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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2025–12–01
fifteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Stephan Puehringer (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria; Socio-Ecological Transformation Lab, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria); Lukas Baeuerle (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria; Socio-Ecological Transformation Lab, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria) |
| Abstract: | The paper introduces the SETER framework, a conceptual tool for analyzing the interplay between Socio-Ecological Transformation (SET) and Economic Reasoning (ER). In the context of global crises and the contested nature of sustainability discourses, the framework identifies nine key categories – ranging from economic goals and the role of the state to transformative dynamics and agency – to systematically compare diverse SET narratives and their basic underlying economic assumptions. Drawing on insights from Social Studies of Economics (SSE) and Sustainability Transitions Research (STR), the framework highlights how ER shapes SET discourses and potential pathways, influencing both the diagnosis of socio-ecological crises and its proposed solutions. The paper applies the framework for two contrasting cases: the EU Green Deal, which exemplifies a market-driven “green growth” narrative, and Kohei Saito’s Degrowth Manifesto, which advocates for commons-based, sufficiency-oriented transformation. These cases illustrate the framework’s ability to map competing visions of SET, revealing the systemic dependencies between ER categories and their manifestations. The SETER framework also enables a typification of antagonistic narratives opposing SET, such as techno-libertarian or fossil-modernization discourses. While the framework provides a useful tool for categorizing and comparing SET narratives, its integration with power-focused analytical tools is necessary to assess the performative influence of these narratives. By offering a flexible, cross-sectoral, and longitudinal approach, the SETER framework provides a robust methodology for navigating the complexities of SET-related discourses, fostering critical reflection on economic imaginaries, and envisioning equitable and sustainable pathways for transformation. |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:171 |
| By: | Miguel D. Ramirez (Department of Economics, Trinity College) |
| Keywords: | comparative advantage, double factorial terms of trade, finance capital, organic composition of capital, prices of production, rate of profit, real wages, surplus value, labor values, monopoly, transfer of value, and unit labor costs. |
| JEL: | B14 B17 B51 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tri:wpaper:2504 |
| By: | López-Espejo, Iván |
| Abstract: | This article examines the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall in the Spanish economy between 1960 and 2024, considering the organic composition of capital and the rate of surplus value as central variables. Its aim is to determine whether this law, formulated by Marx in Capital (Vol. III), continues to operate in the contemporary context. The methodology consists of transforming orthodox macroeconomic categories derived from the Spanish National Accounts (CNE), available in BDMACRO, into Marxist variables: constant capital (c), variable capital (v), and surplus value (pv). Based on these, historical series of the organic composition of capital (q), the rate of surplus value (pv'), and the rate of profit (g') are constructed, adjusted to constant prices to ensure temporal coherence and comparability. The results show a sustained increase in q and a slight decrease in pv', generating a tendential decline in g' with cyclical fluctuations associated with specific crises. The conclusions empirically confirm the validity of the law in Spain, highlighting the historical limits of capitalism and providing quantitative evidence on the structural dynamics of profitability. |
| Keywords: | Tendency of the rate of profit; organic composition of capital; rate of surplus value; Spanish economy; economic cycles |
| JEL: | B51 C93 O11 O47 P16 |
| Date: | 2025–09–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127016 |
| By: | Lukas Baeuerle (Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria; Socio-Ecological Transformation Lab, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria); Michelle Meixieira Groenewald (School of Economic Sciences, North West University, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | The role of academic economics education in establishing and nurturing a monoculture of thought and action, emanating from this powerful discipline has been pivotal. However, as of today, there exists a vast array of pedagogical alternatives. These are contributing to an emerging pluriculture of future economics and future economies. The following chapter presents a framework to compare these pluralizing ambitions in (and of), economics education. Furthermore, we discuss in detail how recent trends in the debate are beginning to reflect economic education in the broader context of its socio-ecological pervasiveness. So too, we grapple with the process of reshaping it from an overtly imperialist tradition towards a decolonized and diversified domain, in terms of content, capabilities and didactics. Throughout the chapter we provide examples, databases and go-to manuals that have been established to foster pluralist economic education. This chapter does not diminish the challenges that exist in economics education but also seeks to point out instances where progress has been made, and offers avenues that exist for economic pluricultures to emerge. |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ico:wpaper:172 |
