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The socialist economic calculation debate can work as a platform of communication between different traditions in economics to explore the dichotomy of technology-humans. Based on the metalanguage of the economic calculation as first systematized by Don Lavoie, I develop a triangular and complementary relationship between the mainstream neoclassical model, the Austrian school of economics and the Marxist Political Economy to minimize misunderstandings due to poor communication and to look for agreements that are usually disregarded. This paper draws attention to an important convergence between the antagonistic sides in the socialist economic calculation debate regarding the relationship between humans and technology and that the issue of control must be explicitly taken into account if any scientific advancement is to be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Delays in the process from investment in innovation to productivity gains can explain cyclicality within an economic system. • The type of the economic fluctuations greatly depends on alternative formulations for the economic system. • The results indicate that it is difficult to measure the influence of innovation on the economic system and their role in the business cycle. While explaining economic growth is still an open question in economics, it is widely recognized that innovation plays a leading role in its promotion. However, innovative activity involves both time delays and accumulation, and both are topics that neoclassical economics do not put an emphasis upon. If one introduces these features into a growth model and allows for imbalances between the demand and supply side of the economy, fluctuations are the result. This means that by introducing these mechanisms one can argue that investing in innovation can be both a driver for long-term growth as well as a reason for mid-term fluctuations. Hence, the growth dynamics arising from innovative activities have a more complicated pattern than neoclassical growth models can usually account for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines public sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic, considering time, space, and the severity of the event, and leverages the marginal rate of substitution (MRS). Based on the context of COVID-19 transmission in a mega-city, we set up a novel theoretical model of public sentiment, showing the time-space substitution effect. Then, using the daily panel data including all the prefecture-level cities in China, empirical results show that the level of public sentiment is positively related to the severity of the event, while it is negatively related to the distance and the length of the period. To make the level of public sentiment equal, 1 km farther from the center of the event will require 0.072 to 0.130 days closer to the starting time on average. We further investigate the relationship between the level of public sentiment and time, which can be better depicted as a reversed U-shape. The original contribution of the piece arises principally around the novel application of the concept of the marginal rate of substitution drawn from neoclassical economics, providing insightful policy implications for pandemic control. • This study examines public sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic. • We set up a novel theoretical model including severity, time, and space. • We show the time-space substitution effect of public sentiment toward major events. • The level of public sentiment is negatively related to the distance and the length of the period. • Marginal rate of substitution (MRS) is calculated as 0.072 to 0.130 on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have largely debated and demonstrated the positive effect of economic liberalization on economic growth, but they have not clarified how and to which extent economic liberalization affects corporate investment, the main driver of a country's economic growth. This paper investigates the relationship between economic liberalization and corporate investment by modelling the microeconomic channels through which economic liberalization affects corporate investment. Our theoretical framework extends the standard neoclassical model of firm value maximization to incorporate the effect of economic liberalization on corporate investment via several microeconomic channels. We test the theoretical predictions of our model by using a large and heterogeneous sample of non-financial US firms for the period 2000–2019. The empirical results support our hypotheses that economic liberalization positively affects corporate investment both directly and indirectly through different channels. These effects hold, although with different intensity, for all dimensions of economic liberalization. • We investigate the relationship between economic liberalization and economic growth by modelling the microeconomics channels through which economic liberalization affects corporate investment and hence economic growth. • The theoretical predictions of the model are tested on a large and heterogeneous sample of non-financial U.S and Canadian firms over the period 2000–2019. • Empirical results suggest that economic liberalization positively affects economic growth by enhancing corporate investment via different channels or effects. • These different effects hold, although with different intensity, for many constituent components of economic liberalization/freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First English translation of Luigi Pasinetti's 'The Tableau Économique and the Modern Economy'. • Elaborates the historical contexts for the Tableau Économique and draws attention to its place within eighteenth-century debates about taxation. • Explains in non-technical terms the importance of François Quesnay's Tableau to Luigi Pasinetti's work in general and in particular his attacks on the Marginalists. In 2002, Professor Luigi L. Pasinetti gave a keynote address at the Raffaele Mattioli Foundation and Library in honour of their acquisition of a rare third edition of François Quesnay's Tableau Économique. This lecture subsequently appeared as a chapter in Italian in the conference volume edited by Giancarlo De Vivo in 2009. In honour of Luigi Pasinetti's 90th birthday, Professor Coffman has offered the first English translation of Pasinetti's essay on Quesnay, which she also introduces by reflecting on its rhetorical strategy, argumentative structure, and Pasinetti's use of Quesnay to critique mainstream neoclassical economics. She ends her introduction by drawing attention to the place of the Tableau within contemporary debates about taxation and the optimal scale and capacities of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Diversity