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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2017‒02‒12
fifteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Yoann Verger (INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) |
| Abstract: | Abstract This comment from Fratini's article “Rent as a share of product and Sraffa's price equations” corrects Fratini's demonstration that rent as a share of the product and rate of profits could both increase at the same time. By doing so, this comment underlines the specificity of Sraffa's theory of value, and especially the need to only analyze systems of production where exchanges are needed to reproduce the system. |
| Keywords: | Sraffa, rent, rate of profits, self-reproducing process, theory of value |
| Date: | 2016–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01415471&r=hme |
| By: | Daniele Girardi (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys the neoclassical theory of aggregate investment and its criticisms. We distinguish four main formulations of this theory: the traditional Wicksellian investment function; the Fisherian array-of-opportunities approach (as Witte Jr. called it); the Jorgensonian model; the now prevailing adjustment-costs models. With respect to other papers criticizing the neoclassical theory of investment, we do not appeal to market imperfections. We instead argue that all four formulations present serious theoretical difficulties, even conceding free competition. |
| Keywords: | investment, neoclassical theory, Wicksell, Jorgenson, Fisher, adjustment-costs |
| JEL: | B22 E22 B13 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ums:papers:2017-03&r=hme |
| By: | Liudmyla Vozna |
| Abstract: | This article deals with the notion of entropy in its applicability to economics. Briefly, it regards some classical cases of such a use as the labour concept of Podolinsky and the bioeconomics of Georgescu-Roegen. This article also attempts to apply the concept of entropy to the analysis of market structures in the example of the perfect competition model. Thus, the article asserts that if we compare different entropy concepts with the main characteristics of a market with perfect competition, we must conclude that the latter is a structure with the maximum level of entropy. But maximum entropy means the system’s death. So, as a system or a structure, a perfectly competitive market cannot exist. When analysing such a model, economists recognise its impossibility in real life from an empirical point of view. However, the application of the entropy concept helps us to repeat this approval also as a methodological one. The use of the entropy concept as a methodological instrument helps to question some other economic models, too. |
| Keywords: | Entropy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Market Structure, Perfect Competition, Uncertainty, Information, Disorder |
| JEL: | B4 D4 D8 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hpo:wpaper:1_2016&r=hme |
| By: | Miren Alonso Álvarez (Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales (ICEI). Universidad Complutense de Madrid.) |
| Abstract: | International organizations, banks and public entities are altogether trying to teach financial education in the schools. The response to the crisis is to educate the children to be the perfect financial subjects that will create the perfect financial system. This working paper will study, then, how financial education is conceived, taught and received within the Spanish society, where the interpretations of the crisis and the role of the financial system is far from closed. The paper will look at this issue within the frame of neoliberal governmentality and it will try to understand it with discursive lenses. Departing from this analysis, it will go to the spaces of greyness and to the complexity and heterogeneous reality of social practices, such as specific financial education programmes, from where resistance is indeed possible to emerge and multiply. |
| Abstract: | Organizaciones Internacionales, bancos y entidades públicas están introduciendo la educación financiera en las escuelas y convirtiéndose en maestros de esta nueva disciplina. La respuesta a la crisis se basa en educar a los niños para ser los perfectos sujetos financieros que crearán el perfecto sistema financiero. Este documento de trabajo estudiará cómo es concebida, enseñada y recibida la educación financiera en el contexto de la sociedad española, dónde las interpretaciones acerca del rol del sistema financiero en la crisis distan mucho de estar cerradas. Se observará este fenómeno en el marco de la gubernamentalidad neoliberal, tratando de entenderla con lentes discursivas. Partiendo de ese análisis, este documento se dirigirá a las zonas grises y a la complejidad y heterogeneidad de las prácticas sociales, como los programas específicos de educación financiera, desde los que la resistencia emerge y tiene la potencialidad de crecer y multiplicarse. |
