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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2016‒06‒14
sixteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Javier Rodríguez Weber (Programa de Historia Económica y Social, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | El presente texto pretende ser un aporte al esfuerzo de reorientar el análisis de la distribución del ingreso desde un abordaje centrado en los mercados hacia otro que enfatice el rol de la economía política de la desigualdad. Apelando a nueva evidencia sobre la evolución histórica de la desigualdad de ingreso en Chile, en el mismo se comparan los dos episodios de incremento en la desigualdad en los ingresos de mercado (market income) que se produjeron en ese país durante el siglo XX (1903/1913 y 1973/1986). Se muestra que, si bien los factores de mercado jugaron un papel, el rápido y radical incremento de la desigualdad que se produjo en ambos períodos fue consecuencia de la forma histórica en que se resolvió el conflicto distributivo entre distintos sectores de la sociedad. Fue determinante, en particular, la capacidad de la elite de influir en el gobierno del Estado, de modo que éste volcara todo su peso normativo y coercitivo en su favor. |
| Keywords: | desigualdad, Chile, ingreso de mercado, instituciones, economía política |
| JEL: | D31 N36 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:doctra:45&r=hme |
| By: | José Gabriel Palma |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to re-examine inequality in the current era of neo-liberal globalisation, with an emphasis on both highly unequal middle-income countries that have already implemented full-blown economic reforms (like Latin America and South Africa), and on OECD countries (like the US) now intent on replicating the inequality heights of the former. i) How do those middle-income countries end up having such unequal distributional outcomes? ii) Since oligarchies all over the world would gladly reproduce the same conditions, why until recently have only a few been able to get away with this degree of inequality? And iii) Why are there suddenly so many new entrants to the high-inequality club, especially from the OECD? In other words, how did Reagan and Thatcher and the fall of the Berlin Wall trigger a new process of "reverse catching-up", by which now it is the highly-unequal middle-income countries showing the advanced ones the shape of things to come? One might even argue that in the US not only is the 1% catching up with their Latin counterparts (who are used to appropriating between a quarter and a third of overall income), but that new developments such as Trump may be part of the same phenomenon: it is now the South that seems to show the North 'the image of their own future'. And regarding that future, it is tempting to say "welcome to the Third World"! We are all indeed converging in this neo-liberal era but, somehow unexpectedly, this convergence is towards features that so far have characterised a number of middle-income countries - e.g. huge inequalities due to mobile élites creaming off the rewards of economic growth, and 'magic realist' politics (that may lack self-respect but not originality). I also discuss why Piketty's persistence with the neo-classical theory of factor shares - a pretty much obsolete 1950s-style approach to the distribution of income - prevents him from bringing our understanding of current distributive affairs forward as much as he might. His neo-classical analysis not only does not 'fit the facts' (he has to resort to questionable parameters), but also leads him into a methodology and social ontology that assumes that particularly complex and over-determined processes (like the distribution of income) are just the simple sum of their parts. Therefore, their account can be reduced to the algebraic description of individual constituents (e.g., inequality as basically an endogenous outcome of r>g - and that would be all). I also outline an alternative narrative regarding why inequality is becoming so extreme in formerly more enlightened affluent societies. I conclude that in order to understand current distributive dynamics what really matters is to comprehend the forces determining the share of the rich — and in terms of growth, what they choose to do with it! |
| Keywords: | income distribution; inequality; ‘Palma Ratio’; homogeneous middle; ideology; neoliberalism; ‘new left’; institutional persistence; Latin America; Chile; South Africa; United States. |
| JEL: | D31 E11 E22 E24 E25 I32 J31 N16 N30 N36 O50 P16 |
| Date: | 2016–05–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1627&r=hme |
| By: | Seymour, Greg; Doss, Cheryl; Marenya, Paswel; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Passarelli, Simone |