is a gradual property for cataloging homogeneous / heterogeneous cases. • Diversity is a productive, structural component to consider for policy making. • Carbon pricing policy needs to take diversity into account ex-ante in its design. • Mathematical optimization theorems cannot prove uniform pricing is superior. • Bottom-up, specific financial incentives substitute for top-down, uniform carbon pricing. Real economies and societies are diverse. Applied economics responds to diversity by a variety in technologies, institutions, products, policies, for meeting the demands of differentiated actors. Nevertheless, neoclassical economics states that climate change can be regulated most efficiently by installing a global uniform carbon price. This position is based on many assumptions, such as full substitutability, negligible transaction costs, and boundless scale economies. However, diversity is relevant for designing well functioning carbon pricing policies. Diversity is a gradual property for cataloging homogeneous and heterogeneous cases. When categories are incompatible, substitutability is problematic, and transaction costs are high, respecting diversity is beneficial, not costly. Negating heterogeneity (strong diversity) by applying uniform approaches triggers subsequent remedial ad-hoc policies to anyhow address relevant differences. Ex-ante consideration of diversity prevents the flaws of remedial policies. By opting for diverse, case specific financial incentives, economics would well partner with other social sciences in search for realistic, effective, efficient and just climate policies. The global uniform carbon price is a theoretical concept, unlikely to ever be realized, hence escaping decisive assessment of its actual performance. We suggest a substitute indicator for UNFCCC monitoring of countries' efforts to financially incentivize climate actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Coase theorem" states that in a zero-transaction cost neoclassical world society's wealth is not affected by the allocation of liabilities rules. The "theorem" rests upon two fundamental premises: the first concerns Coase's view of mutual causation of harm, namely the reciprocity principle, and the second refers to his understanding of private property as a bundle of use rights. However, when these two premises are specifically applied in cases of trespass to land, not only portray a blur picture of private property, but they also contradict the very nature of rights over property. Specifically, I am arguing that these two premises undermine the centrality of exclusion rights to the institution of land property, hence violate the de jure basis of these rights, as well their private nature. This is turn implies that Coasean world is a world where the prevalent idea of mutual causation of harm creates idiosyncratic and partial rather than standardized de jure private property rights in land. As such, this Coasean version of the world fundamentally breaks from the neoclassical view of the capitalist world, where the security and exercise of private property rights in land is a sine qua non condition for the working of the economic system. • "Coase theorem" states that in a zero-transaction cost neoclassical wealth is not affected by the allocation of liabilities rules. • Reciprocity principle portrays a blur picture of private property in land. • Reciprocity principle contradicts the very nature of rights over land property. • Coasean version of the world fundamentally breaks from the neoclassical view of the capitalist world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of reducing income inequality and providing sustainable transport systems are part of the Sustainable Development Goals and are inter-related. On the one hand, income distribution influences transport decisions and accessibility. On the other hand, transport can be a source of redistribution by facilitating access to opportunities, and by being a target for public spending. Yet, two schools of economic thought, neoclassical economics and institutionalist political economy, expect contrasting effects of income inequality on public transport demand and supply. This research empirically explores how income inequality at the city level is linked to socioeconomic distribution of supply and satisfied demand. The article compares two highly income-unequal Latin American cities: Santiago (Chile) and Medellín (Colombia). Both quantitative descriptive analyses and qualitative semi-structured interviews are used to analyse the cases. Aligned with subjective perceptions captured in interviews, the quantitative results show that, although both cities have similar income distributions, allocation of supply and satisfied demand among income groups is different. One of the most notable achievements of Medellín is to avoid socioeconomic segregation between buses and the metro network, as it occurs in Santiago and other cities studied by the literature. Furthermore, the analysis highlights unwritten rule-systems, or informal institutions, that influence income distribution within public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Economic-Environmental Models are deeply disaggregated macro-economic systems, which are used in economic environmental studies to explain the emissions of pollutions and the extraction of resources. Concerning the economic base two approaches can be differentiated – the neoclassical and the Keynesian paradigm. Models based on the neoclassical paradigm are depicting equilibrium of perfectly competitive markets, whereas the models based on the Keynesian paradigm have been developed from a critical position vis-a-vis neoclassical theory stressing the importance of market imperfections. The paper at hand shows in its theoretical part that this fundamental difference to a large extent is responsible for differences in modeling results concerning the impact of policy instruments on the economy and the environment. Furthermore the two paradigms prefer different ways of parameterization which has consequences for the empirical validation of the models, the construction of the references and the effects of environmental policy. The paper at hand further shows that the theoretical arguments allow explaining the totally different and partly opposite results of concrete policy simulations in the POLFREE project, where the large scale economic environmental models EXIOMOD (neoclassical) and GINFORS (Keynesian) have been used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contrasts developments in the pre-history of econophysics with the history of economics. The influence of classical physics on contributions of 19th century marginalists is identified and connections to the subsequent development of