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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2021‒01‒11
fourteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Bichler, Shimshon; Nitzan, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | Until the late 2000s, our work focused primarily on why capitalism should be understood as a mode of power. We argued that capital itself is a form of organized power and researched how capitalists sustain, defend and augment their capitalized power. We called our approach ‘capital as power’ – or CasP, for short. But that’s only one side of the picture. Power is never unbounded. It is always resisted, opposed and constrained by those on whom it is imposed. And so, in the early 2010s, we started to examine more closely the limits of capitalized power and of the capitalist mode of power more generally. We called this research ‘the asymptotes of power’. In this paper, we revisit and update some of our work on these asymptotes in the United States and think about what they might mean for the future. |
| Keywords: | capital accumulation,capital as power,income distribution,profit,sabotage,unemployment,United States |
| JEL: | P16 E24 E61 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:capwps:202006&r=all |
| By: | Isabel Mendes |
| Abstract: | Today, Circular Economy (EC) is a popular concept in the business and financial world, among academics, politicians and decision-making bodies, and governmental and non-governmental institutions. Since 2003 has been intensely produced and published academic and non-academic literature. But despite this growing enthusiasm - and as far as we know so far - there are topics related to EC that remain under discussion, perhaps because they have not yet been the subject of sufficiently clarifying and multidisciplinary analysis. In this article, we intend to contribute to the clarification of some of these topics. The topics were chosen according to the questions that were installed in the author's mind of this article as she reviewed the literature on EC (the scientific areas in which the author is included are Environment and Natural Resources Economics and Ecological Economy). The topics under discussion are as follows: 1) Neoclassical economists also use the EC concept; will this be equal to the current concept of EC? 2) Some authors have argued that EC is an entirely new concept; however, the circular functioning of the economy was already described by economists in the 18th century. In the end, we want to demonstrate: 1) That EC is a polysemic term; that is, although the EC of neoclassical economists is different from the current EC, both share a common root: circularity; 2) The term EC is not new because its genesis lies in the 18th century; 3) the current concept of EC is also not new, because it has been described since the 1960s; 4) What is truly new in today's EC is the recognition and internalization of its principles by the business and governmental worlds. To achieve our objective, we were based on the critical analysis of the literature, supported by the theoretical body of conventional neoclassical economics (micro and macro); Ecological and Environmental Economy; and the History of Economic Thought. |
| Keywords: | circular economy; circular model of monetary flows; circular throughput model; linear throughput model. JEL Classification: A13, O11, O13, O41, O44, Q01, Q50, Q57. |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:isegwp:wp022020&r=all |
| By: | Gough, Ian |
| Abstract: | This paper shifts the focus from transfers to public services. It mounts a case for Universal Basic Services (UBS): a proposal to safeguard and develop existing public services and to extend this model of provision into new areas. The first part argues that public services require a distinct conceptual justification and sets this out in terms of shared human needs and a foundational economy. The second part develops the normative arguments for UBS, in terms of efficiency, equality, solidarity and sustainability. The third part considers some of the issues to be faced in delivering UBS and the role of state institutions, with brief illustrations of adult social care and bus transport service provisions. The final section summarises some developments, including experience of Covid-19, which might enhance the political impetus for UBS. |
| Keywords: | public services; human needs; foundational economy; social rights; social wage |
| JEL: | E6 |
| Date: | 2020–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:107815&r=all |
| By: | Schlicht, Ekkehart |
| Abstract: | For non-economists, it is often difficult to understand why economists place so much emphasis on the self-interest motive. It is obvious that people act out of a variety of motives - gratitude, anger, social obligation and many, many other motives. There are several reasons why economists still put the self-interest motive in the foreground. Three points of view seem particularly important: - homo economicus as a useful approximation - homo economicus as an ideal type - homo oeconomicus as as-if construction These justifications for the self-interest or homo-economicus assumption are briefly characterized.. It is explained why these justifications cannot be empirically disproved. Only their relevance can be questioned. Subsequently, the evolutionary point of view that underlies the as-if defense of homo economicus is radicalized and it is argued that it is appropriate to approach norm formation theoretically and experimentally from a psychological point of view. |
