sujet est beaucoup plus ambitieux que son titre ne le laisse paraître. De fait, le livre s’apparente à une ambitieuse entreprise de démystification d’un certain nombre de « vérités » économiques sur la nature et l’origine de la monnaie, sur les liens entre marchés et États, sur le statut de l’économie comme science, et bien sûr, sur la nature et la signification anthropologique de la dette. Le piège du livre de Graeber est donc que la forme simple et faussement accessible du style tend à masquer aussi bien la complexité des concepts et des raisonnements dans les parties théoriques que les faiblesses de l’argumentation qui accompagnent les parties plus descriptives. |
| Keywords: | anthropologie,David Graeber,dette,Histoire,Michel Aglietta,monnaie,théorie de la régulation |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01312938&r=hme |
| By: | Su, Tong-Yaa |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the characteristics of competition among firms from an evolutionary perspective. It develops a coherent approach to economic competition that incorporates two kinds of evolutionary concepts currently used and emerging at the intersection of social sciences, including economics, and biology: Darwinian thinking as well as the naturalistic approach. Inspired by evolutionary theory, the intersection commonly captures concepts that make metaphorical use of Darwinian ideas – these concepts draw on an analogy construction to the biological sphere. As a result in this paper, different characteristics of economic competition may be analogically described by different forms of biological selection, e.g., genetic group selection. However, selection processes do not only act on genes, but also on culture. By considering the naturalistic approach, differences to the biological sphere are revealed. The crux of this paper is the deduction that competition between firms is a form of cultural group selection in economic evolution. |
| Keywords: | Competition; Evolutionary Theory; Selection Processes; Continuity Hypothesis |
| JEL: | B52 D49 |
| Date: | 2016–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72756&r=hme |
| By: | Arun, Shoba (Manchester Metropolitan University); Annim, Samuel (University of Cape Coast, Ghana); Arun, Thankom Gopinath (University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on women's financial behaviour in their use of higher order financial services in Ghana and South Africa, inviting a gendered and social analysis of deconstructing financial behaviour. Women in South Africa are more likely to use general financial products than in Ghana, though in general more men use advanced investment products. Race has an important effect in South Africa. Much of these gender differentials is related to differences in gendered behaviour, yet generalizations on how gender relates to risk aversion is not supported. Rather non-financial approaches may explain how social relations propel women's decision to prioritise the use of financial services as a result of ascribed gender and social roles. These findings contribute to the debates on the feminisation of finance, as women are increasingly interpellated as financial subjects, manifesting the gendered organisation of global financial structures that operate on gendered norms and behaviour. |
| Keywords: | gender, access to finance, risk, Ghana and South Africa |
| JEL: | O16 O55 A14 B54 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10099&r=hme |
| By: | Giovanni Marin (IRCrES-CNR, Milano, Italy); Roberto Zoboli (DISEIS, Catholic University of Milano, Italy) |
| Abstract: | The structural change of the economy towards an increasing share of services is seen in environmental economics as a fundamental driver of ‘decoupling’ between economic growth and environmental pressures. The environmental and socio-economic consequence of structural change, however, can be less straightforward when economic interdependencies are considered. In this paper we evaluate the implications of structural change towards services in the EU in terms of environmental pressures (aggregate and by sector, direct and indirect). The changing patterns in environmental pressures are analyses vis à vis the corresponding changes in the distribution of employment and value added. For carrying out this integrated assessment we use Environmentally Extended Multi Regional Input Output modelling applied to data from the World Input Output Database (WIOD). The results suggest that the service sectors is characterized by a lower emission intensity than the industrial sectors, when looking at direct emissions (‘production perspective’) but this gap is much smaller when considering also indirect emissions in a ‘vertically integrated’ approach (‘consumption perspective’). Moreover, changes in the production structure of the EU economy in absence of relevant changes in the composition of the final demand induce an increased reliance on environmental pressures, employment and value added generated abroad. The integrated assessment of these ‘global footprints’ suggests that the EU is transferring worldwide more emissions that value added and employment. This form of ‘unequal exchange’ can be relevant for development and environmental policies, in particular those on global climate change. |
| Keywords: | EE-MRIO; structural change; carbon leakage; production and consumption perspective; international trade |
