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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2022‒11‒14
twenty papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Mohajan, Devajit; Mohajan, Haradhan |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to flourish the grounded theory (GT) methodology in qualitative research from the feminist viewpoint. Since the mid-1990s feminist research on grounded theory has been started and researchers have been using this approach for research based on practical experiences. The nursing researchers, for the first time, draw on feminist principles in grounded theory for the better serving of the interests of women in healthcare. Feminist grounded theory (FGT) is the evolved form of the original grounded theory of Glaser and Strauss. Feminist research is a related area of social research and always thinks about the welfare of the women, especially those who are under-estimated in the male-dominated society. In every country, some professions, such as nursing, home economics, nutrition, etc. are women dominated. Feminist grounded theory methodology research is well-fitted in these areas. In the 21st century, feminist grounded theory is appropriate, effective, and highly resourceful. In the past, women’s voices and views are frequently ignored in many cases, such as in academics and policy making. At present, feminist research is a growing field in the research arena that creates concerns about the rights of women and provides knowledge to bring them to light. This study exercises feminism and the structure of the feminist nature of the grounded theory to change the subordination of women and reduce social inequality in all stages. This paper aims to discuss and analyze feminist epistemologies and to highlight the necessity of feminist grounded theory in society. |
| Keywords: | Feminism, feminist research, feminist grounded theory, social science, gender inequality |
| JEL: | A14 A2 D6 Z1 |
| Date: | 2022–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:114914&r=hme |
| By: | Bragoudakis, Zacharias; Kasimati, Evangelia; Pierros, Christos; Rodousakis, Nikolaos; Soklis, George |
| Abstract: | Using a multisectoral model and the latest data from the OECD Input-Output Tables (IOTs�2021 ed.), this article estimates labour and capital productivities of the 38 OECD member countries. As measures of the productivity of labour, we consider the inverse of the vertically integrated labour coefficients, while Perron–Frobenius theorems are employed so as to measure capital productivity. In this respect, the productive technologies and the intersectoral relationships of each economy are taken into account. We further investigate the relationship between productivity, economic efficiency and living standards. Findings indicate that the impact of capital productivity on higher living standards depends on the evolutionary and institutional background of the economy at hand. |
| Keywords: | capital productivity; input-output analysis; labour productivity; OECD member counties; Perron–Frobenius eigenvalues |
| JEL: | E61 |
| Date: | 2021–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:114892&r=hme |
| By: | Miguel D. Ramirez (Department of Economics, Trinity College) |
| Keywords: | Absolute value;competitive capitalist economy;invariable measure of value;labor theory of value;national product;natural prices;relative value. |
| JEL: | B10 B12 B24 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tri:wpaper:2202&r=hme |
| By: | Mark Setterfield (Department of Economics, New School for Social Research); Y.K. Kim (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Boston) |
| Abstract: | We extend the principles of the Financial Instability Hypothesis (FIH) to the household sector by re-framing the three financial postures associated with the FIH (hedge, speculative, and Ponzi) in the context of households, using a simple model of household borrowing and debt-financing behavior. We also connect our analysis to various strands of research in Comparative Political Economy on credit regimes, the welfare state, and Varieties of Capitalism. Our paper thereby discusses the importance of welfare systems and financial regimes as determinants of household borrowing behavior and hence the financial fragility of the household sector. In so doing it relates to recent US policy debates by demonstrating the macroeconomic consequences of raising taxes on top incomes in order to fund an increase in the social wage. Our results suggest that taxing top incomes to provide social services without accumulating public debt improves macroeconomic resilience and may also improve macroeconomic performance. We therefore uncover some of the values of welfarism that the neoliberal `experiment' inadvertently revealed by `rolling back the frontiers of the welfare state' and in so doing, leading capitalism headlong into the 2007-09 financial crisis. |
| Keywords: | Financial fragility, financial instability hypothesis, household borrowing, household debt, welfare state, macroeconomic resilience |
| JEL: | E12 E44 O41 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2210&r=hme |
| By: | Norbert Ankri; Pa\"ikan Marcaggi |
