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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2019‒12‒02
38 papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | CHIRAT, alexandre; , Le Chapelain Charlotte |
| Abstract: | Human capital theory has suffered much criticism. The filter theory of education (Arrow 1973), the theory of education as a “signal” (Spence 1973) and the theory of “screening” (Stiglitz 1975), for instance, have seriously challenged it from within mainstream economics, and heavy criticism has also come from other paradigms, with Bailly (2016) recently documenting the critique from the radical school. Within this set of ideas that flourished in the post-WWII period and challenged human capital theory, John Kenneth Galbraith’s analysis of the dynamics of the education process is often neglected. In his original institutionalist and firm-based approach to the evolution of education, Galbraith placed great emphasis on the issue of the requirements of the planning system when he tackled the issue of human capital investment. More surprisingly – since he is unanimously recognized as the “founding father” of the “human capital revolution” – Theodore Schultz himself developed a substantial critique of human capital theory that shares some ground with Galbraith’s. The aim of this contribution is to provide new insights into the history of post-WWII ideas in the field of economics of education by reviewing Schultz’s and Galbraith’s respective analyses of education and highlighting their proximities. Both authors raise doubts regarding the idea that the aggregation of individual choices must be regarded as the relevant generative mechanism of the dynamic of education and the basis of the allocation of education resources. Consequently, both question the equivocal concept of student sovereignty. |
| Date: | 2019–01–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:jyt3z&r=all |
| By: | Richard Arena (Université Côte d'Azur, France; GREDEG CNRS) |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2019-31&r=all |
| By: | Hernando Matallana |
| Abstract: | A key issue in heterodox economics is the theoretical determination of the inner logic of the economic process through which the functional conditions of social reproduction are systematically recreated in capitalism. The monetary circuit is a particular moment of the economic process through which the recreation of private property as the capitalist social relation takes place. The understanding of the monetary logic of what Marx called the “process of circulation of capital” is thus a central element of a monetary heterodox theory of capitalism. Financial accounting methods currently applied as a powerful tool of control of society can be used critically to illuminate the capitalist circulation process. *** Una cuestión clave en la economía heterodoxa es la determinación teórica de la lógica interna del proceso económico a través del cual son recreadas sistemáticamente las condiciones funcionales de la reproducción social en el capitalismo. El circuito monetario es un momento particular del proceso económico a través del cual tiene lugar la recreación de la propiedad privada como la relación social capitalista. La comprensión de la lógica monetaria de lo que Marx llamó el “proceso de circulación del capital” es por tanto un elemento central de la teoría heterodoxa monetaria del capitalismo. Los métodos de la contabilidad financiera utilizados comúnmente como una herramienta poderosa de control social son utilizados aquí para iluminar el proceso de circulación capitalista. |
| Keywords: | Capitalism, economic circuit, financial accounting, monetary production economy, social reproduction |
| JEL: | E11 E12 E25 M41 |
| Date: | 2019–11–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000178:017616&r=all |
| By: | Fix, Blair (York University) |
| Abstract: | What is the unit of analysis in economics? The prevailing orthodoxy in mainstream economic theory is that the individual is the ‘ultimate’ unit of analysis. The implicit goal of mainstream economics is to root macro-level social structure in the micro-level actions of individuals. But there is a simple problem with this approach: our knowledge of human behavior is hopelessly inadequate for the task at hand. Faced with real-world complexities, economists are forced to make bold (and seldom tested) assumptions about human behavior in order to make models tractable. The result is theory that has little to do with the real world. This dissertation investigates an alternative approach to economics that I call ‘economics from the top down’. This approach begins with the following question: what happens when we take the analytical focus off of individuals and put it into social hierarchy? The effect of this analytical shift is that we are forced to deal with the realities of concentrated power. The focus on hierarchy leads to some surprising discoveries. First, I find evidence that hierarchical organization has a biophysical basis. I show that institution size (firms and governments) is strongly correlated with rates of energy consumption, and that the growth of institutions can be interpreted as the growth of social hierarchy. Second, I find that hierarchy plays an important role in shaping income and income distribution. I find that income scales strongly with hierarchical power (defined as the number of subordinates under one’s control), and that hierarchical power affects income more strongly than any other factor measured. Lastly, using an empirically informed model of the hierarchical structure of US firms, I find that hierarchy plays a dominant role in shaping the income distribution tail. These results hint that hierarchy can be used to unify the study of economic growth (understood in biophysical terms) and income distribution. I conclude by making the first prediction of how the concentration of hierarchical power should relate to the growth of energy consumption. This prediction sheds new light on the origin of inequality. While this ‘top down’ approach to economics is in its infancy, the results are encouraging. Focusing on hierarchy gives fresh insight into many of the important questions facing society — insight that cannot be obtained by focusing on individuals. |
| Date: | 2018–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:thesis:7uqw9&r=all |
| By: | Beckenbach, Frank |
