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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Jorg Bibow |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the (lack of any lasting) impact of John Maynard Keynes's General Theory on economic policymaking in Germany. The analysis highlights the interplay between economic history and the history of ideas in shaping policymaking in postwar (West) Germany. The paper argues that Germany learned the wrong lessons from its own history and misread the true sources of its postwar success. Monetary mythology and the Bundesbank, with its distinctive anti-inflationary bias, feature prominently in this collective odyssey. The analysis shows that the crisis of the euro today is largely the consequence of Germany's peculiar anti-Keynesianism. |
| Keywords: | John Maynard Keynes; Mercantilism; Economic and Monetary Union; Euro Crisis |
| JEL: | B31 E30 E58 E65 N14 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_886&r=pke |
| By: | Hanappi, Hardy |
| Abstract: | The capitalist mode of production has fulfilled a most astonishing ‘historical mission’ for the human species. It enabled an explosion of labor productivity gains and the discovery of new utility dimensions. But this progress came at the price of accompanying explosion of contradictions, of unequal benefits and burdens across global and local classes of humans. This paper sets out to explore what will happen if capitalism is finally ending, if its mission collapses. To do so a workable definition of the essence of capitalism is needed, I propose this to be the ‘capitalist algorithm’ – for a detailed treatment see [Hanappi, 2013]. The most interesting question then concerns the social mechanisms that might overcome – revolutionize – what currently dominates the behavior of large production conglomerates as well as their military arms on a global level. Following the tradition of Hegel and Marx it can be assumed that a large part of the capitalist algorithm simply will have to vanish. But as history shows there also always is a remainder of a mode of production that in an inverted form (Hegel: negation, German Marxism: ‘Umstülpung’) becomes part of the next progressive mode of production. To identify what ‘Capital after Capitalism’ could be, what has to be abolished and what might survive in which form – remember the double meaning of Hegel’s concept ‘Aufhebung’ – is a central prerequisite for a proper understanding of the coming revolution of the current mode of production. Since each step on the ladder of global social evolution is also a step in social human consciousness, this step in understanding implies a direct impact in guiding the actions to accomplish this turnover. |
| Keywords: | Capitalism, Utopia, Political Economy, Mode of Production |
| JEL: | B00 B59 N10 P16 |
| Date: | 2016–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77161&r=pke |
| By: | Prante, Franz J. |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a simple illustrative post-Kaleckian model of distribution and growth that incorporates personal income inequality and interdependent social norms. The model shows in an easily accessible manner how personal and functional income inequality can potentially have contrary effects on aggregate demand and growth. It can illustrate some of the major domestic developments that took place in different countries in the decades prior to the Great Recession and which were connected to inequality and country specific consumption and saving behaviour. Furthermore, aggregate consumption functions are estimated for the United States and Germany. The finding of previous studies regarding a higher elasticity of aggregate consumption with respect to wage income than with respect to profit income is confirmed. We find positive long-run effects of personal income inequality on consumption in the US. The effect is strongest for the top 10% income share and the Gini index and less strong for the top 5% and 1% income shares. While this is evidence for relative consumption patterns, it also supports the view that the 'super rich' are a somewhat distant strata for most people - questioning the notion of expenditure cascades from the very top to the very bottom of the distribution. For Germany, we fail to find compelling evidence for substantial effects of personal income distribution. |
| Keywords: | Income inequality,Personal and functional income distribution,Demand and growth regimes,Relative income hypothesis,Kaleckian model |
| JEL: | C22 D31 D33 E11 E12 E25 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:832017&r=pke |
| By: | Xu, Cheng-Gang |
| Abstract: | Understanding the nature of capitalism has been a central theme of economics. The collapse of the East Bloc and the global financial crisis spurred the reemergence of the political economy as a new frontier and the revival of interest in the nature of capitalism. Kornai's book fills an important intellectual gap in understanding the dynamic nature of capitalism by comparing it with its mirror image, socialism. To further develop the themes contained in the book, serious challenges are posted theoretically and empirically, as well as in subjects, such as hybrid capitalism. |
| Keywords: | Capitalism; growth; innovation; Institution; Socialism; Soft-budget Constraint |
