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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Armando Álvarez (Department of Economics, Trinity College, USA) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a simple and teachable shifting equilibrium model of Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis by integrating a benchmark post-Keynesian model of endogenous money with Minsky's own ideas of the introduction of money through credit, the profit-seeking behavior of the banking sector, and his classification of financial postures. The paper highlights how financial crises are intrinsically connected to economic decisions made under fundamental uncertainty that Minsky, following Keynes, considered inherent in capitalism. The model focuses on credit-financed investment decisions by non-financial firms and the corresponding lending by profit-seeking banks. The paper introduces a ratio of Ponzi-speculative to hedge units, which connects the macroeconomic outcome with the micro classification of individual firms according to Minsky's financial postures. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous money, financial instability, financial postures |
| JEL: | E12 E44 G01 G21 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2611 |
| By: | James Horton (Methodist University, Charles M. Reeves School of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | Rochon and Rossi (2026) argue that neoclassical economics should no longer be taught to undergraduates. Their argument is based on the premise that neoclassical foundations are flawed and the empirical record is weak. I grant several of their empirical criticisms and reject the pedagogical conclusion they draw from them. A macroeconomic framework offers immense value to students when economists still disagree about it and when it offers explanations of important economic episodes that students can evaluate against historical evidence. It does not have to have been judged correct. Where those disagreements remain open, removing one side from the curriculum transfers adjudication from the student to the instructor. That same argument applies to heterodox frameworks when economists are still arguing over them. Rochon and Rossi's proposal also sits in tension with their call for a more empirical economics education, since empirical reasoning requires competing explanations against which evidence can be interpreted. |
| Keywords: | Economics education, Curricular pluralism, Macroeconomics teaching, Economic methodology, Neoclassical economics, Heterodox economics |
| JEL: | A22 B41 B50 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtd:wpaper:004 |
| By: | Dünhaupt, Petra; Herr, Hansjörg; Martin, Anne; Teipen, Christina |
| Abstract: | Why do development trajectories diverge across countries, even when similar policies are pursued? This article proposes an integrated framework of comparative political economy that traces this divergence to seven interrelated dimensions and their configuration: the macroeconomic constellation, the financial system, integration in global production, industrial policy, social policy, the labour and employment system, and social blocs. The dimensions are treated symmetrically-none holds causal priority in advance, and which of them are influential or constraining in a given case is an empirical question-so that the framework can be applied to economies in very different positions in the world economy. Six interaction mechanisms connect the dimensions, linking a country's external insertion into the global economy, its financial and macroeconomic structures, its policy fields, and its social power relations. Configurations in which the dimensions reinforce one another tend to reproduce themselves, with their course depending on the stability of the dominant social bloc. On this basis, the article focuses on the conditions under which economic policy is effective for whom: the same instrument can succeed in one configuration, fail in another and serve a variety of interests. The framework is thus intended as a diagnostic instrument for comparative research, and a set of indicators makes it empirically applicable. |
| Keywords: | Comparative political economy, development trajectories, global value chains, currency hierarchy, industrial policy, social blocs |
| JEL: | B50 F63 O11 P16 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:344092 |
| By: | Franziska Dorn (Institute for Socio-Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany); Kirstin Munro (Department of Economics, New School for Social Research, USA); Marie Vandenhirtz (Institute for Socioeconomics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Poverty measurement is often reduced to univariate thresholds or scalar indices linked to means. These one-dimensional types of thresholds may distort differences that are relevant to feminist economic inquiry, particularly for marginalized groups or where resource constraints reinforce one another. This article argues that the reduction of distortion is a central aim of feminist research methodology, and that joint distributional approaches offer a possible way forward. Unlike univariate poverty thresholds, joint distributional approaches ask which combinations of resources represent relative deprivation. We apply these techniques to the study of income and time poverty. Income and time are only partial substitutes, which conventional measures handle by imposing a fixed rate of substitution between time and money. Following Dorn et al. (2024), we instead define poverty as a contour of the joint empirical distribution of leisure and income, using the 2019 Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Roughly one in ten people is deprived in the joint allocation of both leisure and income while exceeding the lower bound of both univariate thresholds, a group we call the Invisibly Deprived. Women make up a disproportionate share of this group, with classification highly sensitive to assumptions about intra-household income sharing. |
