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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2018‒09‒17
thirteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Fix, Blair |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a new approach to the study of capitalist income. Building on the "capital as power" framework, I propose that capitalists earn their income not from any productive asset, but from the legal right to command a corporate hierarchy. In short, I hypothesize that capitalist income stems from hierarchical power. Based on this thinking, I hypothesize that the capitalist fraction of an individual's income is a gradient function of hierarchical power (which I define as the number of subordinates under one's control). Using data from US CEOs, I find evidence that this is true. Furthermore, a hierarchical model of the United States that generalizes this data accurately reproduces many aspects of the US distribution of capitalist income, including the relation between income size and capitalist income fraction. This evidence suggests that the ownership structure of US society is closely linked to the hierarchical structure of firms. This has important implications for the study of income distribution. |
| Keywords: | capitalist income,hierarchy,power,functional income distribution,personal income distribution,inequality,capital as power |
| JEL: | D31 D33 B5 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:capwps:201806&r=hme |
| By: | Tuna, Emelj; Karantininis, Kostas |
| Abstract: | Agricultural cooperatives in post-socialistic countries often fail to justify their purpose. Lack of trust and social capital are plausible reasons. The aim of this paper is to map the relationship structure of farmers in region where operational cooperative exists. The Social network analysis demonstrates low levels of social capital however, the cooperative acts as valuable information provider for its members, serving as information mediator to the rural development program’s resources, required for farmers’ investment initiatives. This is a positive evidence for small-scale farmers and a step forward in motivating changes of farmer’s attitudes towards cooperation and re-establishment of agricultural cooperatives. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2017–08–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaae17:260912&r=hme |
| By: | Kassie, M. |
| Abstract: | Using household and individual survey data in rural Kenya, this paper assesses the impacts of women’s empowerment in agriculture individually as well as in combination with push–pull technology (PPT) on women’s and households’ nutritional status. We adopt a multiple treatment endogenous switching regression framework to control for potential endogeneity of women’s empowerment. The analysis shows that women’s empowerment has a positive and significant effect on women’s and households’ dietary diversity scores. The impact is significantly higher for empowered women belonging to PPT-adopting households than for their counterparts who have not adopted PPT. Similarly, disempowered women from PPT-adopting households have higher dietary diversity scores compared with disempowered women from non-adopting households. These results imply that individual and household welfare could be enhanced to a greater degree by combining women’s empowerment with technology adoption than by treating the two elements as separate development issues. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:276003&r=hme |
| By: | Ke Wang; Jiayu Wang; Yi-Ming Wei; Chi Zhang |
| Abstract: | Environmentally extended input-output table (EEIOT), a balanced matrix of industrial commodity and environmental resources, is widely used to evaluate environmental policy impacts. However, the existing EEIOTs contain energy consumption and pollution emission but neglect emission abatement cost and benefit. In this study, a novel Chinese emission abatement sector extended input-output table (EAS-IOT) is developed through introducing abatement cost, emission charge and abatement benefit into the conventional input-output table. Furthermore, this new EAS-IOT is applied to estimate the environmental efficiency and assess the effects of environmental policies on economy and environment. Results show that the new framework of EAS-IOT has advantage on solving the problem of biased efficiency estimation related to the conventional input-output table. |
| Keywords: | Data on emission abatement cost and benefit; extended input-output table; emission abatement sector; environmental policy |
| JEL: | Q54 Q40 |
| Date: | 2018–09–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:biw:wpaper:119&r=hme |
| By: | Fix, Blair |
| Abstract: | Human capital theory is the dominant approach for understanding personal income distribution. According to this theory, individual income is the result of "human capital". The idea is that human capital makes people more productive, which leads to higher income. But is this really the case? This paper takes a critical look at human capital theory and its explanation of personal income distribution. I find that human capital theory's claims are dubious at best. In most cases, the theory is either not supported by evidence, is so vague that it is untestable, or is based on circular reasoning. In short, human capital theory is a barrier to the scientific study of income distribution. |
| Keywords: | human capital theory,income distribution,critique,hierarchy,productivity,power |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:capwps:201807&r=hme |
| By: | Al-Jarhi, Mabid |
| Abstract: | After more than 40 years of practice, the Islamic finance industry is riddled with products that have a camouflage of Islamic form, but lack Shari'ah validity of purpose. The increasing tendency to mimic conventional finance, had the industry converging to its conventional counterpart. It is therefore seriously threatened with increasing cynicism and popular decline in interest. The paper looks into the essence of Reba prohibition from an economic perspective, using a concise classification of transactions, and how popular monetary theory looks on a positive rate of interest with disfavor. It evaluates Shari'ah scholars approach to the validation of contracts as well as the attitude of monetary authorities towards the Shari'ah content of Islamic finance transactions. It reviews the macroeconomic advantages of Islamic finance within an Islamic macroeconomic environment. Then it tries to explain why managers of Islamic banking and finance institutions, IBFI, mimic conventional products despite such advantages. The paper surveys the literature that measures the extent of conversion as well as provides an alternative explanation. The study finds that IBFI violate the true paradigm of Islamic finance, because its advantages are all external and impossible to internalize. It lists several pieces of empirical evidence on increasing convergence. The paper concludes by drawing a plan composed of regulatory actions, research agenda as well as a series of dialogues with stakeholders. |
| Keywords: | Islamic economics, Islamic finance, interest rate, monetary theory, real and nominal transactions, Islamic finance regulation. |
| JEL: | E02 E4 E42 E44 P51 P52 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:88555&r=hme |
| By: | Gill, Andrej; Hett, Florian; Tischer, Johannes |
