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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2020‒09‒21
25 papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Kerstenetzky, Celia Lessa |
| Abstract: | Motivated by a perceived lacuna in theoretical discussions on income inequality, this paper explores an approach based on the place in that inequality of economic rents. Although widely recognized as a subject to be considered in relation to inequality, rents are still failing to receive a conceptually and theoretically unified treatment. In fact, although accepted as an element in the distribution branch of economics, economic rents have been subject to a somewhat incomplete treatment, especially when it comes to understanding the origin in wealth ownership. This blind spot invites cross-disciplinary collaboration as a means of elucidation. So, in this paper, I review and systematize scattered conceptual and theoretical contributions on the subject drawn from the literatures of both economics and sociology. Briefly, while economics delineates the market phenomenon giving rise to rents, sociology sheds light on the influence of background social structure on both the supply and demand blades of the ‘market scissor’. This is to some extent reminiscent of Marx’s class struggle analysis; but Marx’s original view is amplified by the sociological perspectives I review here, as the latter identify and conceptualize rents earned by labour in addition to those earned by capital. Two ideas that sprang from my reading of the sociological perspectives should be placed at the very core of a rents-based approach to inequalities. The first is that the normal functioning of markets does not make economic rents disappear; the second is that all earnings are relative, so that rents, including negative rents, are a vital part of everyone’s remuneration in contemporary capitalist economies. An outline of a rents-based theory of inequality is proposed and normative and policy consequences of undertaking this move are hinted at. |
| Keywords: | inequality; economic rents; social structure; capital; social surplus |
| JEL: | J1 R14 J01 N0 |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:106533&r=all |
| By: | Assistant, JHET; Baronian, Laurent |
| Abstract: | The paper is dedicated to Suzanne de Brunhoff’s monetary thought and shows how her analysis of very concrete monetary and financial problems of her time led her to develop the most innovative contributions to Marxist theory of money since classical Marxism. Concepts such as noncontemporaneity of capitalism with itself, pseudo-social validation, conflict centralization or State management of money and labor power reflect her profound analysis of the ways capitalism generates very particular relationships to space and time. It is by looking at this spatio-temporal dimension of Brunhoff’s concepts that this paper aims to reveal the novelty, power and fruitfulness of her monetary analysis. The first part of the paper seeks to define the meaning of the notion of general equivalent extracting from her reading of Marx's Capital, before situating her approach in relation to Institutionalist theories of money. The second turns to Brunhoff’s analysis of the particular time-spaces of capitalism. |
| Date: | 2020–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:vg4h9&r=all |
| By: | Elen Riot (HEC Paris - Recherche - Hors Laboratoire - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne) |
| Abstract: | Presented here is an analysis of Schumpeter's interest in political economy , as it relates to his use of history to investigate economic change and capitalism. This aspect of Schumpeter's work-referring to style and involving a range of moral and aesthetic considerations-is largely neglected in entrepreneurship studies despite his influence on the discipline. This paper argues these considerations are essential to understand Schumpeter's entrepreneur and the role of creative destruction in rejuvenating capitalism. However, his theory also involves political inclinations and choices, such as elitism and a fear of declinism, both of which are more typical to conservative not destructive worldviews. To illustrate my argument I examine and describe two cases, those of Oberkampf and Knoll, the latter a rough contemporary of Schumpeter. The findings point to the central role of political economy in past and present debates about the political role of entrepreneurship in society, suggesting a need for further attention to the zeitgeist (spirit of the time) in future research. � � |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02883082&r=all |
| By: | Ayoubi, Charles; Thurm, Boris |
| Abstract: | Some individuals voluntarily engage in costly pro-environmental actions although their efforts have limited direct benefits. This paper proposes a novel economic model with heterogeneous agents explaining why. Each agent has a homo moralis type of preference, which combines selfishness and morality. Morality is modeled here as the payoff an agent receives if all other agents act like her. Our model builds on extant literature showing that homo moralis preferences have an evolutionary advantage to better evaluate the behavioral motives of agents. Shedding light on how people respond not only to economic but also moral incentives, we contribute to the ongoing policy debate on the design of efficient environmental policies. |
