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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2023‒06‒19
forty-six papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Sergio Cesaratto |
| Abstract: | I compare three approaches to economic history and institutions: the classical surplus approach, the Polanyian view, and New Institutional Economics (NIE). In the first institutions are seen in relation to the production and distribution of the social surplus. Research in economic anthropology, archaeology and history has validated the fecundity of this approach. The Polanyian criticism to classical and neoclassical theories is then considered and appreciated, although some severe limitations are envisaged. Most of the paper concentrate upon Douglass North, the NIE most representative author in the field of economic history. Striking of North is the attempt to replicate Marx’s relation between economics and institutions in the context of neoclassical theory. Transaction costs economics revealed a dead end in explaining institutions and the power of predatory élites. Lacking a material anchor such as surplus theory, North’s theory became progressively more elusive and indeterminate. On balance, a surplus-based Marxist-Polanyian approach is the most promising direction although much further work is still necessary to explain the coevolution of the economic and institutional sides of the economy |
| Keywords: | Institutions, Surplus approach, Karl Polanyi, New Institutional Economics, Douglass North |
| JEL: | A12 B15 B51 B52 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:899&r=hme |
| By: | Sergio Cesaratto |
| Abstract: | The search for the income distribution cores of pre-capitalist formations in the light of the classical surplus approach led to a re-examination the Marxist debates on the concept of mode of production. Unfortunately the Marxist debate is not only vast, but often wordy (this paper not being an exception), so we limit that ourselves to some episodes and scholars that sound particularly relevant for the relationship between forms of exploitation and economic modes. For a start, I shall consider some Marx’s insights on pre-capitalist formation which appear relevant also in the light of subsequent Marxist debates. I shall then outline some earlier Marxist debates which focused on the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Other debates focused on the concept of mode of production from Althusser and Perry Anderson to Jairus Banaji, John Haldon and others. Some conclusions try to make sense of these debates |
| Keywords: | Marx, modes of production, social formations, pre-capitalist economies, Surplus approach, institutions |
| JEL: | B51 N01 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:898&r=hme |
| By: | Marshall, Adam |
| Abstract: | In my PhD thesis, which I am currently in the process of writing up, I explore the UK fracking conflict as a means of elucidating its political economic drivers and dynamics. In the process, I hope to also shed light on the political economic drivers of socio-ecological conflict and crises more broadly. To achieve these aims, my research combines a novel theory of capitalism – the capital as power (CasP) approach to political economy – with a unique mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods. While my thesis contributes primarily to debates at the intersection of ecological economics and political ecology, it also aims to extend the frontiers of research on CasP. |
| Keywords: | capital as power, fracking, energy, sustainability, United Kingdom |
| JEL: | P00 P18 Q5 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:271203&r=hme |
| By: | Cervera-Ferri, Pablo; Insa-Sánchez, Pau |
| Abstract: | Historians of economic thought have carried out detailed studies of classical and marginalist approaches to value based on production cost and utility respectively, not to mention about the fusion of both interpretations by the neoclassical school. This is not the case with rareness value, a theory commonly attributed to Léon Walras, although Aristotle surely had rareness in mind when he first attempted to explain chrematistics. This article focuses on how our understanding of rareness has evolved from the earliest economic formulations to those of Auguste and Léon Walras, contesting Rothbard’s thesis that there is only one way in which the transmission of the utility theory of value can be tracked from scholasticism to the Austrian school. On the contrary, the concept of rareness continued to figure in some theories of value of the French Enlightenment, especially those that emerged within Calvinist circles, and was recovered in times of reaction against the dominant classicism. |
| Date: | 2023–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vjn2q&r=hme |
| By: | Gerrard, Bill |
| Abstract: | In his recent paper in this journal, Bateman (2021) breaks with the “Standard View” of Ramsey’s influence on Keynes and argues that Ramsey’s pragmatist philosophical thought underpinned both Keynes’s acceptance of Ramsey’s subjective theory of probability, and Keynes’s adoption of a narrative theory of the role of confidence in economic fluctuations in the General Theory. In this paper it is argued that Bateman is right both in emphasizing the influence of Ramsey’s pragmatist philosophy on Keynes’s thought during the development of the General Theory and afterwards, and in arguing that the influence of Ramsey’s pragmatist philosophy partly explains Keynes’s emphasis on the importance of the state of confidence in Chapter 12 of the General Theory. However, it is argued that Ramsey’s pragmatist philosophy had a much greater influence on Keynes than acknowledged by Bateman. Furthermore, contra Bateman, Keynes’s move to a more pragmatist philosophical position does not imply that Keynes’s accepted Ramsey’s subjective theory of (measurable) probability. |
| Date: | 2023–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:6w8g2&r=hme |
| By: | Louis Azan (LEFMI - Laboratoire d’Économie, Finance, Management et Innovation - UR UPJV 4286 - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the figure of the Schumpeterian entrepreneur is deeply marked by a Romantic imagination, critical of Utilitarianism. Schumpeter constructs the entrepreneur as a creative and dynamic agent, who succeeds in creating something radically new by the force of his will and his freedom of spirit, thus destroying the existing equilibrium. He is not a rational economic agent, a homo oeconomicus, but a romantic man who uses imagination and intuition in his actions. Like the Romantic authors, the Austrian economist puts forward the idea that economic life is marked by an incessant flow of innovations, destroying the old so that the new may emerge. Moreover, the decline of the entrepreneurial function is interpreted by Schumpeter from a romantic perspective, with the idea that capitalist modernity is a force for the rationalization of the world and the routinization of human existence, which no longer allows entrepreneurs to deploy their creative energy. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04084445&r=hme |
| By: | Louis Azan (LEFMI - Laboratoire d’Économie, Finance, Management et Innovation - UR UPJV 4286 - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne) |
| Abstract: | In the early 19th century, the entrepreneur became a major figure, both in economics and in literature. He is to be found in the analyses of economists (Cantillon, Smith and Jean-Baptiste Say), as well as in the novels and short stories of writers, in particular Balzac, who gives a special place to money and commerce in his work. This article explores the representation of the entrepreneur in a novel and a short story (César Birotteau and La Maison du Chat-qui-pelote) by the author of the Comédie Humaine, and seeks to draw a dialogue between economics and literature, in order to sketch the place of the Balzacien entrepreneur in the history of economic thought. |
