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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2018‒12‒10
34 papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Jurjen (J.J.A.) Kamphorst (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Ewa (E.) Mendys-Kamphorst (CEG); Bastian (B.) Westbrock (Utrecht University) |
| Abstract: | According to standard economic wisdom, fixed costs should not matter for pricing decisions. However, outside economics, it is widely accepted that firms need to increase their prices after a fixed cost rise. In this note, we show that a liquidity-constrained firm that maximizes lifetime profits should increase its price after a fixed cost increase, if future profits depend positively on current sales. The reason is that then the optimal price is lower than the one that maximizes the current profit. Because the higher cost necessitates higher current profits to avoid bankruptcy, the firm needs to increase its price. |
| Keywords: | fixed costs; sunk costs; brand loyalty; switching costs; pricing |
| JEL: | D42 L11 |
| Date: | 2018–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20180095&r=hme |
| By: | Ravagnani, Fabio |
| Abstract: | In two passages of Production of Commodities, Sraffa states very concisely that the analysis presented also applies to viable economic systems in which the means of production consumed are not fully replaced. This aspect of the book has been nearly ignored for a long time, and only in the last two decades have some scholars begun to discuss it in depth. Since these scholars basically rely on the terse references to non-self-replacing systems appearing in Sraffa’s published works, however, a question is left pending in their contributions—what exactly was Sraffa’s position as regards the nature and relevance of those systems? The present note seeks to shed light on this question by systematically examining the pertinent passages of Sraffa’s unpublished manuscripts. On the basis of this examination, the final section briefly comments on some debatable aspects of current renditions of Sraffa’s theory. |
| Keywords: | Sraffa; Production Systems; Modern Classical Approach |
| JEL: | B24 B51 E11 |
| Date: | 2018–11–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90259&r=hme |
| By: | Noelia Rivera Garrido (Dpto. Fundamentos del Análisis Económico) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to identify if there is a causal relationship between education and traditional gender-role attitudes. In particular, if women have to leave the labor market to take care of the family, and if men have more rights to a job than women when jobs are scarce. In addition, I explore plausible mechanisms through which education affects these attitudes. I use data from the European Social Survey for 14 European countries. My identification strategy exploits educational reforms changing the number of years of compulsory education to obtain a source of exogenous variation that can be used as an instrument for education. The first stage results show that education reforms certainly increase years of schooling, but only for individuals from a low-educated family, in particular women. Results indicate that for this group, one additional year of education significantly reduces the probability of agreeing with women’s traditional gender role in more than 11 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Education, Compulsory schooling reforms, Gender-role attitudes, Gender inequality, Europe. |
| JEL: | A13 I21 I24 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2018-07&r=hme |
| By: | Frolov, Daniil |
| Abstract: | In modern biological science there is a change in the paradigm of evolutionary research associated with the rejection of neo-Darwinism principles. The article discusses the prospect of using the conceptual ideas of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) as the new dominant metaphors of institutional-evolutionary analysis. For example, metaphors of niche construction and developmental system stimulate the rejection of externalism (securing the key role in selection for the environment) and dichotomous thinking (opposition of actors and the environment, micro- and macro-analysis). The concept of institutional configurations developed in this vein makes it possible to analytically combine institutional, agential and environmental factors in their interaction into a single framework. The metaphor of bricolage actualizes the importance of abandoning the optimization concepts of evolution and one-sidedly negative interpretation of institutional anomalies (dysfunctions, failures, traps, etc.) in favor of studying institutional kludges as quasi-optimal persistent institutions created by non-professional actors, and positively rethinking anomalous institutions as a main output of institutional complexity. The metaphor of modularity is associated with the abandonment of thinking in the spirit of traditional totally integrated systems and the transition to the research of assemblages – super-complex institutional systems based on multiple logics and orders for which heterogeneity, fragmentation and hybridity are organic properties and evolutionary advantages. |
| Keywords: | evolution; institutions; actors; institutional complexity; institutional configurations; institutional bricolage; institutional kludges; niche construction; institutional transplantation; institutional anomalies; modularity; institutional assemblages; hybrid organizations |
