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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2024‒09‒23
fifteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Waitkus, Nora; Savage, Mike; Toft, Maren |
| Abstract: | Wealth inequalities are increasingly prominent in contemporary societies, yet they have not been systematically addressed by sociological class analysis. Yet, class analysis should have a lot to offer: In the literature on wealth inequality, wealth is often approached as a unidimensional distribution – a quantity one can possess more or less of, crystallized in notions of the Top 1%. In this theoretical reflection, we discuss ways in which class analysis can address the gravity of wealth inequality by returning to the origins in the thinking of Marx and Weber, where capital accumulation and property organization were given central stage. Drawing on more recent contributions from Bourdieu, and integrating insights from political economy, theories of racial capitalism and feminist perspectives, we outline ways to enrich class theory through attention to housing, finance, business, and debt. Our intervention allows class analysis to embrace accumulation, exploitation, closure and exclusion making it fit for purpose to address 21st-century social changes. |
| Keywords: | wealth; class; theory; capitalism |
| JEL: | N0 J1 |
| Date: | 2024–08–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:124635 |
| By: | Severin Hornung (University of Innsbruck, Department of Psychology, Innsbruck, Austria); Thomas Hoge (University of Innsbruck, Department of Psychology, Innsbruck, Austria,) |
| Abstract: | Drawing on the philosophy of science, this essay addresses ideological and epistemological heterogeneity in management and organization studies scholarship. The presented review and application of the meta-theory of scientific paradigms establish connections with prior controversies to delineate, deconstruct, and reappraise the current discourse in the pluralistic field of management and organization studies. Representing theories of society focusing on regulation (order) vs. radical change (conflict), and conceiving social science as concerned with objective vs. subjective realities, a classic taxonomy differentiates functionalist, radical structuralist, interpretive, and radical humanist paradigms. Scientific progress has transformed these into ontological, epistemological, and axiological configurations of post-positivist (normative, mainstream), interpretative (constructivist, hermeneutic), postmodern (dialogic, poststructuralist), and critical (dialectic, antagonistic) approaches. Associated meta-theorizing is applied to academic disputes involving critical management studies. Distinguishing degree and location, four fundamental and foundational inter- and intra-paradigmatic conflicts are analyzed: a) the evidence-debate between critical scholars and mainstream (post-)positivist functionalists; b) the performativity-debate within the field of critical management studies; c) the managerialism-debate between radical critical structuralists and poststructuralists; and d) the ideology-debate representing influences on adjacent fields, exemplified by an emerging critical paradigm in work and organizational psychology. Underlying dynamics are framed as fermenting and fragmenting forces, driving paradigm delineation, differentiation, disintegration, and dissemination. The developed meta-theoretical perspective facilitates self-reflexive scholarship, meaning-making, and knowledge-creation, promoting a deeper understanding and better navigation of the organizational literature as an ideologically contested terrain of social science. |
| Keywords: | Philosophy of science, research paradigms, academic discourse, critical management studies, critical work and organizational psychology, dialectic analysis, epistemological critique |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:scmowp:01279 |
| By: | Possas, Mario Luiz |
| Abstract: | Mainstream Macroeconomics has withdrawn completely from its remote origins in Keynes and Kalecki, replacing the principle of effective demand (P.E.D.) with supply economics, investment with savings, and dynamics with equilibrium as a norm This article discusses, in the event of Kalecki's centenary, the importance of his contribution for the reconstruction of a macroeconomic theory capable of (i) explaining, through P.E.D., the basic causal relations amongst economic variables without any reference to equilibrium; (ii) thus invalidating the false relevant role ascribed to savings; and (iii) bringing macrodynamics back to the core of the analysis of the capitalist economy. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomic dynamics, Kalecki, Effective demand, Investment and savings |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:301870 |
| By: | Emanuel Dobrin (Timotheus Brethren Theological Institute of Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | Humanity and ethics seem to be synonymous. Wherever human existence is discussed, wherever the relations developed between different social categories are explored, ethics become imperative. The source of ethical standards is also important, leading sociology to confirm the existence of countless ethical systems, each claiming to meet human needs. These include Christian ethics, which considers man to be more valuable than other ethical systems portray, and his value is ontologically given through creation. As a result, occupying such a significant place in the universe, man needs moral rules that respect his fundamental rights and provide support during crises and needs. The present article is a brief foray into the perimeter of Christian ethics, highlighting some aspects that define this system and presenting arguments in its favor. The argument is justified, as human society is in a constant search for an ethic that benefits each individual. The present discussion has a general footprint, offering only a few of the comprehensive multitude of the Christian ethical system meant to open the way for easy communication between different ethicists. |
| Keywords: | ethics, human beings, altruism, religion, morality |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:scmowp:01297 |
