nep-hme New Economics Papers
on Heterodox Microeconomics
Issue of 2025–06–30
fourteen papers chosen by
Carlo D’Ippoliti, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”


  1. Learning Individual Behavior in Agent-Based Models with Graph Diffusion Networks By Francesco Cozzi; Marco Pangallo; Alan Perotti; Andr\'e Panisson; Corrado Monti
  2. Rethinking Competition as a Non-Beneficial Mechanism in Economic Systems By Marcelo S. Tedesco; Gonzalo Marquez
  3. An Agent-Based Extension to Sector-Wise Input-Output Recovery Models By Jan Hurt; Stefan Thurner; Peter Klimek
  4. Nature-positive agriculture for people and the planet: A qualitative analysis from Kenya By Kinuthia, Dickson; Oingo, Balentine; Bryan, Elizabeth; Davis, Kristin E.; Wallin, Elsa; Bukachi, Salome A.
  5. Positive endogenous ethics: Smith's unique contribution to moral analysis By Witztum, Amos
  6. Who provides childcare?: analysing the distribution of care work in Mexico By Alloatti, Magali N.; Matos de Oliveira, Ana Luiza
  7. Understanding the organizational approaches of funders and project implementers to strengthen women’s empowerment through agricultural collectives By Rubin, Deborah
  8. Untrustworthy authorities and complicit bankers: Unraveling monetary distrust in Argentina By Moreno, Guadalupe
  9. The Impact of Node Addition and Deletion on Network Production Fluctuations By Mahdi Kohan Sefidi
  10. Varieties of Chinese capital in African agriculture: a bounded improvisation analysis By Yang, Yuezhou
  11. Towards studying the developmental consequences of regional industrial path development By Moritz Breul; Miguel Atienza; Markus Grillitsch; Rhiannon Pugh
  12. Classifying and Clustering Trading Agents By Mateusz Wilinski; Anubha Goel; Alexandros Iosifidis; Juho Kanniainen
  13. Hierarchies of expertise and the early days of research at the World Bank By Laskaridis, Christina
  14. The Potlach as Memory: Ceremony and Gift-Giving along the Pacific Northwest By Till Gross; Casey Pender

  1. By: Francesco Cozzi; Marco Pangallo; Alan Perotti; Andr\'e Panisson; Corrado Monti
    Abstract: Agent-Based Models (ABMs) are powerful tools for studying emergent properties in complex systems. In ABMs, agent behaviors are governed by local interactions and stochastic rules. However, these rules are, in general, non-differentiable, limiting the use of gradient-based methods for optimization, and thus integration with real-world data. We propose a novel framework to learn a differentiable surrogate of any ABM by observing its generated data. Our method combines diffusion models to capture behavioral stochasticity and graph neural networks to model agent interactions. Distinct from prior surrogate approaches, our method introduces a fundamental shift: rather than approximating system-level outputs, it models individual agent behavior directly, preserving the decentralized, bottom-up dynamics that define ABMs. We validate our approach on two ABMs (Schelling's segregation model and a Predator-Prey ecosystem) showing that it replicates individual-level patterns and accurately forecasts emergent dynamics beyond training. Our results demonstrate the potential of combining diffusion models and graph learning for data-driven ABM simulation.
    Date: 2025–05
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2505.21426
  2. By: Marcelo S. Tedesco; Gonzalo Marquez
    Abstract: Persistent economic competition is often justified as a mechanism of innovation, efficiency, and welfare maximization. Yet empirical evidence across disciplines reveals that competition systematically generates fragility, inequality, and ecological degradation, emergent outcomes not of isolated failures but of underlying systemic dynamics. This work reconceptualizes economic ecosystems as real complex adaptive systems, structurally isomorphic with biological and social ecosystems. Integrating complexity science, evolutionary biology, ecology, and economic and business theory, we classify economic interactions according to their systemic effects and propose a theoretical model of ecosystemic equilibrium based on the predominance of beneficial versus non-beneficial relationships. Recognizing economies as ecologically embedded and structurally interdependent systems provides a novel framework for analyzing systemic resilience, reframing competition as a non-beneficial mechanism.
    Date: 2025–06
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2506.11405
  3. By: Jan Hurt; Stefan Thurner; Peter Klimek
    Abstract: Dynamic input-output models are standard tools for understanding inter-industry dependencies and how economies respond to shocks like disasters and pandemics. However, traditional approaches often assume fixed prices, limiting their ability to capture realistic economic behavior. Here, we introduce an adaptive extension to dynamic input-output recovery models where producers respond to shocks through simultaneous price and quantity adjustments. Our framework preserves the economic constraints of the Leontief input-output model while converging towards equilibrium configurations based on sector-specific behavioral parameters. When applied to input-output data, the model allows us to compute behavioral metrics indicating whether specific sectors predominantly favor price or quantity adjustments. Using the World Input-Output Database, we identify strong, consistent regional and sector-specific behavioral patterns. These findings provide insights into how different regions employ distinct strategies to manage shocks, thereby influencing economic resilience and recovery dynamics.