| Abstract: | This elaboration starts by deciphering modern science as a social subsystem being loosely coupled to the rest of society (section 2.1). Additionally, the way in which modern (monistic) economics was generated within this subsystem will be sketched (section 2.2). This will be contrasted with the views that this monism would have been eroded in recent times due to imports from other sciences into economics. Conclusions as regards the necessity as well as the mode of pluralism will be drawn from this discussion (section 2.3). Picking up the disputable complexity reductions involved in the dominating (monistic) approach in economics other ways to deal with complexity inherent in the economy will be dealt with in section 3. Here a stepwise exit from the established standard approach in economics is suggested for the microeconomic syllabus consisting in the first step of an introductory pluralistic course and in the second step of a heterodox advanced course. Conclusions and perspectives resulting from such an approach are discussed in the final section. |
| Keywords: | Monism,science,microconomics,pluralism,neoclassical economics |
| JEL: | A10 A12 A14 A20 B20 B59 D00 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cuswps:oek49&r=all |
| By: | Zsuzsanna Kispál-Vitai (Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pécs); Yann Regnard; Klara Kövesi (FoAP - Formation et apprentissages professionnels - CNAM - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers [CNAM] - ENSTA Bretagne - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement, Département SHS - Département Sciences Humaines et Sociales - ENSTA Bretagne); Claude-André Guillotte (Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada) |
| Abstract: | The operations of the cooperative organization are an actively debated issue. The effi ciency and viability of this organizational form still pose many unanswered questions. The literature is not unequivocal in evaluating the merits and drawbacks of this organization. This article provides empirical evidence from research about cooperatives covering three countries (Canada, France and Hungary) and tests theoretical hypotheses in the framework of organizational economics and cooperative theory. The fi ndings point towards the positive infl uence of the social environment and cooperative values on organizational choice. The results prove the continued relevance of this type of organization in the 21 st century in agriculture in all three researched countries. JEL-codes: Q13, L0 |
| Keywords: | cooperatives,case study research,social infl uence,values |
| Date: | 2019–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02351404&r=all |
| By: | Cynthia GIAGNOCAVO (Universidad de Almería (Spain)); Daniel HERNÃ NDEZ CÃ CERES (Universidad de Almería (Spain)) |
| Abstract: | Creating a new commons for agricultural cooperatives: Big data, ICT and data sharing. The utilisation of Big Data and ICT technologies on a large scale in agriculture is seen to be a solution for dealing with climate change, environmental degradation, land and water constraints, the necessity to optimise resources, reduce costs, and increase traceability and food safety, amongst other compelling arguments. However, it has also resulted in imbalances in power, investment barriers, reduced access to knowledge and the decreasing ability of farmers and SMEs to control and benefit from their agricultural related activities. This paper considers the legal, governance, institutional and economic issues that may arise in developing a data cooperative or other equitable data sharing structures, taking into account public and private sources of data, and multi-stakeholders involved. A review of successful data sharing examples, including cooperatives, is presented and a test case from the cooperatives of Almería, Spain is considered. This research falls within the context of the EU H2020 project Internet of Food and Farm (IoF2020) and the development of innovative data sharing business models. Rather than falling back on classical contracting arrangements for data sharing, as proposed by Copa-Cogeca, amongst others, it is proposed that a “data commons†approach in keeping with Elinor Ostrom’s SocialEcological Systems Framework be used to frame a cooperative solution to this complex, systems based, challenge. By choosing a cooperative approach, benefits to farmers may go beyond “monetization†of data, and contribute to safeguarding environmental goods. |
| Keywords: | Data Sharing; Social-Ecological-Technical Systems; Agricultural Cooperatives; Multi-stakeholder cooperatives; Big Data and ICT; Public-private initiatives |
| JEL: | K22 O13 Q13 Q16 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crc:wpaper:1920&r=all |
| By: | Matthias Aistleitner (Johannes Kepler University); Jakob Kapeller (Johannes Kepler University); Stefan Steinerberger (Yale University, Department of Mathematics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we comparatively explore three claims concerning the disciplinary character of economics by means of citation analysis. The three claims under study are: (1) economics exhibits strong forms of institutional stratification and, as a byproduct, a rather pronounced internal hierarchy, (2) economists strongly conform to institutional incentives and (3) modern mainstream economics is a largely self-referential intellectual project mostly inaccessible to disciplinary or paradigmatic outsiders. The validity of these claims is assessed by means of an interdisciplinary comparison of citation patterns aiming to identify peculiar characteristics of economic discourse. In doing so, we emphasize that citation data can always be interpreted in different ways, thereby focusing on the contrast between a `cognitive` and an `evaluative` approach towards citation data. |
| Keywords: | citation patterns, economics, interdisciplinary, scientometrics, sociology of economics |
| JEL: | A10 A12 A14 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:85&r=all |
| By: | ISHIKAWA Yoshifumi |