| JEL: | C67 F18 Q52 Q55 Q56 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:0816&r=hme |
| By: | Berliant, Marcus; Watanabe, Hiroki |
| Abstract: | Zipf’s law is one of the best-known empirical regularities in urban economics. There is extensive research on the subject, where each city is treated symmetrically in terms of the cost of transactions with other cities. Recent developments in network theory facilitate the examination of an asymmetric transport network. In a scale-free network, the chance of observing extremes in network connections becomes higher than the Gaussian distribution predicts and therefore it explains the emergence of large clusters. The city-size distribution shares the same pattern. This paper decodes how accessibility of a city to other cities on the transportation network can boost its local economy and explains the city-size distribution as a result of its underlying transportation network structure. Finally, we discuss the endogenous evolution of transport networks. |
| Keywords: | Zipf’s law; city-size distribution; scale-free network |
| JEL: | L14 R12 R40 |
| Date: | 2016–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72790&r=hme |
| By: | Gurgul, Henryk; Lach, Łukasz |
| Abstract: | This paper is one of the first studies dedicated to the extensive examination of the dynamics of key sectors in Poland in the period of transition. The research was based on the maximum entropy decomposition of the Leontief inverse applied to the highly-disaggregated input-output tables covering the period of 2000–2005. The results allow formulating the list of sectors, which, more or less, have preserved the status of the key sectors in Poland. In turn, some sectors (especially the financial-intermediation- and food-and-agriculture-related ones) have significantly derailed, while services-related sectors (including the transport, tourism, and trade services) have clearly gained in importance. These facts, together with rising importance of certain manufacturing sectors, may suggest that Poland has largely managed to avoid the most negative consequences of the process of de-industrialization, which has been taking place in CEE from the beginning of transition. |
| Keywords: | Poland, input-output matrices, transition, key sector identification |
| JEL: | C53 D57 O30 Q40 |
| Date: | 2015–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72739&r=hme |
| By: | Antara Ghosh; Apurbaa Ghose Saha |
| Abstract: | Amongst all adjustments, marital adjustment is an important one, as marriage, in reality, is a way of living. The success of marriage depends upon the adjustment on the part of both the partners involved. But marital adjustment on a wife’s part is mainly triggered by the issue that whether she is a housewife or a working woman. With the rise in the number of dual career families, the adjustment and marital relationship are major challenges for the married working women in those families. However, housewives also face challenges of adjustment in their marital relationship. The objectives of this study are (a) to study the perceived adjustment pattern of housewives and married working women in the areas of home, health, social, emotional and occupational, (b) to study the perceived adjustment pattern of housewives with less than 5years of married life and housewives with more than 5 years of married life, and (c) to study the perceived adjustment pattern of married working women with less than 5 years of married life and married working women with more than 5 years of married life. Bell’s Adjustment Inventory, a 160 items inventory assessing the individual’s adjustment pattern in 5 situations such as - home, health, social, emotion and occupation, has been administered to 60 married women. Results reveals that perceived adjustment pattern significantly differs between housewives and married working women and the review elaborated the previous knowledge contribution and this study has attempted to provide an insight on future research directions. Key words: Study, Housewives, Women |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2016-06-06&r=hme |
| By: | Asian Development Bank (ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, ADB); Asian Development Bank (ADB) |
| Abstract: | Inclusive businesses are commercially viable business models that provide in-scale innovative and systemic solutions to problems relevant to the lives of low-income people. Inclusive business companies often involve women in their value chain and provide specific services that help low-income women. This report assesses the extent to which inclusive business models promote women's economic empowerment. Examples come from the inclusive business portfolios of Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and International Finance Corporation. The report finds that inclusive businesses are indeed bringing positive change to women’s lives and that addressing gender-based constraints also yields business benefits. However, a company’s financial return and its social impact can be maximized only if companies understand and address systemic issues of gender inequality. |
| Keywords: | inclusive business, women, low-income |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:asd:wpaper:rpt167963-2&r=hme |
| By: | Gilberto Muraro (Università di Padova) |
