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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2018‒04‒23
sixteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Dong–Min Rieu (Chungnam National University, Department of Economics); Hyun Woong Park (Denison University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In order to explain how the Korean economy underwent the structural change through the two crises of 1997-8 and 2008 within the context of globalization, this article focuses on class analysis and inter-sectoral value transfer by estimating the sectoral rates of exploitation along with the sectoral monetary expressions of labor time. Our data indicate the possibility that the expansion of unproductive activities, accompanied by intensification of exploitation within the unproductive sectors, might not have overtaken capital accumulation in Korea during 1995–2015. It can also be concluded that the condition for manufacturing’s capital accumulation steadily improved since the 1997–8 crisis, but started to deteriorate after 2011. Our value–theoretic analysis provides a foundation for understanding the context of the regime change, which may plausibly characterize the Korean economy last couple of decades. |
| Keywords: | Sectoral rates of surplus value, unproductive labor, monetary expression of labor time, Korean economy |
| JEL: | B51 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ums:papers:2018-07&r=hme |
| By: | Frank Veneroso |
| Abstract: | The dominant postwar tradition in economics assumes the utility maximization of economic agents drives markets toward stable equilibrium positions. In such a world there should be no endogenous asset bubbles and untenable levels of private indebtedness. But there are. There is a competing alternative view that assumes an endogenous behavioral propensity for markets to embark on disequilibrium paths. Sometimes these departures are dangerously far reaching. Three great interwar economists set out most of the economic theory that explains this natural tendency for markets to propagate financial fragility: Joseph Schumpeter, Irving Fisher, and John Maynard Keynes. In the postwar period, Hyman Minsky carried this tradition forward. Early on he set out a “financial instability hypothesis†based on the thinking of these three predecessors. Later on, he introduced two additional dynamic processes that intensify financial market disequilibria: principal–agent distortions and mounting moral hazard. The emergence of a behavioral finance literature has provided empirical support to the theory of endogenous financial instability. Work by Vernon Smith explains further how disequilibrium paths go to asset bubble extremes. The following paper provides a compressed account of this tradition of endogenous financial market instability. |
| Keywords: | Financial Instability; Joseph Schumpeter; Irving Fisher; John Maynard Keynes; Hyman Minsky; Financial Markets; Macroeconomics |
| JEL: | D53 E44 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_903&r=hme |
| By: | Sylvie Thoron (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales) |
| Abstract: | Au sein des sciences économiques, l'étude du comportement se nourrit d'un dialogue fécond entre théorie et expérience. Mettant en cause le modèle de rationalité de l'Homo oeconomicus, celui-ci jette une nouvelle lumière sur la prise de décision dans les situations d'interaction stratégique. Le courant dominant des sciences économiques est connu des autres sciences sociales pour son modèle de l'agent rationnel et égoïste. Le fameux Homo oeconomicus prend ses décisions en anticipant sans faille celles des autres, en évaluant au mieux les situations risquées, et sans état d'âme, maximise son utilité qui dépend de son seul bien-être. Pourtant, ce modèle de l'agent économique a été largement mis en cause par les économistes eux-mêmes, lorsque ceux-ci ont tenté de le confronter aux comportements des individus réels. Comment s'y sont-ils pris ? Ils auraient pu aller voir dans les entreprises comment les managers prennent leurs décisions, ou dans les maisons, comment les ménages font leurs courses. C'est ce que font, dans une certaine mesure, les gestionnaires. Au lieu de cela, ils ont fait venir les individus dans des laboratoires expérimentaux installés au sein des universités, pour analyser leurs comportements. Un laboratoire expérimental, c'est une pièce informatiq ue meublée de boxes isolés par des paravents. Dans chaque box, un ordinateur, seul interface du « sujet » avec les autres. Chacun prend connaissance d'une situation, décrite sur son écran et expliquée par des instructions, et doit faire des choix. Pour tester le modèle théorique de l'agent économique, il faut que les conditions de l'expérience se rapprochent le plus possible de la théorie. Tout cet agencement est destiné à créer des conditions que l'expérimentaliste peut contrôler. Celui-ci doit pouvoir travailler la situation comme un biologiste dissèque une grenouille ou élève des populations de drosophiles dans des conditions différentes : l'économiste veut, comme le dit la littérature expérimentale, « isoler les effets ». L'expression peut être trompeuse. Il ne s'agit pas des effets observés de certaines causes mais des mécanismes supposés par les économistes pour expliquer certains comportements, donc plutôt des causes elles-mêmes. La littérature expérimentale est plus qu'abondante. Ici, nous nous concentrerons sur les travaux qui s'intéressent aux situations dites d'interactions stratégiques, dans lesquelles l'individu sait que ses décisions ont une influence sur les décisions des autres, et réciproquement. Nous commencerons par expliquer la méthode qui permet aux expérimentalistes de mettre en évidence certains des « effets » escomptés dans une telle situation. Nous verrons que ce travail d'observation et d'interprétation prend le modèle théorique de l'Homo oeconomicus stratégique pour référence. Les expérimentalistes tentent d'interpréter les différences entre les comportements observés et les comportements prévus par la théorie, ce qui les amène à repenser le modèle de la rationalité. Pour comprendre leurs travaux, nous verrons qu'il est utile de distinguer, dans le modèle de la rationalité, la façon dont l'agent économique raisonne, c'est-à-dire la façon dont il collecte et traite l'information d'une part, et ses motivations d'autre part. |