| Abstract: | Recently, V. Laure van Bambeke used an original approach to solve the famous problem of transformation of values into production prices by considering that capital reallocation to each department (branch) was part of the problem. Here, we confirm the validity of this consideration in relation with the satisfaction of demand (social need which is able to pay for the given product). In contrast to V. Laure van Bambeke's method of solving an overdetermined system of equations (implying that compliance with Marx's fundamental equalities could only be approached), we show that the transformation problem is solvable from a determined (two-branch models) or an underdetermined system of equations enabling to obtain exact solutions through an algorithm we provide, with no approximation needed. For systems with three branches or more, the solution of the transformation problem belongs to an infinite ensemble, accounting for the observed high competition-driven market fluidity. Furthermore, we show that the transformation problem is solvable in the absence of fixed capital, supporting that dealing with the latter is not essential and cannot be seen as a potential flaw of the approach. Our algorithm enables simulations illustrating how the transient rise in the rate of profit predicted by the Okishio theorem is consistent with the tendency of the rate of profit to fall (TRPF) subsequent to capital reallocation, and how the TRPF is governed by the increase of organic composition, in value. We establish that the long-standing transformation problem is not such a problem since it is easily solved through our algorithm, whatever the number of branches considered. This emphasizes the high coherence of Marx's conception, and its impressive relevance regarding issues such as the TRPF, which have remained intensely debated. |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2210.09097&r=hme |
| By: | Ranaldi, Marco; Palagi, Elisa |
| Abstract: | This work presents a framework to jointly study individuals’ heterogeneity in terms of their capital and labor endowments (endowment heterogeneity) and of their saving and consumption behaviors (behavioral heterogeneity), from an empirical perspective. By adopting a newly developed synthetic measure of compositional inequality, this work classifies more than 20 economies across over two decades on the basis of their heterogeneity characteristics. Modern economies are far from being characterized by agents with same propensities to save and consume and same endowments (Representative Agent systems), or by the existence of rich capital-abundant savers and poor hand-to-mouth consumers (Kaldorian systems). Our framework and results are discussed in light of the heterogeneity assumptions underlying several types of macroeconomic models with heterogeneous agents (Kaldorian, TANK & HANK, OLG, and ABM models). A negative relationship between behavioral heterogeneity and the economy’s saving rate is also documented. |
| Keywords: | heterogeneity in macroeconomics; compositional inequality |
| JEL: | D31 P10 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117127&r=hme |
| By: | Luis Daniel Torres-Gonzalez (Facultad de Economıa, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla); Jacobo Ferrer-Hernandez (Department of Economics, New School for Social Research); Adrian Martınez (Facultad de Economıa, UNAM) |
| Abstract: | This paper reconstructs and evaluates the theory of international relative prices (IRP) based on the theory of real competition, one of the approaches to international trade based on the principle of absolute advantages. The main thesis of this theory is that the long-run behavior of IRP of any pair of tradable commodity bundles is determined solely by their relative total unit labor costs (RTULC) because the total profits-wages ratios (TPWR) of these two baskets are sufficiently similar. We identified a set of problems that questions the long-run neutrality of the TPWR on IRP. Firstly, due to accounting reasons, the proposed hypotheses cannot constrain IRP to depend solely on the RTULC. Secondly, the theoretical and empirical arguments advanced to constrain the TPWR are weak. Thirdly, the paper conducts a large-scale study of industries’ TPWR and reports that the variability (i) of these ratios and (ii) their central tendencies, although limited, do not support the constraints necessary for the validity of the theory’s main thesis. The paper argues for the use of full production prices for the study of IRP based on the principle of absolute advantage. |
| Keywords: | Real exchange rates, absolute advantage, profit-wages ratios, capital intensities |
| JEL: | B51 C67 D57 D33 F31 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2208&r=hme |
| By: | Engelbert Stockhammer |
| Abstract: | The growth models approach (GMA) has become increasingly prominent in Comparative Political Economy over the last years. While it has originally been developed for advanced economies, there is a growing number of applications to developing countries. This raises the question how readily transferable the GMA concepts are to the peripheral capitalist experience. This paper explores the analytical building blocks for an extension of the growth models approach to developing economies from post-Keynesian-structuralist perspective. It argues, that in a developing country context supply-side considerations will be more important and builds on structuralist theory to understand the ‘real’ constraints in the developing countries growth process. It uses Minskyan theory to understand how currency hierarchy creates financial causes for international economic stratification. As a consequence the role of the state is more crucial than in advanced economies, but at the same time states are more vulnerable. The paper concludes by reflecting on the key concepts of GMA, finance-led, export-led and state-led growth in the light of developing economies and identifying neoliberal as well developmentalist versions of these. |
| Keywords: | Comparative Political Economy, growth models, structuralism post-Keynesian Economics, developing economies |
| JEL: | E60 F00 F30 O11 P10 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp2226&r=hme |
