nep-hme New Economics Papers
on Heterodox Microeconomics
Issue of 2020‒02‒03
nineteen papers chosen by
Carlo D’Ippoliti
Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”

  1. Perplexing Complexity Human Modelling and Primacy of the Group as Essence of Complexity By Hanappi, Hardy
  2. Technical progress, capital accumulation, and distribution By Naoki Yoshihara; Roberto Veneziani
  3. Cooperative Agricultural Farms in Bulgaria (1890 -1989) By Marinova, Tsvetelina; Nenovsky, Nikolay
  4. What is Socialism Today? Conceptions of a Cooperative Economy By John E. Roemer
  5. “A new type of revolution”: socialist thought in India, 1940s-1960s By Sherman, Taylor C.
  6. Fıkhi Filtreleme Metodolojisi - Yeni Bir Fıkhi Yaklaşım By Yildirim, Ramazan; Ilhan, Bilal
  7. The Impact of Deunionization on the Growth and Dispersion of Productivity and Pay By Giovanni Dosi; Richard B. Freeman; Marcelo C. Pereira; Andrea Roventini; Maria Enrica Virgillito
  8. The art world’s response to the challenge of inequality By Kolbe, Kristina; Upton-Hansen, Chris; Savage, Mike; Lacey, Nicola; Cant, Sarah
  9. Les crises du logement By Jean-Claude Driant; Pierre Madec
  10. Una aproximación desde el paradigma de la sostenibilidad de la vida a los proyectos de electrificación rural en el marco de la cooperación internacional By Saavedra, Cristina Alonso
  11. Produciendo Bienestar. Una mirada desde las comunidades marginadas en Puerto Rico By Cruz-Martinez, Gibran
  12. Social housing under the worker’s party government: an analysis of the private sector in Brazil By Lima, Valesca
  13. The Economic Preferences of Cooperative Managers By Alves, Guillermo; Blanchard, Pablo; Burdin, Gabriel; Chávez, Mariana; Dean, Andrés
  14. Biotech Crops, Input Use and Landslides: The case of Genetically Modified Corn in the Philippine Highlands By Bequet, Ludovic
  15. IS THE EGYPTIAN ECONOMY CREATING GOOD JOBS? JOB CREATION AND ECONOMIC VULNERABILITY FROM 1998 TO 2018 By Ragui Assaad; Abdelaziz AlSharawy; Colette Salemi
  16. Carbon Trading and the Morality of Markets in Laudato Si By Peñalver, Eduardo M.; Library, Cornell
  17. BRINGING PHILOSOPHY INTO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: A RESEARCH AGENDA By Edoardo ONGARO
  18. Commodity dependence, global commodity chains, price volatility and financialisation: Price-setting and stabilisation in the cocoa sectors in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana By Tröster, Bernhard; Staritz, Cornelia; Grumiller, Jan; Maile, Felix
  19. Non-monetary poverty and deprivation: a capability approach By Anand, Paul; Jones, Sam; Donoghue, Matthew; Tietler, Julien

  1. By: Hanappi, Hardy
    Abstract: This paper describes the emergence of complexity as duplicated evolutionary process. The first procedural source of complexity is the quantum jump of the evolution of the human species when it started to maintain certain brain-internal models of its environment. The second - parallel - procedural origin is the evolution of a communication structure, a language, with which an already existing group of primates could frame their internal models. In contrast to definitions of complexity which use the concept in the context of theoretical physics, this approach reveals some perplexing properties of model-building for a special subject of investigation; namely the human species: All adequate models of political economy (economics is just the sub-discipline that freezes political dynamics) have to be complex. Since today’s mainstream economic theory lends its formal apparatus from the mathematics of Newtonian physics, it misses the most essential features characterizing human social dynamics, i.e. its complexity.
