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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2020‒12‒21
fourteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Luis Daniel Torres-González (Facultad de Economía, UNAM) |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies the characteristics of the productive structure behind the persistent monotonicity/ near monotonicity of industries’ relative prices, capital intensities, and capital-output ratio curves computed in production prices models with information from input-output accounts across economies. These characteristics are statistical in nature and refer to the strong proportionality between (i) the labor vector and the Perron-Frobenius eigenvector of the input-coefficient matrix and (ii) the columns of the input-coefficient matrix. It is shown that both statistical characteristics not only reduce the sources of nonlinearity in the curves but also produce the statistical tendency of capital intensities to cluster around central values with a limited variability irrespectively of the profit rate. The empirical results are based on the U.S. Benchmark Input-Output Accounts for the period 1977-2012. |
| Keywords: | Production prices, capital intensities, spectral decomposition, productive structure |
| JEL: | B51 C67 D57 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2016&r=all |
| By: | Anne-Lorene Vernay (GEM - Grenoble Ecole de Management); Carine Sebi (GEM - Grenoble Ecole de Management) |
| Abstract: | Energy communities—groups of citizens, social entrepreneurs and public authorities who jointly invest in producing, selling and managing enewable energy are expected to play a prominent role in the energy transition. Energy communities are fragile individually and they need to pool resources and coordinate their actions to become robust collectively. This paper adopts an ecosystem perspective and aims to identify characteristics that an energy community ecosystem should exhibit to help energy communities emerge, grow and eventually fully realise their potential to transform the energy sector. It compares energy communities in two countries, France and the Netherlands, where energy community ecosystems have attained uneven levels of maturity. We argue that an energy community ecosystem can fully realize its potential if: 1) it revolves around keystone actors that can foster diversity; 2) it is structured around local capacity builders that can act as catalysers; and 3) it develops both competing and symbiotic relations with incumbent energy actors. |
| Keywords: | Energy communities,Ecosystem,Renewable energy |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02987790&r=all |
| By: | Costa, King (Global Centre for Academic Research); Ntwane, Johlene |
| Abstract: | This study focussed on developing a strategy framework for sustainable business undertaking by black women owned cooperatives in the Northern Cape district of Francis Baard. Black women owned cooperatives face a number of notable impediments that obstruct sustainable and successful business development and management. Some of the contributors to the current state of affairs could be attributable to lack of effective strategy focussed on cooperatives in general and black owned women cooperatives in particular. A number of studies have been published on the plight and status of cooperatives in South Africa and beyond, with clearly focussed recommendation emanating from empirical findings. This study, being aware of vast repository of literature on the phenomena and using the Population, Intervention, Comparator and Outcome (PICO) method, sought to answer the question, “how to develop a strategy framework for black women owned cooperatives to run sustainable businesses. A Qualitative Evidence Synthesis, a method within the Systematic Reviews approach was adopted as suitable orientation for answering the research question. A systematic review, also known as research on research (RoR) provides evidence based solution hinged upon primary research conducted by many different authors on the same context or situation. Using a Preferred Reporting items for systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), A total of 400 articles were retrieved from varied databases such as Ebsco-host, Google Scholar, Z-Library and Web of Science. Through a rigorous critical appraisal of these articles, 100 articles were finally included in the study as subject of analysis. Thematic analysis using the webQDA software produced thematic expressions that were finally treated to develop a theory/framework as per main research objective. The outcome of this qualitative evidence synthesis culminated in a formulation of the SNI Framework for Sustainable Black Women Owned Cooperatives. |
| Date: | 2020–11–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:africa:7wrbd&r=all |
| By: | Jens Horbach (Faculty of Business, University of Applied Sciences Augsburg) |
| Abstract: | Eco-innovation activities are crucial for the mitigation of climate change and further envi-ronmental problems. Start-up firms might play an important role for this relatively new in-novation field as they are predestinated for realizing completely new ideas compared to in-cumbent firms that are not willing to abandon their established innovation paths. On the oth-er side, start-ups have limited resources and need external regionally available input of knowledge. Based on data of the German IAB/ZEW Start-up Panel in combination with re-gional data at the NUTS 3 level, the paper analyzes the determinants of eco-innovation in start-up firms. The econometric results show that regional spill-over effects seem to be very important for eco-innovation activities of start-up firms. In regions where the existing stock of environmentally related patents is already high, the probability that a start-up firm realiz-es eco-innovations is significantly higher. Furthermore, eco-innovative start-ups show dis-proportionally more difficulties to get financing from external investors. |
| Keywords: | Regional spill-over effects, environmental innovation, probit models |
| JEL: | Q55 R11 C25 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:1620&r=all |
| By: | Vishwas Satgar |
