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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Engelbert Stockhammer |
| Abstract: | Comparative Political Economy (CPE) is a field in the social sciences that explores the interaction of economic dynamics and political institutions in a comparative cross-country fashion. Recently, the growth models approach (GMA), which builds on post-Keynesian economics (PKE), has challenged the more supply-side oriented varieties of capitalism approach. This paper gives an overview of the debate around GMA, with a focus on macroeconomic issues. It first, discusses the fragmentation of the 19th century political economy approach into heterodox economics and the subsequent formation of CPE and International Political Economy in the social sciences. Second, it clarifies the relations between VoC, GMA and PKE. Third, it reviews debates on identifying growth models empirically; the interpretations of finance-led growth; and the application of GMA to emerging economies, which requires extending and possible reconsidering the analytical framework of GMA. It concludes by discussing similarities and differences between the growth models approach and the French Regulation Theory and Social Structures of Accumulation. It argues that GMA’s analytical framework has been shaped by the experience of the pre-GFC boom and current debates are about building a more general analytical framework. |
| Keywords: | Post-Keynesian Economics, Comparative Political Economy, growth models, economic growth |
| JEL: | B20 B50 E12 O43 P51 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp2515 |
| By: | James K. Galbraith; Ravi Kanbur; Kunal Sen; Andy Sumner |
| Abstract: | Seven decades ago, Simon Kuznets put forward the hypothesis that as economies developed, national inequality would first increase and then decrease—an inverted U-shape. He provided preliminary evidence for the hypothesis on the basis of the limited data available at the time, and theorized the genesis of the curve as arising from the twin forces of structural transformation of the economy and political economy pressures. |
| Keywords: | Kuznets, Inequality, Structural transformation, Political economy |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-46 |
| By: | Morgan, Marc; Souza, Pedro |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a novel assessment of the Kuznets curve for an underdeveloped country engaging in rapid late development. We mobilize new long-run data for Brazil, combining surveys, administrative records, and national accounts statistics, to compute macro-consistent income shares and other distributional indicators since the 1920s. Our estimates show a more nuanced picture for the traditional Kuznets hypothesis than what the existing literature has suggested. The major complication for the standard narrative lies in the period roughly between 1950 and 1964, for which existing estimates are either too infrequent, not disaggregated enough, or incomplete to be able to offer a coherent analysis. Given the political and institutional changes that followed, we argue that this period holds the key to what we term the Kuznets curse —the tendency in late-developing countries, according to Kuznets, for endogenous social conflicts linked to rapid structural change to be resolved by authoritarian regimes that ensure adherence to the high-savers accumulation model. We explain the political economy of the Kuznets curse through a narrative approach that combines structuralist development economics with a neorealist approach to institutional change, making use of public discourses and debates among policy-makers and intellectual elites. |
| Keywords: | Distribution, Late development, Political economy, Kuznets, Brazil |
| JEL: | D31 D33 E64 J31 N36 O1 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gnv:wpaper:unige:185943 |
| By: | Richard N. Langlois (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | This paper will revisit the intersection of Chandler with Williamson (and the NIE more generally) and attempt to draw lessons from it. I will argue that despite their similar influences, from both the Carnegie School and more generally from the varied currents of post-war managerialism, Chandler and Williamson modeled the corporation quite differently. On the one hand, their disagreement had what I view as a salutary effect the economics of organization by lending the imprimatur of Chandler to the capabilities approach. On the other hand, Chandler’s rejection of the NIE also arguably threw out the Coasean baby with the Williamsonian – or, more precisely, the asset-specificity – bathwater. I attempt to outline a path for post-Chandlerian business history that retains the lessons of Weber and the Carnegie School while adding the lessons of Coase. |
| Keywords: | Alfred Chandler, Oliver Williamson, Ronald Coase, transaction costs, capabilities, diversification, asset specificity |
| JEL: | B15 B25 B31 L21 L22 L25 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2025-07 |
| By: | Omer Majeed |
| Abstract: | How do institutions evolve? Why are they so persistent? And why are successful institutional transformations so rare, limited to outlier cases like Singapore, Turkiye, South Korea, Botswana, and China? This paper presents a new framework linking long-term institutional outcomes related to corruption and extractive practices to the dynamic interaction between population norms and leadership traits. The Population-Leadership Symmetry Principle posits that leadership traits reflect prevailing societal norms, as leaders emerge from within the population. Yet, meaningful institutional transformation requires a second mechanism: the Leadership Hysteresis Effect, where sustained, reformist leadership reshapes societal norms, embedding institutional change that persists beyond the leader's tenure. In both mechanisms, societal norms play a central role. For the Hysteresis Effect in particular, institutional reform depends on stability over time to gradually shift these underlying norms. In this framework, only long-duration and intensive leadership episodes generate durable improvements in governance; the model also explains why these reform episodes are rare. The model is calibrated to notable cases of institutional transformation. Empirically, I test the model using panel data and event studies, showing that societal corruption norms are strongly associated with leadership integrity over time. However, the absence of a valid external instrument limits causal inference; accordingly, the results are best interpreted as evidence of association rather than causation. Even so, the findings are robust across specifications and consistent with the model's predictions. Together, the findings offer a unified explanation for both institutional persistence and the conditions under which rare but lasting reform is possible. |