| Date: | 2016–10–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01704873&r=hme |
| By: | Marcel Lang; Jessica Ruscheinsky; Jochen Hausler |
| Abstract: | Among others, Ghysels et al. (2007) found, that fundamental economic indicators alone are not able to fully explain the dynamics of commercial real estate returns in the United States. Even more clearly, Khadjeh Nassirtoussi et al. (2014) state that investors often change their purchasing behavior according to irrational and emotional assumptions. This work tries to investigate aspects of these yet insufficiently researched factors influencing the direct real estate market in more detail.With news being one of the major information sources for investors, it can be assumed that they might affect decision making processes and hence may also influence prices. This behavior should be especially interesting in the direct real estate market, as the buying process, compared to stocks, for example, is comparatively long. Accordingly, the question arises as to whether, media can be used to explain market dynamics when sentiments are extracted from news items with different algorithmic approaches.This idea is tested by looking at the commercial real estate market in the US. Thus a data set of about 40,000 SNL news items was collected covering the time span from from 2005 until 2015 where all news articles had to contain the keyword "Real Estate" and were geographically limited to being published in the United States. First of all, a Naïve Bayes classifying algorithm is applied to extract market sentiment, as it is among the most promising ones in performing neuro-linguistic programming tasks, according to Antweiler and Frank (2004). Outcomes are further compared to the results of a support vector machine algorithm developed by Cortes and Vapnik (1995), which, in short, creates a linear decision surface to allow for a sentiment classification of text samples. Both algorithms count among the most popular supervised learning methods.In order to quantify the impact of sentiment in the commercial real estate market, both the CoStar Composite Repeat Sale Indices, which represents all property classes and types, as well as the Moody’s/RCA Commercial Property Price Indices are applied to investigate the relationship between media sentiment and property returns in different sectors of the Real Estate market.To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first work applying algorithm-based textual analysis on news articles to create a measure of media sentiment on the direct commercial real estate market in the US. |
| Keywords: | Algorithm based evaltuation; Sentiment measurement; Textual Analysis |
| JEL: | R3 |
| Date: | 2017–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2017_212&r=hme |
| By: | Natalia Rimashevskaya (Institute of Socio-Economic Studies of Population); Marina Malysheva (Institute of Socio-Economic Studies of Population); Marina Pisklakova-Parker (Institute of Socio-Economic Studies of Population) |
| Abstract: | The article presents the issues of optimum utilization of labour resources in terms of sharing professional and family responsibilities caused by changing gender roles in the society and emerging of the new fathering phenomenon. The authors proceed from the assumption that promotion of business initiatives and innovations are not valuable as such but as far as they are to satisfaction of needs of the different families in view of their cultural and social priorities. The authors argue that the conduct of business should be reasonable, so that parents could successfully fulfil their family responsibilities without violation of parental rights. Otherwise, sustainability of society may be threatened. This problem is emphasized as the main one within the framework of the project on fatherhood studies in contemporary Russia. This article includes the basic results of the project. |
| Keywords: | gender roles,employees' policy,balance of professional and family roles,new fathering models |
| Date: | 2017–09–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01735831&r=hme |
| By: | Lise Vesterlund |
| Abstract: | Women's reluctance to negotiate is often used to explain the gender wage gap, popularizingthe push for women to "lean-in" and negotiate more. Examining an environmentwhere women achieve positive pro ts when they choose to negotiate, we fi nd that increasednegotiations are not helpful. Women know when to ask: they enter negotiations resultingin positive profi ts and avoid negotiations resulting in negative profi ts. While the findingsare similar for men, we fi nd no evidence that men are more adept than women at knowingwhen to ask. Thus, our results do not justify a greater push for women to negotiate. |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pit:wpaper:6382&r=hme |
