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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Pavlina R. Tcherneva |
| Abstract: | In the postwar period, with every subsequent expansion, a smaller and smaller share of the gains in income growth have gone to the bottom 90 percent of families. Worse, in the latest expansion, while the economy has grown and average real income has recovered from its 2008 lows, all of the growth has gone to the wealthiest 10 percent of families, and the income of the bottom 90 percent has fallen. Most Americans have not felt that they have been part of the expansion. We have reached a situation where a rising tide sinks most boats. This policy note provides a broader overview of the increasingly unequal distribution of income growth during expansions, examines some of the changes that occurred from 2012 to 2013, and identifies a disturbing business cycle trend. It also suggests that policy must go beyond the tax system if we are serious about reversing the drastic worsening of income inequality. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:levypn:15-4&r=pke |
| By: | Rishabh Kumar (Department of Economics, New School for Social Research) |
| Abstract: | A two class (rentiers and workers) model of growth and distri- bution is applied to the study of long run stagnation in aggregate demand. The theoretical framework shows the same forces which lead to concentration of wealth and income amongst the class of rentiers, also constrain the aggregate economy's output capital ratio in the long run. We conjecture that this model addresses the secular stagnation argument that has gained prominence recently. For the period 1979- 2010, we nd the US economy represents the kind of stylized economy which would be prone to falling output capital ratios due to increased savings rate dierentials in its income and wealth ranking. A rst approximation suggests the long decline in the rate of saving in the US maybe a consequence of a distributional paradox of thrift. |
| Keywords: | Distribution, Economic Growth, Stagnation, Paradox of Thrift |
| JEL: | D3 E21 O4 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:1506&r=pke |
| By: | Dean Baker |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the potential impact of the Federal Reserve Board’s decision on interest rates on the budget deficit. The first part recounts the history of the 1990s surplus, correcting the widely held misunderstanding that this surplus was achieved by the Clinton administration’s tax increases and spending cuts. The second part examines the direct and indirect impact of Fed rate hikes on the federal budget deficit. The third part examines the impact of Fed rate hikes on state budgets. |
| Keywords: | economic policy, Bush administration, George W. Bush, dollar, housing bubble, trade deficit |
| JEL: | E |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2015-08&r=pke |
| By: | Cooper, Richard N. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:faseco:14352638&r=pke |
| By: | João Braz Pinto (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, Portugal); João Sousa Andrade (Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra and GEMF, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | Keynes has emphasized a particular situation in which the liquidity preference becomes absolute, leading to monetary policy ineffectiveness: the near zero nominal rate of interest does not allow negative values of the real interest rate. This situation is termed liquidity trap (LT) and although popularized by the IS-LM Hicks-Hansen framework it was authored by Robertson. It was also elected as the Keynesian case against the classical one. In 1998 Krugman recovered the name by applying it to the Japanese episode of the 1990's. The “lowflation” environment in USA and Europe brought again the LT to the forefront. The quantitative easing monetary policy was followed in Japan and is now applied in the USA and EMU as a solution to overcome the LT. But the LT has been erroneously considered as a money demand problem and at the same time denied as a “banking problem” in the words of Krugman. We contend that the current situation should be interpreted as a “banking problem” that impedes the transformation of the monetary base into money supply. In order to prove our thesis we study the behavior of the USA money multiplier and the income velocity of money before the beginning of the current crisis and during the crisis and by forecasting and estimating a VAR and a VECM model we compare the normal situation of monetary policy efficiency with the situation of LT monetary policy inefficiency. |
| Keywords: | Liquidity Trap, Money Supply, Monetary Base Multiplier, ARIMA, VAR and VECM models. |
| JEL: | E12 E3 E4 E51 E6 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gmf:wpaper:2015-06.&r=pke |
| By: | Alvarez-Cuadrado, Francisco (McGill University); Long, Ngo Van (McGill University); Poschke, Markus (McGill University) |
