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on Heterodox Microeconomics |
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Issue of 2023‒09‒18
fifteen papers chosen by Carlo D’Ippoliti, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Heise, Arne |
| Abstract: | In a recent article, Tom Palley begins his critique of Keynesian economics with the well-known story of a drunkard who, when searching for his lost keys, looks not in the darkness of the nearby lawn where he misplaced them, but instead under the light cone of a lamp post because, when asked, he replies that's where the light is. This story serves as a metaphor for the field of economics attempting to understand the workings of the capitalist economy solely through the lens of Keynesian economics. However, this endeavour is ultimately futile as comprehending capitalism requires a different analytical approach: acknowledging social conflict as an essential component of capitalism's nature better addressed by Kaleckian macroeconomics. I attempt to illustrate that Palley is accurate in emphasizing the paradigmatic differences and even incommensurabilities between Keynes' monetary production paradigm and the Marxian-Kaleckian social conflict paradigm. This suggests that any classification under the umbrella term "post-Keynesianism" is misleading. However, Palley is mistaken in his assertion that this distinction aligns Keynes' economics with neoclassical (mainstream) economics, as the acceptance or rejection of social conflict is not the only fault line in terms of ontology. There are other ontological divisions that can exist. Or, to use the metaphor, the lamp post can be moved to different areas of the lawn, indicating different ontological perspectives. |
| Keywords: | Keynes, social conflict, effective demand, monetary production |
| JEL: | A14 B40 B51 E11 E12 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:103&r=hme |
| By: | Carlo Borzaga; Manlio Calzaroni; Eddi Fontanari; Massimo Lori |
| Abstract: | In the last twenty years, the interest of researchers, policy makers, national and international institutions and society in general has been growing in organizations and enterprises set up and managed in a participatory manner by non-investor actors and whose object is not the profit but rather the response to a need of the promoting group or community. These organizations are increasingly associated with the term “Social economy†. In Italy, the concept of social economy has so far been little used and research, public debate and legislative activity have favoured single components: traditional cooperatives, on the one hand, and other typologies of organizations (social cooperatives, associations and social enterprises) on the other. With the intention of contributing to filling this gap, this paper – which largely summarizes the Euricse-Istat report on the Italian social economy (2021) – aims to provide a unitary picture of the dimensions and characteristics of the entire social economy in Italy and to explore its sectoral specialization and evolutionary dynamics, showing, finally, some insights into the relationship between the presence of SEOs and variables of social interest, especially with particular reference to welfare services. |
| Keywords: | Italy, Statistics, Cooperative enterprises, Nonprofit institutions, Economic and employment size |
| JEL: | C81 J21 P13 L31 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpeu:23125&r=hme |
| By: | Pierre Nkou Mananga; Shiqiang Lin; Hairui Zhang |
| Abstract: | We investigate the resilience of the South African banking system using a dynamic agent-based model and the DebtRank algorithm. This approach enables us to identify each banks importance and vulnerability in the interbank network and is not limited to listed banks, as previous studies were. We find that larger banks are more systemically important, but a banks interbank-lending-to-equity multiple is significantly correlated with its vulnerability. Our research offers policymakers a direct and practical indicator for improved monitoring of financial stability. |
| Date: | 2023–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rbz:wpaper:11052&r=hme |
| By: | Berggren, Niclas (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Bjørnskov, Christian (Aarhus University and) |
| Abstract: | There is widespread concern, especially in certain feminist circles, that a market-oriented economic system, or capitalism, disfavors women. This could take many forms, such as lower wages for the same type of work, reduced career opportunities, disparities in ownership and the upholding of traditional gender roles. In all, this could influence overall life satisfaction such that capitalism confers more life satisfaction on men than on women. We test empirically whether this concern is justified. Using the epidemiological approach to rule out reverse causality, we first confirm previous findings that most areas of economic freedom (legal quality in particular, but also monetary stability, openness and regulation) are beneficial for general life satisfaction. When looking at women and men separately, we find virtually no statistically significant differences, and in the cases we do, the estimates reveal a more beneficial outcome for women. Hence, we conclude that capitalism does not seem to favor men more than women in terms of life satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | Economic freedom; Capitalism; Market economy; Life satisfaction; Gender; Happiness |
