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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2020‒06‒15
fifteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Carlo Vercellone (CEMTI - Centre d'études sur les médias, les technologies et l'internationalisation - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) |
| Abstract: | Cognitive capitalism and the informational revolution have gone hand in hand with a blurring of the boundaries between work and leisure time. At the heart of this evolution is the rise of platform capitalism, and in particular the "merchantable gratuitousness" platforms, like Google and Facebook, which have now taken first place in the ranking of world firms in terms of stock market capitalisation and profitability. Their profit model is based on the logic of multi-sided markets and combines the sale of online advertising and the extraction of user data. The users thus represent both the product and the producers of the main raw material underlying the organisation of the advertising market for merchantable gratuitousness platforms. This is called Free Digital Labor. This concept refers to the activity, apparently both gratuitous and self-governing, performed, often unknowingly, by a multitude of individuals on the internet for the benefit of big internet oligopolies and data industries. The Free Digital Labor thesis is highly controversial. It is often rejected by means of three main arguments: 1. it would be, not labor, but the intangible capital of the algorithm which, through an automated process, would extract and create most of the value; 2. the Free Digital Labor would escape not only the canonical criteria of wage labor, but also the anthropological definition of labor as a conscious and voluntary goal-oriented activity; 3. the free services proposed by the platforms would be remuneration in kind, excluding any relationship of exploitation. Our contribution aims to clarify the terms of this debate and to respond to these objections through a historical and theoretical analysis of the changes in the capital-labor relationship that occurred under the aegis of platform capitalism. |
| Abstract: | Le capitalisme cognitif et la révolution informationnelle sont allés de pair avec un effritement des frontières entre temps de travail et temps libre. Au centre de cette évolution se trouve l'essor du capitalisme des plateformes et notamment des plateformes de la « gratuité marchande » qui, à l'image de Google et Facebook, ont désormais conquis le premières places dans le classement des firmes mondiales en termes de capitalisation boursières et de rentabilité. Leur modèle de profit repose sur la logique des marchés multi-versants et associe la vente de la publicité en ligne et l'extraction des données des usagers. Ces derniers représentent ainsi à la fois le produit et les producteurs de la principale matière première à la base de l'organisation du marché publicitaire des plateformes de la gratuité marchande. C'est ce que l'on nomme le Free Digital Labor. Par ce concept on désigne le travail à la fois gratuit et apparemment libre qu'une multitude d'individus effectue sur internet, souvent inconsciemment, au profit des grands oligopoles du numérique et des data industries. La thèse du Free Digital Labor suscite une vive controverse. Elle est souvent rejetée au moyen de trois principaux arguments : ce serait, non le travail, mais le capital immatériel de l'algorithme qui, par un processus automatisé, extrairait et créerait l'essentiel de la valeur ; le Free Digital Labor échapperait non seulement aux critères canoniques du travail salarié, mais aussi à la définition anthropologique du travail vu comme une activité consciente et volontaire orientée vers un but ; les services gratuits offerts par les plateformes correspondraient à une rémunération en nature excluant tout rapport d'exploitation. Notre contribution se propose d'élucider les termes de ce débat et de répondre à ces objections par une analyse historique et théorique des mutations du rapport capital/travail intervenues sous l'égide du capitalisme des plateformes. ABSTRACT. Cognitive capitalism and the informational revolution have gone hand in hand with a blurring of the boundaries between work and leisure time. At the heart of this evolution is the rise of platform capitalism, and in particular the "merchantable gratuitousness" platforms, like Google and Facebook, which have now taken first place in the ranking of world firms in terms of stock market capitalisation and profitability. Their profit model is based on the logic of multi-sided markets and combines the sale of online advertising and the extraction of user data. The users thus represent both the product and the producers of the main raw material underlying the organisation of the advertising market for merchantable gratuitousness platforms. This is called Free Digital Labor. This concept refers to the activity, apparently both gratuitous and self-governing, performed, often unknowingly, by a multitude of individuals on the internet for the benefit of big internet oligopolies and data industries. The Free Digital Labor thesis is highly controversial. It is often rejected by means of three main arguments: 1. it would be, not labor, but the intangible capital of the algorithm which, through an automated process, would extract and create most of the value; 2. the Free Digital Labor would escape not only the canonical criteria of wage labor, but also the anthropological definition of labor as a conscious and voluntary goal-oriented activity; 3. the free services proposed by the platforms would be remuneration in kind, excluding any relationship of exploitation. Our contribution aims to clarify the terms of this debate and to respond to these objections through a historical and theoretical analysis of the changes in the capital-labor relationship that occurred under the aegis of platform capitalism. |
| Keywords: | Karl Marx KEYWORDS cognitive capitalism,Algorithmes,Free Digital Labor,platform capitalism,multi-sided markets,data,Algorithms,Free Digital Labour,Karl Marx,MOTS-CLES capitalisme cognitif,capitalisme des plateformes,marches multi-versants,données |
