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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
| By: | Nicolas Jacquemet (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Constantine Yannelis (Stanford University - Department of Economics - Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The extent of racial discrimination in the labor market is now clearly identified, but its nature largely remains an open question. This paper reports results from an experiment in which fabricated resumes are sent to help-wanted advertisements in Chicago newpapers. We use three groups of identical resumes : one with Anglo-Saxon names, one with African-American names and one with fictitious foreign names whose ethnic origin is unidentifiable to most Americans. We find that resumes with Anglo-Saxon names generate nearly one half more call-backs than identical resumes with African-American or Foreign names. Resumes with non-Anglo-Saxon names, whether African-American or Foreign, show no statistically significant difference in the number of callbacks they elicit. We also find that discrimination is significantly higher in the Chicago suburbs - where ethnic homogenity is high - as opposed to the city proper. We take this as evidence that discriminatory behavior is part of a larger pattern of unequal treatment of any member of non-majority groups - ethnic homophily. |
| Keywords: | Correspondence testing, racial discrimination. |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00587674&r=hme |
| By: | Brouwer, E.; Ozbugday, F.C. (Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests whether the transition from the old Economic Competition Act, which was based on the so-called “abuse systemâ€, to the new Competition Act, which was based on “prohibition systemâ€, in the Netherlands had an impact on the price-cost margins in manufacturing industries during the period 1993-2007. The paper further investigates if the price-cost margins were higher in industries where temporary antitrust immunity was granted for subset of firms that engaged in concerted practices. The results indicate that the change in the competition law in the Netherlands had a very small and negative, yet statistically insignificant deterrent effect on the price-cost margins. Elsewhere, markups were higher in industries in which temporary antitrust immunity was granted for some class of coordinated actions. |
| Keywords: | Price-cost margins;Competition law;Antitrust immunity;Antitrust enforcement;Dynamic panel data model;the Netherlands. |
| JEL: | K21 L4 L6 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:kubcen:2011038&r=hme |
| By: | Lütkenhöner, Laura |
| Abstract: | Dieser Beitrag untersucht, ob Vornamen den Erfolg von Marktteilnehmern beeinflussen. Dazu wurden für 12 fiktive Testpersonen Kleinanzeigen auf dem Beziehungs-, Nachhilfe- und Wohnungsmarkt geschaltet und es wurde die Anzahl der kontaktierenden Personen erfasst. Ceteris paribus attrahierten Anzeigen von Testpersonen mit positiv besetzten deutschen Vornamen insgesamt mehr Beziehungsinteressenten und Wohnungsanbieter als Anzeigen von Testpersonen mit einem negativ besetzten deutschen oder einem türkischen Vornamen. Tendenziell sind dabei Unterschiede aufgrund des Geschlechts oder der Herkunft deutlich größer als solche wegen einer möglicherweise durch den Vornamen nahegelegten Zugehörigkeit zu einer höheren oder niedrigeren Bildungs- bzw. Einkommensschicht. -- This paper deals with the question whether or not a market success is affected by one's first name. Twelve fictional market participants were created and for each of them classified ads were placed in (real) magazines, pretending (1) to be looking for a relationship, (2) to offer private lessons, and (3) to be looking for an apartment. Afterwards the persons who had been trying to contact the fictional market participants were counted. Ceteris paribus market participants bearing attractive German first names got more offers than those with less attractive German or Turkish first names, at least on the relationship and residential market. Generally the differences due to gender or ehtnic origin are much larger than those of seemingly belonging to a higher or lower social stratum, attributed because of the first name. |
| JEL: | J71 J15 Z13 C93 D83 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:umiodp:22011&r=hme |
| By: | Fitzenberger, Bernd; Muehler, Grit |
| Abstract: | Using personnel records from a single large German firm in the financial industry, this paper provides detailed evidence on the effect of age and the supervisor's gender on gender differences in workplace training, holding constant various workplace characteristics. We implement an age-specific decomposition of the incidence and the duration of training into three terms: an age-specific coefficients effect, an age-specific characteristics effect, and an age composition effect. Our results show that the gender training gap changes with age. Females obtain less training during the early career, and their training occurs at higher age. The timing of the gender training gap seems to be driven by diverging career paths associated with employment interruptions. However, we find no evidence for catching-up effects after parental leave. A decomposition of the training gap including supervisor fixed effects reveals that supervisors do not treat male and female employees differently. Supervisors assign more training to all employees if they themselves participate more in training. -- |