| Abstract: | L'entrepreneur devient au début du XIXème siècle une figure majeure, à la fois sur le plan économique et sur le plan littéraire. On le retrouve ainsi dans les analyses des économistes (chez Cantillon, Smith ou encore Jean-Baptiste Say), ainsi que dans les romans et nouvelles des écrivains, en particulier chez Balzac, qui fait dans son oeuvre une place toute particulière à l'argent et au commerce. Le présent article explore la représentation de l'entrepreneur que donne à voir l'auteur de La Comédie Humaine, dans un roman et une nouvelle (César Birotteau et La Maison du Chat-qui-pelote), et cherche à tracer un dialogue entre économie et littérature afin d'esquisser la place de l'entrepreneur balzacien dans l'histoire de la pensée économique. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory, Literary Theory, History of Economic Thought, Entrepreneur, Théorie économique, Théorie littéraire, Balzac, Histoire de la pensée économique |
| Date: | 2023–04–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04084476&r=hme |
| By: | Rafael Galvão de Almeida (UFMG); Leonardo Gomes de Deus (UFMG) |
| Abstract: | This article analyses Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, from the point of view of the critique of political economy. Using immanent analysis, we critically analyze the objectivist philosophy of the novel and its superficial resemblances with Marxism, especially its idea of a utopic society in the John Galt’s Gulch. While Rand presents the individual producer as a realized and rational human being, we contrast him with the idea that the capitalist is merely the personification of capital to show how Galt’s Gulch fails as a utopia. Such analysis allows us to situate Atlas Shrugged in the liberal project, arguing that liberalism still has an aristocratic bias which facilitate the 2008’s economic crisis. |
| Keywords: | Ayn Rand; liberalism; critique of political economy; aristocracy; economics and literature. |
| JEL: | B24 B29 Z11 |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td654&r=hme |
| By: | Bankovsky, Miriam |
| Abstract: | Review of “The Sympathetic Consumer: Moral Critique in Capitalist Culture” by Tad Skotnicki |
| Date: | 2023–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vbqx4&r=hme |
| By: | Heath, Eugene |
| Abstract: | In his lectures of 1978-1979, published posthumously as The Birth of Biopolitics, Michel Foucault addressed versions of liberalism in which an invisible market appears immune to government intervention. Among the thinkers discussed were Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson. This essay offers critical reflections on Foucault’s description of Smith as emphasizing the invisibility of the economy, as well as on Foucault’s interpretation of the “invisible hand” and his ascription of egoism to Smith’s economic agents. Foucault also appeals to Ferguson’s notion of civil society to resolve incompatibilities between economic agents and the sovereign. However, Ferguson’s theory of society does not provide the assistance that Foucault thinks it does. Moreover, like Smith, Ferguson holds no egoistic view of economic motivation. Nonetheless, and surprisingly, Foucault would have found enticing Ferguson’s use of conjectural history, with its appeal to the unintended, contingent, and conflictual basis of social change. |
| Date: | 2023–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:nw5rk&r=hme |
| By: | Simon Papaud (LEFMI - Laboratoire d’Économie, Finance, Management et Innovation - UR UPJV 4286 - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne, TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I study the relation between the economic thought of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and his claimed heir Silvio Gesell. I argue that their socialism can be described as a « Monetary Analysis Socialism »: both authors place the monetary institution at the very heart of their economic analysis and consider a profound transformation of the rules that govern that institution as a necessary preliminary to the advent of socialism. Their efforts to conceive non-capitalist monetary systems aren't, I argue, a fortuitous trait of libertarian thought : the will to think a coordination for individual action that does not involve central coordination makes the monetary system a central object for libertarian political thought, and the design of this institution a crucial political issue. |
| Keywords: | Monetary Analysis, Non-capitalist Money, Proudhon, Gesell, Anarchism |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04084725&r=hme |
| By: | Lisa Baldi; Arfini, Filippo; Calzolai, Sara; Donati, Michele |
| Abstract: | The aim of this research work is to assess the likelihood of dairy farmers to accept predefined policy scenarios that implies different level of CO2 taxation on GHG emissions produced by the livestock sector. It uses an agent-based model (ABM) and it follows the positive mathematical programming (PMP) approach. ABMs allow to evaluate agricultural policies and farmers’ level of acceptance simulating interaction between farmers, taking territorial specificity and farm heterogeneity into account. The PMP methodology enables to add social and cultural perspective to the economical drivers. The Least Square method, applied to the PMP methodology, allows to overcome shortage in data availability. The model is calibrated on FADN data for the Emilia Romagna region (Italy), year 2020. Results show that farmers take decisions based on economic profitability but also on social and cultural background. Farmers opt for more efficient agricultural management practices if economically convenient, however the possibility to exchange production factors can contribute to the optimisation of their utility function. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc23:334520&r=hme |
| By: | Christian Flamant (University of Paris) |
| Abstract: | Abstract: The question of rent in economic theory is rather complicated, even at the level of its definition. This article attempts to get back to basics in order to clear things up and present a complete and correct theory of rent. Starting with the classical definition of rent, as an income earned by the owner of non-produced inputs, it clarifies first the definitions of the different kinds of rent: differential rent, absolute rent. It then uses a step-by-step approach to show the effect of these various kinds of rents on a price system. The article also addresses the issue of type II differential rent, corresponding to the use of different techniques with a homogeneous input. This helps to explain the effect of rent on the distribution of the product. The question of urban land rent is also clarified: it is shown that it obeys mechanisms that are clearly different from those governingagricultural land rent. |
| Keywords: | rent differential rent absolute rent price system income distribution, rent, differential rent, absolute rent, price system, income distribution |
| Date: | 2021–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04085474&r=hme |
| By: | Khan, Haider |