| Abstract: | Despite recent evidence that decisions about technology adoption often involve input from both men and women, the literature on technology adoption rarely considers gender and intrahousehold issues. In this paper, we use survey data from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania to investigate the influence of women’s empowerment on the adoption of improved maize varieties (IMVs). While our results are mixed as to whether or not women’s empowerment is positively correlated with higher rates of adoption, we find overwhelmingly that women’s empowerment is positively correlated with greater participation by women in decisions about the adoption of IMVs, the acquisition of credit for the purchase of IMVs, and the acquisition of extension services related to IMVs. |
| Keywords: | gender, women's empowerment, technology adoption, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236164&r=hme |
| By: | Raul V. Fabella (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman; National Academy of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | In Part I, we argue that Economics must outgrow the narrow confines of Neo-Classical Economics to embrace ‘sociality’ first championed by Herbert Simon in the mid-1950s and now by a growing number of economists under the banner of Social Economics. We contend here that Neo-Classical Economics is incomplete, rather than wrong. Firstly any alternative model must subsume the Neo-Classical model as a special case even as it embraces conceptual promontories from other social science disciplines, viz., groups, norms and sanctions. Secondly, it must be couched in a language familiar to the economics profession? maintain optimizing behavior and equilibrium analysis. In Part II, we construct a formal model where the agent is at once a private entity and a member of a social group; his utility is inclusive combining the agent’s private utility over goods (the Neo-Classical utility) and the utility the he derives from being a member, viz., access to group’s collective good. As a member, he commits to support the procurement of the group’s collective good and submits to a system of norms and to the corresponding self-organized sanctions regime punishing violation of group norms. The agent solves a sequence of optimization problems: the first determines his optimal consumption basket given his budget constraint (net of group contribution), prices in the market location of the group; this gives his inclusive indirect utility; the second determines his optimal market hours by maximizing his indirect inclusive utility subject to time constraint and the market wage rate; this gives his doubly indirect inclusive utility; thirdly, he maximizes his inclusive doubly indirect utility with respect to the monetary contribution of the group given the sanctions for norm violation. The choice of social group follows from a rank order of groups by greatest inclusive utility an agent can attain in each competing social group. Finally, we show how the agent’s relative weighting of his private and group commitment may wax and wane depending upon the stakes of the inter-group competition. |
| Keywords: | Sociality, groups, norms, choice of groups, compliance with norms, inter-group competition |
| JEL: | D01 D11 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phs:dpaper:201604&r=hme |
| By: | Aleksandr Buzgalin (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University); Andrey Kolganov (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University); Olga Barashkova (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper argues the importance of using modern methodology of Marxist analysis for the study of imperialism and the so-called “empires”. This methodology allows to show the mechanisms of economic, political, ideological, and so on manipulating the “periphery” from the “center” capital and the states. On this methodological basis it is proved that capitals and state machines of semi-periphery countries in general and Russia in particular are mostly objects of imperialist subjugation and manipulation and only in some rare cases these countries and their capitals are able to be subjects of the imperialist policy. The analysis of the contradictions in the relations of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the West is given. It is provided the system of political, economic and geo-political arguments proving that Russia as a rule does not act as a subject of the imperialist policy, and only in some cases (generally relying on the Soviet legacy) Russia is able to withstand the “rules of the game”, given by the imperialist powers. It is argued that these some cases when Russia withstands the “rules of the game” is the main reason for the imperialist powers’ diatribes against “Russian imperialism”. |
| Keywords: | Russia, imperialism, Marxism, Ukraine, political and economic power, geopolitics, capital, state. |
| JEL: | F01 F29 O52 O57 P52 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upa:wpaper:0030&r=hme |
| By: | Simon Brière; Bernard Fortin; Guy Lacroix |