| Keywords: | training participation,age,gender,company data |
| JEL: | M53 M12 J14 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:11023&r=hme |
| By: | Boeing, Philipp; Sandner, Philipp |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to investigate the innovative performance of China's NIS in international comparison and the capacity of China's NIS in creating indigenous innovation. We provide insights drawing upon patent data and using patent families to determine the value of the underlying invention. For the timeframe we studied, China's comparative advantage exists in the creation of low value innovative performance, albeit increasingly in huge quantities. Constantly rising volumes of patent applications mirror both, the improved protection of intellectual property rights and increasing capacity for inventiveness. Supplemented by the continuous growth of the Chinese economy, improving conditions are reflected and reinforced by more R&D-intense FDI. Foreign firms' innovative performance associated with higher economic value is particularly strong. -- |
| Keywords: | National Innovation System,Innovative Performance,China,Patents,Innovation Policy |
| JEL: | O53 O47 O34 P27 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fsfmwp:158&r=hme |
| By: | Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten |
| Abstract: | Recently, Aoki proposed the concept of substantive institutions which relates outcomes of strategic interaction with public representations of equilibrium states of games. I argue that the Aoki model can be grounded in theories of distributed cognition and performativity, which I put into the context of Searle's philosophical account of institutions. Substantive institutions build on regularized causal interactions between internal neuronal mechanisms and external facts, which are shared in a population of agents. Following Searle's proposal to conceive rule following as a neuronally anchored behavioral disposition, I show that his corresponding notion of collective intentionality can be grounded in recent neuroscience theories about imitation as the primordial process in human learning. I relate this with Searle's concept of status function and the neuronal theory of metaphors, resulting in a precise definition of rule-following as performative action. I present two empirical examples, the institution of money and status hierarchies in markets. -- |
| Keywords: | Aoki's concept of substantive institutions,Searle,collective intentionality,emotions,imitation,performativity,sign systems |
| JEL: | B52 D02 D87 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fsfmwp:157&r=hme |
| By: | Schimank, Uwe |
| Abstract: | Der gesamtgesellschaftliche Prägekraft besitzende grundlegende Ordnungsmechanismus der Wohlfahrtsgesellschaft ist der funktionale Antagonismus von kapitalistischer Wirtschaft auf der einen, demokratischer Politik auf der anderen Seite. Dieser Mechanismus mit seinem gesamtgesellschaftlich gemischten Segen stellte für etwa hundert Jahre die Konstante westlicher Wohlfahrtsgesellschaften dar. Seit einigen Jahrzehnten müssen wir allerdings zunehmend beunruhigt zur Kenntnis nehmen, dass auf diese Konstante kein Verlass mehr sein könnte. Kybernetisch gesprochen: Wohlfahrtsgesellschaften könnten ihre Ultrastabilität einbüßen, also ihre Fähigkeit, auch starke Dysbalancen wieder auszugleichen und zu einem stabilen Ordnungszustand zurückzukehren. Warum könnte es so sein, und was würde es bedeuten? Anstelle gesicherter Auskünfte auf diese Fragen wird eine Forschungsperspektive skizziert, die zu besseren Einschätzungen der Gegenwart und vor allem Zukunft der westlichen Wohlfahrtsgesellschaften führen könnte. Ihre heuristische Leitidee lautet: Heutige Wohlfahrtsgesellschaften werden von multiplen Instabilitäten irritiert, auf die die Akteure oft nur noch mit Coping anstelle von zielorientiertem Gestaltungshandeln reagieren können; und das Wechselspiel solcher Coping-Praktiken verschiedener Akteure führt wiederum eher zu einer Perpetuierung oder gar Intensivierung als zu einer Dämpfung der Instabilitäten. -- The fundamental mechanism that shapes the social order of welfare societies is the functional antagonism between the capitalist economy, on the one hand, and democratic politics on the other. This mechanism, with its mixed blessings, has been an unchanging feature of western welfare societies for around hundred years. However, for decades now we have grown increasingly uneasy observing that this constant can no longer be relied upon. In cybernetic terms, welfare societies might be in danger of losing their ultrastability and therefore their ability to counter disbalances and return to a state of stable order. How could this happen and what does it mean? Instead of giving definitive responses to such questions, I suggest a research program that may better assess the present situation in western welfare societies and, more importantly, possible future developments. Such research would be guided heuristically by the assumption that welfare societies today are being unsettled by a multitude of destabilizing factors to which actors can often only respond with coping strategies rather than with activities guided by clearly defined goals. Far from reducing instabilities, the interaction of the various actors' coping strategies tends to perpetuate or even intensify these pressures. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mpifgw:112&r=hme |
| By: | Nölke, Andreas |
| Abstract: | Auch nach zwei Dekaden der Globalisierungsforschung sind viele Fragen über die Wechselwirkung zwischen nationalen kapitalistischen Institutionen und transnationalen Wirtschaftsordnungen noch ungelöst. Wie beeinflusst die Einbettung in ransnationale Institutionen nationale Ausprägungen des Kapitalismus? Wie formen Muster des Kapitalismus auf nationaler Ebene die transnationale Wirtschaftsordnung? Das vorliegende Papier argumentiert, dass die traditionelle Trennung zwischen Vergleichender und Internationalerm Politischer Ökonomie (IPÖ) überwunden werden muss, um diese Fragen gründlicher bearbeiten zu können. Es wird insbesondere vorgeschlagen, transnationalinstitutionalistische IPÖ-Perspektiven mit dem Theorieprogramm der Vergleichenden Kapitalismusforschung zu verknüpfen. Das Papier demonstriert den komplementären Charakter der beiden Perspektiven an ausgewählten empirischen Beispielen. -- Even after two decades of research on globalization, we still face open questions about the interplay between national capitalist nstitutions and transnational economic governance. How does embeddedness into transnational institutions influence national capitalist orders? How do national capitalist patterns influence transnational economic governance? The central suggestion of this paper is that the traditional divide between Comparative and International Political Economy has to be overcome in order to address these questions in a more thorough way. More specifically, it calls for combining Comparative Capitalism with institutionalist approaches within International Political Economy. The paper illustrates the mutually complementary character of both perspectives by looking at selected empirical examples. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mpifgw:113&r=hme |
| By: | Heise, Arne; Lierse, Hanna |
| Abstract: | -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:uhhafs:37&r=hme |
| By: | Duso, Tomaso; Gugler, Klaus; Yurtoglu, Burcin B. |
| Abstract: | This paper applies an intuitive approach based on stock market data to a unique dataset of large concentrations during the period 1990-2002 to assess the effectiveness of European merger control. The basic idea is to relate announcement and decision abnormal returns. Under a set of four maintained assumptions, merger control might be interpreted to be effective if rents accruing due to the increased market power observed around the merger announcement are reversed by the antitrust decision, i.e. if there is a negative relation between announcement and decision abnormal returns. To clearly identify the events' competitive effects, we explicitly control for the market expectation about the outcome of the merger control procedure and run several robustness checks to assess the role of our maintained assumptions. We find that only outright prohibitions completely reverse the rents measured around a merger's announcement. On average, remedies seem to be only partially capable of reverting announcement abnormal returns. Yet they seem to be more effective when applied during the first rather than the second investigation phase and in subsamples where our assumptions are more likely to hold. Moreover, the European Commission appears to learn over time. -- |
| Keywords: | Merger Control,Remedies,European Commission,Event Studies |
| JEL: | L4 K21 G34 C2 L2 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:15&r=hme |
| By: | Cho, Yoonyoung; Newhouse, David |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how different types of workers in 17 middle-income countries were affected by labor market retrenchment during the great recession. Impacts on different types of workers varied by country and were only weakly related to the severity of the shock. Among active workers, youth experienced by far the largest adverse impacts on employment, unemployment, and wage employment, particularly relative to older adults. The percentage employment reductions, for example, were greatest for youth in each sector of the economy, as firms reacted to the shock by substituting away from inexperienced workers. Employment rates, as a share of the population, also plummeted for men. Larger drops in male employment were primarily attributable to men's higher initial rate of employment, although men's concentration in the hard-hit industrial sector also played an important role. Within each sector, percentage employment declines were similar for men and women. Added worker effects among women were mild, even among less-educated workers. Differences in labor market outcomes across education groups and urban or rural residence tended to be smaller. These findings bolster the case for targeted support to displaced youth and wage employees. Programs targeted to female and unskilled workers should be undertaken with appropriate caution or empirical support from timely data, as they may not benefit the majority of affected workers. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Labor Standards,Work&Working Conditions,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2011–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5636&r=hme |
| By: | Kirchgässner, Gebhard |
| Abstract: | First, the points of view of economists regarding falsificationism, scientific revolutions and scientific research programmes are discussed. Next, hardly debatable scientific progress regarding empirical economic research in recent decades is described. Then it is asked whether there have been scientific revolutions with respect to economic theory or the basic methodology of the economic approach. Taking this term seriously, there have been at best two revolutions since the time of Adam Smith. Today, economists share a common paradigm, which also builds the hard core of their scientific research programme. But while this hard core is hardly questioned, the safety belt is discussed the more. Nevertheless, most today’s economic research can be considered as being ‘normal science’. Even if this kind of research is not without problems, there is no reason to assess it as being of secondary value. |
| Keywords: | Paradigm, normal science, methodology of scientific research programmes, empirical economic research |
| JEL: | B10 B41 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2011:16&r=hme |
| By: | Selcuk Eren; Thomas Masterson; Edward Wolff; Ajit Zacharias |
| Abstract: | We construct estimates of the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being for Great Britain for the years 1995 and 2005. We also produce estimates of the official British measures HBAI (from the Department for Work and Pensions annual report titled "Households below Average Income") and ROI (from the Office of National Statistics Redistribution of Income analysis). We analyze overall trends in the level and distribution of household well-being using all three measures for Great Britain as a whole and for subgroups of the British population. Gains in household economic well-being between 1995 and 2005 vary by the measure used, from 23 percent (HBAI) to 32 percent (LIMEW) and 35 percent (ROI). LIMEW shows that much of the middle class’s gain in well-being was as a result of increases in government expenditures. LIMEW also marks a greater increase in economic well-being among elderly households due to the increase in their net worth. The redistributive effect of net government expenditures decreased notably between 1995 and 2005 according to the official measures, primarily due to the change in the distributive impact of government expenditures. |
| Keywords: | Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-being (LIMEW); Great Britain; Economic Well-Being; Economic Inequality; Household Income Measures |
| JEL: | D31 D63 P17 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_667&r=hme |
| By: | Akhabbar, Amanar; Antille, Gabrielle; Fontela, Emilio; Pulido, Antonio |
| Abstract: | Indubitably born in the USA, input-output analysis has an important European history, from its very beginnings in the Soviet Union to the postwar huge development of I/O techniques in West and North Europe. This paper studies the European experience of input-output analysis by surveying and analyzing some of the national experiences and especially the works in Great Britain of Richard Stone and his team. We show in particular how European economists have taken leadership in I/O research since the 1950s and more recently with the creation in 1989 of the journal of the International Input-Output Association, Economic System Research. In the latter European influence tends to focus works on theoretical and methodological issues more than empirical issues and applications |
| Keywords: | Input-Output Analysis; Leontief; Stone; Applied economics; SAM; Computable General Equilibriun Models |
| JEL: | C6 P11 C68 O21 C67 Y10 B23 C61 A14 |
| Date: | 2011–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30208&r=hme |
| By: | Seker, Murat |