| Abstract: | In a framework where laws are assumed to reflect the ethical values of the market social economy, the paper analyzes the role of ethics both in the wealth production and in the wealth distribution. As for the first item, ethics becomes relevant in the discretionary space left by laws that are often unclear or not fully protected by controls and penalties. Ethics is a relevant factor of economic growth but its diffusion is often blocked by short term invidividual interests, while the means to diffuse ethics in the society are of uncertain impact. A wide diffusion of the corporate social responsibility may be very helpful. As for the wealth distribution, ethics implies a meritocratic system of individual rewards but also an additional redistribution, whose analytical basis is offered by the “newcontractualism” proposed by John Rawls. Ethics appears then the result of a collective choice made under uncertainty and embedded in the religious rules or in the constitutions, which become the constraint of the ordinary laws that are much more influenced by the present conflicting interests. |
| Keywords: | ethics, corporate social responsibility, neocontractualism, redistribution, welfare state, inequality |
| JEL: | D63 D64 D71 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:47&r=hme |
| By: | Shashi Pandey |
| Abstract: | One of the most significant social changes over the past 10 years in Allahabad is the membership of women in SHGs (Self-Help Group) through the intervention of Block and bank initiatives. The group based lending with new norms has generated new role of women at family and community level. This economic tie has positively influenced their social relations and actions. In present time 99 percent of the household women have engaged from the SHGs in the village and as a ‘peer group’ they spread all over the village. So, present paper examines that in how political sphere is affected due to existence of SHGs in village. This study is based on the interviews of 45 women members of SHGs in which 15 members from OBC SHG, 15 from SC and remaining 15 from mixed caste SHGs from Hathiganha village in Allahabad district, Uttar Pradesh. Study reveals that women become important for the pachayat election due to the membership of SHG while before joining the SHG male members of the family were more involved in political issues and women have passively obeyed the male members of the family on such issues. Key words: SHGs, Women, political participation |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2016-06-10&r=hme |
| By: | Olivier Baly (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Frédéric Kletz (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jean-Claude Sardas (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Situated cognition and neo-institutional theory have revived two fruitful allegories of collective sensemaking within organizations: Plato's Simile of the Cave and Max Weber's Iron Cage. Scholarly efforts to combine these two approaches have converged towards a shared vision of collective sensemaking as an interaction between institutionalized cognitive schemas and contextual grounding. Nevertheless, the mechanisms framing and shaping the outcome of this contextual cognitive interaction, i.e. the collective meanings actually produced and institutionalized, have remained largely unexplored. We aim to address this common gap by examining how the interplay of institutional and contextual factors determined the collective sensemaking of an emergent occupational group, namely, management controllers in French hospitals. Comparing the results from a two-year focus group study held in a community of practice and survey data from 163 respondents, we draw consistent findings indicating that a similar position within supervision micro-structures, which we label isothetism, contributed to shaping the group's transactive memory and to framing the institutionalization of its cognitive schemas. We conclude by discussing the implications of isothetism for future research on the meaningfulness of organizations. |
| Keywords: | Collective sensemaking,situated cognition,neo-institutional theory |
| Date: | 2016–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01305315&r=hme |
| By: | Ana-Alexandrina POPESCU (Faculty of Economics, Ecological University of Bucharest) |
| Abstract: | In the present article I propose to address some of the problems of financing social protection systems and we chose to analyze the partial financing of budgetary funds of a non-profit organization, funds which they can use in order to continue and develop further projects within social economy. The main purpose of the social economy, compared with the market economy order is not making profit, but is to improve living conditions and delivering new for disadvantaged or vulnerable part of. Case study exposed, reveals how an NGO can to keep the values which characterize - transparency, responsibility, accountability, integrity, solidarity, courage, justice, democracy - through economic power and it can get during its evolution. I will present a few milestones of financing social protection systems in case the Romanian Association for Transparency has managed to highlight the social economy structures in Romania. This study is intended to be a research paper in order to analyze means of obtaining allocations of funds for development organizations, organizations that play an important role in supporting government policies. We presented the sources of funding that an association may use in order to accomplish the objectives and to capitalize know-how, while continuing to engage in social life, making her known values and Principe. The use of budgetary funds and the non-refundable but is an alternative to obtaining a possibility of self-financing organization and implementation of social policies and processes in different systems of social protection financing. |
