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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2025–08–11
thirteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | De Beer, Pieter |
| Abstract: | The global system we inhabit is often described in terms of markets, capital, and labor, but beneath these abstractions lies the deeper question of how coordination produces power and how power organizes coordination. Among the most influential traditions attempting to answer this question are Marxism and Capital as Power (CasP), two frameworks that, while sharing certain roots, diverge sharply in their interpretation of what capital is and how it operates. This divergence has led to ongoing tension. Marxists often argue that CasP misrepresents or abandons the core of Marx’s critique, while CasP theorists argue that Marxism remains tethered to outdated economic metaphysics. Both claim to reveal capitalism’s inner workings. But must we choose between them? *** This essay argues that we do not. Through the lens of Coordination: the Fabric of Power (CfP), a broader theoretical framework that views coordination itself as the primary material of power, we can move beyond this impasse. Rather than asking whether capital is labor-time or capitalization, CfP reframes the question: How is coordination patterned, withheld, or manipulated in ways that produce asymmetries of power? In doing so, it offers a synthesis that integrates the structural insights of Marxism with the empirical clarity of CasP, not by erasing their differences, but by metabolizing their strongest claims. |
| Keywords: | coordination, capital as power, capitalization, differential accumulation, domination, fabric of power, labour, Marxism, mode of power, production, sabotage, surplus value |
| JEL: | P16 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:323254 |
| By: | Ezzedine Ghlamallah (CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon); Ahmed Danyal Arif |
| Abstract: | This article explores the universal condemnation of interest and delves into the metaphysical aspects of monetary systems. It critically examines the historical and philosophical viewpoints against interest from various cultures and religions, including ancient Greek and Roman societies, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The paper highlights the ethical, economic, and metaphysical reasons behind the condemnation of interest, associating it with injustices like exploitation and social inequality. Additionally, it discusses the concept of free money advocated by Silvio Gesell and its similarities to the Islamic practice of zakāt, emphasizing the negative economic impacts of hoarding wealth and advocating for a monetary system that discourages such practices. The metaphysical analysis draws on Aristotelian principles, suggesting that just like physical entities, monetary systems should adhere to natural laws of entropy and equilibrium, thus challenging the current financial practices that encourage perpetual growth and destabilize economic systems. The paper concludes by proposing a redefinition of money that aligns with these metaphysical principles, advocating for the abolition of interest to achieve a more equitable and stable economic system. |
| Keywords: | Islamic economics, monetary metaphysics, debt, currency, ribā, zakāt |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05160176 |
| By: | Louis Cousin (LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - Université Paris-Saclay - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], ULaval - Université Laval [Québec]); Luc K. Audebrand (ULaval - Université Laval [Québec]); Marta Bruschi; Anastasia Costantini |
| Abstract: | The responsibility of leading cooperatives' digital transitions generally falls to managers, who often feel overwhelmed by the expertise required. This chapter aims to re-evaluate this onus on managerial leadership by critiquing the prevalent individualistic leadership perspective rooted in contingency theory. We advocate for a shift towards a collectivistic perspective of leadership that is better aligned with cooperative values of collective action and democratic control, while also recognizing assets in frameworks of inter-cooperation. We focus on cooperative associations, which play a crucial role in stimulating the pooling and sharing of knowledge and resources. A collectivistic perspective provides a useful lens to uncover the leadership practices that emerge out of frameworks of inter-organizational collaboration and can be particularly relevant to study and support a diversification of digital change strategies for the cooperative movement. |
| Keywords: | Cooperatives, Meta-organization, Leadership, Digital innovation |
| Date: | 2024–12–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05110391 |
| By: | Jeremy Aroles (School for Business and Society, University of York, University of York [York, UK]); Aurélie Leclercq-Vandelannoitte (LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); John Hasard (Alliance MBS - Alliance Manchester Business School - University of Manchester [Manchester]); William M Foster (University of Alberta); Edward Granter (Birmingham Business School - University of Birmingham [Birmingham]) |