    Date: 2025–05
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2505.10146
  4. By: Kinuthia, Dickson; Oingo, Balentine; Bryan, Elizabeth; Davis, Kristin E.; Wallin, Elsa; Bukachi, Salome A.
    Abstract: Agricultural intensification that prioritizes profits over people and the environment is increasingly recognized as harmful to people’s wellbeing and the sustainability and resilience of smallholder farming systems. Nature-based solutions are part of nature-positive eco-agrifood systems and are critical for restoring ecosystems and preventing further biodiversity loss and environmental degradation during a climate crisis. To support more widespread adoption of nature-based solutions, it is important to understand dynamics within local communities where these solutions will be applied. This includes deeper understanding of environmental challenges, institutional and governance arrangements, current farming practices, gender relations, and perceptions of nature-based solutions. This study draws on qualitative data on these topics collected from smallholder farmers and key informants in three counties of Kenya. The discussion centers on the potential for nature-based practices to place agricultural production systems on a more sustainable path.
    Keywords: agricultural production; gender; natural resources; nature-based solutions; smallholders; sustainability; Kenya; Africa; Eastern Africa
    Date: 2024–12–31
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:gsspwp:169362
  5. By: Witztum, Amos
    Abstract: There are two elements which make Smith’s ethics unique as well as more universal in nature. The first is that it is a positive theory of ethics in the sense that it is not about what is intrinsically good or just as it is about the way in which people form their opinion about it. The second is that it is embedded in social context in the sense that what lies behind the way in which people form their moral opinion is socially dependent as well as related to the way in which people behave. From an exegetic point of view, this also helps in explaining the dissonance that may exist between Smith’s own views about morals and what he observes as the contemporary prevailing view. Applying this to his economic analysis will yield surprising conclusions which may explain why the Wealth of Nations cannot be seen as a moral advocacy of natural liberty.
    Keywords: ethics; material inequality; social distance; sympathy; utility
    JEL: A12 A13 A31 B12 B31
    Date: 2023–12–31
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:128564
  6. By: Alloatti, Magali N.; Matos de Oliveira, Ana Luiza
    Abstract: Using the care diamond framework proposed by Shahra Razavi, we analyse paid and unpaid care (especially childcare) in Mexico on the basis of four provider categories: family or household, the State, the market and the non-profit sector. Our work combines two main types of data: descriptive statistics and published studies based on empirical research and in-depth policy analysis. We offer a comprehensive description of childcare distribution in Mexico, outlining the four provider categories and institutional and private arrangements that support social reproduction. We highlight the weak public provision of childcare, which worsens inequality among women and families of different socioeconomic strata and increases low-income women’s dependence on unpaid childcare in order to work or reliance on the market to expand childcare through private services outside and inside the household. Our work shows the suitability and potential of the care diamond for analysis of societies with weak welfare systems.
    Date: 2025–05–27
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col033:81586
  7. By: Rubin, Deborah
    Abstract: This paper reports on approaches for strengthening women’s empowerment that were implemented by project partners involved in the International Food Policy Research (IFPRI)-led Applying New Evidence for Women’s Empowerment (ANEW) project funded by the Walmart Foundation. The study explores the partner organizations’ websites and publications, project materials, and selected staff interviews to better understand how each envisions women’s empowerment and the pathways for supporting it. The four implementing project partners are Grameen Foundation, Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) in India, Root Capital in Mexico, and TechnoServe in Guatemala. Their programs and their organizational approaches vary in whether they primarily focus on women rather than more broadly targeting both women and men and their gender relationships. Some organizations are more “organic” in integrating attention to gender and empowerment into their programs, designing and implementing an approach on a case by case basis. Others are more intentional in establishing organization-wide policies, strategies, and monitoring systems. The organizations also differ in their positions on supporting “economic empowerment” and clear economic benefits such as prioritizing increased income or assets in contrast to those that also seek to actively change social norms and achieve other social dimensions of empowerment that encompass behaviors around decision-making, mobility, and self-confidence. Another variation is in the organizations’ attention to enterprise development and, consequently to entrepreneurship and upgrading, and what aspects of women's empowerment are most critical for achieving those goals. This paper offers implementers and their funders insight into organizational differences in approaches to women’s empowerment. The review demonstrates that both funders and implementers continue to focus on strengthening women’s economic empowerment by increasing women’s incomes and assets, often with good results. However, they often lack clear theories of change or explicit strategies to strengthen other dimensions of women’s empowerment. More nuanced, evidence-based theories of change and targeted actions could strengthen program design to expand and support women’s achievement of empowerment across all its dimensions.
