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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2025–02–03
twelve papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Benjamin Patrick Evans; Sihan Zeng; Sumitra Ganesh; Leo Ardon |
| Abstract: | Agent-based models (ABMs) are valuable for modelling complex, potentially out-of-equilibria scenarios. However, ABMs have long suffered from the Lucas critique, stating that agent behaviour should adapt to environmental changes. Furthermore, the environment itself often adapts to these behavioural changes, creating a complex bi-level adaptation problem. Recent progress integrating multi-agent reinforcement learning into ABMs introduces adaptive agent behaviour, beginning to address the first part of this critique, however, the approaches are still relatively ad hoc, lacking a general formulation, and furthermore, do not tackle the second aspect of simultaneously adapting environmental level characteristics in addition to the agent behaviours. In this work, we develop a generic two-layer framework for ADaptive AGEnt based modelling (ADAGE) for addressing these problems. This framework formalises the bi-level problem as a Stackelberg game with conditional behavioural policies, providing a consolidated framework for adaptive agent-based modelling based on solving a coupled set of non-linear equations. We demonstrate how this generic approach encapsulates several common (previously viewed as distinct) ABM tasks, such as policy design, calibration, scenario generation, and robust behavioural learning under one unified framework. We provide example simulations on multiple complex economic and financial environments, showing the strength of the novel framework under these canonical settings, addressing long-standing critiques of traditional ABMs. |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2501.09429 |
| By: | Ruiz, Walter; Spinola, Danilo; Villalba, Maria Luisa |
| Abstract: | This paper develops an Agent-Based Model (ABM) to study the impact of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) policies on innovation systems. The model, which we call the Adaptive Innovation System Model (AdaptISM), simulates the technological innovation capabilities required for knowledge and technology generation, diffusion, and utilisation, integrating decision rules that capture the emergent behaviours of agents interacting with innovation opportunities. The model is empirically validated using data from the coffee and avocado agricultural production chains (APCs) in Antioquia, Colombia, which are two sectors of regional economic and local importance. The validation process allows the evaluation of individual and combined STI policy modes, identifying which policy strategies most effectively enhance innovation performance and economic outcomes. By enabling the exploration of “what-if” scenarios, the ABM provides a tool to assess STI policy contributions systematically and offers practical insights into resource allocation in local innovation systems. This approach addresses a critical challenge in innovation policy design: understanding how STI policies influence system performance. The findings highlight the utility of combining policy approaches to improve innovation and economic growth, offering a replicable framework for policymakers and researchers seeking to optimise the performance of innovation systems. |
| Keywords: | STI policy; innovation systems; agricultural production chains; Agent-based modelling |
| Date: | 2025–01–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:akf:cafewp:32 |
| By: | Jose Mauricio Gomez Julian |
| Abstract: | The long-term estimation of the Marxist average rate of profit does not adhere to a theoretically grounded standard regarding which economic activities should or should not be included for such purposes, which is relevant because methodological non-uniformity can be a significant source of overestimation or underestimation, generating a less accurate reflection of the capital accumulation dynamics. This research aims to provide a standard Marxist decision criterion regarding the inclusion and exclusion of economic activities for the calculation of the Marxist average profit rate for the case of United States economic sectors from 1960 to 2020, based on the Marxist definition of productive labor, its location in the circuit of capital, and its relationship with the production of surplus value. Using wavelet-transformed Daubechies filters with increased symmetry, empirical mode decomposition, Hodrick-Prescott filter embedded in unobserved components model, and a wide variety of unit root tests the internal theoretical consistency of the presented criteria is evaluated. Also, the objective consistency of the theory is evaluated by a dynamic factor auto-regressive model, Principal Component Analysis, Singular Value Decomposition and Backward Elimination with Linear and Generalized Linear Models. The results are consistent both theoretically and econometrically with the logic of Marx's political economy. |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2501.06270 |
| By: | Mosquera Rodas, Jhon Jairo |
| Abstract: | An analysis is made of the phenomenon of overproduction of capitalism with the corresponding consequences that this has for the generation and subsequent deterioration of the capitalist system, contributing the element of proportional dynamic equilibrium as a principle of economic regulation, together with the pre-model of circulation in the global economy that admits a progressive and functional organisation that allows the reorganisation of the economy under the dynamics of the collective, without this having as a consequence the loss of economic, social or cultural identity of the nations that participate in this process. |
| Keywords: | economy, crisis, regulate, prevention, intervention |
| JEL: | A10 A19 |
| Date: | 2023–06–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:123281 |
| By: | Ramshreyas Rao |