| Abstract: | The economic effects of policies for regional revival are generally estimated using an intra-regional input-output model. However, when analyzing economic effects on a small region such as a municipality, input-output tables for the region need to be constructed. It is generally recognized that there are three approaches to constructing regional input-output tables: survey, non-survey, and hybrid. Survey-based tables are considered to be more accurate. But effectively they are limited by cost and time factors. And, the traditional regional input-output model creates some problems when actually estimating economic effects. One major issue is how to endogenize private household consumption that can be linked to labor income. That is, the gross regional income is distributed to other regions due to interregional commuting, and some part of the consumption demand of households living in the region is allocated to other regions. Therefore, we propose a versatile interregional input-output model that considers interregional trade and income distribution. For the purpose of this study, we developed models for estimating self-sufficiency rates for intermediate goods. As an example, we analyzed the effects of some regional revitalization policies for some cities such as Minamisoma city and Seto city. By using this model, it is possible to accurately estimate the economic effects of regional revitalization policy without regional input-output tables. |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:19062&r=all |
| By: | Ernest Aigner (Vienna University of Economics and Business); Matthias Aistleitner (Johannes Kepler University); Florentin Glotzl (Vienna University of Economics and Business); Jakob Kapeller (Johannes Kepler University) |
| Abstract: | Has the global financial crisis of 2007ff had a visible impact on the economics profession? To answer this question we employ a bibliometric approach and compare the content and orientation of economic literature before and after the crisis with reference to two different samples: A large-scale sample consisting of more than 440,000 articles published between 1956 and 2016 and a smaller sample of 400 top-cited papers before and after the crisis. Our results suggest that unlike the Great Depression of the 1930s the current financial crisis did not lead to any major theoretical or methodological changes in contemporary economics, although the topic of financial instability received increased attention after the crisis. |
| Keywords: | crisis, economics profession, economic journals, keyword analysis, paradigmatic development |
| JEL: | A14 B20 B26 G01 N00 N01 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:75&r=all |
| By: | Stoller, Sarah |
| Abstract: | In the late 1980s, a number of Britain’s largest corporations began to trumpet their ‘family-friendliness’ and active support for women’s careers. Whereas in the late 1970s, the challenges facing working parents remained far from the agendas of most British businesses, in the course of only a decade, a sea change had taken place. Major British employers began to develop new policies and schemes that aimed to keep some, predominately white, middle class, and professional women workers with caring responsibilities in the paid workforce. Private companies now found themselves at the helm of devising what appeared, at first glance, to be the very progressive policies that feminists had long advocated. This paper considers what drove the rise of the ‘family friendly’ private sector, and suggests that far from resolving the challenges of working parenthood or transforming the gendered division of labor, ‘family friendly’ policies primarily served the interests of business. Working parents were left to resolve the tensions between paid work and caring responsibilities on their own in the context of ever more labor for British families. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, GENDER AND RACE, GLOBAL LABOR, PUBLIC POLICY, WORKERS’ RIGHTS |
| Date: | 2019–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt16v964rf&r=all |
| By: | Arthur Bauer (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE ParisTech - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jocelyn Boussard (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE ParisTech - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) - European Commission) |
| Abstract: | This paper leverages a novel and comprehensive database on French firms from 1966 to 2016 to document important facts about secular trends in market power and labor shares, especially the role of market power in explaining variations of the aggregate labor share, as opposed to other technological factors. To do so, we follow the literature and rely on measures of industry concentration and firm level markups as proxies of market power. We find first that concentration has increased since the beginning of the 1980s in France, that the distribution of labor shares shifted upwards and that those two facts are correlated at the industry level. Second, aggregate markups increased slightly, but firm level markups decreased markedly. We find that the rise of concentration is correlated with a downward shift of the markup distribution, suggesting that the two measures might imperfectly capture different dimensions of market power. Third, larger firms have higher markups and lower labor shares. To sum up, larger firms with lower labor shares and higher markups gained market shares, even more so in industries where firm level labor shares increased and markups decreased most. From a macro point of view, the relative stability of the aggregate labor share in France can be decomposed into a small negative contribution of the aggregate markup, and a small positive contribution of aggregate technology, but from a micro point of view, reallocation contributed negatively, firm level markups contributed positively, and the contribution of technology was negligible. |
| Date: | 2019–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02353137&r=all |
| By: | Elert, Niklas (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | We present the theory of the collaborative innovation bloc (CIB), an evolving system of innovation within which activity takes place over time. We show how the application of the CIB perspective can help make institutional and evolutionary economics more concrete, relevant, and persuasive, especially regarding policy prescriptions. Such policy actions should strive to improve the antifragility of CIBs and the economic system as a whole, thus enabling individual CIBs and the broader economic system to thrive when faced with macroeconomic shocks. With this in mind, we develop diagnostic tools to evaluate antifragility at the micro, meso, and macro levels before identifying a set of institutional areas where reform can be undertaken to improve antifragility. |