| JEL: | A12 B41 B52 |
| Date: | 2018–11–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90198&r=hme |
| By: | Frolov, Daniil |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the internal dualism of modern institutional economics manifested in division of orthodox or mainstream institutionalism (its axiomatics and dogmatics is represented by the Standard Model) and its opposition – post-institutionalism. It discusses the post-institutional agenda, covering a wide range of discussion issues beyond Standard Model – from the analysis of institutional complexity to introduction of the Evo-Devo paradigm into evolutionary research of institutions. It demonstrates that in the focus of post-institutionalism there are super-complicated institutional systems (assemblages) and related phenomena and processes (bricolage, kludges, anomalies, configurations), which can only be comprehended by overcoming unilateral and dichotomous approaches of the institutional mainstream |
| Keywords: | institutions, institutional evolution, institutional complexity, transaction costs, assemblages, bricolage, post-institutionalism |
| JEL: | A12 B41 B52 |
| Date: | 2018–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90287&r=hme |
| By: | Frolov, Daniil |
| Abstract: | The article suggests rethinking institutional anomalies (bad, inefficient, destructive institutions and related processes and effects) in a positive way. The term ‘extitutions’ is introduced as transcending institutions of (beyond-institutional) models of social order, based on variations of norms. The extitutional interpretation of the nature of institutional anomalies allows us to critically reconsider associated dichotomies (such as ‘bad / good institutions’ like North-Wallis-Weingast or Acemoglu-Robinson), approaches (eg, functionalism and evaluative ‘something wrong’-approach) and stereotypes (including one-sided negative interpretation of ‘bad’ institutions, "presumption of guilt" of interest groups, etc.). The author's position is to understand institutional anomalies as the main product of institutional complexity. The article also substantiates the expediency of taking into account the role of institutional configurations and small institutional entrepreneurship in the formation of ‘anomalous’ institutions. An agenda is proposed for future research in the field of the theory of institutional anomalies |
| Keywords: | inefficient institutions; institutional traps; dysfunctions of institutions; transplantation of institutions; institutional anomalies |
| JEL: | A12 B41 B52 |
| Date: | 2018–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90286&r=hme |
| By: | Robert E. Hall |
| Abstract: | Market power arises in the case where a seller is aware that raising output will depress price. In the profit-maximizing equilibrium with market power, price exceeds marginal cost. The Lerner index---the ratio of price less marginal cost to the price---is a widely accepted measure of market power. Measuring marginal cost is a challenge. This paper develops and applies a direct empirical approach---marginal cost is measured as the ratio of the observed change in cost to the observed change in output. Because marginal cost is a partial derivative, both changes need to be adjusted for other sources of change. Thus marginal cost is the ratio of (1) the change in cost not associated with changes in input prices to (2) the change in output not associated with productivity change. I develop data for the 60 KLEMS industries for this measure. I find a typical Lerner index of 0.15. Lerner indexes grew moderately between 1988 and 2015. |
| JEL: | D24 L1 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25251&r=hme |
| By: | Italo Pedrosa (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro); Dany Lang (Centre d'Economie de l'Université de Paris Nord (CEPN)) |
| Abstract: | In Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis (FIH), financial fragility of non-financial firms tends to increase endogenously over the cycle along with the macroeconomic leverage ratio. This analysis has been criticized for two main complementary reasons: firstly, it does not duly consider the aggregate pro-cyclicallity of profits; secondly, due to an overly aggregate analysis, some inferences about the relation between aggregate leverage and systemic fragility are potentially misleading. In this paper, we take these criticisms into account by building an agent-based stock-flow consistent model which integrates the real and financial sides of the economy in a fundamentally dynamic environment. We calibrate and simulate our model and show that the dynamics generated are in line with empirical evidence both at the micro and the macro levels. We create a financial fragility index and examine how systemic financial fragility relates to the aggregate leverage along the cycle. We show that our model yields both Minskian regimes, in which the aggregate leverage increases along with investment, and Steindlian regimes, where investment brings leverage down. Our key findings are that the sensitivity of financial fragility to aggregate leverage is not as big as assumed in the literature; and that the distribution of profits amongst firms does matter for the stability of the system, both statically (immediately for financial fragility) and dynamically (because of the dynamics of leverage). |
