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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2015‒07‒11
seventeen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Anderaos de Araujo, Fabio |
| Abstract: | An analysis of the invariable measure of prices proposed by the eminent Italian economist Piero Sraffa, who laid the foundations for a new approach in modern economics. Two mathematical appendices are also provided. The first one shows step by step the construction of the Standard Commodity, which is a consistent solution to the transformation of labour values into prices of production. In Appendix II there is a general numerical example of a price system with two industries which makes the understanding of the distribution of income between wages and profits easier. Using a software spreadsheet, for example, it is possible to make numerical simulations and make comparisons between the results obtained from the Sraffa price system with that obtained from Marx's. This is revised version of the original paper written few years ago. |
| Keywords: | Sraffa, labour theory of value, Standard Commodity |
| JEL: | A10 |
| Date: | 2015–07–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65426&r=hme |
| By: | Erica Salvaj; Juan Pablo Couyoumdjian (School of Business and Economics, Universidad del Desarrollo) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the relationship among business groups (BGs) in Chile in the long run, focusing on the relations between the state viewed as a BG and privately-owned BGs from 1970 to 2010. Our analysis proceeds within the methodological perspective of interlocking directorates (IDs) analysis. Working with a unique database of the boards of affiliated firms to BGs, we consider IDs as a way to learn about the cohesion and relation between these BGs. We include a period of political change and institutional and economic modernization in Chile, which also involved a transformation in the character of the entrepreneurial class in the country. We find that the state BG has played an important role in the networks of Chilean capitalism. Our work complements the literature on BGs and state capitalism, showing the rich nature of social networks in a capitalist society |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dsr:pastwp:14&r=hme |
| By: | Ana Tur-Prats |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the historical origins of violence against women, in contrast to earlier literature, which focused only on short-term determinants. It analyses the relation-ship between traditional family patterns (stem versus nuclear) and intimate-partner violence (IPV). Stem families are those in which one child stays in the parental household with spouse and children, so that at least two generations live together. I model the behavior of a traditional peasant family and show how coresidence with a mother-in-law increases a wife’s contribution to farmwork. This increased contribution is shown to potentially decrease the level of violence, since the wife’s reduced productivity acts as a deterrent. In my empirical analysis I use Spanish data, as Spain offers IPV measures of the highest quality as well as a persistent geographical distribution of family types. Results show that areas where stem families were socially predominant in the past currently have a lower IPV rate. I control for a large number of contemporary, historical, and geographical variables. To address causality, I use the stages and differences in the Christian conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (722-1492) as an instrument for the different family types. My instrumental variable results are consistent with my original findings. |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, cultural norms, persistence, inheritance, coresidence, Christian conquest |
| JEL: | D03 J12 N43 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:835&r=hme |
| By: | Günther, Isabel; Grosse, Melanie; Klasen, Stephan |
| Abstract: | We analyze the drivers of presence (size of audience) and participation (number of questions asked) in parallel sessions at a large economics conference, using the annual meeting of the German Economics Association in 2012 as a case study. We find that the location of the presentation is at least as important for the number of academics attending a talk as the combined effect of the person presenting and the paper presented. Being a presenter in a late morning session on the second day of a conference, close to the place where coffee is served, significantly increases the size of the audience. Single-authored papers with long titles as well as those by junior researchers attract significantly fewer attendees. When it comes to asking questions, location becomes less important, but smaller rooms lead to more questions being asked (by women). Younger researchers as well as very senior researchers attract more questions and comments. There are also interesting and sizable gender effects. Women attend research sessions more diligently than men (at any point in time only half of the registered male economists compared to nearly two-thirds of female economists are attending a session), but seem to ask fewer questions than men. Men are less likely to attend presentations on health, education, welfare, and development economics than women. Our findings suggest that strategic scheduling of sessions could ensure better participation at conferences. Moreover, different behaviors of men and women at conferences might contribute to the lack of women in senior scientist positions. |
| Keywords: | economists,conference,preferences,gender differences |
| JEL: | A11 B54 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:250&r=hme |
