|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2017‒09‒03
twenty-two papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Roberto Veneziani (School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London); Naoki Yoshihara (The Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the Marxian theory of exploitation. The axiomatic approach standard in social choice theory is adopted in order to study the concept of exploitation - what it is and how it should be captured empirically. Two properties are presented that capture some fundamental Marxian insights. It is shown that, contrary to the received view, there exists a nonempty class of definitions of exploitation that preserve the relation between exploitation and profits - called Profit-Exploitation Correspondence Principle - in general economies with heterogeneous agents, complex class structures, and production technologies with heterogeneous labour inputs. However, among the main approaches, only the so-called ‘New Interpretation’ satisfies the Profit-Exploitation Correspondence Principle in general. |
| Keywords: | Exploitation, Profits, Axiomatic analysis |
| JEL: | B51 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2017-12&r=hme |
| By: | Yoshihara, Naoki; Veneziani, Roberto |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the theoretical issues related to the measurement of labour content for general technologies with heterogeneous labour. A novel axiomatic framework is used in order to formulate the key properties of the notion of labour content and analyse its theoretical foundations. The main measures of labour content used in various strands of the literature are then characterised. Quite surprisingly, a unique axiomatic structure can be identified which underlies measures of labour aggregates used in such diverse fields as neoclassical growth theory, input-output approaches, productivity analysis, and classical political economy. |
| Keywords: | labour content, labour productivity, technical change, axiomatic analysis |
| JEL: | D57 J24 O33 D46 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:663&r=hme |
| By: | Ariane Tichit (CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - UdA - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This article analyses the social representations of money from survey data. More specifically, it tests how organizers of a complementary currency system have a distinct perception of money compared to other citizens. The main results confirm the existence of significant differences between the two groups. The structure of their representations shows that for the local currency members money is less tied to official institutions, to the symbol of the sovereign State, to labour and to wages than for the representative population segment. This confirms a number of theoretical studies that see these social innovations as forms of protest against the standard system, questioning the sovereign State currency and close to the concept of unconditional income. Local currencies, through the different social representations of money they contain, could well be drivers of societal change. |
| Keywords: | Social representations of money,Survey data,Abric method,Complementary currencies. |
| Date: | 2017–08–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01576076&r=hme |
| By: | Sin, Isabelle (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust); Stillman, Steven (Free University of Bozen/Bolzano); Fabling, Richard (Independent Researcher) |
| Abstract: | As in other OECD countries, women in New Zealand earn substantially less than men with similar observable characteristics. In this paper, we use a decade of annual wage and productivity data from New Zealand's Linked Employer-Employee Database to examine different explanations for this gender wage gap. Sorting by gender at either the industry or firm level explains less than one-fifth of the overall wage gap. Gender differences in productivity within firms also explain little of the difference seen in wages. The relationships between the gender wage-productivity gap and both age and tenure are inconsistent with statistical discrimination being an important explanatory factor for the remaining differences in wages. Relating across industry and over time variation in the gender wage-productivity gap to industry-year variation in worker skills, and product market and labor market competition, we find evidence that is consistent with taste discrimination being important for explaining the overall gender wage gap. Explanations based on gender differences in bargaining power are less consistent with our findings. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, discrimination, sorting, productivity, competition |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10975&r=hme |