| By: | Stefanova, Boyka; Zhelev, Paskal |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the question of China’s compliance with market economy principles. China has reformed away from central planning in the past four decades, but has it achieved a fully-fledged market economy? The paper sheds new light on the contested nature of China’s market economy status from a political economy perspective. It draws on the Varieties of Capitalism analytical framework to posit China’s market economy status as the product of its national model of state-dominated institutional complementarities between high levels of trade openness and domestic regulation, including nonmarket principles for the deployment of financial resources and labour. |
| Keywords: | China, socialist market economy, WTO, Varieties of Capitalism |
| JEL: | F13 O24 P16 P33 P51 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:114865&r=hme |
| By: | Böhringer, Christoph; Landis, Florian; Tovar, Miguel |
| JEL: | Q58 H22 H23 C67 C68 D57 D58 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc22:264067&r=hme |
| By: | Baccaro, Lucio; Hadziabdic, Sinisa |
| Abstract: | We present a new methodology for operationalizing growth models based on import-adjusted demand components. Applying the methodology to the latest release of OECD Input-Output Tables, we calculate the growth contributions of consumption, investment, government expenditures, and exports for sixty-six countries in the periods 1995 to 2007 and 2009 to 2018 and identify the respective growth models. We find that most countries are export-led or domestic demand-led and that other forms of growth are rare. Our results corroborate previous classifications in comparative political economy but also differ from them in significant respects. Importantly, our classification improves on previous ones by covering not just the advanced capitalist economies but also Central and Eastern European and South-East Asian and Latin American countries. In a further step, we illustrate how the new indicators can be used to analyze the "drivers" of different types of growth. This examination reveals that there is a clear trade-off between consumption- and export-led growth in advanced Western economies in the period 1995 to 2007 and a dependence of export-led growth in these countries on real exchange rate devaluation in the same period, while export complexity is not a significant predictor of export-led growth. |
| Keywords: | advanced economies,emerging economies,export-led growth,growth models,input-output tables,political economy,entwickelte Volkswirtschaften,exportorientiertes Wachstum,Input-Output-Tabellen,politische Ökonomie,Schwellenländer,Wachstumsmodelle |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:226&r=hme |
| By: | Sherman, Taylor C. |
| Abstract: | The 1950s are often derided in the scholarship as a period of welfarist policies which reinforced women’s role in the family and entrenched women’s economic dependence. This paper examines the Central Social Welfare Board, and in particular its Welfare Extension Projects, to provide a new characterisation of the approach to women’s issues during the period. It argues that the Central Social Welfare Board, with its unique administrative structure, its preference for voluntary activity, and its adherence to persuasion as a mode of action reflected many of the characteristics of Indian socialism of the time. It also sketches, from this angle, a partial picture of state feminism in India. In the Central Social Welfare Board, state feminism was concerned with the gradual transformation of women and a radical, if short-lived, makeover of the state. |
| Keywords: | state feminism; socialism; self-help; welfare-state; everyday state; community development; decentralisation; postcolonial nationalism; Durgabai Deshmukh |
| JEL: | B14 B24 P2 P3 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:107460&r=hme |
| By: | Mark Setterfield (Department of Economics, New School for Social Research) |
| Abstract: | The early stages of recovery from the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic have been accompanied by a marked increase in inflation in the US and elsewhere. Much has been made of this outcomes, and the economic distress associated with it, in popular discussion of the economy. This paper provides a Kaleckian conflicting-claims analysis of inflation during the post-COVID recovery, that distinguishes between rising wages, pandemic-related supply shocks, and corporate price-setting behaviour as sources of inflationary pressure. A key conclusion that arises from the co-determination of inflation and distributional outcomes in the Kaleckian framework is that distributional developments that have further disadvantaged working households, rather than inflation per se, are the chief source of recent economic distress - and should be the chief cause for concern among policy makers. |
| Keywords: | Inflation, COVID-19, conflicting claims, wage share, income distribution |
| JEL: | E02 E11 E12 E25 E31 E64 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2209&r=hme |
| By: | Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela; Malapit, Hazel J.; Seymour, Greg; Heckert, Jessica; Doss, Cheryl; Johnson, Nancy; Rubin, Deborah; Thai, Giang; Ramani, Gayathri V.; Meyers, Emily |
