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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2024‒09‒02
fourteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Allen, Amy; Apostolidis, Paul; Azmanova, Albena; Ypi, Lea |
| Abstract: | In a discussion of Albena Azmanova’s book Capitalism on Edge (Columbia University Press, 2020), Amy Allen, Paul Apostolidis, Lea Ypi and Albena Azmanova debate key issues critical social theory confronts today. How should critical theorists re-engage with the critique of capitalism without entrapment in old ideological certainties? They revisit the classical debates about transformative agency, direction and methods of change, and the place of normative ideals and of moral theory in the critique of capitalism in light of the current historical juncture. |
| Keywords: | capitalism; crisis; critical theory; revolution; utopia |
| JEL: | P10 |
| Date: | 2023–01–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:118154 |
| By: | Heise, Arne |
| Abstract: | Controversy is vital in the pursuit of knowledge. Constructive dispute can drive intellectual growth and deepen understanding within a field. However, mutual respect, thorough engagement, and intellectual humility are necessary for productive exchanges. In this vein, I clarify in my response to Tom Palley's critique of my article that I did not argue against his claim regarding social conflict in Keynesian economics. However, I questioned whether social conflict is the sole ontological fault line, as Palley suggests. Additionally, I highlighted the distinction between Keynes' economics and Keynesian economics, challenging Palley's lumping them together as part of a liberal project. In conclusion, Palley's assertions regarding the absence of social conflict in Keynesian economics and its implications for economic laws lack foundation. |
| Keywords: | Keynes, social conflict, paradigm shift |
| JEL: | A14 B40 B51 E11 E12 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:300689 |
| By: | Heise, Arne |
| Abstract: | The push to pluralise the economic discipline involves making informed decisions about which paradigm to adopt, requiring a deep understanding of each paradigm's characteristics and affiliations. Once paradigmatic choices are made, different theories can either collaborate effectively or require clear discrimination if they belong to distinct paradigms. Therefore, economic theories and models need to be compared with respect to their paradigmatic localisation. Based on a hermeneutic comparison, the common assessment that the champions of Post Keynesian economics - John Maynard Keynes, Michal Kalecki and Hyman P. Minsky's share a unified Post Keynesian paradigm must be questioned. Kalecki's economics, with its closed system perspective, differs fundamentally from Keynes's open system approach. This distinction suggests that Kalecki's work is not merely a variant of Keynes's monetary production paradigm but could align more closely with new-Keynesian imperfect competition models based on the traditional real-exchange paradigm. Minsky's dynamic approach, however, shares Keynes's open system ontology, making them compatible. This analysis suggests that the term 'Post Keynesianism' might inaccurately imply a coherence that does not exist. |
| Keywords: | Keynes's economics, Kalecki's economics, Minsky's economics, paradigms, comparison |
| JEL: | B40 B59 E12 P59 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:300692 |
| By: | Kolev, Stefan |
| Abstract: | This paper pursues two goals. First, to reflect on how historical Ordnungsökonomik (Economics of Order) illuminates the politico-economic crises in today's Western democracies via the increasing parallels to the fragilities and fractures of the 1930s. Second, based on these historical inspirations, to come closer to a modern Ordnungsökonomik targeted specifically at today's crises. The three-step approach consists of an anamnesis ("crisis burger"), a diagnosis ("anxiety from over-dynamics"), and a therapy ("fixed points towards order security"). The paper revisits the role of liberal political economists as order guardians amid what the paper calls superfragility, a context in which citizens radically lose trust and unsubscribe from the order, making the trust-enhancing role of liberal political economists existential for the order. |
| JEL: | A11 B25 B41 H11 P16 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:lefpes:301002 |
| By: | Skyrman, Viktor |
| Abstract: | To address Europe's environmental, economic, and geopolitical challenges, the European Commission has decided to proactively accelerate digital transformation and decarbonization through industrial policies. As the annual green investment gap exceeds 2 percent of the EU's GDP, of particular relevance is not least how the EU's industrial programs will be financed. Amid scarce fiscal resources and public sector austerity, paradigmatic cases of (financial) derisking aiming to "escort" private finance to green but unprofitable investments have been key to European policymakers' aim to accelerate the green transition. This paper offers two contributions in this context. Firstly, it examines to what extent and how finance for industrial policy has been provided in Europe since the early 2020s. Secondly, it conceptually advances the political economy of derisking literature by elaborating on progressive derisking and Big Green State policies as alternative industrial policy financing programs, and discusses those programs in relation to Europe's macrofinancial regime. |
| Keywords: | Industrial policy, derisking, macrofinancial regimes, climate change, the green transition, digital transformation, European policy studies, political economy, development finance, financialization |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:oefsew:300846 |
| By: | Ariza Ruiz, Efrén Danilo; Garza, Nestor |