| Keywords: | Feminist statistics, multidimensional poverty measurement, time and income poverty, statistics beyond the mean, intersectional inequality |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2612 |
| By: | Scott A. Wolla |
| Abstract: | About half of U.S. college students in their first economics course never take another one. A literacy-targeted approach focuses on making sure they understand core concepts well. |
| Keywords: | economic education |
| Date: | 2026–10–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:l00100:103951 |
| By: | Cynthia Srnec (THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CY - CY Cergy Paris Université); Alexandre Guttmann (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord) |
| Abstract: | This chapter examines the emergence of platform cooperatives as organizational arrangements capable of reconnecting digital economic activity with social and environmental objectives. Building on the literature on commons, cooperatives, and substantive economy, we explore how the integration of collective resource governance and cooperative ownership can generate new forms of socio-economic organization. We propose the concept of commons-oriented platform cooperatives to describe platform-based organizations that combine democratic governance, multi-stakeholder participation, and the production or protection of digital commons. Drawing on a comparative analysis of five international case studies, namely Loomio, CoopCycle, Mobicoop, Open Food Network, and CoopCircuits, we investigate the institutional mechanisms through which cooperatives and commons interact and reinforce one another. The analysis highlights how these organizations mobilize open-source technologies, collective ownership, reciprocal licensing, and community participation to pursue socially useful missions while resisting processes of commodification and data extraction. Our findings show that commons-oriented platform cooperatives contribute to sustainability and social inclusion by fostering local resilience, supporting fairer labor relations, promoting environmentally responsible practices, and creating shared digital infrastructures. At the same time, they face persistent challenges related to funding, governance complexity, scaling, and dependence on voluntary contributions. We argue that the combination of commons-based governance and cooperative ownership can help prevent organizational degeneration and strengthen the capacity of platform cooperatives to serve broader collective interests. By linking Polanyi's notion of the substantive economy with contemporary debates on digital social innovation and platform cooperativism, the chapter contributes to understanding how alternative digital organizations can support ecological transition and democratic economic development. |
| Date: | 2024–12–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05790313 |
| By: | Tomasz Kopczewski (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Jan Lisicki (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Tomasz Potocki (University of Rzeszów, Faculty of Economics and Finance) |
| Abstract: | Physicists have spent a century chasing a Theory of Everything and have not caught it. Economists got there first. Starting from one stylized atom, the optimizing individual, they built a full cosmology of a competitive economy with a single tool: one constrained-optimization template, applied to consumers, then to firms, then lifted whole into an Arrow–Debreu equilibrium. This paper reconstructs that move as a spell: one optimization problem to model them all. We trace what mathematical and conceptual engineering each step demands, from the axioms of homo oeconomicus to the existence theorems that hold the edifice up. Rather than prove that the equilibrium exists, the paper computes it, and a companion dashboard puts every lever of the model in the students’ hands. The aim is to show students who already have the mathematics what the monument cost to build, so they can use it, and later drill holes in it. |
| Keywords: | general equilibrium, constrained optimization, homo oeconomicus, teaching microeconomics, methodology of economics |
| JEL: | A23 B21 B41 D50 D58 |
| Date: | 2026–10–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2026-41 |
| By: | Oded Galor; Luca Pensieroso; Daniel C. Wainstock |
| Abstract: | How could inequality between social classes have ever persisted during the Malthusian epoch, as affluence led to greater reproductive success, diluting inherited wealth and narrowing disparities over time? This paper uncovers the Paradox of Inequality, establishes its robust theoretical foundations, and provides its resolution. The analysis suggests that elites’ lavish, nonproductive displays of status inadvertently diverted resources from reproduction, limiting the dilution of inherited wealth and sustaining inequality across generations. Ironically, extravagance preserved the wealth it seemed to squander. |
| Keywords: | inequality, Malthusian epoch, conspicuous consumption, fertility, paradox |
| JEL: | O10 Z10 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_13052 |