| Keywords: | behavioral economics; rational choice; evolutionary economics; anomalies; bounded rationality; institutional economics; norm erosion |
| JEL: | D9 B13 B15 D01 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:74501&r=all |
| By: | Christine Léger-Bosch (Territoires - Territoires - VAS - VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - AgroParisTech, INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Marie Houdart (Territoires - Territoires - VAS - VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - AgroParisTech, INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Salma Loudiyi (Territoires - Territoires - VAS - VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - AgroParisTech, VAS - VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement); Pierre-Mathieu Le Bel (Territoires - Territoires - VAS - VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - AgroParisTech, AgroParisTech) |
| Abstract: | La gestion des ressources achoppe souvent sur les questions foncières, qu'il s'agisse d'urbanisme, de protection de l'environnement ou de développement agricole. Dans ce contexte se multiplient des initiatives d'acteurs divers, entraînant des changements notables dans la relation complexe existant entre propriété et usage des terres. De récents travaux transdisciplinaire en géographie et économie institutionnelle ont analysé le mécanisme des changements à l'œuvre, en s'appuyant sur les concepts d'innovation sociale et de bouquet de droits. Avec des entrées différentes mais tous deux multi-échelles, les cas du mouvement Terre de Liens (acteur de la société civile) ; et du Bail rural à clauses environnementales (nouvelle modalité du droit du fermage) ont été étudiés. On observe que la relation entre propriété et usage des terres agricoles s'ouvre à une réappropriation des droits de gestion par les propriétaires et gestionnaires, portant des objectifs environnementaux ou de développement agricole territorialisé. Ce rôle est souvent nouveau pour ces acteurs aux légitimités variées. La relation s'inscrit dans une gouvernance multi-acteurs élargie, qui étend les attentes sociétales. La relation avec l'usager varie de la co-construction à la quasi-hiérarchie, avec des résultats variés selon qu'il partage ou non avec le propriétaire un référentiel agricole commun. Les changements s'opèrent dans un aller-retour entre différentes échelles territoriales, y compris nationale, et dans un dialogue avec les institutions, auquel la société civile prend part. En effet, l'un des cas étudiés montrent la manière dont une règle institutionnelle devient norme de coordination pour les acteurs locaux, tandis que l'autre montre comment un acteur représentant la société civile peut progressivement s'institutionnaliser. Cette transformation des coordinations révèle de manière concrète la difficile conciliation des intérêts publics et privés, un défi avéré pour les transitions à venir. |
| Keywords: | Relation propriété-usage,bouquet de droits,innovation sociale,échelles,action collective,évolution juridique,insitutions |
| Date: | 2020–10–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02992182&r=all |
| By: | Tania Burchardt; Abigail Davis; Ian Gough; Katharina Hecht; Donald Hirsch; Karen Rowlingson; Kate Summers |
| Abstract: | London is home to vast and visible economic inequality, where the richest 10 per cent own 61 per cent of overall wealth, while at the same time four in ten Londoners do not earn enough for what is considered by the public to be a decent standard of living. This study sought to explore opinions about what constituted a standard of living that could be considered 'fully flourishing', and, by extension, if there was a point beyond that at which individual or household resources could be identified as being excessive. The findings provide thought-provoking insights into how people think about the protection wealth and higher incomes offer, and the judgements they make about the 'deservingness' of different sources of wealth and the uses to which it is put. |
| Keywords: | income, wealth, rich, inequality, poverty |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticar:casereport127&r=all |
| By: | Victor Hiller (LEMMA, Université Panthéon-Assas); Nouhoum Touré |
| Abstract: | A large body of evidence suggests that women’s empowerment, both within the household and in politics, benefits to children and has the potential to promote economic development. Nevertheless, the existing interactions between these two facets of empowerment have not been considered thus far. The aim of the present paper is to fill this gap by proposing a theoretical framework in which women’s bargaining power within both the private sphere and the public sphere is endogenous. We show that the mutual interplay between the evolution of women’s voice in the family and in society may lead to the emergence of multiple equilibria and pathdependency phenomena. We also discuss policy interventions that are the most suitable to promote women’s empowerment when its multidimensional nature is taken into account. |