| Date: | 2020–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02554288&r=all |
| By: | Jacques Fontanel (CESICE - Centre d'études sur la sécurité internationale et les coopérations européennes - UPMF - Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - IEPG - Sciences Po Grenoble - Institut d'études politiques de Grenoble) |
| Abstract: | Economics is not a science, even if it uses scientific methods. It is first and foremost part of the world's political order. Today, economic globalization organized around the competition of firms on international markets is characterized by the weight of international finance, the difficulties of States to satisfy the production of public goods and services without debt, the excessive place given to GDP growth in national economies, the negative influence of greenhouse gas emissions which are at the heart of today's economic development, the excessive exploitation of the Earth, and a social justice that is lacking to say the least. |
| Abstract: | L'économie n'est pas une science, même si elle utilise des méthodes scientifiques. Elle s'inscrit d'abord dans l'ordre politique du monde. Aujourd'hui, la globalisation économique organisée autour de la compétition des firmes sur les marchés internationaux est caractérisée par le poids de la finance internationale, les difficultés des Etats à satisfaire la production de biens et services publics sans endettement, la place excessive accordée à la croissance du PIB dans les économies nationales, l'influence négative des émissions de gaz à effets de serre qui sont au cœur du développement économique d'aujourd'hui, l'exploitation excessive de la Terre, et une justice sociale pour le moins défaillante. |
| Keywords: | state indebtedness. heretic economics,Economic science,political economy,social justice,GDP,ecology,international finance,économie politique,justice sociale,Science économique,PIB,écologie,finance internationale,endettement des Etats,économie hérétique. |
| Date: | 2020–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02626350&r=all |
| By: | Hanappi, Hardy |
| Abstract: | This paper is a reaction on the last four global crisis of the human species: the global financial crisis, the migration crisis, the climate crisis, and the corona crisis. It argues that a global crisis needs a revolution in global governance necessitating a global change of the mode of production. In part 1 essential features - a vision - of a world we want to live in are proposed, while in part 2 an update of the dynamics of global class structures is used to identify coalitions for the global revolution needed to get closer to that vision. |
| Keywords: | Global crisis, Global political economy |
| JEL: | B41 B51 B52 F6 |
| Date: | 2020–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100482&r=all |
| By: | Jean-Michel Servet (IHEID - Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement - University of Geneva [Switzerland]); Bruno Tinel (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | One-sentence summary : Randomized controlled trials by behavioural economists pretend to be pragmatic and only interested in what really works to solve practical problems but in reality they have notorious normative and ideological aspects. Key points: Behavioural RCTs ignore contexts and composition effects and reflect the biases of those who perform assessments. Behavioural randomizers presume without demonstrating that market exchanges are the most effective form of regulation for societies in all situations of social life. The positive or negative incentives ("nudges") offered by behavioural economics aim to normalize the behaviour of consumers, users, employees or small/independent producers. They are part of a set of power devices by which individual behaviours are shaped and forced, without their knowledge, to conform to dominant class interests. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02562758&r=all |
| By: | Andrew Ellis; Yusufcan Masatlioglu |
| Abstract: | We propose a novel categorical thinking model (CTM) where the framing of the decision problem affects how the agent categorizes each product, and the product's category affects her evaluation of the product. We show that a number of prominent models of salience, status quo bias, loss-aversion, inequality aversion, and present bias all fit under the umbrella of CTM. This suggests categorization as an underlying mechanism for key departures from the neoclassical model of choice and an account for diverse sets of evidence that are anomalous from its perspective. We specialize CTM to provide a behavioral foundation for the salient thinking model of Bordalo et al. (2013), highlighting its strong predictions and distinctions from other existing models. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2005.05196&r=all |
| By: | Noah Topper |
| Abstract: | Functional decision theory (FDT) is a fairly new mode of decision theory and a normative viewpoint on how an agent should maximize expected utility. The current standard in decision theory and computer science is causal decision theory (CDT), largely seen as superior to the main alternative evidential decision theory (EDT). These theories prescribe three distinct methods for maximizing utility. We explore how FDT differs from CDT and EDT, and what implications it has on the behavior of FDT agents and humans. It has been shown in previous research how FDT can outperform CDT and EDT. We additionally show FDT performing well on more classical game theory problems and argue for its extension to human problems to show that its potential for superiority is robust. We also make FDT more concrete by displaying it in an evolutionary environment, competing directly against other theories. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2005.05154&r=all |