| Abstract: | The analyses in CRISIS, INEQUALITIES AND POVERTY, complemented by the present analysis and the Chinese case study show convincingly that the crisis-prone World Capitalist System(WCS) will continue to inflict great harm on the most vulnerable people in society. Consider also the real presence of aggressive imperialism fostered in the advanced countries through the finance capital, and structural compulsions of the WCS. The dangers of global confrontation and war mongering particularly by the ruling classes in the US with segments of EU and Japan following are real. The choice between the two paths acknowledged even by a prescient bourgeois economist like Schumpeter is clear. Schumpeter had presciently pointed towards the dire possibility of global conflagaration which now looks all too alarmingly real. Being somewhat of a pessimist, he was reluctant to see the prospects for a progressive peaceful socialism although he acknowledged the possibility of a non-capitalist future also. To be fair to him, the legacy of socialism in the 20th century has been ambiguous at best. The Chinese case since 1978 is particularly interesting from this standpoint. Clearly there are many ambiguities in the Chinese case also---not the least being the restoration of hierarchical management and stifling of grassroots democracy that existed during the Yenan period and at the post-1949 revolutionary moments. But it must be acknowledged that however imperfect or ambiguous, the non-capitalist elements of the complex social, economic and political entity called PRC have managed both the 2008-9 global financial crisis and the COVID and other current crises so far much better than the US-led WCS. One can only hope that with further democratic socialist oriented reforms and future revolutions in these directions in parts of WCS, the world can avoid the dire conflagaration feared by Schumpeter and Arrighi among others. Not only this hopeful negative result of avoidance, PRC has also shown that even in a WCS dominated by neoliberal ideology, it is possible to move towards a path of moderate prosperity by following an alternative ---however imperfect---to neoliberalism, and one hopes, peace. The crucial question, of course, is if PRC can control the private capitalists and pro-capitalist state and party elements. Only if this crucial precondition is fulfilled will PRC be able to reduce various kinds of inequalities, and practice a Socially Embedded Intersectional Capabilities Approach(SEICA). A SEICA-inspired egalitarian capability enhancing policy regime in PRC and other countries will help to move towards more advanced forms of democratic socialism globally. Moving forward, although by no means a sure prospect, China in the 21st century may even lead a new genuinely socialist bloc in our time. If PRC fails to do this, other revolutionary actors in other parts of the world must carry the torch of egalitarian and democratic socialist movement forward. Rosa Luxemburg was right: we have to choose in our life time between socialism or barbarism. |
| Keywords: | World Capitalist System(WCS), China, Capitalist Crises, Uneven Development, Post-covid world, Socially Embedded Intersectional Capabilities Approach(SEICA), Socialism or Barbarism |
| JEL: | A1 F5 P5 |
| Date: | 2023–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:117227&r=hme |
| By: | Kuchar, Pavel |
| Abstract: | Smith at 300: Contribution by Pavel Kuchar "Smith’s views on inequality have recently been examined with some interest (Rasmussen 2016; Walraewens 2021). But was Smith really genuinely interested in addressing the shortcomings of the society built on the “liberal plan of equality, liberty and justice” (WN IV.ix)? While critical accounts of Smith’s thought may tend to zero in on his concerns with absolute poverty – or the equality in the “share of the necessaries of life” (TMS IV.1.10) – rather than economic inequality, they may perhaps also tend to confuse his account of our tendencies to admire the rich, wealthy and powerful with the advocacy of a system in which the rich, wealthy and powerful ride roughshod over the poor and disempowered as long as the order of the society founded on the “distinction of ranks” (TMS I.iii.2) is preserved." |
| Date: | 2023–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:se64h&r=hme |
| By: | Hoffmann, Maja; Pantazidou, Maro; Smith, Tone |
| Abstract: | Critiques of work are at the roots of degrowth. Early degrowth pioneers, in particular Gorz and Illich as well as the French décroissance tradition, placed considerable emphasis on overcoming the centrality of work in the organisation of society. However, more recent degrowth authors have largely been inconsistent or conflicting in the stance they take towards work. This contribution traces the development of degrowth thought with regard to work and critiques of work, from its roots in the 1970s up until the present. It finds that at large, current degrowth debates do not embrace their postwork roots or engage with the postwork literature that has re-emerged over the last decade. At the same time, work is a prominent topic on the degrowth agenda and despite its contradictions, degrowth remains open for critical work scholarship. For future degrowth debates, we argue that the perspectives of critiques of work and critiques of growth are natural allies and that a genuinely critical and radical degrowth debate should again adopt a clearer stance towards work. From engaging once more with postwork perspectives, degrowth could gain a more profound analysis of the unsustainable status-quo and renewed momentum as a much-needed corrective in sustainability debates. |
| Date: | 2023–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:m9q2s&r=hme |
| By: | Fernando Collantes |
| Abstract: | This text comments on Domingo Gallego’s book Los caminos del progreso: una historia del desarrollo económico (“The ways of progress: a history of economic development”). It is argued that the book’s originality lies in the assembling of a wide variety of pieces within a long-run approach that tends to unify the historical experience of today’s developed countries and brings together the history of economic facts and ideas. From an analytical point of view, the key to progress is not placed on any particular industry or social group, but on the contexts that promote the flourishing of diverse projects and their coordination. After identifying the echoes of Gallego’s trajectory as an agricultural historian in the book’s argument, the main contents of the book are reviewed. The paper also provides some observations about the definition of progress, the kind of institutionalism that informs the book, the historical positioning of the present time in developed countries, and the material on less developed countries. |
| Keywords: | world economic history, international economic development, institutional economics, history of economic thought, agricultural history |
| JEL: | N00 O10 B00 |
| Date: | 2023–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:seh:wpaper:2301&r=hme |
| By: | Carrasco, Maria |
| Abstract: | Smith at 300: Contribution by Maria Carrasco "Adam Smith is known as a liberal thinker. The political system that he promotes and describes as one of “perfect justice, perfect liberty, and perfect equality” (WN IV.ix.17, 669), is characterized by the primacy of the rights of non-interference and the protection of a private sphere where every individual directs its life according to its own decisions. The moral justification for the primacy of negative justice is in the second book of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, where he unambiguously states: “Mere justice is, upon most occasions, but a negative virtue, and only hinders us from hurting our neighbor” (TMS II.i.1.9, 82). For the same reason, the first time I read that book, the following paragraph struck me as an inexplicable contradiction, an incomprehensible lapse in Adam Smith’s thoroughly revised text." |
| Date: | 2023–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:qhpgr&r=hme |
