|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2022‒10‒10
fifteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | David Laidler (University of Western Ontario) |
| Abstract: | Peter Howitt is best known for his contributions to growth theory, but his work in short-run economics, which began with his Ph.D thesis and still continues, is important and deserves attention. It lies firmly in the Keynesian macro-disequilibrium tradition of Clower and Leijonhufvud, and for a long time has been overshadowed by New-classical and New-Keynesian orthodoxy. However, the development of agent based modelling and behavioural economics will perhaps give disequilibrium macroeconomics a new lease on life. |
| Keywords: | equilibrium, disequilibrium, money, New classical Economics, New Keynesian Economics, Keynes, Lucas, Howitt, Clower, Leijonhufud, Phelps. |
| JEL: | B22 B59 E12 E13 E31 E32 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:uwowop:202211&r= |
| By: | Giovanni Dosi |
| Abstract: | This essay outlines the evolutionary research agenda thoroughly explored in its microeconomic aspects in the forthcoming Manual, The Foundations of Complex Evolving Economies. Part One: Innovation, Organization and Industrial Dynamics, Oxford University Press, 2023. But is there an ''evolutionary paradigm'', in the first place? And if yes, what is it? In brief, in such a paradigm, the economy is interpreted as a complex evolving system. In that, a wide set of techno-economic phenomena are understood as emergent properties - outcomes of far-from-equilibrium interactions among heterogeneous agents - characterized by endogenous preferences, most often ''boundedly rational'' - but always capable of learning, adapting, and innovating with respect to their understandings of the world in which they operate, the technologies they master, their organizational forms, and their behavioral repertoires. All that involves some crucial properties. First, if the entities are genuinely evolving, new elements, new technologies, new organizational forms, new patterns of interaction are bound to appear along the course of evolution. Second, evolution is a multi-scale phenomenon. This is a fundamental property of biological evolution, and even more so is the evolution of economies and whole societies, nested in different institutions - possibly evolving at different paces, and coupled with technological and organizational changes. Third, but relatedly, economies are complex interactive systems. Interaction generally implies emergence. There is no isomorphism between macroscopic phenomena, say, the dynamics of industries, markets, and whole economies, on the one hand, and the behaviours of individual entities, on the other. More is different (Anderson, 1972). Fourth, complexity is intimately linked with non-linearities, and thus multiple possible dynamical paths. History counts. And this, even more so, in socio-economic environments characterized by knowledge accumulation. Knowledge builds upon itself, thus involving what economists in their jargon call dynamic increasing returns. As summarized in this essays Part One of the Manual addresses in the foregoing perspective, (i) Innovation and technological evolution; (ii) The theory of the firm in evolving environments; (iii) The formalization of learning processes; (iv) the theory of production; (v) consumption patterns; (vi) economic interactions and the working of markets; and, (vii) The ensuing structures and evolution of industries. Further in this essay we sketch some fundamental topics of the macroeconomic and developmental research ahead, which we mean to explore in Part Two of the Manual, in progress. At the same time the reader is warned against multiple risks of ''normalization'' by which 'evolution' is reduced to sheer 'innovation', and the latter is handled by standard econometric instruments, which are inevitably bound to largely neglect, among other features, the emergence of novelty, coupled dynamics, profound heterogeneities at all levels, and various forms of complementarities. |
| Keywords: | Economic evolution; complex systems; technological and organizational innovation; heterogeneity; market processes; bounded rationality; organizational capabilities; routines and heuristics; theory of production; industrial structures. |
| Date: | 2022–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2022/24&r= |
