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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Schlicht, Ekkehart |
| Abstract: | This note proposes a growth model that is derived from the standard Solow growth model by replacing the neoclassical production function with Kaldor’s technical progress function while maintaining a marginalist theory of factor prices in the spirit suggested by von Weizsäcker (1966, 1966b). The hybrid model so obtained accounts for balanced growth in a way that appears less arbitrary than the Solow model, especially because it directly accounts for Harrod neutral technical change, without any need for further assumptions. |
| Keywords: | directed technical change; directed technological change; bias in innovation; technical progress function; neoclassical production function; Harrod neutrality; Hicks neutrality; Cambridge theory of distribution; marginal productivity theory; Kaldor; Kennedy; von Weizsäcker; Solow model |
| JEL: | O30 O40 E12 E13 E25 B31 B59 |
| Date: | 2014–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:18993&r=pke |
| By: | Jochen Hartwig (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | Keynes’s essay “Relative Movements of Real Wages and Output” is widely believed to be an important amendment to his General Theory because, in this essay, Keynes relaxed his core assumption of decreasing marginal returns to labour. Non-decreasing marginal returns, however, do not sit comfortably with the prime innovation of the General Theory: the Principle of Effective Demand. This will be demonstrated by performing – for the first time in the literature – numerical simulations with Keynes’s Aggregate-Demand-Aggregate-Supply (D/Z) model. The view that Keynes’s 1939 essay constitutes an important amendment to his General Theory thus has to be put into perspective. |
| Keywords: | Keynes, effective demand, D/Z model, marginal returns to labour |
| JEL: | B31 E12 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:14-355&r=pke |
| By: | Andrew Hughes Hallett (George Mason University and University of St Andrews); Ansgar Rannenberg (Macroeconomic Policy Institute); Sven Schreiber (Macroeconomic Policy Institute and Freie Universita?t Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Cogan et al. (2009, 2010) claim that the stimulus package passed by the United States Congress in February 2009 had a multiplier far below one. However, the stimulus’ multiplier strongly depends on the assumed monetary policy response. Based on official statements from the Fed chairman, the economic outlook, past behavior of the FOMC, optimal policy considerations, and financial market expectations, we find that in February 2009 a period of monetary accommodation of three years would have been a reasonable prediction. This implies that an appropriate real time assessment of the stimulus’ effects would have been more optimistic than Cogan et al.’s. |
| Keywords: | Obama fiscal stimulus, fiscal multiplier, interest rate forecasts |
| JEL: | E58 E62 E37 E47 |
| Date: | 2014–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:cdmawp:1404&r=pke |
| By: | Kakarot-Handtke, Egmont |
| Abstract: | Marxian economics and standard economics are widely different yet they share a central weakness: the respective profit theories are demonstrably false – each one in its own characteristic way. Roughly speaking, Marx tried to explain profit by objective factors while standard economics cites subjective factors. For different reasons, neither route led to satisfactory results. The conclusion is straightforward: one has to do better. The conceptual consequence is to first reconstruct the profit theory from a solid basis with no regard to either Marxian or standard premises. In order to succeed, objective-structural axioms have to be taken as formal point of departure. |
| Keywords: | new framework of concepts; structure-centric; axiom set; profit theory; surplus value; distribution; real shares |
| JEL: | B59 E11 E25 |
| Date: | 2014–03–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:54800&r=pke |
| By: | Améziane Ferguene (PACTE - Politiques publiques, ACtion politique, TErritoires - Institut d'Études Politiques [IEP] - Grenoble - CNRS : UMR5194 - Université Pierre-Mendès-France - Grenoble II - Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble I) |
| Abstract: | The State's role in development is bound to change significantly as a result of many new challenges, of the multitude of changes the world has experienced over the past thirty years, and of the new demands which have come to the fore (particularly in the fields of environment, sustainable development and international governance). This inevitable change can be understood in two complementary but separate ways. On the one hand, at the national level, the State must now bite the bullet on a whole series of critical questions about the overall direction of development: environmental protection; improvement of the living conditions of the population, (not to mention the working conditions of the labour force); the promotion of democratic freedoms and fundamental human rights; and the practice of "good governance" at all levels of the political and administrative structure, which implies the participation of civil society in the design and execution of major economic and social projects. On the other hand, at the international level, the State can no longer ignore the growing interdependence of nations brought about by the process of globalization. The expression "global village", even if it seems overstated, nevertheless denotes a real situation in which the global is present at different levels of economic and social life in human communities, whether national, regional or local. Because of this growing interdependence, the State (both in developing countries and in transitional or developed ones) can no longer take major decisions "in total independence", that is, outside of any international co-ordination or global oversight. A range of international regimes bears witness to this truth: WTO rules on world trade, IMF regulations over current international financial supports, IAEA controls over nuclear programmes, etc. Thus, to continue to fulfil its role as an actor in development, the State must face up to a twofold challenge: globalization which is swamping it from above, and which requires a global response; and regionalism, which is undermining it from below, demanding that the aspirations of human communities and social groups be taken into account at local level. To be sure, this twofold movement does not mean the death of the State; but it must learn to improve its ways of working, if it is to play its role fully in this new context. |
| Keywords: | State, Globalization, Economic Policy, Keynesianism, Neoliberalism, Public Regulation |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00959749&r=pke |
| By: | Theodore J. Joyce; Sean Crockett; David A. Jaeger; Onur Altindag; Stephen D. O'Connell |
| Abstract: | We test whether students in a hybrid format of introductory microeconomics, which met once per week, performed as well as students in a traditional lecture format of the same class, which met twice per week. We randomized 725 students at a large, urban public university into the two formats, and unlike past studies, had a very high participation rate of 96 percent. Two experienced professors taught one section of each format, and students in both formats had access to the same online materials. We find that students in the traditional format scored 2.3 percentage points more on a 100-point scale on the combined midterm and final. There were no differences between formats in non-cognitive effort (attendance, time spent with online materials) nor in withdrawal from the class. Comparing our experimental estimates of the effect of attendance with non-experimental estimates using only students in the traditional format, we find that the non-experimental were 2.5 times larger, suggesting that the large effects of attending lectures found in the previous literature are likely due to selection bias. Overall our results suggest that hybrid classes may offer a cost effective alternative to traditional lectures while having a small impact on student performance. |
| JEL: | I20 I23 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20006&r=pke |