    Keywords: Evolutionary Complexity, Quantum Political Economy
    JEL: B40 B5 B50 P16
    Date: 2020–01–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:98129&r=all
  2. By: Naoki Yoshihara (University of Massachusetts Amherst); Roberto Veneziani (Queen Mary University London)
    Abstract: We study the effects of innovations on income distribution in cap­ italist economies characterised by a drive to accumulate. Consistent with the basic intuitions of Marx's theory of technical change, we show that there is no obvious relation between ex-ante profitable innovations and the income distribution that actually emerges in equilibrium, and individually rational choices of technique do not necessarily lead to optimal outcomes. Innovations may even cause the disappearance of all equilibria. Methodologically, it is not possible to fully understand the 'creative destruction' induced by innovations without capturing the dialectic between individual choices and aggregate outcomes, and the complex network of relations typical of capitalist economies.
    Keywords: technical change, income distribution, profit rate
    JEL: B51
    Date: 2019–11–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:899&r=all
  3. By: Marinova, Tsvetelina; Nenovsky, Nikolay
    Abstract: In this paper we have proposed an institutional reconstruction of the Bulgarian agricultural cooperatives’ history. The aim was to find the theoretical explanation of the complete deprivation of individuality of the agricultural cooperatives in the years of communism and their rejection respectively during the post-communist period. We consider that a relevant explanation was the accumulation of two institutional processes which were related to the nationalization of the cooperative sector and the cooperative idea. The first one may be referred to as being inertial and related to the specificities of the Bulgarian lagging behind and peripheral capitalism from the beginning of 20th century. That capitalism had a state character. The second institutional process occurred mainly in the wake of WWII. It was related to the large scale and actually mechanical application (despite some nominal specificities) of the Soviet model of agriculture and of the communist ideas of the place of that sector in the planned and all people’s economy. It must be underscored that the ideas of the agricultural cooperatives and the organization of agriculture coming from Russia and later from the USSR also played a definite role for shaping up the general understanding of cooperatives in Bulgaria.
    Keywords: agricultural cooperatives, communism, Soviet agrarian model, Bulgaria, institutional reconstruction
    JEL: N53 P13
    Date: 2020–01–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:98155&r=all
  4. By: John E. Roemer (Dept. of Political Science & Cowles Foundation, Yale University)
    Abstract: Socialism is back on the political agenda in the United States. Politicians and some economists who identify as socialists, however, do not discuss property relations, a topic that was central in the intellectual history of socialism, but rather limit themselves to advocacy of economic reforms, funded through taxation, that would tilt the income distribution in favor of the disadvantaged in society. In the absence of a more precise discussion of property relations, the presumption must be that ownership of ï¬ rms would remain private or corporate with privately owned shares. This formula is identiï¬ ed with the Nordic and other western European social democracies. In this article, I propose several variants of socialism, which are characterized by different kinds of property relation in the ownership of society’s ï¬ rms. In addition to varying property relations, I include as part of socialism a conception of what it means for a socialist society to possess a cooperative ethos, in place of the individualistic ethos of capitalist society. Differences in ethea are modeled as differences in the manner in which economic agents optimize. With an individualistic ethos, economic agents optimize in the manner of John Nash, while under a cooperative ethos, many optimize in the manner of Immanuel Kant. It is shown that Kantian optimization can decentralize resource allocation in ways that neatly separate issues of income distribution from those of efficiency. In particular, remuneration of labor and capital contributions to production need no longer be linked to marginal-product pricing of these factors, as is the key to efficiency with capitalist property relations. I present simulations of socialist income distributions, and offer some tentative conclusions concerning how we should conceive of socialism today.
    Keywords: Market socialism, General equilibrium, Cooperation, Kantian optimization, First theorem of welfare economics
    JEL: D3 D6 P2 P5 H4
    Date: 2020–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2220&r=all
  5. By: Sherman, Taylor C.
    Abstract: Although it is often said that early postcolonial India was socialist, scholars have tended to take this term for granted. This article investigates how Indians defined socialism in the two decades after independence. It finds that there were six areas of agreement among Indian socialists: the centrality of the individual, the indispensability of work, the continued importance of private property, that the final goal was a more equal – but not flat – society, that this change had to be brought about without violence, and that the final goal of Indian socialism ought to be spiritual fulfilment. Understanding how Indians defined their version of socialism, it is argued, will help scholars re-evaluate the role of the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in defining the goals India pursued after independence. It will also re-orient our understanding of the expectations and limitations of the Indian state in this crucial period in Indian history.