| Abstract: | I introduce an agent-based model of a Perpetual Futures market with heterogeneous agents trading via a central limit order book. Perpetual Futures (henceforth Perps) are financial derivatives introduced by the economist Robert Shiller, designed to peg their price to that of the underlying Spot market. This paper extends the limit order book model of Chiarella et al. (2002) by taking their agent and orderbook parameters, designed for a simple stock exchange, and applying it to the more complex environment of a Perp market with long and short traders who exhibit both positional and basis-trading behaviors. I find that despite the simplicity of the agent behavior, the simulation is able to reproduce the most salient feature of a Perp market, the pegging of the Perp price to the underlying Spot price. In contrast to fundamental simulations of stock markets which aim to reproduce empirically observed stylized facts such as the leptokurtosis and heteroscedasticity of returns, volatility clustering and others, in derivatives markets many of these features are provided exogenously by the underlying Spot price signal. This is especially true of Perps since the derivative is designed to mimic the price of the Spot market. Therefore, this paper will focus exclusively on analyzing how market and agent parameters such as order lifetime, trading horizon and spread affect the premiums at which Perps trade with respect to the underlying Spot market. I show that this simulation provides a simple and robust environment for exploring the dynamics of Perpetual Futures markets and their microstructure in this regard. Lastly, I explore the ability of the model to reproduce the effects of biasing long traders to trade positionally and short traders to basis-trade, which was the original intention behind the market design, and is a tendency observed empirically in real Perp markets. |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2501.09404 |
| By: | Eric Innocenti (LISA - Laboratoire « Lieux, Identités, eSpaces, Activités » (UMR CNRS 6240 LISA) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Università di Corsica Pasquale Paoli [Université de Corse Pascal Paoli]); Dominique Prunetti (LISA - Laboratoire « Lieux, Identités, eSpaces, Activités » (UMR CNRS 6240 LISA) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Università di Corsica Pasquale Paoli [Université de Corse Pascal Paoli], Università di Corsica Pasquale Paoli [Université de Corse Pascal Paoli]); Marielle Delhom; Corinne Idda |
| Abstract: | The 5-Steps Simplified Modelling Process (5-SSIMP) is a method designed to develop modular and reusable Agent-Based Models of Land Use and Cover Change (ABM/LUCC) in an interdisciplinary context. It is based on the definition of three types of Reusable Building Blocks (RBBs): Conceptual-RBB (conRBB), Computer-RBB (comRBB), and Executable-RBB (exeRBB). We present a practical modelling example based on the 5-SSIMP method for creating an ABM/LUCC applied to the socio-economic tourism system of Corsica. |
| Keywords: | Modelling method ABM/LUCC RBB, Modelling method, ABM/LUCC, RBB |
| Date: | 2024–09–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04862884 |
| By: | Scanlan, Oliver; Mankhin, Anitta; Ritchil, Parag |
| Abstract: | In the mid-1980s, the state summarily cancelled the property rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Madhupur, Bangladesh, that hitherto were thoroughly embedded in the national legal-administrative architecture. The removal of capital from formal circuits of exchange is irrational in economic terms. This is a case where neoliberalism has been constrained by the state’s defense of a racialized hierarchy embedded in majoritarian understandings of the nation. Further exploration of how racial capitalism works by excluding certain ethnic groups from capital is likely to shed new light on processes of dispossession, particularly in regions where ethnic complexity, biological diversity and “old land wars” intersect. |
| Date: | 2025–01–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:7s68d |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Jonung, Lars (Department of Economics, Lund University); Lundahl, Mats (Development Economics, Stockholm School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We provide a critical analysis of the adoption of the US ‘top-five model’ by European economics academia. This model prioritizes publications in five elite journals, heavily influencing the career trajectories of doctoral students and researchers. It highlights the inefficiencies and social costs of this system, including the overemphasis on narrowly focused research topics and methodologies that align with US editorial preferences. This undermines innovation, interdisciplinary exploration, and economic research on issues of high social relevance in the home countries. The dominance of US institutions in setting these standards, disadvantages European scholars. We propose reforms for more diverse evaluation criteria that account for local relevance and broader scholarly contributions, suggesting that such changes would better align with European academic and societal needs. These adjustments aim to create a more balanced and impactful academic landscape while fostering a wider range of meaningful research outputs. |
| Keywords: | Criteria for hiring and promotion; European economics; Pluralism; Research productivity |
| JEL: | A11 A14 I23 J44 J62 |
| Date: | 2025–01–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1519 |
| By: | Kaur, Harnoor; Yuchtman, Noam |