| Keywords: | financing systems social protection, financing the social economy, the use of budgetary funds in self-financing organization |
| JEL: | G28 H51 P51 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eub:wpaper:2016-04&r=hme |
| By: | Roy, Sutanuka (London School of Economics); Singh, Prakarsh (Amherst College) |
| Abstract: | Using a large-scale novel panel dataset (2005–14) on schools from the Indian state of Assam, we test for the impact of violent conflict on female students' enrollment rates. We find that a doubling of average killings in a district-year leads to a 13 per cent drop in girls' enrollment rate with school fixed effects. Additionally, results remain similar when using an alternative definition of conflict from a different dataset. Gender differential responses are more negative for lower grades, rural schools, poorer districts, and for schools run by local and private unaided bodies. |
| Keywords: | conflict, education, gender discrimination, human capital, India |
| JEL: | I2 J1 O1 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10092&r=hme |
| By: | Békés, Gábor; Hornok, Cecília; Muraközy, Balázs |
| Abstract: | We use a unique cross-section survey of manufacturing firms from four European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain) linked with balance sheet data to study the relationship between key aspects of globalization and firm-level markups. The main results are: (i) Exporting is positively correlated with markups; (ii) Importing intermediate inputs and outsourcing are also positively correlated with markups; (iii) Firms with affiliates have higher markups than other firms, while simply membership in a group or being foreign-owned seems to be less important; (iv) Perceived competition from low-cost markets is negatively correlated with markups; (v) Higher quality production and innovation, especially if it results in IP, has a strong positive relationship with markups; (vi) While these variables are correlated, they are significant in a joint model including all four groups, and 'fully globalized' firms tend to charge around 100% higher markups than non-globalized firms. |
| Keywords: | markups,exporting,importing,FDI,innovation |
| JEL: | D22 D24 F14 L11 L60 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2044&r=hme |
| By: | Richard N. Langlois (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | A dominant view in the Coasean law-and-economics tradition is that the firm (including in its form as the corporation) is nothing but a nexus of contracts: the firm is entirely a matter of contract law, and the corporate entity, the legal fiction of corporate personhood, is nothing but a name for a bundle of contracts. This view has implication both for the theory of the firm and for the political economy of the corporation – for the question of the “rights” of corporate entities. By asserting that the corporation is nothing but a set of contractual arrangements, the nexus-of-contracts view implies that any rights possessed by contracting individuals “pass through” to the corporation itself. Unsurprisingly, the powerful phalanx of writers who wish to limit the rights of the corporation take square and largely exclusive aim at the nexus-of-contracts view, assuming that arguments against that view are necessarily arguments against all kinds of “bottom up” accounts of the corporate form. I will argue that critics of the nexus-of-contracts view are indeed right in one sense (though by no means in every sense). Yet, despite this, the fact that the corporation cannot be constructed solely out of voluntary contract narrowly understood does not destroy the argument that the corporation is ultimately “nothing but” a form of cooperation among rights-holding individuals. The corporation understood from the perspective of property rights is both an object of ownership and a form of ownership. Much of the confusion in the literature arises from a procrustean attempt to appraise the corporation in light of simplified and partial accounts of the rights involved. |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2016-06&r=hme |
| By: | Susmita Bhaduri; Dipak Ghosh; Subhadeep Ghosh |
| Abstract: | We give emphasis on the use of chaos-based rigorous nonlinear technique called Visibility Graph Analysis, to study one economic time series - gold price of USA. This method can offer reliable results with fiinite data. This paper reports the result of such an analysis on the times series depicting the fluctuation of gold price of USA for the span of 25 years(1990 - 2013). This analysis reveals that a quantitative parameter from the theory can explain satisfactorily the real life nature of fluctuation of gold price of USA and hence building a strong database in terms of a quantitative parameter which can eventually be used for forecasting purpose. |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1608.01103&r=hme |
