|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
|
Issue of 2026–08–17
thirteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Kemp-Benedict, Eric |
| Abstract: | Ecological macroeconomics has been expanding as a sub-field within ecological economics in the last decade. Applying almost exclusively non-neoclassical, or 'heterodox', macroeconomic theory, ecological macroeconomic models incorporate biophysical stocks and flows. Yet, they are not well-suited to exploring the more transformative agendas proposed within ecological economics writ large. The challenges of doing so are prodigious, but that points to the need for research. With the ultimate goal of informing policy-oriented models, including scenario models, this paper proposes a framework for research along a 'research-to-application pipeline'. It argues the need for a common framework and suggests combining two well-established practices: from macroeconomics, the practice of characterising models by their accounting relationships, behavioural rules, and closures; and, from system dynamics modelling, the adoption of 'confidence-building procedures'. The proposed research-to-application pipeline creates a division of labour over the task of confidence building, with the accounts-behaviourclosure (or 'ABC') approach providing a common language. The paper refers to existing work and explicitly addresses the critical realist critique of model closure. |
| Keywords: | ecological macroeconomics, post-Keynesian, post-growth, degrowth, critical realism |
| JEL: | C54 E11 E12 P41 Q57 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:penwps:342531 |
| By: | Domenico Delli Gatti; Andrea Coletta; Aldo Glielmo; Filippo Gusella; Enrico Maria Turco; Alessia Lo Turco |
| Abstract: | In canonical macroeconomic agent-based model (ABM), firms pursue behavioural (non-optimal) price and quantity strategies, that take the form of heuristics. In this paper we incorporate reinforcement learning (RL) into an otherwise standard ABM by replacing a fraction of heuristic-using firms with RL agents that learn profitmaximizing strategies through repeated interaction with the economic environment. When RL agents adopt a shared Q-function, they endogenously converge to one of three distinct strategic regimes – market power, predatory pricing, or quasi-perfect competition – with the prevailing equilibrium depending on the degree of market competition and the share of RL agents. Under independent Q-functions, agents spontaneously segregate into heterogeneous strategies, yielding higher aggregate market power and producer surplus without explicit coordination. The prevalence of RL agents shapes aggregate output and volatility in a non-monotonic way. To rationalize these findings, we develop a stylized theoretical framework that links the competition intensity between RL and non-RL agents with the prevailing optimal pricing strategies. |
| Keywords: | macroeconomics, agent-based modelling, reinforcement learning |
| JEL: | C63 D21 E37 L13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12862 |
| By: | Toporowski, Jan |
| Abstract: | With the possible exception of her work on economic methodology, the monetary economics of Victoria Chick lay at the heart of her macroeconomics, and her general approach to economics. Chick’s monetary economics started with her participation in the revival of monetary theory in the wake of the Radcliffe Report, which argued that liquidity rather than money should be the central operational concept for theory and policy. When the monetary revival turned to monetarism, Chick countered by insisting on the monetary nature of macroeconomic variables, rather than confining money to a “monetary sector” that was added on to a “real” economy. She developed this approach by showing how macroeconomic relations were affected by banking evolution, and later rejected the concept of monetary endogeneity based on central bank operations in inter-bank markets. However, the critical part that she gave to monetary innovation in Keynes’s macroeconomics is an original but controversial part of her intellectual legacy. |
| Keywords: | Radcliffe report;Victoria Chick;banking;monetary theory |
| JEL: | E12 E42 E52 G21 |
| Date: | 2026–07–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:140320 |
| By: | Rammelt, Crelis F. |
| Abstract: | Capitalism depends on a positive rate of surplus value: excess labour provided by workers relative to that embodied in their consumption. Yet a “labour aristocracy” escapes this by receiving more than it contributes, yielding a negative rate. Unequal exchange enables this by redistributing surplus value not only between regions and classes, but also between net providers and receivers within the working class. In 2022, the centre net imported 639 billion labour hours, enabling a −42% surplus rate. However, 31% of the centre’s workers remain exploited, with rates reaching +316% in the bottom decile. Of global surplus, 63% is appropriated by capital and 37% by the labour aristocracy—comprising 69% of the centre’s workforce and 6% of the semi-periphery’s, but none in the periphery, where surplus rates reach +37, 183% in the bottom decile. Anti-imperialist movements must therefore recognize these complex patterns of appropriation by both capital and segments of labour. |
| Date: | 2026–07–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:tj2mu_v2 |
| By: | McLaughlin, Eoin; Sharp, Paul; Skovsgaard, Christian; Vedel, Christian |
| Abstract: | Agricultural cooperation is seen as a way to solve collective action problems and has been associated with high social capital and other beneficial impacts in the countryside beyond productivity increases. But what if it comes into conflict with existing private concerns? The Irish dairy cooperatives from the 1890s entered a contested market for milk, and soon became associated with various degrees of conflict: legal disputes and physical violence. We hypothesize that this led to poor social capital, manifesting in conflict during the Irish War of Independence. We analyze novel data on cooperative and private creameries, as well as measures of conflict. Our findings indicate a significant positive correlation between the presence of cooperatives and local conflict intensities, persisting even after controlling for various confounders. An instrumental variable approach based on prior specialization in dairying validates this. Cooperation might thus both reflect social capital but also have pernicious impacts on it. |