| Abstract: | There have been significant improvements in traditional trade policies in the past few decades. However, these improvements can only be fully effective when they are complemented with a favorable investment climate. This study focuses on a particular aspect of investment climate, namely labor regulations, and shows how these regulations can be discouraging from exporting. Using firm level data from 26 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, the paper empirically shows that firms that cannot create new jobs due to stringent labor regulations are less likely to export. Firms that plan to export expand their sizes before they start to export. However the rigidities in labor markets make this adjustment process costly. Higher costs of employment decrease operating profits and lead to a higher productivity threshold level required for entering export markets. As a result, a smaller fraction of firms can afford to export. |
| Keywords: | Exporting; firm heterogeneity; labor regulations; developing countries; Eastern Europe and Central Asia region |
| JEL: | F16 F12 F14 J23 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:29907&r=hme |
| By: | Robert Rudolf (Georg-August-University Göttingen); Seo-Young Cho (Georg-August-University Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses detailed longitudinal data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) stretching from 1998 to 2008 to analyze the relationship between working hours and family happiness in Korea. The Korean labor market is characterized by high levels of gender inequality which is partly due to long working hours, a significant gender gap in earnings, yet also to traditional gender roles maintained until today. Therefore, post-marriage labor force participation rates for men are still double as high as for women. However, significant changes took place over the period of our study. Working hours have been steadily reduced and female labor force participation slightly increased, partly due to the introduction of the 5-day working week in 2004. Hours, job, and life satisfaction have all increased hence. Running fixed-effects ordered logit models on married couples with children, we analyze hours, job, and life satisfaction separately for women and men. Our findings indicate that past working hours reductions increased family happiness in Korea. However, there are still strong gender-specific effects how working hours affect family happiness. Controlling for household income, wives report highest satisfaction when either not-working or working 31 to 40 hours per week. Both part-time and overtime work reduce women’s happiness. Korean husbands, in comparison, are best off when being full-time employed with weekly working hours between 31 and 50. Staying at home or being only part-time employed (1-30 hours) is strongly detrimental to their happiness. For both sexes, cross-partner effects are strongly significant. These findings are particularly interesting in comparison to other countries like Great Britain or Australia where similar studies were carried out (Booth and van Ours, 2008; 2009). Results confirm strong traditional gender roles in Korea until today. In order to further increase female labor force participation and family happiness, further reductions in working hours should be flanked by policies promoting equal chances at the work place, a rethinking of gender identities, and flexible job and child-care solutions. |
| Keywords: | Working hours; Happiness; Gender identity; Female labor force participation |
| JEL: | I31 J22 J16 J28 |
| Date: | 2011–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:gotcrc:077&r=hme |
| By: | Haveman, Heather A.; Habinek, Jacob; Goodman, Leo A. |
| Abstract: | We trace the social positions of the men and women who found new enterprises from the earliest years of one industry’s history to a time when the industry was well established. Sociological theory suggests two opposing hypotheses. First, pioneering entrepreneurs are socially prominent individuals from fields adjacent to the new industry and later entrepreneurs are from an increasingly broad swath of society. Second, the earliest entrepreneurs come from the social periphery while later entrepreneurs include more industry insiders and members of the social elite. To test these hypotheses, we study the magazine industry in America over the first 120 years of its history, from 1741 to 1860. We find that magazine publishing was originally restricted to industry insiders, elite professionals, and the highly educated, but by the time the industry became well established, most founders came from outside publishing and more were of middling stature – mostly small-town doctors and clergy without college degrees. We also find that magazines founded by industry insiders remained concentrated in the three biggest cities, while magazines founded by outsiders became geographically dispersed. Finally, we find that entrepreneurship evolved from the pursuit of a lone individual to a more organizationally-sponsored activity; this reflects the modernization of America during this time period. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of grounding studies of entrepreneurship in historical context. Our analysis of this “old†new media industry also offers hints about how the “new†new media industries are likely to evolve. |
| Keywords: | Organizational Behavior and Theory |
| Date: | 2011–04–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:indrel:1952031&r=hme |