| By: | Marcelo Bucheli; Erica Salvaj (School of Business and Economics, Universidad del Desarrollo) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the corporate network strategies between multinational corporations of two different origins (United States and Spain), business groups, and state-owned enterprises in the public utility sector of a developing country going through economic and political transitions. The transitions we consider are from an import substitution industrialization model to an open market economy and from a democratic regime to a dictatorial one and back to democracy. We analyze the Chilean telecommunications sector between 1958 and 2005 and find that during a democratic regime all firms sought to build more networks with each other, while incentives decrease under an authoritarian regime. In the protectionist era, US investors built links with Chile’s corporate elite, while in times of an open economy, Spanish investors built these links with the government. State-owned corporations did not attempt to build links with other actors at any time, and business groups sought to build most networks among members of the group. Our findings challenge two commonly held assumptions: first, that open economies decrease incentives for domestic actors to build links with each other and, second, that close political regimes increase incentives to build networks among economic actors. |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dsr:pastwp:15&r=hme |
| By: | Etienne C\^ome (IFSTTAR/COSYS/GRETTIA); Marie Cottrell (SAMM); Patrice Gaubert (ERUDITE) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we address an important economic question. Is there, as mainstream economic theory asserts it, an homogeneous labor market with mechanisms which govern supply and demand for work, producing an equilibrium with its remarkable properties? Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) collected on the period 1984-2003, we study the situations of American workers with respect to employment. The data include all heads of household (men or women) as well as the partners who are on the labor market, working or not. They are extracted from the complete survey and we compute a few relevant features which characterize the worker's situations. To perform this analysis, we suggest using a Self-Organizing Map (SOM, Kohonen algorithm) with specific structure based on planar graphs, with disconnected components (called D-SOM), especially interesting for clustering. We compare the results to those obtained with a classical SOM grid and a star-shaped map (called SOS). Each component of D-SOM takes the form of a string and corresponds to an organized cluster. From this clustering, we study the trajectories of the individuals among the classes by using the transition probability matrices for each period and the corresponding stationary distributions. As a matter of fact, we find clear evidence of heterogeneous parts, each one with high homo-geneity, representing situations well identified in terms of activity and wage levels and in degree of stability in the workplace. These results and their interpretation in economic terms contribute to the debate about flexibility which is commonly seen as a way to obtain a better level of equilibrium on the labor market. |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1507.00578&r=hme |
| By: | Magdalena Bernaciak |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a conceptualization of social dumping and applies it to an analysis of the EU integration process. Building on recent contributions in the fields of economic theory, economic sociology and institutional political economy, it defines social dumping as the practice, undertaken by self-interested market participants, of undermining or evading existing social regulations with the aim of gaining a competitive advantage. The paper also argues that the social dumping practices of market actors are encouraged by policy initiatives of liberalization and deregulation. |
| Keywords: | Economic policy, EU enlargement, EU legislation, Globalisation, Migration, Social policy, Social protection |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:etu:wpaper:11091&r=hme |
| By: | Patricia Vendramin; Gérard Valenduc |
| Abstract: | This working paper aims to give a structured gender analysis of the working and employment conditions of older workers (aged 50 and over). |
| Keywords: | Employment, Gender, Working conditions |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:etu:wpaper:11226&r=hme |
| By: | Peter Martey Addo (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS) |
| Abstract: | Modern financial systems exhibit a high degree of interdependence making it difficult in predicting. This has raise concerns on the correct identification of coupling direction in financial sectors of the economy. This study explores a “two-way” risk connection between the European banking and insurance sector based on geometrical closeness of observations. Specifically, the study looks at the inter-system recurrence networks in tracing dynamical transitions and detecting coupling direction between these sectors. The overall results shows that the banking sector is central in risk transmission compared to the insurance sector. A comprehensive discussion of the feasibility and relevance of the approach in studying systemic risk is provided. |
| Abstract: | Les systèmes financiers modernes présentent un degré élevé d'interdépendance rendant difficile la prédiction. Cela a soulevé des questions concernant l'identification correcte d'une direction de couplage dans les secteurs financiers de l'économie. Cette étude explore "en deux sens" la connexion des risques entre le système bancaire européen et le secteur de l'assurance, basée sur la proximité géométrique des observations. Plus précisément, l'étude se penche sur les réseaux de récurrence inter-système en traçant des transitions dynamiques et en détectant la direction de couplage entre ces secteurs. Les résultats globaux montrent que le secteur bancaire est un élément central dans la transmission de risque par rapport au secteur de l'assurance. Une discussion complète de la faisabilité et la pertinence de l'approche dans l'étude du risque systémique est fournie. |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01169516&r=hme |