| Date: | 2020–08–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:w8afg&r=all |
| By: | Claudius Graebner (Institute for Socio-Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany; Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria; ZOE. Institue for Future-Fit Economies); Jakob Hafele (ZOE. Institue for Future-Fit Economies; Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the emergence of polarisation patterns in the EU during the last 60 years from a structuralist and complexity economics perspective. Based on the results, feasible opportunities for EU policy-making, which aim to counteract a tendency of polarization, are delineated. The study comprises of a historical analysis of the politico-economic events during this time and a complementary quantitative analysis of the European trade network. The results suggest that trade in the Eurozone is unequal at the expense of the peripheries and follows a pattern of “unequal technological exchange†. The paper also assesses the usefulness of country taxonomies such as ‘cores’ and ‘peripheries’ for identifying the roots of polarization patterns. While it generally affirms the relevance of structural dependencies, and confirms the epistemic usefulness of country taxonomies, it also highlights three challenges – the challenges of dynamics, of ambiguity and granularity – that any such taxonomy necessarily faces, and which must be dealt with explicitly in any structuralist analysis using such taxonomies. |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:113&r=all |
| By: | Budzinski, Oliver; Stöhr, Annika |
| Abstract: | Mit der Umsetzung der 7. Novelle des Gesetzes gegen Wettbewerbsbe-schränkungen (GWB) wurde im Jahr 2005 die Ausnahmeregelung des sog. Ministerkartells nach § 8 GWB ersatzlos gestrichen. Ähnlich dem noch bestehenden Instrument der Ministererlaubnis für Fusionen nach § 42 GWB konnte bis dahin der amtierende Bundeswirtschaftsminister aus "überwiegenden Gründen der Gesamtwirtschaft und des Gemeinwohls" (§ 8 (1) GWB) sowie bei unmittelbarer "Gefahr für den Bestand des überwiegenden Teils der Unternehmen eines Wirtschaftszweigs" (§ 8 (2) 1 GWB) eine Ausnahme vom Kartellverbot nach § 1 GWB aussprechen. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden zunächst die Ausgestaltung und die ökonomische Sinnhaftigkeit des Instrumentes an sich beleuchtet. Dabei wird insbesondere auf potenzielle Gemeinwohlgründe eingegangen, welche in der aktuellen wissenschaftlichen und politischen Diskussion im Vordergrund stehen: Umwelt- und Tierschutz, sowie die Bildung und Unterstützung von sog. National Champion Unternehmen. Abschließend wird ein Vergleich der Instrumente Ministerkartell und Ministererlaubnis für Fusionen vorgenommen, welcher zeigt, dass ein ministererlaubtes Kartell häufig weniger starke negative Wettbewerbswirkungen hätte, als eine irreversible Fusion. Aus ökonomischer Sicht wäre somit ein Ersatz des vieldiskutierten Instrumentes Ministererlaubnis nach § 42 GWB durch eine Regelung zur Ausnahmeerlaubnis von Kartellen zu erwägen. Allerdings würde jedes derartige Instrument erheblicher Absicherungen gegen eine ungeeignete oder missbräuchliche Anwendung bedürfen, ohne welche ein Verzicht die bessere Lösung darstellt. |
| Keywords: | Ministererlaubnis,Ministerkartell,Wettbewerbspolitik,Fusionskontrolle,Kartellverbot,Wettbewerbsökonomik,Antitrust,Recht & Ökonomik,Wettbewerbsordnung,Wirtschaftspolitik,competition policy,cartels,merger control,antitrust,law & economics,German competition policy,public interest |
| JEL: | L40 K21 B52 L51 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:143&r=all |
| By: | Robert Blecker (Department of Economics, American University); Mark Setterfield (Department of Economics, New School for Social Research) |
| Abstract: | Emiliano Libman's constructive comments on our recent book, Heterodox Macroeconomics: Models of Demand, Distribution and Growth (HM), raise three main points of contention: the suitability of single-sector/single-technique (as opposed to multi-sector/multi-technique) models; the appropriate choice of production function; and the distinction between limit cycles and closed orbits as representations of Goodwinian dynamics. In this reply, we respond to Libman's critique in a manner that is designed to develop his arguments into a useful addendum to our book. In so doing, we hope that this exchange will engage interested students and other readers in issues and avenues of inquiry that lie beyond some of the first-pass simpli cations in HM. |
| Keywords: | Choice of technique, production functions, Goodwin cycles, multi-sectoral models, technological change, factor substitution |
| JEL: | E11 E12 O33 O41 B51 D24 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2011&r=all |
| By: | - |
| Keywords: | POLITICA INDUSTRIAL, POLITICA COMERCIAL, ANALISIS DE INSUMO-PRODUCTO, PROYECTOS DE DESARROLLO, EVALUACION DE PROYECTOS, CEPAL, INDUSTRIAL POLICY, TRADE POLICY, INPUT-OUTPUT ANALYSIS, DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS, PROJECT EVALUATION, ECLAC |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col093:45987&r=all |