| By: | Matthias Aistleitner (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | Recent evidence from citation analysis [Mitra, S., Palmer, M, Vuon, V. (2020). Development and interdisciplinarity: A citation analysis. World Development, 135, 105076; hereafter MPV] shows that development as a field of study hardly interacts with other disciplines – except mainstream economics. Moreover, MPV analyze the reported affiliation of each author listed in the Web of Science database and find that, in response to growing competition in the publishing process, economists tend to publish more in development studies journals. In this paper, I apply an alternative approach in identifying the disciplinary and paradigmatic background of development scholars by matching bibliometric data on articles published in World Development with the RePEc author database. The results from this analysis suggest a quite different picture regarding the share of economists that publish in the field’s flagship journal: in contrast to MPV, I report a significantly higher share of scholars with an economics research background. Considering these findings, the paper further explores non-trivial differences of the 'economics silo' (i.e. economists that publish research related to development) in World Development vis-Ã -vis research by scholars from other social science disciplines via extensive citation analysis. The overall finding of this analysis is that the lack of interdisciplinarity (as observed by MPV) is largely due to economists that publish their work in the journal. |
| Keywords: | Development, Interdisciplinarity, Citation Analysis, RePEc, Economic Imperialism |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:139&r= |
| By: | Davis, John B. (Department of Economics Marquette University) |
| Abstract: | As an interdisciplinary field, economics and ethics has been taught in many different ways, including in my experience teaching the course over many years. This paper describes the challenges teaching this subject involves and the strategy I ultimately adopted for doing so after trying different approaches. This strategy was meant to address the needs of a heterogenous collection of students, many of whom had limited knowledge of economics and were likely not take many additional courses in it. The course was structured around four modules opposed to one another in two pairs: (1) Ways economics influences ethics: The market vision (2) Ways economics influences ethics: Rationality and efficiency (3) Ways ethics influences economics: Moral limits of markets (4) Ways ethics influences economics: Taming the market Each module was built around real world applications. The course finished with a fifth module in the form of a capstone exercise – Rationing health care – that required students rank who had a priority for care from four individual cases of varying life circumstances drawn from Cookson and Dolan (2000). Students used the views they had developed in the first four modules to do this, and then explained and discussed both their rankings and the overall rankings that prevailed over all students. The course was taught both in person and online and in both long and short teaching terms, emphasized student interaction and openness to different views of how economics and ethics can be connected, and argued for democratic values in pluralist societies. |
| Keywords: | economics and ethics, teaching, interdisciplinary, health care |
| JEL: | A12 A13 A22 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrq:wpaper:2022-07&r= |
| By: | Seyyed Ali Zeytoon Nejad Moosavian |
| Abstract: | Macroeconomics essentially discusses macroeconomic phenomena from the perspectives of various schools of economic thought, each of which takes different views on how macroeconomic agents make decisions and how the corresponding markets operate. Therefore, developing a clear, comprehensive understanding of how and in what ways these schools of economic thought differ is a key and a prerequisite for economics students to prosper academically and professionally in the discipline. This becomes even more crucial as economics students pursue their studies toward higher levels of education and graduate school, during which students are expected to attain higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy, including analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creation. Teaching the distinctions and similarities of the two major schools of economic thought has never been an easy task to undertake in the classroom. Although the reason for such a hardship can be multi-fold, one reason has undoubtedly been students' lack of a holistic view on how the two mainstream economic schools of thought differ. There is strong evidence that students make smoother transition to higher levels of education after building up such groundwork, on which they can build further later on (e.g. Didia and Hasnat, 1998; Marcal and Roberts, 2001; Islam, et al., 2008; Green, et al., 2009; White, 2016). The paper starts with a visual spectrum of various schools of economic thought, and then narrows down the scope to the classical and Keynesian schools, i.e. the backbone of modern macroeconomics. Afterwards, a holistic table contrasts the two schools in terms of 50 aspects. Not only does this table help economics students enhance their comprehension, retention, and critical-thinking capability, it also benefits macroeconomic instructors to ... |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2209.02683&r= |