neoclassical economics discussed. The pre-history of econophysics is traced to a seminal contribution in the history of statistical mechanics: the classical ergodicity hypothesis introduced by L. Boltzmann. The subsequent role of the ergodicity hypothesis in empirical testing of the deterministic theories of neoclassical economics is identified. The stochastic models used in modern economics are compared with the more stochastically complex models of statistical mechanics used in econophysics. The influence of phenomenology in econophysics is identified and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study integrates neoclassical economics and institutional theory to examine the relationship between market factor distortion, technical innovation, and China's electricity consumption, using business data from China (2008–2014). First, we provide evidence that factor market distortion promotes electricity consumption of industrial enterprises in China. Secondly, we divide technical innovation into traditional technical innovation and green innovation, finding that the level of technical innovation has an inverted U-shaped effect on the electricity consumption of industrial enterprises. Further, we also provide evidence that factor market distortion amplifies the inverted U-shaped effect of the technical innovation plot. The results show that accelerating the reform of the market, and promoting green innovation, should be regarded as important strategies for national energy saving and emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances the idea that socio-ecological inquiry could benefit more by analyzing the dynamics between states of scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency (SAS), instead of viewing them as distinct branches of inquiry. The paper identifies three weaknesses in the literature: postulating scarcity, normative opposition of SAS, and conceptual entanglement. In bridging these, the paper proposes a unified agenda for SAS studies. This agenda includes: (a) a definition of the cases (population) of SAS; (b) a causal map of the determinants of SAS; (c) an outline of key strategies individuals employ to handle SAS. This agenda relies on the language of probability to systematize SAS studies. This approach subsumes the allocation problem of neoclassical economics within a super-set of problems. Recalibrating socio-ecological inquiry to research the dynamics of scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency will not only cast new light on old problems, but also discover new problems that traditionally have been reserved for neoclassical economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural geography has remained largely trapped in a neoclassical economic paradigm in which farm types have been understood to be predominantly products of location and global markets. This paper attempts to subvert this approach by reflecting on the emerging culture of small scale ecological farming in Shanghai. Such farms have been growing in number since 2000, driven largely by the availability of land and an increasing demand for safe and healthy food. While being a rational productivist response to a market opportunity, however, these farms reflect a break with conventional farming, in terms of their size, location and new farmer identities, as well as their socio-cultural relationships with customers and local communities. Using a survey of 45 such farms, the paper illustrates how and where new forms of farming, and the alternative food networks that they support, are colonizing the city. While being redolent of the growth in urban farming in many western cities, farming in Shanghai is driven by private individuals with personal and family, as well as broader community, motives. This suggests that while Shanghai may be experiencing the growth of alternative forms of what might be understood as civic agriculture, those involved are not primarily interested in the civilizing mission ascribed to many such movements. Rather, the new farms are hybrid service businesses in which the sales and marketing skills of the new farmers have allowed them to transform individual customers into members of food networks who form mutual co-dependent trust relationships that underpin the survival of the farms. Perhaps as a result of this, and despite strong demand for organic food, these new farms face a marginal existence in which business development is constrained as much by the strength and continuity of their food networks as it is by the quality and quantity of food that they can grow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic valuation is often deemed an important source of information for land-use decisions. Stated preference (SP) methods are a particularly potent class of economic valuation methods, but they are also particularly controversial. In response to accumulating criticism of SP, deliberative monetary valuation (DMV) has been proposed as an alternative approach and has gained considerable attention in recent years. However, being a combination of elements from two theories – neoclassical welfare economics and theory of deliberative democracy – it lacks a convincing, consistent theoretical foundation. In our paper, we propose some clarifying adjustments regarding rationality assumptions and aggregation issues by drawing upon the work of Amartya Sen. We find that many of his ideas lead to a harmonisation of DMV's theoretical foundations, e.g. meta-rankings of preferences, impartial spectator and the plurality of impartial reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review the production function and the hypothesis of equilibrium in the neoclassical framework. We notify that in a soup of sectors in economy, while capital and labor resemble extensive variables, wage and rate of return on capital act as intensive variables. As a result, Baumol and Bowen’s statement of equal wages is inevitable from the thermodynamics point of view. We try to see how aggregation can be performed concerning the extensive variables in a soup of firms. We provide a toy model to perform aggregation for production and the labor income as extensive quantities in a neoclassical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic Stochastic Disequilibrium (DSDE) models share the micro-foundations of Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models based on inter-temporal optimization and rational expectations. Yet, it features the principle of effective demand which is at the core of Traditional Post-Keynesian (TPK) models and follows from the perception that the wage inflation is a policy variable rather than a labor-market clearing variable. In order to locate the DSDE model among the traditions of economic thought, the paper compares DSDE first-order