| Abstract: | The world is running out of time to prevent catastrophic climate change. In South Africa grassroots campaigning by the South African Food Sovereignty over the past six years, during the worst drought in the history of the country, produced a Climate Justice Charter(CJC). This CJC is unique in the world and is serving as the basis to build convergences between unions committed to a deep just transition and wider climate justice forces. It is laying the basis for red-green alliances to drive the deep just transition from below and constitute a climate justice project for the country. Many challenges face this process but crucial catalytic steps have been taken, with immense potential, to remake climate justice politics. This working paper serves as an introduction to the South African CJC and the systemic alternatives it is advancing. The CJC is included as an annexure to serve as a political resource for innovation and further development as unions attempt to build red-green alliances in other parts of the world to decarbonize and adapt their societies in the interests of the most vulnerable. |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajy:icddwp:31&r=all |
| By: | Christa Wichterich |
| Abstract: | This paper suggests the concept of care extractivism as a space- and time-diagnostic tool to international political economics in post-fordist societies. Analogous to resource extractivism, care extractivism depicts the intensified commodification of social reproduction and care work along social hierarchies of gender, class, race and North-South as a strategy to cope with a crisis of social reproduction. Extractivist policies result in the creation of a cheap reproductive labour force. The paper analyses the current national and transnational reconfiguration of social and biological reproduction in Germany/Western Europe interacting with Eastern Europe and Asia. Currently, the most striking features of care extractivism are a) professionalisation for efficiency increase, b) transnationalisation based on import of care workers, and c) transnationalisation of biological reproduction based on reproductive technologies. The contradiction between the rationale of care and the neoliberal capitalist market logic results in frequent care struggles such as the protests of hospital nurses against the depletion of care resources. The politisation of care by the protesting care workers asks for giving preference to the care economy as a common good over care as a commodity. |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajy:icddwp:25&r=all |
| By: | KHAN, MUHAMMAD AKRAM |
| Abstract: | The paper supplements the theory of consumer behavior with insights from the primary sources of Islam. A consumer who maximizes utility operates within four dimensions: moderation, extravagance, waste, and niggardliness. These dimensions take different meanings in each social stratum. A complicating factor is the context of consumption which could be individual, social, or public. For each social stratum and for each context, these dimensions have different meanings. The paper suggests using the methodology of behavioral economics for defining the dimensions of consumption. It elaborates the concept of marginal propensity to consume into four propensities: marginal propensity to moderation, extravagance, waste, and niggardliness. That necessitates re-defining the law of demand, leading to four curves instead of the one usually found in the economics textbooks. The last part of the paper relates consumer behavior with material well-being and happiness and concludes that moderation leads to the highest levels of happiness as compared to other dimensions of the consumer behavior. |
| Keywords: | Consumer behavior; extravagance; waste; moderation; law of demand; material well-being and happiness |
| JEL: | E21 |
| Date: | 2020–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:104208&r=all |
| By: | Louisiana Teixeira (Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres, LEDA-DIAL - Développement, Institutions et Modialisation - LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to treat the Brazilian trade opening in the 1990s and its impacts on gender inequalities before and after the Stabilization Plan, Plano Real *. Using the difference in differences method and a panel from 1987-1997, the obtained evidence suggests that before the Real Plan, trade liberalization reduced the existent gender income and deprivation gap. Nonetheless, these apparent improvements seemed to be related to men's greater losses within formal activities and to a female labor's expansion through informality. After the Stabilization Plan, trade would increase gender disparities by bringing greater income gains and deeper deprivation decrease to men. The opening policies in the 1990s perpetuated the international and the gendered division of labor and was unable of permitting structural changes capable of creating comparative advantages. Thus, it guaranteed the maintenance of gender distortions, where changes continued to occur unevenly. |
| Keywords: | Trade Liberalization,Labor,Gender,Income,Multidimensional Poverty |
| Date: | 2020–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02997094&r=all |
| By: | Franz Dietrich (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Antonios Staras (Cardiff University); Robert Sugden (UEA - University of East Anglia [Norwich]) |
| Abstract: | Leonard Savage famously contravened his own theory when first confronting the Allais Paradox, but then convinced himself that the had made an error. We examine the formal structure of Savage's ‘error-correcting' reasoning in the light of (i) behavioural economists' claims to identify the latent preferences of individuals who violate conventional rationality requirements and (ii) John Broome's critique of arguments which presuppose that rationality requirements can be achieved through reasoning. We argue that Savage's reasoning is not vulnerable to Broome's critique, but does not provide support for the view that behavioural scientists can identify and counteract errors in people's choices. |
| Keywords: | behavioural economics,reasoning,rationality,Broome,Allais Paradox,Savage |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-02905466&r=all |
| By: | Bo Cowgill; Fabrizio Dell'Acqua; Sandra Matz |
| Abstract: | How do ethical arguments affect AI adoption in business? We randomly expose business decision-makers to arguments used in AI fairness activism. Arguments emphasizing the inescapability of algorithmic bias lead managers to abandon AI for manual review by humans and report greater expectations about lawsuits and negative PR. These effects persist even when AI lowers gender and racial disparities and when engineering investments to address AI fairness are feasible. Emphasis on status quo comparisons yields opposite effects. We also measure the effects of "scientific veneer" in AI ethics arguments. Scientific veneer changes managerial behavior but does not asymmetrically benefit favorable (versus critical) AI activism. |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2012.02393&r=all |