| Abstract: | This article outlines how notions of novelty define today's work practices and debates whatthe discursive construction of work as 'new' means. On the one hand, we highlight a misplaced emphasis on change and novelty that can lead to unnecessary dichotomization in the characterisation and discursive construction of work practices and organizational phenomena.On the other, we specify substantive continuities in a range of strategic, organizational and employment arrangements. As such, we contend that a critical evaluation of key characteristics of contemporary work reveals that they are often not unique. Instead, these characteristics reflect the extending, rebranding or reshaping of measures and processes fashioned in earlier forms of value production. Ultimately, we theorise how the promotion of the 'new' world of work reflects structures and practices somehow altered in appearance, yet still analogous in substance, to those found in the traditional employment and production fabric of organizations. |
| Keywords: | Discourse Epochal Future of work Novelty Work practices, Discourse, Epochal, Future of work, Novelty, Work practices |
| Date: | 2024–12–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04845366 |
| By: | Moure, Christopher; Gorsky, Shai |
| Abstract: | This paper tries to answer the question: in what ways does the logic of capital accumulation shape the organization of hospital care in the US - a sector characterized by a preponderance of both public and private "not-for-profit" institutions? Rather than taking different hospital ownership types as our analytical starting point, to answer this question, we approach the dynamics of the sector as a struggle between "capitalized care" and organized resistance to it. Taking inspiration from the capital as power political economic approach, we define "capitalized care" as a system of health care in which care is subordinated to the ongoing accumulation of power and profit. We map our investigation of organized power onto four empirical dimensions, focusing on the years 2011-2021: organized resistance to capitalized care; distribution of hospitals by ownership type; relative size and concentration of hospital systems; and relative inflation of price markups. We find that these dimensions are closely connected, suggesting that the hospital sector at large is deeply caught up in the logic of capital accumulation. While marginal, organized resistance to capitalized care continues to shape the other dimensions of the hospital landscape - namely, the balance of power between for-profit (FP) and not-for-profit (NFP) hospital systems, the profitability and concentration of large hospital systems, price inflation and medical debt. Not just FP hospitals, but also public and NFP hospitals have become tightly integrated into an overall logic of capitalist accumulation within the sector, leading to increasing consolidation, price inflation, health care inequality, and paradoxically, a large and growing public cost of healthcare. |
| Keywords: | capital as power, concentration, health, hospitals, inequality, inflation, markup profit, United States |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:capwps:323238 |
| By: | Jose Luis Oreiro; Kleydson J. G. Feio; Bruno Matelli; Isadora E. S. Quaresma |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the evolution of Dani Rodrik’s thinking on economic development and industrialization between 2004 and 2024, a period during which his vision shifted from an industrialization-centred perspective to a more nuanced and multidimensional approach. The study examines how his understanding of the role of manufacturing and services in economic development was transformed due to contemporary challenges, including premature deindustrialization, technological change, and environmental imperatives. Through a systematic analysis of his major works, the paper identifies three distinct phases in his thinking: early (2004-2013), focused on industrial and exchange rate policies; middle (2015-2016), marked by the recognition of premature deindustrialization; and recent (2019-2024), characterized by an emphasis on the services sector and adaptive policies. The first two phases of Rodrik´s thinking had as common trace a growing convergence with many of the ideas developed by New-Developmentalist authors. In the last phase, however, Rodrik’s intellectual evolution reflects a return to more neoclassical tenets as compared to the more new-developmentalist approach of his early thinking due to a growing pessimism about industrialization as the main driver for economic development. |
| Keywords: | Exchange rate, Industrialization, Economic Development, Dani Rodrik |
| JEL: | O11 O14 O24 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp2517 |
| By: | Seyedalireza Seyedi; Elettra Agliardi (University of Bologna); Anastasios Xepapadeas |
