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The literature on pluralism in economics has focused on the benefits expected from the plurality of theories, methods, and frameworks. This overlooks half of the picture: the costs. Neither have the multifarious costs been systematically analyzed in philosophy of science. We begin rectifying this neglect. We discuss how the benefits of plurality and diversity in science presuppose distinct types of plurality and how various benefit and plurality types are associated with different types of costs. Finally, we ponder how the general mechanisms that give rise to the costs of plurality and diversity are aggravated by various disciplinary characteristics of economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the aesthetic and economic forms of judgment that guided the Japanese literature translation program at the American publisher Alfred A. Knopf Inc. in the 1950s—1970s. During these years, the editor Harold Strauss coordinated Knopf's ambitious translation program that made dozens of recently written Japanese novels available in English to an American audience. This article provides a fresh perspective on Knopf's well-known Japanese literature translation program by understanding it to be an illuminating case study that reveals how the practical business of cultural commerce mixes aesthetic and economic modes of valuation, producing provocative connections that link what might otherwise seem to be the antagonistic realms of art and the market. Guided by documents held in the Knopf corporate archive, the article shows how the aesthetics of modern Japanese literature and the economics of publishing each encountered the other in the transactional territory of translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of dark patterns in the context of TikTok, an emerging social media platform. Drawing on principles from behavioral economics and the existing literature on online choice architecture (OCA), the study investigates how TikTok utilizes choice architecture, namely, dark patterns to engage users and explores the potential implications for data protection, algorithmic practices and market dynamics. The paper employs the "walkthrough method" to conduct a case study, describing the TikTok user experience and mapping potential dark patterns employed by the app. Based on the case study, it discusses the challenges in classifying dark patterns (specially as it depends on the user impact) against legitimate commercial practices. Finally, it describes how dark patterns and OCA have been discussed in the Latin American legal landscape, and finally it proposes next steps for the debate based on the findings of the article.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Randomized control trials (RCTs) are recognized as the preferred tool of analysis in modern development economics literature/research and policy evaluation. This may lead to methodologies, including case studies, tabular analysis, simple regressions, taking a back seat. This survey explores the implications of such a methodological hierarchy and the implications of preoccupation with a particular evidence/methodology for research and policy. Similar developments in macroeconomic modelling are also discussed. Major advantages and limitations of RCTs and the attempts to address them are highlighted. The article argues that preoccupation with a methodology can sometimes lead to important inquiries for research and policy getting side-lined on methodological considerations. This leads to inferences favouring a particular technique/methodology or issue. Focusing solely on methodologies that emphasize quantifying the 'effect' may not be appropriate to address all questions relevant to development. As policies involve multiple and conflicting social concerns, methodological pluralism may be preferable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a systematic and critical review of the economics literature on data as an economic good and draws lessons for data governance. We conclude that focusing on data as an economic good in governance efforts is hardwired to only result in more data production and cannot deliver other societal goals contrary to what is often claimed in the literature and policy. Data governance is often a red herring which distracts from other digital problems. The governance of digital society cannot rely exclusively on data-centric economic models. We review the literatures and the underlying empirical and political claims concerning data commons. While commons thinking is useful to frame digital problems in terms of ecologies, it has important limitations. We propose a political-ecological approach to governing the digital society, defined by ecological thinking about governance problems and the awareness of the political nature of framing the problems and mapping their ecological makeup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of legal structure in explaining financial development in twenty-three emerging markets, which has not been explored in institutional economics literature before. This study relied on Pedroni, and Kao cointegration tests, which is followed by the renowned panel cointegration technique. The results of the Pedroni and Kao cointegration tests show that the variables understudy is cointegrated in the long-run. These findings are confirmed by the panel cointegration showing that legal structure (LS) has positive impact on financial development (FIND) in long-run that support Law and Finance, and New Institutional Economics theories in emerging markets. This study is the first to directly examine the long-run impact of LS on FIND in emerging markets, and the result remains consistent across alternative measure of FIND. The findings of this study have important policy implications for emerging markets. Policymakers should focus on creating a legal environment that is conducive to financial development. This includes strengthening the legal framework, improving