| Abstract: | Pour des CV semblables en tout point, Samira Benounis recevra-t-elle moins d’invitations à un entretien d’embauche que Valérie Tremblay dans la région de la Capitale-Nationale (Québec, Canada) ? Cet article tente de répondre à cette question à partir d’une expérience utilisant la méthode de testing par envoi de CV. Nos résultats montrent que, toutes choses égales par ailleurs, la probabilité d’être invitée à un entretien d’embauche diminue de 11 % lorsque la candidate a un nom d’origine maghrébine plutôt que québécoise. Ce constat suggère la présence d’une discrimination à l’embauche des candidates d’origine maghrébine dans la région de la Capitale-Nationale. |
| Keywords: | , discrimination à l’embauche, méthode de testing par envoi de CV, région de la Capitale-Nationale (Québec, Canada) |
| JEL: | C93 J71 |
| Date: | 2016–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirwor:2016s-28&r=hme |
| By: | Senem Kurt Topuz (Abant Izzet Baysal University) |
| Abstract: | If the condition of women in Turkey is evaluated in terms of education, violence, employment, and the like variables from the most general point of view, it will be right to start with an evaluation on the literacy condition according to gender above all because the results are striking. For example, as the year 2014, out of 2.663.096 illiterate people 2.208.336 are women (TUIK, 2014). This data is important as it refers to a huge gap between genders in terms of the level of education. Moreover, women's employment in Turkey is another important problematic area. For example, as of 2014 in Turkey the ratio of contribution of women to the labor force is 30.3%, the ratio of women's employment is 26.7%. (TUIK, 2014). Another problematic area shows itself in political representation. Although the ratio of women deputies in Turkey has increased over the years, the share of women deputies in the parliament has increased to 14.7% with the 2015 elections. Another problematic area that has been talked about and discussed most nowadays is violence against women. In the 2014 Domestic Violence Against Women in Turkey Research, across the country, the ratio of women who have experienced physical violence in any period of their lives by their husbands or ex-husbands is 36%. The ratio of women who have experienced emotional violence in any period of their lives is 44%; the ratio of physical or sexual violence experienced together is 38%.As seen, women in Turkey are in a disadvantaged position in terms of social, economic, political, and the like variables compared to men. The purpose of this study is to uncover how political parties deal with this disadvantaged position women are experiencing and the problems it creates and what kind of an approach they have to solve the problems determined. In other words, programs of political parties in the parliament will be content analyzed in terms of violence, education, employment, discrimination, equality, freedom, and the like and the results will be compared in the line with their respective parties. The basic reason why this study is conducted on examining political parties and their party programs is that political parties are the main incentive means that force the government to fulfill the desires and needs of the majority of the society and that party programs are a reference text that covers political party's ideology, priorities, and suggested solutions for the problematic areas. |
| Keywords: | Women in Turkey, Political Party Programs, Content Analysis, Domestic Violence, Women in Work Life, Political Decision Mechanisms and Woman |
| JEL: | D63 I00 J16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3605990&r=hme |
| By: | Rosas, Francisco; Lence, Sergio H. |
| Abstract: | The Neoclassical theory of production establishes a dual relationship between the profit value function of a competitive firm and its underlying production technology. This relationship, commonly referred to as duality theory, has been widely used in empirical work to estimate production parameters, such as elasticities and returns to scale, without the requirement of explicitly specifying the technology. We generate a pseudo-dataset by Monte Carlo simulations, which starting from known production parameters, yield a dataset with the main characteristics of U.S. agriculture in terms of unobserved firm heterogeneity, decisions under uncertainty, unexpected production and price shocks, endogenous prices, output and input aggregation, measurement error in variables, and omitted variables. Econometric estimation conducted with the mentioned pseudo-data show that the initial production parameters are not precisely recovered and therefore the elasticities are inaccurately estimated. The deviation of the own- and cross-price elasticities from their true values, given our parameter calibration, ranges between 6% and 229%, with an average of 71%. Also, own-price elasticities are as imprecisely recovered as cross-price elasticities. Sensitivity analysis shows that results still hold for different sources and levels of noise, as well as sample size used in estimation. |
| Keywords: | Duality theory, firm’s heterogeneity, measurement error, data aggregation, omitted variables, endogeneity, uncertainty, Monte Carlo simulations., Demand and Price Analysis, Production Economics, Q12, D22, D81, C18, |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236091&r=hme |