| Abstract: | There is a growing interest in multi-sector models that combine aggregate balanced growth, consistent with the well-known Kaldor facts, with systematic changes in the sectoral allocation of resources, consistent with the Kuznets facts. Although variations in the income elasticity of demand across goods played an important role in initial approaches, recent models stress the role of supply-side factors in this process of structural change, in particular sector-specific technical change and sectoral differences in factor proportions. We explore a general framework that features an additional supply-side mechanism and also encompasses, as special cases, these two known mechanisms. Our model shows that sectoral differences in the degree of capital-labor substitutability – a new mechanism – are a driving force for structural change. When the flexibility to combine capital and labor differs across sectors, a factor rebalancing effect is operative. It tends to make production in the more flexible sector more intensive in the input that becomes more abundant. As a result, growth rates of sectoral capital-labor ratios can differ and, if this effect dominates, shares of each factor used in a given sector can move in different directions. We identify conditions under which this occurs and analyze the dynamics of such a case. We also provide some suggestive evidence consistent with this new mechanism. |
| Keywords: | capital-labor substitution, balanced growth, structural change |
| JEL: | O40 O30 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8940&r=pke |
| By: | Ivars Brivers (BA School of Business and Finance, Latvia) |
| Abstract: | The paper deals with the discussion on the possible models of economy – market economy, which is usually associated with capitalism, and planned economy, which is usually associated with socialism. The experience of the 20th century has shown that efforts to choose the model of socialism have failed. Is it sufficient to make a conclusion, that capitalism is preferred to socialism not depending on conditions? Even if so, that the events of the 21st century show, that model of capitalism also has faced serious contra versions, and thus should be significantly modified. The great economists from Smith to Keynes have made forecasts about the new model of economy in the future – neither socialism, nor capitalism in a common sense. To solve the global problems, we need to think outside the box, revising critically the conventional wisdoms, thus creating a new model of economy. A possible way in that direction may be the localization of economy in a global scale. |
| Keywords: | Globalization, localization, market, planned economy |
| JEL: | A13 B00 P51 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2015:no35&r=pke |
| By: | Fernando Rios-Avila |
| Abstract: | In a recent policy note (A Decade of Flat Wages?) we examined wage trends since 1994, and found that while wages grew between 1994 and 2002, average real wages stagnated or declined after 2002-03. Our latest study provides a more detailed analysis of wage trends for wage-level, age, and education groups, with emphasis on the periods following the 2001 and 2007-09 recessions. There was a more or less cohesive evolution of wages among different groups until 2002-03. However, after controlling for structural changes in the labor force, wages diverged sharply in the years that followed for different age, education, and wage groups, with the majority of workers experiencing real declines in their wages. This was not a short-term decline among a few numerically insignificant groups. Nearly two-thirds of all full-time wage earners have less than a four-year college degree and saw their wages decline compared to peak wages in 2002. Workers aged 44 and younger, representing slightly more than 38 million full-time wage earners or 71.4 percent of all full-time wage earners in the United States, also experienced a large reduction in cumulative wage growth after 2002. In terms of wage groups, the bottom 75 percent of full-time workers saw a decline in real wages, while those at the top of the wage distribution saw their wages rise—clear evidence of increasing wage inequality. Given the downward trend in real wages for the majority of full-time wage earners since 2009, it should come as no surprise that recovery from the Great Recession has been weak. In the absence of an employer-of-last-resort policy, federal and state policy must focus its efforts on increasing wages through measures such as progressive tax policy, raising the minimum wage, ensuring overtime pay laws are enforced, and creating opportunities for the most vulnerable workers. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:levypn:15-3&r=pke |
| By: | Martin K Jones |
| Abstract: | The traditional view of the economic agent is of an individual who is self-interested, rational and perceives the world “correctly”. However, there is a lot of experimental and other evidence that undermines this view of agents. It is argued that an attempt to model these agents properly requires the cognitive science idea of a mental representation- a mental state with content. It is shown that this idea gives economists resources to discuss critiques of economics by Sandel (2012) and Grant (2012). In particular, it allows us to think clearly about the notion of goods being “corrupted” by a change in context from a non-market to a market situation. |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dun:dpaper:288&r=pke |