| Keywords: | financial fragility; firms; leverage; cash flow; distribution |
| JEL: | C63 D39 E32 G01 G32 O31 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upn:wpaper:2018-11&r=hme |
| By: | Anindya Bhattacharya; Anirban Kar; Sunil Kumar; Alita Nandi |
| Abstract: | This work has two intertwined components: first, as part of a research programme it introduces a new methodology for identifying `power-centres' in rural societies of developing countries in general and then applies that in the specific context of contemporary rural India for addressing some debates on the dynamics of power in rural India. Land-ownership, caste hierarchy and patron-client relation have been regarded as the traditional building blocks of political-economic organization in rural India. However, many believe that gradual urbanization and expansion of market economy have eroded the influence of the traditional power structure. This work is a contribution toward identifying the nature of `local' rural institutions based on primary data collected by ourselves. We took 36 villages in the states of Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh - 12 in each of these states - as the sites for our observation and data collection. We quantify nature of institutions from data on the day-to-day interactions of households in the spheres of economy, society and politics. The aspect of institution we focus on is the structure of multidimensional and interlinked dependence in these spheres and whether such dependence is concentrated on a few `powerful' entities (called `local elites') dominating over a large number of households or whether this is distributed in a sufficiently diffuse manner. Our household survey shows that there is substantial variation in power structure across regions. We identified the presence of `local elites' in 22 villages out of 36 surveyed. We conducted a follow-up survey, called `elite survey', to get detailed information about the identified elite households. Our primary objective was to learn the socio-economic-political profile of the elite households and their involvement in village life. This paper provides a summary of our findings. We observe that landlordism has considerably weakened, land has ceased to be the sole source of power and new power-centres have emerged. Despite these changes, caste, landownership and patron-client relation continue to be three important pillars of rural power structure. |
| Keywords: | Clientelism, Lanlordism, Network. |
| JEL: | P16 O12 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:18/19&r=hme |
| By: | Clymer, Amanda; Briggeman, Brian; Leatherman, John |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2018–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ncer18:280135&r=hme |
| By: | Thomas Kopp; Jan Salecker |
| Abstract: | Understanding market participants' channel choices is important to policy makers because it yields information on which channels are effective in transmitting information. These channel choices are the result of a recursive process of social interactions and determine the observable trading networks. They are characterized by feedback mechanisms due to peer interaction and therefore need to be understood as complex adaptive systems (CAS). When modelling CAS, conventional approaches like regression analyses face severe drawbacks since endogeneity is omnipresent. As an alternative, process-based analyses allow researchers to capture these endogenous processes and multiple feedback loops. This paper applies an agent-based modelling approach (ABM) to the empirical example of the Indonesian rubber trade. The feedback mechanisms are modelled via an innovative approach of a social matrix, which allows decisions made in a specific period to feed back into the decision processes in subsequent periods, and allows agents to systematically assign different weights to the decision parameters based on their individual characteristics. In the validation against the observed network, uncertainty in the found estimates, as well as under determination of the model, are dealt with via an approach of evolutionary calibration: a genetic algorithm finds the combination of parameters that maximizes the similarity between the simulated and the observed network. Results indicate that the sellers' channel choice decisions are mostly driven by physical distance and debt obligations, as well as peer-interaction. Within the social matrix, the most influential individuals are sellers that live close by to other traders, are active in social groups and belong to the ethnic majority in their village. |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1811.11476&r=hme |
| By: | Judit Ricz (Institute of World Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Two important trends can be observed during the last years (at the latest since the 2008-9 Global Financial Crisis) in the global political economy scene: state involvement in the economy has been on the rise worldwide and democracy has been backsliding globally. The rise of new developmentalism in some large emerging economies dates back even earlier, but by 2018 the ongoing tendencies show towards rising illiberalism both in the political and economic realms all around the world. Along with the rise of political populism, we can observe a tendency towards heterodox economic policy answers, revealing unique specificities and characteristics in different countries, demonstrating however a common tendency towards attacking institutional checks and balances, restraining the autonomy and independence of core agencies and institutions. We are convinced that the current rise of state capitalism in emerging economies can be analysed via the systemic approach (Kornai, 2016) – and thus a research program for analysing the varieties of state capitalism is highly in place. In this paper (which shall be followed by a series of country case studies), we merely aim to provide the analytical framework for such a research agenda, by reviewing existing theoretical approaches, highlighting some potential cornerstones of analysis and finally by formulating research questions and hypotheses. |