| Abstract: | Agricultural development projects increasingly include women’s empowerment and gender equality among their objectives, but efforts to evaluate their impact have been stymied by the lack of comparable measures. Moreover, the context-specificity of empowerment implies that a quantitative measure alone will be inadequate to capture the nuances of the empowerment process. The Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, Phase 2 (GAAP2), a portfolio of 13 agricultural development projects in nine countries in South Asia and Africa, developed the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) and qualitative protocols for impact evaluations. Pro-WEAI covers three major types of agencies: instrumental, intrinsic, and collective. This paper synthesizes the results of 11 mixed-methods evaluations to assess these projects’ empowerment impacts. The projects implemented the pro-WEAI and its associated qualitative protocols in their impact evaluations. Our synthesis finds mixed, and mostly null impacts on aggregate indicators of women’s empowerment, with positive impacts more likely in the South Asian, rather than African, cases. There were more significant impacts on instrumental agency indicators and collective agency indicators, reflecting the group-based approaches used. We found few significant impacts on intrinsic agency indicators, except for those projects that intentionally addressed gender norms. Quantitative analysis does not show an association between the types of strategies that projects implemented and their impacts, except for capacity building strategies. This finding reveals the limitations of quantitative analysis, given the small number of projects involved. The qualitative studies provide more nuance and insight: some base level of empowerment and forms of agency may be necessary for women to participate in project activities, to benefit or further increase their empowerment. Our results highlight the need for projects to focus specifically on empowerment, rather than assume that projects aiming to reach and benefit women automatically empower them. Our study also shows the value of both a common metric to compare empowerment impacts across projects and contexts and qualitative work to understand and contextualize these impacts. |
| Keywords: | SOUTH ASIA, WEST AFRICA, AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA, AFRICA, EAST AFRICA, women's empowerment, gender equality, agriculture, impact assessment, impact evaluation, agricultural development projects |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2137&r=hme |
| By: | Alexandre Magno de Melo Faria; Helde A. D. Hdom |
| Abstract: | This article aims to launch light on the limitations of the Coase and Pigou approach in the solution of externalities. After contextualizing the need for integration of ecological and economic approaches, we are introducing a new conceptual proposal complementary to conventional economic approaches. Whose process is guaranteed by a set of diffuse agents in the economy that partially reverses entropy formation and marginal external costs generated by also diffuse agents? The approach differs in six fundamentals from traditional theory and proposes a new way of examining the actions of agents capable of reducing entropy and containing part of external costs in the market economy. |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2210.04049&r=hme |
| By: | Cheong, Jeanne Yi-Ern (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | Why do female leaders do better in crisis situations than their male counterparts as a stylised fact? We integrate intrinsic preference into a Leader – Expert coordination game to model the impact of dominant strategies on the effectiveness of crisis management outcomes. We show that given the Leader has intrinsic preference for cooperative (competitive) behaviour, the Expert will reciprocate in kind which results in the highest (lowest) social outcome. Using cultural transmission theory to develop the theoretical micro-foundation of this preference, we find socialisation inefficiencies arising from two-parent socialisation result in the persistence of cooperative traits in women and competitive traits in men, thereby providing a mechanism for more effective crisis management by female leaders. Drawing upon feminist and leadership theory to inform our assumptions, we suggest that collective ability to deal with crisis will be improved if male leaders are more cooperative. |
| Keywords: | gender ; crisis management ; cultural transmission ; leadership JEL Classification: J16 ; B52 ; B54 ; C71 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:38&r=hme |
| By: | Phoebe Koundouri; Barbara Hammer; Ulrike Kuhl; Alina Velias |
| Abstract: | Identifying mechanisms of real-life human decision-making is central to inform effective, human-centric public policy. Here, we report larger trends and synthesize preliminary lessons from behavioral and neuroeconomic investigations focusing on environmental values. We review the currently available evidence at different levels of granularity, from insights of how individuals value natural resources (individual level), followed by evidence from work on group externalities, common pool resources, and social norms (social group level), to the study of incentives, policies, and their impact (institutional level). At each level, we identify viable directions for future scientific research and actionable items for policy-makers. Coupled with new technological and methodological advances, we suggest that behavioural and neuroeconomic insights may inform effective strategy to optimize environmental resources. We conclude that the time is ripe for action, to enrich policies with scientifically grounded insights, making an impact in the interest of current and future generations. |
| Keywords: | behavioural economics, neuroeconomics, environmental values,individual decision-making, common pool resources, policy |
| Date: | 2022–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aue:wpaper:2227&r=hme |
| By: | Penghang Liu; Kshama Dwarakanath; Svitlana S Vyetrenko |
