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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2017‒12‒18
fourteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Cesaratto, Sergio (University of Siena) |
| Abstract: | In the late 1950s, Svimez was an influential research centre on Italian economic and regional policies. It was advised and visited by top international development experts and by leading Italian economists. Pierangelo Garegnani, fresh from his seminal Ph.D. thesis on capital theory at Cambridge, wrote a report for Svimez, published in 1962, on the relevance of Keynes’ theory for economies at an intermediate stage of development, like Italy. Interestingly, in 1963 Gardner Ackley published a similar report for Svimez. The theoretical parts of Garegnani’s report were published in English in 1978-79 and 2015. In a final applied section, which has not yet been published, Garegnani estimates that a fuller utilisation of productive capacity would have allowed for the creation of 550 thousand additional jobs without problems relating to the balance of payments. In this section, Garegnani also raises several interesting theoretical issues. Ackley’s report is an econometric explanation of the Italian ‘economic miracle’ based on a demand-led growth supermultiplier model – a theoretical approach re-discovered by Bortis and Serrano, and recently taken up by Marc Lavoie and others. A comparison between these two genuine Keynesian approaches looks very promising. |
| Keywords: | Garegnani; Ackley; Svimez; Keynesian theory; growth theory |
| JEL: | B22 B24 B51 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:sraffa:0026&r=hme |
| By: | Isabelle Sin (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Steven Stillman (Free University of Bozen Bolzano); Richard Fabling (Independent Researcher) |
| Abstract: | As in other OECD countries, women in New Zealand earn substantially less than men with similar observable characteristics. In this paper, we use a decade of annual wage and productivity data from New Zealand’s Linked Employer-Employee Database to examine different explanations for this gender wage gap. Sorting by gender at either the industry or firm level explains less than one-fifth of the overall wage gap. Gender differences in productivity within firms also explain little of the difference seen in wages. The relationships between the gender wage-productivity gap and both age and tenure are inconsistent with statistical discrimination being an important explanatory factor for the remaining differences in wages. Relating across industry and over time variation in the gender wage-productivity gap to industry-year variation in worker skills, and product market and labour market competition, we find evidence that is consistent with taste discrimination being important for explaining the overall gender wage gap. Explanations based on gender differences in bargaining power are less consistent with our findings. |
| Keywords: | Gender wage gap; discrimination; sorting; productivity; competition |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:17_15&r=hme |
| By: | Karolina Beaumont |
| Abstract: | The paper discusses the challenges of the collaborative economy as a system stimulating female social and economic empowerment and assesses the opportunities offered by the collaborative economy in increasing the female labour participation rate amongst Polish women. |
| Keywords: | collaborative economy, sharing economy, new business models, gender equality, self-employment, female employment |
| JEL: | J16 J21 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sec:worpap:0002&r=hme |
| By: | Rachid Mira (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - UP13 - Université Paris 13 - USPC - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Notre étude sur longue période de l'économie politique algérienne, prend appui sur l'approche régulationniste inspirée du cadre d'analyse néoréaliste de Bruno Amable et Stefano Palombarini (2009) et des concepts néo institutionnalistes de Mushtaq Khan (2000, 2009) : elle considère que le développement économique de l'Algérie s'opère dans un contexte donné de distribution du pouvoir et d'institutions variées formelles et informelles, qui structurent des accords ou équilibres politiques sur la base de groupes sociaux soutenant la coalition au pouvoir et captant en retour des rentes distribuées. La confluence ou divergence d'intérêts politiques et économiques conditionne la réussite ou l'échec de politiques économiques et industrielles favorables à la croissance et au développement. Les institutions joueraient dans le processus de développement un rôle fondamental. |
| Keywords: | Algeria,institutions,political power,development,Political economy |
| Date: | 2017–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cepnwp:hal-01593281&r=hme |