| Keywords: | Ireland; Cooperatives |
| JEL: | N53 N54 Q13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19714 |
| By: | Alessio Emanuele Biondo; Mauro Gallegati |
| Abstract: | We develop an agent-based model in which inflation emerges from decentralized price-setting and credit-financed production in an endogenous-money economy. Firms operate under working-capital constraints, form market-based price expectations through heterogeneous adaptive learning, and set prices via cost-plus rules with endogenous mark-ups. Bank lending simultaneously creates deposits, while heterogeneous lending rates and credit rationing shape firms' financing costs and, through unit costs, their pricing decisions. The economy features interacting production and credit networks: intermediate-input linkages propagate cost shocks across supply chains, while bank--firm relationships transmit financial conditions across firms. The interaction of network-based pass-through, state-dependent pricing incentives, and evolving credit conditions generates inflationary regimes, including episodes driven by pricing cascades and feedback loops. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2607.07864 |
| By: | Hennicke, Peter; Dittrich, Monika; Dierks, Janina |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the macroeconomic implications and the critique of a too narrowly defined category of economic competitiveness. Typically, the short-, medium-, or long-term goals that are to be achieved through competitiveness are not further addressed, let alone potentially conflicts of objectives for example, economic competitiveness in relation to increased climate protection or fostering the transformation to a circular economy being analysed in a sufficient way. Therefore, this paper aims not only to critically examine the seemingly unambiguous target of "increasing competitiveness" in relation to different socieatal goals and perspectives, but also to propose a broader concept of "green" and systemic competitiveness for use in scientific policy advice. It becomes clear that competitiveness is not an end in itself, but rather a means to achieve the medium- and long-term goals of a circular, decarbonised economy and a well-being society. Against this backdrop a new look into the relation between green competitiveness and economic growth is also necessary. Ambitious climate mitigation, circular economy and dematerialisation strategies foster the rapid growth of GreenTech sectors and at the same time the degrowth of fossil, resource intensive or risky sectors. To what extent this politically driven economic structural change towards net-zero emissions and a circular economy contributes to overall positive and more sustainable pattern of GDP growth and to an (absolute) decoupling of GDP from resource consumption remains an open question. Considering sufficiency policies in conjunction with the predominantly technical strategies of efficiency and sufficiency (renewable energies) as well as with circular economy strategies makes it, according to studies, easier to achieve climate neutrality and risk minimisation through decoupling. |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wuppap:342478 |
| By: | Brooks, Matthew S.; Lybbert, Travis; Magnan, Nicholas; Mullally, Conner; Shrestha, Bhola |
| Abstract: | For over a decade, Heifer Nepal has been developing female-led cooperatives to make producing goats more profitable. Two benefits o↵ered by these cooperatives are access to government-licensed para-veterinarians called Community Agro-Vet Entrepreneurs (CAVEs) and opportunities to participate in collective livestock sales that leverage the bargaining power of the cooperative. However, challenges remain. CAVEs often feel isolated and find it difficult to develop their skills and access support for challenging cases. Cooperatives struggle to organize collective sales due to their large and disperse membership and poor communication infrastructure. To address these challenges, we use an RCT to evaluate a bundle of technologies to help strengthen livestock cooperatives consisting of a digital Mentoring and Continuing Education (dMCE) platform and a digital Collective Marketing (dCM) tool. This Pre-Analysis Plan summarizes the intervention we study in this RCT, explains our research questions and empirical strategy to answer these questions, and specifies the regressions we plan to estimate. We also outline the methods we will use to adjust our findings for multiple hypothesis testing and conduct correct inference in a factorial design RCT. |
| Keywords: | International Development |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404658 |
| By: | Anna Lavooi (CIDES-UMSA) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the role of socio-economic conditions in shaping empowerment, based on an ethnograph-ic study conducted in 2022–2023 with three groups of indige-nous women working in the tourism sector in El Alto, Bolivia: Cholitas Escaladoras, Cholitas Luchadoras, and female guides. The study shows that socio-economic structures contribute to both empowerment and disempowerment. In the context of El Alto, social capital, including family networks and associa-tions, and labour relations emerge as key factors. Horizontal labour relations, which foster collaboration and shared deci-sion-making, are associated with greater economic, social, and political empowerment, while vertical structures tend to limit agencyand create dependency. These findings underscore the importance of considering contextual socio-economic condi-tions when analysing empowerment, offering a holistic under-standing of how it manifests across different groups. |
| Keywords: | Empowerment, Indigenous women, Tourism, So-cio-economic conditions, Social capital, Labour relations. |
| JEL: | Z32 J16 O15 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iad:wpaper:0225 |
| By: | Farida Souiah (EM - EMLyon Business School) |