conditions of optimal behavior with TPK rule-of-thumb behavior. It further compares the economic propagation of a DSDE model to those of a DSGE and TPK model as well as a Synthetic Neoclassical (SNC) model which features TPK behavioral assumptions and labor-market clearing. We arrive at two core conclusions: First, apart from assumptions regarding expectation formation, orthodox micro-foundation is, to a considerable extent, consistent with the behavioral hypotheses underlying TPK models. Second, the economy characterized by the DSDE model is essentially post-Keynesian rather than neoclassical because it features the principle of effective demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vision of a steady-state economy elaborated by Herman Daly describes an economy that uses materials and energy within the regenerative and assimilative limits of the planet's ecosystems. Sustainable scale, just distribution, and efficient allocation are its constitutive theoretical goals. This paper is a critique of the theoretical foundations of steady-state economics. It argues that steady-state economics consists in an attempt to squeeze neoclassical economics into a biophysical and ethical corset. As a result, many fundamental flaws and criticisms of neoclassical economics remain. As a consequence, steady-state economics does not lead to a radical departure from, or improvement upon, neoclassical theory but rather to fundamental internal inconsistencies between the ‘old’ economics paradigm and ‘new’ progressive ecological economic thinking. Contradictions appear at various levels ranging from ontology and methodology to theory and values. As Daly has pioneered the foundations of ecological economics with his thinking, these ambiguities are not only problematic for steady-state economics but ecological economics as a field more generally. The paper concludes that ecological economics has to let go of neoclassical foundations as they contradict its core values and ambitions. A new and consistent theory of political economy of the environment along heterodox lines is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the question how we should understand cases on property rights in general, and on land economics in particular, in which a remarkable level of growth (or other measures of institutional performance) is combined with so-called 'perverse' institutions. That is to say institutions that are not proposed by the neoliberal politics, in which the insights of mainstream economics (orthodoxy) and especially the economics of property rights and related market policies based on formal competition and corporate laws, figure prominently. This approach works out of the idea that societal objectives can be realized by following the blueprint of establishing the 'right' institutions, so the behavior of the actors in society is incentivized in the right direction and the societal objectives such as efficiency, innovation, and economic growth are realized. In this approach economic policy is about creating the right institutional form of the economy according to the "blueprint" of neo-liberal politics, which is based on mainstream economics, also known as neoclassical economics (NCE), or orthodoxy. This paper will review various theoretical positions that might substantiate or provide credence to an alternative view based on the function of institutions. • Examines how to understand cases on property rights and land • Contrasts theories on form linked to intention with function related to emergence. • Reviews how these approaches found place in economics and how they understand property rights. • Achieved with reference to, amongst others, Credibility Thesis, Original Institutional Economics and Bloomington School. • These various theories provide credence to alternative view based on institutional function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I argue that notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability can be best understood and developed within the theoretical framework advanced by the classical political economists, in which a circular conception of the economy is provided. I also argue that the development of notions such as ecosystem services and strong sustainability has been constrained by the dominance of neoclassical economics, which provides a linear conception of the economy and leads to an emphasis on weak sustainability, which in turn springs from an emphasis on substitutability and aggregate capital. When assessing the relevance of classical political economy for studying ecosystem services and strong sustainability I consider not only the contributions of the classical political economists, but also more recent contributions which draw upon the classical perspective, such as Piero Sraffa's and Amartya Sen's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of globalization, China has been widely regarded as the most successful country in the world in utilizing inward foreign direct investment (FDI) for economic development. The mainstream of the literature has produced a wide range of studies that are largely within the theoretical framework of neoclassical economics, and they tend to conclude that FDI has contributed significantly to Chinese economic development—through capital formation, export expansion, technology transfer, and the transformation of the economic structures and institutions. The objective of this paper is to assess the role of FDI in Chinese economic development with reference to the broader theoretical literature on FDI and late development, which encompasses structuralism and radical political economy along with neoclassical economics. From the perspectives of the broader literature, the analyses of the paper find that FDI in China has indeed promoted economic development in one respect (improving allocative efficiency), but has also had unfavourable effect in another respect (worsening productive efficiency), resulting in an overall impact that tends to be on the negative side. The mainstream story of China is thus judged to be partial, and the lessons to be drawn from the experience are arguably far more complex than have been hitherto perceived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between hydroelectricity consumption and economic growth in seven Latin America countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The analysis is conducted within a neoclassical model involving capital and labour force, for the period of 1970–2012. We utilize a recently developed cointegration test to investigate the long run relationship in the variables. Having established that the variables are cointegrated, the results indicate long run bidirectional causality between hydroelectricity consumption and economic growth in Argentina and Venezuela. There