| By: | Mantey, Vida; Bosch, Christine; Missiame, Arnold; Birner, Regina; Birkenberg, Athena; Yameogo, Viviane Guesbeogo; Mburu, John |
| Abstract: | Dairy production is an important contributor to food security and poverty reduction, but it is also a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The development of smallholder agricultural carbon projects, such as the Mt. Elgon project, provides an opportunity for farmers to receive benefits for adopting sustainable practices that not only potentially increase farm productivity but also reduce GHG emissions. While there is growing evidence that agricultural cooperatives in conventional development projects improve the adoption of agricultural technologies and the economic performance of smallholder farms, there is a research gap on the role that dairy cooperatives can play in smallholder agricultural carbon projects. This study examines the role of dairy cooperatives in smallholder agricultural carbon projects and assesses the impact of cooperative membership on the technical efficiency of smallholder dairy carbon farmers in Western Kenya. The study used a mixed methods approach. A participatory and visual mapping tool, Net-Map, was used to identify key actors and their linkages. Stochastic frontier and endogenous switching regression models were used to estimate technical efficiency and assess the impact of cooperative membership on the technical efficiency of smallholder dairy carbon farmers, respectively. The results show that dairy cooperatives in carbon projects play an important role in project design and implementation, as well as in carbon monitoring and reporting. On average, smallholder farmers are 35.3 percent technically efficient, and cooperative members have lower technical efficiency than non-members. This finding can be attributed to the way these dairy cooperatives were set up and the fact that some farmers joined the cooperatives to participate in the project. Furthermore, an average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) and an average treatment effect on the untreated (ATU) of 0.311 and 0.251 respectively was observed. In general, the study concludes that without critical sources of heterogeneity, dairy cooperatives can support smallholder carbon farmers not only to improve their efficiency but also to promote sustainable dairy farming. |
| Keywords: | Livestock Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2024–08–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae24:344343 |
| By: | Cajas-Guijarro, John; Cajas-Guijarro, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a four-dimensional extension of the Goodwin model of endogenous cycles that integrates wage inequality and underemployment. The model distinguishes two classes of workers differentiated by productivity, wage levels, and bargaining strength, and endogenizes the underemployment rate through a simplified power-balance mechanism between capital and labor. We establish well-posedness of the system by proving existence–uniqueness of solutions, positivity, and forward invariance on a compact admissible set. The interior equilibrium is characterized in closed form and shown to generically undergo a double Hopf (Hopf–Hopf) bifurcation. Using center–manifold reduction and a third-order normal form, we derive the amplitude equations governing the interaction between two oscillatory modes (the Goodwin cycle and the underemployment cycle). The reduced dynamics predict the emergence of an invariant two-torus with quasi-periodic cycles and phase locking at low-order resonances ($1{:}1$, $1{:}2$, $1{:}3$). Numerical continuation and direct simulations corroborate the analytical predictions, documenting transitions between quasi-periodicity and resonant periodic orbits, and mapping the associated bifurcation structure in key parameters, such as the adjustment speed of the underemployment rate in response to deviations from steady-state equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Goodwin model; Wage inequality; Stability; Double Hopf bifurcation; Normal form; Resonance |
| JEL: | B51 C61 E32 O41 |
| Date: | 2025–11–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126746 |
| By: | Kamel, Dina |
| Abstract: | This article introduces the concept of undevelopable economies—contexts in which development is not merely delayed or distorted, but structurally foreclosed due to persistent, self-reinforcing institutional dysfunction. While existing classifications such as “fragile, ” “failing, ” or “least developed” states suggest the potential for eventual progress, the notion of undevelopability challenges this assumption. It signals a qualitative shift: some institutional systems may be fundamentally resistant to transformation within prevailing development paradigms. The term is used diagnostically rather than deterministically. It highlights structural entrenchment—not cultural incapacity or societal failure—and draws attention to contexts where institutions function primarily to sustain elite power, suppress reform, and replicate dysfunction over time. Grounded in institutional theory, path dependence, and critical development scholarship, the paper advances this conceptual framework through case studies of Somalia, Haiti, and Venezuela—each illustrating a distinct mode of institutional foreclosure. It concludes by reflecting on the implications for aid architecture, donor strategy, and development theory. Recognizing undevelopability does not imply fatalism. Rather, it invites a more grounded, differentiated approach to theorizing development—one that acknowledges the political and historical limits of institutional change in fractured contexts, and reconsiders what is possible, ethical, and realistic in such environments. |