| By: | Samuel Demeulemeester (TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | The 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis has brought renewed interest in the 100% Money reform idea of the 1930s', the essence of which was to require 100% reserves on transaction deposits so as separate money issuance from bank loans. A modern version of this idea, the Sovereign Money proposal, has been much discussed in recent years. Some heterodox economists have harshly criticized Sovereign Money advocates for lacking a clear analytical framework, as well as for disregarding "established" literature on such topics as the causality relationship between money and prices, the accommodation of business needs, financial instability, or the seigniorage privilege. The literature on 100% Money, however, appears to have been largely overlooked by both sides of the debate-even though, as this article shows, it could have brought valuable theoretical insight to the discussion. Building upon the arguments of the 100% Money writers, this paper concludes that many of the criticisms addressed to the Sovereign Money proposal are either inconclusive or misplaced. |
| Keywords: | 100% money,Sovereign Money,full reserve banking,endogenous money,financial instability B26,E30,E42 |
| Date: | 2022–08–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03751756&r= |
| By: | Jacques Fontanel (CESICE - Centre d'études sur la sécurité internationale et les coopérations européennes - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - IEPG - Sciences Po Grenoble - Institut d'études politiques de Grenoble - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes) |
| Abstract: | Forecasting is always difficult, especially the future. Economists have sought to develop a scientific infrastructure designed to improve the productive performance and living standards of consumers and citizens. However, this body of knowledge hardly allows for the development of effective instruments to fulfill these objectives. Contrary to Fukuyama's idea of the "end of history", Lester Thurow has presented an outline of the future evolution of a capitalism whose strength as well as precariousness he measures. His analysis highlights the inadequacies of capitalism, the absence of a competing economic system, the emergence of a multipolar world without a hegemonic power, the development of regional blocs, the shortcomings of the market, the development of inequalities, the rise of the grey matter industry, the threat of demographics, the crisis of work, and economic and political instability. Several elements of analysis remain relevant, but three essential elements of the political-economic situation in the world today are unfortunately absent, such as the permanence of military warfare, especially in developed countries, and the conflict of world leadership between the United States and China. Finally, the issue of global warming and pollution is never mentioned. |
| Abstract: | Il est toujours difficile de prévoir, surtout l'avenir. Les économistes ont cherché à élaborer une infrastructure scientifique destinée à améliorer les performances productives et le niveau de vie des consommateurs et citoyens. Cependant, l'ensemble de ces connaissances ne permettent guère de développer des instruments efficaces pour remplir ces objectifs. En contestation de l'idée de Fukuyama sur la « fin de l'histoire », Lester Thurow a présenté les grandes lignes des évolutions à venir d'un capitalisme dont il mesure aussi bien la force que la précarité. Son analyse met en lumière les insuffisances du capitalisme, l'absence d'un système économique concurrent, l'apparition d'un monde multipolaire sans puissance hégémonique, le développement des blocs régionaux, les défauts du marché, le développement des inégalités, l'essor de l'industrie de la matière grise, la menace de la démographie, la crise du travail, et l'instabilité économique et politique. Plusieurs éléments d'analyse restent d'actualité, mais trois éléments essentiels de la situation politico-économique du monde d'aujourd'hui sont malheureusement absents, comme la permanence des actions de guerres militaires, notamment dans les pays développés, et le conflit de leadership mondial entre les Etats-Unis et la Chine. Enfin, la question du réchauffement climatique et de la pollution n'est jamais évoquée. |
| Keywords: | Capitalism,demography,hegemony,social inequalities,wars,economic wars,global warming,Capitalisme,démographie,hégémonie,inégalités sociales,guerres,guerres économiques,réchauffement climatique. |
| Date: | 2022–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03754661&r= |
| By: | van der Heide, Arjen; Kohl, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | Contemporary capitalist societies use different institutions to manage economic risks. While different public welfare state and financial institutions (banks, capital markets) have been studied across coordinated and liberal market economies, this paper adds the private insurance sector to the study of countries' security arrangements, following up on Michel Albert's classical distinction between Alpine and Maritime insurance cultures. Building on extensive new insurance data collections (1880-2017) and institutional analysis, this paper corroborates the long-run historical existence of two worlds of private insurance. Maritime countries (USA, GBR, CAN) developed much bigger life and non-life insurance earlier, with no state-associated insurance enterprises and riskier investments steered towards financial markets. Alpine insurance (AUT, DEU, CHE), by contrast, was initially smaller, with strong state involvement, a significant reinsurance tradition and relatively heavy investments in mortgages and property, due to economic and financial backwardness. We argue that the larger and more "Maritime" the insurance sector, the more it made welfare states liberal and securities markets large. Insurance is thus a hidden factor for countries' varieties of capitalism and world of welfare. The recent convergence on the Maritime model, however, implies that the riskier and risk-individualizing type of private insurance has added to privatization and securitization trends everywhere. |
