nep-hme New Economics Papers
on Heterodox Microeconomics
Issue of 2017‒11‒05
twelve papers chosen by
Carlo D’Ippoliti
Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”

  1. The Improbability of Reswitching, the Certainty of Wicksell-Effects and the Poverty of Production Functions: The Cambridge Critique of Capital Transformed By Schefold, Bertram
  2. Embedding as a Pitfall for Survey-Based Welfare Indicators: Evidence from an Experiment By Clemens Hetschko; Louisa von Reumont; Ronnie Schöb
  3. Current Conditions and Challenges of Third-sector Organizations in Japan: Considerations based on the Fourth Survey on the Third Sector (2017) (Japanese) By USHIRO Fusao; SAKAMOTO Haruya
  4. Economic Growth and the Change of Industrial Structure (Japanese) By YOSHIKAWA Hiroshi; ANDO Koichi
  5. Gendered References in Organization Studies By Czarniawska, Barbara; Sevón, Guje
  6. A Topological Approach to Scaling in Financial Data By Jean de Carufel; Martin Brooks; Michael Stieber; Paul Britton
  7. The Gift and Pay-What-You-Want Pricing By Egbert, Henrik
  8. Frontier Knowledge and Scientific Production: Evidence from the Collapse of International Science By Alessandro Iaria; Carlo Schwarz; Fabian Waldinger
  9. Contemporary Thailand–Japan Economic Relations: What Falling Japanese Investment Reveals About Thailand's Deep, Global Competition, State in the Context of Shifting Regional Orders By Ryan Hartley
  10. How much does others’ protection matter? Employment protection and well-being By Lücke, Christine
  11. Back to work: The Long-term Effects of Vocational Training for Female Job Returners By Doerr, Annabelle
  12. The Limits to Moral Erosion in Markets: Social Norms and the Replacement Excuse By Björn Bartling; Yagiz Özdemir