| Abstract: | This study develops a finite-horizon optimal control model linking forest biomass, biodiversity, cumulative extraction, and stochastic disturbance shocks to assess three governance regimes: non-cooperative management with free terminal states (OLNE-Free) and two cooperative approaches - one with fixed ecological targets (Regulator-Fixed) and another with flexible endpoints (Regulator-Free). Non-cooperative harvesters prioritize short-term extraction, overlooking biodiversity's contribution to productivity and allowing extraction to accumulate. In contrast, cooperative regimes internalize ecological values and dynamically adjust harvest effort, resulting in improved ecological and economic outcomes. Cooperative management moderates harvesting intensity, enhances biodiversity, and increases overall welfare compared to non-cooperative approaches. Implementing mechanisms - such as fees, taxes, or regulations - that align private incentives with social values helps decentralize cooperation and buffers outcomes against parameter variability. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that cooperative regimes consistently influence ecological changes and tend to promote more stable long-term dynamics. These findings highlight the critical role of biodiversity valuation and flexible cooperation in advancing sustainable forest management amid ecological and economic indeterminacies. |
| Keywords: | Forest dynamics, Biodiversity, Finite-horizon cooperative governance |
| Date: | 2025–07–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aue:wpaper:2549 |
| By: | Oosterhaven, Jan (University of Groningen) |
| Abstract: | The four basic input-output (IO) models are almost always discussed and used inisolation. However, their solutions can be paired in two equations that show that the mathematics of IO is simple, which is a danger. Two opposing pairs of models that combine the same behavioural assumptions show that the economics of IO is quite complex. Ignoring that easily leads to faulty applications. |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gro:rugfeb:2025005-eef |
| By: | Daniel Diakité (CREATE - ULaval - Université Laval [Québec]); Lota Tamini (CREATE - ULaval - Université Laval [Québec]); Simon Cornée (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Sébastien Caillault (Institut Agro Rennes Angers - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement, ESO - Espaces et Sociétés - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UM - Le Mans Université - UA - Université d'Angers - UR2 - Université de Rennes 2 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Nantes Univ - IGARUN - Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement Régional de l'Université de Nantes - Nantes Université - pôle Humanités - Nantes Univ - Nantes Université - Institut Agro Rennes Angers - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement); Damien Rousselière (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, Institut Agro Rennes Angers - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement) |
| Abstract: | Although cooperatives are major actors in the transformation of agricultural systems, very little attention has been paid to the conditions that facilitate or hinder their involvement in the sustainable transition. Drawing on theoretical and empirical approaches, we analyze the effect of social capital on the propensity and proportion of investment in environmental assets in the case of agricultural machinery cooperatives (CUMAs) in France. The number of producers within their CUMA is used as a proxy of the bonding social capital and the CUMA's relationships with external organizations as a proxy of the bridging social capital. Our results show a nonmonotonic relationship between the proxies of social capital and investment in environmental assets by CUMAs. However, the effect differs depending on the subdimension of social capital considered. Interestingly, our results show that the effect of social capital within CUMAs remains even when the cooperatives carry out investment renewals that involve less risk for members. |
| Keywords: | Environmental assets, Fractional model, Social capital |
| Date: | 2025–01–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04881204 |
| By: | Yoshiyuki ARATA; Hiroshi YOSHIKAWA; Shingo OKAMOTO |
| Abstract: | The fact that the distributions of firm sales and individual incomes have a Pareto tail is one of the important statistical regularities, and numerous theoretical models have been proposed to explain it. However, recent studies have pointed out a difficulty with these existing models: they predict that the time required for firms to become giants or individuals to be super-rich is excessively long compared to what is observed in empirical data. Furthermore, our empirical data show that Zipf's law holds within the size distributions of younger firms and younger individuals, contradicting existing models that predict that Zipf's law is primarily driven by older firms and older individuals. This paper provides an alternative explanation for Zipf's law to address the inconsistencies observed in empirical data. We focus on the heavy-tailed nature of the distribution of growth rates for firm sales and individual incomes, showing that their growth dynamics are characterized by rapid growth over short periods. We show that the emergence of giant firms and the super-rich results from this rapid growth, leading to the formation of Zipf's law. Zipf's law reflects the shared growth dynamics underlying firm sales and individual incomes. |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:25070 |