    Keywords: socialism; postcolonial political thought; Gandhian political thought; Nehruvian consensus; state; cooperatives
    JEL: B14 B24 P2 P3
    Date: 2018–07–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:88138&r=all
  6. By: Yildirim, Ramazan; Ilhan, Bilal
    Abstract: Bu çalışmanın ana amacı halihazırda çeşitli kurumlar tarafından uygulanan farklı metodolojilere dayanılarak elde edilmiş “fıkhi uygunluk kriterleri”ne yönelik eleştirilere dönük önerilerde bulunmaktır. Ayrıca, bu çalışma, İslamın birincil kaynaklarından (Kuran ve Sünnet) elde edilen bulgular ışığında, fıkhi uygunluk kriterlerini oluşturan metodolojilerde görülen farklılıkların standartlaştırılması için çözümler üretmeye çalışmaktadır. İslamın birincil kaynakları olan Kuran ve Sünnet’ten elde edilen güçlü çıkarımlar gösterir ki bir firmanın fıkhi uygunluk kriterlerine uygun olup olmadığı hakkındaki hakkaniyetli ve adil bir hüküm ancak o firmanın kontrolü altında olan içsel faktörlere bakılarak verilebilinir. Bu çalışma ayrıca fıkhi uygunluk kriterlerinin bir bütün halinde İslami finansin temel prensiplerini yansıtmasının önemine ve bu minvalde Bakara Suresi’nin 275’inci ayetinin ruhuna uygun olmasının elzemliğine vurgu yapmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın halihazirda var olan fıkhi uygunluk kriterlerindeki farklılıklardan harmoni/standartlaşma üretme potansiyeli ile İslami hassasiyetlere sahip yatırımcıları sağladığı bilinçlenme ve güvenilirlik sayesinde daha fazla yatırım yapmaya teşvik etmesi beklenmektedir. Bu çalışma kanıksanmış düşünme tarzlarının dışına çıkarak, fıkhi uygunluk kriterlerinin İslamın birincil kaynaklarına dayanılarak nasıl elde edilmesi gerektiği ana sorusuna kapsamlı bir şekilde cevap üretmeye çalışmaktadır. The purpose of this paper is to address to a long-standing criticism of the various Shari’ah screening methodologies implemented by Islamic index providers. This study aims to provide evidences derived from the Islamic sources (Qur’an and Sunnah) and offers a potential solution for the harmonization of Shari’ah screening methodologies. Strong evidences from the Qur’an reveal that the most righteous and fair judgment is provided when the only factors that are considered are the entirely endogenous factors. This study further emphasizes the importance of using a screening methodology that supports the main notions of Islamic finance as a whole, and adheres to the essence of the ayah (Al-Baqarah: 275). This study exhibits a potential towards the harmonization of Shari’ah screening methodologies which encourages the participation of Muslim investors by ensuring better awareness and confidence regarding stock investments. This paper fulfils an identified need to study how Shari’ah screening methodologies can be derived from the Islamic sources yet is based on “out-of-the-box” thinking.