| Keywords: | financial development,historical comparison,insurance,varieties of capitalism,welfare,finanzielle Entwicklung,historischer Vergleich,Spielarten des Kapitalismus,Versicherungen,Wohlfahrtsstaat |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:224&r= |
| By: | Céline Giner; May Hobeika; Chiara Fischetti |
| Abstract: | Fostering gender inclusion can have positive impacts on the food systems' triple challenge of ensuring food security and nutrition for a growing population, supporting the livelihoods of millions of people working in the food supply chain, and doing so in an environmentally sustainable way. Yet these positive synergies are often invisible as sex-disaggregated information is not collected. This report calls for the development of better evidence on gender and food systems as a necessary first step in the path towards gender equality. Based on OECD countries’ experiences, it provides a roadmap to identify and overcome evidence gaps on gender aspects and policies that address gender inequality in food systems with the aim of advancing women’s contribution to food systems. |
| Keywords: | Food systems, Gender equality, Gender impact analysis, Women consumers, Women entrepreneurs, Women workers |
| JEL: | C80 J16 K38 L66 Q18 |
| Date: | 2022–09–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:agraaa:184-en&r= |
| By: | Lucia Foster; Erika McEntarfer; Danielle H. Sandler |
| Abstract: | While the lack of gender and racial diversity in economics in academia (for students and professors) is well-established, less is known about the overall placement and earnings of economists by gender and race. Understanding demand-side factors is important, as improvements in the supply side by diversifying the pipeline alone may not be enough to improve equity in the profession. Using the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) linked to Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) jobs data, we examine placements and earnings for economists working in the U.S. after receiving a PhD by gender and race. We find enormous dispersion in pay for economists within and across sectors that grows over time. Female PhD economists earn about 12 percent less than their male colleagues on average; Black PhD economists earn about 15 percent less than their white counterparts on average; and overall underrepresented minority PhD economists earn about 8 percent less than their white counterparts. These pay disparities are attenuated in some sectors and when controlling for rank of PhD granting institution and employer. |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:22-26&r= |
| By: | Aguilar Revelo, Lorena |
| Abstract: | Este documento fue elaborado como parte del proceso de preparación hacia el 66º período de sesiones de la Comisión de la Condición Jurídica y Social de la Mujer, que tuvo como tema prioritario “El logro de la igualdad entre los géneros y el empoderamiento de todas las mujeres y las niñas en el contexto de las políticas y programas relativos al cambio climático, el medio ambiente y la reducción del riesgo de desastres”. El proceso se llevó a cabo en el marco de la 62ª Reunión de la Mesa Directiva de la Conferencia Regional sobre la Mujer de América Latina y el Caribe. El objetivo de este documento y sus recomendaciones es no solo avanzar hacia el logro de la igualdad de género y el desarrollo sostenible en la región, sino también hacer aportes innovadores y transformadores desde América Latina y el Caribe en materia de género y cambio climático, poniendo en el centro la igualdad de género y la autonomía de las mujeres. |
| Keywords: | MUJERES, CAMBIO CLIMATICO, INCORPORACION DE LA PERSPECTIVA DE GENERO, IGUALDAD DE GENERO, LEYES Y REGLAMENTOS, COOPERACION REGIONAL, PROGRAMAS DE ACCION, WOMEN, CLIMATE CHANGE, GENDER MAINSTREAMING, GENDER EQUALITY, LAWS AND REGULATIONS, REGIONAL COOPERATION, PROGRAMMES OF ACTION |
| Date: | 2022–08–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col022:48071&r= |
| By: | Martin Pfaffenbach; Tobias Kronenberg; Wolf Rogowski |