| Abstract: | We document and analyze the emergence and consolidation of neoliberalism in higher education in economics in Colombia. The research focuses on four interrelated categories through which the neoliberal ideology changed the scientific field of economics by replacing endogenously developed analytical traditions during the 1980s -1990s: 1) homogenization of curricula; 2) neoclassical mathematization; 3) use of textbooks; and 4) quantitative assessment (scientometrics) of academic quality. The results show how a generation of economists combined their networks of social capital and legitimacy from international academic connections, to simultaneously impose their worldview in academia, the public administration, and private sector. Our analyses highlight the transfer of the neoliberal values to the education field through the concepts of quality assessment and scientometrics, which institutionalized the exercise of power to discipline intellectual inquiries and scholarship. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, Economists, Research Policy, Cultural Capital, Sociological Studies, Neoclassical Economics |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:300688 |
| By: | Fausto Hern\'andez Trillo; C. Vladimir Rodr\'iguez-Caballero; Daniel Ventosa-Santaul\`aria |
| Abstract: | This paper posits the decline in market capitalization following a monopoly breakup serves as a means to gauge how financial markets assess market power. Our research, which employs univariate structural time series models to estimate the firm's value without the breakup and juxtapose it with actual post-divestiture values, reveals a staggering drop in AT&T's value by 65% and AMX's by 32% from their pre-breakup levels. These findings underscore the contemporary valuation of monopoly rents as perceived by financial markets, highlighting the significant impact of monopoly breakup on market capitalization and the need for a deeper understanding of these dynamics. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.09695 |
| By: | Loréa Baïada-Hirèche (IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], 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], DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Lionel Garreau (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jean Pasquero (UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal) |
| Abstract: | While business ethics (BE) courses have increasingly formed part of business school curricula, we still do not know much about how these courses can change students' capacity to deal with ethical issues. Drawing on a sensemaking perspective, we conducted an action research study with 66 business professionals enrolled in an executive training program at a French university. The aim was to investigate the processes underlying ethical judgment (EJ) change through a BE course. Participants were invited to pick a significant ethical issue they had personally experienced at work. They were then asked to make sense of it, in writing, at the beginning and at the end of the course, 3 months later. In comparing pre-course and post-course judgments, we concluded that the structure and contents of the respondents' initial judgment had indeed been modified. This change could be accounted for as the outcome of four ‘sense-remaking' mechanisms, which we theorize as complexifying, reprioritizing, conceptualizing and contextualizing. Our study contributes to the literature on BE education by demonstrating the benefits of a sensemaking approach. It also offers an original process-based model of EJ, specifying the mechanisms at play in EJ change. Finally, it contributes to the field of sensemaking studies by introducing the concept of sense-remaking, shedding new light on the evolutive dimension of sensemaking. |
| Keywords: | Ethical judgment, Sensemaking, Business ethics course, Action research |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04654050 |
| By: | Jean-Philippe Bouchaud |
| Abstract: | ``Self-Organised Criticality'' (SOC) is the mechanism by which complex systems spontaneously settle close to a *critical point*, at the edge between stability and chaos, and characterized by fat-tailed fluctuations and long-memory correlations. Such a scenario may explain why insignificant perturbations can generate large disruptions, through the propagation of ``avalanches'' across the system. In this short review, we discuss how SOC could offer a plausible solution to the excess volatility puzzle in financial markets and the analogue ``small shocks, large business cycle puzzle'' for the economy at large, as initially surmised by Per Bak et al. in 1993. We argue that in general the quest for efficiency and the necessity of *resilience* may be mutually incompatible and require specific policy considerations. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.10284 |
| By: | Barbieri, Teresa; Bavaro, Michele; Cirillo, Valeria |
| Abstract: | How does childbirth impact the career paths of men and women within the same household? To what extent does the unpaid care work related to this event contribute to the downward mobility experienced by women in a highly flexible labour market like Italy? Drawing on feminist and labour market studies, this article examines how caregiving responsibilities, particularly childcare, influence downward employment transitions for men and women in couples, specifically from full-time to part-time, from higher-paid to lower-paid jobs, and from employment to unemployment. The study also employs latent class analysis to map out variations in within-household inequality experienced after childbirth among couples. To achieve this, we utilize a unique survey-administrative linked dataset. The findings highlight significant penalties faced by women, not only immediately after childbirth but persisting for up to three years afterwards. Moreover, the latent class analysis reveals a small proportion of pro-female households compared to egalitarian and pro-male classes. |