| Date: | 2025–11–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:v4phb_v1 |
| By: | Hanappi, Hardy |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to use the experiences of three surprising election results in 1930, 1916 and 2024 to explain which lessons can be drawn for further development of humanity’s evolution. It turns out that deep changes in the organisation of self-governance will be needed to master the evolving crises of global capitalism, which, over the last years, has been morphing into authoritarian, global, absolute capitalism. |
| Keywords: | Democracy, Elections, Global Political Economy, Fascism |
| JEL: | B00 O1 O10 P16 P17 |
| Date: | 2025–11–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126743 |
| By: | Dorn, Franziska |
| Abstract: | A comprehensive understanding of economic deprivation requires examining income, the value of unpaid household services, and leisure. These concepts can be understood either through subjective utility or objective indicators such as measurable expenditures and time use, and much depends on how they are theorized. Divergent economic theories lead to different methods for estimating the market value of non-market work, which significantly impacts the definitions of household income and time poverty. Most empirical studies of time and income poverty identify deprivation by measuring shortfalls in unpaid household work once minimum thresholds for leisure and paid work are set. These approaches, however, primarily reflect household budget constraints rather than the combined bundle of time and income needed to sustain a standard of living above poverty. To advance poverty measurement, it is essential to examine time and income jointly and recognize their interdependence, as money can buy time, and time can save money. This paper examines the conceptual challenges involved in integrating time and income into a unified framework, including the evaluation of thresholds, the substitutability between time and income, and the valuation of unpaid work. Addressing these issues clarifies how integrated measures of time and income poverty can more accurately capture the resources required for the development of human capabilities. |
| Keywords: | poverty, time use, gender inequality, living standard, unpaid work, measurement |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifsowp:331893 |
| By: | Esteban Cruz-Hidalgo; Stuart Medina-Miltimore; Agustin Mario |
| Abstract: | This paper explores a development strategy for peripheral economies by advocating for a paradigm shift from traditional economic models that rely on accumulating foreign reserves. It proposes the job guarantee policy, an automatic stabilizer based on a reserve pool of employed individuals, as a cornerstone for fostering sustainable and inclusive growth. Grounded in Modern Money Theory (MMT), this study critiques the conventional approach that prioritizes external reserves and highlights the potential of MMT in offering a more autonomous development path for developing countries. A systematic review of the literature, using the PRISMA methodology, reveals significant disagreement between MMT advocates and critics, particularly regarding monetary sovereignty and the feasibility of implementing macroeconomic policies in peripheral economies. The study emphasizes that, while external constraints remain, the MMT perspective calls for flexible exchange rates (or, at least, discretionary intervention) and low interest rates as part of a broader strategy to reduce dependency on foreign currencies. The proposed approach prioritizes full employment, the mobilization of domestic resources, and structural transformation through policies like import substitution. It offers a more equitable and stable development path. Ultimately, this analysis underscores the potential of MMT-informed policies to enable sustainable development, despite challenges in implementation and political resistance. |
| Keywords: | Job Guarantee; full employment; sustainable development; flexible exchange rates; peripheral economies; Modern Money Theory; developmentalism; structuralism; Employer of Last Resort; macroeconomic policies |
| JEL: | B52 E52 E62 F63 O23 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_1101 |
| By: | Heibel, Jakob; Dominy, Jonas; Kapeller, Jakob |
| Abstract: | East Asia exhibits remarkable economic heterogeneity, yet debates on the region's development have centered predominantly on the most successful cases, such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, all examples of the so-called "developmental state" model, or China's economic upswing. Building on the notion that economic development follows qualitatively different trajectories that give rise to structurally distinct development models across countries, this paper employs a data-driven approach based on a multidimensional cluster analysis of 15 East Asian economies across 12 macroeconomic dimensions for the period 2000-2019 to develop a concise typology of development models in East Asia. In doing so, we find evidence for the presence of four different development models in East Asia: aside from the canonical developmental states (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan), we identify emerging economies (China, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines), financial hubs (Hong Kong, Singapore), and peripheral countries (Indonesia, Mongolia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia). Our results indicate that findings from past studies focusing on specific cases - such as the countries associated with developmental state model or the rise of China - can be embedded in a more general account that also considers the distinct characteristics and complementary characters of alternative development models present in the same region. |