| By: | Chinmayi Srikanth (Research Scholar, Fellow Programme in Management, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, IIMK Campus P.O, Kerala 673 570); Zareena Begum Irfan ((Corresponding author) Associate Professor, Madras School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the need for a gender-centric approach to studying the consequences of the scarcity of a natural resource due to arsenic contamination, particularly water, on the lives of women. The need for such an approach is met by the Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) Framework that identifies women as highly vulnerable as compared to their male counterparts and the most affected by such scarcity. The paper uses the case of Bangladesh’s arsenic contamination to explore the nuances of gender and how it changes their experience of the phenomenon. It also underlines the importance of FPE in painting a more realistic and complete picture of the vulnerability of women. |
| Keywords: | Feminist Political Ecology, Bangladesh, water, women, vulnerability |
| JEL: | J7 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mad:wpaper:2019-189&r=hme |
| By: | Humphries, Jane |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that in all societies there is considerable agreement about the goods and services needed to provide a respectable standard of living and that this can be measured by what it cost to maintain people of good standing. Such a measure allows for the inclusion of two neglected components of living costs: first, changes in the composition and quality of consumption, as opposed to concentrating on the price of a fixed consumption basket; and second, the value of the household services required to turn commodities into livings. More than 4400 observations, drawn mainly from diverse primary sources, trace levels and trends in maintenance costs for Britain, 1270-1860. These can be compared with conventional cost of living indicators to offer a complementary perspective that accommodates aspirational consumption and the input of household labour. The struggle to support families at respectable standards emerges as driving industriousness and motivating prudence among a class that played a major role in economic development. More speculatively, estimates of the time necessary to turn material goods into livings is then combined with evidence on women’s wages to evaluate the contribution of unpaid domestic labour to total income. |
| Keywords: | cost-of-living; consumption; welfare; respectability; domestic labour |
| JEL: | N00 N33 B54 |
| Date: | 2023–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:119284&r=hme |
| By: | Mario Martinoli; Alessio Moneta; Gianluca Pallante |
| Abstract: | We propose a general protocol for calibration and validation of complex simulation models by an approach based on discovery and comparison of causal structures. The key idea is that configurations of parameters of a given theoretical model are selected by minimizing a distance index between two structural models: one estimated from the data generated by the theoretical model, another estimated from a set of observed data. Validation is conceived as a measure of matching between the theoretical and the empirical causal structure. Causal structures are identified combining structural vector autoregressive and independent component analysis, so as to avoid a priori restrictions. We use model confidence set as a tool to measure the uncertainty associated to the alternative configurations of parameters and causal structures. We illustrate the procedure by applying it to a large-scale macroeconomic agent-based model, namely the ''dystopian Schumpeter-meeting-Keynes'' model. |
| Keywords: | Calibration; Validation; Simulation models; SVAR models; Causal inference; Model confidence sets; Independent component analysis. |
| Date: | 2022–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2022/33&r=hme |
| By: | Sergio Cesaratto |
| Abstract: | Two previous papers (Cesaratto and Di Bucchianico 2021a, 2021b) proposed the classical economists’ surplus approach as a way to overcome the controversy between substantialists and formalists in anthropology and economic archaeology. In our approach, institutions play the role of control and regulation of the production and distribution of surplus in each given historical formation. Interestingly, the debate among economic historians on earlier economic formations has also seen a parallel fracture between the so-called primitivists and modernists. In this paper I will examine this controversy with reference to the Greco-Roman world. It is, of course, naive for newbies like us not only to hazard interpretations of those economies, but even to claim to know in depth any substantial part of the enormous literature and problems. With no presumption of completeness it has however been possible to identify a number of authors that are particularly authoritative and representative of the different points of view. While surveys are available on the literature reviewed here, my originality is in the classical surplus perspective I look at it |
| Keywords: | Surplus approach, Graeco and Roman ancient economies, primitivists, modernists, institutions, social formations |
| JEL: | B51 N01 N13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:897&r=hme |
| By: | Davide Bazzana (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Department of Economics and Management, Università degli Studi di Brescia); Massimiliano Rizzati (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Department of Economics and Management, Università degli Studi di Brescia); Emanuele Ciola (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Department of Economics and Management, Università degli Studi di Brescia); Enrico Turco (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and The Complexity Lab in Economics, Department of Economics and Finance, Catholic Univeristy of Milan); Sergio Vergalli (Author-Name: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Department of Economics and Management, Università degli Studi di Brescia) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the potential impacts of climate change and mitigation policies on the Euro Area, considering the uncertainty and heterogeneity in both climate and economic systems. Using the MATRIX model, a multi-sector and multi-agent macroeconomic model, we simulate various climate scenarios by employing different carbon cycle models, damage functions, and marginal abatement curves found in the literature. We find that heterogeneous climate damages amplify both the magnitude and the volatility of GDP losses associated with global warming. By the end of the century, we estimate that assuming homogeneous shocks may underestimate the effects of climate change on aggregate output by up to one-third. Moreover, we find that the speed and feasibility of a low-carbon transition crucially depend on (i) the stringency of emission reduction targets, which determine the level of a carbon tax, and (ii) the rate of technological progress, which influences the shape of the abatement cost curve. |
| Keywords: | Energy Sector, Agent-Based Models, Macroeconomic Dynamics, Climate change, Climate Policy, Emission Abatement |
| JEL: | C63 Q52 Q58 |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2023.09&r=hme |
| By: | Nikodem Tomczak |
| Abstract: | Adam Smith developed a version of moral philosophy where better decisions are made by interrogating an impartial spectator within us. We discuss the possibility of using an external non-human-based substitute tool that would augment our internal mental processes and play the role of the impartial spectator. Such tool would have more knowledge about the world, be more impartial, and would provide a more encompassing perspective on moral assessment. |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2305.11519&r=hme |