| Abstract: | Improving financial conditions of individuals requires an understanding of the mechanisms through which bad financial decision-making leads to worse financial outcomes. From a theoretical point of view, a key candidate inducing mistakes in financial decision-making are so called present-biased preferences, which are one of the cornerstones of behavioral economics. According to theory, present-biased households should behave systematically different when it comes to consumption and saving decisions, as they should be more prone to spending too much and saving too little. In this policy letter we show how high frequency financial transaction data available in digitized form allows to precisely categorize individual financial-decision making to be present-biased or not. Using this categorization, we find that one out of five individuals in our sample exhibits present-bias and that this present-biased behavior is associated with a stronger use of overdrafts. As overdrafts represent a particularly expensive way of short-term borrowing, their systematic use can be interpreted as a measure of suboptimal financial-decision making. Overall, our results indicate that the combination of economic theory and Big Data is able to generate valuable insights with applications for policy makers and businesses alike. |
| Keywords: | financial decision-making,financial transaction data,present bias,time inconsistency |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:safewh:55&r=hme |
| By: | Abel Brodeur (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON); Nikolai Cook (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON); Anthony Heyes (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, and University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | The economics 'credibility revolution' has promoted the identification of causal relationships using difference-in-differences (DID), instrumental variables (IV), randomized control trials (RCT) and regression discontinuity design (RDD) methods. The extent to which a reader should trust claims about the statistical significance of results proves very sensitive to method. Applying multiple methods to 13,440 hypothesis tests reported in 25 top economics journals in 2015, we show that selective publication and p-hacking is a substantial problem in research employing DID and (in particular) IV. RCT and RDD are much less problematic. Almost 25% of claims of marginally significant results in IV papers are misleading. |
| Keywords: | Research methods, causal inference, p-curves, p-hacking, publication bias. |
| JEL: | A11 B41 C13 C44 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ott:wpaper:1809e&r=hme |
| By: | - |
| Keywords: | MUJERES, ADELANTO DE LA MUJER, CRECIMIENTO ECONOMICO, IGUALDAD DE GENERO, POLITICA SOCIAL, PERSONAS SOCIALMENTE DESFAVORECIDAS, CIUDADES, DESARROLLO URBANO, PLANIFICACION URBANA, PROYECTOS DE DESARROLLO, EVALUACION DE PROYECTOS, WOMEN, WOMEN'S ADVANCEMENT, ECONOMIC GROWTH, GENDER EQUALITY, SOCIAL POLICY, SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED PERSONS, CITIES, URBAN DEVELOPMENT, URBAN PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS, PROJECT EVALUATION |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col093:44018&r=hme |
| By: | Ajit Zacharias; Thomas Masterson; Fernando Rios-Avila |
| Abstract: | The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW) was designed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the changes affecting household living standards. Ajit Zacharias, Thomas Masterson, and Fernando Rios-Avila summarize their latest research on the trends in economic well-being for US households. They reveal historic stagnation in LIMEW growth over the 2000-13 period, as well as a major shift in the composition of well-being. The post-2000 period can be characterized as one of a growing dependence on the government to sustain living standards, with rising net government expenditures offsetting a sharp drop in base income. |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:levyop:op_57&r=hme |
| By: | Adepoju, A. |
| Abstract: | Despite recent progress in poverty reduction globally, millions of people are either near or living in severe multidimensional poverty in Nigeria. This study examined multidimensional poverty transitions in rural Nigeria, employing the Alkire and Foster Measure of Multidimensional Poverty, Markov Model of Poverty Transitions and the Multinomial Logistic Regression Model for analysis. Results showed that multidimensional poverty among rural households in Nigeria is mainly chronic (46.5%) while education and assets dimensions contributed most to the incidence and severity of multidimensional poverty among the households. Educational status, household size, number of assets owned, ownership of land influenced transient poverty while marital status, household size, land ownership and number of assets owned influenced chronic poverty. The study recommends the enactment and implementation of relevant laws against marginalization of rural women in ownership of assets and intensification of efforts and incentives aimed at encouraging human capital development in the rural areas |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:276027&r=hme |
| By: | Amandine Crespy; Louisa Parks |
| Abstract: | With no formal division between majority and opposition in the parliamentary arena, the European Union (EU) calls for an approach to political opposition which considers the role of civil society. This article explores the case of opposition to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) within and without the European Parliament (EP) through a political opportunity approach, using the case to reflect on conditions for effective opposition in the EU. The ACTA campaign saw opposed actors within the EP and digital rights groups work together to build coalitions against the agreement. Protests then opened the way for these groups to broker a change of position among other actors, allowing a majority rejection. The ACTA case suggests the need for advocacy by organised groups both within and without the Parliament to construct majorities. Comparisons to similarly successful campaigns bolster this view, as do examples of less effective opposition. |
| Keywords: | European Parliament; Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement; Parliamentary opposition; Extra-parliamentary opposition; Political opportunity; Civil society |
| Date: | 2017–04–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/249886&r=hme |
| By: | Malak-Rawlikowska, Agata; Milczarek-Andrzejewska, Dominika; Fałkowski, Jan |
| Abstract: | Based on a unique micro-survey data from dairy sector in Poland, we provide quantitative evidence documenting farmers’ position towards input suppliers, an issue often overlooked in the literature, which typically focuses on sectors downstream from the farm. We proxy for farmers' bargaining power with their self-reported assessment. This differs from the approach commonly adopted in other studies which normally use for that purpose the farm size. Using an econometric analysis, we show that the latent variable measured by this proxy helps us to explain discounts at which farmers buy feed from input suppliers, in addition to what is explained by the farm size or the quality of farm output. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Marketing |
| Date: | 2017–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaae17:261425&r=hme |