| By: | Féliz, Mariano |
| Abstract: | Resumen El debate en torno a la caída de los términos del intercambio en los países dependientes nunca fue del todo integrado en la teoría marxista de la dependencia. El intento de articularlo a través de la categoría de intercambio desigual fue poco sistemático. Este trabajo busca recuperar esos debates e intentará dar cuenta de la articulaciones relevantes a la luz de una revitalización presente de los estudios en el campo de la teoría marxista de la dependencia. Para ello, recuperaremos la discusiones clásicas en torno al intercambio desigual para recuperar sus puntos de contacto con la teoría marxista de la dependencia y algunos debates contemporáneos en torno a la transferencia de valor y la superexplotación de la fuerza de trabajo y la naturaleza. Abstract The debate into the falling terms of trade in dependent countries was never fully integrated into the Marxist dependency theory. The attempt at its articulation though the category of unequal exchange was not too systematic. In this work we will recover those debates and attempt to account of the relevant articulations in light of the revitalization of studies within the field of the Marxist dependency theory. To that aim, we will recover classical discussions on unequal exchange to take on its points of contact with the Marxist dependency theory and some of the contemporary debates on value transfer, and superexploitation of labour force and nature. |
| Date: | 2020–09–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:dusw5&r=all |
| By: | Temel, Tugrul |
| Abstract: | On the conceptual account, this paper develops a methodology to identify input-output (IO)layers of a targeted sector, drawing on backward and forward multipliers of an IO matrix. On the implementation account, the methodology is applied to a sample of eight countries - China, Japan, India, Russia, Germany, Turkey, UK and USA, which together account for about 60 percent of the world GDP - with a view to characterizing the backward and forward linkages of manufacturing, real estate, wholesale, and accommodation sectors identified by ILO (2020) as key sectors likely to suffer from the highest level of youth unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. New information is generated for the design of informed employment policy interventions to avoid the unemployment projected. The findings show that manufacturing sector, MA2, is vital for all the countries examined, followed by EST and WHS, and that these three sectors need to be coupled with at least one other sectors to capture the external employment effects from the interacting communities (or clusters). |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; input-output network analysis; employment policy design; China, Japan, Russia, India, Germany, UK, Turkey, USA; |
| JEL: | E61 F6 F62 O2 O5 O57 |
| Date: | 2020–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:102402&r=all |
| By: | Alain Alcouffe (UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole) |
| Abstract: | Among the references used by Marx when he wrote his Mathematical Manuscripts, the book of Jean-Louis Boucharlat on Calculus is remarkable by its multiple editions till 1926. It was also criticized by Herman Laurent, an actuary and one of the first disciple of Léon Walras. The paper shows that the genetic method (history of the concepts) and dialectic (Marx scrutinized the transformations of the various approaches used in the calculus) deserves attention and highlights the history of calculus till the XXth century. |
| Abstract: | Parmi les sources des Manuscrits mathématiques de Marx figure notamment le livre sur le calcul différentiel de Jean-Louis Boucharlat, qui connut de multiples éditions jusqu'en 1926. Ce livre fera aussi l'objet de remarques de la part de Herman Laurent, un actuaire et relation de Léon Walras. Le traitement L'article montre que la méthode génétique (histoire des concepts) et dialectique (Marx s'est intéressé aux transformations que provoquait le développement même des différentes approches du calcul différentiel) mérite de retenir l'attention et éclaire l'histoire du calcul différentiel jusqu'à ces développements du 20 e siècle. |
| Keywords: | Marx,Boucharlat,Laurent,calculus,methodology |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02881305&r=all |
| By: | Ofori, Eric K. M.; Yeager, Elizabeth; Briggeman, Brian |
| Keywords: | Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Industrial Organization, Community/Rural/Urban Development |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea20:304564&r=all |
| By: | Assistant, JHET; Dimand, Robert; Saffu, Kojo |
