|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2016‒08‒14
eleven papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Ali Hosseiny; Mauro Gallegati |
| Abstract: | We review production function and the hypothesis of equilibrium in the neoclassical framework. We notify that in a soup of sectors in economy while capital and labor resemble extensive variables, wage and rate of return on capital act as intensive variables. As a result, Baumol and Bowen's statement of equal wages is inevitable from thermodynamics point of view. We then try to see how aggregation can be performed concerning the extensive variables in a soup of firms. Finally, we provide a toy model to aggregate production and the labor income as extensive quantities in a neoclassical framework. |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1608.02523&r=hme |
| By: | Diana Eugenia Flores Peregrina (Division of Economics, CIDE) |
| Abstract: | Sólo después de Chile, México es el segundo país con mayor desigualdad social dentro de los integrantes de la OCDE (OCDE, 2015). El tema de la desigualdad en México ha sido estudiado por varios investigadores, en orden de poder entender el mecanismo a través del cual la pobreza y la desigualdad prevalecen en el país. El objetivo de este trabajo es encontrar el efecto a través del cual la desigualdad en tierras establecida por las haciendas coloniales intervino en el desarrollo económico. De manera intuitiva esperaríamos que el impacto que las haciendas tuvieron en el nivel de desarrollo fuera negativo, dejando a su paso mayor desigualdad de ingreso y menor acceso a bienes públicos. Sin embargo, resultados encontrados en Colombia presentan un escenario opuesto (Acemoglu et al., 2008). Los resultados encontrados corroboran la hipótesis anterior para el caso mexicano; se encuentra un efecto positivo y persistente en el desarrollo económico en aquellos municipios dónde se localizaron las haciendas en la época colonial. A pesar de que no podemos asegurar el mecanismo a través de la cual las haciendas tuvieron un impacto persistente, sugerimos que es probable que sea un efecto de spillovers como consecuencia de las derramas económicas que se dieron en los sectores de agricultura, ganadería y minería en estas regiones. |
| Keywords: | desigualdad, México, haciendas, diferencias económicas |
| JEL: | N01 N16 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emc:thgrad:tesg009&r=hme |
| By: | Ragona, Maddalena; Vitali, Giuliano; Bazzani, Gian Maria |
| Abstract: | This work defines a procedure to assess the socio-economic and environmental sustainability of agricultural systems with a particular attention to conventional and organic farming. Firstly, a mathematical programming model calculates the different multi-dimensional outcomes of Italian farms depending on various levels of prices affecting organic products. Those outcomes are the input data for a fuzzy multi-criteria analysis, which processes the various criteria, takes into account different sets of weights for criteria, and, by a ranking of price scenarios, identifies the most desirable and the least desirable level of prices for five groups of regions. The method adopted proves to be sensitive to geographical location and different perspectives. In particular, when the farmers’ set of weights is adopted, the highest level of prices represents the most desirable scenario in all groups of regions. On the other side, in all other sets of weights, the lowest level of prices seems to be the most preferable scenario for North-Western regions. |
| Keywords: | fuzzy multi-criteria analysis, sustainability assessment, organic farming, conventional farming, analytic hierarchy process, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, C63, C65, D81, Q12, Q51, |
| Date: | 2016–06–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aiea16:242441&r=hme |
| By: | Cosmin L. Ilut; Rosen Valchev; Nicolas Vincent |
| Abstract: | Price rigidity is central to many predictions of modern macroeconomic models, yet, standard models are at odds with certain robust empirical facts from micro price datasets. We propose a new, parsimonious theory of price rigidity, built around the idea of demand uncertainty, that is consistent with a number of salient micro facts. In the model, the monopolistic firm faces Knightian uncertainty about its competitive environment, which has two key implications. First, the firm is uncertain about the shape of its demand function, and learns about it from past observations of quantities sold. This leads to kinks in the expected profit function at previously observed prices, which act as endogenous costs of changing prices and generate price stickiness and a discrete price distribution. Second, the firm is uncertain about how aggregate prices relate to the prices of its direct competitors, and the resulting robust pricing decision makes our rigidity nominal in nature. |
| JEL: | C1 D8 E3 L11 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22490&r=hme |