| By: | Karabarbounis, Loukas (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis); Neiman, Brent (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | Comparing U.S. GDP to the sum of measured payments to labor and imputed rental payments to capital results in a large and volatile residual or “factorless income.” We analyze three common strategies of allocating and interpreting factorless income, specifically that it arises from economic profits (Case Π), unmeasured capital (Case K), or deviations of the rental rate of capital from standard measures based on bond returns (Case R). We are skeptical of Case Π as it reveals a tight negative relationship between real interest rates and markups, leads to large fluctuations in inferred factor-augmenting technologies, and results in markups that have risen since the early 1980s but that remain lower today than in the 1960s and 1970s. Case K shows how unmeasured capital plausibly accounts for all factorless income in recent decades, but its value in the 1960s would have to be more than half of the capital stock, which we find less plausible. We view Case R as most promising as it leads to more stable factor shares and technology growth than the other cases, though we acknowledge that it requires an explanation for the pattern of deviations from common measures of the rental rate. Using a model with multiple sectors and types of capital, we show that our assessment of the drivers of changes in output, factor shares, and functional inequality depends critically on the interpretation of factorless income. |
| Keywords: | Factor shares; Profits; Missing capital; Return to capital |
| JEL: | E01 E22 E25 |
| Date: | 2018–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmwp:749&r=hme |
| By: | Pier Angelo Mori |
| Abstract: | The profit non-distribution constraint (NDC) is the basic requirement for non-profit tax privileges all over the world. In donative non-profits it is justified by the need to prevent donors’ exploitation by firm owners. Donative non-profits, however, are not the only type of third-sector institution and in many of them the chief stakeholders are customers, not donors. In this paper we investigate the social value of the NDC in mutual non-profits where customers exert control over the firm. The main theme here is the exploitation of some customers by others, rather than the exploitation of donors by managers or owners. When customers are homogeneous, the NDC can never be beneficial. More complex is the case of customer heterogeneity. We show that in this case the NDC presents three issues. First, there are cases where intra-member exploitation occurs through the generation of accounting losses, and in such cases the NDC is ineffective from an allocative standpoint. Second, even when it prevents exploitation, the resulting allocations may be socially inferior to those that obtain in the presence of minority exploitation. We further show that non-members’ exploitation is of the same nature as minority members’ exploitation and it is just a variant of it, whereby the same results on the NDC’s effectiveness qualitatively hold in this case too. The upshot is that granting tax relief to all mutual non-profits adopting the NDC is unwarranted and a selective application of tax incentives based on the governance structure is instead needed. |
| Keywords: | Non-profits, Non-distribution constraint, Customer ownership, Non-profits taxation |
| JEL: | L31 P13 D21 L20 G32 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpeu:18100&r=hme |
| By: | Emma Catalfamo (The George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | In an interdependent world, agents make forecasts about other economies as well as their own. This paper examines the nowcasts made by the French Central Bank and the French business community of the US economy during the Great Recession. Textual analysis is used because quantitative forecasts are not available. The results indicate that the French agents understood the general trends of the US economy during this period. |
| Keywords: | US economy, French nowcasts, textual analysis |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwc:wpaper:2018-001&r=hme |
| By: | Nikulin, Alexander (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)); Trotsuk, Irina (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)); Kurakin, Alexander (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA)) |
| Abstract: | This work represents the first step in developing a model for a systematic comparative analysis of the trajectories of the agrarian transformation of the regions of the BRICS countries and the EU. This model is intended, on the one hand, to combine the macro-optics of state planning, characteristic for modern economic research and statistical assessments with micro-optics of empirical projects, that track real local practices of agrarian development of specific rural territories and regions for a number of key indicators; on the other hand, to show the degree of continuity of the current regional and country scenarios of agrarian transformations in relation to the former (or historically distant) principles of economic reform. |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:031824&r=hme |
| By: | Nicolás Steven Escobar Forero |
| Abstract: | El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo lograr un acercamiento a las dificultades sociales y políticas por las cuales atravesó el modelo de Industrialización por Sustitución de Importaciones (ISI) en Colombia. A lo largo del texto se realiza un recorrido por diversos problemas afrontados en el país entre 1950 y 1980, periodo durante el cual el problema agrario, el conflicto armado y la falta de una élite económica que propiciara un proceso de industrialización aparecen como razones generadoras de dificultades en el proceso de industrialización colombiano. Finalmente, se concluye que estos motivos generan consecuencias que no permiten consolidar un mercado interno fuerte, factor fundamental para el proceso de industrialización. |
| Keywords: | industrialización, desarrollo económico, modelo económico de Colombia, economía colombiana, historia económica de Colombia |
| JEL: | B25 J21 O14 O18 Q15 |
| Date: | 2018–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000176:016181&r=hme |
| By: | Amandine Pinget (IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc); Rachel Bocquet (IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc) |
| Abstract: | Anchored in a knowledge-based view, this research aims to highlight SMEs’ specificities related to knowledge sources for environmental innovations that remain understudied compared to technological innovations. Results show that knowledge sources, which are essential for environmental innovation of SMEs, differ from those used for technological innovations. SMEs introducing environmental innovation rely more on external than internal knowledge sources. This research leads to the formulation |