| By: | Sugata Marjit; Krishnendu Ghosh Dastidar; Abhilasha Pandey |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the reluctance of men (women) to acknowledge or recognise the work, comments, and claims of new ideas by other men (women) via widespread and intense demonstrations of indifference. Instances like desk rejections by journals by not allowing papers to reach a review stage, deliberately ignoring responses to respectful and cordial emails, or not referring to relevant papers in references may be related to a kind of status-seeking behaviour beyond what is projected as the real reason for such actions. Against this backdrop, this paper draws from the contemporary experimental psychology and economic theory literature on the causes and consequences of status-seeking behaviour. It integrates the idea in a simple two-player non-cooperative game theoretic framework to explain why even in a world where “Recognition” is a socially optimal strategy, “Indifference” will persist at an equilibrium. We also look at the formation of self-pampering clusters in social media as a resistance to indifference. |
| Keywords: | experimental psychology, status-seeking behaviour, indifference, recognition, non-cooperative games, repeated games |
| JEL: | D91 C72 C73 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10409&r=hme |
| By: | Horn, Karen |
| Abstract: | Smith at 300: Contribution by Karen Horn "The hypothetical part of the opening sentence ends after seven words, after the first comma, upon which Smith switches to certainty. Through the catchy paradox that unfolds between the two legs of the sentence, between “may be supposed” and “evidently”, he erects the two systematic pillars that his philosophical edifice will rest upon, here, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, and also, after some contextual adaptation, in the Wealth of Nations (see Horn 2019, p. 26). Smith puts it all on the table: He builds his system on the stunningly lean twin assumptions about human nature according to which people care about themselves (self-regard) and also about others (other-regard). Minimalistic as this is, everything starts from there. By the way how Smith introduces these parallel dispositions it is clear that the latter cannot be collapsed into the first, as he also explains at length when dealing with Hutcheson and Mandeville (e.g. TMS VII.ii.3.13 and TMS VII.iii.1.4). Other-regard and self-regard coexist. Each in itself, unchecked by the other, is but a moral corner solution. We must strive to prudently combine the two time and again. In Smith’s system, everything evolves in interaction, and everything is about balance." |
| Date: | 2023–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:gcvtp&r=hme |
| By: | Khan, Haider |
| Abstract: | Geoeconomics is developing as field of inquiry and policy guidance in Global Security Studies, Global Political Economy and International Politics. Geoeconomics requires us to think in terms of new and old transportation corridors, international trade and finance, economic development or maldevelopment in a complex unevenly developed world of political economy and great power rivalry.I offer a new modified form of realism which I call critical trans-neoclassical realism (CTNR). Consistent with this somewhat novel theory, in our complex, uneven world of international competition, technological innovation needs to be reconceptualized as a complex dynamic system with national systems facing imperatives of both competition and cooperation. There is thus a call for increased efficiency. But this might neglect urgent needs for equity and thus lead to greater polarization. I present a nonlinear complex dynamic systems model of innovation for China within which both efficiency and equity can be addressed. For the fourth industrial revolution, digital technologies based on semiconductor material foundation and AI are analyzed for China within such a system which can be called socially embedded capabilities enhancing national innovation system or SECENIS. The Chinese SECENIS that is being built for the 21st century has important regional and geoeconomic implications for the future. |
| Keywords: | Global Security Studies, Global Political Economy, International Politics CTNR, China, 4th industrial revolution, Innovation, AI, semiconductors, Geoeconomics, , SECENIS, complex dynamic nonlinear model , Polarization, Equity |
| JEL: | F5 F52 O3 |
| Date: | 2023–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:117372&r=hme |
| By: | Bateman, Bradley W. |
| Abstract: | In his response to my essay in the recent symposium celebrating the centenary of John Maynard Keynes’s Treatise on Probability (Bateman 2021), Bill Gerrard (2022) offers a comprehensive critique of my argument that Keynes was influenced by Frank Ramsey’s turn to pragmatism. Gerrard’s comments cut both ways: on the one hand, he agrees that Ramsey’s turn to pragmatism influenced Keynes, but argues that I do not go far enough in articulating the extent of the influence; on the other hand, Gerrard argues that Keynes’s embrace of Ramsey’s subjective theory of probability has nothing to do with his acceptance of Ramsey’s pragmatism. The purpose of this short comment, however, is neither to rehearse the many ways in which I agree with Gerrard, nor to elaborate each way in which we disagree. The purpose of this comment is to address just one of my disagreements with Gerrard and to use this clarification to reiterate Keynes’s embrace of pragmatism. The disagreement on which I focus concerns the question of whether Keynes employed mathematical expectation in The General Theory. In particular, it stems from my focus on the distinction between the way that expectations about future profit are handled in Chapters Eleven and Twelve of The General Theory. |
| Date: | 2023–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:j23hm&r=hme |
| By: | Fabio Ascione; Maria Enrica Virgillito |
| Abstract: | Against a theoretical background which recognizes the gains from trade liberalization, this paper asks whether, and if so to what extent, economic integration as directly measured through vertically integrated value-added has increased or reduced convergence among European industries and related countries. To answer this question, we draw upon new input-output tables and sectoral divergence measures for 14 European countries and 19 sectors since 1970. Our novel database provides consistent long-run measures of international input–output linkages and sectoral dispersion in labor productivity and wages. We use these measures to study the timing and mechanisms that govern the relationship between economic integration and sectoral gaps, taking a European perspective and focusing on the role of international production fragmentation via input-output linkages. According to our findings, higher vertical integration has fostered divergence rather than convergence within industries. Lock-in effects in laggard positions coupled with positive feedback loops and increasing returns for leading positions are potential mechanisms to explain why the fruits of rising vertical integration are shared unequally between poor-performing industries and frontier industries. |
| Keywords: | input-output analysis; divergence; economic integration; Europe; trade liberalization. |
| Date: | 2023–06–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2023/25&r=hme |
| By: | Dekker, Erwin |