| Keywords: | new developmentalism, state capitalism, emerging economies, developmental states, varieties of capitalism, system paradigm |
| JEL: | B4 O1 P5 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwe:workpr:245&r=hme |
| By: | Wolfgang Keller; Hâle Utar |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that globalization has far-reaching implications for the economy’s fertility rate and family structure because they influence work-life balance. Employing population register data on new births, marriages, and divorces together with employer-employee linked data for Denmark, we show that lower labor market opportunities due to Chinese import competition lead to a shift towards family, with more parental leave taking and higher fertility as well as more marriages and fewer divorces. This pro-family, pro-child shift is driven largely by women, not men. Correspondingly, the negative earnings implications of the rising import competition are concentrated on women, and gender earnings inequality increases. We show that the choice of market versus family is a major determinant of worker adjustment costs to labor market shocks. While older workers respond to the shock rather similarly whether female or not, for young workers the fertility response takes away the adjustment advantage they typically have–if the worker is a woman. We find that the female biological clock–women have difficulties to conceive beyond their early forties–is central for the gender differential, rather than the composition of jobs and workplaces, as well as other potential causes. |
| JEL: | F16 J12 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25247&r=hme |
| By: | Teney, Céline; Strijbis, Oliver; Carol, Sarah; Tepe, Senem |
| Abstract: | This elite survey has been carried out as part of the data collection effort of the WZB bridging project "The Political Sociology of Cosmopolitanism and Communitarianism". Elites from five countries that were selected to represent five world regions (Germany, Poland, Turkey, Mexico and USA) compose the cross-national samples. Moreover, we included a sample of elites working at the EU and global levels. For each of these seven cases, we sampled positional elites working in the following 12 societal sectors: politics, administration, justice, military and police, labor union, lobbyism, finance and economy, research, religious institutions, civil society, culture and media. We applied the same positional approach to identify elites at the national, European and global levels: elites are defined as the persons holding the highest positions in the most influential organizations within societal sectors. The sample design allows thus the comparison of elites at the same level across sectors and elites from the same sector across levels (i.e., national, European and global). The questionnaire focuses on denationalization issues that are most likely to be contested by actors on a cosmopolitan/communitarian ideological dimension: regional integration (border crossing of authority), immigration (border crossing of people), human rights (border crossing of norms), climate change (border crossing of pollutants) and international trade (border crossing of goods). One further objective of this elite survey was to enable elite-mass attitudinal comparison on the five denationalization issues across the five countries. Therefore, we included in the questionnaire items that were administered in cross-national mass surveys. All in all, the sampling and questionnaire designs of this elite survey enable three different types of analysis: (1) national and crossnational comparative analysis of the opinions of elites on the five denationalization issues across sectors of activity; (2) cross-level comparison of the attitudes of elites working at the national, EU and global levels across sectors of activity; and (3) analysis of the elitemass gap in attitudes toward denationalization issues in the five countries. We used a mixed-mode approach for the data collection and contacted elites by combining personalized emails, personalized letters and telephone reminders. The data collection took place from spring 2014 until spring 2015. In total, 1604 completed questionnaires were collected. This paper discusses the sampling and questionnaire designs, response rates and data cleaning. It also presents the list of variables available from these survey data. |
| Keywords: | Cosmopolitanism,Communitarism,Elites |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbmit:spvi2018105&r=hme |
| By: | Jean Foyer (CREDA - CREDA - Centre de Recherche Et de Documentation sur les Amériques - UMR 7227 - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Aurore Viard-Crétat (CAK-CRHST - Centre Alexandre Koyré - Centre de Recherche en Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Valérie Boisvert (Institut de géographie et durabilité - UNIL - Université de Lausanne) |