| By: | Carlo Vercellone (CEMTI - Centre d'études sur les médias, les technologies et l'internationalisation - UP8 - Université Paris 8, Vincennes-Saint-Denis); Francesco Brancaccio (CEMTI - Centre d'études sur les médias, les technologies et l'internationalisation - UP8 - Université Paris 8, Vincennes-Saint-Denis); Giuliani Alfonso (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | What is the common? What are its foundations? Is it a set of well-defined resources – so called common goods – or a generic principle governing the social organisation of production? These questions need to be asked because the debate on the Common is as rich as it is confusing. On the one hand, notions such as Common, in the singular, commons, common goods, common property, common-pool resources, etc, are at times used as synonymous, at others in contradiction, lacking a precise definition. On the other hand, it is easy to forget that the use of these terms often conceals highly differentiated approaches not only to theory, but also to the political role the Common might play in a project of social transformation. The purpose of this book is to contribute to clarify these questions through a multidisciplinary approach that combines theory and history. The aim is twofold. The first is to provide the reader with a guide to a critical analysis of the main economic and legal theories of common goods. Particular attention will be given to the input and limits of Elinor Ostrom’s contribution and to the debate on the so-called tragedy of the commons. This survey of the literature serves the purpose of showing what the Common is not, or, at least, what it should not be reduced to. The second aim is to put forward an approach that is alternative to that of political economy. In this framework, the Common is theorised as an actual “mode of production”. |
| Abstract: | Che cosa è il Comune? Quali sono i suoi fondamenti? Si tratta di un insieme di risorse ben delimitate - i cosiddetti beni comuni – o, invece, di un principio generale d’organizzazione sociale della produzione? La necessità di ripartire da tali interrogativi nasce dalla constatazione della ricchezza, ma anche di una certa confusione che caratterizza il dibattito sul Comune. Da un lato, nozioni come Comune al singolare, commons, beni comuni, proprietà comune, common-pool resources, ecc., sono utilizzate talvolta come sinonimi, talvolta opposte le une alle altre, senza darne una definizione precisa. Dall’altro, si tende spesso a dimenticare come dietro l’uso di questi termini si celino approcci molto differenti, sia sul piano teorico, sia su quello del ruolo politico che il Comune potrebbe svolgere in un progetto di trasformazione sociale. Il proposito di questo saggio è di contribuire a far chiarezza su tali questioni attraverso un approccio multidisciplinare che combina teoria e storia. L’obiettivo è duplice. Il primo è di fornire al lettore una guida pedagogica per un’analisi critica delle principali teorie economiche e giuridiche dei beni comuni. Un’attenzione particolare sarà data agli apporti e ai limiti del contributo di Elinor Ostrom e al dibattito sulla cosiddetta tragedia dei beni comuni. Questa rassegna della letteratura ci permetterà anche di mostrare ciò che il Comune non è o, perlomeno, ciò a cui non deve essere ridotto. Il secondo è di proporre un approccio alternativo a quello dell’economia politica. In questo quadro, il Comune è pensato come un vero e proprio “modo di produzione”, portatore di un’alternativa sia all’egemonia della logica burocratica-amministrativa dello Stato, sia a quella dell'economia capitalistica di mercato, in quanto principio di coordinazione della produzione e degli scambi. Il libro fornisce numerose illustrazioni delle pratiche che incarnano questa potenzialità nei settori più svariati dell’economia e della società. Formula inoltre diverse proposte per un’agenda che permetta di favorire lo sviluppo e l’autonomia del “Comune come modo di produzione”. |
| Keywords: | commmons, Common as mode of production, enclosures, Elinor Ostrom, Karl Marx |
| Date: | 2017–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-01628784&r=hme |
| By: | Giovanni Dosi; Mauro Napoletano; Andrea Roventini; Joseph E. Stiglitz; Tania Treibich |
| Abstract: | We analyze the individual and macroeconomic impacts of heterogeneous expectations and action rules within an agent-based model populated by heterogeneous, interacting firms. Agents have to cope with a complex evolving economy characterized by deep uncertainty resulting from technical change, imperfect information and coordination hurdles. In these circumstances, we find that neither individual nor macroeconomic dynamics improve when agents replace myopic expectations with less naie learning rules. In fact, more sophisticated, e.g. recursive least squares (RLS) expectations produce less accurate individual forecasts and also considerably worsen the performance of the economy. Finally, we experiment with agents that adjust simply to technological shocks, and we show that individual and aggregate performances dramatically degrade. Our results suggest that fast and frugal robust heuristics are not a second-best option: rather they are "rational" in macroeconomic environments with heterogeneous, interacting agents and changing "fundamentals". |
| Keywords: | complexity, expectations, heterogeneity, heuristics, learning, agent-based model, computational economics |
| Date: | 2017–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2017/31&r=hme |
| By: | Giovanni Dosi; Andrea Roventini; Emanuele Russo |
| Abstract: | In this paper we present a multi-country, multi-industry agent-based model investigating the different growth patterns of interdependent economies. Each country features a Schumpeterian engine of endogenous technical change which interacts with Keyneasian/Kaldorian demand generation mechanisms. National growth trajectories are driven by firms' accumulation of technological knowledge, which in turn also leads to emergent specialization patterns in different industries. Interactions among economies occur via trade flows, stemming from the competition of firms in international markets. Simulation results show the emergence of persistent income divergence among countries leading to polarization and club formation. Moreover, each country experiences a structural transformation of its productive structure during the development process. Such dynamics results from firm-level virtuous (or vicious) cycles between knowledge accumulation, trade performances, and growth dynamics. The model accounts for a rich ensemble of empirical regularities at macro, meso and micro levels of aggregation. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous growth, structural change, technology-gaps, global divergence, absolute, advantages, agent-based models. |