| Abstract: | In the 2023-24 academic year, protests swept across US university campuses, then campuses in Britain and elsewhere, demanding a ceasefire in the Israeli-Hamas conflict and specific university administrative responses to the conflict. This paper puts this recent wave of protests into historical perspective. It first argues that the university must be understood not only as an economic institution that produces human capital, but also as a political institution that produces a society’s elites. As such, a fundamental institutional role is to endow entering cohorts of elites with an “ideological bundle, ” which is also, at times, contested in the university environment. We present new patterns of such contestation, collecting information from multiple sources on protests involving university students across time and space. We argue that the current wave of ceasefire protests is best understood as a demand by young elites to modify the elite ideological bundle. Historical evidence suggests that such modifications have regularly been made following campus protests. |
| Keywords: | protests; universities; elites; ideology |
| JEL: | D74 I20 N00 P00 |
| Date: | 2024–12–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:126162 |
| By: | Krenz, Astrid; Strulik, Holger |
| Abstract: | We develop a macroeconomic theory of the division of household tasks between servants and own work and how it is affected by automation in households and firms. We calibrate the model for the U.S. and apply it to explain the historical development of household time use and the distribution of household tasks from 1900 to 2020. The economy is populated by high-skilled and low-skilled households and household tasks are performed by own work, machines, or servants. For the period 1900–1960, innovations in household automation motivate the decline of the servant economy and the creation of new household tasks motivates an almost constant division of household time between wage work and domestic work. For the period 1960–2020, innovations in firm automation and the implied increase of the skill premium explain the return of the servant economy. We use counterfactual historical experiments to assess the role of automation, the creation of new household tasks, and the gig economy for the division of household time and tasks. We provide supporting evidence for the relation between automation and inequality, and for inequality as a driver of the return of the servant economy in a regional panel of U.S. metropolitan statistical areas for the period 2005–2020. |
| Keywords: | automation; gig economy; home production; inequality; maids; servants |
| JEL: | D13 E24 J22 J24 O11 O30 |
| Date: | 2025–02–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:126593 |
| By: | Deng, Kent; Shen, Jim Huangnan; Guo, Jingyuan |
| Abstract: | This article probes the performance and mechanisms of the Maoist economy from 1950 to 1980, a period commonly regarded as a turning point that ushered in a new path for China's industrialisation and modernisation. Commonly, however, the welfare effect of this new path has been overlooked. The present research aims to fill this gap. Methodologically, this article re-conceptualises, re-examines, and re-assesses the Maoist economy with qualitative and quantitative evidence. This study applies a holistic two-pronged approach with (1) capital accumulation and re-investment, material production and consumption, and (2) mathematical conceptualisation and empirical modelling. The key findings suggest that the Maoist economy was a closed one with industrial dependence on agriculture in an urban-rural zero-sum game with inevitable constraints on workers' incentives for growth to continue. In the end of the Mao's era, agriculture declined, the size of industrial workforce stagnated, and the population was poor. This was not the end of the story, however. This failed industrial transition was itself highly influential as a subsequent point of reference used to justify the post-Mao reforms and opening up as a radical game changer that put China on a very different trajectory of growth and development. |
| Keywords: | consumption austerity; economic policies; economic zero-sum game; growth stagnation; Quesnay-Mao closed economy; scissors-pricing arbitrage |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2024–12–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:126627 |
| By: | Andrea Salustri (Università Sapienza di Roma - Dipartimento di Studi Giuridici ed Economici); Andrea Appolloni (Università di Trento - Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale); Maria Alessandra Antonelli (Università Sapienza di Roma - Dipartimento di Studi Giuridici ed Economici) |
| Abstract: | Research contributes to the elaboration of a multilevel theoretical framework enabling a reflexive social impact measurement and evaluation of SSEEOs’ actions (SIMES). The purpose is to investigate the effects of SSEEOs’ conduct and of SSEEOs’ relationships with their stakeholders (in particular, with funders), as well as the general effects of the relational environment, on the social impacts of SSEEOs’ actions. Specifically, we design a theoretical framework focused on the notion of relational reflexivity that is used to illustrate how SSEEOs’ relational characteristics (social objectives, social conduct, dependence on borrowed funds, peripheral position in the social arena) may influence SIMES. Research leads to the identification of a set of critical questions to be answered before implementing SIMES. The evaluation of the social impacts and, possibly, also a reflection on the reliability of the estimates obtained, crucially depends on the answers provided to such questions. A “reflexive SIMES†might reduce the risk of: confusing SSEEOs’ people centered approach with inefficiency or ineffectiveness; charging on SSEEOs costs that depend on their marginal position in the social arena, or that are generated by conflicting relationships with organizations that have greater legitimacy or social power; underestimating the negative impact that relying on market funds may have on SSEEOs’ social conduct and impacts. |
| Keywords: | Social and Solidarity Enterprises and Organizations, social impact measurement and evaluation, relational reflexivity, net public value creation |
| JEL: | D64 L31 P13 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gfe:pfrp00:00067 |