| By: | Eriksson, Tor (Aarhus School of Business); Smith, Nina (Aarhus University); Smith, Valdemar (Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | The dearth of women in top managerial positions is characterized by a high persistence and insensitivity to changes and differences in institutions and policies. This suggests it could be caused by slowly changing social norms and attitudes in the labor market, such as gender stereotypes and gender identity. This paper examines gender stereotypes and self-stereotyping in a large cross section of (about 2,970) managers at different job levels in (1,875) Danish private-sector firms. The survey data used contain detailed information about the managers as well as their employers. We find significant gender differences between managers with regard to gender stereotyping attitudes. Male managers on average tend to have stronger gender stereotype views with respect to the role as a successful manager than their female peers. However, female CEOs' gender stereotypes do not differ from their male peers' and have significantly more pronounced masculine stereotypes than female managers at lower levels. Female managers have stronger beliefs in their own managerial abilities regarding feminine skills and weaker beliefs in their masculine skills, whereas the opposite is observed for male managers. Gender stereotypes and self-stereotypes vary across types of managerial employees and firms. Beliefs in own ability could explain at most ten percent of the observed gender differential in C-level executive positions. |
| Keywords: | glass ceiling effects, gender, self-stereotypes, stereotypes, managerial labor markets |
| JEL: | J16 D83 D84 M51 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10932&r=hme |
| By: | Naoki Yoshihara (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst) |
| Abstract: | No abstract is available for this item. |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2017-13&r=hme |
| By: | Chakraborty, Tanika (Indian Institute of Management); Mukherjee, Anirban (University of Calcutta); Rachapalli, Swapnika Reddy (University of Toronto); Saha, Sarani (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur) |
| Abstract: | Our study is motivated by two disturbing evidences concerning women in India. On one hand, crime against women is on the rise while on the other, women's labor force participation rate (WLFPR) has been declining over the last three decades. We estimate the extent to which the decline in WLFPR can be assigned to increasing instances of crime against women. We argue that an increase in crime against women, increases the non-pecuniary costs of traveling to work, particularly in a traditional society marked by stigma against victims of sexual crimes. Our findings suggest that women are less likely to work away from home in regions where the perceived threat of sexual harassment against girls is higher. The estimate is robust to various sensitivity checks. Moreover, the deterrence effect of crime responds to the opportunity cost of work on one hand and the stigma cost of sexual crimes on the other. |
| Keywords: | crime against women, labor force participation, stigma cost |
| JEL: | E24 J16 J18 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10934&r=hme |
| By: | Arief Anshory Yusuf; Andy Sumner |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we consider different approaches to assessing inclusive growth in Indonesia since 1994. We discuss the growth incidence curve, changes in the poverty headcount by the national monetary/consumption poverty line, and changes in inequality indicators. We then develop a measure of inclusive growth based on multidimensional poverty that expands the lens to include not only education, health and household assets, but also employment. We find that the reduction of poverty measured by the national poverty line is matched by the impressive reduction in education and health poverty, and expansion of household assets. However, some basic problems remain in terms of school completion and vaccination coverage, and progress on employment-related poverty in our assessment of inclusive growth has been minimal in the last decade. We argue that the use of multidimensional poverty to assess the inclusivity of growth draws attention to the successes of administrations in providing public goods, and the enormous remaining challenge of providing sufficient employment opportunities. |
| Keywords: | inclusive growth, multidimensional poverty, inequality, Indonesia |
| JEL: | O1 O15 I3 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2017-09&r=hme |
| By: | Adriana D. Kugler; Catherine H. Tinsley; Olga Ukhaneva |
| Abstract: | Recent work suggests that women are more responsive to negative feedback than men in certain environments. We examine whether negative feedback in the form of relatively low grades in major-related classes explains gender differences in the final majors undergraduates choose. We use unique administrative data from a large private university on the East Coast from 2009-2016 to test whether women are more sensitive to grades than men, and whether the gender composition of major-related classes affects major changes. We also control for other factors that may affect a student's final major including: high school student performance, gender of faculty, and economic returns of majors. Finally, we examine how students' decisions are affected by external cues that signal STEM fields as masculine. The results show that high school academic preparation, faculty gender composition, and major returns have little effect on major switching behaviors, and that women and men are equally likely to change their major in response to poor grades in major-related courses. Moreover, women in male-dominated majors do not exhibit different patterns of switching behaviors relative to their male colleagues. Women are, however, more likely to switch out of male-dominated STEM majors in response to poor performance compared to men. Therefore, we find that it takes multiple signals of lack of fit into a major (low grades, gender composition of class, and external stereotyping signals) to impel female students to switch majors. |
