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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2017‒03‒05
nine papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Russo, Alberto |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an agent based macroeconomic model in which income distribution and wealth accumulation depend on the role that agents play in productive activities, that is capitalists or workers. In this framework, social class dynamics underlie the endogenous process of firm formation. The focus is on the interplay between the evolution of social structure and macroeconomic dynamics and on how business cycles and crises may endogenously emerge as the result of the interaction between financial and real factors underlying the process of capitalist production. |
| Keywords: | heterogeneous interacting agents; social structure, macroeconomic dynamics, inequality, crisis. |
| JEL: | C63 D31 P10 |
| Date: | 2016–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77175&r=hme |
| By: | Silva Escobar, Daniel (Estudios Nueva Economía) |
| Abstract: | En el presente documento de trabajo se efectúa una revisión crítica de las principales aportaciones hechas por los autores ligados a la corriente científico-política del marxismo ecológico. En primer lugar, se ensaya una definición de lo que actualmente puede entenderse por marxismo ecológico. En segundo término, se realiza una descripción de las principales teorías y conceptos nacidos a partir de esta corriente, privilegiando aquellas que abordan las temáticas de depredación y contaminación ecosistémicas yendo más allá de la simple interpretación exegética de los textos de Marx y Engels. Finalmente, en tercer lugar, se desarrolla una evaluación crítico-comparativa, provisional, de las distintas teorías y conceptos abordados en la sección dos, haciendo especial énfasis en los tópicos más polémicos y relevantes para la política concreta de nuestra época histórica. In this working paper I undertake a critical review of the main contributions developed by the authors associated with the scientific and political school of thought known as Ecological Marxism. First of all, I try to propose a definition of what can be understood today by Ecological Marxism. Secondly, I describe the main theories and concepts originated by this school of thought, giving preference to those that take into account topics like depletion of resources and pollution, going further than the exegetical interpretation of Marx and Engels. Finally, I develop a critical and comparative evaluation of the different theories and concepts reviewed, emphasizing the most controversial and significant issues related to the concrete politics of our time. |
| Keywords: | Marxismo ecológico; crisis ecológica; crisis económica; modo de producción capitalista; ecosocialismo; Ecological Marxism; ecological crisis; economic crisis; capitalist mode of production; ecosocialism |
| JEL: | B24 B51 Q54 Q57 |
| Date: | 2016–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:enedoc:0002&r=hme |
| By: | Ebru Kongar; Emel Memis |
| Abstract: | Using data from the 2006 Turkish Time-Use Survey, we examine gender differences in time allocation among married heterosexual couples over the life cycle. While we find large discrepancies in the gender division of both paid and unpaid work at each life stage, the gender gap in paid and unpaid work is largest among parents of infants compared to parents of older children and couples without children. The gender gap narrows as children grow up and parents age. Married women's housework time remains relatively unchanged across their life cycle, while older men spend more time doing housework than their younger counterparts. Over the course of the life cycle, women's total work burden increases relative to men's. Placing our findings within the gendered institutional context in Turkey, we argue that gender-inequitable work-family reconciliation policies that are based on gendered assumptions of women's role as caregivers exacerbate gender disparities in time use. |
| Keywords: | Economics of Gender; Time Use; Life Cycle; Turkey |
| JEL: | D13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_884&r=hme |
| By: | Francesco Bogliacino; Cristiano Codagnone |
| Abstract: | The article discusses whether and to what extent experiments can contribute to a research paradigm based on the study of human behaviour in complex evolving environments and on the problem of asymmetric adjustment among different components of economic system along certain trajectories, focusing on the possibility that experimental evidence may represent an external consistency check on this type of heterodox modelling. It considers methodological issues related with the concept of validity, the evidence on rationality of human agents, and the possibility to identify a microfoundation alternative to homo oeconomicus, discussing the evidence on humans as strong reciprocators, as trusting individuals and as embedded in social norms. |
| Keywords: | Experiments; Causality; Heuristics; Learning; Bounded Rationality; Altruism; Punishment; Trust; Norms |
| JEL: | C9 C18 D01 D03 |
| Date: | 2017–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000178:015379&r=hme |
| By: | Stör, Lorenz |
| Abstract: | The predominantly positivist approach in economics towards the object of study is not able to grasp power and domination in its complex interaction of agency and structure. Also in ecological economics and its critique to economic growth, there is a lack of conceptualizations that are sensible to questions of power. The work reveals such deficits and offers a comprehensive theory overview. This overview is then contextualized along the political-economic facets of climate change. The introductory chapter discusses fundamental aspects of power in the context of structure and agency. The common positivist approach in economics is complemented by a post-positivist approach in the following chapter. Critical realism serves as a philosophy of science to acknowledge and integrate structure and agency as forms of power. The third chapter provides an historical overview of selected theories of power. It depicts how the strategic and the episodic understanding of power by Machiavelli and Hobbes respectively, informed later power theories. Theorists such as Dahl, Bachrach & Baratz, Lukes, Gramsci, Laclau & Mouffe, Giddens, Foucault and Clegg are discussed. The aim is to highlight the relevance for a multiplicity of power concepts in economic research. The following chapter puts in context their respective positions on human agency and social structures as the source of power. The fifth chapter initiates an outlook for potential power research on future global challenges. The powers that play a role in the quest for solutions on the issue of climate change are systematically separated in the multiple levels of agency, mechanisms and structure. This serves as an exemplary case to depict the complexity but relevance of power on objects of research in ecological economics. |
