|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2017‒08‒27
fifteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Stephan Puehringer |
| Abstract: | Even after the financial crisis, economists still exert influence on politics and society in general on several levels and thus can be still interpreted as a discipline of power. Particularly in Germany there is a long tradition of institutionalized economic policy advice, which offers economists a channel of direct and indirect impact on politics. During the European crisis policies many scholar stressed a "comeback", "revival" or "return" of ordoliberalism, the German variety of neoliberalism. In this paper I show how economists connected in the "German neoliberal thought collective" since the end of WW II have built up a strong institutional powerstructure, which had a continuous impact on German economic politics over many decades. It can be shown that in several turning points of German economic history, German neoliberalism and its core politico-economic concept of "Social market economy" served as guiding principle of economic policy. Furthermore I will show that up to now there is an uneven power balance among economists with high political and societal influence, i.e. economists connected in Keynesian or union-linked networks are in a minority position compared to the dense network of economists in the "German neoliberale thought collective". Hence, what was observed during the European crisis policies as a "comeback of ordoliberalism" should rather be interpreted as the consequence of a persistant influence of German neoliberal networks on German economic politics over many decades. |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:53&r=hme |
| By: | Santiago Espinosa Moyano; Nicolás Eduardo Fajardo Acosta; Daniela Gantiva Parada |
| Abstract: | Resumen Este documento busca identificar el papel de las políticas públicas que fomentan el microcrédito en Colombia mediante el estudio del caso de la Banca de las oportunidades. Para este fin, se relacionan los conceptos innovación social y microcrédito en cuanto a concepción y objetivo a partir de una visión crítica que incluya perspectivas tanto ortodoxas como alternativas que permitan ampliar la capacidad de análisis del problema. Así también, se explica, por medio de una descripción histórica de las políticas que fomentan el microcrédito, si el camino seguido por este en Colombia ha mantenido la propuesta original de ser una herramienta de lucha contra la pobreza. Finalmente, se hace un breve análisis cualitativo de dichas políticas intentando plantear una generalidad en cuanto a la política de microcrédito empleada por el gobierno nacional. |
| Keywords: | Innovación social, microcrédito, política pública, desarrollo económico |
| JEL: | I38 L31 O22 Z18 |
| Date: | 2017–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000176:015702&r=hme |
| By: | Seymour, Gregory; Peterman, Amber |
| Abstract: | The past decade has seen increased attention to measuring women’s empowerment and autonomy, motivated by the goal of identifying promising programs and policies for reducing gender inequalities. One of the most common quantitative indicators of women’s empowerment is the self-reported ability to participate in household decision making over important matters. Despite the widespread use of such indicators in the literature, uncertainty exists over how to construct valid indicators of empowerment based on questions about decision making. In particular, it is unclear how indicative joint decision making is of individual decision-making power and to what extent joint decision making reflects a consistent understanding of decision-making power within households. We utilize data from women and men in Bangladesh and Ghana to investigate whether respondents who report sole decision making in a particular domain tend to experience stronger or weaker feelings of autonomous motivation—measured using a Relative Autonomy Index—than those who report joint decision making. We find systematic differences between men and women in the association between feelings of autonomous motivation and decisionmaking outcomes. In addition, results vary by the domain of decision making and by whether or not there is a shared understanding of decision-making power within households. These findings suggest that in order to accurately measure empowerment, further innovation in the specificity as well as the sensitivity of indicators is needed. |
| Keywords: | gender, women, decision making, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1656&r=hme |
| By: | Riaz, Rida |
| Abstract: | Women’s socio-economic empowerment is instrumental in transforming the societal values particularly in developing countries. However, this transition from traditional to modern social values is linked to women’s income and education levels. This paper investigates this phenomenon in the context of working women in Pakistan. To this extent, three hundred and six working-women were interviewed in urban vicinity of Lahore city. By employing Multinomial logit model our study confirms that socio-economic status of working-women plays a significant role in transforming their social values. Both income and education levels of working-women tend to display similar association to values, although differences persist in some important dimensions. Women’s empowerment through higher education and rising income leads to more bargaining power in household decision making, increasing political participation, and valuing gender equality. However, modernization as result of increased income levels and education has led to a decline in importance of religion in women from upper classes unlike the lower classes. |
| Keywords: | Relation of Economics with Social Values, Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables: General, Household behavior and family economics. |
| JEL: | A1 A13 C3 C30 D1 |
| Date: | 2017–08–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80798&r=hme |
| By: | Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Doss, Cheryl R.; Theis, Sophie |
