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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Ricardo Barradas; João Alcobia |
| Abstract: | Portugal has historically displayed strong external imbalances, which have already resulted in three requests for international financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank. Stemming from the framework of mainstream economics literature, these institutions imposed demanding austerity measures based on internal devaluation, huge wage restraint policies and strict control on government balance in order to contain the Portuguese domestic demand and to promote Portuguese external competitiveness. Accordingly, Portuguese labour costs have registered a general decreasing trend, and government balance has substantially improved in the last four decades, but the Portuguese external imbalances remain unsolved, which suggests that we need to go beyond the conventional economic literature in order to better ascertain the right determinants of external imbalances. This paper aims to contribute to the current theoretical debate about the determinants of the external imbalances by relying on the post-Keynesian economics literature and performing a time series econometric analysis for Portugal from 1988 to 2023. Results evidence that the fall of labour costs and the surge of both stock and housing prices are the main drivers behind the Portuguese external imbalances over the last four decades. |
| Keywords: | External Imbalances, Labour Costs, Financial and Housing Asset Prices, Portugal, Time Series, Autoregressive Distributed Lag Estimator |
| JEL: | C32 E12 F32 F41 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:remwps:wp03342024 |
| By: | Cajas Guijarro, John |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes two theoretical dynamic models (Models A and B) to analyze the interaction between distributive and financial cycles in capitalist economies. Model A assumes investment equals savings at the aggregate level but assumes a delay between capitalists saving their income and distributing it to firms for reinvestment, leading to credit demand from a rentier class. Model B extends and modifies Model A by representing capitalist incentives to invest through an investment function and accounting for the dynamic effect of non-zero excess demand. Analytical proofs for the existence of limit cycles in both models are provided using Hopf bifurcation theorems for four-dimensional and five-dimensional dynamical systems, and numerical simulations identify stable and limit cycles, unstable cycles, damped oscillations, and multiple relevant patterns. The results suggest that the stability of cycles is significantly influenced by the distribution of bargaining power between workers and capitalists, as well as the behavior of the central bank and the rentier class. Furthermore, the paper suggests two methods to identify financing regimes within capitalist cycles and concludes by providing insights for future analytical and empirical research. |
| Keywords: | Distributive cycles, Financial cycles, Hopf bifurcation, Bargaining power, Stability, Interest rate |
| JEL: | C61 E11 E12 E32 G01 |
| Date: | 2024–07–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:121404 |
| By: | Giancarlo Ianulardo (University of Exeter Business School - University of Exeter); Aldo Stella (UNIPG - Università degli Studi di Perugia = University of Perugia) |
| Abstract: | In an article entitled "Agency, functionalism and all that. A Sraffian view", published in the Journal of Philosophical Economics, Professor Cesaratto (2024) has proposed a functionalist methodology to study the relation between agency and structure. In doing so, he made some criticisms of an article of ours that had previously appeared in the same journal in issue XV, entitled "Towards a unity of sense: a critical analysis of the concept of relation in methodological individualism and holism in economics" (Ianulardo and Stella, 2022). We take Cesaratto's critique as an invitation to a dialogue on the methodology of the social sciences, and we would like to clarify some aspects in response to his critique. In essence, we clarify that our article consisted of two parts, which we can call pars destruens and pars construens, respectively. In the first, we show that while the determinate identity of the individual postulated by methodological individualism cannot stand without reference to difference, the relational methodology postulated by methodological holism requires its terms (i.e. individuals) to stand as a relation. In the second part, we make it clear that the sense of unity to which we have referred is not represented by an actual community, but by the drive towards unity that is common to all individuals when they intend to form a social entity (group, class, nation, party, institution etc.). Every unification makes it possible to shed new light on the moments that led to it. In this sense, we have spoken of a teleological perspective, since the end point allows us to re-signify the intermediate moments that led to it. |
| Keywords: | Methodological individualism methodological holism teleology relation unity, Methodological individualism, methodological holism, teleology, relation, unity |
| Date: | 2024–07–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04528106 |
| By: | Eichacker, Nina |
| Abstract: | While cryptocurrencies have existed since 1990, they have come to increasing prominence after 2009, when BitCoin was created. Since 2009, a proliferation of cryptocurrencies has emerged, prompting both debate and dramatic flurries of economic activity. While some argue that cryptocurrencies may present an alternative to state-backed fiat currencies, others characterize them as volatile financial assets that are used to exploit particularly vulnerable demographic groups. This chapter examines cryptocurrencies through two lenses: a historic-institutionalist account of how they have developed as both a financial asset and an alternative to the traditional centralized financial system based on banks, and a Keynesian analysis of crypto currencies as financial assets particularly prone to the generation of bubbles and crashes. It considers both the ecological and economic fallout from the creation of these assets, as well as lessons that traditional financial institutions may learn from cryptocurrencies and the institutions through which purchasers may access these assets. |
| Date: | 2024–07–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:7kyrm |
| By: | Naudé, Wim (RWTH Aachen University) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship scholarship and policy are based on the myth of firm growth as imperative and the related myth of perpetual economic growth. This paper takes issue with the obsession with this growth myth, discussing the dangers it poses. Green growth and sustainable entrepreneurship are exposed as oxymorons. Given the dangers and the impossibility of perpetual growth, the paper then tries to answer the question of what role entrepreneurship could play in a post-growth society or in degrowth (the proposed approach to get there). The tentative conclusion is that entrepreneurship is incompatible with current visions of post-growth and degrowth. Degrowth and post-growth societies are post-entrepreneurship societies. While seeing how post-growth and degrowth could be made compatible with entrepreneurship is complicated, it does not mean it is impossible. More imagination and attention by entrepreneurship and post-growth scholars on the nature of entrepreneurship beyond growth is required sooner rather than later. Since economic growth is not perpetual, time is running out. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, economic growth, capitalism, polycrisis, climate change |
| JEL: | L26 L21 O40 O44 P17 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17158 |
| By: | Domptail, Stéphanie Eileen; Mörsdorf, Jessica |
| Abstract: | The science of agricultural and natural resource use economics tends to be developed and applied within a post-positivist epistemological standpoint. Researchers, objective and exter-nal, investigate a state of being on the ground and interpret their results in the context of theo-ries of agricultural and natural resources, which we assume as close to the truth as humanity can be on a given day. This epistemological positioning follows from the scientific method developed within the Western Cartesian worldview in the 17th century. Our current knowledge relies on ecological social and economic theories that were largely developed in Europe since then - in such, they pertain to a European Cartesian ontology. Yet, the paper’s premise is that knowledge is a social construction and is contextual to specif-ic ontologies. Following the pluriverse idea, we point to limits of a single world perspective, also in science and research when attempting to address creatively the multiple environmental crises the current civilisation generated. Our paper aims to make the point that a decolonized teaching and research curricula is needed to support a deeper change in humans’ relation to nature towards sustainability. We use the decolonization concept to highlight power relations between scientists and researches as well as between different forms of knowledge. This will lead us to reflect on the tangible implications for decolonization of research in agricultural economics and natural resource use. Especially, we suggest developing awareness on the po-sitionality of researchers and on structural power relations transported by research and data collection methods. These are first steps towards the possible development of a more inclu-sive epistemology. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies |
| Date: | 2023–09–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi23:344244 |