  1. By: Schefold, Bertram
    Abstract: Capital theory has taken a new turn with the theoretical discovery that wage curves tend to get linear in random systems, the larger they are. The paper by argues that reswitching becomes less likely for larger systems, while Wicksell effects are almost surely present. But it can also be shown that the elasticity of substitution is likely to be small in random systems so that a policy to lower real wages will not easily generate much additional employment in a closed economy.
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168104&r=hme
  2. By: Clemens Hetschko; Louisa von Reumont; Ronnie Schöb
    Abstract: How can we assess the welfare of a society, its evolution over time and predict its change due to particular policy interventions? One way is to use survey-based welfare indicators such as the OECD Better Life Index. It invites people to weight a variety of quality of life indicators according to their individual preferences. 11 broad dimensions aggregate these indicators. Our experiment shows that people do not provide consistent ratings across differently labelled dimensions that embed the same indicators. They also do not adjust the rating of equally named dimensions changing sets of indicators. These results show that survey-based measures might suffer from strong embedding effects and, as a result, may fail to measure citizens’ true preferences for the indicators.
    Keywords: beyond GDP, welfare measurement, survey-based welfare indicators, OECD Better Life Index, embedding effect
    JEL: B41 C43 C83 I31
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6419&r=hme
  3. By: USHIRO Fusao; SAKAMOTO Haruya
    Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the Fourth Survey on the Third Sector (2017) and outlines the results, examining the current conditions and challenges faced by third-sector organizations in Japan from multiple viewpoints. Today, there is no widespread and sufficient understanding on the idea of the third sector itself. In order to clarify it, this study will focus on third-sector organizations, and discuss the importance of analyzing their realities and suggest remaining issues for future analysis. The Fourth Survey on the Third Sector uses the information listed on the National Tax Agency Corporate Number Publication Site (NTA-CNPS) as its population. Survey questionnaires were mailed to sample organizations selected randomly and respectively from different types of corporate status. This paper analyzes the results of Fourth Survey on the Third Sector from perspectives including human resources, organizational governance, background and current state of activities, financial status, and relationships with politics and the government, revealing the current conditions and challenges faced by third-sector organizations. From a variety of fundamental facts uncovered by this survey, the new and significant findings have been clarified as follows: (1) large gaps exist in organizational capacity, actual activities, and other facets among "non-profit organizations beyond the competent government agency system," "non-profit organizations under the competent government agency system," and "various types of cooperative associations," resulting in the formation of a "three-layered structure" of third-sector organizations in Japan; (2) the average ratio of women in third-sector organization executives is only 19.5%, indicating a strong gender bias even among third-sector leaders; (3) the "commercialization of non-profits" can be seen among some organizations, such as their implementation of management methods used in for-profit corporations; and (4) the "distrust" of labor unions and "non-profit organizations" are becoming apparent, even within the third sector.
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:17063&r=hme
  4. By: YOSHIKAWA Hiroshi; ANDO Koichi
    Abstract: The important parts in generating the economic growth of developed countries are firms' innovation on the micro level and the sectoral shift of resources accompanying it on the macro level. In this paper, we determine the size of the sectoral shift on the product level by using the data of value added in the input-output (IO) table. We regard it as the measure of product innovation and structural change and explore the relationship to macroeconomic growth. We find that the greater the structural change is, the higher the average growth rate becomes. This result holds true over the recent years.
    Date: 2017–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:17042&r=hme
  5. By: Czarniawska, Barbara (Gothenburg Research Institute); Sevón, Guje (Dept. of Management and Organization)
    Abstract: This text starts with counts of men and women authors quoted in some early and late works of organization theory. An analysis of works of classical authors, and of our own works, reveals that over the years the proportion of references to women’s work has increased, although it is still far from half of the references. The text invites to a discussion about why women authors are systematically underrecognized, and initiates by listing some reasons for why full names in references instead of initials might enhance the proper recognition of research conducted by women.
    Keywords: gender; referencing; academic excellence; organization studies
    Date: 2017–10–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:hastma:2017_005&r=hme
  6. By: Jean de Carufel; Martin Brooks; Michael Stieber; Paul Britton
    Abstract: There is a large body of work, built on tools developed in mathematics and physics, demonstrating that financial market prices exhibit self-similarity at different scales. In this paper, we explore the use of analytical topology to characterize financial price series. While wavelet and Fourier transforms decompose a signal into sets of wavelets and power spectrum respectively, the approach presented herein decomposes a time series into components of its total variation. This property is naturally suited for the analysis of scaling characteristics in fractals.
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1710.08860&r=hme
  7. By: Egbert, Henrik
    Abstract: This paper addresses the participative pricing mechanism of Pay-What-You-Want pricing as related to Marcel Mauss’s concept of the Gift. Reciprocity is a behavioural pattern imminent to the Gift as well as to Pay-What-You-Want pricing. The paper refers to results from behavioural economics in order to identify factors that positively influence reciprocity. It is argued that the aspects elaborated on in the Gift are also relevant to the PWYW pricing mechanism when it comes to implementations of the latter as one of the corporate pricing strategies.
    Keywords: Gift, Marcel Mauss, Pay-What-You-Want, PWYW, Pricing, Reciprocity
    JEL: M21 Z13
    Date: 2017–10–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:82066&r=hme
  8. By: Alessandro Iaria; Carlo Schwarz; Fabian Waldinger
    Abstract: We show that WWI and the subsequent boycott against Central scientists severely interrupted international scientific cooperation. After 1914, citations to recent research from abroad decreased and paper titles became less similar (evaluated by Latent Semantic Analysis), suggesting a reduction in international knowledge flows. Reduced international scientific cooperation led to a decline in the production of basic science and its application in new technology. Specifically, we compare productivity changes for scientists who relied on frontier research from abroad, to changes for scientists who relied on frontier research from home. After 1914, scientists who relied on frontier research from abroad published fewer papers in top scientific journals, produced less Nobel Prize-nominated research, introduced fewer novel scientific words, and introduced fewer novel words that appeared in the text of subsequent patent grants. The productivity of scientists who relied on top 1% research declined twice as much as the productivity of scientists who relied on top 3% research. Furthermore, highly prolific scientists experienced the starkest absolute productivity declines. This suggests that access to the very best research is key for scientific and technological progress.
    Keywords: frontier knowledge, scientific production, international knowledge flows, WWI
    JEL: O3 N3 N4 O31 O5 N30 N40 J44 I23
    Date: 2017–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1506&r=hme
  9. By: Ryan Hartley
    Abstract: This article centres on the nature of the Thai state amid a shifting global economic environment, examining it through the lens of foreign direct investment and specifically Japan's declining foreign direct into the kingdom since 2015. It posits that the Thai state is neither a liberal democracy nor a liberal capitalist model and is instead akin to a deep and global competition-oriented state. Through this modality, the article examines recent drops in foreign investment, especially from Japan, and goes on to seek to explain said drops in foreign direct investment through a policy framework extracted from such a theoretical insight of the nature of the Thai state. The article concludes that falling foreign investment can be linked to the reception by Japan of recent policy imperatives and outputs in Thailand that operate on the level of a deep state–globality nexus.
    Keywords: Japan FDI, Thailand economy, Thai state, deep state, Thai military, competition state, Mekong region
    Date: 2017–09–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:appswp:201741&r=hme
  10. By: Lücke, Christine
    Abstract: Workers’ well-being depends crucially on the legal framework and its statutes regulating the level of protection. While it seems obvious that a worker’s level of satisfaction is directly affected by the level of protection she receives, this paper argues that the level of protection other workers receive constitutes in integral part as well.
    JEL: J28 J48 J42
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168096&r=hme
  11. By: Doerr, Annabelle
    Abstract: Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit der Wirksamkeit von beruflicher Weiterbildung für Berufsrückkehrerinnen. Wir analysieren dazu eine 100% Stichprobe von Berufsrückkehererinnen, die von 2003-2005 an einen Bildungsgutschein erhalten haben und vergleichen diese mit einer zufällig gezogenen Kontrollgruppe aus administrativen Daten. Wir finden positiv signifikante Effekte auf die Beschäftigung, die Löhne sowie zahlreiche Ergebnisvariablen, die die Beschäftigungsstabilität und Qualität beschreiben.
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168213&r=hme
  12. By: Björn Bartling; Yagiz Özdemir
    Abstract: This paper studies the impact of a key feature of competitive markets on moral behavior: the possibility that a competitor will step in and conclude the deal if a conscientious market actor forgoes a profitable business opportunity for ethical reasons. We study experimentally whether people employ the argument “if I don’t do it, someone else will” to justify taking a narrowly self-interested action. Our data reveal a clear pattern. Subjects do not employ the “replacement excuse” if a social norm exists that classifies the selfish action as immoral. But if no social norm exists, subjects are more inclined to take a selfish action in situations where another subject can otherwise take it. By demonstrating the importance of social norms of moral behavior for limiting the power of the replacement excuse, our paper informs the long-standing debate on the effect of markets on morals.
    Keywords: replacement excuse, social norms, moral behavior, competition, markets, utilitarianism, deontological ethics
    JEL: C92 D02 D63
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6696&r=hme

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