| Abstract: | Multi-agent market simulation is an effective tool to investigate the impact of various trading strategies in financial markets. One way of designing a trading agent in simulated markets is through reinforcement learning where the agent is trained to optimize its cumulative rewards (e.g., maximizing profits, minimizing risk, improving equitability). While the agent learns a rational policy that optimizes the reward function, in reality, human investors are sub-rational with their decisions often differing from the optimal. In this work, we model human sub-rationality as resulting from two possible causes: psychological bias and computational limitation. We first examine the relationship between investor profits and their degree of sub-rationality, and create hand-crafted market scenarios to intuitively explain the sub-rational human behaviors. Through experiments, we show that our models successfully capture human sub-rationality as observed in the behavioral finance literature. We also examine the impact of sub-rational human investors on market observables such as traded volumes, spread and volatility. We believe our work will benefit research in behavioral finance and provide a better understanding of human trading behavior. |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2210.08569&r=hme |
| By: | Olivier DE SCHUTTER |
| Abstract: | Cette étude identifie comment les droits humains peuvent guider une forme de développement qui donne la priorité à l'amélioration du bien-être des populations, tout en participant à la transformation écologique – une forme de développement qui, au lieu de tout miser sur la croissance de la richesse monétaire, place en son centre la justice sociale et la nécessité de réduire la ponction sur les ressources et la production de déchets, y compris de gaz à effet de serre. La croissance économique, mesurée en augmentation du produit intérieur brut, a longtemps orienté les choix de politique publique, non seulement sur les plans macro-économique et monétaire, mais également dans des domaines tels que la structure de la fiscalité, l'encouragement au commerce international ou à l'investissement étranger, les réformes du marché du travail, ou l'investissement social dans des domaines tels que la santé ou l'éducation : tout, jusqu'à récemment, paraissait devoir être passé au crible des impacts de nos choix sur les perspectives de croissance. L'Agenda 2030 du développement durable invite à changer de cap. La référence aux droits humains peut y contribuer. Ils sont comme le mât auquel Ulysse demande qu'on l'attache, afin de pouvoir mieux résister au chant des sirènes. Car il est tentant, afin de ne pas avoir à œuvrer pour davantage de justice sociale en améliorant la progressivité de l'impôt, en renforçant les services publics, et en augmentant l'investissement social, de tout miser sur la croissance de la richesse monétaire, y compris si celle-ci paraît exiger des politiques telles que la réduction des dépenses publiques, la privatisation ou la dérégulation du travail qui, à court terme, augmentent les inégalités et imposent des sacrifices à la population. Stimuler la création de richesse par tous les moyens, pour ensuite compenser le creusement des inégalités et réparer le dommage causé aux écosystèmes : telle a été l'approche dominante des cinquante dernières années. Replacer les droits humains au centre des trajectoires de développement, les constituer à la fois en objectif à réaliser et en outil permettant de progresser vers un développement humain et durable, c'est nous aider à sortir de notre addiction à la croissance. Les droits humains sont une boussole, et ils constituent des verrous : c'est précisément par ces contraintes qu'ils imposent qu'ils nous obligent à imaginer un avenir différent. |
| JEL: | Q |
| Date: | 2022–09–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:avg:wpaper:fr14499&r=hme |
| By: | Zachariadis,Theodoros; Giannakis,,Elias; Taliotis,Constantinos; Karmellos,Marios; Fylaktos,Nestor; Howells,Mark Idwal; Blyth,William James; Hallegatte,Stephane |
| Abstract: | As humanity’s current production and consumption patterns exceed planetary boundaries, many opinion leaders have stressed the need to adopt green economic stimulus policies in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. This paper provides an integrated framework to design an economic recovery strategy aligned with sustainability objectives through a multi-criterion, multi-stakeholder lens. The aim is to enable decisions by policy makers with the aid of transparent workflows that include expert evidence that is based on quantitative open-source modeling, and qualitative input by diverse social actors in a participatory approach. The paper employs an energy systems model and an economic input-output model to provide quantitative evidence and design a multi-criteria decision process that engages stakeholders from government, enterprises, and civil society. As a case study, the paper studies 13 green recovery measures that are relevant for Cyprus and assesses their appropriateness for criteria related to environmental sustainability, socioeconomic and job impact, and climate resilience. The results highlight trade-offs between immediate and long-run effects, between economic and environmental objectives, and between expert evidence and societal priorities. Importantly, the paper finds that a “return-to-normal†economic stimulus is not only environmentally unsustainable, but also economically inferior to most green recovery schemes. |
| Keywords: | Energy and Environment,Energy Demand,Energy and Mining,Transport Services,Financial Sector Policy |
| Date: | 2021–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9528&r=hme |