| JEL: | I23 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23735&r=hme |
| By: | Steven Martin |
| Abstract: | In this chapter, I review the rational economic man model and con- trast it with evidence of bounded rationality that has emerged since the last quarter of the previous century. I discuss the implications of bounded rationality for research in industrial economics, with par- ticular attention to the analysis of predation, collusion, and entry. I conclude by drawing implications for the antitrust rules toward domi- nant ?rm behavior that come out of the Matsushita and Brooke Group decisions. |
| Keywords: | behavioral economics; antitrust; predation; collusion; entry. |
| JEL: | L1 L4 D9 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pur:prukra:1297&r=hme |
| By: | Nogbou Andetchi Aubin Amanzou (Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques - Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, Université Alassane Ouattara - Université Alassane Ouattara); Athanase Youan Bi (Université Alassane Ouattara - Université Alassane Ouattara, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques - Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques); Flavien Troupa (Université Alassane Ouattara - Université Alassane Ouattara); Daouda Dao (UFHB - Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques - Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques) |
| Abstract: | Knowledge is analysed as a homogeneous and endogenous production factor in economic, while disciplines related to economic such as philosophy, management, sociology, knowledge analyse it as a heterogeneous factor. The assertion of heterogeneity challenge the recommendations made by economists of growth new growth theory. The purpose of this study is to improve economic analysis with results found in other disciplines. |
| Abstract: | La connaissance est analysée en économie comme un facteur de production homogène et endogène alors que des disciplines connexes à l’économie comme la philosophie, le management, la sociologie l’analysent comme un facteur hétérogène. L’assertion de l’hétérogénéité remet en cause les recommandations faites par les économistes dans l’analyse de la croissance. L’objet de cette étude est de présenter les avancées théoriques faites sur la notion de connaissance du point d’un point de vue multidisciplinaire afin d’améliorer les analyses économiques. |
| Keywords: | Homogeneous,Heterogeneous,Knowledge,Economic growth ,Homogène,Hétérogène,Connaissance,Croissance économique |
| Date: | 2017–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01532860&r=hme |
| By: | Roberto Veneziani (School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London); Naoki Yoshihara (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst) |
| Abstract: | An axiomatic analysis of the concept of unequal exchange (UE) between countries is developed in a dynamic general equilibrium model that generalises Roemer’s [22] economy with a global capital market. The class of UE definitions that satisfy three fundamental properties - including a correspondence between wealth, class and UE exploitation status - is completely characterised. It is shown that this class is nonempty and a definition of UE exploitation between countries is proposed, which is theoretically robust and firmly anchored to empirically observable data. The full class and UE exploitation structure of the international economy is derived in equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Exploitation, Classes, Unequal exchange, International economy |
| JEL: | D63 F02 B51 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2017-10&r=hme |
| By: | Hassink, Robert (Kiel University); Gong, Huiwen (Kiel University) |
| Abstract: | Over the last twenty years, modern economic geography has been increasingly fragmented, particularly concerning its themes, on the one hand, and its schools of thought, perspectives and paradigms, on the other. Although there have been arguments in favor of engaged pluralism between the latter, what we see in reality is mainly fragmented pluralism, which is particularly problematic for the identification with the sub-discipline and the exchange with neighboring social disciplines. In order to solve this problem, in our view, we need an Integrative Paradigm of Economic Geography. In this paper, we sketch the contours of such a paradigm, which consists of a core, namely economic activities in space, place and scales and their drivers, and three inter-related ontological foundations, namely networks, evolution and institutions. |
| Keywords: | economic geography; pluralism; paradigms; Integrative Paradigm of Economic Geography |
| JEL: | R10 R11 |
| Date: | 2017–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2017_012&r=hme |
| By: | Laura Altinger and Daniel Jeongdae Lee from the Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division. (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) |
| Abstract: | Although not captured in the GDP measure, environmental degradation, carbon emissions and air pollution reduce social welfare and undermine the sustainability of economies. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unt:pbmpdd:pb53&r=hme |