| Keywords: | Financial education, Poststructuralism, Neoliberal governmentality, Spanish crisis, Resistance.; Educación financiera, Posestructuralismo, “Governmentality” neoliberal, Crisis española, Resistencia. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucm:wpaper:1701&r=hme |
| By: | Paola Trevisan (Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how management discourses developed in the arts industry. The theoretical background applied to answer this question, is rooted in the deep discussion on the role of managerial thinking in capitalistic societies which is provided in Boltanski and ChiapelloÕs ÒThe new spirit of capitalismÓ (2005; first version in French ÒLe nouvel esprit du capitalismeÓ, 1999), and it is enlarged by a discussion on how managerial discourses have affected the creative and the arts sector in more recent times. The theorizing provided in this paper is based on the analysis of the managerialization process of an Italian opera house. The case study is described by reporting both the Òofficial versionÓ and less official voices, putting particular emphasis on the role played by managerial discourses. The results show how the vocabulary of management is used internally to justify the managerialization process, and externally to communicate with potential investors of the private sector. However it is contrasted internally by some Òvoices out of tuneÓ which see management principles as conflicting with the artistic mission of the opera house, and their application as detrimental for the artistic quality and as source of frustration for artists and creative professionals. After the analysis of the case study, I provide a discussion of what seems to be a managerialization process investing the arts sector, in contrast to the artification of management which is undergoing in the profit-seeking creative sectors. Following Boltansky and ChiapelloÕs reasoning, I conclude by questioning about the possibility of a revival of the artistic critique in the cultural sector. |
| Keywords: | arts management, managerialization, creativity. |
| JEL: | M40 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vnm:wpdman:134&r=hme |
| By: | Azad, Rohit |
| Abstract: | The current Great Recession, the worst crisis that capitalism has faced since the Great Depression, has failed, at least so far, to generate a change in the teaching and practice of Macroeconomics. This seems bizarre as if nothing has happened and the economists are just going about doing business as usual. In light of this, the current paper attempts to address how Macroeconomics ought to be taught to students at the advanced intermediate level, which gives them an overall perspective on the subject. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomic Teaching, New Keynesian, Post Keynesian, Keynes-Kalecki |
| JEL: | A2 A22 B4 B50 E3 E4 E5 |
| Date: | 2016–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76340&r=hme |
| By: | Piva, Mariacristina (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Vivarelli, Marco (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, the economic insights about the employment impact of technological change are disentangled starting from the classical economists to nowadays theoretical and empirical analyses. On the other hand, an empirical test is provided; in particular, longitudinal data – covering manufacturing and service sectors over the 1998-2011 period for 11 European countries – are used to run GMM-SYS and LSDVC estimates. Two are the main results: 1) a significant labour-friendly impact of R&D expenditures (mainly related to product innovation) is found; yet, this positive employment effect appears to be entirely due to the medium-and high-tech sectors, while no effect can be detected in the low-tech industries; 2) capital formation is found to be negatively related to employment; this outcome points to a possible labour-saving effect due to the embodied technological change incorporated in gross investment (mainly related to process innovation). |
| Keywords: | technological change, employment, sectoral analysis, EU |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10471&r=hme |
| By: | Riccardo Evangelista |