| By: | Bergh, Andreas (Department of Economics, Lund University, and); Bjørnskov, Christian (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, and); Kouba, Luděk (Department of Economics,) |
| Abstract: | The discussion of the growth consequences of socialism has fulminated for a century, sparked off by the Calculation Debate in the 1920s and 30s, and has concerned the performance of the Soviet Union in the 1950s and the mixed development in the 1990s after communism collapsed in Central and Eastern Europe. We aim to inform these debates by providing an empirical assessment of how socialist economies performed across the second half of the 20th century. Using both neighbour comparisons as well as more formal empirical analysis of developing countries that turned socialist after independence, we derive a set of estimates of the degree to which the introduction of a planned socialist economy affects long-run growth and development. All analyses point towards an annual growth decline of approximately two percentage points during the first decade after implementing socialism. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth; Socialism |
| JEL: | O11 O43 P20 |
| Date: | 2024–08–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1499 |
| By: | Carla Ioana Ana Maria Popescu (University of Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | The problem of identity is, equally, an exogenous one—that of the identification and limitation of man and the borders of his person—and, an endogenous one—that of self-identification, re-identification and self-knowledge, more precisely, self-knowledge, its components and dynamics. This raises questions about the coordinates of this identification, self-identification and re-identification and self-knowledge of man, as unity and physical, spiritual, moral and cognitive identity of this world. How many come and how do they come from its exteriority, and what and how are those that belong to its interiority, that is, to feeling, intuition, the operations of thought, knowledge, logic, the concrete and the abstract? These are thought-provoking questions for which answers, benchmarks, structures, arguments, determinations and connections have been sought at all times. The question “Who am I?!†—which is both questioning and wonder—constitutes one of the fundamental problems of psychology, philosophy, logic, thought and self-awareness, but not only. Approaches to this are different and very complex, and the results are commensurate, in a dynamic and complex universe, open to all horizons. Who struggles with the management of identity, self-identification and re-identification, and other components of the human person and personality? The first answer could be: psychology, as a science of the soul or psyche; philosophy, as a science and art of thinking; and logic, in its capacity as manager of the generation, coherence of rationality and the reason of the expression of the realm of cognition. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview, bringing a broader perspective to the profound and timeless topic of personal identity. |
| Keywords: | identity, identification, re-identification, psychological continuity |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:scmowp:01296 |
| By: | Florin Matei (Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania) |
| Abstract: | Identity has always played an important role in how people have related to each other and how society has functioned. The identity crisis in today's society is profound and there is a need for solutions that reconcile justice with the memories of the past and help people to live in human communities with the ideals of harmony and the common good. Volf's theology of identity, based on the theology of Scripture, can be the answer to the crisis experienced by humanity. The way in which Scripture is revealed through Volf's theology leads to a re-examination of the foundations on which the inner structure of the human being is built. The theology of identity, complex and anchored in the text of Scripture, opens new horizons to profound biblical truths from a social perspective. For the definition of the theology of identity, central to Miroslav Volf's thinking, the truth of Scripture and its interpretation open up new horizons for understanding inter-human relations. |
| Keywords: | embracing theology, identity, cultural identity, history |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:scmowp:01288 |
| By: | Hickel, Jason; Hanbury Lemos, Morena; Barbour, Felix |
| Abstract: | Researchers have argued that wealthy nations rely on a large net appropriation of labour and resources from the rest of the world through unequal exchange in international trade and global commodity chains. Here we assess this empirically by measuring flows of embodied labour in the world economy from 1995–2021, accounting for skill levels, sectors and wages. We find that, in 2021, the economies of the global North net-appropriated 826 billion hours of embodied labour from the global South, across all skill levels and sectors. The wage value of this net-appropriated labour was equivalent to €16.9 trillion in Northern prices, accounting for skill level. This appropriation roughly doubles the labour that is available for Northern consumption but drains the South of productive capacity that could be used instead for local human needs and development. Unequal exchange is understood to be driven in part by systematic wage inequalities. We find Southern wages are 87–95% lower than Northern wages for work of equal skill. While Southern workers contribute 90% of the labour that powers the world economy, they receive only 21% of global income. |
| JEL: | R14 J01 J1 |
| Date: | 2024–07–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:124543 |
| By: | Kshama Dwarakanath; Svitlana Vyetrenko; Tucker Balch |
