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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2017‒08‒13
ten papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Andrea Gabrielli; Matthieu Cristelli; Dario Mazzilli; Andrea Tacchella; Andrea Zaccaria; Luciano Pietronero |
| Abstract: | Recently a measure for Economic Complexity named ECI+ has been proposed by Albeaik et al. We like the ECI+ algorithm because it is mathematically identical to the Fitness algorithm, the measure for Economic Complexity we introduced in 2012. We demonstrate that the mathematical structure of ECI+ is strictly equivalent to that of Fitness (up to normalization and rescaling). We then show how the claims of Albeaik et al. about the ability of Fitness to describe the Economic Complexity of a country are incorrect. Finally, we hypothesize how the wrong results reported by these authors could have been obtained by not iterating the algorithm. |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1708.01161&r=hme |
| By: | Guschanski, Alexander; Onaran, Özlem |
| Abstract: | This article presents an econometric analysis of the wage share in seven emerging economies. We focus on the effect of globalisation, captured by participation in global value chains and financial integration, indicators of bargaining power of labour and technological change on the wage share. We use input-output tables that allow us to obtain detailed measures of global value chain participation, and sectoral data to distinguish the effect on high- and low-skilled workers and within manufacturing and service industries. We find a negative effect of offshoring from advanced to emerging economies, as well as negative effects of financial integration. Our findings suggest that the transmission mechanism is a reduction in labours’ bargaining power vis-à-vis capital. We find a robust positive effect of union density on the wage share but no evidence of a negative effect of technological change. |
| Keywords: | wage share; income distribution; emerging economies; global value chains; union density; technological change; |
| JEL: | E25 J50 |
| Date: | 2017–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gpe:wpaper:17536&r=hme |
| By: | Fellner, Wolfgang; Goehmann, Benedikt |
| Abstract: | Adam Smith considered consumption the sole end and purpose of all production. Concerning the measurement of welfare, this requires a sound understanding of the connection between consumption and welfare. The consumerist conceptualization of this connection implies that the amount of consumption equals welfare and the level of production can be an indicator for welfare. The limits and problems of production measures are widely accepted. Yet, indicators like GDP remain the focus of mainstream economic theory and policy. We trace the origin of this lock-in back to the economic model of behaviour and the concept of agency in mainstream economics. The suggested alternative stems from literature about human needs in heterodox economics and psychology. This literature incorporates the relevance of social aspects and cultural change for welfare. It turns out that consumerism can be a threat to well-being and welfare rather than a requirement for it. |
| Keywords: | economic psychology, capabilities approach; self-determination theory; consumerism; structure vs. agency |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus009:5671&r=hme |
| By: | Marcella Corsi; Carlo D’Ippoliti; Giulia Zacchia |
| Abstract: | Following an international trend, Italy has reformed its university system, especially concerning methods and tools for research evaluation, which are increasingly focused on a number of bibliometric indexes. To study the impact of these changes, we analyse the changing profiles of economists who have won competitions for full professorship in the last few decades in Italy. We concentrate on individual characteristics and mainly on scientific production. We show that the identification of a univocal and standardized concept of “research quality” within the new research assessments has progressively imposed a strategy of “homologation”, especially for women. We find that women economists are at a higher risk of discrimination than their male colleagues and thus they are more likely to conform their research activities to the standardized profile imposed by the gender-blind application of biased bibliometric methods. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination; Pluralism; Diversity; Women Economists; Italy |
| JEL: | J16 J70 A14 |
| Date: | 2017–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/256291&r=hme |
| By: | Mai Chi Dao; Mitali Das; Zsoka Koczan; Weicheng Lian |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the downward trend in the labor share of global income since the early 1990s, as well as its heterogeneous evolution across countries, industries and worker skill groups, using a newly assembled dataset, and analyzes the drivers behind it. Technological progress, along with varying exposure to routine occupations, explains about half the overall decline in advanced economies, with a larger negative impact on middle-skilled workers. In emerging markets, the labor share evolution is explained predominantly by global integration, particularly the expansion of global value chains that contributed to raising the overall capital intensity in production. |
| Date: | 2017–07–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:17/169&r=hme |
| By: | Francine D. Blau; Anne E. Winkler |
| Abstract: | This chapter focuses on women, work, and family, with a particular focus on differences by educational attainment. First, we review long-term trends regarding family structure, participation in the labor market, and time spent in household production, including time with children. In looking at family, we focus on mothers with children. Next we examine key challenges faced by mothers as they seek to combine motherhood and paid work: workforce interruptions associated with childbearing, the impact of home and family responsibilities, and constraints posed by workplace culture. We also consider the role that gendered norms play in shaping outcomes for mothers. We conclude by discussing policies that have the potential to increase gender equality in the workplace and mitigate the considerable conflicts faced by many women as they seek to balance work and family. |