| By: | Cedrini, Mario; Fontana, Magda (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | There is considerable discussion on the so-called “mainstream pluralism”, which stems from the growth and coexistence of new research programs in economics that significantly deviate from the neoclassical core. Other disciplines have actively contributed to the birth of such programs, that are carried on by different, often separated communities of researchers. Although “mainstream pluralism” is not the pluralism heterodox economists and students groups have sought for in the recent decades, its persistence over time might provide a possible precondition for the advent of pluralism in economics. While the literature tends to regard mainstream pluralism as a transitory state towards a new, post-neoclassical, mainstream, this paper contributes to the debate by bringing in a different perspective, focusing on economics’ fragmentation and the necessity of specialization. We adopt a “late Kuhnian” framework (derived from Kuhn’s late works on specialization), considering not scientific revolutions but specialization as key engine of progress in science, and interpret mainstream pluralism as the result of economics’ recent growth in size and dive rsity. To account for the necessity of specialization in economics, we employ Ronald Heiner’s work on the competence-difficulty gap, as well as the evidence offered in some recent studies about the impact of the “burden” of previously accumulated knowledge on innovative behaviour. After a bird’s eye view on the recent history of economics in relation to other disciplines (and an analysis of Herbert Gintis’s “unity of behavioral sciences” proposal as possible new mains tream), we discuss the possibility that today’s “mainstream pluralism” might persist over time. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:cesmep:201501&r=pke |
| By: | Sau, Lino (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The storm that has rocked our world has opened an interesting debate among economists and policy makers concerning with the need of a new international monetary and financial architecture. The monetary and financial regime that has been in force since the collapse of Bretton Woods (B-W), encourages indeed the persistence of unsustainable dynamics which spawn increasingly serious crises and it is unable of imparting an acceptable macro-economic discipline device to the world's economy. It became apparent that the global role of a key currency along with the deregulation of financial markets (neo-liberal paradigm) have acted as underlying conditions for the US financial crisis up to present situation and the following contagion to Europe. In this paper I point out the inadequacy of the institutional arrangements underlying the international monetary and financial regimes and I outline the relevance to the current debate of Keynes original plan, suggested rightly 70 years ago, that never born. |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:cesmep:201403&r=pke |
| By: | Eduardo Olaberría; Valéry Dugain |
| Abstract: | In 2013 the Mexican government embarked on a major reform agenda which, if fully implemented and pushed forward, will help Mexico break out from a recent history of economic stagnation and high levels of poverty and inequality that has hampered the quality of life of its citizens. Indeed, compared with other OECD countries, Mexico performs poorly in indicators that are essential to a good life, often resulting in traps that hinder growth and well-being. The government has introduced major structural reforms to fight poverty, improve the quality of education, create more jobs in the formal sector and move towards a universal social security system. This is a substantial accomplishment. However, Mexico needs to build a more inclusive state. This implies raising more tax revenue (without necessarily increasing tax rates) to expand social protection. It also means promoting an inclusive labour market to reduce informality and increase female labour market participation; inclusive schools to reduce educational gaps; inclusive health systems so that health care quality no longer depends on employment status; and inclusive cities to reduce geographical segregation. This Working Paper relates to the 2015 OECD Economic Survey of Mexico (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-mexico.htm).