| Keywords: | Evolutionary economics; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Institutional Economics; Institutions; Schumpeterian entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | B53 D20 G32 L23 L26 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1306&r=all |
| By: | Louis A. Ferleger (Boston University); Matthew Lavallee (Boston University) |
| Abstract: | A large literature has detailed the seminal roles played in the Civil Rights Movement by activists, new political organizations, churches, and philanthropies. But black-owned businesses also provided a behind-the-scenes foundation for the movement’s success. Many black-owned businesses operated across the South because they provided goods and services to black customers who could not attain them from white businesses because of segregation. These small business owners very often played roles in civic matters that their counterparts in larger firms did not. Their civic participation and support contributed far more to the potential for political progress than scholars have recognized. Some accounts of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, for example, underestimate the significance of the role played by Montgomery`s community of black-owned businesses, from taxis to pharmacies. Examples from the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi also illustrate the importance of local small businesses: black business owners were on the front lines, resisting strong pressures from the white community. This paper analyzes these episodes and places them in the context of black-owned businesses in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, albeit descriptively given the unevenness and unavailability of standardized statistics. It also traces the debates over “Black Capitalism†and how the decline of segregation led to dramatic reorganizations of black businesses. |
| Keywords: | American Political Economy, Black Capitalism, Civil Rights Movement, Small Businesses, African American Businesses, Civic Participation, Martin Luther King, Jr., Andrew Brimmer |
| JEL: | A13 A14 B15 B52 D29 D72 G18 G21 J15 J48 L11 L21 N12 N82 N92 P48 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:67&r=all |
| By: | Beckenbach, Frank |
| Abstract: | In Abschnitt 2 wird ausgehend von den divergierenden Einschätzungen zur Bedeutung von Marx für die Evolutionsökonomik der dem Themenbereich Innovation und Wettbewerb zurechenbare Teil seiner ökonomischen Schriften und Manuskripte genauer analysiert (Exegese). In Abschnitt 3 werden die dabei auftretenden Plausibilitäts- und Konsistenzprobleme erörtert (Bewertung). Die daraus ableitbaren erhaltenswerten Erkenntnisse und Konzepte für eine moderne Evolutionsökonomik werden dann in Abschnitt 4 in einem akteursbasierten modelltheoretischen Rahmen rekonstruiert und die Bedingungen spezifiziert, unter denen die Marxschen Befunde auftreten können (Rekonstruktion). Abschließend werden in Abschnitt 5 die gängigen Bewertungen von Marx in der Evolutionsökonomik kritisch diskutiert und weitere Forschungsperspektiven skizziert. |
| Keywords: | Marx,Innovation,Evolutionsökonomik,agentenbasierte Modellierung |
| JEL: | B51 B52 C63 O33 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cuswps:oek50&r=all |
| By: | Ngo-Hoang, Dai-Long |
| Abstract: | ‘Ethics’ is a branch of philosophy which examines the concepts of right and wrong. A journal will likely refuse to publish research, or writing, which they feel are not to an acceptable ethical standard. Ethics in science publishing refers to both the experiment and the written account. In terms of the experiment, publishers want to know that the researcher did not mistreat animals or human beings during the course of the study. Further to this, the writing is expected to be a truthful and honest account of the experiment. Finally, authors are expected to uphold a high standard of ethics by abstaining from any form of plagiarism. Interestingly, the United States National Academies begins their third edition of On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research with the statement, “The scientific enterprise is built on a foundation of trust” (2009). Not factual information, but trust that the information is indeed factual. |
| Date: | 2019–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:agrixi:qmd3y&r=all |
| By: | Chen, Victor Zitian; Cantwell, John |
| Abstract: | Consisting of formal and informal rules, cultural-cognitive schema, and routinized processes, institutions are the foundation of social life. Yet we do not have a systematic understanding of resistant roots of institutional diversity across societies. Following an evolutionary framework, we review the literature and discuss how a series of mutually exclusive and sequential “replicators” have come to jointly predispose human behaviors. Through social transmission, these replicators form lineages, which contribute to different levels of societies. We suggest that our review can provide a new research agenda regarding human behaviors in the social sciences. |
| Date: | 2019–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:3gaqj&r=all |
| By: | Ponomarenko, Alexey |
| Abstract: | The author sets up a simplistic agent-based model where agents learn with reinforcement observing an incomplete set of variables. The model is employed to generate an artificial dataset that is used to estimate standard macro econometric models. The author shows that the results are qualitatively indistinguishable (in terms of the signs and significances of the coefficients and impulse-responses) from the results obtained with a dataset that emerges in a genuinely rational system. |
| Keywords: | microfoundations,bounded rationality,reinforcement learning,agent-based model |
| JEL: | B41 C63 D83 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201951&r=all |
| By: | Burgess, Matthew G.; Carrella, Ernesto; Drexler, Michael; Axtell, Robert L.; Bailey, Richard M.; Watson, James R.; Cabral, Reniel B.; Clemence, Michaela; Costello, Christopher; Dorsett, Chris |