| Abstract: | Thispaperstarts from thepremise thatat theRio+20Summit,historyhas repeateditselfand that the same expectations raised by bioprospecting 20 years ago are now attached to the market-based instruments associated with conservation policies (Payments for environmental services, REDD mechanisms, biodiversity offsets,...). The promise that market mechanisms are best suited to reach biodiversity conservation goals has been renewed. Building on Polanyian definition of fictitious commodities and on the idea of the ‘economy of promises' (developed by P.B. Joly in relation to biotechnologies and nanotechnologies), we argue that beyond their ideological foundations, market mechanisms require complex institutional arrangements that are often irrelevant and ineffective in reaching theirenvironmental objectives.Thesevariousmarket-based ormarket-like arrangements rely onthereassertedpromiseofasynergybetweenmarketandconservationratherthanonactualmarket mechanisms. They are supposedly meant as conservation tools. However, they rather foster the developmentofamarketforconsultingandeconomicexpertiseinconservationissues,thegrowthand perpetuation of which depend on the renewal of this promise, in the form of changing institutional arrangementsandmechanisms. |
| Date: | 2018–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01910751&r=hme |
| By: | Jan Kregel |
| Abstract: | Ten years after the fall of Lehman Brothers and the collapse of the US financial system, most commentaries remain overly focused on the proximate causes of the last crisis and the regulations put in place to prevent a repetition. According to Director of Research Jan Kregel, there is a broader set of lessons, which can be unearthed in the work of Distinguished Scholar Hyman Minsky, that needs to play a more central role in these debates on the 10th anniversary of the crisis. This insight begins with Minsky's account of how crisis is inherent to capitalist finance. Such an account directs us to shore up those government institutions that can serve as bulwarks against the inherent instability of the financial system--institutions that can prevent that instability from turning into a prolonged crisis in the real economy. |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:levypn:18-5&r=hme |
| By: | Jill Trinh (Business School, The University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between the Pareto distribution and Piketty’s third fundamental law of capitalism. It has been widely known that top income and wealth takes the form of Pareto distribution, yet there is very limited literature investigating the role of Piketty’s third fundamental law of capitalism, in which r (the rate of return on capital) > g (the growth rate of national income), in determining the shape parameter α of the Pareto distribution. The central takeaway of this paper includes: (i) a critical assessment of Piketty’s criticism of Pareto’s work on distributional inequality, presented in Capital in the Twenty First century (2014) in which he indicated that Pareto had an illusion of “stable” inequality; and (ii) a simple agent model to formally demonstrate the relationship between Pareto’s alpha and Piketty’s third fundamental law of capitalism. The first one concerns intellectual history and the second one has contemporary relevance. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:17-11&r=hme |
| By: | Alessia Lo Turco (Università Politecnica delle Marche); Daniela Maggioni (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia.); Alberto Zazzaro (University of Naples Federico II, CSEF and MoFiR.) |
| Abstract: | We widen the understanding of the finance-growth nexus by accounting for the indirect effect of financial development through input-output (IO) linkages in determining the growth of industries across countries. If financial development is expected to promote disproportionately more the growth of industrial sectors that are more in need of external finance, it also favours more the industries that are linked by IO relations to more financially dependent industries. We explore this new channel in a sample of countries at different development stages over the period 1995-2007. Our results highlight that financial development, besides easing the growth of industries highly dependent on external finance, also fosters the growth of industries strongly linked to highly financially dependent upstream industries. Moreover, the indirect effect - propagated through IO linkages - of finance has a higher and non-negligible role compared to the direct effect and its omission leads to a biased and underestimated perception of the role of finance for industries growth. |
| Keywords: | manufacturing growth; financial development; upstream and downstream linkages |
| JEL: | O1 G1 D57 |
| Date: | 2018–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:516&r=hme |
| By: | Boland, Michael |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2018–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ncer18:280134&r=hme |
| By: | Cavalli, Fausto; Naimzada, Ahmad; Pecora, Nicolò; Pireddu, Marina |