| Abstract: | This article examines how motherhood reshapes ethnographic practice by bringing ideals of the " good ethnographer " and the " good mother " into tension. Drawing on an autoethnography of my fieldwork in Algeria during the Hirak movement (2019–2020), I demonstrate how caregiving responsibilities transformed the geography, temporality, and desirability of field engagement while enabling alternative care-centered modes of research. The analysis reveals three interconnected dimensions. First, episodic fieldwork and alternative field sites made perceptible dynamics that prolonged immersion can render less visible. Second, conflicting ideals of the " good mother " and " good ethnographer " reshaped the conditions of fieldwork and, more fundamentally, its very desirability. Care networks functioned as epistemic infrastructure rather than merely personal accommodation. Third, motherhood—as a biographical transition —fundamentally restructured positionality in " back-home " ethnography. Rather than asking whether care-shaped or constrained research is " good enough, " this article shifts the burden of proof: Does the ideal of unconstrained immersion justify systematically excluding researchers navigating caregiving, disability, or chronic illness? I argue that recognizing diverse ethnographic practices as epistemically generative is essential to rethinking what constitutes rigorous and valuable ethnography. |
| Keywords: | motherhood, care, autoethnography, back-home ethnography |
| Date: | 2026–07–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05704528 |
| By: | Myriam Kessari (UMR MoISA - Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (Social and nutritional sciences) - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement, CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes); Magalie Marais (Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School); Maryline Meyer (Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School); Florence Palpacuer (UM - Université de Montpellier, MRM-ORGA - Montpellier Research in Management - Organisations - MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - UM - Université de Montpellier, MRM-MPR - Management et Pratiques Responsables - MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - UM - Université de Montpellier); Leïla Temri (UMR MoISA - Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (Social and nutritional sciences) - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement); Marie Walser (Chaire Unesco Alimentations du Monde - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement) |
| Abstract: | There are two forms of corporate commitment within the food system: the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). While these two movements have developed independently of each other, at present both are contributing to the transformation of food systems. Among the many actors able to influence the sustainability of food systems, businesses have a key role to play. Their ways of doing so are as diverse as the companies themselves, which differ in both their functions (production, processing, distribution, services etc.) and their profiles (status, size, mission, geographical location, mode of governance etc.). The question then becomes how much room for manoeuvre these companies have, what their motivations are and which concomitant forms of commitment to food system sustainability exist (Marais, 2014). The economic, social and environmental responsibility approaches of companies operating in the food system follow two main routes: the social solidarity economy (SSE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). This chapter looks at the benefits and limitations of these two frameworks and discusses the opportunities afforded by their articulation. |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05695883 |
| By: | Alexander Rincón Ruiz |
| Abstract: | El presente artículo explora el concepto de economías diversas y economías otras como una respuesta a la crisis ambiental y social. Desde una perspectiva sistémica e interdependiente, se argumenta que el modelo económico hegemónico ha llevado al planeta a una crisis ecológica sin precedentes, basada en la mercantilización de la naturaleza, la acumulación de capital y la homogeneización cultural. A través de un análisis teórico y de experiencias territoriales en Colombia, se plantea que las economías diversas y economías otras ofrecen alternativas viables fundamentadas en la reciprocidad, la justicia ecológica y la regeneración de los ecosistemas. Se destacan prácticas económicas comunitarias, solidarias, campesinas, afrodescendientes e indígenas, así como principios como la interdependencia ecológica, la autonomía territorial y la economía del cuidado. Finalmente, se argumenta que Colombia, por su riqueza biocultural y sus resistencias territoriales, puede desempeñar un papel clave en la transición hacia modelos económicos sustentables y resilientes, aportando perspectivas desde el pluriverso y el postdesarrollo |
| Keywords: | economías diversas; economías otras; crisis ambiental; regeneración ecológica; pluriverso |
| JEL: | Q01 Q57 O13 P48 R11 B55 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000176:023148 |
| By: | de Moraes, Isaias Albertin (Federal University of ABC) |
| Abstract: | New Developmentalism has consolidated a sophisticated macroeconomic framework — centered on the coordinated management of the five macroeconomic prices — as part of a broader structural strategy for economic development. Yet, the theory still lacks a coherent and comprehensive political–institutional model capable of sustaining this strategy over time. This article addresses this theoretical gap by proposing a renewed institutional configuration for the Developmental State in Brazil: The Developmental Network State (DNS). Grounded in the principles of embedded autonomy and decentralization, and operationalized through mechanisms of targeted resourcing, opening windows, brokering, and facilitation, the DNS provides the institutional foundations required to realize the ultimate causes of growth in New Developmentalism — namely, the structural, political, and organizational conditions that enable sustainable, inclusive, and sovereign development. The analysis demonstrates that Brazil’s National Development System (Sistema Nacional de Fomento – SNF) already offers a latent institutional infrastructure that can be strategically reoriented to embody the DNS model. |
| Date: | 2025–12–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rvzpa_v1 |