| Keywords: | Gender pay gaps, occupational downward mobility, gender inequalities, motherhood penalty, micro-econometric analyses |
| JEL: | J13 J16 E24 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1475 |
| By: | Kensuke Ito |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys products and studies on cryptoeconomics and tokenomics from an economic perspective, as these terms are still (i) ill-defined and (ii) disconnected from economic disciplines. We first suggest that they can be novel when integrated; we then conduct a literature review and case study following consensus-building for decentralization and token value for autonomy. Integration requires simultaneous consideration of strategic behavior, spamming, Sybil attacks, free-riding, marginal cost, marginal utility and stabilizers. This survey is the first systematization of knowledge on cryptoeconomics and tokenomics, aiming to bridge the contexts of economics and blockchain. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.15715 |
| By: | Cesare Carissimo; Marcin Korecki |
| Abstract: | We gather many perspectives on Capital and synthesize their commonalities. We provide a characterization of Capital as a historical agential system and propose a model of Capital using tools from computer science. Our model consists of propositions which, if satisfied by a specific grounding, constitute a valid model of Capital. We clarify the manners in which Capital can evolve. We claim that, when its evolution is driven by quantitative optimization processes, Capital can possess qualities of Artificial Intelligence. We find that Capital may not uniquely represent meaning, in the same way that optimization is not intentionally meaningful. We find that Artificial Intelligences like modern day Large Language Models are a part of Capital. We link our readers to a web-interface where they can interact with a part of Capital. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.16314 |
| By: | Ariza Ruiz, Efrén Danilo; Garza, Nestor |
| Abstract: | We use process tracing to test the hypothesis of a specific strategy in the process of discussing and enacting a policy agenda. Our case study is Colombia, where the trace of events and milestones allow us to detect the strategy followed in implementing neoliberal reforms during the 1980s-2000s. The analysis is performed by compiling and offering in a directly comparable setting, the individual professional trajectories and scholarly viewpoints of a set of 61 key economists. The analysis reveals a process of revolving doors between academia, think tanks and government, where the key individuals rotated between different institutions, using their networks of social capital to access the highest level of policy making. The key individuals are mostly extracted from Colombian elites, obtained under and postgraduate degrees in international universities, mostly in the USA, and appealed to academic credentialism in legitimizing their ideological positions. However, the process tracing of their scholarly output shows that it was not very high and mostly published in domestic journals, endogenous to the institutions where they worked. It also shows the scholarly viewpoint of every individual regarding two features of policy making: their preferred degree of market freedom and of government regulation. |
| Keywords: | Economists, Neoliberalism, Process Tracing, Think Tanks, Scholarly Trace |
| JEL: | A11 A14 B24 B53 N01 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:300691 |
| By: | Emre Özçelik (Economics Program, Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus, Northern Cyprus); Mustafa TuÄŸan (Department of Economics, Social Sciences University of Ankara, Ankara, Turkey) |
| Abstract: | Bu çalıÅŸmada, Türkiye ekonomisinin geçmiÅŸi devlet-piyasa ekseninde ve Cumhuriyet’in ilk yüzyılını kapsayan uzun bir dönemde incelendikten sonra, 2020’lerin ikinci yarısında geliÅŸtirilip 2030’larda uygulanabilecek ve yeni bir ‘siyasal-iktisat tarzı’ olarak da anlaÅŸılabilecek bir proaktif popülizm gündemi önerilmektedir. Böyle bir gündem ülke tarihinin herhangi bir evresinde daha önce benimsenip uygulanmadığı için söz konusu önerinin ana çerçevesi de çalıÅŸmada ortaya konmaktadır. Bu çerçevede, uzun dönemli ekonomik büyüme olanaklarının geniÅŸ toplum kesimlerinin lehine yeniden düzenlenmesi öngörülmekte, dıÅŸa bağımlı geliÅŸme ‘doğal’ değil ‘sorunsal’ bir olgu olarak saptanmakta ve gerek ‘makroekonomik temkin’ gerekse ‘kurumsal geliÅŸme’ meselelerinin önemsenmesi gerektiği vurgulanmaktadır. Proaktif popülizmin Türkiye için orijinal bir gündem önerisi ve yeni bir siyasaliktisat tarzı olarak oluÅŸturulmasında üç baÅŸat siyasal-iktisadi katkıdan yararlanılmaktadır: (i) Ziya ÖniÅŸ ve Fikret Åženses’in ‘proaktif devlet-reaktif devlet’ ayrımı, (ii) Korkut Boratav’ın ‘popülizm’ olgusuna sınıfsal bakıÅŸ açısı ve (iii) Dani Rodrik’in ‘makroekonomik istikrar’, ‘ekonomik küreselleÅŸme’ ve ‘popülizm’ arasındaki iliÅŸkileri ele almaya yönelik yaklaÅŸımı. Popülizmin ‘klasik’ varyantları ile proaktif popülizm arasındaki temel fark, ikincisinin ‘makroekonomik temkin’ ve ‘kurumsal geliÅŸme’ meselelerini göz ardı etmeyerek bunları sistemik ve sınıfsal olgular olarak değerlendirmesidir. Dolayısıyla bu çalıÅŸma, karma ekonomi ile neoliberalizmi ‘yarıÅŸtırmanın’ ötesine geçmek üzere, 21. Yüzyılda da ‘az geliÅŸmiÅŸlik’ sorunlarıyla yüzleÅŸmeyi sürdüren Türkiye’de yakın gelecekte etkinleÅŸtirilebilecek bu yeni siyasal-iktisat tarzını tartıÅŸmaya açmayı amaçlamaktadır. |
| Keywords: | Türkiye Ekonomisi, Proaktif Devlet, Reaktif Devlet, Popülizm, Makroekonomik Temkin, Kurumsal GeliÅŸme |
| JEL: | B50 B59 P10 P16 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:wpaper:2403 |