| Abstract: | Polly Hill spent her long, productive and at times controversial career crossing and contesting disciplinary boundaries. She graduated in economics at Cambridge, but her doctorate was in social anthropology – with economist Joan Robinson as dissertation supervisor. Her thirteen years at the University of Ghana were initially in Economics, then in African Studies, and her readership at Cambridge was in Commonwealth Studies. As a woman in several male-dominated academic disciplines without a secure base in any (and with distinctive, unorthodox opinions in each), she never obtained a tenure-track appointment despite ten books and fifty scholarly articles. Her books drew attention to the underrecognized agency of indigenous entrepreneurs while her Development Economics on Trial: The Anthropological Case for the Prosecution (1986) critiqued a discipline, of disciplinary boundaries, and of outside experts, both mainstream and radical. |
| Date: | 2020–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:htp9r&r=all |
| By: | Erol Akcay; David Hirshleifer |
| Abstract: | The thoughts and behaviors of financial market participants depend upon adopted cultural traits, including information signals, beliefs, strategies, and folk economic models. Financial traits compete to survive in the human population, and are modified in the process of being transmitted from one agent to another. These cultural evolutionary processes shape market outcomes, which in turn feed back into the success of competing traits. This evolutionary system is studied in an emerging paradigm, new evolutionary finance. In this paradigm, social transmission biases determine the evolution of financial traits in the investor population. It considers an enriched set of cultural traits, both selection on traits and mutation pressure, and market equilibrium at different frequencies. Other key ingredients of the paradigm include psychological bias, social network structure, information asymmetries, and institutional environment. |
| JEL: | D03 D21 D53 D8 D82 D83 D84 D85 D9 D91 D92 G02 G1 G11 G12 G14 G28 G3 G31 G32 G34 G35 O31 |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27745&r=all |
| By: | Leonardo E. Torre Cepeda; Joana C. Chapa Cantú; Eva Edith González González |
| Abstract: | Based on the World Input-Output Matrix 2016 estimated by Timmer et al. (2016), the Hypothetical Extraction Method is applied in a multi-country context to estimate Mexico's gross output and value added linked to the economic activity of the United States; and then the gross output and value added of the United States linked to Mexico's economic activity. Next, it is shown based on the Ghosh Regional Model how the value added of Mexico linked to the economic activity in the United States is allocated among its sectors and regions. The results capture the strong economic linkage between both economies at the aggregate level, as well as its sectoral concentration. The results also indicate that the Northern and Central regions of Mexico are those with the strongest link to the United States; followed by the Southern region, where the largest share of the oil industry is located. |
| Keywords: | Hypothetical Extraction, Ghosh Input-Output Model, World Input-Output Matrix, Mexico, United States, Economic Integration |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R15 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2020-06&r=all |
| By: | Klump, Rainer; Pilz, Lars; Assistant, JHET |
| Abstract: | In 1564 Leonhard Fronsperger, a military expert and citizen of the Free Imperial City of Ulm in Upper Germany, publishes a booklet “On the Praise of Self-Interest” (“Von dem Lob deß Eigen Nutzen”). Using the form of a satirical poem, he demonstrates how the individual pursuit of self-interest can lead to the common good. Writing long before Bernard Mandeville and Adam Smith, Fronsperger presents a thorough analysis of all kinds of self-interested social, political and economic relations. His praise of self-interest demonstrates how over the sixteenth century the interplay of economic success (in particular in major trading cities), a more realistic conception of human behavior and some aspects of Humanism and the Reformation led to a new understanding of the origins of economic dynamics. This became the basis for what Weber (1904-05/2009) would later term “the spirit of capitalism”. |
| Date: | 2020–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:4ztvd&r=all |
| By: | Coulter, Steve |
| Abstract: | The battle to soften the labour market impact of the pandemic has thrown up some unlikely bedfellows, with trade union leaders competing with business chiefs over who can most fulsomely praise the government’s economic response. But does this entente really presage a new era of ‘Covid‐corporatism’? Crises like Covid‐19 can provide opportunities for temporary social pacts, even in countries lacking the labour market institutions needed to sustain these in normal times, and the ‘social partners’ have shown an unusual willingness to be bold and constructive. But cracks are already appearing over how and when the state should begin its withdrawal from the economy. Unions face structural weaknesses and recruitment problems that will hamper their ability to take full advantage of what will likely prove to be only a temporary lull in hostilities. |
| Keywords: | Covid-19; corporatism; social partnership; varieties of capitalism; stakeholder capitalism; coronavirus; Wiley |
| JEL: | J1 R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–09–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:106496&r=all |
| By: | Vu, Tien Manh; Yamada, Hiroyuki |