| Abstract: | Like other coupled natural-human systems, fisheries are ultimately managed from the human side. Models are important to understanding and predicting fishing industry responses to, and feedbacks with, changes in the ecosystem or management institutions. In situ controlled experiments are difficult or impossible to conduct. Recent advances in computation have made it possible to construct realistic agent-based models (ABMs) of human systems that track the behaviour of each individual, firm, or vessel. ABMs are widely used for both academic and applied purposes in many settings including finance, urban planning, and the military, but are not yet mainstream in fisheries science and management. ABMs are well suited to understanding emergent consequences of fisher interactions, heterogeneity, and bounded rationality, especially in complex ecological and institutional contexts. For these reasons, we argue that ABMs of human behaviour can contribute significantly to fisheries social science in three areas: (i) understanding interactions between multiple management institutions, (ii) incorporating cognitive and behavioural sciences into fisheries science and practice, and (iii) understanding and projecting the social consequences of management institutions. We provide simple worked examples illustrating the potential for ABMs in each of these areas, using the POSEIDON model, and we discuss terms of reference for addressing common ABM development and application challenges. |
| Date: | 2018–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:gzhm5&r=all |
| By: | Beyer, Karl M.; Pühringer, Stephan |
| Abstract: | In this paper we address the issue of the role of ideology and political preferences of publically engaged economists and contribute to the debate on consensus in economics. To do so, we conduct a social network analysis on the signatories of economist petitions, which we identify as one channel for economists to exert public influence. We base our analysis on 77 public policy petitions and presidential anti-/endorsement letters from 2008-2017 in the United States with more than 6,400 signatories and check the robustness of our results with six sub-networks. Our contribution is twofold: On the one hand we provide an extended empirical basis for the debate on consensus in economics and the role of politics and ideology in economics. On the other hand we provide a viable tool to trace the ideological leaning of (prospective) economist petitions and economists based on the social structure of petition networks. |
| Keywords: | social network analysis,sociology of economics,consensus,public economists,economist petitions,United States |
| JEL: | A11 A13 A14 B20 B30 D04 E66 G18 I38 P16 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cuswps:oek51&r=all |
| By: | Claudia Fontanari, (Roma Tre University.); Antonella Palumbo (Roma Tre University.); Chiara Salvatori (Roma Tre University.) |
| Abstract: | This paper challenges the mainstream view of potential output, and enquires into the supposed effects of Great Recession on potential growth. We identify in the demand-led growth perspective a more promising theoretical framework both to define the notion and to gauge the long-term effects of a demand slow down. Based on the poor reliability of standard estimates of potential output, we also propose an alternative calculation. This is based on an update of Arthur M. Okun`s original method for estimating potential output, which, differently from the estimation methods currently in use, does not rely on the notion of NAIRU, thus being immune to its theoretical and empirical shortcomings. Our calculation, based on a re-estimation of Okun`s Law on US quarterly data, shows both how far an economy generally operates from its production possibilities, and how much potential growth is affected by the actual growth of demand over time. These wide margins for expansion of actual and potential output growth imply that a determined policy of demand expansion would create, given time, the very capacity that justifies it. |
| Keywords: | potential output; Okun`s law; unemployment; demand-led growth |
| JEL: | E60 E23 E24 O40 E11 E12 C22 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:93&r=all |
| By: | Philippe de Vreyer (DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme, LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris-Dauphine); Sylvie Lambert (PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Intra-household inequalities have long been a source of concern for policy design, but there is very little evidence. The current practice of ignoring inequality within households could lead to an underestimation of both overall inequality and poverty levels, as well as to the misclassification of some individuals as regards to their poverty status. Using a novel survey for Senegal in which consumption data were collected at a disaggregated level, this paper quantifies these various effects. In total, two opposing effects, one on mean and one on inequality, compensate each other in terms of the overall poverty rate, but individual poverty statuses are affected. Intra-household consumption inequalities accounts for 14% of inequality in Senegal. We uncover the fact that household structure and organization are key correlates of intra-household inequality and individual risk of poverty. |
| Keywords: | Inequality,Poverty,Household sruveys,Intra-household allocation,Senegal |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02177745&r=all |
| By: | Karell, Daniel; Freedman, Michael Raphael |
| Abstract: | What rhetorics run throughout radical discourse, and why do some gain prominence over others? The scholarship on radicalism largely portrays radical discourse as opposition to powerful ideas and enemies, but radicals often evince great interest in personal and local concerns. To shed light on how radicals use and adopt rhetoric, we analyze an original corpus of more than 23,000 pages produced by Afghan radical groups between 1979 and 2001 using a novel computational abductive approach. We first identify how radicalism not only attacks dominant ideas, actors, and institutions using a rhetoric of subversion, but also how it can use a rhetoric of reversion to urge intimate transformations in morals and behavior. Next, we find evidence that radicals’ networks of support affect the rhetorical mixture they espouse, due to social ties drawing radicals into encounters with backers’ social domains. Our study advances a relational understanding of radical discourse, while also showing how a combination of computational and abductive methods can help theorize and analyze discourses of contention. |
