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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2026–10–05
nine papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Dennis J. Snower |
| Abstract: | Evolutionary economics explains economic change through variation, selection, retention, transmission, innovation, and institutional transformation, whereas much of economics explains outcomes through purposive choice. This article argues that these modes of explanation become recursively connected once economic agents can represent the evolutionary processes in which they participate and intentionally alter their operation. It develops the concept of reflexive economic evolution: agents do not merely choose within given constraints or adapt to existing selection pressures, but can generate new possibilities, modify selection environments, organize transmission, and sometimes revise the criteria and mechanisms by which variants are selected. This latter second-order capacity is termed meta-selection. Reflexive economic evolution does not imply comprehensive control or a predetermined social end-state: guidance changes the distribution of possible trajectories under uncertainty rather than determining a trajectory. The framework shows how intentional and evolutionary explanations can be causally complementary, why effective agency is partly endogenous, and why policy should be understood not only as changing current outcomes but also as reshaping the evolutionary environment in which subsequent adaptation and innovation occur. |
| Keywords: | evolutionary economics, economic methodology, agency, reflexivity, causation, meta-selection, institutions, teleology |
| JEL: | B41 B52 D02 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12965 |
| By: | Ali Zeytoon-Nejad |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a clear philosophy on codes of human conduct within economic and social institutions like markets and government. It categorizes these codes into ethics and morals: ethics involve nonmaleficence (avoiding harm), while morals involve beneficence (doing good). Ethics, such as honesty, respecting property, and keeping promises, are universally accepted minimal norms essential for the functioning of social institutions. In contrast, morals, including altruism, self-sacrifice, and generosity, are subjective and context-dependent, linked to individual virtues and influenced by character, culture, and religion. The paper argues that ethical behavior is a necessary condition for an act to be considered moral. Accordingly, human acts can be classified into four categories: unethical-immoral, solely ethical, perceived moral, and truly moral, with examples provided for each type. It posits that the free market system, unlike socialism or communism, requires only ethical agents to succeed, as they ensure the market's mission of improving human well-being. These agents do not necessarily need to be moral for the market to function effectively. Furthermore, the paper discusses that voluntary morality, in the sense of helping others out of compassion, can greatly benefit any human-based institution, including markets, by enhancing social capital alongside ethics and the justice system. However, the forced incorporation of personal moral principles into the economic system can be detrimental to the virtuousness of intended moral acts, economic efficiency, individual liberty, responsibility, and social cohesion. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2610.00023 |
| By: | Laurentjoye, Thibault; Valdecantos, Sebastián; Raza, Hamid; Byrialsen, Mikael Randrup; Thomsen, Simon Fløj |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we present QMDE, an empirical quarterly stock-flow consistent (SFC) model of Denmark. It is categorized as a medium-sized model to strike a balance between complexity and economic intuition. This model provides a nuanced understanding of Denmark's economic structure, segmenting it into five institutional sectors and analysing transactions and financial flows among them. The model operates on a demand-led framework, focusing on the main components of aggregate demand influencing real GDP. It details the determinants of consumption, investment, profit share, capacity utilization and international trade flows, using data from Denmark to estimate structural parameters with an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. QMDE's versatility is demonstrated through four applications. First, it is used to examine whether Denmark's economy is wage-led or profit-led. The model processes various policy shocks, showing complex relationships between demand, income distribution and economic growth. The results suggest that Denmark does not strictly conform to being either wage-led or profit-led. Second, addressing inflationary pressures post-COVID-19, the model assesses the efficacy of traditional monetary responses and explores alternative fiscal and income policies. The analysis suggests that coordinated tax reductions and wage-price policies effectively mitigate inflation, while supporting GDP growth. Third, analysing the increase in the surplus level of Denmark's current account after 