| Abstract: | Smith at 300: Contribution by Erwin Dekker "It might be true that no one has made a ‘bargain’ in verse as Smith suggested. But new products will be advertised, packaged, and launched in ‘verse’. The eighteenth-century trader speaking precise and pointedly has been supplemented, if not replaced by the designer, the (m)ad man and the PR-manager. They have incorporated what Smith already recognized in his lectures on rhetoric: “The best prose composition, the best oratorical discourse does not affect us half so much [as poetry].” An engineer might believe that economics is about production and the stuff, but Smith knew all along that the economics was a humanistic endeavor, where the fluff cannot be separated from the stuff. In Smith’s humanomics perspective we see a world where traders develop language to interact with each other, where ornaments and elegance create a diversity of goods and services, and where marketing campaigns and inspirational stories entice us to explore the new. Call it ‘the lure of poetry and profit.’ " |
| Date: | 2023–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:mvcdh&r=hme |
| By: | Ramos, Aida |
| Abstract: | Smith at 300: Contribution by Aida Ramos "There are three areas of interest to me in discussing this quote. The first is that it is revealing of the social concerns of Smith. The second is that it underscores the remarkable consistency of Smith’s growth theory on the importance of the circulation of capital. The last point is that in its concern for society and social stability, it demonstrates that Smith is in engaged in the science of society as much as his fellow intellectuals, such as Adam Ferguson and Lord Kames, in the Scottish Enlightenment. The three areas mentioned and the passage as a whole evince Smith’s concern with society, justice, and growth and stability, which are three abiding subjects of Scottish Enlightenment inquiry." |
| Date: | 2023–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:jyh9s&r=hme |
| By: | Adrien Faudot (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes, CREG - Centre de recherche en économie de Grenoble - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes); Tsvetelina Marinova (LEFMI - Laboratoire d’Économie, Finance, Management et Innovation - UR UPJV 4286 - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne); Nikolay Nenovsky (LEFMI - Laboratoire d’Économie, Finance, Management et Innovation - UR UPJV 4286 - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne) |
| Abstract: | Today's fragmentation of the world economy, the emergence in the near future of large economic blocs operating in different ideological and conceptual models of economy and society, and the fierce struggle for resources and influence, logically lead us turn to history, including the recent one. The issue of the functioning and collapse of the socialist monetary community has another, more specific but also topical meaning. It has to do with understanding the mechanisms of disintegration of the European Union and the euro area, its management and eventual overcoming. In this paper, we focus on the study of monetary mechanisms within the socialist system, and more specifically on its model of integration, the Comecon, which lasted from 1949 to 1991. In the first part we present the basic principles of socialist integration and the role of international socialist money. In the second part we present the main stages in the evolution of the monetary mechanisms of Comecon. The third part is devoted to some technical problems of multilateral payments and the peculiarities of the transfer ruble. Finally, we try to compare with European Payment Union. We present some competing hypotheses, answering the question why the monetary system of Comecon failed. |
| Keywords: | socialist integration, Comecon, transferable ruble, European Payment Union, Soviet Union, commodity-money relations |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04084493&r=hme |
| By: | Otteson, James R. |
| Abstract: | Most Adam Smith scholars hold that Smith endorsed public provision of education to offset deleterious consequences arising from the division of labor. Smith’s putative endorsement of publicly funded education is taken by some scholars as evidence that Smith tends more toward progressive than classical liberalism, or that this is a departure from, perhaps an inconsistency with, Smith’s otherwise strong presumption against government intervention in markets. This paper argues that these interpretations are flawed because Smith ultimately does not advocate public provision of education. He raises the idea and explores its potential benefits, but he ultimately does not endorse it. Smith also provides reason to be skeptical of public provision of education, which suggests that his final position may have inclined against it. |
| Date: | 2023–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:xrzmk&r=hme |
| By: | Fix, Blair |
| Abstract: | In November 2021, I wrote a post called ‘The Truth About Inflation’. At the time, inflation fears were heating up. And as usual, mainstream economists were missing the bus. Sure, economists pointed to the consumer price index and said, “Look, it’s going up!” But they didn’t look under the hood of this index to see the big picture. Despite what economists proclaim, inflation is not a uniform increase in prices. It is an instability in the whole price system. It’s now been a year since that post was published, so I thought I’d update the analysis. While much has changed in the global political landscape, the underlying picture of inflation remains the same: it is everywhere and always differential. |
| Keywords: | capital as power, income distribution, inflation |
| JEL: | P1 D3 E31 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:270942&r=hme |
| By: | Steve Phelps; Yvan I. Russell |
| Abstract: | In this study, we investigate the capacity of large language models (LLMs), specifically GPT-3.5, to operationalise natural language descriptions of cooperative, competitive, altruistic, and self-interested behavior in social dilemmas. Our focus is on the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, a classic example of a non-zero-sum interaction, but our broader research program encompasses a range of experimental economics scenarios, including the ultimatum game, dictator game, and public goods game. Using a within-subject experimental design, we instantiated LLM-generated agents with various prompts that conveyed different cooperative and competitive stances. We then assessed the agents' level of cooperation in the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, taking into account their responsiveness to the cooperative or defection actions of their partners. Our results provide evidence that LLMs can translate natural language descriptions of altruism and selfishness into appropriate behaviour to some extent, but exhibit limitations in adapting their behavior based on conditioned reciprocity. The observed pattern of increased cooperation with defectors and decreased cooperation with cooperators highlights potential constraints in the LLM's ability to generalize its knowledge about human behavior in social dilemmas. We call upon the research community to further explore the factors contributing to the emergent behavior of LLM-generated agents in a wider array of social dilemmas, examining the impact of model architecture, training parameters, and various partner strategies on agent behavior. As more advanced LLMs like GPT-4 become available, it is crucial to investigate whether they exhibit similar limitations or are capable of more nuanced cooperative behaviors, ultimately fostering the development of AI systems that better align with human values and social norms. |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2305.07970&r=hme |