| By: | Sophie Hatte (UNIL - Université de Lausanne); Pamina Koenig (PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Rouen, PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) regularly denounce the behavior of multinational corporations throughout the world, however their motivations for choosing the targets of their campaigns remain largely unknown. Using a new and rich dataset listing activists' campaigns towards multinational firms, we reveal important regularities in the geography and internationalization of advocacy NGOs activity. For example, 49\% of US NGOs select a foreign target firm, however, 75\% of campaigns targeting foreign firms involve an action taking place in the country of the NGO. We build on these facts to analyze the country-level determinants of NGOs campaigns, and estimate a triadic gravity equation for campaigns, involving the NGO, firm and action countries. Our variables of interest are the bilateral links between the country pairs, measuring how well the audience of the NGO identifies to the target of the campaign. Our results reveal a campaigning bias towards home firms and firms originating from familiar countries. |
| Keywords: | microeconomy of globalization,NGOs campaigns,multinational firms,gravity equation |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01518148&r=hme |
| By: | Simone Schotte (German Institute of Global and Area Studies and the Georg-August-University Göttingen); Rocco Zizzamia (Department of International Development, University of Oxford and SALDRU, University of Cape Town); Murray Leibbrandt (SALDRU, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | The wave of upbeat stories on the developing world's emerging middle class has reinvigorated a debate on how social class in general and the middle class in particular ought to be defined and empirically measured. The contribution this paper makes to this literature is both conceptual and empirical. The conceptual contribution consists in proposing a schema of social stratification with particular relevance for the emerging and developing country context marked by high economic insecurity. Building on a recently developed framework that defines the middle class in relation to their (in)vulnerability to poverty, in this paper, we propose a multi-layered class model that differentiates five social classes: (i) the chronic poor, characterised by high poverty persistence, (ii) the transient poor, who have above average chances of escaping poverty, (iii) the non-poor but vulnerable, whose basic needs are currently being met but who face above average risks of slipping into poverty, (iv) the middle class, who are in a better position to maintain a non-poor standard of living even in the event of negative shocks, and (v) the elite, whose living standards situate them far above the average. The empirical contribution consists in the application of this conceptual innovation to the South African case using a model of poverty transitions that is fitted to four waves of panel data from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) covering 2008 through to 2014/15. Given the classification derived in this paper, we find that only about 20 per cent of the South African population can be considered as stably middle class. Africans remain underrepresented in the middle class, and race is still one of the strongest predictors of poverty in South Africa. Members of larger, female headed, or rural households face a higher risk of poverty, and are less likely to enter the ranks of the middle class. Having access to stable labour market income, by contrast, is a key determinant for households to achieve economic stability in South Africa. |
| Keywords: | South Africa; social class; poverty dynamics; vulnerability |
| JEL: | D31 I32 C32 C35 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:208&r=hme |
| By: | Javier Cravino (University of Michigan) |
| Abstract: | Aggregate price levels are positively related to income per capita across countries. We propose a mechanism to rationalize this observation that relies on sectorial differences in intermediate input intensities. As aggregate productivity and income grow, so does the cost of labor relative to intermediate inputs, which in turn increases the relative price of non-tradables if tradable sectors use intermediate inputs more intensively. In contrast to the Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis, this mechanism does not rely on sectorial differences in the level of productivity, and hence can be easily quantified using input-output data. We show that differences in intermediate input shares across sectors can account for about half the elasticiy of the aggregate price level with respect to GDP per capita. The mechanism also has stark implications for industry-level real exchange rates that are strongly supported by the data. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:552&r=hme |
| By: | Florent Dubois (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille, UM - Université du Maine); Christophe Muller (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille) |