| Abstract: | We study a financial market populated by heterogeneous fundamentalists, whose decisions are driven by ``animal spirits''. Each agent may have optimistic or pessimistic beliefs about the fundamental value, which are selected from time to time on the basis of an evolutionary mechanism. The evolutionary selection depends on a weighted evaluation of the general market sentiment perceived by the agents and on a profitability measure of the existent strategies. As the relevance given to the sentiment index increases, a herding phenomenon in agents behavior may take place and the animal spirits can drive the market toward polarized economic regimes, which coexist and are characterized by persistent high or low levels of optimism and pessimism. This conduct is detectable from agents polarized shares and beliefs, which in turn influence the price level. Such polarized economic regimes can consist in stable steady states or can be characterized by endogenous complex dynamics, generating persistent alternating waves of optimism and pessimism, as well as return distributions displaying fat tails and excess volatility. |
| Keywords: | heterogeneous fundamentalists; animal spirits; behavioral finance; sentiment index; complex dynamics |
| JEL: | B52 C62 D84 |
| Date: | 2018–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90289&r=hme |
| By: | D'Haese, M.; Gansemans, A.; Louche, C. |
| Abstract: | The paper seeks to understand how social dialogue can emerge in an anti-union context. Building from an institutional work perspective, we investigate how Dole in Costa Rica went from resisting to accepting social dialogue with two pineapple unions. The findings show that social dialogue is the result of a combination of convening, enabling, empowering and monitoring work involving a triadic relationship between supplier, international buyer and unions. Four stages were identified during which actors learned to collaborate and power relations were transformed. The paper highlights the importance of the dynamic nature of the triadic relationship in influencing social dialogue in a global value chain where production is located in an anti-union environment. The findings provide unique evidence on the role of the international buyer in supporting social dialogue as convener, facilitator, mediator and advisor. Acknowledgement : |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277248&r=hme |
| By: | Monika Micha?owska (Medical University of Lodz) |
| Abstract: | In February 2018 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the United Kingdom granted the first license for mitochondrial donation, which is a permission to create an embryo through in vitro fertilization technique using mitochondria donated by another woman. It will allow a woman with mitochondrial disease to have healthy offspring. The issue rose significant interest in March 2015 when UK government legalized the technique being the only country in the world to offer mitochondrial donation to patients legally. Since then the debate on mitochondrial donation has become one of the most heated and controversial issues in the area of artificial reproduction. To shed some light on ethical and social aspects of mitochondrial donation, in my presentation I will investigate the arguments formulated by the opponents and proponents of the technique. In particular, I will analyze the ?three-parent baby? argument, the possible implications for the society, the potential implications for the future child?s identity, the potential violation of the child?s right to open future, the question of revealing the donor?s identity to the child upon his/her request. |
| Keywords: | ?three-parent baby? argument, implications for the society, implications for the child?s identity, child?s right to open future, the right to know |
| JEL: | J13 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:6709030&r=hme |
| By: | Faith Masekesa (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan); Munro Alistair (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates experimentally how changes in wage rates and entitlements affect individual productivity in lab-in-the-field experiments run with married couples from rural regions in Uganda. We design a game in which the production task itself is straightforward, but where the rules governing payment vary across subjects and between rounds. In some cases, all the value of output goes to the husband; in other cases all goes to the wife; in other cases the value of output is shared equally and finally in some cases each spouse receives income according to only their own output. To consider the effects of wage inequality we vary the price paid for each completed item so that the ratio of male to female wages varies from 0.5 to 2. All this is done transparently so that both partners know the rules of the game. The results generally indicate that a rise in relative wages lowers relative effort, a result that is contrary to the most straightforward interpretation of standard models of the household, but compatible with some models of fairness. Men do not generally respond strongly to treatment. In contrast, women fs labour supply is strongly backward bending when all income goes to the husband, but effort rises with wages when each spouse gets to keep their own earnings. The results therefore suggest that the effects of reforming or removing one inequality may depend critically on the existence of other inequalities. |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:18-18&r=hme |