| Keywords: | Institutions, societal norms, development, leadership, economic growth |
| JEL: | O43 D73 H83 P10 O57 Z18 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2025-36 |
| By: | Waltl, Judith |
| Abstract: | Labour market discrimination based on gender identity remains a significant yet understudied phenomenon. This paper examines the labour market experiences of trans and nonbinary individuals, focusing on how gender transition intersects with career development, institutional support, and labour market access. While traditional labour market research has largely centred on gendered outcomes for cisgender women, this study extends the scope to include gender-diverse individuals, drawing parallels and identifying unique discriminatory mechanisms. Using qualitative interviews, the research explores how participants navigate their gender identity within educational and work environments shaped by cisnormative and binary expectations. The analysis engages with Human Capital Theory, Gender Socialisation Theory, and Discrimination Theory to contextualise the ways in which structural barriers, stigma, and identity-based exclusion impact professional trajectories. Findings indicate that participants often feel forced to prioritise either their gender affirmation or their vocational development, with nonbinary individuals facing particularly severe forms of institutional invisibility and marginalisation. |
| Keywords: | Labour market discrimination, queer economics, trans and nonbinary gender identities, cis-normativity, gender norms |
| JEL: | B54 J71 M54 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:320432 |
| By: | Ozili, Peterson K |
| Abstract: | Sustainability is a buzzword that has gained traction around the world. It is linked to, or synonymous with, environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles. The advocacy for sustainability has led many individuals, corporations and governments to incorporate ESG principles into their operations and processes, and communicate to stakeholders how they are meeting sustainability expectations and its role in the value creation process in society. Despite these strides, a critical mind would ask some important philosophical questions: Does “society” need sustainability? The answer is yes. Is the sustainability agenda good for the world? The answer is yes. But is sustainability the only way to conserve environmental, social and governance resources to make it available for the present and future generations? The answer is, no? This article discusses sustainability and argues that sustainability is a way to achieve the goal of resource preservation and continuity for the present and future generations, but it is not the only way. It critique attempts to present sustainability as the only way to achieve the goal of resource preservation. While this study does not offer an alternative way to achieve the goal of resource preservation for the present and future generations, it call on scholars to explore alternative ways to achieve the goal of resource preservation for the present and future generations. |
| Keywords: | sustainability, sustainable development, renewable energy, fossil fuels, ESG, information |
| JEL: | Q01 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:125035 |
| By: | Ozili, Peterson K |
| Abstract: | Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly growing with new use cases emerging every day. AI has many applications in the financial sector. It has applications for risk management, fraud detection, efficiency, cost savings and improved customer experience. However, its applications for digital financial inclusion and development finance are yet to be explored in the literature. This study explores how artificial intelligence can be used to increase digital financial inclusion. Specifically, the study explores the potential for AI to streamline the operations of agents of digital financial inclusion; determine the communal areas in need of digital financial inclusion; automate the digital formal account opening process; offer customized experience for both banked and unbanked adults; ensure security and safety of customers’ funds; determine the credit worthiness of unbanked adults who have recently become banked; give banked adults full control of their financial lives; deepen digital financial inclusion; and promote equity and diversity for digital financial inclusion. The study also identifies the challenges of AI for digital financial inclusion. It further presents some insights on the possible AI governance frameworks for digital financial inclusion. The insights offered in this study are useful to guide countries and policymakers that want to use AI to accelerate digital financial inclusion. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence, financial inclusion, digital financial inclusion, AI algorithm, digital technology, unbanked adults, machine learning. |
| JEL: | O30 O31 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:125033 |
| By: | Zachary Bleemer; Sarah Quincy |
| Abstract: | Going to college has consistently conferred a large wage premium. We show that the relative premium received by lower-income Americans has halved since 1960. We decompose this steady rise in ‘collegiate regressivity’ using dozens of survey and administrative datasets documenting 1900–2020 wage premiums and the composition and value-added of collegiate institutions and majors. Three factors explain 80 percent of collegiate regressivity’s growth. First, the teaching-oriented public universities where lower-income students are concentrated have relatively declined in funding, retention, and economic value since 1960. Second, lower-income students have been disproportionately diverted into community and for-profit colleges since 1980 and 1990, respectively. Third, higher-income students’ falling humanities enrollment and rising computer science enrollment since 2000 have increased their degrees’ value. Selection into college-going and across four-year universities are second-order. College-going provided equitable returns before 1960, but collegiate regressivity now curtails higher education’s potential to reduce inequality and mediates 25 percent of intergenerational income transmission. |
| JEL: | I23 I26 J62 N32 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33797 |