<P>Partager les fruits de la croissance entre tous les Mexicains<BR>Le gouvernement mexicain a entrepris, en 2013, un vaste programme de réforme qui, s’il est pleinement mis en oeuvre et poursuivi, aidera le Mexique à rompre avec la stagnation économique et les taux élevés de pauvreté et d’inégalité qui ont marqué son passé récent et pesé sur la qualité de vie de ses citoyens. Par rapport à d’autres pays de l’OCDE, le Mexique est médiocrement classé en ce qui concerne les indicateurs indispensables à une qualité de vie acceptable, ce qui crée souvent des engrenages qui nuisent à la croissance et au bien-être. Le gouvernement a lancé des réformes structurelles de grande envergure visant à lutter contre la pauvreté, à améliorer la qualité de l’éducation, à créer davantage d’emplois dans le secteur formel et à poser les premières pierres d’un système de sécurité sociale ouvert à tous. Il s’agit là d’un grand pas en avant. Toutefois, le Mexique doit devenir un État plus solidaire. Pour cela, il lui faut accroître ses recettes fiscales (sans nécessairement augmenter les taux d’imposition) pour étendre la protection sociale. Il lui faut également promouvoir l’inclusivité du marché du travail , pour réduire le nombre des travailleurs du secteur informel et accroître la présence des femmes sur le marché du travail des établissements scolaires, pour réduire les lacunes en matière d’éducation des systèmes de santé , pour que la qualité des soins ne dépende plus de la situation professionnelle, et des villes, pour réduire la ségrégation géographique. Ce document de travail économique se rapporte à l'Étude économique 2015 de l'OCDE sur le Mexique (www.oecd.org/fr/eco/etudes/etude-econom ique-mexique.htm). |
| Keywords: | education, Mexico, health, informality, inequality, income, inégalité, informalité, revenu, santé, Mexique, éducation |
| JEL: | H1 H5 I1 I2 J3 |
| Date: | 2015–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1197-en&r=pke |
| By: | Thomas Leoni |
| Abstract: | The European welfare states have undergone a significant amount of change over the last decades. In light of the unresolved tensions resulting from changed macroeconomic conditions, the emergence of new social risks as well as from the consequences of the Great Recession and its aftershocks, more adjustments are needed. The present policy paper investigates the current outlook on welfare state change, retracing the socio-economic drivers of this change and the salient steps that were undertaken to reform welfare states in the last decades. Since the outbreak of the crisis, calls to adopt a social investment perspective on welfare state reform intensified, both in the academic field and at the EU policy-level. Ample space is therefore devoted to the discussion of this perspective, its conceptual background, ambiguities and applications. For a number of reasons, social investment seems the most appropriate approach to frame the objectives that contemporary welfare states have to pursue and to devise a consistent set of policies. The objections which have been moved against the social investment perspective have however to be taken seriously. This concerns the conceptual framework on which the social investment idea is based, but in particular its policy implementation and the relationship between its three central pillars: activation, human capital development and social inclusion. |
| Keywords: | Challenges for welfare system, Comprehensive social system, Demographic change, EU integration, European governance, Gender, Labour markets, Post-industrialisation, Welfare reform, Welfare state |
| JEL: | H5 I3 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feu:wfewop:y:2015:m:3:d:0:i:89&r=pke |
| By: | Elul, Ronel (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) |
| Abstract: | We find that private-securitized loans perform worse than observably similar, nonsecuritized loans, which provides evidence for adverse selection. The effect of securitization is strongest for prime mortgages, which have not been studied widely in the previous literature and particular prime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs): These become delinquent at a 30 percent higher rate when privately securitized. By contrast, our baseline estimates for subprime mortgages show that private-securitized loans default at lower rates. We show, however, that “early defaulting loans” account for this: those that were so risky that they defaulted before they could be securitized. This version supersedes WP 09-21. |
| Keywords: | Mortgage default; securitization; adverse selection |
| JEL: | D82 G21 |
| Date: | 2015–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:15-15&r=pke |
| By: | Wen, Yi (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) |
| Abstract: | The rise of China is no doubt the most important event in world economic history since the Industrial Revolution. The institutional theory of development based on a dichotomy of extractive vs. inclusive political institutions cannot explain China’s rise. This article argues that only a radical reinterpretation of the history of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the West (as incorrectly portrayed by the institutional theory) can fully explain China’s growth miracle and why the determined rise of China is unstoppable. Conversely, China’s spectacular and rapid transformation from an impoverished agrarian society to a formidable industrial superpower sheds considerable light on the fundamental flaws of neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus and provides more-accurate reevaluations of historical episodes such as Latin America’s lost decade and plagued debt crisis, 19th century Europe’s great escape from the Malthusian trap, and the Industrial Revolution itself. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Revolution; the Rise of China; the Great Divergence; Market Fundamentalism; Neoliberalism; Big Push; Import Substitution Industrialization; Shock Therapy; Washington Consensus; New Structuralism; New Stage Theory. |