| Keywords: | Power,Structure,Agency,Climate Change,Hegemony,Structuration theory,Machiavelli,Hobbes,Dahl,Lukes,Gramsci,Giddens,Foucault,Hay,Jessop,Macht,Struktur,Handlung,Klimawandel,Hegemonie,Strukturationstheorie |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:voodps:52017&r=hme |
| By: | Rama Lionel Ngenzebuke |
| Abstract: | Using the third round of the Tanzanian National Panel Survey, this study delves into the productivity returns of multifaceted female empowerment in agriculture. Unlike the classic unidimensional approach to identify gender gaps in agricultural yields, this study lays emphasis on the overlapping of manifold aspects of female empowerment in agriculture - including female plot ownership, female plot management and female control over the agricultural output - through a threefold interaction model. Next, I use Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique to understanding the mechanisms underlying significant yields gaps, as well as to assess the returns of female management and control rights to the classic yields gap against femaleowned plots. This study identifies significant yields gaps that would go unnoticed through the classic unidimensional approach. More specifically, and this is the first returns of female decision-making rights, female owners who further manage and control their owned plots are more productive than female mere owners. Next, female decision-making rights contribute at narrowing the classic yields gap against female-owned plots, mostly through the structural disadvantage - that is through lower productivity returns to factors of production - against female owners who would not manage their plot, nor control the agricultural output - the fruit of their labor. These findings are robust along several dimensions and call for a few implications with respect to collection and analysis of agricultural data, as well as to gender policies in agriculture. |
| Keywords: | female; plot ownership; plot management; output control; agricultural yields; Tanzania |
| JEL: | J16 O13 Q12 Q15 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/246993&r=hme |
| By: | Jüßen, Falko; Bredemeier, Christian; Winkler, Roland |
| Abstract: | In recessions, predominantly men lose their jobs, which has been described by the term "mancessions". Against this background, we analyze whether fiscal expansions foster job creation predominantly for men. Yet, we find empirically that fiscal shocks lead to employment growth that is larger for women than for men. We show that the gender-specific employment effects of fiscal policy are driven by disproportionate employment changes in female-dominated occupations, specifically so-called "pink-collar" occupations. We develop a business-cycle model that explains these occupational employment dynamics as a consequence of differences in the substitutability between capital and labor across occupations. |
| JEL: | J21 E62 J16 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145518&r=hme |
| By: | Ainhoa Arrona (Orkestra - Basque Institute of Competitiveness) |
| Abstract: | There are an increasing number of critical voices within the innovation community who are raising questions around the relevance of innovation policy research to innovation policy practice. With the aim of contributing to a more relevant regional innovation policy research, this paper, builds on reflections along these lines presented by Morlacchi and Martin (2009), followed by Uyarra, Flanagan and Laranja (Flanagan & Uyarra, 2016; Flanagan, Uyarra, & Laranja, 2011), as well as issues raised and developed by action research scholars in general and the ‘action research for territorial development’ approach (Karlsen & Larrea, 2014a) in particular. Specifically, based on the idea that a greater diversity of approaches to policy analysis would benefit innovation studies, the paper argues for incorporating ideas developed by interpretive policy analysis scholars. The paper presents concepts and approaches that in our opinion require further exploration or strengthening, including the practice perspective, ‘ordering devices’, collaborative or dialogical approaches to policy analysis and constructivist approaches to policy learning. |
| Date: | 2017–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivc:wpaper:2017r01&r=hme |
| By: | Giri, Federico |
| Abstract: | [Introduction] The global crisis of 2007-2008 showed the limits of the mainstream economic models in dealing with complex contingent events as financial crises. Thus, following different methodologies, we developed models that describe the economy as a complex system that evolves according to the interactions of heterogeneous agents. Our models underline the importance the role played by credit network configurations and leverage cycles in determining macroeconomic dynamics. In order to develop macro-prudential policies aimed at increasing the resilience of the economic system, these models try to shed some light into the conditions that may foster the occurrence of crises. In particular, the models underline the importance of monitoring the evolution of credit networks in order to avoid the excessive concentration of the credit market in the hands of few central actors as large banks or firms which become 'too interconnected to fail'. Moreover, the models underline the importance of non-standard monetary policies during and after crises to avoid triggering a new recession ("double dip” recession). [...] |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fmppls:7&r=hme |