| Abstract: | Land is an important asset for rural households, and having secure land rights is important for poverty reduction. Despite the large body of literature on the relationship between land tenure security, livelihoods, and poverty, most of this literature is based on household-level data and does not consider possible intrahousehold inequalities in land ownership. We know very little about the relationship between women’s land rights and poverty, not only because data on women’s land rights (WLR) are rare, but also because of the implicit assumption that women belong to households that pool resources completely. Thus, it is the land rights of households, not women, that matter for poverty reduction. However, growing evidence that households do not pool resources completely and that women have fewer assets than men warrants attention to the potential role of WLR in poverty reduction. This paper reviews the literature on WLR and poverty reduction. It adapts the Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project (GAAP) conceptual framework to identify pathways by which WLR could reduce poverty and increase wellbeing of women and their households in rural areas. It uses a systematic review search methodology to identify papers for inclusion, but adopts a more synthetic approach to assess the level of agreement and the amount of evidence within this literature. The paper examines the evidence from qualitative as well as quantitative studies on each of these pathways. Owing to the scarcity of experimental studies, the review of empirical work is based mostly on observational studies. We find some evidence on these relationships, but many of the key pathways have not been empirically analyzed. The evidence is strong for relationships between WLR and bargaining power and decision making on consumption, human capital investment, and intergenerational transfers. There is a high level of agreement, but weaker evidence on the relationship between WLR and natural resource management, government services and institutions, empowerment and domestic violence, resilience and HIV risk, and consumption and food security. There is less agreement and insufficient evidence on the associations between WLR and other livelihoods, and a higher level of agreement, but still limited evidence on associations between WLR and credit, technology adoption, and agricultural productivity. Notably, we find no papers that directly investigate the link between WLR and poverty. Many gaps in the evidence arise from a failure to account for the complexity of land rights regimes, the measurement of land rights at the household level, the lack of attention paid to gender roles, and the lack of studies from countries outside Africa. Many studies are limited by small sample sizes, the lack of credible counterfactuals, lack of attention to endogeneity and selection bias, and possible response bias on questions of domestic violence and empowerment. There are very few rigorous evaluations of reforms that strengthened WLR. The paper concludes that gaps in the evidence should not deter the careful design and implementation of programs and policies to strengthen WLR, given the ongoing land tenure reforms in many countries. Different modalities and mechanisms for strengthening WLR could be tested, with appropriate counterfactuals. Program designers and evaluators can strategically identify pathways and outcomes where evidence gaps exist, and deliberately design studies to close those gaps. |
| Keywords: | property rights, assets, poverty, gender, land rights, households, women, land tenure, livelihoods, land ownership, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1663&r=hme |
| By: | Malapit, Hazel J.; Pinkstaff, Crossley; Sproule, Kathryn; Kovarik, Chiara; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela |
| Abstract: | The fifth Sustainable Development Goal—to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls†—reflects a growing consensus that these are key objectives of development policy in their own right, while also contributing to improved productivity and increased efficiency, especially in agriculture and food production. To deliver on this commitment to women’s empowerment in development calls for appropriate measures that can be used to diagnose the scope and major sources of disempowerment and to measure progress. The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) is a survey-based tool codeveloped by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (Alkire et al. 2013). The index was originally designed as a monitoring and evaluation tool for the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative to directly capture women’s empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector. Since its launch in February 2012, the WEAI has been implemented in the 19 Feed the Future focus countries. As with any new metric, pilot testing in a few selected countries with limited sample sizes is insufficient to demonstrate how the WEAI would perform when rolled out on a wider scale. Concerns expressed by users of the WEAI led to the creation of an abbreviated version—the A-WEAI. This paper begins by presenting a brief overview of the WEAI and its construction. It then proceeds to discuss (1) the background and motivation behind the creation of the A-WEAI; (2) the steps taken to develop the AWEAI— namely, cognitive testing and piloting of different modules, particularly those that were difficult to administer in the field; (3) analysis of the pilot data from Bangladesh and Uganda; (4) domain-specific comparisons of the different pilot versions; and (5) robustness checks and empowerment diagnostics from the A-WEAI as compared with the original WEAI. The paper concludes by summarizing the modifications to the original WEAI and discussing possibilities for further development of empowerment metrics based on the WEAI. |
| Keywords: | agricultural development, gender equity, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1647&r=hme |
| By: | Deepankar Basu (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts - Amherst) |
| Abstract: | Karl Marx’s magnum opus, Das Kapital, presents an analysis of the long run dynamics of a mature capitalist economy. The analysis is conducted at two primary levels of abstraction – ‘capital in general’ (where competition between individual capitals is abstracted from) and ‘many capitals’ (where the phenomenon of competition between individual capitals is introduced) – and the presentation is organized into three volumes. In terms of structure, the analysis in the first two volumes is located at the level of ‘capital in general’, and the analysis in the third volume is located at the level of ‘many capitals’. In terms of content, the first volume analyses the production and accumulation of surplus value, the second volume investigates the problems of realization of surplus value, and the third volume analyses the mechanisms that lead to the distribution of surplus value into income streams of different fractions of the ruling class – as profit of enterprise, commercial profit, interest and rent (and monopoly profit more generally). The three volumes together give a comprehensive picture of the workings of a mature capitalist economy and highlights its long run, contradictory tendencies. |