2010, the model identifies key drivers such as increased real net exports and favourable terms of trade. Counterfactual scenarios reveal that changes in trade balances, export prices and savings rates significantly impact the current account balance, suggesting a shift towards a more permanently high surplus. Fourth, investigating the effects of tightening of unemployment benefits under Denmark's flexicurity model, the model evaluates scenarios of policy reversal, the removal of unemployment benefits' role in wage determination and changes in unemployment insurance membership. Findings indicate an overall expansionary but modest effect of unemployment benefits on economic growth and employment, highlighting a policy trade-off between fiscal savings and employment stimulation. |
| Keywords: | Modelo de Flujos y Stocks Consistentes; Demanda Agregada; Distribución del Ingreso; Inflación; Dinamarca; |
| Date: | 2025–10–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:4610 |
| By: | Norbert Ankri; Pa\"ikan Marcaggi |
| Abstract: | We develop a dynamic three-sector model in which Marx's aggregate equalities (total price equals total value and total profit equals total surplus value) are treated as strict conservation constraints throughout capital reallocation and technical diffusion. Three price-value coefficients are determined by the two aggregate equalities and a closure that sets one sector's price-based profit rate equal to the contemporaneous value-based average (the anchor). Before innovation, capital inflow expands the receiving sector's output and, under both anchors, lowers its unit price and excess profitability. This endogenous fall in price as output rises supports a two-timescale reading: demand-related price movements may precede slower adjustment through capital mobility. A labour-saving, capital-intensifying innovation generates temporary extra surplus value, revalues committed capital, and changes the economy-wide profit rate. At constant real wages, the final uniform rate rises, consistent with Okishio's theorem. When real wages rise sufficiently to keep aggregate exploitation approximately constant, the organic composition increases and the final rate falls. Strict aggregate conservation is computationally coherent and yields distinct transitional predictions under explicit closure and wage assumptions. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.29346 |
| By: | Esteve Almirall; Steve Willmott; Ulises Cort\'es |
| Abstract: | Why does a superior technology sometimes spread and sometimes stall, even when its expected returns are much higher? We develop an agent-based model in which firms adopt a digital technology by imitating successful neighbours through a fast-and-frugal heuristic. We compare frequency-based imitation, where firms follow the local majority, with performance-conditioned imitation, where they follow better-performing neighbours. We define a cascade as high final adoption reached through rapid, accelerating takeoff rather than slow accumulation. In the calibrated regime, four results emerge. First, dynamic cascades arise under performance-conditioned imitation, but not under an exogenous adoption hazard or frequency-based imitation. Second, on degree-controlled networks, adoption tips once the network provides sufficient reach, at a small-world rewiring threshold near 0.41, with a 95 percent bootstrap confidence interval of 0.39 to 0.43. This reflects short paths, low clustering, and high-reach nodes rather than one graph statistic. Third, at a fixed mean threshold, concentrating receptiveness in the lower tail can generate cascades that homogeneous thresholds cannot. Fourth, cascade probability depends strongly on the positions of initial adopters and low-threshold pioneers. At human-scale observation degrees, the mechanism is genuine complex contagion: adoption requires reinforcement from multiple successful exemplars, survives a requirement of at least two successful digital neighbours when seeded by a clustered critical mass, and weakens beyond Dunbar-scale neighbourhoods. The model identifies where interventions may have leverage rather than forecasting industries. Broad cultural change is not required for system-wide adoption: a small minority of receptive firms, positioned where the network can transmit success, can be enough. In short, a few misfits can change the world. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.30269 |
| By: | Bugarčić, Milica; Hanić, Hasan |
| Abstract: | The paper presents the results of a meta-analysis of empirical literature focused on the study of behavioral biases in financial decision-making. The findings indicate that biases such as loss aversion, present bias, status quo bias, overconfidence, and herding systematically shape both individual and collective financial behavior. Their influence is evident across diverse institutional and cultural contexts, confirming that behavioral deviations are structural rather than incidental features of economic behavior. The study highlights the need to integrate longitudinal and neuroeconomic approaches to achieve a deeper understanding of the interaction between cognitive, emotional, and contextual factors in decision-making processes. By incorporating psychological dimensions into economic theory, behavioral economics provides a more comprehensive and realistic framework for interpreting market dynamics and enhancing the quality of financial decision-making. |
