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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Konstantakis, Konstantinos N.; Michaelides, Panayotis G.; Mariolis, Theodore |
| Abstract: | Since its original formulation, Goodwin’s (1967) approach became a standard endogenous business cycles model. However, despite its elegant mathematical formulation, the empirical estimation of Goodwin-type models has not always ended up in success. The present paper uses the so-called Bhaduri-Marglin accumulation function in Goodwin’s original growth cycle model. Based on its derived equations of motion and dynamic properties, we econometrically estimate the proposed model for the case of the US economy in the time period 1960-2012, using structural breaks. The empirical estimation is very satisfactory and, in general terms, consistent with economic theory and the findings by other researchers on the US economy. The results of this work suggest that the proposed approach is an appropriate vehicle for expanding and improving traditional Goodwin-type models. |
| Keywords: | Bhaduri-Marglin accumulation function, Goodwin type models, US economy JEL classification: |
| JEL: | B51 C62 C67 E32 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90036&r=pke |
| By: | Bichler, Shimshon; Nitzan, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | This paper clarifies a common misrepresentation of our theory of capital as power, or CasP. Many observers tend to box CasP as an "institutionalist" theory, tracing its central process of "differential accumulation" to Thorstein Veblen's notion of "differential advantage". This view, we argue, betrays a misunderstanding of CasP, Veblen or both. As we show, CasP's notion of differential accumulation is not only different from, but also diametrically opposed to Veblen's differential advantage. Veblen, who wrote at the turn of the twentieth century, before the appearance of business indices and financial benchmarks, emphasized the absolute drive for "maximum profit" and saw strategic sabotage merely as a power means to an economic end. By contrast, CasP, which was developed at the end of the twentieth century, sees power not only as a means of accumulation, but also - and perhaps more importantly - as its ultimate purpose. Accumulators, it argues, are conditioned and driven to augment not their profits and assets as such, but their relative power, and this means that, as symbolic bearers of power, these profits and assets should be measured not absolutely, but relatively to those of others - hence the imperative of differential accumulation. |
| Keywords: | capital as power,differential advantage,differential accumulation,Thorstein Veblen |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:capwps:201808&r=pke |
| By: | Iyigun, Murat (University of Colorado, Boulder); Rubin, Jared (Chapman University); Seror, Avner (Chapman University) |
| Abstract: | Why do some societies fail to adopt more efficient political and economic institutions in response to changing economic conditions? And why do such conditions sometimes generate conservative ideological backlashes and, at other times, progressive social and political movements? We propose an explanation that highlights the interplay - or lack thereof - between productivity, cultural beliefs and institutions. In our model, production shocks that benefit one sector of the economy may induce forward-looking elites to provide public goods associated with a different, more traditional sector that benefits their interests. This investment results in more agents generating cultural beliefs complementary to the provision of the traditional good, which in turn increases the political power of the traditional elite. Hence, productivity shocks in a more advanced sector of the economy can increase investment, political power, and cultural capital associated with the more traditional sector of the economy, in the process generating a revival of beliefs associated with an outdated economic environment. |
| Keywords: | institutions, conservatism, cultural beliefs, cultural transmission, institutional change, technological change |
| JEL: | D02 N40 N70 O33 O38 O43 Z10 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11954&r=pke |
| By: | Dalton, John; Gaeto, Lillian |
| Abstract: | Diamond (2009) compares the citation time series for Schumpeter and Keynes from 1956 to 2006. Citations to Schumpeter steadily increase throughout the period, whereas citations to Keynes begin to level off and then trend slightly downward beginning in the 1990s. As a result, citations to Schumpeter begin to outstrip those to Keynes. This paper replicates Diamond (2009) and extends the analysis to 2017, which incorporates citations since the onset of the Great Recession. The replication confirms the results in Diamond (2009). The analysis beyond 2006 shows citations to Schumpeter remain larger than to Keynes, but citations to Keynes undergo a resurgence. The paper argues the Great Recession helped renew interest in Keynes. Google Trends data for Schumpeter and Keynes are compared and provide evidence showing the heightened interest in Keynes during the Great Recession. For example, in the United States, the peak of Keynes's search interest occurs in February 2009, five months after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. |
| Keywords: | Joseph Schumpeter; John Maynard Keynes; citations; Web of Science; Google Trends |
| JEL: | B0 B20 B30 |
| Date: | 2018–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90543&r=pke |
| By: | Heise, Arne |