| By: | Hanappi, Hardy |
| Abstract: | This is an ugly paper. It does not cover a well-defined problem area and it ignores all conventional rules usually prescribed to make a text an easy reading. The only excuse for this is that its topic - Europe - is in an ugly situation too. In most papers the goal to be reached is kept at a modest level, if it is mentioned at all. The goal of this paper is rather all-embracing: It starts by distinguishing the two old enemies: the racist vision of society and the humanist vision of society. So, before bringing Europe into focus the paper unveils its ground colour - humanism. To determine this starting point the text already has to stretch out into many transdisciplinary directions. Then Europe’s immediate past - which events brought it into its current situation? - is interpreted. The interpretation does not pretend that it can disentangle facts from speculative issues - no interpretation can, another ugly fact. But it tries hard to make sense. The following largest part of the paper works with metaphors to bring home an idea of the dangers Europeans are currently confronted with: Skylla and Charybdis. A wide variety of themes are touched upon. In the last chapter the unavoidable feeling that the free-wheeling arguments and metaphors left too many open ends is to be heeled by an explicit return to pragmatics: What should we do? And this - finally - is the necessary root of the ugliness of this paper: It was written years before the dust of theoretical and pragmatic battles was set to let a better hindsight get ground. |
| Keywords: | Europe, geo-pollitics, political economy, future dynamics |
| JEL: | B50 F50 |
| Date: | 2025–06–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:124950 |
| By: | Bigoni, M.; Camera, G.; Gallo, E. |
| Abstract: | Globalization offers unparalleled opportunities to expand welfare through cooperation across large networks of unrelated individuals. Social exclusion – permanent or temporary – and monetary exchange are institutions that in theory can incentivize cooperation. In an experiment, we evaluate their relative performance and interaction in anonymous networks of different sizes. Permanent social exclusion (ostracism) reduces long-run economic potential by leading to sparse networks. Monetary exchange and temporary social exclusion perform similarly well in small networks. In large networks, however, monetary exchange is the only institution that promotes full cooperation by crowding out ostracism and keeping the network complete. An insight is that monetary systems outperform social exclusion mechanisms in promoting cooperation in globalized social and economic networks. |
| Keywords: | Cooperation, Experiment, Money, Network, Social Exclusion |
| JEL: | C92 E40 D85 C73 |
| Date: | 2025–07–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2550 |
| By: | Ezzedine Ghlamallah (CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon); Ahmed Danyal Arif |
| Abstract: | Cet article explore la condamnation universelle de l'intérêt et se penche sur les aspects métaphysiques des systèmes monétaires. Il examine de manière critique les points de vue historiques et philosophiques contre l'intérêt dans différentes cultures et religions, y compris les sociétés grecques et romaines antiques, le judaïsme, le christianisme et l'islam. Cette recherche met en évidence les raisons éthiques, économiques et métaphysiques qui sous-tendent la condamnation de l'intérêt, en l'associant à des injustices telles que l'exploitation et l'inégalité sociale. En outre, l'article examine le concept de « monnaie fondante » défendu par Silvio Gesell et ses similitudes avec la pratique islamique de la zakāt, soulignant les impacts économiques négatifs de la thésaurisation et plaidant pour un système monétaire qui la décourage. L'analyse métaphysique s'appuie sur les principes aristotéliciens, suggérant que tout comme les entités physiques, les systèmes monétaires devraient adhérer aux lois naturelles de l'entropie et de l'équilibre, remettant ainsi en question les pratiques financières actuelles qui encouragent la croissance perpétuelle et déstabilisent les systèmes économiques. L'article conclut en proposant une redéfinition de la monnaie qui s'aligne sur ces principes métaphysiques, plaidant pour l'abolition de l'intérêt afin de parvenir à un système économique plus équitable et plus stable. |
| Keywords: | économie islamique, métaphysique monétaire, dette, monnaie, ribā, zakāt |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05160174 |