| By: | Green, Gareth; Richards, Timothy |
| Abstract: | There is developing interest in the application of Machine Learning Models (MLM) to estimation problems in economics. MLM may be particularly well suited to applications in retail, health care, energy, finance or for web based businesses where large amounts of data are available to help make better decisions and better understand consumer behavior. There are three reasons economists may want to adopt new MLM tools. First is the size of available data sets. Second, these new data sets have many potential predictors where domain knowledge may not be helpful in distinguishing which available data are most relevant. Third, larger data sets allow for modeling more complex relationships than the standard linear model, which is what MLM are able to capture. |
| Keywords: | Machine Learning, Scanner Data, Demand Modeling, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, |
| Date: | 2016–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236147&r=hme |
| By: | Susan Ariel Aaronson (Department of Economics/Institute for International Economic Policy, George Washington University) |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2016-8&r=hme |
| By: | Kafle, Kashi; Winter-Nelson, Alex; Michelson, Hope |
| Abstract: | This study assesses the impact of livestock transfer and associated training on women’s empowerment in Zambia. Women’s empowerment is measured with women’s ‘decision making power’ – a simple weighted index of women’s decision making and authority over different farm household activities and resources. We use a two-period panel data from a field experiment in the Copperbelt Province and the treatment effect is identified by using the difference-indifference method with household level fixed effects. First, we argue that women’s empowerment serves as a key driver of economic wellbeing of both individuals and households as we show empirically that empowered women contribute to dietary diversity and consumption expenditure. Results show a significant positive impact of the intervention on women’s empowerment. In particular, men and women from households receiving both livestock and training made most household decisions jointly and the proportion of joint decisions in these households is significantly greater than comparison households. While women’s control over most household activities have significantly increased, women’s role on decisions over livestock related activities increased the most. |
| Keywords: | livestock transfer, training, women’s empowerment, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Livestock Production/Industries, O12, J16, D04, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236271&r=hme |
| By: | - |
| Abstract: | The Classification of Time-Use Activities for Latin America and the Caribbean (CAUTAL) is the outcome of an extensive working process undertaken by the Working Group on Gender Statistics of the Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA) to meet the need of Latin American and Caribbean countries for a gender-sensitive instrument appropriate to the regional context that could be used to harmonize and standardize time-use surveys and produce statistics in this area. |
| Keywords: | TIEMPO, ESTADISTICAS DEL USO DEL TIEMPO, CLASIFICACION, SISTEMAS DE CLASIFICACION, INCORPORACION DE LA PERSPECTIVA DE GENERO, TIME, TIME USE STATISTICS, CLASSIFICATION, CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS, GENDER MAINSTREAMING |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col022:40170&r=hme |
| By: | JOÃO P. ROMERO; JOHN. S. L. MCCOMBIE |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2014:084&r=hme |
| By: | Herath, Deepananda; Felfel, Abdel |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea16:236260&r=hme |
| By: | PEDRO MENDES LOUREIRO |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anp:en2015:020&r=hme |
| By: | Polterovich, Victor |
| Abstract: | The influence of civic culture is considered on the effective choice of the reform plan which is defined as a sequence of interim institutions that "connects" the initial institution with final, desirable for reformer. Accounting for prevailing values, characteristics of mass behavior and competencies under designing intermediate institutions contributes to the success of reform, whereas ignoring them leads to high costs and dysfunctions. In addition, interim institutions can influence the cultural shifts, causing further advancement or failure of reforms. The validity of these theses is demonstrated in the analysis of the privatization and democratization processes in various countries. The hypothesis is put forward and discussed that, in developing countries, one of the important causes of reform failures is a cultural gap between the elite of society and the mass of citizens. |
| Keywords: | catching-up development, institutional trajectory, interim institution, trust, postmaterialism, social values, privatization, democratization |
| JEL: | A13 B52 D02 O1 P11 P16 P5 |
| Date: | 2016–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71658&r=hme |