    Keywords: agriculture; gender; policies; women; women’s empowerment
    Date: 2024–10–04
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:gsspwp:155195
  8. By: Moreno, Guadalupe
    Abstract: Money, capitalist market societies' paramount contract, relies on the belief in its enduring value. However, we still know surprisingly little about the social foundations that sustain that belief. How is our collective trust in the enduring value of money socially built, and what happens if people lose such trust? What if a society convinces itself that policymakers cannot guarantee that the value of money will persist over time? In this paper, I use Argentina as a monetary laboratory to study how almost eighty uninterrupted years of high inflation and successive currency crises led to a social trauma that crystalized in the emergence of a distrust narrative: a strong popular belief that neither the state nor the local financial system will be able to preserve the value of the national currency or the worth of savings over time. By analyzing the production and reproduction of this narrative and its longlasting effects on the Argentine economy, I show how rooted distrust in a currency fosters a myriad of practices aimed at protecting savings, which impose severe limits on monetary governance. I emphasize that when state authorities lose control of collective expectations and negative monetary imaginaries take off, a vicious cycle unfolds in which instability, inflation, and devaluation reinforce each other.
    Abstract: Geld als Fundament kapitalistischer Marktwirtschaften beruht auf dem Glauben an seinen dauerhaften Wert. Allerdings wissen wir immer noch erstaunlich wenig über die sozialen Grundlagen, die diesen Glauben stützen. Wie baut sich unser kollektives Vertrauen in den dauerhaften Wert des Geldes auf, und was passiert, wenn Menschen dieses Vertrauen verlieren? Was geschieht, wenn eine Gesellschaft zu dem Schluss kommt, dass die Politik nicht in der Lage ist, den bleibenden Wert des Geldes über die Zeit hinweg zu sichern? In diesem Discussion Paper nutze ich Argentinien als "monetäres Labor", um zu untersuchen, wie fast achtzig Jahre ununterbrochener hoher Inflation und aufeinanderfolgender Währungskrisen zu einem sozialen Trauma geführt haben. So bildete sich Misstrauensnarrativ heraus, eine starke Überzeugung in der Bevölkerung, dass weder der Staat noch das lokale Finanzsystem in der Lage sein werden, den Wert der nationalen Währung oder der Ersparnisse über die Zeit hinweg zu bewahren. Durch eine Analyse der Produktion und Reproduktion dieses Narrativs und seiner lang anhaltenden Auswirkungen auf die argentinische Wirtschaft zeige ich, wie tief verwurzeltes Misstrauen in eine Währung eine Vielzahl von Praktiken fördert, die auf den Schutz von Ersparnissen abzielen und die Geldpolitik stark einschränken. Wenn die Behörden die Kontrolle über die kollektiven Erwartungen verlieren und sich negative monetäre Vorstellungen in der Gesellschaft ausbreiten, entfaltet sich ein Teufelskreis, in dem sich Instabilität, Inflation und Abwertung gegenseitig verstärken.
    Keywords: central bank, civil society, financial crisis, governance, money, trust, Finanzkrise, Geld, Regierungsführung, Vertrauen, Zentralbank, Zivilgesellschaft
    Date: 2025
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:319606
  9. By: Mahdi Kohan Sefidi
    Abstract: Production networks, dynamic systems of firms linked through input-output relationships, transmit microeconomic shocks into macroeconomic fluctuations. While prior studies often assume static networks, real-world economies feature continuous firm entry (node addition) and exit (node deletion). We develop a probabilistic model to analyze how these dynamics affect production volatility and network resilience. Integrating Leontief input-output frameworks with controllability theory. By quantifying fluctuations as expected values under probabilistic node dynamics, we identify trade-offs between adaptability and stability. Methodologically, we unify Kalman rank criteria and minimum input theory, offering policymakers insights to balance innovation-driven entry with safeguards against destabilizing exits.