| Abstract: | We present an agent-based simulator for economic systems with heterogeneous households, firms, central bank, and government agents. These agents interact to define production, consumption, and monetary flow. Each agent type has distinct objectives, such as households seeking utility from consumption and the central bank targeting inflation and production. We define this multi-agent economic system using an OpenAI Gym-style environment, enabling agents to optimize their objectives through reinforcement learning. Standard multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) schemes, like independent learning, enable agents to learn concurrently but do not address whether the resulting strategies are at equilibrium. This study integrates the Policy Space Response Oracle (PSRO) algorithm, which has shown superior performance over independent MARL in games with homogeneous agents, with economic agent-based modeling. We use PSRO to develop agent policies approximating Nash equilibria of the empirical economic game, thereby linking to economic equilibria. Our results demonstrate that PSRO strategies achieve lower regret values than independent MARL strategies in our economic system with four agent types. This work aims to bridge artificial intelligence, economics, and empirical game theory towards future research. |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2408.12038 |
| By: | Campana, Juan Manuel |
| Abstract: | The article develops a stylized medium-run post-Kaleckian open economy model with conflict inflation and combines two existing specifications of the income share targets of workers and firms. In the model, only the target of firms is directly affected by the real exchange rate. Workers do not set nominal wages in direct consideration of international relative prices. The target of workers is affected by the rate of capacity utilization, which reflects their wage bargaining position. We analyze the dynamic stability of the model, where a profit-led domestic demand regime or a weakly wage-led domestic regime with low nominal wage setting power of workers and a negative or sufficiently small direct impact of the real exchange rate on the trade balance are necessary conditions for stability. It is shown that the effects of a devaluation on aggregate demand, growth, trade balance, and inflation are generally ambiguous and highly contingent on the parameter constellation of the economy. The effectiveness of a currency devaluation as a stabilization policy remains unclear, its adoption is not without risk, and its negative social and distributional consequences may be large. |
| Keywords: | currency devaluation, distribution conflict, inflation, open economy, Kaleckian model |
| JEL: | E11 E12 E31 F31 F41 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:301876 |
| By: | Hickel, Jason; Sullivan, Dylan |
| Abstract: | Some narratives in international development hold that ending poverty and achieving good lives for all will require every country to reach the levels of GDP per capita that currently characterise high-income countries. However, this would require increasing total global output and resource use several times over, dramatically exacerbating ecological breakdown. Furthermore, universal convergence along these lines is unlikely within the imperialist structure of the existing world economy. Here we demonstrate that this dilemma can be resolved with a different approach, rooted in recent needs-based analyses of poverty and development. Strategies for development should not pursue capitalist growth and increased aggregate production as such, but should rather increase the specific forms of production that are necessary to improve capabilities and meet human needs at a high standard, while ensuring universal access to key goods and services through public provisioning and decommodification. At the same time, in high-income countries, less-necessary production should be scaled down to enable faster decarbonization and to help bring resource use back within planetary boundaries. With this approach, good lives can be achieved for all without requiring large increases in total global throughput and output. Provisioning decent living standards (DLS) for 8.5 billion people would require only 30% of current global resource and energy use, leaving a substantial surplus for additional consumption, public luxury, scientific advancement, and other social investments. Such a future requires planning to provision public services, to deploy efficient technology, and to build sovereign industrial capacity in the global South. |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2024–09–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:124460 |
| By: | Mathilde Salin; Katie Kedward; Nepomuk Dunz |
| Abstract: | This chapter reviews the empirical evidence on price stickiness in the euro area. We provide an overview of the different sources of granular consumer and producer price data now available in the euro area. We document new stylized facts on price adjustment in the euro area over the last 20 years. We first present results on the frequency and size of price adjustment in the cross-section dimension. Then we describe some results on the evolution of price stickiness over time. We also derive some implications for the micro-foundations of macro models, discussing the consistency of available evidence with predictions of state- and time-dependent modelPolicymakers are increasingly calling for the development of scenarios to explore the economic consequences of nature loss and transition policies, particularly at a global scale and macroeconomic level. In this paper, we review global integrated-assessment models (IAMs) linking nature and the macroeconomy and assess their suitability to help build such scenarios. We perform an in-depth analysis of both ‘stylised’ and ‘applied’ IAMs, and critically assess how they represent dependencies of the macroeconomy on nature, as well as policies to reverse nature loss. We find that applied IAMs are generally skewed to capturing the dependency of the economy to selected provisioning ecosystem services, with regulating and maintenance services less represented. As these models tend to focus on the land-use and climate drivers of biodiversity loss, the transition policies they capture only aim to mitigate those drivers and overlook other drivers of nature loss such as pollution or invasive alien species. We also find that some theoretical assumptions in the core macroeconomic part of applied models may tend to mitigate the potential macroeconomic consequences of nature loss and nature transition policies. This contrasts with the results of the ‘stylised’ models we review, which tend to represent the loss of natural capital and biodiversity as having significant impacts on the macroeconomy. However, stylised models make it hard to represent the impact of the loss of specific ecosystem services or specific policies to protect nature. Building on this analysis, we explore the challenges and identify future avenues for the use of IAMs in scenarios that account for the importance of nature and biodiversity for economic activity. |