| Date: | 2017–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2017/32&r=hme |
| By: | Glucksberg, Luna; Burrows, Roger |
| Abstract: | This article examines the phenomena of "Family Offices" (FOs) within the context of the re-emergence of patrimonial forms of capitalism. As global wealth becomes ever more concentrated in the hands of dynastic wealth élites, we examine the new financial infrastructures - within which FOs are key - that are emerging in core urban areas to support them. We review the existing literature on the phenomena and report on an observational study of their form and functioning in London and beyond. |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:75899&r=hme |
| By: | Polukhina Elizaveta (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Strelnikova Anna (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Vanke Alexandrina (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an analytical description of working-class identity in three key periods of the socioeconomic transformations which changed the structure of a plant’s industry and working-class life: the Soviet era (1930s-1980s), the time of economical change (1990s), and the post-Soviet years (2000s-2010s). The analytical framework of the study is based on the concept of ‘cultural class analysis’ (Savage 2015). It includes the concepts of habitus and cultural capital, and culture as embedded in economic and social relations (Bourdieu 1980). In the course of the research we conducted an ethnographic case-study in 2017 and lived in the neighborhood of Uralmash, which was designed for workers of a heavy machinery plant dating back to the 1920s in the city of Yekaterinburg. Based on 15 in-depth interviews with Uralmash workers living in the neighborhood and 8 experts, and our field observations, we discovered 3 restructuring shapes of the Uralmash worker identity. These working class identities shapes referred to 3 determined periods. The Soviet period showed a ‘consistent’ working-class identity of the Uralmash workers, whereby the plant and working spirits were the centers of their lives. The 1990s was marked by severe deterioration of workers’ social conditions and the loss of their familiar bearings in life. As a consequence, the Uralmash workers perceived themselves as ‘victims of circumstances’ with ‘collapsing’ worker identity in 1990s. Currently, ‘Soviet’ and ‘post-Soviet’ practices and values are combined in today’s ‘mixing’ and an inconsistent worker identity. The notions of ‘simple’ and ‘working-class’ as sense-making images are encapsulated in nostalgic memories and retain their role as criteria for the delineation between inequalities and social discrimination along the ‘them’ and ‘us’: ‘we are those who live belonging to the past’. The Soviet past still continues to be an important sense-making resource; in fact, it is the only ‘universal’ prop for them that support their subjective perception of themselves |
| Keywords: | industrial neighborhood, worker, working-class identity, ethnographic case-study |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:77/soc/2017&r=hme |
| By: | Tomasello, Mario Vincenzo; Burkholz, Rebekka; Schweitzer, Frank |
| Abstract: | The authors develop an agent-based model to reproduce the size distribution of R&D alliances of firms. Agents are uniformly selected to initiate an alliance and to invite collaboration partners. These decide about acceptance based on an individual threshold that is compared with the utility expected from joining the current alliance. The benefit of alliances results from the fitness of the agents involved. Fitness is obtained from an empirical distribution of agent's activities. The cost of an alliance reflects its coordination effort. Two free parameters ac and a1 scale the costs and the individual threshold. If initiators receive R rejections of invitations, the alliance formation stops and another initiator is selected. The three free parameters (ac; a1; R) are calibrated against a large scale data set of about 15,000 firms engaging in about 15,000 R&D alliances over 26 years. For the validation of the model the authors compare the empirical size distribution with the theoretical one, using confidence bands, to find a very good agreement. As an asset of our agent-based model, they provide an analytical solution that allows to reduce the simulation effort considerably. The analytical solution applies to general forms of the utility of alliances. Hence, the model can be extended to other cases of alliance formation. While no information about the initiators of an alliance is available, the results indicate that mostly firms with high fitness are able to attract newcomers and to establish larger alliances. |
| Keywords: | R&D network,alliance,collaboration,agent |
| JEL: | L14 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:2017107&r=hme |
| By: | Costas Lapavitsas; Ivan Mendieta-Muñoz |