| Date: | 2019–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:yfzsh&r=all |
| By: | Xu, Yongsheng; Yoshihara, Naoki |
| Abstract: | In the presence of (at least locally) increasing returns to scale technologies, the paper asks the question: does there exist an economic system which implements Pareto efficient allocations and respects the voluntary participation principle? To answer this question, the paper formulates an economic system as an allocation rule under economies with non-convex production possibility sets, and proposes a few weaker axioms to represent the voluntary participation principle. Then, the paper shows that any Pareto efficient allocation rule satisfies none of the axioms of the voluntary participation principle. The result suggests that pursuing Pareto efficiency in the presence of increasing returns to scale technologies leads to a dictatorial allocation rule, or forces someone to participate in the economic system without any guarantee of a minimal living standard. |
| Keywords: | increasing returns to scale technologies, Pareto efficiency, allocation rule, individual rationality, minimal autonomy, voluntary participation |
| JEL: | D0 D2 D3 D5 D6 P0 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:700&r=all |
| By: | Castellanza, Luca |
| Abstract: | How can marginalized individuals alter institutional schemas that propel discrimination, unfairness and injustice? From an Embedded Agency perspective, marginalized actors are inherently motivated to oppose dominant prejudices, but lack power and resources to instigate change. Yet, based on institutional micro-foundations, we posit that even marginalized individuals can be considered legitimate change agents for specific institutional practices. Through an ethnography of 76 discriminated women farmers in South-West Cameroon, this article shows the processes through which marginalized individuals can build inclusive institutions regardless of their peripheral position within the societal hierarchy. We find that the institutionalized practices of farmers’ and women’s discrimination differ in their ease of alterability and introduce ‘acceptable deviance’, the contextualized possibility to change an institution depending on the individual’s situational legitimacy and the community’s openness to accept changes in that institution. These insights contribute to the discussions of opportunities in institutional entrepreneurship and bottom-up solutions to grand challenges. |
| Date: | 2019–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ekr2p&r=all |
| By: | de Carvalho, Andre Roncaglia |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the rise of the Latin American-based inertial inflation theory. Starting in the 1950s, various traditions in economics purported to explain the concept of “inflation inertia”. Contributions ranging from Celso Furtado and M.H. Simonsen to James Tobin anticipated key aspects of what later became the inertial inflation hypothesis, building it into either mathematical or conceptual frameworks compatible with the then contemporaneous macroeconomic theory. In doing so, they bridged the analytical gap with the North-American developments whilst maintaining the key features of the CEPAL approach, such as distributional conflicts and local institutional details. These contributions eventually influenced the second moment of the monetarist-structuralist controversy that unraveled in the 1980s. The paper also highlights how later works by structuralist economists gradually stripped the inertial inflation approach of its previous substance and form, thereby unearthing tensions among Latin-American structuralists that led to the eventual decline of this research program. |
| Date: | 2019–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:gxy4n&r=all |
| By: | Linsi, Lukas |
| Abstract: | In the 1950s-70s inward foreign direct investments (IFDI) were widely seen as a menace, threatening to undermine national economic development. Two decades later such concerns had virtually disappeared. Rather than as a problem, IFDI were now portrayed as a solution - even symbols of national economic success. To better understand the ideational dynamics underlying this remarkable transformation in perceptions of IFDI, this research traces the evolution of economic discourses in the United Kingdom over the post-war period. Deviating from conventional accounts in constructivist IPE, the investigation indicates that the rise of first-generation neoliberal discourses in the 1980s played only a secondary role in these processes. Instead, the discursive reshaping of IFDI was primarily driven by the rise of the narrative of national competitiveness in the early 1990s – a discourse inspired by managerial rather than neoclassical economic theory. Building a framework that prioritizes (multinational) firms over national economies, the rise of this second-generation neoliberal narrative played a critical role in promoting now taken-for-granted imaginaries of the global economy as an economic ”race” between nations-as-platforms-of-production. The findings highlight both the ideational underbelly of the rise of the competition state and how it re-shaped dominant social representations of IFDI. |
| Date: | 2019–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:s4j6y&r=all |
| By: | Mark Glick (University of Utah) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an historical analysis of the antitrust laws. Its central contention is that the history of antitrust can only be understood in light of U.S. economic history and the succession of dominant economic policy regimes that punctuated that history. The antitrust laws and a subset of other related policies have historically focused on the negative consequences resulting from the rise, expansion, and dominance of big business. Antitrust specifically uses competition as its tool to address these problems. The paper traces the evolution of the emergence, growth and expansion of big business over six economic eras: the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the post-World War II Era, the 1970s, and the era of neoliberalism. It considers three policy regimes: laissez-faire during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, the New Deal, policy regime from the Depression through the early 1970s, and the neoliberal policy regime that dominates today and includes the Chicago School of antitrust. The principal conclusion of the paper is that the activist antitrust policies associated with the New Deal that existed from the late 1930s to the 1960s resulted in far stronger economic performance than have the policies of the Chicago School that have dominated antitrust policy since the 1980s. |