    Keywords: Fıkhi filtreleme, İslami Katılım Endeksi, Sermaye Piyasa Değeri, Toplam Borç, Kuran ve Sünnet
    JEL: G11 G15 G18
    Date: 2018–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:90417&r=all
  7. By: Giovanni Dosi; Richard B. Freeman; Marcelo C. Pereira; Andrea Roventini; Maria Enrica Virgillito
    Abstract: This paper presents an Agent-Based Model (ABM) that seeks to explain the concordance of sluggish growth of productivity and of real wages found in macro-economic statistics, and the increased dispersion of firm productivity and worker earnings found in micro level statistics in advanced economies at the turn of the 21st century. It shows that a single market process unleashed by the decline of unionization can account for both the macro and micro economic phenomena, and that deunionization can be modeled as an endogenous outcome of competition between high wage firms seeking to raise productive capacity and low productivity firms seeking to cut wages. The model highlights the antipodal competitive dynamics between a “winner-takes-all economy” in which corporate strategies focused on cost reductions lead to divergence in productivity and wages and a “social market economy” in which competition rewards the accumulation of firm-level capabilities and worker skills with a more egalitarian wage structure.
    JEL: C63 E02 E24 J51
    Date: 2020–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26634&r=all
  8. By: Kolbe, Kristina; Upton-Hansen, Chris; Savage, Mike; Lacey, Nicola; Cant, Sarah
    Abstract: This paper considers the challenges which rising economic inequality poses to the art world with a special focus on museums and galleries in the UK. Based on interviews with artists, curators and managers of leading art institutions in London, we discuss how issues of economic inequality are reflected in their thinking about cultural work and how these relate to questions of spatial power, post-colonial sensibilities and diversity issues. We show how increasing economic inequality brings about deep-seated, systematic and sustained challenges which extend well beyond public funding cuts associated with austerity politics to a wider re-positioning of the arts away from its location in a distinctive public sphere and towards elite private privilege. Against this backdrop, we put forward the term ‘the artistic politics of regionalism’ and suggest that the most promising approaches to addressing contemporary inequalities lie in institutions’ reconsideration of spatial dynamics which can link concerns with decolonisation and representation to a recognition of how economic inequality takes a highly spatialised form.
    Keywords: economic; inequality; colonial; art; privilege
    JEL: D31
    Date: 2020–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:103146&r=all
  9. By: Jean-Claude Driant (Université Paris-Est (UPEMLV)); Pierre Madec (Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques)
    Abstract: Reste-t-il justifié de parler de crise du logement en France ? La question mérite d’être posée tant la situation en cette fin des années 2010 diffère de celles connues au cours de l’après-guerre, moment marqué à la fois par un important déficit quantitatif et l’état très dégradé du patrimoine. On est loin aussi de la « crise qualitative » vécue à la fin des années 1970, quand commencent les dénonciations des grands ensembles, d’un parc ancien souvent très inconfortable et où apparaissent les enjeux de la consommation énergétique. Alors que, selon l’enquête Logement de l’Insee de 2013, près de 77 % des ménages jugeaient leurs conditions de logement satisfaisantes ou très satisfaisantes, peut-on considérer que l’effort consenti par la collectivité est un échec ? La persistance de la notion de crise du logement dans le débat public mérite donc d’être interrogée à nouveaux frais. Dans un ouvrage publié aux Presses Universitaires de France, coll. laviedesidées.fr, nous cherchons avec Jean-Claude Driant à éclairer ce déplacement du regard.
