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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Mark Setterfield (Department of Economics, New School for Social Research, USA) |
| Abstract: | Slow growth and decline in the wage share of income are prominent stylized facts of US macroeconomic performance over the past 3-4 decades. Most explanations of these phenomenon trace their origins to structural change -- such as deunionization, globalization, or increased corporate concentration. This paper suggests that observed wage stagnation and secular stagnation in the US economy can also be thought of as path-dependent products of policy-induced macroeconomic outcomes in the 1970s/80s. A Marx-Keynes-Schumpeter (MKS) model is developed, in which the coincidence of wage stagnation and secular stagnation is shown to arise from an intial decline in the equilibrium rate of growth, which lowers both the steady-state rate of growth and accompanying wage share. It is then shown that the predictions of the model, following an intial reduction in the equilibrium growth rate, are consistent with a number of other secular macroeconomic pathologies that have afflicted the US economy since 1990. |
| Keywords: | Wage stagnation, secular stagnation, Marx-Keynes-Schumpeter model, path dependence, structural change |
| JEL: | E11 E12 E60 O41 O51 P17 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2601 |
| By: | Francesco Zezza; Francesco Zezza |
| Abstract: | This article introduces OPENSIMPLEST, a highly parsimonious stock-flow consistent (SFC) model of an open economy. The model is designed as a pedagogical and analytical benchmark that preserves the core mechanisms of more complex open-economy SFC frameworks while remaining complete, transparent, and empirically tractable. Unlike standard two-country models, which are often incomplete representations of the rest of the world, difficult to interpret as analytical "toy models, " and hard to validate empirically due to the lack of bilateral financial data, OPENSIMPLEST adopts a one-country structure with an explicitly modelled, aggregate rest of the world. Despite its simplicity, the model retains the defining features of the SFC approach: coherent accounting across stocks and flows, endogenous money, portfolio allocation based on relative rates of return, current-account dynamics, and valuation effects arising from exchange-rate movements. The key modelling difference concerns the exchange-rate closure. Rather than being determined by contemporaneous asset-market equilibrium or balance-of-payments clearing, the exchange rate adjusts gradually in response to lagged current-account imbalances, shifting the focus from short-run financial arbitrage to the interaction between flow imbalances, stock positions, and valuation effects. Simulation exercises show that, for a wide range of fiscal, monetary, and external-demand shocks, the model reproduces the same qualitative dynamics obtained in more articulated open-economy SFC models. Differences arise only in the very short run following purely financial shocks, where the exchange-rate closure affects the impact response but not the medium-run adjustment path. The results suggest that many key insights of open-economy SFC analysis can be obtained within a small, complete, and empirically implementable framework, making OPENSIMPLEST a useful tool for teaching, sensitivity analysis, and comparative empirical applications. |
| Keywords: | Open Economy; Portfolio choice; Balance of Payments; Exchange Rate; StockFlow Consistent model |
| JEL: | E12 E44 E51 F32 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_1105 |
| By: | Federica Arena |
| Abstract: | This study aims to advance the analysis of Italian economic growth by examining the long-term relationship between autonomous demand and GDP through time series econometrics, while providing a comparative assessment of autonomous demand multipliers. The econometric analyzes support two key conclusions: first, that autonomous demand has been the long-term growth engine in Italy; and second, that the economic slowdown following Italy’s accession to the EU may have been driven by the low multiplier values associated with exports |
| Keywords: | Supermultiplier Model, Italian Economic Growth, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), Local Projections, Multipliers Jel Classification: C32, E12, E62 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:937 |
| By: | Hamoon Soleimani |
| Abstract: | Since its inception, Bitcoin has been positioned as a revolutionary alternative to national currencies, attracting immense public and academic interest. This paper presents a critical evaluation of this claim, suggesting that Bitcoin faces significant structural barriers to qualifying as money. It synthesizes critiques from two distinct schools of economic thought - Post-Keynesianism and the Austrian School - and validates their conclusions with rigorous technical analysis. From a Post-Keynesian perspective, it is argued that Bitcoin does not function as money because it is not a debt-based IOU and fails to exhibit the essential properties required for a stable monetary asset (Vianna, 2021). Concurrently, from an Austrian viewpoint, it is shown to be inconsistent with a strict interpretation of Mises's Regression Theorem, as it lacks prior non-monetary value and has not achieved the status of the most saleable commodity (Peniaz and Kavaliou, 2024). These theoretical arguments are then supported by an empirical analysis of Bitcoin's extreme volatility, hard-coded scalability limits, fragile market structure, and insecure long-term economic design. The paper concludes that Bitcoin is more accurately characterized as a novel speculative asset whose primary legacy may be the technological innovation it has spurred, rather than its viability as a monetary standard. |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.07840 |
| By: | Gianmaria Brunazzi; Cristina Re |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that the current proliferation of commercial tensions, monetary conflicts and military confrontations is not an irrational departure from economic logic, but the manifestation of a structural transformation of the world economy. We develop a model of debt imperialism in which the centre sustains its dominance by issuing internationally demanded liabilities that enable persistent external deficits and reinforce dependence on the dollar and on the centre’s market, while simultaneously favouring the industrial expansion of semi-peripheral economies. As these economies grow, they become potential challengers whose trajectories must be actively managed and periodically disciplined in order to preserve the hierarchy of the system. The paper confronts this framework with a wide set of international data (World Bank, IMF, UNCTAD, US Treasury and BEA). We analyse global balance-of-payments indicators from 1975 to 2023 and then examine the evolution of the United States’ trade creditors and the geography and composition of foreign holdings of its external liabilities. The results identify two distinct phases: a pre-2008 hegemonic phase characterised by relatively smooth surplus recycling into the centre, and a post-2008 phase marked by growing volatility, the fragmentation of the integrated world market, the reconfiguration of trade and financial circuits, and the decline of the previous globalisation regime. This analysis shows that the fragmentation of the global economy after 2008 has not resulted from a collapse of U.S. centrality, but from a defensive reorganisation of trade, financial and geopolitical relations aimed at disciplining both allies and semi-peripheral challengers |