| Keywords: | Development models, developmental state, cluster analysis, path dependence, East Asia |
| JEL: | B5 C38 F63 N15 O10 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifsowp:331892 |
| By: | Bichler, Shimshon; Nitzan, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | לואי-פרדינן סלין, בספרו 'מסע אל קצה הלילה', סיכם במשפט מחץ את מדינת הרווחה-מלחמה שהתפתחה מאז המהפכה הצרפתית כדי לייצר "חיילים בחינם" ואזרחים מאולפים: "אני מזהיר אתכם, כאשר שליטי העולם מתחילים לאהוב אתכם, סימן שהם מתכוונים להפוך אתכם לנקניקיות קרב..." וכך, כאשר מיליונר משועמם, ממעריצי איין ראנד ופרידריך האייק, מוקף להקת חנפים שוחרי טוב והמוני קבוצות מתנדבים (עם גב פילנטרופי של גוגל, אפל, מיקרוסופט, אמזון ודומיהם), דואגים יומם ולילה להפיץ בחינם השכלה ויקיפידית לילידים, סביר להניח שהם מתכוונים לדרוס את מעט המחשבה האוטונומית שנותרה בכם ולדחסה לתוך הקונצנזוס התאגידי-מדיני |
| Keywords: | capital as power, conditioning, culture, differential accumulation, Israel, knowledge, sabotage, Wikipedia |
| JEL: | P1 P16 D8 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:331919 |
| By: | Wenli Cheng (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a stock-flow consistent model to study the effects of three types of bank credit: credit for production, credit for consumption, and credit for asset speculation.The main findings are: (1) Credit for production (the “good”) enables capital formation and the adoption of more productive technologies; (2) Credit for consumption (the “bad”) diverts some real savings from capital formation to consumption, resulting in lower total output and less individual wealth; and (3) Credit for speculation (the “ugly”) funds real wealth transfers that are unrelated to wealth creation. It can result in higher prices in the goods market, which harms all consumers including those who do not participate in asset speculation. |
| Keywords: | stock-flow-consistent model, credit creation, production loans, consumption loans, loans for asset speculation |
| JEL: | E12 G21 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2025-20 |
| By: | Mufandaedza, Dhibhora |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an in-depth political economy of development analysis of Zimbabwe’s trade concentration between 2014 and 2020, a period corresponding to the post-Government of National Unity (GNU) era and the emergence of the so-called “New Dispensation.” Using a political economy lens, the study explores market, product, and industry concentration in trade flows, highlighting the structural weaknesses of Zimbabwe’s trade regime under the “New Dispensation.” Drawing on secondary data and descriptive analysis, the paper finds that Zimbabwe’s trade remained highly concentrated in a few products and markets, with persistent trade deficits and limited industrial diversification. The country’s trade partners are similarly concentrated, with South Africa, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and China absorbing most of Zimbabwe’s exports and supplying most imports. These trends reflect a continued dependence on primary commodity exports and a lack of structural transformation despite policy rhetoric about diversification and industrialization. The paper argues that the political economy of Zimbabwe’s post-GNU period which is characterized by elite capture, policy inconsistency, and re-engagement diplomacy has reproduced dependency and undermined developmental trade outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Dependency theory, export concentration, industrial policy, political economy, trade Structure, Zimbabwe |
| JEL: | P33 P48 |
| Date: | 2024–03–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126647 |
| By: | Jose Luis Oreiro |
| Abstract: | One of the main propositions of the new-developmentalist school is the idea the over-valued exchange rates – due to Dutch disease and the adoption of a growth model with foreign savings – hampers economic growth by reducing the manufacturing share in output, i.e., causing a process of deindustrialization and also provoking an unsustainable increase in the current account led by an increase in the manufacturing trade deficit that is not compensated by the increase in exports of primary goods due to their low income elasticity of demand (Bresser-Pereira, Oreiro and Marconi, 2015). The problem with this proposition is its incompatibility with the so-called Kaldor´s paradox, the empirical regularity discovered by Kaldor (1978) and confirmed by the subsequent empirical literature (Boggio and Barbiere, 2016) that a country manufacturing share in world´s manufacturing exports exhibits a negative correlation with the relative unit labour costs, which means that exchange rate devaluations that are able to reduce the relative real wages are associated with a decrease, rather than an increase, of a country manufacturing share in world´s manufacturing exports. The main objective of this article is to show that using the concept of industrial equilibrium exchange rate of Oreiro, Martins da Silva and Dávila-Fernandez (2020) article in a macro-Schumpeterian model developed by Fagerberg (2007) the Kaldor´s paradox can be explained as the result of an appreciation of industrial equilibrium exchange rate due to a reduction in the level of technological gap. In such a framework an overvaluation of exchange rate – relative to industrial equilibrium - continues to be harmful for economic growth, but appreciation of the industrial equilibrium exchange rate does not have such an effect. |
| Keywords: | Real Exchange Rate, Technological Gap, New-Developmentalism, Nicholas Kaldor |
| JEL: | O11 O14 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp2524 |