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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2017‒10‒15
nine papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Simon Deakin |
| Abstract: | In his account of the corporation as a 'community', Tony Lawson advances a materialist theory of social reality to argue for the existence of emergent social structures based on collective practices and behaviours, distinguishing his position from John Searle's theory of social reality as consisting of declarative speech acts. Lawson's and Searle's accounts are examined for what they imply about the relationship between social structures and legal concepts. It is argued that legal concepts are themselves a feature of social reality and that a consequence of the law's recognition of the 'reality' of the corporation is to open up the activities of business firm to a distinct form of normative ordering. |
| Keywords: | social ontology, the corporation, legal evolution |
| JEL: | B52 K22 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp491&r=hme |
| By: | Ian Coelho de Souza Almeida (Cedeplar-UFMG); Rafael Galvão de Almeida (Cedeplar-UFMG); Lucas Resende de Carvalho (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | The paper approaches the theme of the relatively higher level of pluralism in Brazilian economics, when compared to the other countries, from a different approach used in the literature. Considering the Qualis as an instrument of great impact in the research of the Brazilian graduate education centers, mainly because of its impact in the CAPES evaluation of the centers, we analyze the abrupt change in the journal ranking that occurred in 2016. Before presenting this data, we first focused in understanding the metrics that are part of the Qualis, and how relevant the biases from other indexes than the Impact Factor are. Afterwards, we present a review of the national literature concerning the academic production in economics, showing how some problems due to incentives and structure still persist. We, then, present our results: we found out that the increase of journals in the higher strata of the Qualis without a research agenda bias, and with a great inclusion of specialized sub-fields of the discipline. Besides, the impact that this change will cause in the 2017 CAPES’ evaluation cannot be seen as favoring centers by their division in mainstream and non-mainstream. Having this in mind, we argue that the modifications keep incentives to pluralism, besides correcting many problems in the ranking. |
| Keywords: | Qualis, academic production, pluralism, bibliometrics, mainstream economics, heterodox economics |
| JEL: | A23 A14 B00 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td569&r=hme |
| By: | Christian Grimm; Jakob Kapeller; Stephan Pühringer (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | Gegenstand dieser Studie ist eine Bestandsaufnahme des aktuellen Profils der Volkswirtschaftslehre im deutschsprachigen Raum (Oesterreich, Schweiz und Deutschland). Zu diesem Zweck wurde eine empirische Erhebung durchgefuehrt, um alle derzeit in den ausgewaehlten Laendern wirkenden Professor_innen der Oekonomie hinsichtlich ihrer theoretischen Ausrichtung sowie ihrer wissenschaftlichen und außerakademischen bzw. politischen Vernetzung zu untersuchen. Die Datenerhebung erfolgte mittels eines mehrstufigen Erhebungsverfahrens, in dem qualitative und quantitative Charakteristika erfasst und anhand standardisierter Kriterien interpretiert wurden. Die Ergebnisse beim akademischen Forschungsprofil zeigen zum einen eine Dominanz mikrooekonomischer Ansaetze: Die Haelfte aller Professor_innen (50,35%) verfuegen demnach über eine mikrooekonomische Forschungsausrichtung. Die paradigmatische Orientierung ergab eine starke Konzentration auf mainstreamoekonomische Forschungsansaetze neoklassischer Prägung (91,27%). Damit einhergehend kann eine Marginalisierung heterodoxer Theorien beobachtet werden: Nur bei 5 der insgesamt 89 untersuchten Universitaetsstandorten konnte zumindest die Haelfte der dort taetigen Professor_innen dem heterodoxen bzw. pluralen Forschungsfeld zugeordnet werden. Auf der Ebene der innerakademischen Vernetzung stellt der Verein für Socialpolitik weiterhin eine zentrale Instanz dar. Dennoch bilden sich die grundlegden paradigmatischen Diskrepanzen im Forschungsprofil gegenwaertiger Oekonomie auch in der Analyse der inner- und außerakademischen Vernetzung von Oekonom_innen ab. |
| Keywords: | Wissenschaftsindikatoren, Forschungsprofil deutschsprachiger Oekonom_innen, paradigmatische Orientierungen in der Oekonomie, politische Wirkungskraft der Oekonomie. |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:70&r=hme |
| By: | Elena Grinza (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy); Francesco Devicienti (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy); Mariacristina Rossi (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy); Davide Vannoni (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy) |
| Abstract: | Attitudes of women and men about how paid and unpaid work should be divided in the couple largely determine women's earnings and career prospects. Hence, it is important to understand how people's gender role attitudes are formed and evolve over the lifetime. In this paper, we concentrate on one of the most path-breaking events in life: becoming a parent. Using longitudinal panel data for the UK, we first show that, in general, entry into parenthood significantly shifts women's attitudes toward more conservative views, while leaving men unaffected. We also show that the impact on women emerges only after some time from the childbirth, suggesting that attitudes change relatively slowly over time and do not react immediately after becoming a parent. Finally, we show that the impact gets large and strongly significant for women and men whose prenatal attitudes were progressive. In particular, we find that the change in attitudes for such individuals increases as the postnatal arrangements are more likely to be traditional. Overall, these findings suggest that the change in attitudes is mainly driven by the emergence of a cognitive dissonance. Broad policy implications are drawn. |