| JEL: | J1 J12 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23644&r=hme |
| By: | Minzer, Rodolfo; Solís, Valentín; Orozco, Roberto; Vivanco, Trinidad |
| Abstract: | La proliferación de información estadística basada en cuentas nacionales se ha traducido en un resurgimiento importante del análisis cuantitativo basado en modelos de insumo-producto. La elaboración de matrices de insumo-producto se sustenta en información proveniente de cuentas nacionales. En particular, los cuadros de oferta y utilización proporcionan los datos fundamentales requeridos para su elaboración, debido a que constituyen un sistema contable organizado que relaciona coherentemente los productos, sectores económicos e industrias. Precisamente en este punto es en donde surge la motivación central del presente estudio. De los 10 países a los cuales la Sede Subregional de la CEPAL en México da seguimiento, sólo México, Costa Rica y Honduras elaboran matrices de insumo-producto públicamente disponibles, en tanto que los restantes países generan sólo cuadros de oferta y utilización anuales cuya frecuencia de actualización varía de acuerdo al país en cuestión. Consecuentemente, el objetivo principal del presente artículo es presentar la metodología para elaborar matrices de insumo-producto a partir de cuadros de oferta y utilización, y de esta forma extender el análisis que es posible realizar utilizando este instrumental a una mayor cantidad de países de la región. |
| Keywords: | CUENTAS NACIONALES, OFERTA Y DEMANDA, ANALISIS DE INSUMO-PRODUCTO, NATIONAL ACCOUNTS, SUPPLY AND DEMAND, INPUT-OUTPUT ANALYSIS, CASE STUDIES |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col022:41998&r=hme |
| By: | Yasser Abdih; Stephan Danninger |
| Abstract: | The U.S. labor share of income has been on a secular downward trajectory since the beginning of the new millennium. Using data that are disaggregated across both state and industry, we show the decline in the labor share is broad-based but the extent of the fall varies greatly. Exploiting a new data set on the task characteristics of occupations, the U.S. input-output tables, and the Current Population Survey, we find that in addition to changes in labor institutions, technological change and different forms of trade integration lowered the labor share. In particular, the fall was largest, on average, in industries that saw: a high initial intensity of “routinizable” occupations; steep declines in unionization; a high level of competition from imports; and a high intensity of foreign input usage. Quantitatively, we find that the bulk of the effect comes from changes in technology that are linked to the automation of routine tasks, followed by trade globalization. |
| Date: | 2017–07–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:17/167&r=hme |
| By: | Shire, Karen A.; Schnell, Rainer; Noack, Marcel |
| Abstract: | Women in conservative welfare states continue to do more unpaid domestic labour than their partners. Many European countries subsidize the outsourcing of routine housework and care labor to market services through tax credits and other measures, with the aim of reducing women's unpaid work. Most research on the determinants of outsourcing replicate gendered exchange-bargaining models, and neglect market factors relevant to explaining the substitution of unpaid labour. The neglect of market factors however, is mainly due to data limitations. Drawing on a new data set in the German Socio-Economic Panel Innovation Study (SOEP-IS) develop models, which include market as well as resource factors in examining the determinants of outsourcing domestic labour. The analyses confirm previous research findings, that households with more resources are more likely to outsource. Thus, the availability of tax credits for household purchases does not seem to encourage households with lower incomes to shift unpaid domestic labour to the market. In contrast to previous research findings based on exchange-bargaining theory, relative resources of women are neither predictors of more or of less outsourcing. Models explaining the gendered division of labour are not necessarily transferable to the study of outsourcing unpaid labour to the market. Previous research in Germany finds that partners revert to traditional gendered divisions of labour when they become parents. We find that the presence of young children increases the probability of outsourcing, suggesting that buying-in services may be a way in which re-traditionalization is averted. Overall, market factors have a strong impact on whether households outsource or not, especially demand for eldercare and the availability of services. Yet most labour available to German households is not supplied by the service sector, but from the black market. The article concludes that future research needs to address the interaction of demand and supply side factors, ideally in cross-national household-level analyses. |
| Keywords: | domestic labour,gender,eldercare,informal employment,migrant domestic labour |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:udesoz:201704&r=hme |
| By: | Averett, Susan L. (Lafayette College); Smith, Julie K. (Lafayette College); Wang, Yang (University of Wisconsin-Madison) |
| Abstract: | States are increasingly resorting to raising the minimum wage to boost the earnings of those at the bottom of the income distribution. In this paper, we examine the effects of minimum wage increases on the health of low-educated Hispanic women, who constitute a growing part of the U.S. labor force, are disproportionately represented in minimum wage jobs and typically have less access to health care. Using a difference-in-differences identification strategy and data drawn from the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance Survey and the Current Population Survey from the years 1994–2015, we find little evidence that low-educated Hispanic women likely affected by minimum wage increases experience any changes in health status, access to care, or use of preventive care. |
| Keywords: | minimum wage, Hispanic women, health outcomes, health insurance, preventive care |
| JEL: | J15 I12 I13 I14 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10916&r=hme |