| Abstract: | Basada en la perspectiva knowledge-based, esta investigación se pretende destacar las especificidades de las fuentes de conocimientos que contribuyen al desarrollo de las innovaciones medioambientales, poco estudiadas, a diferencia de las innovaciones tecnológicas. Nuestros resultados demuestran que las fuentes de conocimientos fundamentales para las innovaciones medioambientales de las PYME difieren de aquellas movilizadas por las innovaciones tecnológicas. Las PYME que introducen innovaciones medioambientales recurren más a fuentes externas de conocimientos, que internas. Esta investigación nos conduce a formular varias recomendaciones a las PYME y a los actores a cargo de su desarrollo. |
| Abstract: | Ancrée dans la perspective knowledge-based, cette recherche vise à mettre en évidence les spécificités des sources de connaissances des PME pour les innovations environnementales qui restent peu étudiées comparativement aux innovations technologiques. Les résultats montrent que les sources de connaissances, essentielles pour les innovations environnementales des PME, diffèrent de celles mobilisées pour les innovations technologiques. Les PME qui introduisent des innovations environnementales font davantage appel aux sources externes qu'internes de connaissances. Cette recherche conduit à formuler des recommandations utiles aux PME et aux acteurs en charge de leur développement. |
| Keywords: | Environnemental innovation,Technological innovation,Knowledge sources,SMEs,innovación medioambiental,innovación tecnológica,fuentes de conociemento,PYME,Innovation environnementale,Innovation technologique,Sources de connaissances,PME |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01699651&r=hme |
| By: | Emma Avetisyan (Audencia Business School); Kai Hockerts (CBS - Copenhagen Business School [Copenhagen]) |
| Abstract: | Since the late 1980s, a plethora of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating agencies have sprung up, developing new rating methodologies to meet the (new) needs of concerned investors and to help companies to improve their CSR performance. Since 2005, the industry of ESG ratings has witnessed an important number of both national and cross-border consolidations. Based on a set of 37 interviews and secondary data, the paper reveals growth strategies of ESG rating agencies and explores the driving forces and impacts behind this wave of consolidation. Our focus is on four ESG rating agencies based in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland. We have found financial motivation to be the main driver of consolidation. Additionally, and according to the perceptions of the ESG experts interviewed, a decrease in employee motivation coupled with a decrease in the quality of ESG research was observed to be one of the negative impacts of consolidation. |
| Keywords: | 2,responsible investing,ESG rating agencies, growth strategies, industry consolidation, socially |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01695693&r=hme |
| By: | Alberto Bucci (Università di Milano, DEMM & FinGro Lab); Lorenzo Carbonari (CEIS & DEF, University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Giovanni Trovato (CEIS & DEF, University of Rome "Tor Vergata") |
| Abstract: | We provide aggregate macroeconomic evidence on how, in the long-run, a diverse degree of production-complexity may affect not only the rate of economic growth, but also the correlation between the latter, population growth and the monopolistic (intermediate) markups. For a sample of OECD economies, we find that the losses due to more complexity in production are lower than the corresponding specialization gains. According to our theoretical model, this implies that the impact of population change on economic growth is slightly positive. Using a Finite Mixture Model, we also classify the countries in the sample and verify for each cluster the impact that the population growth rate and the intermediate sector's markups exert on the 5-year average real GDP growth rate. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth; Population growth; Variety-expansion; Specialization; Complexity; Product market competition. |
| JEL: | O3 O4 J1 |
| Date: | 2018–04–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:428&r=hme |
| By: | Antonio Abatemarco (University of Salerno, Italy); Francesca Stroffolini (University of Naples ``Federico II'', Italy) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we challenge the common interpretation of Rawls' Theory of Justice as Fairness by showing that this Theory, as outlined in the Restatement (Rawls 2001), goes well beyond the definition of a distributive value judgment, in such a way as to embrace efficiency issues as well. A simple model is discussed to support our interpretation of the Difference Principle, by which inequalities are shown to be permitted as far as they stimulate a greater effort in education in the population, and so economic growth. To our knowledge, this is the only possibility for the inequality to be `bought' by both the most-, and above all, the least-advantaged individual as suggested by the Difference Principle. Finally, by recalling the old tradition of universal ex-post efficiency (Hammond 1981), we show that a unique optimal social contract does not exist behind the veil of ignorance; more precisely, the sole set of potentially optimal social contracts can be identified a priori, and partial justice orderings derived accordingly. |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2017-430&r=hme |
| By: | Christian Tutin (LAB'URBA - LAB'URBA - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12) |
| Date: | 2017–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01683908&r=hme |