| By: | Fei Fang; Yiwei Sun; Konstantinos Spiliopoulos |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to study organized flocking behavior and systemic risk in heterogeneous mean-field interacting diffusions. We illustrate in a number of case studies the effect of heterogeneity in the behavior of systemic risk in the system. We also investigate the effect of heterogeneity on the "flocking behavior" of different agents, i.e., when agents with different dynamics end up behaving the same way in path space and follow closely the mean behavior of the system. Using Laplace asymptotics, we derive an asymptotic formula for the tail of the loss distribution as the number of agents grows to infinity. This characterizes the tail of the loss distribution and the effect of the heterogeneity of the network on the tail loss probability. |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1607.08287&r=hme |
| By: | Simon Bittmann (CSO - Centre de sociologie des organisations - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Cet article étudie l’impact des revenus du travail sur le temps de travail domestique des femmes françaises au sein de 1 674 couples bi‑actifs occupés à temps plein, à partir de l’enquête Emploi du temps 2009‑2010. Nous testons deux théories visant à interpréter le rapport entre les ressources économiques des conjoints et le temps alloué aux tâches domestiques. L’approche « absolue » explique la diminution du temps que les femmes y consacrent par l’augmentation de leur salaire, indépendamment de celui du conjoint, alors que l’approche « relative » met en avant le rôle des salaires relatifs comme mesure du pouvoir de négociation des femmes au sein du couple. Nous montrons que l’effet non linéaire observé pour le salaire relatif, interprété en termes de « performance de genre » dans la littérature, est dû à une mauvaise caractérisation de la relation entre salaire et temps de travail domestique. Celle‑ci est très fortement non linéaire pour les femmes, indépendamment de leur pouvoir de négociation : à mesure que le salaire augmente, l’élasticité de leur temps de travail domestique au salaire se tasse. Il semble ainsi y avoir un niveau minimal de tâches incompressible pour les femmes, et cette diminution s’opère avant tout par une coupe dans les tâches ménagères et la cuisine ; le temps consacré aux enfants est insensible aux variations de revenus. La « relève » des hommes n’est que très partielle, et ne présente pas de forme non linéaire. De même, le recours à des services extérieurs explique très peu cette diminution ; il semble que les femmes adaptent avant tout leurs « attentes » par des modifications du volume global de production domestique. Ceci entraîne des changements du volume relatif de tâches effectué : une augmentation du poids relatif de la cuisine par rapport au ménage, et de « s’occuper » des enfants par rapport aux autres tâches. |
| Keywords: | Travail domestique,Salaire des femmes,Genre |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01309219&r=hme |
| By: | Gurven, Michael; Hopfensitz, Astrid; Kaplan, Hillard; Stieglitz, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | Two disparate views of the sexual division of labour have dominated the 53 representation of intra-household resource allocations. These joint and separate interests 54 views differ in their interpretation of the relative roles of men and women, and make different 55 predictions about the extent to which marriage promotes economic efficiency (i.e. maximized 56 household production). Using an experimental “distribution task” stipulating a trade-off 57 between household efficiency and spousal equality in allocating surpluses of meat and 58 money, we examine factors influencing spousal distribution preferences among Tsimane 59 forager-horticulturalists of Bolivia (n=53 couples). Our primary goal is to understand whether 60 and how access to perfectly fungible and liquid resources – which increases with greater 61 participation in market economies – shifts intra-household distribution preferences. We 62 hypothesize that greater fungibility of money compared to meat results in greater squandering 63 of money for individual fitness gain at a cost to the family. Money therefore requires costly 64 strategies to insure against a partner’s claims for consumption. Whereas nearly all Tsimane 65 spouses prefer efficient meat distributions, we find a substantially reduced efficiency 66 preference for money compared to meat controlling for potential confounders (adjusted 67 OR=0.087, 95% CI: 0.02-0.38). Reported marital conflict over paternal disinvestment is 68 associated with a nearly 13-fold increase in odds of revealing a selfish money distribution 69 preference. Selfish husbands are significantly more likely than other husbands to be paired 70 with selfish wives. Lastly, Tsimane husbands and wives are more likely than Western 71 Europeans to prefer an efficient money distribution, but Tsimane wives are more likely than 72 Western European wives to exhibit a selfish preference. In sum, preferences for the 73 distribution of household production surplus support joint and separate interests views of 74 marriage; a hybrid approach best explains how ecological-, family-, and individual-level 75 factors influence spousal preferences through their effects on perceptions of marginal gains 76 within and outside the household. |
| Keywords: | Intra-household distribution, sexual division of labour, family, marriage, bargaining, Tsimane |
| JEL: | C90 D13 F |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:iastwp:30549&r=hme |