| Abstract: | Karl Polanyi e Ludwig von Mises condividono lo stesso periodo storico, lo stesso mondo intellettuale e, almeno in parte, la stessa formazione teorica. Il loro iniziale e più diretto contesto di riflessione è l’esperimento socialista della cosiddetta “Vienna rossa” (1919-1933), in cui politiche economiche interventiste avevano fortemente limitato lo spazio del mercato in particolari settori, tra cui quello della casa. Da questa esperienza trarranno conclusioni diametralmente opposte: per Polanyi quella di Vienna è la dimostrazione della necessità di regolare il meccanismo dei prezzi per ambire a una società più democratica, per Mises l’ennesimo tentativo di interferenza pubblica insostenibile e fallimentare, crollato sotto il peso delle sue inefficienze. Perché questa lettura radicalmente diversa degli stessi fatti? La ragione va ricercata in una dimensione che precede quella dell’analisi economica e si colloca nella opposta rappresentazione storico-metodologica del processo di mercato. Dall’individualismo metodologico (e problematico) dell’opera di Menger, con Mises la scuola austriaca di economia passa a un individualismo intimamente politico, che erge il liberismo a fine ultimo da perseguire indipendentemente dal contesto di riferimento e dagli effetti concreti. Polanyi, al contrario, propone una prospettiva prettamente istituzionalista in cui il mercato viene collocato storicamente e soprattutto indagato socialmente, a partire cioè dai fondamenti eccezionali che lo animano. Lo studioso ungherese fa dunque dipendere l’azione individuale dal tipo di società in cui questa è collocata, negando sia l’universalizzazione dei moventi umani utilitaristici (homo oeconomicus) che la subordinazione teorica e pratica della società rispetto al sistema economico. La critica ha una portata radicale e dalle ampie ripercussioni di politica economica perché indaga le rappresentazioni mentali alla base del mercato autoregolato: scambiando una parte (la forma di mercato) per l’intera economia umana (i diversi modi in cui le società hanno risolto il problema della sussistenza), la teoria liberista rinchiude fatalmente l’umanità in una falsa gabbia deterministica, contribuendo in modo decisivo ad ostacolare «la realizzazione economica dei nostri ideali». |
| Keywords: | Polanyi, Mises, mercato, sostantivismo, formalismo |
| JEL: | A13 A14 B40 B52 B53 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hpo:wpaper:2_2016&r=hme |
| By: | Elisa Palagi; Mauro Napoletano; Andrea Roventini; Jean-Luc Gaffard |
| Abstract: | We build an agent-based model populated by households with heterogenous and time-varying financial conditions in order to study how different inequality shocks affect income dynamics and the effects of different types of fiscal policy responses. We show that inequality shocks generate persistent falls in aggregate income by increasing the fraction of credit-constrained households and by lowering aggregate consumption. Furthermore, we experiment with different types of fiscal policies to counter the effects of inequality-generated recessions, namely deficit-spending direct government consumption and redistributive subsidies financed by different types of taxes. We find that subsidies are in general associated with higher fiscal multipliers than direct government expenditure, as they appear to be better suited to sustain consumption of lower income households after the shock. In addition, we show that the effectiveness of redistributive subsidies increases if they are financed by taxing financial incomes or savings. Downloads |
| Keywords: | income inequality, scal multipliers, redistributive policies, credit-rationing, agent-based models |
| Date: | 2017–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2017/05&r=hme |
| By: | Angulo Yaneth Consuelo |
| Abstract: | En este artículo se describe la experiencia de los profesionales de la Línea de Fortalecimiento Social del proyecto Plan Jarillón de Cali, en las etapas de formulación e implementación de un Plan de Acción orientado a la reducción de la vulnerabilidad social de la población reasentada en la Urbanización Casas de Llano Verde, en el año 2014. Se realiza una reflexión critica del quehacer de los profesionales del área social vinculados a proyectos de intervención, a partir del análisis y revisión de documentos del proyecto, además de cuatro entrevistas individuales a profesionales de la linea, que tienen la responsabilidad de transformar situaciones problemáticas de las personas intervenidas; pero que por directrices de las instituciones terminan reduciendo su acción a la acumulación de cifras que poco o nada las reflejan. La poca importancia que se da al área social en los proyectos, sumado a falta de autonomía de los profesionales para proponer y desarrollar verdaderos procesos de intervención social, produce en los profesionales del área social sentimientos de frustración que se traducen en criticas y cuestionamientos a la institución, pero también a su propia ética como profesionales. |
| Keywords: | Procesos de reasentamiento, dilemas éticos, experiencia profesional, vulnerabilidad social, Llano Verde-Cali |