| Keywords: | Debt imperialism; US Dollar Hegemony; Semi-periphery; Financial Crisis; Trade War. Jel Classification: F51; F54; N10 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:938 |
| By: | Darrell Norman Burrell (Marymount University, Arlington, VA, USA) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces Goldfish Syndrome, a structural framework for explaining extreme accumulation of corporate wealth, power, and technological capability in contemporary technology capitalism. Contrary to accounts that almost always attribute dominance among billionaire CEOs and major technology firms to individual greed, the framework argues that overaccumulation is a rational and predictable outcome of systems engineered to reward continuous expansion and penalize restraint. Drawing on insights from political economy, systems theory, and science and technology studies, Goldfish Syndrome conceptualizes accumulation as a reinforcing feedback loop in which scarcityadapted decision-makers operate within environments of artificial abundance, weak constraints, and delayed consequences. The paper applies this framework to platform markets and, more urgently, to artificial intelligence development, where capital abundance, scaling races, compute concentration, and fragmented governance accelerate the dynamics of overaccumulation. Ethical awareness and voluntary self-regulation repeatedly fail not because actors lack concern, but because institutional incentives systematically override internal restraint. By reframing greed as an emergent structural outcome rather than a moral anomaly, the paper clarifies why concentration persists despite public scrutiny and policy debate. The analysis concludes that meaningful intervention requires the reintroduction of structural limits, antitrust enforcement, governance mechanisms, and balancing feedback loops, capable of restoring consequence to systems of technological abundance. |
| Keywords: | Goldfish Syndrome, Corporate Greed, Technology Capitalism, Artificial Intelligence Governance, Technological Determinism, Corporate Ethics, Political Economy, Overaccumulation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Systems Theory |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:raiswp:0622 |
| By: | Darrell Norman Burrell (Marymount University, Arlington, VA, USA); Adina Lundy (University of Rhode Island, USA) |
| Abstract: | African-American faculty at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) continue to face disproportionate exposure to racism-related stressors despite formal legal protections and decades of diversity initiatives. While prior research documents racial discrimination in hiring, promotion, and evaluation, less attention has been given to the cumulative psychological harm produced by daily microaggressions, structural neglect, and the contemporary political climate that increasingly challenges the legitimacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Situated within ongoing cultural and ideological conflicts surrounding DEI, this qualitative study examines how AfricanAmerican faculty experience racial battle fatigue (RBF) amid narratives that cast doubt on their competence, merit, and right to occupy academic spaces. Drawing on in-depth interviews with eleven African-American faculty members employed at PWIs, this study explores the emotional, psychological, and professional consequences of sustained racialized scrutiny, institutional silence, and weakened commitments to equity. Findings reveal that RBF is intensified by anti-DEI rhetoric that reframes structural interventions, such as affirmative action, as unfair advantage, thereby legitimizing heightened surveillance, professional undermining, and racialized classroom challenges. Participants described chronic vigilance, exhaustion, hopelessness, and emotional withdrawal, particularly in contexts where leadership failed to provide affirmation, protection, or material support. The study underscores that racial battle fatigue is not an individual coping deficit but an institutional outcome shaped by structural inequities, ideological resistance to equity, and the erosion of psychological safety. Implications highlight the critical importance of visible representation, images of expertise and competence, and proactive leadership advocacy in disrupting racialized paradigms of merit. By centering the lived psychological experiences of African-American faculty, this research reframes disengagement and attrition as rational responses to cumulative harm and calls for renewed institutional accountability to sustain equity, mental well-being, and the ethical foundations of higher education. |
| Keywords: | Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF), Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs), African-American Faculty, Diversity in Higher Education, Racism, Anti-DEI, Inclusion, Microaggressions, Psychology, Social Psychology |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:raiswp:06200 |
| By: | Julia M. Puaschunder (Omnes Education Group, International University of Monaco, Economics and Finance Department, Monaco) |
| Abstract: | About a decade ago, a comprehensive interdisciplinary framework was developed to reconceptualize climate change not merely as an environmental externality but as a systemic governance challenge (Puaschunder, 2020). A macroeconomic model was brought forward that showed that climate change produces not only economic losses, but also unevenly distributed climaterelated gains. The potential benefits from a warming earth were found in warming earth temperatures, leading to productivity gains in countries with low mean temperatures and high-temperature productivity sectors. Outlining the differences between climate-related economic gains and losses was driven by ethical considerations to lead on redistributing expected economic gains of climate change. Global warming related economic gains were advocated to be partially spread around the world to those areas that will be losing from climate change the earliest and most. The overall theme of using climate change-related economic benefits to offset climate change-related losses was grounded in core notions of justice, foresight and intergenerational responsibility. Within a long intellectual tradition of welfare economics, distributive justice and institutional governance, heterodox economics was thereby meant to avert irreversible lock-ins and ecological tipping points. The second edition of the book that introduced climate change-related economic gains and losses now argues for the wealth of nature that can be analytically measured. Natural systems generate productivity, stability and welfare, yet remain underpriced or excluded from economic accounting. The book emphasizes the importance of cartographing expected economic gains and losses from global warming. This article now brings forward a further argument that “wealth of nature†not only brings trade-related advantages and financial market prospects – having natural resources and a favorable climate may also impose geopolitical risks and tensions in a fragile world. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Climate Justice, Sustainable Development, Wealth of Nature |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:raiswp:0625 |