    Keywords: Logement; Crises; France
    Date: 2018–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/44np8ieugb9gdpath1u90jr5s0&r=all
  10. By: Saavedra, Cristina Alonso
    Abstract: ABSTRACT Cross-University Master Degree in Human Rights Cross-Culture and Development Universidad Pablo de Olavide Universidad Internacional de Andalucía Author: CRISTINA ALONSO SAAVEDR Counselor: YAYO HERRERO LÓPEZ Abstract: in the current investigation work, we will analyse the right to the energy supply, as a leading good to other improvements in decent housing, education, health, etc. We will also observe how is the impact of the supply in the different aspects of daily life in the communities and specially in their women. The case study will be developed into the frame of the international development cooperation, taking several projects of rural electrification in the South coordinated by develompent NGOs from the North. The analysis will make a panoramic and historical revision of the evolution of the international develompent cooperation and the different approaches from a gender perspective. Later on we will deepen the concept of Energy and the evolution of its consumption along the Human History, being specially aware of not skipping the fact that the use of women bodies as an energy resource is essential to mantain the current economical system. We are in the need of a different paradigma that questions the basis of Capitalism and Patriarchy, because here is where the hegemonic concepts are hold. Thus, we will propose an analysis framework with an Ecofeminist approach to obtain sustainability and we will use it to analyse the projects of rural electrification. The critical Human Rights theory defines the rights as fighting processes that pursue an egalitarian access to material and immaterial goods. Taking this into account, the energy supply is understood as a material good that will lead to the obtention of other material and immaterial goods. Thus, the technology implemented in the communities for the energy supply will go together with a fighting process to get an egalitarian access, along with processes of social transformation. So, the technology installed must mean a real emancipation tool for the community and especially for women. This emancipation will depend on the process rather than on the transference as a simple technological aim. This is why the development NGOs that work for the defense of the rights in this communities suppling them energy must go beyond a simpe technified approach. That means the need of focusing in the process, letting the community participate and reviewing the models of participation from a gender perspective. The goal must then be the satisfaction of the basic needs of the population and especially the real needs of women, because they have been hidden under gender roles. Besides, the implementation of technology cannot forget aspects as environmental, social and gender justice for the effective and real achievement of the desired sustainability.
    Date: 2018–01–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:czvs8&r=all
  11. By: Cruz-Martinez, Gibran (CSIC)
    Abstract: Las comunidades marginadas en Puerto Rico presentan cicatrices sociales por la estigmatización, desigualdad y falta de oportunidades experimentadas durante décadas. Está obra recoge expresiones de este sector tradicionalmente marginado por el gobierno, mercado y la misma sociedad puertorriqueña. Dos son los principales propósitos del libro: (1) realizar un análisis histórico del desarrollo e institucionalización del Estado de bienestar emergente en Puerto Rico, y (2) examinar las relaciones del bienestar y la distribución de riesgos sociales entre los principales actores garantes del bienestar en las comunidades marginadas del archipiélago caribeño. Para cumplir el primer propósito se realiza una revisión histórica sobre el desarrollo de las instituciones y programas del bienestar puertorriqueño. El segundo objetivo del libro se materializa mediante la exposición de datos y relatos recopilados mediante entrevistas semiestructuradas y encuestas en siete comunidades marginadas del país (Daguao, Dulces Labios, El Rabanal, Playita Cortada, San Antón, Toro Negro y Tras Talleres). El valor añadido de este libro a los estudios de regímenes de bienestar es la conceptualización de la comunidad como uno de los principales actores garantes del bienestar junto a la familia, Estado y mercado. Asimismo, se demuestra el grado de (des)mercantilización, (des)familiarización y estadocentrismo/residualismo de los programas de bienestar puertorriqueños en las áreas de vivienda, maternidad/paternidad, educación, alimentación, salud, incapacidad, (des)empleo y vejez. Los resultados demuestran la existencia de un Estado de bienestar limitado y estratificado, el cual sigue el tipo de régimen de bienestar residual aunque con un gran peso en la familia tradicional en el área de cuidado y con programas subsidiarios de tipo corporativista para la población trabajadora en el mercado formal.
    Date: 2017–12–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:yb2zf&r=all
  12. By: Lima, Valesca (University College Dublin)
    Abstract: This article examines the patterns of government intervention in social housing in Brazil to analyse the role of the private sector in the elaboration and implementation of social housing policies during the Workers’ Party government. It draws on case study research, and I examine areas which impact on the way social housing has been implemented since 2003 to study the concentration of decision power the private construction sector has on social housing policymaking, which sets the tone of government intervention on social housing. I argue this was part of the Workers’ Party’s approach to neoliberal policies in a more moderated style, a type of intervention repeated on numerous occasions under previous administrations. This article concludes by noting the prominent role of the private sector in social housing developments.