| JEL: | B52 D02 D63 F13 H11 I31 K20 K38 P16 |
| Date: | 2023–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1471&r=hme |
| By: | Claude Gamel (LEST - Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | In France, liberalism is not a well-known philosophy, which is even often caricatured. After more than thirty years of personal academic research, the idea of developing a "sustainable" version of liberalism came to me slowly, which finally led to a book recently published (2021). The current text outlines the four basic components of which the book is the result (I) and the perspective adopted – Rawlsian "property-owning democracy" rather than Hayekian "rules of just conduct" (II). In fact, my (socially) sustainable liberalism is a true puzzle, in so far it aims to combine pieces borrowed from four authors – Hayek and Rawls, but also Sen and Van Parijs (III). In conclusion, such a liberalism could not be a completely sustainable one, because of course it concerns justice in society, but it is not enough to deal with other important challenges to be met in the contemporary world (IV). |
| Abstract: | Le libéralisme est en France une philosophie mal connue et souvent caricaturée. À l'issue de plus de trente ans de recherches universitaires personnelles, l'idée de développer une version « soutenable » du libéralisme s'est peu à peu imposée, conclue par la publication récente d'un ouvrage (2021). Le présent texte expose d'abord les quatre « ingrédients » dont cet ouvrage est le résultat (I), puis l'angle d'attaque adopté-la « démocratie de propriétaires » de Rawls, plutôt que « les règles de juste conduite » de Hayek (II). Mon libéralisme (socialement) soutenable est en fait un véritable puzzle qui cherche à emboiter des pièces empruntées à quatre auteurs-Hayek et Rawls, mais aussi Sen et Van Parijs (III). En conclusion, un tel libéralisme ne pourrait être complètement soutenable, car il aborde certes la question de la justice en société, mais cela ne suffit pas pour traiter d'autres défis importants que le monde contemporain a à relever (IV). |
| Keywords: | rules of just conduct, property-owning democracy, labour, capabilities, basic income, capacités, revenu de base, règles de juste conduite, démocratie de propriétaires, travail |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03982653&r=hme |
| By: | Idriss Hadj Nacer (London School of Economics and Sciences-Po Paris) |
| Abstract: | The analysis put forward in this paper strives to unveil the ideological and power balance dynamics of crony capitalism. It underlines the existence of two classes within this system: political sponsors and crony capitalists. It tries to demonstrate how the tension between these two groups puts the whole system into motion and provides it with vitality and dynamism. Far from being static, friction between these two classes is marked by various phases that form a coherent sequence that can be analyzed through the ideological narrative that is articulated during each phase of this sequence. It also aims to demonstrate that, in the case of Algeria, the power balance is in favor of political sponsors, despite attempts from crony capitalists to challenge this status quo. This research also tries to expand the learnings from the 5 case studies taken to a wider analysis of the ties between crony capitalism and neoliberal ideology, raising the following questions: are the rise of the two always correlated? If they are, can they even be separated or are they simply two sides of the same coin? What could be the future of crony capitalism’s ideological discourse? |
| Date: | 2023–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1632&r=hme |
| By: | Jean-Philippe Bouchaud |
| Abstract: | This is the English version of my inaugural lecture at Coll\`ege de France in 2021, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxktplKMhKU. I reflect on the difficulty of multi-disciplinary research, which often hinges of unexpected epistemological and methodological differences, for example about the scientific status of models. What is the purpose of a model? What are we ultimately trying to establish: rigorous theorems or ad-hoc calculation recipes; absolute truth, or heuristic representations of the world? I argue that the main contribution of statistical physics to social and economic sciences is to make us realise that unexpected behaviour can emerge at the aggregate level, that isolated individuals would never experience. Crises, panics, opinion reversals, the spread of rumours or beliefs, fashion effects and the zeitgeist, but also the existence of money, lasting institutions, social norms and stable societies, must be understood in terms of collective belief and/or trust, self-sustained by interactions, or on the contrary, the rapid collapse of this belief or trust. The Appendix contains my opening remarks to the workshop ``More is Different'', as a tribute to Phil Anderson. |
| Date: | 2023–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2308.02895&r=hme |
| By: | Soriano, Cheryll Ruth |