| Abstract: | We quantified influences of Confucianism on gender inequality in present-day Vietnam. We used the number (or density) of the most successful test takers in the Vietnamese imperial examinations (1075–1919) in a given district as a proxy for mastering the subject of Confucianism. Using an instrumental variable approach, we considered possible impacts on sex ratio and educational attainment of women relative to men, based on test score and population census data. We found that Confucianism has a long lasting impact on gender inequality. However, the results also suggested that women tended to try harder, perhaps as a countermeasure against discrimination. |
| Keywords: | Confucianism; Gender inequality; Sex ratio; Education; Vietnam |
| JEL: | I14 I24 J16 N35 Z1 |
| Date: | 2020–07–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:101487&r=all |
| By: | Ayoubi, Charles; Thurm, Boris |
| Abstract: | Why do individuals take different decisions when confronted with similar choices? This paper investigates whether the answer lies in an evolutionary process. Our analysis builds on recent work in evolutionary game theory showing the superiority of a given type of preferences, homo moralis, in fitness games with assortative matching. We adapt the classical definition of evolutionary stability to the case where individuals with distinct preferences coexist in a population. This approach allows us to establish the characteristics of an evolutionarily stable population. Then, introducing an assortment matrix for assortatively matched interactions, we prove the existence of a heterogeneous evolutionarily stable population in 2×2 symmetric fitness games under constant assortment, and we identify the conditions for its existence. Conversely to the classical setting, we find that the favored preferences in a heterogeneous evolutionarily stable population are context-dependent. As an illustration, we discuss when and how an evolutionarily stable population made of both selfish and moral individuals exists in a prisoner’s dilemma. These findings offer a theoretical foundation for the empirically observed diversity of preferences among individuals. |
| Date: | 2020–08–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:ucx8z&r=all |
| By: | Ken MIURA (Kyoto University); Yoko KIJIMA (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, Japan.); Takeshi SAKURAI (The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | This study estimates the impact of the gender of informed individuals on agricultural training participation. To do so, we randomly distributed information about a rice planting demonstration to husbands or wives in rural Zambia. The results show that information recipients were much more likely to join the training than the non-recipients from the same household, indicating that information does not flow well among spouses. We present evidence that information sharing is distorted by intra-household differences in management rights over productive lands for rice cultivation. |
| Keywords: | knowledge diffusion, intra-household bargaining, sub-Saharan Africa |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:20-10&r=all |
| By: | Edwyna Harris (Monash University); Sumner La Croix (University of Hawai‘i) |
| Abstract: | Britain after the Napoleonic wars saw the rise of colonial reformers, such as Edward Wakefield, who had extensive influence on British colonial policy. A version of Wakefield’s “System of Colonization” became the basis for legislation establishing the South Australia colony in 1834 and the New Zealand colony in 1840. We use extended versions of Robert Lucas’s 1990 model of coordinated colonial investment to show how Wakefield’s institutions were designed to work. We also show that the critique of Wakefield’s system by Karl Marx in Das Kapital closely follows Lucas’s analysis of colonial institutions. |
| Keywords: | Robert Lucas; Karl Marx; Edward Gibbon Wakefield; emigration; settler colonization; South Australia |
| JEL: | N47 N57 N97 R30 D44 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:202023&r=all |
| By: | Armando Aguirre Castro; Diego Cardozo-Medeiros |
| Abstract: | We use the World Input-Output Database and build on Wang et al. (2013) gross exports decomposition to analyze the bilateral trade relation between Mexico and the United States from a value added perspective. Once we take into account that gross commercial flows are clouded by failing to account for imported content, we find that contrary to what gross flows suggest, Mexico has a value added commercial deficit in manufacturing with the United States. Similar patterns can be observed at the sectoral level with significant differences between the gross and value added sectoral trade balances: an improvement of most sectoral US trade balances, particularly for those sectors importing significant amounts of intermediate goods. |
| Keywords: | Global value chains, World input-output tables, International fragmentation of production, Trade imbalances |
| JEL: | E1 F2 F14 F15 F23 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2020-08&r=all |
| By: | Leonardo Burlamaqui; Ernani T. Torres Filho |