| Keywords: | behavioral economics, behavioral finance, financial decion-making, cognitive biases |
| JEL: | D14 G53 I22 G41 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esconf:343874 |
| By: | Andrea Borsato (UniBg - Università degli Studi di Bergamo = University of Bergamo, BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - AgroParisTech - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Valentina Erasmo (UNITO - Università degli studi di Torino = University of Turin); André Lorentz (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - AgroParisTech - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | We develop an evolutionary model to analyse the role of policymaker's preferences on the amount and direction of funding in determining university trajectories. Results are four. First, the policies that maximise performance in certain dimensions do not require that funds targeted at those dimensions are maximised, due to the complementarities between research and teaching. In most cases, the Humboldt model in which a university commits to a balance between teaching and research tends to generate more robust performance patterns. Second, any policymaking that boils down to reduced competition in the research market and allocates most resources to top institutes might curtail research quality. Third, a generalised increase in funding is not effective if the distributive mechanisms are untouched and prioritise reputation, unless they target small institutes and sustain competition in the research domain. Finally, we have some evidence of the Baumol's cost disease when a system-level wage rate combines with the emergence of technological advantages. At the best of our knowledge, this article constitutes the first endeavour to model the scientific and pedagogical trajectories of universities as emergent properties of the micro-dynamic that involves the amount and the direction of public funding, which is our way to formalise the third mission. |
| Keywords: | University trajectories, Funding policymaking, Teaching and research complementarity, Third mission |
| Date: | 2026–04–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05750518 |
| By: | Sylvain Zeghni (LVMT - Laboratoire Ville, Mobilité, Transport - Université Gustave Eiffel - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris) |
| Abstract: | L'habitabilité terrestre peut être envisagée comme la capacité du système Terre à maintenir, dans la durée, des conditions physiques et écologiques compatibles avec la vie complexe et avec l'organisation des sociétés humaines. Cette propriété n'est pas indépendante des transformations de la biosphère: elle résulte d'un ensemble d'interactions entre l'atmosphère, les océans, la cryosphère, les écosystèmes et les sociétés. L'Anthropocène se caractérise précisément par une perturbation rapide de ces interactions sous l'effet des émissions anthropiques de gaz à effet de serre, de la conversion des terres et de l'intensification des usages des ressources. Cet article examine cette transformation à partir de trois entrées complémentaires: les limites planétaires, les contraintes physiologiques imposées par les chaleurs extrêmes et les dynamiques de basculement susceptibles d'affecter certains grands soussystèmes du système Terre. L'analyse montre que le risque climatique ne peut être réduit à une hausse moyenne de température. Il concerne également les marges de résilience des écosystèmes, les conditions de thermorégulation humaine, les rétroactions du carbone et de l'eau, ainsi que les capacités d'adaptation des sociétés. Cette perspective conduit enfin à considérer l'habitabilité comme une question de justice, de mobilité et de gouvernance mondiale. |
| Keywords: | Habitabilité, limites planétaires, points de bascule, niche climatique humaine, température au thermomètre mouillé |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05744366 |
| By: | Arthur SANCHEZ |
| Abstract: | Les « prolétaires saint-simoniennes » sont souvent considérées comme les fondatrices du premier mouvement féministe de l’histoire. Dans leurs écrits, elles dénoncent plusieurs dimensions matérielles de l’oppression des femmes et développent notamment une critique féministe de l’héritage. Plus qu’un vecteur d’inégalités entre individus, ces jeunes ouvrières l’analysent comme un mécanisme participant à la perpétuation de la domination masculine. Sous cet angle, elles dénaturalisent l’héritage, le soumettent à la critique, et envisagent sa disparition au sein d’une société plus juste et égalitaire. En remobilisant le cadre analytique de la pensée de Christine Delphy sur l’héritage, il est possible de jeter la lumière sur ce qui constitue, dès 1832, une des premières et des plus radicales critiques féministes de l’héritage. |
| Keywords: | Héritage, féminisme, saint-simoniennes, Démar, Delphy |
| JEL: | B1 J16 D31 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2026-33 |