| Keywords: | Gender equality, Gender role attitudes, Entry into parenthood, Cognitive dissonance, Changes in the hormonal production, Understanding Society (US) dataset |
| JEL: | J16 J13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tur:wpapnw:042&r=hme |
| By: | Committee, Nobel Prize (Nobel Prize Committee) |
| Abstract: | Economists aim to develop models of human behavior and interactions in markets and other economic settings. But we humans behave in complex ways. Although we try to make rational decisions, we have limited cognitive abilities and limited willpower. While our decisions are often guided by self-interest, we also care about fairness and equity. Moreover cognitive abilities, self-control, and motivation can vary significantly across different individuals. |
| Keywords: | Behavioral economics; |
| JEL: | D03 D90 G02 |
| Date: | 2017–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:2017_001&r=hme |
| By: | Freire Junior, Clovis (United Nations, Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | Economic development is associated with structural transformation and the increase of complexity of production and exports. This paper examines whether strategic diversification is required to increase economic complexity or whether market incentives would be sufficient to drive this process of catching-up. The paper applies empirical methods of the strand of the literature on economic complexity to examine how path dependency and the demand for potential new products affect economic diversification. It argues that strategic diversification is required in cases when demand factors are very likely to create incentives for diversification towards less complex products, which hinders the increase of productive capacities of countries. The paper presents the results of analysis considering 221 economies and shows that less diversified economies would not be able to rely on market incentives alone. They have to strategically diversify towards more complex products, which require the selective promotion of economic activities through the use of targeted industrial, infrastructure, trade, investment and private sector development policies. |
| Keywords: | Diversification, Structural Transformation, Productive Capacities, Industrial Policy, Economic Development |
| JEL: | O11 O14 O33 O38 O53 O57 |
| Date: | 2017–09–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2017037&r=hme |
| By: | Carla Poliana Santos Ávila (Cedeplar-UFMG); Gustavo Britto (Cedeplar-UFMG); Jorge Luís Teixeira Ávila (Auditor Federal de Finanças e Controle da Secretaria do Tesouro Nacional) |
| Abstract: | The present work assesses the extent to which the foreign and domestic markets affect the process of structural change in a set of 40 countries, in the period 1995-2007. For this purpose, a shift-share identity was developed to discriminate productivity growth in terms of the domestic and foreign sources of demand. For the sample of countries, the decomposition analysis is based on a database of 35 sectors from World Input-Output Database (WIOD). The results showed that both the domestic and foreign markets strongly influenced the structural change in Asia and Eastern Europe, while Latin America (Brazil and Mexico) lagged behind mainly due to a low effect of the foreign market. For the higher development level regions, the foreign market was more relevant. Finally, the domestic and foreign markets seem to affect structural change through different channels. |
| Keywords: | structural change, economic development, shift-share identity, domestic market, foreign market. |
| JEL: | O47 O11 O57 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td568&r=hme |
| By: | Nicolas Vincent (HEC Montreal); Matthias Kehrig (Duke University) |
| Abstract: | The aggregate labor share in U.S. manufacturing declined dramatically over the last three decades: Since the mid-1980’s, the compensation for labor declined from 63% to 42% of value added which is unseen in any other sector of the U.S. economy. The labor share of the typical U.S. manufacturing plants, in contrast, rose by 5%. We document that reallocation of production towards "hyper-productive plants" contributes two thirds of the decline while the remaining one third are caused by exit of high-labor share plants. Plants that account for the majority of production by the late 2000's arrive at a low labor share by gradually increasing value added by a factor of three while keeping employment and compensation unchanged. Other than this output response, these low-labor share plants look very similar to their peers along almost all other characteristics such as equipment investment, exposure to trade or whether they are located in right-to-work states. Labor share decline explanations that focus on the role of equipment-embodied technical change, unions or international trade only therefore seem limited. Based on novel empirical evidence, we consider alternative explanations. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:739&r=hme |
| By: | Nora Albu |
| Abstract: | Die Studie untersucht die gesamtwirtschaftlichen Arbeitskosten des deutschen Verarbeitenden Gewerbes unter Berücksichtigung der Arbeitszeitgruppen für das Jahr 2012 mittels Input-Output-Methode. Durch die Lieferverflechtungen zwischen den Produktionsbereichen in der Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnung ermöglicht die Input-Output Analyse eine Betrachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen (direkten und indirekten) Arbeitskosten der Endprodukte im Gegensatz zu den Arbeitskosten der Produktion, die direkt in den einzelnen Produktionsbereichen anfallen. Die Verteilung und die Entlohnung der Vollzeit, Teilzeit und geringfügig beschäftigten Arbeitnehmer in den jeweiligen Produktionsbereichen fließen in die Berechnung des Arbeitskostengehaltes hinein. Die zugrundeliegende Berechnung weist einen hohen Einsparungseffekt für die Arbeitskosten der Endprodukte des deutschen Verarbeitenden Gewerbes durch den Bezug von Dienstleistungen aus anderen Sektoren in Höhe von rund 11 % auf. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imk:studie:56-2017&r=hme |