| By: | Clément Bosquet (Spatial Economic Research Center); Pierre-Philippe Combes (Département d'économie); Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa (Aix-Marseille School of Economics (CNRS / AMU / EHESS)) |
| Abstract: | The promotion system for French academic economists provides an interesting environment to examine the promotion gap between men and women. Promotions occur through national competitions for which we have information both on candidates and on those eligible to be candidates. We can then examine the two stages of the process: application and success. Women are less likely to seek promotion, and this accounts for up to 76% of the promotion gap. Being a woman also reduces the probability of promotion conditional on applying, although the gender difference is not statistically significant. Our results highlight the importance of the decision to apply. |
| Keywords: | Gender gaps; Professional advancement; Competition |
| JEL: | J16 J7 I23 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5cma2v9f098fu956p3fcsgt7d1&r=hme |
| By: | Schmit, Todd; Tamarkin, Frederick; Severson, Roberta |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2018–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ncer18:280130&r=hme |
| By: | Kopp, T.; Salecker, J. |
| Abstract: | Understanding individual traders' channel choices is important to policy makers because it yields information on which channels are effective in transmitting information. Since trading networks are characterised by feedback mechanisms along several dimensions they can be understood as complex adaptive systems. Conventional approaches, such as regression analysis, face severe drawbacks when modelling these since endogeneity is omnipresent. Instead, they are best studied via agent based modelling. This paper applies an ABM to the empirical example of rubber trade in Indonesia, which is a dense network. Results indicate that the decision for traders' channel choices are mostly driven by physical distance and debt obligations, and to a minor extent by peer-interaction. Acknowledgement : Financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) within Collaborative Research Centre 990 Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Rainforest Transformation Systems in Sumatra, Indonesia (CRC990) is greatly appreciated. Thomas Kopp thanks DFG for generous support within project KO 5269/1-1. Valuable assistance in literature search was provided by Stefan Moser. |
| Keywords: | International Relations/Trade |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae18:277130&r=hme |
| By: | Ludwig List (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - UP13 - Université Paris 13 - USPC - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to conduct a meta-regression analysis (MRA hereafter) regarding the effects of the Kaldor-Verdoorn effect-the relation between output/demand and productivity. The Kaldor-Verdoorn effect has been subject to many econometric studies and while the overwhelming majority of them finds a positive overall effect, there is no consensus on its size-the results vary quite a bit, especially according to the chosen econometric specification. This MRA estimates a 'true value' of the Kaldor-Verdoorn effect without interference from potential publication selection bias via the use of multivariate MRA. A series of moderator variables is used to check for their effect of excess variation, including amongst others the year of publication, the sectors and the countries studied. This MRA study uses available data from 22 published studies with 303 estimations of the Kaldor-Verdoorn effect. When examining the primary literature as a whole, there seems to be publication bias. While there seems to exist a genuine Kaldor-Verdoorn effect, its size varies considerably depending on the specification chosen. |
| Keywords: | Kaldor-Verdoorn effect,Productivity,Meta-regression analysis,Effective demand,Learning by doing |
| Date: | 2018–11–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cepnwp:hal-01922249&r=hme |
| By: | Matthieu Renault |
| Abstract: | Contrarily to standard accounts of the history of macroeconomics, recent research has increasingly paid attention to the Old Keynesians’ criticisms of the New Classical Economics. In this paper, I study another study case through Edmond Malinvaud’s criticisms of the New Classical Economics from the 1980s onwards. I argue that his opposition was radical in the sense that it was both multi-dimensional and systematic. I show, then, that the way he opposed reveals his own conception of macroeconomics, which owed much to the methodology and the practice of macroeconometric modeling. Finally, I suggest that the study of Malinvaud’s opposition to the New Classical Economics shed light on both the nature and rationale of the Old Keynesians’. |
| Keywords: | History of Macroeconomics; Edmond Malinvaud; Old Keynesians; Neoclassical Synthesis; The New Classical Economics; Macroeconometric modeling |
| JEL: | B22 B23 B31 B41 |
| Date: | 2018–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2018wpecon21&r=hme |
| By: | Mashange, Gerald; Featherstone, Allen; Briggeman, Brian; Wilson, Christine; Janzen, Joseph |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2018–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ncer18:280132&r=hme |