| Abstract: | [Introduction] Ludwik Fleck’s contribution to the sociology and philosophy of science has gone almost unnoticed to the present day (see Sady 2017). Although his ideas about the development of scientific knowledge as a collective effort organised in ‘thought collectives’ (‘Denkkollektive’) based on shared ‘thought styles’ (‘Denkstile’) may have been elaborated and honed in Thomas S. Kuhn’s works on scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts and those of Imre Lakatos on scientific research programs (srp), Fleck’s work is still insightful beyond Kuhn’s and Lakatos’ contributions, not so much with respect to what triggers scientific progress but rather what impedes the correction of scientific deceptions. While Kuhn and Lakatos built on the rationality of the scientific community not to follow paradigmatic lines or adhere to scientific research programs defeated by empirical falsification or the proof of logical inconsistency or having entered the ‘state of degeneration’, Fleck was more concerned with the sociological forces that explain the resilience of ideas and what today we would call ‘fake knowledge’ even in the face of mounting evidence that does not fit the established wisdom. In the following, Fleck’s philosophy and sociology of science will be briefly outlined in order to establish a ‘theory of the resilience of scientific misapprehension’. This theory will be tested against the development of modern neoclassical economics by singling out a case of extreme deviation of theoretical prediction from empirical evidence: minimum wages’ impact on employment. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:70&r=pke |
| By: | Samuel Klebaner |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to show the possible connections between some legal history research methodologies and the research agenda of the Régulation Theory. As the last is a heterodox theory of institutions, cross-fertilizations with other fields of research open new research perspectives. In this respect, the methodology of the legal history research from the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History developed several methodological concepts like multinormativity, governance, science of regulation or law as communication. Such constructivist framework allows analyzing in vivo the norm-making and their incorporation into actors and social structures. In a context of trans-national regulation and growing autonomy of sectoral regulations, such in vivo analysis of the norm making can explain the genesis, transformation and destabilization of macro-economic institutions, which is the core interest of the Régulation Theory. |
| Keywords: | law and economics; legal history; normativity; régulation; institutions |
| JEL: | B52 K10 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2018-25&r=pke |
| By: | Clément Mathonnat (CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - UdA - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Alexandru Minea (CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - UdA - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Although the empirical literature on the determinants of economic growth volatility highlights a robust stabilizing effect of democratic regimes compared to dictatorships, no study focused so far on identifying the precise political institutions explaining this stabilizing effect. We open the political institutions black-box associated to democratic regimes, and study the effects of disaggregated political institutions on macroeconomic volatility along five institutional dimensions, namely forms of government, electoral rules, state forms, the number of veto players, and the age of democracies. Using a large panel of 140 countries over 1975-2007, we show that institutional details are of crucial importance, since the stabilizing effect of democracies depends on the precise institutional dimensions at work. Thus, our study contributes to the institutional design debate, by showing that the simple promotion of democratic regimes might not be sufficient to foster a more stable development path. |
| Keywords: | Political Institutions,Macroeconomic Volatility,Positive Constitutional Economics,Comparative Politics,Economic Development |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01903680&r=pke |
| By: | Alain Desdoigts; Fernando Jaramillo |
| Abstract: | This study presents a multisector model of middle-class-led economic growth, whereby, on the one hand, the middle class plays a key role in determining technical progress, while, on the other hand, both its size and income share are the result of past economic growth. Learn- ing by doing, which is assumed to be sector-speci c, bounded from above, and constrained by a minimum scale restriction, is the primary source of productivity gains. The emphasis is then placed on the entire income distribution, which a¤ects the composition of demand -span of goods consumed- and in turn, the speed and the extent of the learning process in the set of goods produced. The model exhibits an inverted-U relationship between inequality and economic growth, which re ects the following trade-o¤: An economy cannot learn both quickly and simultaneously in a wide range of sectors. It is constrained in this respect by its income/skill distribution and the size of its labor force, with consequences on growth-enhancing strategies by means of income redistributions. |
| Keywords: | Learning by doing, Middle-class-led consumption, Inequality, Multi-sector growth, Income redistribution |
| JEL: | D31 L16 O33 O40 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rie:riecdt:4&r=pke |
| By: | Borooah, Vani |
| Abstract: | This chapter investigates a neglected area in the study of human development relating differences in human development between social groups in a country. Failure to take account of such inter-group inequalities might lead one to exaggerate a country’s developmental achievements. Conversely, one would get a more accurate picture of a country’s achievements with respect to human development only after one had taken cognisance of the fact that the fruits of development were unequally distributed between its various communities. There is a further issue. Not only are developmental fruits unequally distributed between groups, but these fruits may be unequally distributed within the groups. This chapter uses the methodology of “equity adjusted achievement” to compute human development indices and “extended” human development indices for a number of social groups in India. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Well Being, Social Groups |
| JEL: | I31 I32 |
| Date: | 2018–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90554&r=pke |