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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Yeva Nersisyan; L. Randall Wray |
| Abstract: | President Biden's proposals for investing in social and physical infrastructure signal a return to a budget-neutral policymaking framework that has largely been set aside since the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis. According Yeva Nersisyan and L. Randall Wray, this focus on ensuring revenues keep pace with spending increases can undermine the goals internal to both the public investment and tax components of the administration’s plans: the "pay for" approach limits our spending on progressive policy to what we can raise through taxes, and we will only tax the amount we need to spend. Nersisyan and Wray propose an alternative approach to budgeting for large-scale public expenditure programs. In their view, policymakers should evaluate spending and tax proposals on their own terms, according to the goals each is intended to meet. If the purpose of taxing corporations and wealthy individuals is to reduce inequality, then the tax changes should be formulated to accomplish that--not to "raise funds" to finance proposed spending. And while it is possible that general tax hikes might be needed to prevent public investment programs from fueling inflation, they argue that the kinds of taxes proposed by the administration would do little to relieve inflationary pressures should they arise. Under current economic circumstances, however, the president's proposed infrastructure spending should not require budgetary offsets or other measures to control inflation in their estimation. |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:levppb:ppb_155&r= |
| By: | Marwil J. Dávila-Fernández; Serena Sordi |
| Abstract: | Thirlwall’s law is one of the most powerful empirical regularities among demand-led growth theories. In recent years, the challenges imposed by globalisation have led to a new wave of studies incorporating into this framework topics such as ecological sustainability, the complexity of innovation processes, the role of institutions, the composition of external imbalances, and gender issues. We notice some overlapping between two alternative interpretations: one that sees the law as a binding-constraint and another that adopts a centre-of-gravity perspective. It is argued that they are rather complementary. By means of a simple Keynesian multiplier model compatib with Harrodian instability, we show that assuming a balance-of-payments ceiling to growth gives rise to persistent and bounded fluctuations such that the external constraint works as an asymmetric centre-of-gravity. There is no need to impose a floor to output. The model is compatible with different sources of autonomous demand. Numerical simulations show the robustness of our results with respect to alternative scenarios. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic Harrod trade-multiplier; Growth; Open economies; Two-stroke oscillator |
| JEL: | F43 O11 O40 |
| Date: | 2021–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:853&r= |
| By: | Petri, Fabio (University of Siena) |
| Abstract: | Professor Bertram Schefold’s recent papers on capital theory and the Cambridge critique argue that the very low likelihood of reswitching and reverse capital deepening that appears to emerge from empirical input-output tables is confirmed by theoretical results; these results, he concludes, largely rehabilitate traditional neoclassical views on capital and show that the Sraffian critics’ insistence on reverse capital deepening as a fundamental criticism of neoclassical theory is misplaced. The present paper raises doubts about these arguments. In particular Professor Schefold does not give adequate consideration to the ‘supply-side’ problems with the measurability and the given endowment of the traditional notion of capital as a single factor. On the empirical evidence based on input-output tables, I agree with Professor Kurz that it suffers from very serious weaknesses. The more recent argument for an extremely low likelihood of double switching, advanced in Schefold (2016) and (2017), appears criticisable too. |
| Keywords: | capital theory; Cambridge critique; random matrices; aggregate production function |
| JEL: | B13 B51 E25 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:sraffa:0050&r= |
| By: | Erasmo, Valentina |
| Abstract: | This paper tries to extend the Capabilities Conception of the Individual developed by Davis (2003, 2009), understanding capabilities as relationships. Firstly, I will introduce the main concepts which are useful towards this extension, namely those of agency and capabilities. For this purpose, I will avail of Ricoeur (2004) analysis of Sen’s earlier works. Thanks to his analysis, I will show how agency refers to a rational and responsible exercise of capabilities. After this introduction, I will develop the concept of capabilities as relationships, availing of the distinction between intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships (Giovanola 2005, 2009): in this framework, self-scrutiny and relationality respectively become the leading capabilities of these two relationships. Since this extension of capabilities conception of individuals, two concepts arise with a certain strength, namely those of responsibility and relationality. In contrast, this extension of capabilities conception of individual in economics also in terms of interpersonal relationship emphasizes how this social conception of individual is characterized by relationality. This point is relevant because enables further extensions of Sen’s works, for example, in civil economics. |
| Keywords: | agency; capabilities; responsibility; relationality; relationship (intrapersonal, interpersonal) |
| JEL: | B41 B59 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:108487&r= |
| By: | Spash, Clive L. |