| Keywords: | value, surplus value, capital, reproduction schemes, prices of production, rent, interest, commercial profit |
| JEL: | B14 B24 B51 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ums:papers:2017-12&r=hme |
| By: | Paolo Barucca; Fabrizio Lillo |
| Abstract: | In this chapter we review some recent results on the dynamics of price formation in financial markets and its relations with the efficient market hypothesis. Specifically, we present the limit order book mechanism for markets and we introduce the concepts of market impact and order flow, presenting their recently discovered empirical properties and discussing some possible interpretation in terms of agent's strategies. Our analysis confirms that quantitative analysis of data is crucial to validate qualitative hypothesis on investors' behavior in the regulated environment of order placement and to connect these micro-structural behaviors to the properties of the collective dynamics of the system as a whole, such for instance market efficiency. Finally we discuss the relation between some of the described properties and the theory of reflexivity proposing that in the process of price formation positive and negative feedback loops between the cognitive and manipulative function of agents are present. |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1708.07047&r=hme |
| By: | Stephan Puehringer |
| Abstract: | As an immediate reaction to the recent financial crisis, it has been criticized that many economists are still acting as economic advisers for Ministries or the bureaucracy, although they have not been able to foresee the crisis . Academic economists still hold central positions in policy making; they influence decisions in economic expert panels or research departments in national and supranational organizations. Beside their role as policy advisors, economists also engage in public debates in a more narrow sense as technical economic experts as well as in a broader sense as “public intellectuals†in the process of the tra nsmission of economic knowledge in public (economic) policy discourses. In spite of the manifold critique about the state of economics in the aftermath of the crisis, an even increasing presence of economists and economic experts can be observed in the pu blic sphere during the last years . On the one hand this reflects the still dominant position of economics in the social sciences as well as the sometimes ignorant attitude of economists towards findings of other social sciences. On the other hand this pape r shows that the public debate on politico - economic issues among economists is dominated by a specific sub group of economists, tightly connected to an institutional network of “German neoliberalism†. This group of “public economists†(i) is dominant in pub lic debates even after the financial crisis, (ii) reproduces the formative German economic imaginary of the Social Market Economy in a German neoliberal interpretation and (iii) has a good access to German economic policymaking, rooted in a long history of economic policy advice. |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:52&r=hme |
| By: | Stephan Puehringer; Christine Stelzer-Orthofer (Institute for Social and Societal Politics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | Austrian chancellor Schüssel’s right wing-conservative administration during the early 2000s induced a number of neoliberal reforms, resting on the strict dichotomy of state and politics vs. markets and private enterprise. Whereas the former in this conception is characterized as inefficient, static and uneconomic, the latter is euphemistically attributed with liberty, efficiency and dynamics. After this far-reaching neoliberal turn Austrian neoliberal during the last years think tanks increasingly have enter ed socio-political discourses. In this article , applying a social network analysis, on the one hand we demonstrate the close interconnections of think tanks like e.g. the Hayek Institute and the Agenda Austria in existing market radical networks of economic potent actors and employer s’ associations. On the other hand we employ a discourse analysis framework focusing on documents of think tanks self-representation and media response in opinion-leading newspapers in order to show that neoliberal think tanks are more and more becoming an integral part of a “discourse coalition†(Hajer) for the dismantling of the Austrian welfare state. |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:44&r=hme |
| By: | Stephan Puehringer; Markus Griesser (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | As an immediate reaction to the recent financial crisis, it has been criticized that many economists are still acting as economic advisers for Ministries or the bureaucracy, although they have not been able to foresee the crisis . Academic economists still hold central positions in policy making; they influence decisions in economic expert panels or research departments in national and supranational organizations. Beside their role as policy advisors, economists also engage in public debates in a more narrow sense as technical economic experts as well as in a broader sense as “public intellectuals†in the process of the tra nsmission of economic knowledge in public (economic) policy discourses. In spite of the manifold critique about the state of economics in the aftermath of the crisis, an even increasing presence of economists and economic experts can be observed in the pu blic sphere during the last years . On the one hand this reflects the still dominant position of economics in the social sciences as well as the sometimes ignorant attitude of economists towards findings of other social sciences. On the other hand this pape r shows that the public debate on politico - economic issues among economists is dominated by a specific sub group of economists, tightly connected to an institutional network of “German neoliberalism†. This group of “public economists†(i) is dominant in pub lic debates even after the financial crisis, (ii) reproduces the formative German economic imaginary of the Social Market Economy in a German neoliberal interpretation and (iii) has a good access to German economic policymaking, rooted in a long history of economic policy advice. |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:49&r=hme |