| Abstract: | The COVID-19 crisis paralyzed huge parts of the planet in weeks. It not only infected the population but injected a gargantuan dose of uncertainty into the system. In that regard, as in many others, it is a phenomenon without precedent. As of the time of writing (May-June 2020), we are witnessing, simultaneously, a health crisis, an economic crisis, and a crisis of global governance as well. In the forthcoming months, it could well turn into a set of financial, social, and political crises most governments and international organizations are ill-prepared to handle. In this paper, what concerns us is the financial dimension of the crisis. The paper is divided into four sections. Following the introduction, the second section maps the financial dimension of the pandemic through an extension of Hyman Minsky's financial fragility analysis. The result is a three-pronged analytical framework that encompasses financial fragility, financial instability, and insolvency-triggered asset-liability restructuring processes. These are seen as three distinct but interconnected processes advancing financial fragility. The third section dissects how these three processes have been managed as they have unfolded since March 2020, underlining the key policy interventions and institutional innovations introduced so far, and suggesting further measures for addressing the forthcoming stages of the financial turmoil. The fourth section concludes the paper by pointing out the results as of June 2020 and highlights our intended analytical contribution to Minsky's theoretical framework. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19 Crisis; Financial Fragilization; Financial Instability; Asset-Liabilities Restructuring; Minsky |
| JEL: | E02 G01 G18 G20 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_968&r=all |
| By: | Lambert, Thomas |
| Abstract: | There is a great deal of literature on the role of capital investment in the economic transition from feudalism to capitalism. Investment in capital and new technology and agricultural techniques has not been considered worthwhile in a medieval economy because of a lack of strong peasant property rights and no incentive on the part of lords and barons to lend money to peasant farmers. Therefore, the medieval economy and standards of living at that time have been characterized as non-dynamic and static due to insufficient investment in innovative techniques and technology. The capital investment undertaken typically would have been in livestock, homes, or public investment in canals, bridges, and roads, although investment in the latter would have been hindered by a fragmented political system of fiefdoms and lack of a unified national government. This paper attempts to demonstrate empirically that a productive and sufficient level of investment out of accumulated capital income, taxation, and rents does not have a real impact on economic per capita growth until the 1600s in Britain perhaps due to the beginning of a strong, central government as well as to the level of capital, tax, and land income achieving an adequate threshold amount and providing some type of investment multiplier effect. A high wage share as a portion of national income also appears to be associated with higher investment levels. The types of investment, threshold amounts of investment out of profits and rents, and the price of labor seem to matter when it comes to raising GDP per capita to higher levels. |
| Keywords: | Baran Ratio, Brenner Debate, capitalism, Dobb-Sweezy Debate, feudalism, socialism, technology |
| JEL: | B51 E11 E12 N13 |
| Date: | 2020–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:101396&r=all |
| By: | Basu, Rahul; Pegg, Scott |
| Abstract: | Many countries badly mismanage their natural resource endowments. We argue that a fundamental change in paradigm is needed. Specifically, we advocate treating non-renewable natural resources as a finite shared inheritance asset, and extraction as the sale of the inherited wealth. We identify several proposals that logically derive from treating natural resource proceeds as sales of a finite intergenerational inheritance rather than as revenues that can be spent. Such proposals suggest that mineral owners must strive for zero-loss when selling minerals, establish a passively invested future generations fund from the proceeds and distribute dividends from that fund to citizens as the rightful owners of the shared inheritance. The current dominant metaphor of proceeds from the exploitation of non-renewable mineral resources as being “windfall revenues” is underpinned by government accounting standards. The “windfall revenue” metaphor is not only inaccurate but also produces several pernicious effects that help explain the poor management of natural resource endowments in so many countries. We do not anticipate that our ideas will quickly overturn decades of established practice. We do, however, believe that the case needs to be made. |
| Keywords: | resource curse; government accounting standards; inter-generational equity; public sector net worth; shared inheritance |
| JEL: | B52 E2 E62 G02 G1 H2 H3 H4 H54 H6 H82 K0 Q3 Z1 |
| Date: | 2020–06–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:102270&r=all |