| By: | Bichler, Shimshon; Nitzan, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | The LA Times called the bluff: William D. Nordhaus won the Nobel prize in economics for a climate model that minimized the cost of rising global temperatures and undermined the need for urgent action. Unfortunately, though, the article missed the nugget in the racket. |
| Keywords: | capitalization,climate change,discounting |
| JEL: | Q54 P48 Q56 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:184690&r=hme |
| By: | Gergana Popova (South-West University ?Neofit Rilski?, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria) |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on the disciplining of sexuality in the family frame during the first two decades of the communist rule in Bulgaria. It analyses legislative documents against divorce, abortion and cohabitation; speeches of high-standing party functionaries on the role of the communist family and the danger from sexual corruption; the media campaigns and early repressive practices against youngsters with loose behavior. The paper draws the conclusion that both the conceptualization and the legislative actions aiming to preserve family morality perceived sexual practices in Bulgaria during the early communist regime as legitimate as long as they were reproductive sexual relationships between spouses. The pursuit of sexual satisfaction as an end in itself, even within the framework of family life, was rendered unacceptable. In this respect the study uses some of Foucault?s reflections about ?the great appropriation of sexual ethic by family morals? but also tries to show the difference between communist and bourgeois family. In its final part the paper makes an attempt to clarify the reasons for the intensification of the repression upon sexuality in Bulgaria under communist rule. |
| Keywords: | communist regime, disciplining of sexuality, communist family, comradeship, repressive hypothesis |
| JEL: | P30 J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:7009080&r=hme |
| By: | Yildirim, Ramazan; Ilhan, Bilal |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to address to a long-standing criticism of the various Shari’ah screening methodologies implemented by Islamic index providers. This study aims to provide evidences derived from the Islamic sources (Qur’an and Sunnah) and offers a potential solution for the harmonization of Shari’ah screening methodologies. Strong evidences from the Qur’an reveal that the most righteous and fair judgment is provided when the only factors that are considered are the entirely endogenous factors. This study further emphasizes the importance of using a screening methodology that supports the main notions of Islamic finance as a whole, and adheres to the essence of the ayah (Al-Baqarah: 275). This study exhibits a potential towards the harmonization of Shari’ah screening methodologies which encourages the participation of Muslim investors by ensuring better awareness and confidence regarding stock investments. This paper fulfils an identified need to study how Shari’ah screening methodologies can be derived from the Islamic sources yet is based on “out-of-the-box” thinking. |
| Keywords: | Shariah Screening, Islamic Equity Index, Market Capitalization, Total Debt, Quran & Sunnah |
| JEL: | G11 G15 G18 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90277&r=hme |
| By: | Jacobs, Keri; McKee, Greg; Park, John |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2018–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ncer18:280131&r=hme |
| By: | Hélène Tordjman (Centre d'Economie de l'Université de Paris Nord (CEPN)) |
| Abstract: | Cela fait longtemps que la nature est entrée dans le processus capitaliste dans ses dimensions matérielles, terre, ressources agricoles et minières, sous la forme de biens tangibles donc. Depuis quelques décennies, un phénomène nouveau apparaît. Des dimensions de la nature sont requalifiées en information, en services et en actifs financiers pour pouvoir à leur tour faire l’objet d’échanges marchands. Autrement dit une nouvelle classe de marchandises fictives apparaît (Karl Polanyi (1944)). Plutôt que de les nommer « immatérielles », je préfère parler de dématérialisation, car il s’agit d’un processus institutionnel, juridique et politique construit et voulu, et non d’une immanence. Analysant le cas des services écosystémiques, cet article propose une catégorisation permettant de comprendre comment l’institution marchande remodèle ainsi de grands pans de la nature, en trois grands moments. Le premier est celui de la qualification de la marchandise, qui vise à en définir les contours précis, la doter d’une mesure et de droits de propriété. Le deuxième processus est celui de l’évaluation, où l’objet considéré acquiert une valeur monétaire de référence. On parle quelquefois de monétisation. Le troisième et dernier moment de la création d’une marchandise fictive est celui de la valorisation. Il s’agit de dispositifs contractuels et/ou marchands qui transforment les valeurs en prix. Ce n’est qu’à cette ultime étape que de la valeur est effectivement créée, c’est-à-dire du capital. Malgré le caractère apparemment immatériel de ces nouvelles marchandises, les conséquences de leur création sur la nature et les relations que nous entretenons avec elle sont tout à fait matérielles. |
| Keywords: | Environnement et écologie ; approches institutionnalistes ; droits de propriété ; services écosystémiques |
| JEL: | B52 K11 P14 Q50 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upn:wpaper:2018-12&r=hme |