| Abstract: | This chapter examines emerging class formation and relations among cloudworkers as well as its underlying institutional structures. As empirical anchor, the chapter focuses on the Philippines, which has actively embraced platform labor with millions of Filipino workers obtaining gigs from cloudwork platforms. I explore emerging class relations among Filipino cloudworkers given the mutually-intersecting layers of technological, state discourses, social, and inter-racial relations that shape worker subjectivity. The tighter interconnectedness of the global economy and of class practices notwithstanding, cloudwork, like labor migration where the State plays an instrumental role in promoting, reinforces the view of class structures still as national formations, although enacted in dialectical tension with workers’ “techno-entrepreneurial spirit”. In this techno-global workplace, friendships arise, but in the same breath national and local attachments are deepened as Filipino workers find relational spaces of solidarity amid competitors and clients from other countries. Yet, class hierarchies also emerge among cloudworkers and these hierarchies are shaped by the workers’ capacity to negotiate the technological, national, social, and inter-racial dimensions of cloudwork and which influences their sense of control and agency over their work. I discuss the inter-relationships between and across class hierarchies, highlighting how the experiences and narratives of influencers, worker-agencies, and highly-specialized workers are cascaded to shape the imaginaries of the majority of new entrants and precarious Filipino platform workers. |
| Date: | 2022–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:mediar:p8kjf&r=hme |
| By: | Goff, Sarah C. |
| Abstract: | Individuals have different experiences of work when they are self-employed, when they perform tasks in the gig economy, and when they follow directives from managers. But such differences are not represented in some of the most prominent nonideal theories of work. These describe workers as a coherent group, with a position in the structure of the liberal capitalist economy. I present an alternative that does better at acknowledging difference, through a description of work and workers that has greater “pluralism” and less “unifying coherence.” Some might insist that their “unifying” description has superior empirical plausibility. But if “pluralistic” descriptions are valid rivals to provide an accurate characterization of our current condition, then we should consider whether their use in theory can serve valuable aims. I identify the distinctive and valuable non-ideal aims—epistemic, evaluative, and normative—that can be pursued with “pluralistic” descriptions of work and workers. |
| Keywords: | work; non-ideal theory; groups; justice; gender; race; Wiley deal |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2023–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:119859&r=hme |
| By: | Stephanie Slater (Cardiff University); Catherine Demangeot (LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Intersecting neo-institutional and acculturation theory, this paper investigates how national acculturation ideologies inform attitudes towards modest fashion, comparing the United Kingdom and French contexts. Modest fashion, an emerging market phenomenon with roots in the conservative notion of ‘modesty', has been a controversial cultural flashpoint.We analyze public discourse towards modest fashion using UK and French press media articles through content analysis. The UK press shows institutional work towards the legitimization of a modest fashion subfield, integrated within the global fashion field. The French press shows institutional work involving heterogenous actors, where modest fashion is framed as destabilizing the Western fashion field, and stigmatized. Theoretical and managerial implications are considered.Our work contributes to acculturation and multicultural marketplaces literature by showing how, in contexts that are similarly multicultural, large-scale institutions can structure markets in widely different ways, and shape the realm of opportunities for marketers to cater to minority needs. |
| Keywords: | Neo-institutional theory, Acculturation theory, Multicultural marketplaces, Modest fashion, Context, Institutional work |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03600360&r=hme |
| By: | Saqib Aziz (ESC [Rennes] - ESC Rennes School of Business); Dawood Ashraf; Rwan El-Khatib (Zayed University) |
| Abstract: | Sukuk investments require investors and issuers to adhere to subtle moral and ethical standards beyond following mere profit maximization objectives. Investor trust manifested through the level of societal trust could be vital in the global Sukuk investment surge. This study investigates the relationship between the societal trust level and Sukuk activity. It employs a global sample of Sukuk issuances spanning over 2001–2019 and finds that a country's societal trust level significantly and positively influences the amount of Sukuk issued. Moreover, this positive effect supersedes the negative effects of higher information asymmetry associated with equity-based Sukuk or Sukuk issued by risky firms. Ultimately, trust is both a deterrent and critical for Islamic finance success. |
| Keywords: | Trust, Sukuk, Islamic finance, Information asymmetry, Culture |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03330282&r=hme |
| By: | Silvia Sacchetti; Gianluca Salvatori |
| Abstract: | The paper aims to analyze the theme of “shared administration†, recently affirmed within the Italian law reforming the third sector. This case has introduced a new mode of relationship between public administration and non-profit organizations engaged in the production of goods and services of general interest. This model introduces mechanisms of co-programming and co-design (“co-progettazione†) that are alternatives to procurement procedures based on calls for tenders. The aim of the paper is to address the possible implications of the principle of “shared administration†for the emergence of new forms of empowerment of social actors able to promote distributed models of self-determination and democratic exercise of power as an alternative to top- down bureaucracy. |