| Keywords: | New Brandeis School, Antitrust economics, Antitrust law, Neoliberal Economic Theory, Chicago School Economics, History of Antitrust law |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:95&r=all |
| By: | Grumiller, Jan; Raza, Werner G. |
| Abstract: | Political and scholarly debates on the potentials and constraints of inclusive and sustainable development in the global periphery are at the core of the developmental discourse. This paper argues that discussions on the effectiveness, inclusiveness and sustainability of economic development need to take the political economic contexts of specific peripheral countries into account. The paper highlights that the more recent literature related to the developmental state debate provides valuable insights to this end, but needs (i) further conceptual extension, in particular with respect to the role of social inclusion and hegemony, and (ii) operationalization in order to be useful from a policy perspective. This paper aims to add to these two gaps in the literature. |
| Keywords: | developmental state,institutional regime,hegemony,inclusiveness,strategic relational approach |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:oefsew:61&r=all |
| By: | Flitton, Adam; Currie, Thomas E. |
| Abstract: | A huge number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain the substantial diversity in economic development. There is growing appreciation that cultural evolutionary processes may have played an important role in this emergence of this diversity. Historical factors such as the length of time societies have had experience with centralized political governance, or how long they have employed agricultural subsistence strategies have been presented as explanatory factors that have contributed to present-day economic performance. However, it is not clear whether duration of agriculture and ancestral statehood have exerted a direct effect on modern productivity, or whether they influence economies indirectly by shaping the evolution of norms or formal institutions. Here we use structural equation modelling and a global nation-level dataset to test between hypotheses involving a range of direct and indirect pathways. We show that the historical timing of agriculture predicts the timing of the emergence of statehood, which in turn affects economic development indirectly through its effect on institutions. Ecological factors appear to affect economic performance indirectly through their historical effects on the development of agriculture and by shaping patterns of European colonization. These results support the idea that cultural evolutionary processes have been important in creating effective institutions that enable large-scale cooperation and economic growth in present-day societies. |
| Date: | 2018–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:cy4fd&r=all |
| By: | Pia, Andrea E. |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2019–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:101583&r=all |
| By: | Franco, Marco Paulo Vianna |
| Abstract: | A review of Nathaniel Wolloch's Nature in the History of Economic Thought: how natural resources became an economic concept |
| Date: | 2019–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rvhxt&r=all |
| By: | Tremblay, Ethan; Hupper, Afton; Waring, Timothy |
| Abstract: | Cooperatives as can be presumed to rely on the economic cooperation of their members. However, game-theoretic and institutional models suggest that cooperatives may be inherently fragile due to the individual costs of cooperation. Because of this it is widely believed that organizations which rely less on cooperation may be more stable, while organizations that require cooperation may be at higher risk of folding. Therefore, if cooperatively owned or managed businesses do in fact require higher levels of prosocial and cooperative behavior than hierarchically managed firms, they must attract and maintain cooperation among participants in order to function. We hypothesized that successful consumer food cooperatives will exhibit greater generalized cooperation than conventional grocery stores. We employed an experimental dictator game to measure altruistic cooperation among consumers at a food cooperative and a comparable conventional grocery. Cooperative customers exhibit a higher base rate of cooperation than similar conventional food shoppers, and this relationship holds even when taking demographic factors such as income, education, and age into account. We conclude that, when successful, consumer food cooperatives exhibit greater levels of cooperation than comparable traditional businesses. |
| Date: | 2019–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:6x9p3&r=all |
| By: | Servaas Storm (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | Strong labor protections for ordinary workers are often portrayed as a `luxury developing countries cannot afford`. No study has been more influential in propagating this perversity trope in the context of the Indian economy than the QJE article of Besley and Burgess (2004). Their article provides econometric evidence that pro-worker regulation resulted in lower output, employment, investment and productivity in India`s registered manufacturing sector. This paper reviews existing critiques of Besley and Burgess (2004), which highlight conceptual and measurement errors and uncover econometric weaknesses. The paper takes a step beyond these: it reports a failure to replicate Besley and Burgess’ findings and demonstrate the non- robustness of their results. My deconstruction is not only about the econometrics, however. I show that Besley and Burgess` findings are not just inconsistent with their theoretical priors, but also internally contradictory and empirically implausible, taxing any person’s capacity for belief. The paper, written by two `useful economists`, exhibits a gratuitous empiricism in which priors trump evidence. On all counts, it fails the test of being useful to the purpose of `evidence-based` public policy advice. |