| By: | Simon Papaud (LEFMI - Laboratoire d’Économie, Finance, Management et Innovation - UR UPJV 4286 - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne, TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Created in 1934, the WIR Bank sought to bring a monetary answer to the economic disorders of its time : its founder, Werner Zimmermann, like his inspirer Silvio Gesell, saw the transformation of the monetary institution both as a remedy to te crisis and a crucial political battleground to fight capitalism. In that, they follow P.- J. Proudhon, whose People's Bank pursued the same goals. Both projects rest on the condemnation of the misusage of money for private accumulation : Proudhon, Gesell and Zimmermann thus outline the image of a monetary system returned to serving the exchanges and social relations. |
| Abstract: | Créée en 1934, la Banque WIR tentait d'apporter une réponse monétaire aux désordres économiques de son époque: son fondateur, Werner Zimmermann, comme son inspirateur Silvio Gesell, regardaient la transformation de l'institution monétaire tant comme un recours face à la crise, que comme le champ de lutte politique décisif face au capitalisme. Ils suivent en celà P.-J. Proudhon, dont la Banque du Peuple poursuivait les mêmes objectifs. Ces deux projets reposent sur la condamnation du dévoiement de la monnaie pour l'accumulation privée : Proudhon, Gesell et Zimmermann dessinent ainsi l'image d'une monnaie remise au service des échanges et de la société. |
| Keywords: | Money, Bank, Gesell, Keynes, Monnaie, Banque, Proudhon |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04084716&r=hme |
| By: | Naudé, Wim (RWTH Aachen University) |
| Abstract: | The economic expansion witnessed in the last 0, 08% of modern human history is an anomalous event. It has been compared to a "rocket ship that took off five seconds ago, and nobody knows where it's going." This paper explores the destiny of this rocket ship. It shows that economic growth cannot continue indefinitely and critically reviews Green Growth and Degrowth as responses to planetary overshoot. It concludes that neither Green Growth nor Degrowth will stop overshoot. Moreover, Degrowth may worsen the environment, is a costly method to reduce carbon emissions, is a form of austerity for the working class, is redundant, and is politically infeasible. Finally, a third approach beyond Green Growth and Degrowth is outlined: acceptance of an inevitable societal collapse (as a feature, and not a bug, of complexity) and managing such a collapse to minimise harm, and to get rid of obsolete structures. This may lay the foundation for rebound growth, and a transition to a new kind of economy, which could be as qualitatively different from the current global economy as the industrial world differed from the hunter-gatherer world. |
| Keywords: | Green Growth, Degrowth, energy, ecology, development, collapse |
| JEL: | O40 O33 D01 D64 |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16139&r=hme |
| By: | Giorgos Galanis (Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management); Giorgio Ricchiuti (Università degli Studi di Firenze, Complexity Lab in Economics (CLE), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano); Ben Tippet (University of Greenwich) |
| Abstract: | From uneven development to unequal exposure to extreme weather events, the economic geography of climate change implies substantial heterogeneity regarding countries’ preferences for climate action. Yet, how this heterogeneity matters for sustaining high and effective levels of global climate action has not been analysed. This paper develops a novel geographical political economy model of climate action where countries’ choices are influenced by the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions, total participation in climate action and by the dispersion of economic geographical factors. Our results highlight that uneven geographic development can be a barrier to sustained high levels of global action. |
| Keywords: | Uneven Development, Global Political Economy, Climate Action, Green Transition |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:113&r=hme |
| By: | Liu, Glory M. |
| Abstract: | Smith at 300: Contribution by Glory M. Liu "TMS I.iii.3.1 is one of my favorite passages from the works of Adam Smith. It is striking, surprising, provocative, and puzzling at the same time. It also raises more questions than it answers; for me, that is what makes this passage so interesting and worth reading. Setting aside my own reading, though, this chapter of The Theory of Moral Sentiments has much to offer for both new and experienced readers of Smith. It beckons us to make sense of the relationship between TMS and WN and the arc of Smith’s intellectual trajectory. It also asks us to critically reflect on the ideals and values that Smith himself might have held, and the ideals and values we project on to him." |
| Date: | 2023–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:avkmc&r=hme |
| By: | Carlo Zappia |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the engagement of economists with the issue of the measurability of uncertainty. Since Knight’s seminal distinction between risk, intended as measurable uncertainty, and unmeasurable uncertainty, the question has been to what extent the extension of the theory of choice from certainty to risk through von Neumann and Morgenstern’s expected utility hypothesis would allow dealing with uncertain events. The paper develops from a study of the rationale underlying the theories of those authors who objected to the mainstream view that the axiomatic approach developed in the early 1950s, mainly through Leonard Savage’s generalization of expected utility, makes it, indeed, possible to reduce uncertainty to risk. After a summary of the meaning attributed by authors such as Knight, Keynes, Shackle and Ellsberg to the contention that uncertainty is irreducible to risk and unmeasurable, the paper aims to investigate why this view did not emerge as a significant alternative to the mainstream up until recently. A main reason, at times alluded to but never openly discussed in the literature, is shown to be the close link between Savage and the group of decision theorists at the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics under the directorship of Jacob Marschak and Tjalling Koopmans. Archival evidence suggests that arguing that a theory of decision under uncertainty could be developed on the basis of “axioms that seem unobjectionable, ” as Koopmans put it, was indeed an integral part of the attempt undertook at Cowles to move forward in economic theory by prioritizing scientific rigour in the form of mathematical models engaging with new mathematical tools |
| Keywords: | probability, uncertainty, decision-making |
| JEL: | B21 D81 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:893&r=hme |
| By: | Uliano, Anna; Marotta, Giuseppe; Stanco, Marcello; Nazzaro, Concetta |
| Abstract: | With the current social, economical, and environmental scenarios, the intensive farming is no longer viable. In this context, innovation may play a crucial role. In particular, responsible innovation represent a value creation driver, allowing farms to realize internal economies and external social economies. The development of innovative processes is particularly suited to cooperatives, as they generate a competitive advantage and allow to overcome two constraints to sustainable innovation adoption: high costs and complexity. These aspects, which highlight the significant role of cooperation and innovation in the shared value creation process, have not been broadly addressed in previous contributions, especially regarding the wine sector. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the drivers of innovation processes for shared value creation in wine cooperatives. A 2-step analysis was implemented, including the definition of an interpretative model on the drivers of sustainable innovation processes for shared value creation in cooperatives, and a comparative analysis among two wine cooperatives, in order to validate such model. Results have validated the hypothesized scheme: in both cases, the drivers included in the model are essential for the adoption of innovations in viticulture. In particular, governance mechanisms and the very effectiveness of innovations change according to the territorial context. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc23:334524&r=hme |