| Keywords: | Female Empowerment, Intrahousehold Bargaining Power, Institutional Bargaining Power, Gender Inequality, Economic Development. |
| JEL: | J |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inf:wpaper:2020.04&r=all |
| By: | Ana Alicia Dipierri; Dimitrios Zikos |
| Abstract: | Extreme environmental variations, as a phenomenon deriving from climate change, led to an exacerbated uncertainty on water availability and increased the likelihood of conflicts regarding water-dependent activities such as agriculture. In this paper, we investigate the role of conflict resolution mechanisms—one of Ostrom’s acclaimed Design Principles—when social-ecological systems are exposed to physical external disturbances. The theoretical propositions predict that social-ecological systems with conflict-resolution mechanisms will perform better than those without them. We tested this proposition through a framed field experiment that mimicked an irrigation system. This asymmetric setting exposed farmers to two (2) dilemmas: (i) how much to invest in the communal irrigation system’s maintenance and (ii) how much water to extract. The setting added a layer of complexity: water availability depended not only on the investment but also on the environmental variability. Our findings confirmed the theoretical proposition: groups with stronger ‘institutional robustness’ can cope with environmental variations better than those with weaker robustness. However, we also found that some groups, despite lacking conflict-resolution mechanisms, were also able to address environmental variations. We explored potential explanatory variables to these unexpected results. We found that subjects’ and groups’ attributes might address uncertainty and avert conflict. Thus, social-ecological systems’ capacity to respond to external disturbances, such as environmental variations, might not only be a question of Design Principles. Instead, it might also be strongly related to group members’ attributes and group dynamics. Our results pave the way for further research, hinting that some groups might be better equipped for mitigation measures, while others might be better equipped for adaptation measures. |
| Keywords: | irrigation systems; common-pool resources governance; environmental variability; collective action; institutional robustness; climate change |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/317130&r=all |
| By: | Karlson, Nils (The Ratio Institute) |
| Abstract: | Liberalism is losing ground, while populist or even authoritarian nationalist regimes are on the rise. This paper argues that the causes of the decline are, at least partly, endogenous, that a narrow focus on economic efficiency and the successful critique of socialism and the welfare state have created an idea vacuum that has opened up for these illiberal tendencies. The conclusion is that a central challenge for liberalism is to offer a comprehensive idea and narrative about meaning and community that is not socialistic, conservative or nationalistic, but distinctly liberal, to counter these developments. |
| Keywords: | populism; liberalism; community; meaning; welfare state |
| JEL: | B53 B55 D63 H11 I38 |
| Date: | 2020–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0343&r=all |
| By: | Costas Lapavitsas (Department of Economics, SOAS University of London); Aylin Soydan (Department of Economics and Finance, Istanbul Okan University) |
| Abstract: | Financialisation in developing countries has been extensively researched but its characteristic features and its relationship to developed countries remain unclear. Drawing on a review of the literature, this paper shows, first, that it should be distinguished from financial liberalisation and globalisation. Two fundamental theoretical approaches are subsequently considered, which establish its derivative character relative to developed countries, namely ‘subordinate’ and ‘dependent’ financialisation. The paper then demonstrates its characteristic features by examining the empirical literature, including the use of metrics. Financialisation in developing countries is highly variable and different from that in developed countries regarding the conduct of non-financial enterprises, banks, and households. It is also a source of economic vulnerability. |
| Keywords: | development; financial integration; subordinate financialisation; dependent financialisation |
| JEL: | F02 F36 F63 F65 O16 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soa:wpaper:240&r=all |