regulatory regimes, and promoting market autonomy. Additionally, policymakers should work to attract foreign investment, which can help spur economic growth and development in emerging markets. The findings of the study are consistent across battery of robustness testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fishing portfolio diversification has been identified as a mechanism to mitigate risk exposure for harvesters operating in wild-capture fisheries. As in financial markets, however, the benefits from diversification in fisheries will be a function of whether individuals adopt active or passive investment strategies. There is a long history of evidence of the superior performance of passive investment strategies in the financial economics literature, but little is known about the relative performance of these two strategies in fisheries. Here we use a case study of an observed and high-profile climate shock in the California Dungeness crab fishery to estimate the impact of a relatively active investment strategy, in the form of an extreme decision to exit the fishery for the season, in response to the shock. We find robust evidence of negative revenue impacts from an active investment strategy in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the rejection game, designed to formalize the interaction between interlocutors in a Stalnakerian conversation: a speaker who asserts something and a listener who may accept or reject. The rejection game is similar to other signalling games known to the literature in economics and biology. We point out similarities and differences, and propose an application in linguistics. We uncover basic conditions under which the Gricean maxim of quality emerges from incentives among the players, providing evidence for a functionalist understanding of the Gricean program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural welfare economics has lately been challenged on account of its use of the satisfaction of true preferences as a normative criterion. The critique contests what is taken to be an implicit assumption in the literature, namely that true preferences are context-independent. This assumption is considered not only unjustified in the behavioural welfare economics literature but unjustifiable – true preferences are argued to be, at least sometimes, context-dependent. This article explores the implications of this 'critique of the inner rational agent'. I argue that the critique does not support a wholesale shift away from the use of true preferences as an evaluative standard in normative economics; instead, the critique implies that behavioural welfare economists need to inquire into and establish the 'source' of particular context-dependent choices in individuals' decision-making. The source determines the permissibility of correcting individuals' context-dependent choices and can, in some situations, support decisive welfare judgements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the contributions of Marxist Dependency Theory (MDT) can provide theoretical insights for the analysis of financialized capitalism dynamics, contribute to the debate about the rise of a globalized working class, and help guide a transformative praxis in the periphery, therefore being relevant for the debate of contemporary imperialism. I discuss which traditions of dependency theories were most featured in economics literature and why I believe that MDT is marginalized and misinterpreted, focusing on the historical and political aspects of that process. Next, I debate some contributions of contemporary imperialism theory, and conclude that MDT has the potential to advance some of its core concepts and formulate a powerful synthesis. JEL Classification: B51, F54 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generation IV (Gen-IV) nuclear reactor designs are receiving increasing attention because of their potential to achieve key goals in terms of sustainability, safety, reliability, and economics. One of the six technologies selected in the Gen-IV program is the lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR). This work focuses on LFRs, examining both pure lead and lead-bismuth eutectic designs. Through two systematic literature reviews, we consolidate the state-of-the-art in economics and finance for LFRs. The first review considers scientific literature and retrieves 12 articles. The second focuses instead on industrial literature, resulting in 12 additional documents. Economics literature is very scarce and sometimes of low quality. Economic estimations for the specific capital cost [$/kWe] and the cost of electricity [$/MWh] can vary by an order of magnitude (1500–25000 $/kWe and 30–350 $/MWh, respectively), while design organizations typically do not publicly share financial details. Finance literature is almost nonexistent. We report, in the final part of the work, notable knowledge gaps and further possible research areas. • Comprehensive economic evaluations for LFRs are missing. • Economic estimations for LFRs vary by an order of magnitude. • Reported LFR cost ranges are 1500–25000 $/kWe and 30–350 $/MWh. • Financial information of LFRs is rarely disclosed to the public. • A viable financial model description is missing for LFRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In economic applications, the behavior of objects (e.g., individuals, firms, or households) is often modeled as a function of microeconomic and/or macroeconomic conditions. While macroeconomic conditions are common to all objects and change only over time, microeconomic conditions are object-specific and thus vary both among objects and through time. The simultaneous modeling of microeconomic and macroeconomic conditions has proven to be extremely difficult for these applications due to the mismatch of dimensions, potential interactions, and the high number of parameters to estimate. By marrying recurrent neural networks with conditional factor models, we propose a new white-box