    Date: 2025–05
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2505.10154
  10. By: Yang, Yuezhou
    Abstract: Debates on Chinese state capitalism and agribusiness expansion have focused on issues of China’s overseas agricultural land investments. While China-focused analyses have deepened our understanding of the complex dynamics between Chinese state-business relations and the diverse regimes of capital export, they often overlook the institutional complexities of host countries. This study addresses that gap by investigating the interplay between the agency of different types of Chinese investors and the land tenure institutions in Tanzania and Zambia. I conceptualize three distinct types of Chinese investors – cooperative competitors, flying geese, and footloose opportunists—each characterized by unique drivers and objectives for internationalization. I further theorize how these investors navigate, adapt to, and improvise within the constraints of host-state land tenure systems. Drawing on 28 comparative cases collected through multiple field trips, the analysis highlights both the differences among Chinese firms operating in the same institutional setting and the varying strategies employed by similar firms across different regulatory environments. The typology developed in this study not only sheds light on the diverse and adaptive strategies of Chinese overseas investors but also provides broader insights into how firms engage with institutional constraints across sectors and beyond Africa.
    Keywords: variety of capital; China; Africa; property institutions; agricultural investments; Belt and Road Initiative
    JEL: J1
    Date: 2025–06–03
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:128300
  11. By: Moritz Breul; Miguel Atienza; Markus Grillitsch; Rhiannon Pugh
    Abstract: A major reason for the great interest in regional industrial path development (RIPD) is the associated hopes for positive regional development outcomes. However, up to now we know surprisingly little about the often mixed economic, social, and ecological effects of RIPD for regions. Existing studies on RIPD tend not to link to these outcomes. This special issue aims to improve our understanding of the conditions under which RIPD contributes to determining what kind of regional development and for whom. The introductory paper provides impulses how future research can link RIPD-dynamics to its broader developmental outcomes and poses urgent open questions.
    Keywords: regional industrial path development; path creation; sustainable development; regional development; Evolutionary Economic Geography
    Date: 2025–06
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2518
  12. By: Mateusz Wilinski; Anubha Goel; Alexandros Iosifidis; Juho Kanniainen
    Abstract: The rapid development of sophisticated machine learning methods, together with the increased availability of financial data, has the potential to transform financial research, but also poses a challenge in terms of validation and interpretation. A good case study is the task of classifying financial investors based on their behavioral patterns. Not only do we have access to both classification and clustering tools for high-dimensional data, but also data identifying individual investors is finally available. The problem, however, is that we do not have access to ground truth when working with real-world data. This, together with often limited interpretability of modern machine learning methods, makes it difficult to fully utilize the available research potential. In order to deal with this challenge we propose to use a realistic agent-based model as a way to generate synthetic data. This way one has access to ground truth, large replicable data, and limitless research scenarios. Using this approach we show how, even when classifying trading agents in a supervised manner is relatively easy, a more realistic task of unsupervised clustering may give incorrect or even misleading results. We complete the results with investigating the details of how supervised techniques were able to successfully distinguish between different trading behaviors.
    Date: 2025–05
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2505.21662
  13. By: Laskaridis, Christina
    Abstract: While there has been no shortage of recent work that has tried to understand the power of economists and prevalence of economic mode of thinking, far less has been said about the instances where economists were unable to exert influence. While power struggles between economists have most often been the subject of investigation within the academe, the struggle for influence for different types of economic expertise within policy institutions is understudied. This paper examines the different understandings of debt repayment prospects that developed in the World Bank during its first twenty years of operation. The organisation’s internal structure reflected conflicts between different departments that left economists in the research department in the weaker position. Economists’ epistemic authority is intimately related to the organisation of expertise and the alignment to management’s objectives, as well as formality of economists’ tools.
    Keywords: World Bank; economic expertise; sovereign debt; role of economics; role of economists
    JEL: F3 G3 J1
    Date: 2025–04–14
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:127951
  14. By: Till Gross (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Casey Pender (Department of Economics, Mount Allison University)
    Abstract: During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, government and church officials actively sought to suppress Indigenous potlatch ceremonies along the Pacific Northwest, dismissing them as wasteful, uneconomic, and irrational. We present a counternarrative by developing a decentralized exchange model inspired by the monetary search literature. In our framework, agents decide whether to invest in social memory through ceremony—song, dance, and storytelling that serve as informal recordkeeping. By helping to sustain gift-giving networks, social memory can facilitate the distribution of goods even in single-coincidence meetings, thus increasing the extent of the market and making specialization more attractive. Our findings, therefore, challenge historical Western perceptions by demonstrating that potlatch ceremonies can increase wealth and social welfare. Additionally, our model highlights how geographic and cultural proximity shape participation in gift-giving networks, with barter becoming more prevalent among distant communities. We support our theoretical results with qualitative evidence and analytic narrative.
    Keywords: Decentralized Exchange, Gift-Giving, Indigenous Institutions, Social Memory
    JEL: E42 D83 J15 N12 P40 Z13
    Date: 2025–06–18
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:25-03

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