| By: | Calero, Analía; Dellavalle, Rocío; Zanino, Carolina |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to deepen the analysis of time-use data for better public policy. From the Survey on unpaid work and time use (INDEC, 2013) of Argentina it is seen that women spend on average a higher number of hours in unpaid work than their male counterparts, even when they are actively participating in the labor market. The largest gap is verified in time spent caring for people. This problem is not unrelated to what happens in other countries in Latin America and poses the challenge of designing specific care policies to reconcile work and family life, in a labor market based on a family model that has changed. |
| Keywords: | Uso del Tiempo; Economía del Cuidado; Perspectiva de Género |
| JEL: | J7 J71 J78 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:72820&r=hme |
| By: | Corsi, Alessandro; Novelli, Silvia |
| Abstract: | Solidarity purchasing groups (SPGs) are common Alternative Food Networks in many towns in Italy. They are set up by groups of citizens who cooperate in order to buy food and other commonly used goods collectively and directly from producers, at a price that is fair to both parties. Within the group, the choice of the products and the farmers usually follow some guidelines related to the respect for the environment and the solidarity between the members of the group and the producers. Though still a small niche, SPGs are quite numerous and represent an interesting alternative to traditional setting of the food chain. The main motivation of members for participating in SPGs is arguably not a monetary one, i.e., it is not lower prices. Ethical motivations and environmental concerns are typically proposed among the goals of the groups. Nevertheless, the budget constraint is always operating, and it is of interest to measure how much the ethical and environmental motivations are able to overcome the budget constraint. This is tantamount to measure the value members attach to their participation to the SPG. Hence, the aim of this study was to estimate the value the group members attach to their participation. A stated preferences methodology was employed on a first sample of members of SPGs in Torino (Italy) and other neighbouring towns to estimate the value consumers buying in such groups attach to this particular channel, in comparison to the conventional supermarkets. Preliminary results show that SPG members do state a preference for buying with their organization rather than at a supermarket’s even when the prospected prices are substantially higher for the purchase through the SPG. |
| Keywords: | ethical purchasing groups, consumers’ choices, stated preferences, alternative food networks, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, D1, D4, Q13, |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aiea16:242305&r=hme |
| By: | Corneo, Giacomo |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the standard model of labor supply under two additional assumptions: consumption requires time and some limited amount of work is enjoyable. Whereas introducing each assumption without the other one does not produce novel insights, combining them together does if the wage rate is sufficiently high. For top earners, work has a positive marginal utility at the optimum and above a critical wage level it converts into a pure consumption good. Their labor-supply curve is first backward bending and then vertical. This can justify an optimal marginal tax rate on top incomes equal to 100 percent. Top earners in the vertical half-line of the labor-supply curve optimally refrain from spending their entire income. At the macroeconomic level, this can generate a lack of effective demand. With some qualifications, these findings carry over to models that incorporate savings and philanthropy. |
| Keywords: | Effective demand; Labor Supply; Optimal taxation of top labor incomes; Super-rich; Time allocation |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11424&r=hme |
| By: | Leticia Bartholo (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | "This Policy Research Brief summarises the main results of nationwide quantitative research on the Bolsa Família programme (PBF) and gender relations. It finds that the PBF has increased targeted women's access to prenatal care, as well as their decision-making autonomy over domestic issues. Moreover, an econometric analysis did not find significant changes in PBF beneficiaries' degree of participation in the labour market, but there are indications that a reduction in the number of hours dedicated to productive work by targeted women is offset by an increase in the number of hours devoted to domestic chores?which does not occur among male beneficiaries. The document concludes that the PBF cannot evade the criticism that it uses women instrumentally, but to interpret it as a merely maternalistic programme unconcerned with the choices of adult women seems reductionist. First, because the PBF can help women realise their reproductive rights and reduce their need to submit to very precarious labour relations. Second, because the programme's data on beneficiaries contributes to the implementation of other public policies that can and should consider mechanisms to broaden the choices available to targeted women". (?) |