| Abstract: | Despite the influential work of Cutler and Glaeser [13], whether ghettos are good or bad is still an open and debatable question. In this paper, we provide evidence that, in South Africa, ghettos can be good or bad for income depending on the studied quantile of the income distribution. Segregation tends to be beneficial for rich Whites while it is detrimental for poor Blacks. Even when we find it to be also detrimental for Whites, it is still more detrimental for Blacks. We further show that the multitude of results fuelling this debate can come from misspecification issues and selecting the appropriate sample for the analysis. Finally, we quantify the importance of segregation in the income gap between Blacks and Whites in the post-Apartheid South Africa. We find that segregation can account for up to 40 percent of the income gap at the median. It is even often a larger contribution than education all across the income distribution. |
| Keywords: | post-apartheid South Africa,generalized decompositions,income distribution,residential segregation |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01520311&r=hme |
| By: | Anastasia Wolff (EVS - Environnement Ville Société - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon III - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Etienne] - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne - ENSAL - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, AgroParisTech, FAYOL-ENSMSE - Département Management responsable et innovation - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de St Etienne - Institut Henri Fayol); Natacha Gondran (FAYOL-ENSMSE - Département Génie de l’environnement et des organisations - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de St Etienne - Institut Henri Fayol, EVS - Environnement Ville Société - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon III - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Etienne] - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne - ENSAL - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Christian Brodhag (FAYOL-ENSMSE - Département Management responsable et innovation - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de St Etienne - Institut Henri Fayol, EVS - Environnement Ville Société - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon III - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Etienne] - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne - ENSAL - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Companies are called by institutional organizations to assess their impacts on biodiversity and to take actions to achieve collectively conservation objectives. This paper presents a method to assess whether the pressures exerted by a business and its value chain on biodiversity are compatible with biodiversity conservation. The absolute environmental sustainability assessment framework is used to compare relevant life cycle assessment midpoint and endpoint indicators to the ecological budgets assigned to the company. This approach is illustrated based on the case study of a mass-market retailer with a focus on the pressures exerted by its food portfolio at the agricultural production step. The results indicate that several pressures driving biodiversity loss are not sustainable. The study also highlights the prominent weight of a few product categories in the ecological burden. These findings have implications for mass-market retailers as well as their food value chains and open research perspectives to make such an approach fully operational. |
| Keywords: | Life cycle assessment, Biodiversity, Business, Carrying capacity,Sustainability, Corporate social responsibility |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:emse-01575571&r=hme |
| By: | Pierre Gosselin (IF - Institut Fourier - UJF - Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Aïleen Lotz (Cerca Trova - Aucune); Marc Wambst (IRMA - Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée - Université de Strasbourg - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an analytical treatment of economic systems with an arbitrary number of agents that keeps track of the systems' interactions and agent's complexity. The formalism does not seek to aggregate agents: it rather replaces the standard optimization approach by a probabilistic description of the agents' behaviors and of the whole system. This is done in two distinct steps. A first step considers an interacting system involving an arbitrary number of agents, where each agent's utility function is subject to unpredictable shocks. In such a setting, individual optimization problems need not be resolved. Each agent is described by a time-dependent probability distribution centered around its utility optimum. The whole system of agents is thus defined by a composite probability depending on time, agents' interactions, relations of strategic dominations, agents' information sets and expectations. This setting allows for heterogeneous agents with different utility functions, strategic domination relations, heterogeneity of information, etc. This dynamic system is described by a path integral formalism in an abstract space – the space of the agents' actions –and is very similar to a statistical physics or quantum mechanics system. We show that this description, applied to the space of agents' actions, reduces to the usual optimization results in simple cases. Compared to the standard optimization, such a description markedly eases the treatment of a system with a small number of agents. It becomes however useless for a large number of agents. In a second step therefore, we show that, for a large