| Keywords: | Public action, Civic practice, Shared administration, Subsidiarity, Co-programming, Co- design |
| JEL: | L3 L33 L38 H83 O21 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpeu:23126&r=hme |
| By: | Mitja Stefancic; Silvio Goglio |
| Abstract: | After showing remarkable resilience to the negative effects of the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, cooperative banks have undergone a process of reform and structural consolidation almost everywhere in Europe over the past decade. Recognizing these changes, the paper provides an account of the main concepts and trends in research that has focused on cooperative banks since 2010. At the same time, it sketches current trends with an aim to anticipate new research trajectories by setting some directions for new research efforts on cooperative banks operating in Europe. Sustainability, green finance and digitalisation are all concepts that have recently emerged in cooperative-banking-related research and which shall be further investigated in relation to their business model. Other potentially fruitful research topics include an investigation into the critical elements of the cooperative model of bank governance as well as the multifaceted differences between the cooperative bank patterns in Europe, which still need to be properly understood and assessed. |
| Keywords: | European cooperative banks, Research trends, Sedimented knowledge, Emerging knowledge, Content analysis |
| JEL: | G01 G21 G28 G34 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpeu:23129&r=hme |
| By: | Kapeller, Jakob; Hubmann, Georg |
| Abstract: | Der klassische Liberalismus hat die Sicherung individueller Freiheit zum Ziel - im politischen Liberalismus durch die Gewährleistung der Menschwürde und der demokratischen Rechte, im Wirtschaftsliberalismus durch die Sicherung der Freiheit wirtschaftlicher Aktivitäten. Mit Bezug auf klassische und aktuelle liberale Denker zeigen wir theoretische Spannungsfelder zwischen politischem Liberalismus und Wirtschaftsliberalismus auf, die im Zuge der ökonomischen Globalisierung der letzten Jahrzehnte an praktischer Bedeutung gewonnen haben. Dabei wird mit Blick auf empirische Beispiele gezeigt, dass eine Globalisierung unter streng wirtschaftsliberalen Vorzeichen mit zunehmender Ungleichheit einhergeht, bestehende pfadabhängige Entwicklungen verstärkt und einen Standortwettbewerb vorantreibt, der dazu tendiert politische Freiheiten und demokratische Regulierung sukzessive zu untergraben. |
| Keywords: | Liberalismus, Freiheit, Globalisierung, Standortwettbewerb, liberalism, economic freedom, globalization, race for the best location |
| JEL: | D60 F60 F68 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifsowp:27&r=hme |
| By: | Viktor Viljevac (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb); Karlo Vujeva (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb) |
| Abstract: | U ovom radu analiziramo novi monetarni fenomen na primjeru hrvatske ekonomije: istodobni rast troška financiranja banaka i bankarskih profita u uvjetima strukturnog viška likvidnosti. Nakon ulaska u europodručje, Hrvatska narodna banka (HNB) kao sastavnica Eurosustava sudjelovala je u agresivnom podizanju referentnih kamatnih stopa na centralnobankarsku likvidnost. U konvencionalnim uvjetima neposredni cilj rasta kamatnih stopa je porast cijene zaduživanja poslovnih banaka, a krajnji cilj smanjivanje stope inflacije na ciljanu razinu. Međutim, nakon dvije značajne krize – Velike financijske krize i krize izazvane COVID-19 pandemijom – monetarni sustav europodručja i Hrvatske karakteriziran je postojanjem strukturnog viška likvidnosti. Samim time rast kamatne stope više nema jednoznačnu interpretaciju u transmisiji monetarne politike: poslovne banke sada zarađuju i na viškovima i na plasmanima. Navedeno ima teorijske i praktične posljedice, a fokus ovog rada je na praktičnim posljedicama po hrvatsku ekonomiju u kratkom roku. Dva su temeljna opažanja koja čine preduvjete navedenog monetarnog fenomena. Prvo, iako je HNB tek odnedavno članica Eurosustava, u Hrvatskoj postoje visoke razine akumuliranih viškova likvidnosti radi višegodišnje obrane deviznog tečaja. Drugo, hrvatsko bankovno tržište karakterizirano je visokim tržišnim udjelom najvećih banaka u ukupnoj imovini kreditnih institucija. Posljedica je rast neto kamatnih prihoda banaka, odnosno asimetričnost transmisije restriktivne monetarne politike s obzirom na namjenu budući da se demotiviraju investicije i štednja istovremeno. Ovo transmisiju monetarne politike čini suboptimalnom, a bankarske profite brzo rastućima. Zbog toga, početni rast kamatnih stopa u Hrvatskoj može se smatrati subvencijom javnog prema privatnom sektoru stranog vlasništva, što posljedično čini vjerojatnost odljeva navedenih sredstava u inozemstvo visokom. U izostanku monetarne autonomije, mogućnosti lokalne intervencije ekonomske politike primarno su u domeni fiskalne vlasti. |
| Keywords: | restriktivna monetarna politika, HNB, europodručje, viškovi likvidnosti, bankarski profiti |
| JEL: | E52 E58 F45 E42 B5 |
| Date: | 2023–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zag:wpaper:2306&r=hme |