| JEL: | B00 N00 O1 O2 O3 O4 O5 |
| Date: | 2015–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2015-006&r=pke |
| By: | Brunnermeier, Markus K; Schnabel, Isabel |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews some of the most prominent asset price bubbles from the past 400 years and documents how central banks (or other institutions) reacted to those bubbles. The historical evidence suggests that the emergence of bubbles is often preceded or accompanied by an expansionary monetary policy, lending booms, capital inflows, and financial innovation or deregulation. We find that the severity of the economic crisis following the bursting of a bubble is less linked to the type of asset than to the financing of the bubble—crises are most severe when accompanied by a lending boom and high leverage of market players, and when financial institutions themselves are participating in the buying frenzy. Past experience also suggests that a purely passive “cleaning up the mess” stance toward the buildup of bubbles is, in many cases, costly. Monetary policy and macroprudential measures that lean against inflating bubbles can and sometimes have helped deflate bubbles and mitigate the associated economic crises. However, the correct implementation of such proactive policy approaches remains fraught with difficulties. |
| Keywords: | bubbles; capital flows; credit; macroprudential policy; monetary policy |
| JEL: | E44 E52 F34 G01 N10 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10528&r=pke |
| By: | Kees Vringer; Herman R.J. Vollebergh; Daan van Soest; Eline van der Heijden; Frank Dietz |
| Abstract: | Consumers only occasionally choose to buy sustainable products. At the same time these consumers say in surveys that sustainability is important to them, and that the government should promote sustainable consumption. Most likely, a social dilemma is at play here. Everyone would be better off if we all consume sustainably; but because of the higher prices for sustainable products, there is an incentive for each individual to leave sustainability efforts to others. Government measures to promote sustainable consumption would resolve the social dilemma. But do consumers really want to increase sustainability? This study takes a closer look at public support for sustainable consumption and the associated dilemmas, with the help of a behavioural economics experiment of group decisions. In the experiment, participants had to decide whether they were willing to buy more sustainable varieties of meat or chocolate instead of less sustainable conventional varieties. They actually had to buy the product agreed upon for one week. The results show that a large number of participants, who did not usually buy sustainable products, were willing to commit to buying sustainable products. This gap may partially be explained by ‘conditional cooperation’ phenomena. In addition participants appear insensitive to the size of the collective benefit. However, the participants in our experiment seem to have difficulties to force others to buy sustainable products. They seem to be caught in a moral dilemma in which they weigh the feel-good effect of contributing to a collective good against the higher individual costs of buying sustainable products and forcing others to do so. Also we found that the preference of the participants for, or dislike of, a measure beforehand did not say much about their appreciation of the measure afterwards. Based on the results we draw the following policy conclusions. Since consumers do not always act in accordance with their values, the presently low market shares of sustainable products do not adequately reflect consumer support for government policy to promote sustainable consumption. To stimulate consumption of sustainable products, it may be useful to emphasize the feel-good effect (‘warm glow’) of individual contributions to sustainability. Furthermore, the government could make use of the fact that most consumers are ‘conditionally cooperative’, e.g. by convincing individual consumers that enough others are switching to sustainable products, too. In this context, it appears that consumers prefer ‘soft’ incentive measures (e.g. subsidies) over ‘hard’ restrictive regulations, even if their individual financial benefit from the former will be smaller. The freedom of choice is apparently worth it. However, rules and regulations, even in the form of bans of less sustainable product varieties, can be acceptable and more effective – as long as the government takes the lead in setting up these rules and regulations.