| JEL: | A10 B10 D02 E02 H11 O11 O12 O30 P10 P20 P30 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11866&r=pke |
| By: | Diane Perrons |
| Abstract: | Economic geography, at its best, deploys economic and social theory to make sense of the economic, political and social transformation of regions and their impact on people’s lives and opportunities. Nowhere is this approach more evident than in the work of Ray Hudson, who has consistently focused on analysing the processes of combined and uneven development to explain the broad changes in the capitalist economy together with middle-level theories to account for the complexity of regional development in practice. In so doing he has created a powerful Geographical Political Economy that provides a deep understanding of the last four decades of economic restructuring and industrial transformation of the North-East Region of England and its impact on the lives of people living there. This article reflects on this aspect of Ray Hudson’s work in the context of his broader contributions to the academy. |
| Keywords: | Economic geography; space; place; social theory |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2017–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:69672&r=pke |
| By: | Duflo, Esther |
| Abstract: | As economists increasingly help governments design new policies and regulations, they take on an added responsibility to engage with the details of policy making and, in doing so, to adopt the mindset of a plumber. Plumbers try to predict as well as possible what may work in the real world, mindful that tinkering and adjusting will be necessary since our models gives us very little theoretical guidance on what (and how) details will matter. This essay argues that economists should seriously engage with plumbing, in the interest of both society and our discipline. |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11881&r=pke |
| By: | Ozlem Albayrak; Thomas Masterson |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the quality analysis of the statistical matching conducted for a research study on household consumption behavior, household indebtedness, and inequality for Turkey. The match has been done for four years (2005, 2008, 2009, and 2012) of Household Budget Surveys (HBS) and the Survey for Income and Living Conditions (SILC). The aim of the statistical matching is to transfer household expenditure data from the HBS to the SILC to create synthetic data sets that have information on household consumption expenditures as well as household income and indebtedness. We are following the methodology of constrained statistical matching, using estimated propensity scores developed in Kum and Masterson (2010) to produce the synthetic data sets that we need. The analysis shows that the match is of high quality. |
| Keywords: | Statistical Matching; Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distribution; Turkey |
| JEL: | C14 D12 D31 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_885&r=pke |
| By: | Gaëlle Ferrant; Alexandre Kolev; Caroline Tassot |
| Abstract: | The OECD has long argued that the ultimate goal of public policies is to improve the quality of our lives. But what makes us happy? Does living in a country guaranteeing equal rights and opportunities to women and men increase people’s happiness? This paper shows that genderbased discrimination in social institutions, measured by the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), impedes well-being, beyond its negative impact on economic growth and GDP. Both men and women are happier when living in a country where social institutions offer equal rights and opportunities to women and men, even when taking into account country and individual characteristics. Current gender-based discrimination in social institutions fuels a decline of 4.4% in the world average level of life satisfaction. Conversely, eliminating gender-based discrimination in social institutions could reduce the share of the “unhappy” population from 14% to 5% globally. L'OCDE a longtemps soutenu que l’objectif ultime des politiques publiques était d'améliorer notre qualité de vie. Mais qu'est-ce qui nous rend heureux? Vivre dans un pays garantissant l'égalité des droits et des chances aux femmes et aux hommes augmente-t-il notre bonheur? Cette étude montre que les discriminations envers les femmes au sein des institutions sociales, mesurées par l’indicateur institutions sociales et égalité femme-homme (SIGI), réduisent le bienêtr des individus, au-delà de son impact négatif sur la croissance économique et le PIB. Les hommes et les femmes sont plus heureux quand ils vivent dans un pays où les institutions sociales leur offrent des droits et opportunités égaux. L’étude estime que le niveau actuel de discrimination envers les femmes au sein des institutions sociales induit une perte de bien-être de 4.4 % au niveau mondial. Réciproquement, l’élimination de toutes formes de discriminations envers les femmes au sein des institutions sociales réduirait la proportion d’individus insatisfaits de 14 % à 5 % au niveau mondial. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, social institutions, subjective well-being |
| JEL: | D60 I31 J16 |
| Date: | 2017–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:devaaa:337-en&r=pke |