machine learning method, the recurrent double-conditional factor model (RDCFM), which allows for the modeling of the simultaneous and combined influence of micro- and macroeconomic conditions while being parsimoniously parameterized. Due to the low degree of parameterization, the RDCFM generalizes well and estimation remains feasible even if the time-series and the cross-section are large. We demonstrate the suitability of our method using an application from the financial economics literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a novel analysis of migration responses to climate change by agricultural households in middle- and low-income countries. We conduct a systematic review of 81 quantitative and qualitative studies, applying the New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM) theory and insights from the development economics literature to understand the link between access to in situ agricultural adaptation measures and migration choices. Our findings indicate significant variability in this relationship across different scales of farming operations, including large, medium, small, and landless farmers. We also identify several local contextual factors—such as access to credit, social structures, social fractionalization, conflicts, and migrant networks—that intricately influence this association. Our review departs from previous literature by providing a unique theoretical perspective on the diverse evidence surrounding migration and climate change. We propose a conceptual framework to better understand migration responses in less-developed countries and pinpoint policy gaps that limit agricultural households' ability to adapt to climate change. Finally, we highlight the critical need for future research to examine the role of local contextual factors, including social networks, gender norms, and conflict risks, in shaping migration responses to climate change. • We discuss migration responses to climate change for agricultural households. • We decode the extant research through NELM theory and development economics literature. • We find that migration decisions are closely linked to access to in situ agricultural adaptation means. • The decisions vary by landholdings and are further influenced by local contextual factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economics literature generally supports a positive theoretical link between income inequality and crime. However, despite this consensus, empirical evidence has struggled to yield definitive conclusions. To address this puzzle, I conducted a meta-analysis based on 1,341 estimates drawn from 43 studies in economics journals. The findings indicate a statistically significant but economically insignificant true effect of inequality on crime, ranging between 0.007 and 0.123 using UWLS FAT-PET and advanced methods. In essence, if there is an impact of inequality on crime, it is, at best, minimal. Additionally, there is some limited evidence suggesting positive publication bias. Results from Bayesian model averaging reveal that inequality does not affect exclusively property crime, as predicted by the rational choice models. Moreover, this analysis shows that inequality measures which are sensitive to changes in income at the middle and top of the distribution are associated with higher coefficients. The study also underscores the biases arising from the exclusion of relevant variables. The implications of this research suggest that inequality may not be the primary motivator for criminal behaviour, with other factors potentially playing more significant roles. Lastly, if inequality does affect crime, it might do so in different ways than those discussed by the majority of the existing empirical studies. • An examination of the relationship between inequality and crime is conducted through a meta-analysis, incorporating 1,341 estimates derived from 43 studies. • Income inequality has a small, if not inexistent, effect on crime. • Some limited evidence of positive publication bias is found. • Inequality metrics which are sensitive to changes in both the middle and upper segments of the income distribution exhibit higher coefficients. • The omission of relevant variables, such as deterrence and income, introduces a notable bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, five of the main design challenges of local flexibility markets (LFMs) for congestion management are identified and discussed based on desirable market properties from economics theory and literature review. The five main design challenges are low market liquidity, reliability, baselines, forecast errors at low aggregation levels, and the high cost of measurements. A comprehensive capacity-limitation based LFM design has been proposed to address the challenges and a simulation example is presented to illustrate the design. The proposed design facilitates market participants' decision making by design elements that improve market liquidity, reliability and handling of forecast errors. Moreover, a new capacity limitation product is proposed that is not defined with respect to a baseline and does not require sub-meter measurements leading to lower costs and conflict-of-interest in delivery validation. Generic algorithms are also proposed for calculating utility and cost of the flexibility product. The proposed design and discussions can contribute to improving the inter-disciplinary area between engineering and economics while helping policy-makers and LFM stakeholders to further understand the problem from a multi-dimensional perspective. • Five common challenges in the design of local flexibility markets are identified. • A product is proposed addressing baseline issues and reducing verfication costs. • Design-related solutions are proposed to increase market liquidity. • An integrated triple-stage market framework is proposed. • Algorithms are proposed for calculating cost and utility of the flexibility product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]