<BR>Les consommateurs ne choisissent qu’occasionnellement d’acheter des produits durables. Or quand on les interroge, ces mêmes consommateurs déclarent que la durabilité est importante pour eux et que les pouvoirs publics devraient promouvoir la consommation durable. Selon toute vraisemblance, un dilemme social est ici à l’oeuvre. Chaque individu gagnerait à ce que nous consommions tous des produits durables, mais le prix plus élevé de ces produits l’incite à laisser cet effort aux autres. L’adoption par les pouvoirs publics de mesures visant à promouvoir la consommation durable résoudrait le dilemme social, mais les consommateurs souhaitent-ils réellement promouvoir la durabilité ? Cette étude examine l’intérêt des individus pour la consommation durable et les dilemmes que cela engendre, en s’appuyant sur une expérience d’économie comportementale appliquée à des décisions de groupe. Dans cette expérience, les participants devaient décider s’ils étaient prêts à acheter de la viande biologique ou du chocolat équitable au lieu de versions classiques (moins durables) de ces produits, et devaient effectuer les achats décidés durant une semaine. Les résultats montrent qu’un grand nombre de participants, qui n’achètent habituellement pas de produits durables, étaient prêts à s’engager à le faire. Ce contraste peut en partie s’expliquer par un phénomène de « coopération conditionnelle ». En outre, les participants paraissent insensibles à l’ampleur du gain collectif généré. Toutefois, les participants de notre expérience semblent éprouver des difficultés à obliger les autres à acheter des produits durables. Ils semblent être confrontés à un dilemme moral, dans lequel ils doivent mettre en balance la sensation de bien-être que provoque la contribution à un bien collectif et les coûts individuels plus élevés que supposent l’achat de produits durables et le fait d’obliger les autres à agir de même. Nous avons aussi constaté que la préférence des participants pour une mesure ou leur rejet de celle-ci a priori n’en disaient pas beaucoup sur leur appréciation de la mesure a posteriori. À partir des résultats de cette expérience, nous avons tiré les conclusions suivantes. Puisque les consommateurs n’agissent pas toujours conformément à leurs valeurs, la part de marché des produits durables, qui est actuellement faible, ne reflète pas correctement le soutien des consommateurs aux mesures prises par les pouvoirs publics pour promouvoir la consommation durable. Afin de stimuler la consommation de produits durables, il pourrait s’avérer utile de jouer sur la sensation de bien-être (le « chaud au coeur ») que suscite une contribution individuelle au développement durable. En outre, les pouvoirs publics pourraient s’appuyer sur la « coopération conditionnelle » qui caractérise la plupart des consommateurs, par exemple en persuadant chaque individu qu’un nombre suffisant (important) de consommateurs change aussi ses habitudes de consommation au profit de la consommation durable. Dans ce contexte, il apparaît que les consommateurs préfèrent les mesures incitatives « douces » (comme les subventions) aux règlementations restrictives, mesures « dures », même s’ils y perdent sur le plan financier. C’est le prix à payer pour le libre-choix. Toutefois, les règlementations, même sous la forme d’interdiction des versions les moins durables d’un produit, peuvent être acceptées et s’avérer plus efficaces, tant qu’elles restent à l’initiative des pouvoirs publics. |
| Keywords: | conditional cooperation, household economics, sustainable consumption, consommation durable, coopération conditionnelle, économie des ménages |
| JEL: | D11 D12 |
| Date: | 2015–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:envaaa:84-en&r=pke |
| By: | Alessandra Colombelli; Jackie Krafft; Francesco Quatraro |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of eco-innovation on firms’ growth processes, with a special focus on gazelles, i.e. firms’ showing higher growth rates than the average. In a context shaped by more and more stringent environmental regulatory frameworks, we posit that inducement mechanisms stimulate the adoption of green technologies, increasing the derived demand for technologies produced by upstream firms supplying eco-innovations. For these reason we expect the generation of green technologies to trigger sales growth. We use firm-level data drawn from the Bureau van Dijk Database, coupled with patent information obtained from the OECD Science and Technology Indicators. The results confirm that eco-innovations are likely to augment the effects of generic innovation on firms’ growth, and this is particularly true for gazelles, which actually appear to run faster than the others. |
| Keywords: | Gazelles, Eco-Innovation, firms’ growth, Inducement mechanisms, derived demand, WIPO Green Inventory |
| JEL: | L10 L20 O32 O33 Q53 Q55 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feu:wfewop:y:2015:m:3:d:0:i:88&r=pke |
| By: | Peter Heindl; Rudolf Schüssler |
| Abstract: | Measures of affordability are applied in practice, e.g., to assess the affordability of energy services, water or housing. They can be interpreted as measures of deprivation in a specific domain of consumption. The large body of literature on affordability measure has little overlap with the existing literature on poverty measurement. A comprehensive assessment of the response of affordability measures as a result of changes in the distribution of income or expenditure is missing. This paper aims to fill this gap by providing a conceptual discussion on the ‘dynamics’ of energy affordability measures. Several types of measures are examined in a microsimulation framework to assess their dynamic properties. Our results indicate that some measures exhibit odd dynamic behavior. This includes measures used in practice, such as the low income/high cost measure and the double median of expenditure share indicator. Odd dynamic behavior is attributed to definitions made with respect to higher moments of the expenditure distribution. Definitions that rely on a percentage share of expenditure relative to income or an absolute or relative income poverty line fare well from a dynamic perspective. |