| Abstract: | In the light of anthropogenic climate change, a polarized discussion about the right measures to keep economic activity within the planet's ecological boundaries has emerged: Advocates of de-growth argue that continuous GDP growth is impossible because of natural limits to growth. They call for measures to change individual consumption patterns, to constrain affluence in wealthy countries, and to reform the economic system in such a way that it can fulfil its functions even without continuously growing GDP. Advocates of green growth argue that GDP growth and ecological impacts are conceptionally independent and call for promoting entrepreneurial activity which facilitates the transition towards a carbon-neutral, circular economy without curtailing economic growth. At first sight, the two views appear in unresolvable conflict. After sketching the two approaches, we point towards their common ground and argue that the conflict may concern ideologies rather than evidence-based policy proposals. Taken seriously, both call e.g. for urgent action; for fundamental reforms to correct faulty price signals; for promoting a circular economy powered by regenerative energy sources; for political measures which enable sufficient life styles; and for evidence-based rather than ideological economic analysis. Focusing on this common ground may accelerate the vital transition to a sustainable economy. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth, green growth, de-growth, ideological economics |
| JEL: | O44 Q54 D63 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:atv:wpaper:2207&r= |
| By: | Durán Lima, José Elías; Banacloche, Santacruz |
| Abstract: | This manual summarizes the theoretical bases of the input-output model applied in the economic analysis of countries and groups of countries (subregions). The input-output tables developed by the Regional Integration Unit of the International Trade and Integration Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will be of use to government experts for conducting their own calculations and analyses, following and adapting the guidelines and recommendations contained the manual to design specific public policies. Some indicators suggested in the document include the intensity of imported inputs in production and exports, forward and backward production linkages, import dependency analyses, the domestic value added in exports or imported content by trade partner, and extensions and applications related to export employment and CO2 emissions. This manual can also serve as a useful aide for academics, researchers and students in understanding sometimes elusive and complex literature. |
| Keywords: | ANALISIS ECONOMICO, ANALISIS DE INSUMO-PRODUCTO, COMERCIO INTERNACIONAL, INTEGRACION ECONOMICA, EXPORTACIONES, IMPORTACIONES, VALOR, ECONOMIC ANALYSIS, INPUT-OUTPUT ANALYSIS, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, ECONOMIC INTEGRATION, EXPORTS, IMPORTS, VALUE |
| Date: | 2022–08–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col022:48096&r= |
| By: | Alejandra Medina (OECD); Adriana de la Cruz (OECD); Yun Tang (OECD) |
| Abstract: | This working paper documents the trends in the ownership structures of listed companies around the world and the rise in ownership concentration. It identifies three major trends in corporate ownership: the dominance of company group structures, in particular in a number of emerging markets; the growth of state ownership through various state controlled investors; and the re concentration of ownership in the hands of large institutional investors, in particular investors that follow passive index investment strategies. The paper also discusses the implications for corporate governance of corporate ownership by private companies, states and institutional investors in global public equity markets. |
| Date: | 2022–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:dafaae:27-en&r= |
| By: | Laurent Gauthier (LED - Laboratoire d'Economie Dionysien - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) |
| Abstract: | Traditional cliometrics usually focus on economic data from the modern and contemporary periods, and do not have much to do with ancient history, mostly due to a lack of relevant data. Separately, the field of cliometrics and complexity, by looking at data in the light of complex systems analysis, gives access to a broader range of sources. Concentrating on the distinction between cliometrics and historical economics, we explore the epistemic gap between economics and history, which we reduce to two fundamental differences: the relationship to primary sources, and the presence of a nomothetic framework. Using this gap as a guide, we argue that a logical expansion of cliometrics and complexity, which do not have to be about the economy, but can operate on primary historical sources, could address a much broader set of periods, societies, and phenomena, leaning on microeconomic models. Redefining cliometrics in that way gives them access to the extensive corpora of historical material that digital humanities have produced. Working closer to primary sources contributes to bridging the epistemic gap between economics and history, and the systematic and explicit way in which cliometrics and complexity tackle data contributes to making historical research more scientific. |
| Keywords: | Cliometrics,historical economics,historical method |
| Date: | 2022–08–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03754911&r= |