| Abstract: | Since the Great Recession of 2007-9 the financialisation of the US economy has reached a watershed characterised by stagnant financial profits, falling mortgage debt and rising public debt. The reliance of households on the formal financial system appears to have weakened for the first time in the post-war period. The financial sector has lacked the dynamism characteristic of the previous three decades and has become more reliant on the state, which has greatly increased its own indebtedness and has driven public interest rates close to zero. At the same time, state intervention has tightened the regulatory framework for big banks. The future path of financialisation in the USA will depend heavily on government policy with regard to state debt and to financial regulation. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uta:papers:2017_10&r=hme |
| By: | Roberta Masala (Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, España); Salvatore Monni (Dipartimento di Economia Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italia) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this article is to investigate the evolution of social inclusion among indigenous peoples in Ecuador. In the beginning, it highlights how some policies have deepened social problems like poverty and inequality. Then, it reviews the literature on social inclusion to define the reference framework of the investigation and pictures the social inclusion conditions of indigenous peoples through data analysis, in particular by observing the indicators of education, health and participation. With regards to this subject, it will be considered also some qualitative aspects, like cultural and linguistic barriers that are crucial for the effectiveness of the policies and essential to understand the indigenous social system. In this view, the article compares the actual indigenous condition with the period prior to the Revolución Ciudadana to highlight if some changes occurred in the quality of life of the Ecuadorian indigenous peoples. |
| Keywords: | Buen Vivir, Ecuador, Sumak Kawsay, indigenous peoples, inequality, social inclusion |
| JEL: | B59 O10 O20 O54 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:srt:wpaper:1017&r=hme |
| By: | Adriano Do Vale (Centre d'Economie de l'Université de Paris Nord (CEPN)) |
| Abstract: | La fin des années 80 et les années 90 ont été marquées par une grande vague d’adoption de l’indépendance des banques centrales (IBC). Les manuels et les revues de la littérature adoptent souvent un récit historique standard la présentant comme une sucess story, comme l’application d’un consensus théorique. L’art aurait suivi le pas de la science. Cet article a comme finalité ultime de proposer un récit alternatif concernant l’IBC. Adoptant une perspective historique centrée sur la première partie des années 20, nous entendons démontrer que la doctrine des banquiers centraux et les pratiques, comprises en tant qu’adoption de l’IBC, précédent la théorie, l’art venant alors avant la science. Vue de façon normative par la littérature économique à partir des années 80, l’indépendance est pensée, dès les années 20, par les praticiens qui posent eux-mêmes les principes du central banking. Dans la nouvelle donne de l’après-guerre, marquée par l’absence de l’ancrage nominal autrefois fourni par l’étalon-or, l’IBC s’avère un arrangement institutionnel alternatif face à l’inflation. Elle est recommandée au niveau international et constitue un principe central de la doctrine du central banking avancé par le gouverneur anglais Montagu Norman. Comme pour le principe d’indépendance, les pratiques précèdent la théorie. On considère qu’il y a eu une première vague d’adoption de l’IBC dans la première moitié des années 20, bien avant la vague d’adoption de l’IBC de la fin des années 80 et des années 90. Suite à des expériences hyper-inflationnistes et dans le cadre de plans de stabilisation monétaire sous tutelle internationale, les banques centrales de l’Autriche (1923), de la Hongrie (1924) et de l’Allemagne (1922-24) deviennent légalement indépendantes. |
| Keywords: | années 20, doctrine, indépendance des banques centrales, pratiques, récit, théorie |
| JEL: | B52 E58 F33 N44 N14 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upn:wpaper:2017-20&r=hme |
| By: | Nayana Bose (Department of Economics, Scripps College, Claremont); Shreyasee Das (Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the intergenerational effects following the positive changes in women’s inheritance rights. The amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, the law governing inheritance for Hindus, empowered unmarried daughters at the time of the reform to have equal rights to inherit ancestral property as their brothers. We employ a difference-in-differences strategy and exploit the state level variation in a woman’s exposure to the reform. Using the Indian Human Development Survey data for rural India, we find that the property rights reform significantly increased women’s education. We find a significant decrease in her sons’ education, the effect is magnified in households where fathers are less educated than mothers. We further explore the role of birth order and the gender composition of children to assess the intergenerational impact of this more gender equal inheritance law. Regardless of the child’s gender, our results show a significant decrease in educational attainment for younger children. |
| Keywords: | Property Rights, Hindu Inheritance Law, Education, Intergenerational Transfers, India |
| JEL: | D13 I25 J16 K36 O12 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uww:wpaper:17-01&r=hme |