| Keywords: | Bolsa Família, gender relations, national, survey, results |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:pbrief:55&r=hme |
| By: | Vona, Francesco; Marin, Giovanni; Consoli, Davide |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the nature and the key empirical regularities of green employment in US local labor markets between 2006 and 2014. We construct a new measure of green employment based on the task content of occupations. Descriptive analysis reveals the following: 1. the share of green employment oscillates between 2 and 3 percent, and its trend is strongly pro-cyclical; 2. green jobs yield a 4 percent wage premium; 3. despite moderate catching-up across areas, green jobs remain more geographically concentrated than similar non-green jobs; and 4. the top green areas are mostly high-tech. As regards the drivers, changes in environmental regulation are a secondary force compared to the local endowment of green knowledge and resilience in the face of the great recession. To assess the impact of moving to greener activities, we estimate that one additional green job is associated with 4.2 (2.4 in the crisis period) new jobs in non-tradable activities in the local economies. |
| Keywords: | Green Employment, Local Labor Markets, Environmental Regulation, Environmental Technologies, Local Multipliers, Labor and Human Capital, J23, O33, Q52, R23, |
| Date: | 2016–07–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemmi:243149&r=hme |
| By: | Amelia Karraker; Cassandra Dorius |
| Abstract: | Marital status is an established predictor of financial well-being in later life, with continuously married people enjoying considerable economic benefits that accumulate over the life course, contrasting sharply with the economic vulnerabilities faced by divorced, widowed, or never-married individuals. Although prior work suggests that marital histories—including the number and sequencing of past and present unions and dissolutions—have become more complex for more recent cohorts, the economic ramifications of this demographic shift are unclear. Further, how shifts away from continuous marriage will impact women’s financial security in later life is unknown. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examine cohort and gender variation in the relationship between elaborated marital history measures and financial security at ages 51-56, when wealth and earnings are at or near lifetime peaks. We examine three financial measures (negative, zero, and positive wealth; positive wealth levels; earnings) that capture distinct components of financial security as individuals approach retirement. |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2016-4&r=hme |
| By: | Juan Casado-Asensio; Anna Drutschinin; Jan Corfee-Morlot; Gisela Campillo |
| Abstract: | This Working Paper explores progress in the integration or mainstreaming of adaptation and related objectives into national development planning. It first provides an overview of the international mechanisms, including finance, to support the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into development planning and policies in developing countries. Through a review of relevant planning documents in fifteen developing countries, it then examines key features in adaptation planning and mainstreaming of adaptation into development planning. These countries were because they have been amongst the highest recipients of adaptation-related bilateral development finance. The research provides a snapshot of current practice. Despite heightened international efforts to support developing countries, evidence of mainstreaming adaptation was only found in a few of the countries and in a few of the sectors studied here. It also found that where mainstreaming is occurring, linkages exist with other policy objectives including poverty reduction, promoting biodiversity and ecosystems, and urban and rural development. The findings may be a useful starting point to guide policy-relevant research, such as to what extent mainstreaming may be occurring on the ground (or not) and how well this progress is reflected in planning documents, as well as how to improve the effectiveness of development co-operation targeting adaptation. The paper may also help inform international efforts under the UNFCCC that are designed to support developing countries to mainstream adaptation priorities into development planning and policy. |
| Keywords: | climate change, mainstreaming, development, adaptation |
| JEL: | N5 O13 O19 P48 Q56 |
| Date: | 2016–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:dcdaaa:29-en&r=hme |