| By: | Bayari, Celal |
| Abstract: | The Chinese state has integrated its economy into the neoliberal globalization of trade and investment without neoliberalizing its own financial markets, and to ensure stability, the state applies strict controls on interest rates, capital movement and the value of RMB. The Chinese state policies have divided the domestic economy into upstream and downstream domains whereby the state extracts rents from the private businesses profits downstream and then pump them upstream to underwrite the SOEs operating as monopolies (domestically), and as strategic traders, and investors (internationally). The state is the largest owner in the economy through holdings of shares in listed companies, direct ownership of enterprises, influence over privatized SOEs, and ownership of the public utility companies. The state has thus structured the domestic market in a way that has made the appearance of the BRI a cogent outcome. The BRI is a demand creation project for two distinct zones of the state-owned internationalized businesses, firstly, the Chinese state finance sector and secondly other sectors that primarily include the construction, logistics, and utilities. The Chinese state’s regulatory characteristics makes the financing and construction of the BRI possible, and reverential to the aims of the state. Further, the Chinese state has increased its weight in the Bretton Woods financial institutions, the IMF, and World Bank, while institutionalizing its reach in the formation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the co-creation of the New Development Bank. These processes have simultaneously ensured commitments to multilateralism and bilateralism. |
| Keywords: | Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese economy, Neoliberalism, New Keynesianism, State-Owned-Enterprises |
| JEL: | E2 E22 E27 F12 F13 F15 F17 F18 F2 F21 F29 F3 F30 F33 F34 F36 F4 F42 F43 F47 F62 F63 F64 F66 G0 G00 K2 K21 K23 O1 O11 O14 O16 O19 O32 P2 P21 P28 P33 P48 P51 |
| Date: | 2020–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:104471&r=all |
| By: | Po-Keng Cheng (Department of International Business, Soochow University) |
| Date: | 2020–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02982908&r=all |
| By: | Jacopo Staccioli (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore – Institute of Economics, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa); Maria Enrica Virgillito (Institute of Economics, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa – Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | This paper, relying on a still relatively unexplored long-term dataset on U.S. patenting activity, provides empirical evidence on the history of labour-saving innovations back to early 19th century. The identification of mechanisation/automation heuristics, retrieved via textual content analysis on current robotic technologies by Montobbio et al. (2020), allows to focus on a limited set of CPC codes where mechanisation and automation technologies are more prevalent. We track their time evolution, clustering, eventual emergence of wavy behaviour, and their comovements with long-term GDP growth. Our results challenge both the general-purpose technology approach and the strict 50-year Kondratiev cycle, while provide evidence of the emergence of erratic constellations of heterogeneous technological artefacts, in line with the development-block approach enabled by autocatalytic systems. |
| Keywords: | Labour-Saving Technologies, Search Heuristics, Industrial Revolutions, Wavelet analysis |
| JEL: | O3 C38 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie5:dipe0012&r=all |
| By: | Parker, Gail Denise; Costa, King (Global Centre for Academic Research) |
| Abstract: | INSTILLING VALUE-SIGNIFICANCE IN LAND OWNERSHIP IN THE NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCE King Costa and Gail Denise Parker Affiliation: Global Centre for Academic Research ABSTRACT The concept of value-significance in landownership has been viewed from only one dimension – the economic dimension. This study focused on the intrinsic dimension, sometimes theoretically called “place attachment” to determine how this component could be infused in land reform support and maintenance programmes directed towards beneficiaries of the land redistribution programme in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The current state of post-land redistribution programme is characterized with a plethora of problems that lead to discouraged beneficiaries, unproductive land use and ultimate land degradation. In view of the above, this study sought to answer the question, “How to instill value-significance in land ownership to beneficiaries of the land redistribution programme in the Northern Cape Province”. An interpretivist phenomenological approach was selected a method of inquiry, purposively selecting study participants from different cohorts of the land redistribution programme between the period 1994 to 2018. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain in-depth insights, seeking to describe the lived experiences of the land redistribution programme. Aligned with ethical standards, interviews were conducted and recorded on an audio recording device, with the permission of participants. Recorded data was transcribed and analyzed using both thematic analysis benchmarked to the COSTA QDA Technique and the webQDA software. Findings of the study culminated into four thematic expressions as follows: (1) Land redistribution programme needs to be underpinned by a structured maintenance programme; (2) Land redistribution programme transformed lives of beneficiaries; (3) Beneficiaries of land redistribution programme aspire full ownership of the land for productive use; and (4) A framework for instilling value-significance in land ownership could enhance the maintenance of the land redistribution programme. Through a rigorous synthesis of these thematic expressions, a final outcome of this study culminated in a development of the INSTIL Framework for instilling value-significance in land ownership. Key words: identity, instil, land ownership, land reform, place attachment, value-significance |
| Date: | 2020–11–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:africa:ae7r6&r=all |