| Keywords: | Integrated Assessment Modelling; Biodiversity; Natural Capital; Nature Scenarios; Macroeconomic Impacts; Sustainable Development |
| JEL: | C6 Q56 Q57 Q01 O11 O44 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:959 |
| By: | Jialin Dong; Kshama Dwarakanath; Svitlana Vyetrenko |
| Abstract: | There has been a growing interest in multi-agent simulators in the domain of economic modeling. However, contemporary research often involves developing reinforcement learning (RL) based models that focus solely on a single type of agents, such as households, firms, or the government. Such an approach overlooks the adaptation of interacting agents thereby failing to capture the complexity of real-world economic systems. In this work, we consider a multi-agent simulator comprised of RL agents of numerous types, including heterogeneous households, firm, central bank and government. In particular, we focus on the crucial role of the government in distributing tax credits to households. We conduct two broad categories of comprehensive experiments dealing with the impact of tax credits on 1) households with varied degrees of myopia (short-sightedness in spending and saving decisions), and 2) households with diverse liquidity profiles. The first category of experiments examines the impact of the frequency of tax credits (e.g. annual vs quarterly) on consumption patterns of myopic households. The second category of experiments focuses on the impact of varying tax credit distribution strategies on households with differing liquidities. We validate our simulation model by reproducing trends observed in real households upon receipt of unforeseen, uniform tax credits, as documented in a JPMorgan Chase report. Based on the results of the latter, we propose an innovative tax credit distribution strategy for the government to reduce inequality among households. We demonstrate the efficacy of this strategy in improving social welfare in our simulation results. |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2408.10391 |
| By: | David Hiez (Uni.lu - Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | L'économie circulaire, les monnaies locales et les services d'échange locaux (SEL) sont de très bons exemples du mouvement de démondialisation. Concomitants à la mondialisation, ce n'est pas tant leur existence qui atteste d'un mouvement de démondialisation que leur développement, le regain d'intérêt qu'ils suscitent. Ils renvoient à la démondialisation à plusieurs titres. Au premier chef, ils partagent une dimension locale marquée, ce qui naturellement peut se rattacher à une relocalisation en rupture avec l'internationalisation désincarnée de la mondialisation. En outre, ils sont porteurs d'une conception de l'activité économique alternative à celle du capitalisme. Or la démondialisation est aussi une réaction aux excès du néo-libéralisme, la recherche d'autres équilibres entre le local et le global, et nul doute que l'économie circulaire, les monnaies locales et les SEL constituent des modèles qui contribuent à l'élaboration d'un nouvel ordre économique. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04661821 |
| By: | Kossi Messanh Agbekponou (SMART - Structures et Marché Agricoles, Ressources et Territoires - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Rennes Angers - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement); Ilaria Fusacchia (ROMA TRE - Università degli Studi Roma Tre = Roma Tre University) |
| Abstract: | Value creation forms the basis for the construction of global value chains (GVCs) and has received significant scholarly attention, yet the issue of value capture or power distribution along supply chains, "within" industries, is still unresolved. A recent property rights framework (Antr`as and Chor, 2013; Alfaro et al., 2019) highlights how final goods producers exert power over their suppliers to optimally organize their sequential production process. In such an environment, how can suppliers (exporters) act strategically to increase their bargaining power with respect to buyers (importers)? We contribute, theoretically and empirically, to a better understanding of the extent to which the division of surplus in the agri-food sector is affected by manufacturing exporters' position in GVCs. We argue that: (1) further upstream specialization along agri-food GVCs increases bargaining power (the "specialization effect"); (2) expansion along GVCs by importing more upstream inputs and exporting more processed goods also increase bargaining (the "expansion effect"); and (3) the "specialization effect" outweighs the "expansion effect" so that the overall effect is similar to the former. These theoretical hypotheses are tested using firm-level data on French agri-food industries (from French customs and the AMADEUS database) over 2002-2017 period. We build on the bilateral stochastic frontier model to measure the bilateral bargaining power of manufacturers. Following recent approaches in the literature, we identify manufacturers that participate in GVCs with those that jointly import and export, and measure their position in value chains through the level of transformation (upstreamness) of goods they use and produce. Hypotheses (1) and (3) are strongly supported and are mainly driven by product mix upgrade and the reduction of the hol-up problem, while hypothesis (2) is weakly supported and is only due to the high-quality production. |
| Keywords: | Bargaining power, Division of surplus, Global value chains, Upstreamness, Agri-food industry |
| Date: | 2024–03–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04666053 |