| By: | Thomas I. Palley |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the major competing interpretations of the economic crisis in the US and explains the rebound of neoliberal orthodoxy. It shows how US policymakers acted to stabilize and save the economy, but failed to change the underlying neoliberal economic policy model. That failure explains the emergence of stagnation, which is likely to endure. Current economic conditions in the US smack of the mid-1990s. The 1990s expansion proved unsustainable and so will the current modest expansion. However, this time it is unlikely to be followed by financial crisis because of the balance sheet cleaning that took place during the last crisis. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imk:wpaper:154-2015&r=hme |
| By: | de la Rica, Sara (University of the Basque Country); Rebollo-Sanz, Yolanda Fatima (Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | The Great Recession has had a disproportionately negative effect on working men compared to working women in many OECD countries and led to gender convergence in aggregate unemployment rates. In this paper we seek the sources of this recent convergence by using Social Security records on individuals to study the determinants of unemployment ins and outs over the course of a whole business cycle, i.e. 2000‐2013. We focus on Spain – a country hit hard by unemployment increases in downturns. Our results indicate that unemployment outs are crucial in understanding changes in unemployment rates in Spain. Furthermore, the huge drop in unemployment outs in the recession, particularly for men, has led to unprecedented levels of long‐term unemployment, which has come to account for 64% of total unemployment. Negative state dependence emerges as a key barrier to job access for the long‐term unemployed and hence the rate of unemployment is expected to remain high for many years, even if there is a strong recovery. |
| Keywords: | state dependence, hazard rates, unemployment gross flows, gender differentials |
| JEL: | J63 J64 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9135&r=hme |
| By: | Christophe Degryse |
| Abstract: | While the European intersectoral social dialogue has been, according to the Commission’s own admission, dragging its feet for the last few years on account of a lack of commitment on the part of the private sector employers, the sectoral social dialogue is often presented as a more dynamic and successful venture. A dialogue along sectoral lines has been set in motion by employer and labour organisations from a current total of 43 economic sectors of the European economy (from metalworking through road transport to public services and many others). |
| Keywords: | EU legislation, Industrial relations, Social dialogue, Trade unions |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:etu:wpaper:12729&r=hme |
| By: | Jean De Beir; Céline Emond; Yannick L'Horty; Laetitia Tuffery |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp15-04&r=hme |
| By: | Mauro Napoletano; Andrea Roventini; Jean-Luc Gaffard |
| Abstract: | We build an agent-based model populated by households with heterogenous and time-varying nancial conditions in order to study how scal multipliers can change over the business cycle and are aected by the state of credit markets. We nd that decit-spending scal policy dampens the eect of bankruptcy shocks and lowers their persistence. Moreover, the size and dynamics of government spending multipli- ers are related to the degree and persistence of credit rationing in the economy. On the contrary, in presence of balanced-budget rules, output permanently falls below pre-shock levels and the ensuing multipliers fall below one and are much lower than the ones emerging from the decit-spending policy. Finally, we show that dierent conditions in the credit market signicantly aect the size and the evolution of scal multipliers. |
| Keywords: | fiscal multipliers, agent-based models, credit-rationing, balance-sheet recession, bankruptcy shocks |
| Date: | 2015–09–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2015/19&r=hme |
| By: | Christina Boll; Hendrik Hüning; Julian Leppin; Johannes Puckelwald |
| Abstract: | In a simulation-based study with data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), we analyze the effects of the newly introduced statutory minimum wage of 8.50 Euro per working hour in Germany on the gender wage gap. In our first scenario where we abstain from employment effects, the pay differential is reduced by 2.5 percentage points from 19.6 % to 17.1 %, due to a reduction of the sticky-floor effect at the bottom of the wage distribution. In more realistic scenarios where we incorporate minimum wage effects on labor demand, a further reduction of the pay gap by 0.2 pp (1.2 pp) in case of a monopsonistic (neoclassical) labor market is achieved. However, this comes at the cost of job losses by which women are more strongly affected than men. The magnitude of job losses ranges be-tween 0.2 % and 3.0 % of all employees. It is higher in a neoclassical market setting and positively related to the assumed wage elasticity. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wage, labor demand, wage elasticity, gender pay gap, monopsony |
| JEL: | J31 J23 J16 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp766&r=hme |
| By: | ZHOU Yanfei |
| Abstract: | In Japan, there are more than a half-million married women who live below the poverty line but do not work. In this paper, we examine possible explanations for this puzzling behavior. We find that these women are often mothers who are raising children who are two years old or younger and mothers who have limited earnings potential. Furthermore, we also find that the severe shortage of licensed childcare services for small children in populated areas plays a role in this. As the survey shows that nearly 90% of the homemakers in poverty have an intent to work, measures that remove the obstacles preventing them from attaining jobs are in urgent need. |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:15034&r=hme |
| By: | Eric van den Abeele |
| Abstract: | This working paper provides a legal analysis of the inclusion of social and environmental clauses in the modernisation of the EU's public procurement directives. |
| Keywords: | Environment, EU legislation, Labour law, Social policy |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:etu:wpaper:11981&r=hme |