| Keywords: | affordability measure; energy poverty; fuel poverty |
| JEL: | I32 D63 Q48 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp746&r=pke |
| By: | Bénédicte Coestier |
| Abstract: | Although Jordan reached middle-income status more than three decades ago, the country has not made the additional leap, like most developing countries in the Middle East, to become a high-income economy. In this paper, we argue that institutions, namely formal rules (constitution, judiciary, political system) as well as “personality-based” informal rules (tribalism, wasta) might explain the middle-income growth trap. More precisely, we highlight that informal institutions, as well as the distorted use of formal institutions, are a by-product of the process of state formation. They play a part in the preservation of personal/anonymous relationships between the state and society and in the persistence of the rentier system. Jordanian Spring events reveal that a demand for reforming the power structure prevails over the overthrow of the Monarchy. Finally, to assess the undergoing transition process in Jordan, we resort to the social orders conceptual framework (North et al. (2009, 2012)) with an emphasis on impersonality (Wallis (2011)). The “Arab Springs” events have put pressure on the power structure to advance the rule of law (impersonal relationships among elites), and on the Monarchy in Jordan to create a “perpetual” state. |
| Keywords: | Economic development, middle-income growth trap, rentier system, institutions, rule of law, tribalism, wasta, Arab springs. |
| JEL: | D02 H11 O43 O53 N45 Z1 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2015-8&r=pke |
| By: | Wuepper, David; Sauer, Johannes |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, International Development, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:201229&r=pke |
| By: | Katarzyna Cheba (West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin) |
| Abstract: | The development of clusters seems to be a natural consequence of the observed trends in the global economy. The increased interest in the creation and development of clusters can also be seen in most of the countries of the European Union, however, the experience of EU countries in this field is different. In addition to strong clusters with a long tradition, new clusters are created with much lower potential. Clusters compatible with the most important EU documents are to play the role of organizations supporting regional development and ensuring the growth of innovation of the European Union in the new programming period. Japanese economy is based on the important role of clusters in this area, which along with the US and the European Union is among the largest economies in the world. The experience of Japan in this area is much longer. A lot of still functioning clusters were created in this country in the XVII and XVIII centuries. The aim of this study is a comparative analysis of the socio-economic situation of the European Union and Japan, with special emphasis on the role, that clusters play in those economies. The result of the analysis is to identify the factors that allow for the effective operation of enterprises within created cluster structures. The analysis of Japan's experience in this area is a valuable source of information for policy guidelines developed to support clusters in the EU. |
| Keywords: | cluster, effectiveness of clusters, regional development, value of regions |
| JEL: | O12 O57 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2015:no37&r=pke |
| By: | mashkoor, Aasim; ahmed, Ovais |
| Abstract: | The theory we have designed the idea of economic development which remain associated with main elements that consists of two main development area, firstly is Health and secondly, Education development. The main factor of this idea to provide Human development that enormously influence on economic development which resulted from different perspectives. Many researches explained by analysis of focus variables of economic growth which have relationship to lead the economic development. In addition, there are further economic factors are playing crucially related with economic growth. in this study, the hypothesis concern to seriously influence on private investments in economic factors which are, therefore mainly discussed in researches, human development, awareness of education, infrastructure of economic reforms, Trade and industrial expansions. |
| Keywords: | Economic Development, Human Development |
| JEL: | O1 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:63370&r=pke |