    Date: 2017–12–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:kgzr5&r=all
  13. By: Alves, Guillermo; Blanchard, Pablo; Burdin, Gabriel; Chávez, Mariana; Dean, Andrés
    Abstract: A growing body of research has been investigating the role of management practices and managerial behaviour in conventional private firms and public sector organizations. However, little is known about managers’ behavioural profile in noninvestorowned firms. This paper aims to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive behavioural characterization of managers employed in cooperatives. We gathered incentive-compatible measures of risk preferences, time preferences, reciprocity, altruism, and trust from 196 Uruguayan managers (half of them employed in worker cooperatives) and 92 first-year undergraduate students. To do this, we conducted a high-stakes lab-in-thefield experiment in which participants played a series of online experimental games and made incentivised decisions.
    Keywords: Competitividad, Investigación socioeconómica, Liderazgo, Productividad,
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblwop:1457&r=all
  14. By: Bequet, Ludovic
    Abstract: Improved seeds varieties have led to an increase in agricultural production as well as to a change in agricultural practices and input use. A side effect of these changes that has received little attention to date is the impact of those new technologies on environmental degradation. Using an original survey method of farming households on the Philippine island of Mindanao covering the past ten years, this paper finds a positive correlation between GM corn cultivation and landslide occurrence, which is robust to the inclusion of household fixed effects as well as to the use of matching and survival models. An endogenous allocation of crops on plots can be ruled out as a mechanism. Instead, more aggressive weed control via broad-spectrum herbicide appears to explain the results. Looking at the distribution of landslides as a function of wealth, landslides are found to increase socio-economic inequality as poorer farmers lose on average a significantly larger portion of their plots to landslides while for the top tail of the landholding distribution is less affected.
    Keywords: Agriculture; Environmental degradation; Landslides; Biotechnology
    JEL: O13 Q12 Q15 Q56
    Date: 2020–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:98225&r=all
  15. By: Ragui Assaad (The Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota); Abdelaziz AlSharawy (Department of Economics, Virginia Tech); Colette Salemi (Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota)
    Abstract: In terms of overall growth rates, the Egyptian economy has rebounded from the slowdown it experienced as a result of the global financial crisis, the 2011 revolution and the revolution’s aftermath. The question we explore in this paper is whether the recovery in growth rates has been accompanied by an improvement in the quantity, and especially the quality, of employment in Egypt. We examine how overall employment and job creation have evolved and then delve into the composition of employment in terms of sector, formality, industry structure, location in and out of establishments and establishment size. We also examine other aspects of job quality such as skill requirements, regularity, access to paid leaves, health insurance, hours of work, and exposure to workplace hazards and injuries, and we relate these aspects to the type of work that people are engaged in. As a measure of subjective job quality, we examine workers’ satisfaction with various aspects of their jobs and how it changed over time. We also trace the evolution of underemployment in the economy in the form of involuntary part-time work and educational over-qualification.
    Date: 2019–10–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1354&r=all
  16. By: Peñalver, Eduardo M.; Library, Cornell
    Abstract: In a brief but much noted passage of Laudato Si, Pope Francis criticized so-called “cap and trade” approaches to reducing carbon emissions. “The strategy of buying and selling ‘carbon credits,’” he said, “can lead to a new form of speculation, which would not help reduce the emission of polluting gases worldwide.” Commentators have interpreted the passage as a categorical and moralistic rejection of market-based solutions to climate change. Read within the context of the encyclical and the broader Catholic social tradition, however, it becomes clear that the Pope’s critique of cap-and-trade is simultaneously more and less all-encompassing than these initial readings allow. The Pope’s objection to market-based approaches to controlling carbon emissions is closely tied to his analysis of global economic inequality. It reflects an astute appreciation of the way in which inequality can distort the market’s ability to serve as an efficient and just means of allocating the costs of environmental protection. His critique therefore echoes earlier discussions within liberation theology of the notion of “structural sin” and reinforces calls within Catholic Social Thought for analysis of markets always to be considered within – and at the service of – a broader moral framework. Situating Francis’s discussion within these traditions makes clear that, under the right circumstances, a cap and trade system of emissions regulation could be consistent with the Pope’s analysis in Laudato Si. In this short essay, I will briefly describe the so-called “market-based” approaches to greenhouse gas reduction that have dominated policy discussions of climate change in recent years. I will then situate Pope Francis’s objection to these sorts of policy responses, both within the broader climate debate and within the tradition of Catholic social teaching. Finally, I will propose constraints that would seem to address Pope Francis’s concerns.