number of agents, the previous description is equivalent to a more compact description in terms of field theory. This yields an analytical, although approximate, treatment of the system. This field theory does not model an aggregation of microeconomic systems in the usual sense, but rather describes an environment of a large number of interacting agents. From this description, various phases or equilibria may be retrieved, as well as the individual agents' behaviors, along with their interaction with the environment. This environment does not necessarily have a unique or stable equilibrium and allows to reconstruct aggregate quantities without reducing the system to mere relations between aggregates. For illustrative purposes, this paper studies several economic models with a large number of agents, some presenting various phases. These are models of consumer/producer agents facing binding constraints , business cycle models, and psycho-economic models of interacting and possibly strategic agents. |
| Keywords: | phase transition,path integrals, business cycle, aggregation, budget constraint, forward-looking behavior,statistical field theory, non trivial vacuum, effective action, Green function, correlation functions, heterogeneous agents, multi-agent model, strategical advantage, interacting agents,psycho-economic models, integrated structures, emergence |
| Date: | 2017–06–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01549586&r=hme |
| By: | Kounetas, Kostas; Alexopoulos, Elias; Tzelepis, Dimitris |
| Abstract: | This study examines the causal linkage between environmental and financial performance in Greek manufacturing firms. Environmental performance is measured according to accounting data following the Eco Management and Auditing Scheme guidelines and ISO certification. Return on assets and return on sales are used as indicators of financial performance. Empirical findings suggest that there seems to be a link between these dimensions irrespectively of the particular sector of activity. Contrary to similar studies a “virtuous circle” does not exist as the avoidance of environmental improving investments is related to a better financial performance. On the other hand firms with superior financial performance seem to achieve a better environmental performance. At the same time firm specific and market characteristics significantly affect this relationship. These findings provide evidence that governmental and corporate actions are necessary in order to lead to a more sustainable corporate performance in the long run |
| Keywords: | environmental performance; financial performance; causality; GMM; Greece. |
| JEL: | Q0 Q00 Q56 |
| Date: | 2016–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80906&r=hme |
| By: | Javier Herrera (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - Université Paris-Dauphine); Mireille Razafindrakoto (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - Université Paris-Dauphine); François Roubaud (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | While researchers are increasingly encouraged to refocus their publishing activities towards so called “excellence” academic journals, the question of knowledge dissemination and its role in developing countries becomes more acute. This dilemma, whereby any scientist is confronted, affects even more social sciences since they bear directly on topics and social issues where social demand is huge and unsatisfied, especially in the South. This contribution proposes to make explicit the foundations of this contradiction and discuss the potential role of communication strategies of research results and practical consequences which they generate. It addresses, inter alia, the question of media, targeted audiences, communication language, its effects and risks for the researcher when it deals with politically sensitive issues (corruption, discrimination, evaluation of public policies, etc.). This contribution feed on author’s experiences over the past 20 years in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. |
| Abstract: | A l'heure où les chercheurs sont de plus en plus incités à recentrer leurs activités de publication sur les revues académiques dites "d'excellence", la question de la diffusion des savoirs et de son rôle dans les pays en développement se pose avec une acuité accrue. Ce dilemme, auquel tout scientifique est confronté, affecte d'autant plus les sciences sociales que ces dernières portent directement sur des sujets et des enjeux de société où la demande sociale est immense et insatisfaite, tout spécialement au Sud. Cette contribution se propose d'expliciter les fondements de cette contradiction, de s'interroger sur le rôle potentiel des stratégies de communication des résultats de la recherche et des effets pratiques qu'elles engendrent. Elle aborde, entre autres, la question des supports, des publics visés, de la langue de communication, de ses effets et des risques pour le chercheur lorsqu'il aborde des sujets politiquement sensibles (corruption, discriminations, évaluation des politiques publiques, etc.). Elle se nourrit des expériences menées par les auteurs en Afrique sub-saharienne, en Amérique latine et en Asie depuis une vingtaine d'années. |
| Keywords: | pays en développement,Code éthique,démocratie,diffusion,médias,statistique |
| Date: | 2017–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01521984&r=hme |