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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Hein, Eckhard |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the post-Keynesian theory of inflation against the background of the simultaneous rise in inflation and profit shares in the course of the Covid-19 recovery and the Russian war in Ukraine. It distinguishes between the Keynes, Kaldor, Robinson, and Marglin tradition, and the Kalecki, Rowthorn, and Dutt tradition. Two prototype models in the latter tradition-the Dutt, Blecker/Setterfield and Lavoie variant, and the Rowthorn and Hein/Stockhammer variant-are discussed. The paper applies the latter to elucidate recent inflation trends propelled by increasing imported energy prices and then rising mark-ups. The effects of inflation-targeting central bank interest policies versus a post-Keynesian alternative macroeconomic policy approach are evaluated. It is argued that from a post-Keynesian perspective inflation is always and everywhere a conflict phenomenon, with different potential triggers. Adequate policies should thus focus on moderating distribution conflict by incomes policies, complemented by central banks targeting low long-term real interest rates, functional finance fiscal policies and international coordination of inflation targets. |
| Keywords: | conflict inflation, post-Keynesian models, imported energy inflation shock |
| JEL: | E12 E25 E31 E61 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:280430&r=pke |
| By: | Jon D. Wisman; Michael Cauvel; Aaron Pacitti |
| Abstract: | The standard introductory course in microeconomics presents a sophisticated set of tools for understanding the dynamics of markets, which are of central importance in all contemporary societies. Unfortunately, most textbooks for this course inadequately address and frequently distort the six following issues critical to students' understanding of economic society: Work is presented negatively as providing disutility; interdependence in decision making is ignored, masking the social nature of humans; the view that economic growth be society's principal goal is uncritically embraced; and the consequences of externalities are inadequately addressed, as too are market power, and property rights. The outcome is that students are often left with the impression that unfettered markets necessarily deliver economic efficiency and just outcomes, resulting in pedagogy that serves as ideology legitimating prevailing unequal social conditions. This article is intended to help professors recognize the incomplete and unbalanced understanding offered by most microeconomics textbooks to better enable them to avoid teaching economics as ideology. |
| Keywords: | Microeconomic education, realism of assumptions, ideology, social role of microeconomics |
| JEL: | A11 A14 B40 D00 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:2023-07&r=pke |
| By: | Miguel García Duch (Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales (ICEI), Universidad Complutense de Madrid.) |
| Abstract: | This article examines Thirlwall's Law for a sample of 9 eurozone countries from 1992 to 2019. Thirlwall's Law states that a country's long-run growth rate is determined by the ratio of its income elasticities of demand for exports and imports. Using product level data from COMTRADE, this article constructs 5 main sectors based on technological intensity and estimates exports and imports equations for each sector and country in error correction model form. Estimation techniques are seemingly unrelated regressions for exports and three stages least squares for imports. The results reveal significant variations in the income elasticities across sectors and countries, with a strong correlation between higher elasticities for more technological sectors, especially among the so-called central economies. The article concludes that Thirlwall's Law is both a strong predictor of actual growth rates and a useful tool for understanding the role of external imbalances on Eurozone’s economic performance during the last decades. |
| Keywords: | : Balance-of-Payments-Constrained Growth; Thirlwall’s Law; Multi-Sector Analysis; Current Account Imbalances; Error Correction Models. |
| JEL: | C30 E12 F45 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucm:wpaper:2302&r=pke |
| By: | Tatyana Deryugina; Julian Reif |
| Abstract: | Many environmental hazards produce health effects that take years to arise, but quasi-experimental studies typically measure outcomes and treatment over short time periods. We develop a new approach to overcome this challenge and use it to gauge the effect of exposure to air pollution on US life expectancy. Using changes in wind direction as an instrument for daily sulfur dioxide levels, we first characterize the short-run mortality effects of acute exposure during the time period 1972-1988. Exposure causes two distinct mortality patterns: a short-run mortality displacement effect, and a persistent accelerated aging effect. We then incorporate our estimates into a flexible health production model to quantify the lifelong effects of chronic air pollution exposure for a cohort born in 1972. Model calculations of the effect of chronic exposure on life expectancy are 7-8 times larger than the effect implied by simple extrapolation of our short-run empirical estimates. Ninety percent of the survival benefits accrue after the first fifty years of life, implying that most of the 1970 Clean Air Act's health benefits have yet to emerge for cohorts born after its passage. |
| JEL: | I18 Q53 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31858&r=pke |