| Abstract: | Ecological economics has developed as a modern movement with its roots in environmentalism and radical environmental economics. Divisions and conflicts within the field are explored to show why material claiming to fall under the title of ecological economics fails to be representative of progress or the vision which drove socio-economic specialists to interact with ecologists in the first place. The argument is then put forward that ecological economics, as a social science engagingwith the natural sciences, is a heterodox school of modern political economy. |
| Keywords: | ecological economics, methodology, ideology, politics, history |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus009:8202&r= |
| By: | Julia M. Puaschunder (The New School, New York, USA) |
| Abstract: | Globalization leveraged pressure on contemporary society. Today's most pressing social dilemmas regarding climate change demand for inclusive solutions that marry the idea of sustainable growth with environmental economics. Understanding the bounds of environmental limits to avoid ethical downfalls beyond the control of singular nation states infringing on intergenerational equity – the fairness to provide an at least as favorable standard of living to future generations as enjoyed today – has become a blatant demand. In a history of turning to natural law as a human-imbued moral compass for solving societal downfalls on a global scale in times of crises; the paper covers the ethical justification for environmental economics. Climate change demands for intergenerational equity in the 21st century and climate justice attention around the globe, while the gains and losses of a warming globe are distributed unequally. Only ethical foundations and imperatives will help to provide the groundwork on climate justice within a society, around the world and over time. Ethics of the environment derived from a human natural drive towards intergenerational fairness back climate justice based governance and private sector solutions. |
| Keywords: | Climate Bonds, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Climatorial Imperative, Economics of the Environment, Ethics, Environmental Justice, Environmental Governance, Heidegger, Kant, Public Policy, Rawls, Sustainability, Teaching |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:lpaper:0043&r= |
| By: | Julia M. Puaschunder (The New School, New York, USA) |
| Abstract: | Globalization leveraged pressure on contemporary society. Today's most pressing social dilemmas regarding climate change demand for inclusive solutions that marry the idea of sustainable growth with environmental economics. Understanding the bounds of environmental limits to avoid ethical downfalls beyond the control of singular nation states infringing on intergenerational equity – the fairness to provide an at least as favorable standard of living to future generations as enjoyed today – has become a blatant demand. In a history of turning to natural law as a human-imbued moral compass for solving societal downfalls on a global scale in times of crises; the paper covers the ethical justification for environmental economics. Climate change demands for intergenerational equity in the 21st century and climate justice attention around the globe, while the gains and losses of a warming globe are distributed unequally. Only ethical foundations and imperatives will help to provide the groundwork on climate justice within a society, around the world and over time. Ethics of the environment derived from a human natural drive towards intergenerational fairness back climate justice based governance and private sector solutions. |
| Keywords: | Climate Bonds, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Climatorial Imperative, Economics of the Environment, Ethics, Environmental Justice, Environmental Governance, Heidegger, Kant, Public Policy, Rawls, Sustainability, Teaching |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:lpaper:0039&r= |
| By: | Beja, Edsel Jr. |
| Abstract: | The paper tests the reliability and the validity of the Human Development Index (HDI) from the United Nations Development Programme and the Multidimen-sional Poverty Index (MPI) from the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative. The results indicate that there is strong reliability within metric; and that there is strong validity between metrics. The findings imply that both HDI—more specifically, the inverse, (1-HDI)—and MPI embody equivalent descriptions about the level of human development or the lack of it. |
| Keywords: | Human Development Index, Multidimensional Poverty Index, Reliability, Validity |
| JEL: | C43 I3 |
| Date: | 2021–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:108501&r= |
| By: | Quentin Couix (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | his paper investigates the methodology of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and his conception of economic models as analytical similes. His approach has received little attention from mathematical economists and economic methodologists. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to characterize his perspective and situate it in the broader spectrum of economic methodologies. It shows that Georgescu-Roegen criticized the lack of significance of certain economic models and attempted to give philosophical foundations to this criticism. He also provided a set of methodological principles that are illustrated by his practice of economic modeling. This perspective placed Georgescu-Roegen in opposition to the axiomatic approach that dominated postwar economics, and in line with economists such as Marshall, Wicksell, and Keynes, on the limited and subordinate role of mathematics in the discipline. Overall, the paper shows that Georgescu-Roegen's methodological contribution is still relevant to contemporary debates on the status of economic models. |
| Keywords: | Georgescu-Roegen,methodology,mathematical economics,models |
| Date: | 2021–04–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03226589&r= |