| By: | Olivier Beaumais (CREAM - Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée à la Mondialisation - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - IRIHS - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Homme et Société - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université, LISA - Lieux, Identités, eSpaces, Activités - UPP - Université Pascal Paoli - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | We explore firms' commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Using a unique dataset of 8,857 French firms collected through a survey conducted at the end of 2011 by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), we first construct 3 CSR pillar scores for each firm, based on a non-parametric Item Response Theory model known as Mokken Scale Analysis. CSR scores, along with responses to specific items of the 2011 INSEE survey, allow us to characterize firms implementing formal versus informal CSR. We then estimate simple probit models and count data models to show that, with regards to CSR commitment, size definitely matters, and that a significant share of firms stating that they are not actively committed to CSR, actually engage significantly in CSR, with no monotonic size effect. Cooperation with external actors such as NGOs mitigates the size effect in the likelihood of carrying out informal CSR, whereas the pressure of NGO campaigns against large companies mainly spurs the environmental score of smaller firms in the same sector. |
| Keywords: | corporate social responsibility,corporate environmental responsability,non-parametric Item Response,Theory scoring,stakeholders,SME,France |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03073242&r=all |
| By: | Palma, J. G. |
| Abstract: | This paper returns to the Ricardian tradition of understanding the distribution of income as the outcome of the political articulation of conflict between rentiers, capitalists, bureaucrats and labour -in which history, politics and institutions matter as much (if not more) than economic ‘fundamentals’. Also, in this tradition economic underperformance arises mostly from the shift in distribution from operating profits to rents. The focus is on a key political economy question: why the rich stay rich, no matter what! This confirms the iron law of oligarchies: dysfunctional institutions tend to rebuild. In the case of Latin America, its élites' “ability to persist” relates to the fact that they have been able to enforce a “Southern-style” rule resembling a ‘stationary process’, whereby the unbalancing impact of shocks tends to have only limited life-spans -as oligarchies are able to landscape new scenarios to continue achieving their fairly immutable rent-seeking goals. They have used three main channels: forcing ‘Buchanan’-style constitutional and legal straitjackets to restrict the scope of change; resourcefulness and collective action for reengineering their distributional strategies to suit the new scenarios, and cleverly absorbing elements of opposing ideologies (such as now accepting the need for ‘social protection’) to maintain theirs hegemonic. Their trump cards are ruthlessness in the first, and “jogo de cintura e jeitinho” (fancy footwork) in the other two. The analysis of these channels is the main subject of this paper |
| Keywords: | income distribution, inequality, poverty, Palma ratio, “reverse catching-up”, ideology, Gramsci, Foucault, neo-liberalism, ‘new’ left, institutional persistence, Latin America, Chile, emerging Asia, US, Western Europe |
| JEL: | D31 E12 E22 E24 N16 N36 O50 P16 |
| Date: | 2020–12–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:20124&r=all |
| By: | Ingela Alger (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, Institute for Advanced Study Toulouse); Jean-François Laslier (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits two classical problems in the theory of voting-viz. the divided majority problem and the strategic revelation of information by majority vote-in the light of evolutionarily founded partial Kantian morality. It is shown that, compared to electorates consisting of purely self-interested voters, such Kantian morality helps voters solve coordination problems and improves the information aggregation properties of equilibria, even for modest levels of morality. |
| Keywords: | Condorcet jury theorem,divided majority problem,voting,Homo moralis,Kantian morality,social dilemmas |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03031118&r=all |
| By: | - |
| Abstract: | La crisis sanitaria y socioeconómica producida por la pandemia de COVID-19 ha afectado intensamente a los países de América Latina y ha dejado al desnudo las profundas inequidades sobre las que numerosos informes internacionales, regionales y nacionales han venido alertando en las últimas décadas. En este contexto, la histórica exclusión y marginación política y económica de los más de 800 pueblos indígenas existentes en la región se ha visto acentuada como resultado de respuestas estatales insuficientes a la crisis, que no han considerado debidamente los derechos colectivos de estos pueblos y que han tenido una escasa pertinencia cultural. En esta publicación se ofrece un panorama sintético de la situación de los pueblos indígenas de la región ante la pandemia de COVID-19. Se analizan tanto las respuestas estatales como las de los propios pueblos indígenas a la crisis y se formula una serie de recomendaciones para superar la postergación de estos pueblos en la gestión de la pandemia, poniendo sus derechos colectivos en el centro. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, VIRUS, EPIDEMIAS, ASPECTOS SOCIALES, PUEBLOS INDIGENAS, DERECHOS ECONOMICOS, SOCIALES Y CULTURALES, POLITICA SOCIAL, IGUALDAD, PROBLEMAS SOCIALES, SALUD, COVID-19, VIRUSES, EPIDEMICS, SOCIAL ASPECTS, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS, SOCIAL POLICY, EQUALITY, SOCIAL PROBLEMS, HEALTH |
| Date: | 2020–12–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col022:46543&r=all |