| Date: | 2017–01–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000149:015285&r=hme |
| By: | Ladino Mosquera Vivian Andrea |
| Abstract: | El presente artículo describe las características de la participación comunitaria de los habitantes del Jarillón Floralia que hacen parte del Comité para la Defensa del Patrimonio, en medio de la ejecución del Proyecto Plan Jarillón de Cali y con el objetivo de defender su territorio. La estrategia metodológica incorporó técnicas de recolección de datos como las entrevistas semi-estructuradas, la observación participante y la revisión documental, con las cuales se buscaba dar cuenta de la perspectiva de los actores para interpretar su realidad. De esta forma, la conclusión principal de este estudio de caso se destaca que, la comunidad decide organizarse para exigir mayor participación en el desarrollo del proyecto, ser consultados y que se acojan sus propuestas, dado que existe una apropiación del territorio a nivel cultural, social y económico, que motiva la resistencia al proceso de reasentamiento. |
| Keywords: | Territorio, Organización Comunitaria, Riesgo, Reasentamiento, Plan Jarillón Clasificación |
| Date: | 2016–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000149:015284&r=hme |
| By: | Luz Karime Abadía - Gloria Bernal; Gloria Bernal |
| Abstract: | Este artículo provee evidencia de que en Colombia las niñas tienen menos acceso que los niños a la educación superior. Usando las técnicas de regresión cuantílica (QR) y la disposición de Juhn-Murphy-Pierce, cuantificamos el efecto de la brecha en matemáticas, ciencias y puntaje global a lo largo de la distribución de puntajes de la prueba Saber 11, y sus potenciales determinantes. Encontramos una brecha significativa en matemáticas y ciencias en contra de las niñas y una brecha pequeña y significativa a favor de las niñas en lectura. Adicionalmente, para todas las áreas, la brecha ajustada se amplía en favor de los niños en la cola alta de la distribución, y el número de niñas que alcanzan puntajes para ser elegibles en la universidad es desproporcionadamente menor comparado con el número de niños. También encontramos que las características del estudiante, su familia y su escuela explican una proporción pequeña de la brecha. Finalmente, proveemos evidencia de que la brecha observada difiere significativamente por región, sugiriendo que las características específicas de cada región – por ejemplo diferencias culturales- podrían influenciar el rendimiento académico de las mujeres. |
| Keywords: | brechas de género, exámenes de salida, economía de la educación |
| Date: | 2016–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000416:015301&r=hme |
| By: | Michelle Harbour (UQO - Université du Québec en Outaouais - Université du Québec en Outaouais); Jacques-Bernard Gauthier (UQO - Université du Québec en Outaouais - Université du Québec en Outaouais) |
| Abstract: | This report is part of a research project on the structuring of business microcosm related to scientific periodicals. More specifically, this project aims to study the structuring of business practices and strategic practices of the actors operating within a business microcosm currently undergoing major transformation, namely the production of science and the communication of their results. This report is one of the components of this project and focuses on the structuring of the business microcosm within publication of scientific periodicals. The publication of articles in scientific periodicals is growing much faster than the growing number of scientists. Despite these increases, which undoubtedly reflect the dynamism in the world of the publication of scientific periodicals and greater accessibility to publication, scientists express great discomfort at this important part of their research activities. These discomforts are often expressed only from the point of view of the actors of the scientific fields, that is to say, from a scientific-centrist perspective. However, the publication of scientific periodicals involves a group of actors from different industries: suppliers, publishers, aggregators, customers, associations. For our part, we wanted to adopt an economic-centrist perspective. The aim of this report is therefore to present these actors through their corporate structure and their connections. At the end of our study, we can see that the main economic actors form a microcosm evolving around two oligopolies working on international markets (one in the publishing industry and the other in the aggregation industry) composed mainly of private firms, including private investment firms, and that they operate in a low-growth market. We also found that the dynamics of this microcosm is driven by a set of strategic alliances. |