| By: | Phoebe Koundouri; Nikitas Pittis (University of Piraeus, Greece); Panagiotis Samartzis; Nikolaos Englezos; Andreas Papandreou |
| Abstract: | The concept of ambiguity with respect to decision making about climate change has recently attracted a lot of research interest. The standard approach for introducing ambiguity into this framework is to assume that the decision maker (DM) exhibits ambiguity aversion, with the latter being represented by axioms on DMs preferences different than Savageâ��s (sure-thing principle). As a result, DM is deprived of the property of probabilistic sophistication, since she is faced with either multiple prior probability functions, or a single but incoherent one (capacity). This paper approaches the issue of ambiguity with respect to climate change from a different perspective. In particular, we assume that ambiguity does exists but it does not affect the formation of DMs prior probability function. Instead, it a�¤ects the formation of her posterior probability function. Specifically, we assume that there are n experts, who supply DM with probabilistic input. Hence, although DM has a well defined prior (formed before any expert information on objective probabilities has arrived), she cannot decide which piece of information should conditionalize upon (defer to). We refer to this type of ambiguity as "deferential ambiguity" and show that it affects both DM and the experts. We also introduce a second type of ambiguity, which is solely born by the experts. This type of ambiguity stems from the experts potential inability to discern DMs preferences. This ambiguity is referred to as "preferential ambiguity" in the paper. The main objective of the paper is to analyze the possible interactions between the two types of ambiguity mentioned above and to assess their impact on the probabilistic properties (in particular, tail risks) of environmental-policy variables. |
| Keywords: | decision making on climate change, ambiguity, deep uncertainty, Savage�s sure-thing principle, deferential ambiguity, preferential ambiguity, tail risks of environmental-policy variables. |
| JEL: | D8 D80 D81 D83 D |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aue:wpaper:1703&r=hme |
| By: | Jan De Loecker; Jan Eeckhout |
| Abstract: | We document the evolution of markups based on firm-level data for the US economy since 1950. Initially, markups are stable, even slightly decreasing. In 1980, average markups start to rise from 18% above marginal cost to 67% now. There is no strong pattern across industries, though markups tend to be higher, across all sectors of the economy, in smaller firms and most of the increase is due to an increase within industry. We do see a notable change in the distribution of markups with the increase exclusively due to a sharp increase in high markup firms. We then evaluate the macroeconomic implications of an increase in average market power, which can account for a number of secular trends in the last 3 decades: 1. decrease in labor share, 2. increase in capital share, 3. decrease in low skill wages, 4. decrease in labor force participation, 5. decrease in labor flows, 6. decrease in migration rates, 7. slowdown in aggregate output. |
| JEL: | D2 D4 E2 J3 K2 L1 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23687&r=hme |
| By: | Raymond B. Frempong; David Stadelmann |
| Abstract: | Female education and its potential to empower women in the development process have engaged the interest of policy makers and academics over the years. By employing individual level data from Ghana and Uganda, we analyze whether female education has a direct bargaining effect on six household welfare indicators: child labor and school enrollment; food expenditure and nutrition intake; female labor force participation and fertility rates. The empirical results indicate that both, the level of the wife and her husband's education, are significant determinants of household welfare. However, the wife’s education has no larger effect than that of her husband's, and the relative bargaining position of the wife, at most, has negligible effects on the welfare indicators studied. Further robustness analysis largely confirms our findings. We conclude that, whilst female education has the potential to enhance household welfare, the effect does not necessarily work though enhanced bargaining power. |
| Keywords: | Women Empowerment; Intra-household Bargaining; Household Welfare; Ghana; Uganda |
| JEL: | I2 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2017-08&r=hme |
| By: | Stijepic, Denis |
| Abstract: | The three-sector framework (relating to agriculture, manufacturing, and services) is one of the major concepts for studying the long-run change of the economic structure. We discuss the system-theoretical classification of the structural change phenomenon and, in particular, the predictability of the structural change in the three-sector framework by the Poincaré-Bendixson theory. To do so, we compare the assumptions of the Poincaré-Bendixson theory to (a) the typical axioms of structural change modelling, (b) the empirical evidence on the geometrical properties of structural change trajectories, and (c) some methodological arguments referring to the laws of structural change. The results of this comparison support the assumption that the structural change phenomenon is representable by a dynamic system that is predictable by the Poincaré-Bendixson theory. Moreover, we discuss briefly the implications of this result for structural change modelling and prediction as well as topics for further research. |
| Keywords: | Poincaré-Bendixson theory; application; economics; structural change; labor reallocation; sectors; dynamics in the plane; simplex; trajectory; topology |
| JEL: | C61 C65 O41 |
| Date: | 2017–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80849&r=hme |