    Date: 2017–12–22
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:lawarx:4zyqu&r=all
  17. By: Edoardo ONGARO (Professor of Political Science,Professor of Public Management,The Open University,UK and President, European Group for Public Administration (EGPA))
    Abstract: Philosophical knowledge may enable a deeper understanding of key issues of public governance, public administrative systems, and public services management. Bringing philosophical knowledge into public administration – far from representing a retreat in the Ivory Tower - is of the utmost practical significance. The paper aims at sketching the contours of a research agenda about how to develop research on public administration by bringing philosophical thought systematically into the field and by outlining four complementary paths to this purpose.
    Keywords: Philosophical knowledge into PA, Public governance, Public administration systems
    JEL: H83
    Date: 2019–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rom:tadase:2&r=all
  18. By: Tröster, Bernhard; Staritz, Cornelia; Grumiller, Jan; Maile, Felix
    Abstract: Commodity price volatility remains a crucial development challenge of commodity-dependent countries of the Global South. Drawing on structural development economics' concerns with commodity price volatility and stabilisation, this article calls for the integration of price-setting into the analysis of governance in global commodity chains (GCCs). It argues that price-setting power and related uneven exposure to price instability and risks adds to other power dimensions in producing unequal distributional outcomes in GCCs. The paper assesses national price stabilisation in the top cocoa-producing countries Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana against changing inter-firm governance and price-setting institutions in the cocoa GCC. Based on over 50 interviews with commodity trading houses (CTHs) and cocoa sector actors in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, our analysis shows that national-level price stabilisation mechanisms address intra-seasonal producer price volatility, but have few possibilities to shield export and producer prices from inter-seasonal price variations. This is because both countries remain 'global price takers' with global prices set on financialized derivatives markets and transmitted along the GCC by CTHs, which limits possibilities for 'domestic price making'. This leaves the major burden of price risks between seasons with smallholder producers that have the least possibilities to deal with these risks.
    Keywords: Global Commodity Chains,Cocoa,Commodity Trading Houses,Price Setting,Financialisation,Côte d'Ivoire,Ghana
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:oefsew:62&r=all
  19. By: Anand, Paul; Jones, Sam; Donoghue, Matthew; Tietler, Julien
    Abstract: Given the continuing interest in multi-dimensional approaches to poverty, the paper considers ways in which Senian capability indicators can be used to assess and understand poverty and deprivation. More specifically, we develop novel capability data on 29 dimensions for adults from the US, UK and Italy to explore three core research questions. Firstly, we show that when poverty is seen as capability deprivation, different individuals are identified as poor compared with approaches based on low income or subjective wellbeing. However, we also observe that what the poor report being able to do or otherwise is, nonetheless, relatively robust to the use of these three different approaches. Secondly, we employ latent class analysis to identify poverty and deprivation profiles for groups within society and suggest that such profiles help to identify groups who are deprived with respect to some but not all areas of life. Thirdly, and finally, we examine the association between individual capability deprivation and local area deprivation in the UK. We find that individual capabilities are associated with local area deprivation in some cases but that the connections vary significantly depending on the dimension under consideration. We discuss the results and conclude by suggesting that capability indicators can provide insights into poverty which do emerge from a more traditional approach focussing on income alone.
    Keywords: F00269AB
    JEL: N0
    Date: 2020–01–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:103168&r=all

This nep-hme issue is ©2020 by Carlo D’Ippoliti. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
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NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.