| Abstract: | Ce rapport d’inscrit dans le cadre d’un projet de recherche portant la structuration du microcosme d’affaires relié aux périodiques scientifiques. Plus spécifiquement, ce projet vise à étudier la structuration des pratiques d’affaires et des pratiques stratégiques des acteurs évoluant au sein d’un microcosme d’affaires actuellement en transformation importante, soit celui de la production de la science et de la communication des résultats de cette production. Le présent rapport est un des volets de ce projet et il porte sur la structuration du microcosme d’affaires de la publication des périodiques scientifiques. La publication d’articles dans des périodiques scientifiques connaît une croissance bien supérieure à la croissance du nombre de scientifiques. Malgré ces croissances qui traduisent sans nul doute le dynamisme du monde de la publication des périodiques scientifiques et une plus grande accessibilité à la publication, les scientifiques expriment beaucoup d’inconfort envers cette partie importante de leurs activités de recherche. Ces inconforts ne sont souvent exprimés que du seul point de vu des acteurs des champs scientifiques, c’est-à-dire selon une perspective scientifico-centriste. Or, la publication de périodiques scientifiques interpelle un ensemble d’acteurs issus de différentes industries: Les fournisseurs, les éditeurs, les agrégateurs, les clients, les associations. Nous avons voulu pour notre part adopter une perspective économico-centriste. L’objectif de ce rapport est donc de présenter ces acteurs par le biais de leur structure corporative et de leurs liens. Au terme de notre étude, nous pouvons constater que les principaux acteurs économiques forment un microcosme évoluant autour de deux oligopoles œuvrant sur les marchés internationaux (un dans l’industrie de la publication et l’autre dans l’industrie de l’agrégation) composés essentiellement de firmes privées, notamment des firmes d’investissement privé, et qu’elles évoluent dans un marché à faible croissance. Nous avons également constaté que la dynamique de ce microcosme est mue par un ensemble d’alliances stratégiques. |
| Keywords: | Aggregators,Scientific journals, Business microcosm, Practice of science, Practice of strategy, Publishers, pratique de la stratégie , pratique de la science , microcosme d’affaires ,Périodiques scientifiques , éditeurs , agrégateurs |
| Date: | 2016–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01414879&r=hme |
| By: | Tom Lavers |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the political economy of Rwanda.s Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme, concluding that strong government commitment to the programme has been shaped by the specific characteristics of the political settlement that was established around 2000. For the Rwandan government, the programme has never been just about social transfer, but a key part of the development strategy that aims to promote social stability and the legitimacy of the ruling coalition through rapid socioeconomic development. In particular, the programme originated in an emerging distributional crisis in the mid-2000s in which rapid economic growth alongside low rates of poverty reduction threatened the government narrative of inclusive development. While donor social protection ideas have also been influential, these are purposefully adapted by government with a view to meeting its developmental and political goals. |
| Keywords: | Rwanda, social protection, policy transfer, ideas, political settlements |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2016-093&r=hme |
| By: | Isabelle Chort (LEDa, UMR DIAL-Paris-Dauphine); Philippe De Vreyer (Université Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University,IRD, LEDa, DIAL); Thomas Zuber (Columbia University. Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies/History, New York) |
| Abstract: | Using individual panel data from Senegal collected in 2006-07 and 2010-12, this study explores internal migration patterns of men and women. The data used contain the GPS coordinates of individuals' location, allowing us to calculate precise migration distances and map individual mobilities.Women are found to be more likely to migrate than men. However, they move less far and are more likely to migrate to rural areas, especially when originating from rural areas. Education is found to increase the likelihood of migration to urban destinations, especially for women. An analysis of the motives for migrating con rms the existence of gendered migration patterns, as female mobility is mostly linked to marriage while labor mobility is frequently observed for men. |
| Keywords: | Internal migration ; gender; rural-urban migration; Senegal. |
| JEL: | R23 O15 O18 J16 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201702&r=hme |