| Keywords: | Manufacturing performance; industrial relations; pro-worker regulation; labor laws; Indian economy; Industrial Disputes Act (IDA) |
| JEL: | B50 C26 O10 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:90&r=all |
| By: | Nadia Garbellini (Universita di Bergamo) |
| Abstract: | Thomas Piketty`s (2014) Capital in the XXI Century aims to analyze distributions of income and wealth in a set of developed countries and their determinants, from the nineteenth century to the present. The objective is a bold one, made even more so by the fact that Piketty pursues it not only from a theoretical, but also, from an empirical point of view. The task is particularly impressive not only because of the enormous effort required in collecting and organizing data, but also because the work entails attaching a deterministic interpretation to facts and figures from radically different countries over a time span that covers almost two centuries, thereby forcing comparison between numbers coming from clearly incommensurable contexts. These difficulties are not lost to Piketty, who states that ``[w]ithout precisely defined sources, methods, and concepts, it is possible to see everything and its opposite.`` (Piketty, 2014, pp.2-3) This study argues that the empirical `methods and concepts` adopted by Piketty are not always consistent with those coming from his reference theoretical framework, nor from National Accounts (United Nations, 2009). |
| Keywords: | Capital, Capital output ratio, Income distribution, Inequality, Growth theory, National accounts. |
| JEL: | E01 E20 D30 D31 D33 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:69&r=all |
| By: | Laia OLLÉ-ESPLUGA (Department of Sociology, University of Graz (Austria)); Johanna MUCKENHUBER (Department of Social Work, FH Joanneum, Graz (Austria)); Markus HADLER (Department of Sociology, University of Graz (Austria)) |
| Abstract: | The Economy for the Common Good (ECG) pursues an alternative economic model built on values oriented to the common welfare such as human dignity, solidarity, ecological sustainability, social justice, transparency and democratic participation. The principles endorsed by the ECG coincide with those of the social economy as it promotes a system in which the motivation of economic competition is replaced by cooperation so that the collective interest and common good is put above companies’ profits. (High) quality of work plays an important role in the ECG. The main points of its work-related values can be summarised by the willingness to elude discrimination and employment precariousness; the encouragement of information and worker participation; and the promotion of beneficial psychosocial factors at work. However, there is scarce knowledge on the actual labour conditions of workers employed in such type of firms. Thus, in this paper, our goal is to describe the quality of jobs in companies following the Economy for the Common Good in Austria and Germany, the countries where this economic model is most widespread. Using data published in the Common Good Balances reports available on the ECG website1, we extracted data informing about job quality at an organisational level of 59 firms with at least 5 employees in Austria and Germany. Although the breadth and depth of the information collected in the Common Good Balances reports is variable, results suggest a widespread presence of elements of good quality of work: limited use of precarious employment arrangements (yet, thorough information about fixedterm contracts is lacking), provision of training and a decent degree of decisionmaking autonomy. Direct participation practices are more prevailing than representative participation forms. |
| Keywords: | Economy for the Common Good, job quality, Austria, Germany |
| JEL: | P49 J81 J82 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crc:wpaper:1921&r=all |
| By: | Özgün Sarimehmet Duman |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the primary struggle over absolute surplus value strategies in a capitalist society. It discusses the relationship between labour and capital, with a specific emphasis on the role of class struggle in the case of Greece. It analyses the policies of deunionisation, suppression of collective bargaining, deregulation, flexibilisation and social security reforms during the rise of neoliberalism from the late 1980s. It states that the high levels of class struggle were unyielding to the execution of absolute surplus value strategies in full. The paper argues that the post-2008economic crisis further increased the emphasis on these strategies with the intention to implement the long-been-postponed labour market reforms under the unique economic and political circumstances. Presenting a comparative inquiry into the pre- and post-crisis dynamics of struggle over absolute surplus value strategies, the paper indicates that the high levels of class struggle generated a barrier to the introduction o recovery policies as an initial response to the crisis. |
| Keywords: | absolute surplus value strategy, class struggle, economic crisis, Greece, neoliberalism |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:140&r=all |
| By: | Lance Taylor (New School for Social Research); Ozlem Omer (New School for Social Research) |
| Abstract: | `Dualism` in the structure of production across sectors of the US economy, employment by sector, productivity levels and growth, real wages, and intersectoral terms-of trade increased markedly between 1990 and 2016. The discussion focuses on 16 sectors. Seven were `stagnant` - construction, education and health, other services, entertainment, accommodation and food, business services, and transportation and warehousing. They had low productivity levels, productivity growth rates hovering around zero, and low real wages. Their share of total employment rose from 47% in 1990 to 61% in 2016. The other `dynamic` sectors had higher and positively growing productivity while the terms-of- trade shifted against them. This bifurcation between industries is discussed in terms of a simple model. Increasing duality and secular stagnation are distinct possibilities. |
| Keywords: | economic dualism, industrial structure, productivity, low wages, employment |
| JEL: | D31 D33 E2 E12 E24 J40 L11 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:80&r=all |