| By: | Nguyen, Trung Thanh; Do, Manh Hung; Rahut, Dil; Nguyen, Viet Hung; Chhay, Panharoth |
| Abstract: | Supporting agricultural cooperatives might contribute to the livelihood improvement of many small-scale farmers in developing countries. This research examined the factors affecting the internet use of agricultural cooperatives with a focus on female leadership, its effects on cooperatives’ economic, social, and innovative performance, and the distributional effects of internet use on economic performance. Our analysis relied on the data of 3, 512 agricultural cooperatives collected in 2021 from Vietnam. We addressed the endogeneity issue of internet use in impact assessment by employing an instrumental variable approach. Our results showed that female leadership was positively and significantly associated with internet use and that internet use had a positive and significant effect on returns on assets, returns on equity, labour productivity, payment per labourer, contribution to labour union and insurance per labourer, and innovation in products of agricultural cooperatives. In addition, unconditional quantile regressions showed that internet use in agricultural cooperatives exacerbated income inequality. Enhancing female leadership and promoting rural education were recommended to improve agricultural cooperatives’ performance. |
| Keywords: | internet use; performance; endogeneity; heterogeneity; instrumental variable |
| JEL: | D60 Q1 R2 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:117274&r=hme |
| By: | Dow, Sheila |
| Abstract: | Smith at 300: Contribution by Sheila Dow "I have selected this quotation for special attention because we can identify from it, and the surrounding passages in the Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, key elements of Adam Smith’s philosophy of science. At the same time the quotation provides an example of Smith’s own arresting use of rhetoric. The quotation arises from Smith’s exploration of the philosophy of science in terms of didactic rhetoric. Smith’s theory of rhetoric emphasised its role in persuasion, departing from the conventional emphasis on style. Persuasion by argument was central to an epistemology (in the Scottish enlightenment tradition) which was sceptical about the scope for establishing absolute truth." |
| Date: | 2023–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:g43ye&r=hme |
| By: | Marwil J. Davila-Fernandez; Serena Sordi |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the Marx-Keynes-Schumpeter model in Flaschel (2015) to study the social dimension of climate change. Agents are divided between those supporting and those opposing taxing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. The composition of the population varies according to a continuous-time version of the discrete-choice approach. Conditional to the level of interaction between players, society chooses the respective tax rate. Higher taxes reduce capital accumulation but support the development of energy-saving production techniques. Output growth and employment rates will be higher or lower depending on which effect prevails. A certain level of economic activity generates GHG emissions and determines the employment rate, which, in turn, endogenously feedback on environmental sentiments. Lower emissions reinforce sustainable attitudes while falling employment increases households’ concerns with more “urgent” needs, decreasing support for taxation. Hence, the model is compatible with a positive relationship between environmental attitudes and energy efficiency but not a clear association with output. A sufficiently strong response of sentiments to emissions combined with partially autonomous pollution regulation may lead to the disappearance of the equilibrium in which most agents oppose taxation, controlling for multistability. By applying the existence part of the Hopf bifurcation theorem, we show that our 3-dimension system admits endogenous persistent and bounded fluctuations, representing the interaction between green attitudes and growth-cycle dynamics |
| Keywords: | Sustainable development; Heterogeneous agents; Hopf bifurcation. |
| JEL: | C63 O11 O44 Q57 |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:890&r=hme |
| By: | Sotarauta, Markku (Tampere University); Grillitsch, Markus (CIRCLE, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The regional development studies community increasingly considers the significance of agency when working to reveal the secrets of local and regional development. While the rapidly emerging literature on agency has increased our understanding of what people do or fail to do for their regions, many scholars have faced challenges incorporating novel conceptual lenses in a discipline more accustomed to studying structures. With the aim to contribute to a collective learning process, we analyze 27 review reports received for a special issue in Regional Studies on “Agency and Regional Development Against All Odds”. We found challenges, for instance, related to articulating the contribution, conceptual layering and drift, and slippery research questions. These three challenges point to the need to decide on the main concept and theory (the hero of the dish), which is particularly challenging and daunting when it requires sacrificing safe conceptual terrain and exploring a more unknown, emerging field. The authors of the special issue have responded brilliantly to the reviewers’ recommendations and with these reflections, we hope to share this learning experience. The work, however, continues - to improve our capacity to study human agency, we must take pains to clarify meta-theoretical commitments, elaborate middle-range theories, and experiment with a variety of methods. The growing body of work on the relationships between human agency and structures is an exciting ontological, theoretical, and methodological programme in the making. |
| Keywords: | Agency and structure; methodology; regional development |
| JEL: | B52 R10 R50 |
| Date: | 2023–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2023_006&r=hme |
| By: | Budzinski, Oliver; Stöhr, Annika |
| Abstract: | Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert die im Energiesektor erfolgten Ministererlaubnisse vor dem Hintergrund der Betrachtung der Gemeinwohlbegründung 'Energieversorgungssicherheit in Deutschland'. Anhand der vertieften Untersuchung des Falles E.ON/Ruhrgas als zuletzt ministererlaubter Fusion im Energiebereich wird dargestellt, dass die Energieversorgungssicherheit Deutschlands auch vor dem Zusammenschluss wohl nicht gefährdet war und nach der Ministererlaubnis durch die gesteigerte Abhängigkeit von russischem Erdgas eher noch gemindert wurde. Es zeigt sich die erhebliche Reformbedürftigkeit des Instrumentes Ministererlaubnis insgesamt, wofür entsprechende Überarbeitungsvorschläge - etwa im Rahmen der 12. GWB-Novelle - vorgelegt werden. |
| Keywords: | Ministererlaubnis, Zusammenschlusskontrolle, Wettbewerbspolitik, Energie, Versorgungssicherheit, E.ON/Ruhrgas, 12. GWB-Novelle |
| JEL: | L40 K21 B52 L51 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuiedp:177&r=hme |