| By: | Folke, Olle; Rickne, Johanna |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a comprehensive empirical analysis of sexual harassment in the Swedish labor market. First, we use nationally representative survey data linked with employer-employee data to describe rates of self-reported sexual harassment across occupations and workplaces. The risk of sexual harassment is clearly imbalanced across the sex segregated labor market. In gender-mixed and male-dominated occupations and workplaces, women have a higher risk than men, and men have a higher risk than women in female-dominated contexts. We use a hypothetical job-choice experiment with vignettes for sexual harassment to measure the disutility of sexual harassment risks. Both men and women have an equally high willingness to pay for avoiding workplaces where sexual harassment has occurred. But the willingness to pay is conditional on the sex of the fictional harassment victim. People reject workplaces where the victim is the same sex as themselves, but not where the victim is of the opposite sex. We return to the administrative data to study employer compensation for the disutility of sexual harassment risks. Within workplaces, a high risk is associated with lower, not higher wages. People who self-report sexual harassment also have higher job dissatisfaction, more quit intentions, and more actual quits. Both these patterns indicate a lack of full compensation. We conclude that sexual harassment should be conceptualized as gender discrimination in workplace amenities, and that this discrimination reinforces sex segregation and pay-inequalities in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Gender Inequality; occupational gender segregation; Sexual harassment; workplace amenities |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J81 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14737&r=all |
| By: | Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Sproule, Kathryn; Martinez, Elena M.; Malapit, Hazel J. |
| Abstract: | Although women’s empowerment and gender equality are associated with better maternal and child nutrition outcomes, recent systematic reviews find inconclusive evidence. This paper applies a comparable methodology to data on the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), a recent internationally-validated measure based on interviews of women and men within the same household, from six countries in Africa and Asia to identify which dimensions of women’s empowerment are related to household-, women-, and child-level dietary and nutrition outcomes. We examine the relationship between women’s empowerment and household-level food security and dietary diversity; women’s dietary diversity and BMI; and child-related outcomes, controlling for woman, child, and household characteristics. We also test whether women’s empowerment has differential associations for boys and girls. We do not find consistent associations between dimensions of empowerment and food security and nutrition outcomes across countries, but some patterns emerge. Overall empowerment scores are more strongly associated with nutritional outcomes in the South Asian countries in our sample compared to the African ones. Where significant, greater intrahousehold gender equality is associated with better nutritional outcomes. However, different domains have different associations with nutritional outcomes, suggesting that tradeoffs exist: higher workloads are associated with more diverse diets but lower women’s BMI and child anthropometric outcomes. Identifying the overlap between the top contributors to disempowerment and those most strongly related to nutrition outcomes can inform the design and implementation of nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs. |
| Keywords: | BANGLADESH; SOUTH ASIA; ASIA; NEPAL; CAMBODIA; SOUTH EAST ASIA; GHANA; WEST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA; MOZAMBIQUE; SOUTHERN AFRICA; TANZANIA; EAST AFRICA; women; gender; agriculture; nutrition; empowerment; women's empowerment; maternal and child health; food security; body mass index; child nutrition |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1930&r=all |
| By: | Oleksandr Shepotylo (Aston Universtiy, Birmingham, UK.); Volodymyr Vakhitov |
| Abstract: | The declining labor share in national income and rising inequality over the last four decades raise questions about causes of these trends. In order to explain these trends, we develop a theoretical model that links intra-industry distribution of wages to variation in market power of firms. The model predicts that wages depend crucially on the demand side characteristics – they decline with market power if and only if demand elasticity is increasing with firm’s output. Trade liberalization leads to expansion of more productive firms, which also increases their bargaining power, resulting in lower share of wage bill in total revenue. The model predictions are tested on a sample of Ukrainian manufacturing firms in 2001– 2007. We document that an increase in firm’s size increases its bargaining power relative to workers. We measure firm level markups, and show that they increase with firm’s output and market size. We find that wage rises with firm’s productivity, but fall with its market power. The results are robust to various model specifications estimated at the firm and industry levels. |
| Keywords: | wage bargaining; wage inequality; heterogeneous firms; productivity; variable markups; international trade; monopolistic competition |
| JEL: | D43 F12 J31 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ost:wpaper:387&r=all |
| By: | Hupkau, Claudia; Petrongolo, Barbara |
| Abstract: | The Covid-19 crisis has especially hit service sectors with frequent social interactions, in which women are over-represented. At the same time, if not directly subject to the lock-down, women are more likely to hold jobs that can be performed from home. Survey evidence for the UK shows that women are more likely to report job losses than men during Covid-19, suggesting that remote work opportunities only partially offset the differential exposure of men and women to the lockdown. Following the closure of nurseries and schools, women are also likely to take over a larger share of increased childcare needs. However, in about 20% of households, in which women work in critical sectors and men stay at home, one would expect a reversal of usual childcare gaps, with potential consequences on the evolution of gender roles and comparative advantages. Furthermore, valuable lessons may be learned from current remote working patterns, possibly feeding into more flexible working solutions for the long-run. |
| Keywords: | coronavirus; Covid-19 |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:104674&r=all |
| By: | Dirk van Seventer; Finn Tarp; Nyo Nyo San; Soe Thei Nu Htwe; Thandar |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the compilation of a 2017 Social Accounting Matrix for Myanmar. This is based on partial and unpublished National Accounts data and unpublished Supply and Use Table data, as well as Balance of Payment data and Government Finance Statistics data. It provides a detailed representation of the Myanmar economy and identifies 43 activities and 43 commodities. Labour is disaggregated by educational attainment level or by occupation group using a Labour Force Survey, while household income and expenditure detail is extracted from the Myanmar Living Conditions Survey. |
| Keywords: | Balance of payments, Income distribution, labour force survey, national accounts, Social Accounting Matrix, Supply table |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-66&r=all |
| By: | Jon Wisman; Quentin Duroy |
| Abstract: | Over the past four decades, forces have been set in motion that are proletarianizing professors -- reducing their control over their workplaces. This has been in part propelled by a resurgence of laissez-faire doctrine that has legitimated public policies which have fueled soaring inequality. This article addresses the threat to freedom and economic dynamism posed by the debasement of professors by examining six principal forces that are driving the proletarianization of the professoriate: the replacement of tenured with contingent faculty, an expansion of for-profit colleges and universities, the rise of online education, the introduction of annual evaluations and merit pay, the development of outcomes assessment, and the increased reliance on external research funding. The essay then briefly surveys how laissez-faire doctrine and rising inequality have led to radical cuts in government funding for higher education, have placed an increased emphasis on providing student consumers with vocational training as opposed to a liberal education, and have reshaped higher education through the introduction of corporate values within universities’ systems of governance. The article concludes with reflections on the evolution of the status of professors in higher education as a symptom of the betrayed promises for personal and social life held forth by economic abundance following World War Two. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Higher education, Laissez-faire doctrine, Corporate values, Ideology, Freedom |
| JEL: | I20 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:2020-02&r=all |
| By: | Yvon Pesqueux (CNAM - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers [CNAM], LIRSA - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire de recherche en sciences de l'action - CNAM - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers [CNAM]) |
| Date: | 2020–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02561071&r=all |
| By: | Hayk Manucharyan (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | Increasing public awareness of environmental protection has caused the emergence of green supply chain management in recent years. As firms tend to outsource a significant part of their activities, the importance of supplier selection increases from a competitive standpoint. While most studies of supplier selection have introduced methods based on economic criteria, the number of studies that incorporate environmental issues is rather limited. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to address the green supplier evaluation and selection issue by first identifying the appropriate criteria and then developing a model for their measurement in the evaluation process. The authors apply fuzzy set theory to deal with the subjectivity of supplier selection decision-making and capture the linguistic terms used for human assessments. A rule-based fuzzy inference system is developed to evaluate suppliers based on ten environmental criteria and eventually select the best-performing supplier. The dynamic nature of the model allows the decision-makers to manipulate the importance of different supplier attributes and constructed rules, based on individual preferences. An illustrative example is also presented to show the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology. |
| Keywords: | supplier evaluation, supplier selection, supply chain economics, uncertainty, fuzzy logic, fuzzy inference system |
| JEL: | C44 D81 D91 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2020-13&r=all |
| By: | Ivan Mendieta-Munoz, Doguhan Sundal |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a conceptualization of business cycle fluctuations in which the role of financial conditions and nonlinear dynamics are explicitly incorporated. We highlight the role of investment demand in driving economic fluctuations, consider its endogenous dynamic interactions with profitability and aggregate demand levels as well as financial conditions, emphasize that the sources of instability in an economy cannot be associated exclusively with the real or financial sectors, and incorporate the idea that financial conditions are both important sources of instability and possible nonlinear propagators of other sources of instability. We test the propagation mechanisms of such conceptualization using a Bayesian Threshold Vector Autoregression model for the US economy. The results support the characterization of nonlinear dynamics in the transmission of shocks since there is evidence of asymmetric responses of the variables across two different regimes of financial stress, responding more strongly during loose financial conditions. |
| Keywords: | Business cycles; investment fluctuations; financial conditions; nonlinear dynamics; Bayesian Threshold Vector Autoregression. JEL Classification: B50; E10; E22; E32; E43. |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uta:papers:2020_04&r=all |