is evidence for long run unidirectional causality from hydroelectricity consumption to economic growth in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The long run coefficients from the regression analyses suggest that hydroelectricity consumption positively affect the economies of these Latin American countries. However, limited evidence of causality between the two variables is found in the short run. The ensuing policy implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Possible negative effects of increased competition for land include pressures on biodiversity, rising food prices and GHG emissions. However, neoclassical economists often highlight positive aspects of competition, e.g. increased efficiency and innovation. Competition for land occurs when several agents demand the same good or service produced from a limited area. It implies that when one agent acquires scarce resources from land, less resource is available for competing agents. The resource competed for is often not land but rather its function for biomass production, which may be supplanted by other inputs that raise yields. Increased competition may stimulate efficiency but negative environmental effects are likely in the absence of appropriate regulations. Competition between affluent countries with poor people in subsistence economies likely results in adverse social and development outcomes if not mitigated through effective policies. The socioecological metabolism approach is a framework to analyze land-related limits and functions in particular with respect to production and consumption of biomass and carbon sequestration. It can generate databases that consistently link land used with biomass flows which are useful in understanding interlinkages between different products and services and thereby help to analyze systemic feedbacks in the global land system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the concept of product complexity in an endogenous growth model with renewable energy and expanding product variety à la Grossman and Helpman (1991). We describe the complexity of a product as an increasing function of the variety of inputs it consists of. Considering that energy is necessary to all human activities (including research), we highlight what type of long run growth path is possible according to (a) the potential of energy efficiency gains in the various human activities and (b) the effect of the product complexity on the energy intensiveness of its production process. In a finite world, a neoclassical growth path where economic growth can be both quantitative and non-quantitative (i.e. takes the form of an increase in the quantity of produced goods and in the product variety) is only possible if the potential of energy efficiency gains is unbounded in all human activities. If the energy intensiveness of the final production is bounded from below by a strictly positive constant, quantitative growth is not possible in the long run but non-quantitative growth may persist if (i) the impact of product complexity on the energy intensiveness of production is null or weak enough and (ii) the energy intensiveness of research activities tends to zero. If these conditions are not met, no form of long run growth is possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social valuation of ecosystem services and public policy alternatives is one of the greatest challenges facing ecological economists today. Frameworks for valuing nature increasingly include shared/social values as a distinct category of values. However, the nature of shared/social values, as well as their relationship to other values, has not yet been clearly established and empirical evidence about the importance of shared/social values for valuation of ecosystem services is lacking. To help address these theoretical and empirical limitations, this paper outlines a framework of shared/social values across five dimensions: value concept, provider, intention, scale, and elicitation process. Along these dimensions we identify seven main, non-mutually exclusive types of shared values: transcendental, cultural/societal, communal, group, deliberated and other-regarding values, and value to society. Using a case study of a recent controversial policy on forest ownership in England, we conceptualise the dynamic interplay between shared/social and individual values. The way in which social value is assessed in neoclassical economics is discussed and critiqued, followed by consideration of the relation between shared/social values and Total Economic Value, and a review of deliberative and non-monetary methods for assessing shared/social values. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of shared/social values for decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International attempts have not succeeded in addressing climate change, leaving an even heavier responsibility on countries, firms and people. As tourism is an expanding branch in the world economy, it is crucial to focus on how climate change issues are addressed in this industry as well. This paper analyses a group of tourism firms in Norway that join together to promote growth and profitability in winter tourism. The span in how these firms deal with environmental issues ranges from ecotourism till not addressing the subject at all. Although the majority of the firms have environmental issues on the agenda, environmental issues are not included in the cooperation. We use critical discourse theory to explore how this stance on environmental issues within a cooperation has come about, and categorize the firms into three discourses: neoclassical economics, environmental economics and ecological economics. Our data indicate that the hegemonic power of neoclassical economics hampers an environmental focus in the network. This power is exerted through the position of being environmentally indifferent. The paper adds knowledge to economic discourses on firm level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the economists and ecologists who laid the conceptual foundations for ecological economics in the 1960s and 1970s was to create a scientifically informed discipline that could serve as the basis for coordinating economic activities in environmentally responsible ways. The aim of this article is to make a convincing case that the history of neoclassical economic theory provides a coherent basis for understanding why ecological economists must finish the journey begun by these economists and ecologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular trends in ecological economics increasingly consign neoclassical economics to the sidelines of modern-day relevancy. The neoclassical tradition is often seen as reliant for its authenticity on a presumption of human avarice - both unbridled consumerism and corporate cupidity - and demanding for its real-world applicability an assumption of continuous economic growth in a world of hard limits. This article examines the question of whether neoclassical theory could instead provide keys to deeper understanding of sustainable consumption. By combining in a single framework neoclassical growth theory, general equilibrium theory and duality theory - and by explicitly considering leisure time - the analysis demonstrates that neoclassical economics yields several useful insights bearing on long-term sustainability. The analysis confirms several tenets of ecological economics and challenges others. Eight propositions emerge from this analysis that could help speed the development of a robust neoclassical theory of sustainable consumption, here branded "golden age" propositions as they strongly echo the "Golden Rule" discoveries of Edmund Phelps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Neoclassical economic ideas are endemic to much of land-change science. [•] Land-change science conceptualizations have not kept pace with recent global economic changes. [•] Economic processes driving land change are embedded within broader social contexts. [•] Land users are differentially positioned to gain or lose from land change. [•] Global production networks can represent both teleconnections and institutional patterns. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In their attempts to challenge the view of neoclassical economics that economic value is determined by subjective preferences, heterodox economists have posited objective measures of value based on abstractions such as "socially necessary labor time" or embodied energy. Such approaches seem intuitively to be valid ways of understanding capitalist exploitation, unequal exchange, and accumulation, but are analytically flawed. As the concept of economic value assumes a monetary metric, it cannot be applied to biophysical resources such as labor time or energy, which are measured in hours or Joules. The critics of neoclassical economics have thus remained constrained by the conceptual universe of the discipline that they are criticizing. To transcend this impasse, we must recognize that the capitalist pursuit of exchange-values is propelled by the artifact of general-purpose money and that its encouragement of endlessly expanding production and economic growth conflicts with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. A coherent understanding of ecologically unequal exchange in the world-system means criticizing neoclassical economics without advocating an alternative theory of value. What are being unequally exchanged in the world-system are not "underpaid values" but material resources. Such a perspective on global inequalities implies a fundamental reconsideration of the mainstream view of technological progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental valuation literature has, to date, been governed by the single ontology/epistemology of neoclassical environmental economics and monetary valuation, which has led to a mis- or un-representation of other ways of understanding and conceptualising environmental value. Consequently, calls have been made to better represent plural values in environmental valuation studies. Additionally, the environmental valuation literature has been characterised by a prevalent focus on the assessment of total or absolute value of ecosystems. Yet, there appears to be a consensus that the examination of marginal or relative changes in value would in fact be more informative. In this study, we address these gaps in environmental valuation by presenting Environmental Value Functions (EVF), a new valuation framework that accounts for value-pluralism and develops value analysis at the margin. Our framework is based on the estimation and application of value functions, each of which describe the relationship between the value and quantity (or quality) of an ecosystem component of interest. In EVF, values are estimated in terms of change relative to the current level, instead of calculating absolute values. Recognising that some environmental values likely cannot be conceptualised in terms of marginal changes, we introduce the concept of binary/categorical value and thereby develop EVF to also account for non-marginal value conceptualisations. In sum, EVF simultaneously enables 1) the recognition of value-pluralism; 2) the integration of multiple valuation methods (monetary and non-monetary); 3) marginal and non-marginal value analysis. The coupling of EVF and ecosystem modelling can offer novel insights to the study of temporal environmental value dynamics, including the prediction and analysis of volatility, long-term trends, and temporal trade-offs. [Display omitted] • A novel valuation framework to operationalise value-pluralism is presented. • Value functions are used to estimate value changes relative to the current level. • Both monetary and non-monetary methods can be used to estimate value functions. • Our framework can integrate both marginal and non-marginal value analysis. • We introduce the concepts of binary and categorical values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Policy prescriptions for sustainable consumption have been dominated by neoclassical economics, which is built around the notions of market equilibrium, utility maximization, and exogenous preferences. There are concerns that neoclassical economics is inadequate to guide policy prescriptions in the presence of evolving preferences and complex dynamics. Evolutionary economics provides a more realistic account of individual behavior underlying economic processes. It offers a framework for studying complex socio-economic interactions and exploring their properties. As a consequence, it may offer a better approach for the analysis of policies aimed at inducing fundamental changes in behaviors, technologies and institutions in the direction of increased sustainability. However, a coherent evolutionary-economic approach to economic policies has been missing so far. In particular, policy criteria for evaluating evolutionary outcomes and processes are ambiguous. The paper discusses the implications of employing the evolutionary-economic approaches to study sustainable consumption and policy from different ethical standpoints. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recent advocacy of human rights approaches (HRA) for the governance of small-scale fisheries (SSF) in developing countries overlooks evidence that HRA facilitates a neo-liberal agenda. Further, this advocacy is seemingly uninformed by serious consideration of the extensive human rights literature. As a result, the essential relationship of human rights to neo-liberal philosophy and processes, as well as nation/state icons and institutional practices, remains hidden. Neither is it demonstrated that “development” was redefined within the neo-liberal context of the property-holding individual functioning efficiently within a market-imposed discipline, nor that this has been protected since the 1980s by having co-opted HRA. Paradoxically, the likely result of an HRA as promoted is a disruption of the very collective community cultural, economic and social values that provide the realistic ethical, moral and practical basis for implementing an effective and meaningful HRA. This essay examines and demonstrates how the HRA advances the cause of neo-liberal penetration into communities within the context of Western development practice and philosophy, its basis in neo-classical economics, and its congruence with neo-liberalism. The role of collective communal values is examined as an alternative for securing human rights. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate the irrational investor phenomenon and the disconnection of information, knowledge and practice. A growing attention is allocated for inconsistencies in neo-classical economic theory. Among the variety of debates, irrationality is the major discussion in the behavioural economics. Duru 1 [1] Duru(2012), pp. 63-65. indicated the market anomalies and the particulars of the impatient capital drawbacks in the dry cargo shipping business. This paper presents a number of theoretical and empirical evidences for the irrational exuberance phenomenon and discusses the asset bubbles from the statistical significance. The empirical work is designed to investigate the asymmetry between orders and the freight market. In the last century, dry cargo freight market indicated similar business cycles including expansion, peak, downturn and recession. Although the business cycle framework is frequently discussed and its significance is cited by many scholars, there is an existing gap between the known facts and the business practice. The possible reasons of such anomalies are investigated in the context of behavioural economics and cognitive bias. Which factors distort the rational expectations and how this phenomenon appears in the business practice of shipping business are the key discussions of this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In a programmatic article Alfred Eichner explained, from a Post Keynesian perspective, why neoclassical economics is not yet a science. This was some time ago and one would expect that Post Keynesianism, with a heightened awareness of scientific standards, has done much better than alternative approaches in the meantime. There is wide agreement that this is not the case. Explanations, though, differ widely. The present - strictly formal - inquiry identifies an elementary logical flaw. This strengthens the argument that the Post Keynesian motto 'it is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong!' is methodologically indefensible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article develops an ecological economic interpretation of the Jevons effect. Moreover, it is argued that under the neoclassical paradigm there are no elements with which to foresee the long-term existence of this phenomenon. The objective of these arguments is to demonstrate that the Jevons effect can be used to compare the ability of neoclassical and ecological economics describing the social appropriation of nature. This is elaborated in two steps. First, we show the importance of the thesis that the economy cannot be cut off from the biophysical materiality of what is produced to give consistency to the so-called Khazzoom–Brookes postulate. It is made clear that this supposition is exogenous to the neoclassical paradigm. Second, the supposition of the biophysical materiality of what is produced is utilized to make an ecological economic interpretation of the Jevons effect. Afterwards, a comparison is made between the neoclassical and the ecological economic perspectives. This comparison leads to the following conclusions: (i) the persistent presence of the Jevons effect in the long run is an anomaly in the neoclassical paradigm; (ii) the observation of the non-existence of the Jevons effect is a refutation of the supposition that economic growth and biophysical materiality are not separable, a central thesis defended by ecological economists. This situation makes possible to use the Jevons effect as a ‘laboratory test’ to compare the ability of neoclassical and ecological economic paradigms to describe the social appropriation of nature. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The recent economic meltdown worldwide has reinforced our understanding of the effects of decoupling economic growth, monetary policy, and resources. Concern for peak oil and suggestions that it may have contributed to the global economic woes as well as over concern for the banking fraud may be adding confusion over the underlying causes and sending a misleading message to the public and ultimately to policy makers. Viewing the economy as simply a circulation of money that can be manipulated to increase spending and therefore consume our way out of the current economic situation, is courting disaster by deluding the public that the solution lies in simple adjustments to the current monetary system. Similarly, emphasizing that energy is the problem and that the solution can be found with another energy source is probably counterproductive in the short run and may be disastrous in the long run. The recent nuclear accident in Japan seriously calls into question increased dependence on nuclear energy and renewable energy sources, in the majority, have low net yields and are unevenly distributed worldwide. In this paper we frame the economic system as a subsystem of the larger more encompassing geobiosphere and suggest that within this context, neoclassical economics is unlikely to provide sufficient explanation of the recent economic melt-down. From a biophysical perspective, increasing the amount or speed of money circulation as well as extracting more energy from whatever source is available will only compound the problems and relying on growth as the solution to what ails the global economy is not a desirable nor a tenable solution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper analyses six international-scale responses to the financial and climate change ‘double crisis’ in order to: review how they define problems and solutions, analyse what underpins the policy choices revealed in these responses (the ‘green turn’), reflect on the implications of the proposed solutions in terms of sustainability and global environmental justice, and to suggest three elements for a paradigm shift towards an ‘alternative’ turn embedded in ecological economics theory. The analysis reveals that responses by leading international organisations continue to appeal to the precepts of neoclassical economy. We argue that from an ecological economics perspective, policy responses under the various labels of green economy, green growth, sustainable growth, green new deal, fall well short of what is needed to fight the environmental crisis and rising inequality across and within countries. The idea of justice and equity that underpins the mainstream approach seems inadequate in terms of sustaining our environmental base and global environmental justice. Based on this critical review, we propose an ‘alternative turn’, centred on three elements of a paradigm shift leading to a new economy where the environmental base and global environmental justice are at the centre of the discourse. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: “Marshall''s problem” consists in finding a way to integrate physics and biology into economics in order to represent a complex economic world. It is widely believed that Alfred Marshall was the first to address the issue, but he failed to integrate the two methodological approaches into economics. In particular the prevailing view is that Marshall was unable to follow through on his declaration that biology is the “Mecca” of economics. This paper reconsiders “Marshall''s problem” by focusing on the intellectual connections among Darwin, Babbage and Marshall: it explores the relationship between Marshall''s view of complexity as a dialectical mixing of routine and variation and reconstructs the development of a powerful intellectual model that we call the “evolutionary machine”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Post-Keynesian economics and ecological economics have in common that they are considered to be ‘heterodox’ schools of thought. Aside from that, there has not been a strong connection between them. Previous books on post-Keynesian economics contain no chapter on environmental or ecological issues. This neglect has led leading ecological economists to criticize post-Keynesians for succumbing to the same growth paradigm as the neoclassical school. This paper argues that the two approaches are complementary in the sense that they each have different strong points. Ecological economics has correctly pointed out that the growth of the global economy may not be welfare-improving anymore, whereas post-Keynesians have gained valuable insights into the functioning of the capitalist growth process. To determine the feasibility of a synthesis between the two schools, the paper compares their approaches to the problems of production, consumption, and economic dynamics as well as the associated policy recommendations. It shows that on a theoretical level the two schools have much in common, but their policy conclusions differ with regard to the desirability of further growth. The paper concludes that a synthesis of both approaches may lead to a better understanding of how a capitalist economy operates in a natural environment with limits to growth and to better-informed policy advice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Due to methodological problems and their practical limitations, the criticism of neoclassical environmental economics is increasing. The goal of this paper is to stress the differences and similarities between the two competing alternative approaches – institutional ecological economics and free-market approaches to environmental protection – to encourage their interactions towards a possible synthesis in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Binmore and Shaked (this issue) criticize Fehr and Schmidt''s (1999) model of inequality aversion. We present a considerable body of experimental research supporting the inequality aversion motive. Binmore and Shaked also urge experimentalists to adopt “a more skeptical attitude when far-reaching claims about human behavior are extrapolated from very slender data.” It is true that experimental findings indicate that the standard neoclassical model fails to predict a considerable range of strategic behaviors widely observed in the laboratory, particularly under conditions where normative behavior is prevalent in every-day social life. This is indeed a “far-reaching claim,” but one amply justified by an impressive and constantly growing body of evidence from experiments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This study examines how increasing competitive forces from India’s trade liberalization have affected women’s relative wages and employment. Neoclassical theory implies that costly discrimination against female workers should diminish over time with increased competition. We incorporate this idea into a theoretical model of competition and industry concentration and test the model using repeated cross-sections of India’s National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) household survey data merged with trade and production data from 1983 to 2004. Estimates from ordinary least-squares (OLS) and fixed effects regressions at the industry-level indicate that increasing openness to trade is associated with larger wage gaps in India’s concentrated manufacturing industries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this paper is to motivate a microeconomic model of consumption in which there is uncertainty that is not resolved ex post regarding the moral context of price changes. We show that neoclassical microeconomic theory can yield a result in which expected utility falls when a consumer who is sufficiently concerned for the uncertain moral context of production is faced with a falling price. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The differing paradigms of ecological and neoclassical environmental economics have been described in various articles and books and are also embedded in different professional associations. However, we cannot take for granted that the paradigm debates described in the literature are actually mirrored in exactly the same way in the perceptions and opinions of researchers looking at sustainability from an economic perspective. This paper presents empirical results from a German case study on how economists and others involved in sustainability research from different schools of thought think about the issues of sustainability and economics, how they group around these issues, how they feel about the current scientific divide, and what they expect to be future topics of sustainability research. We analyze the data using cluster analysis. Based on a literature survey, we generated forty sustainability economics-related statements and asked 196 sustainability researchers about their degree of agreement or disagreement with these statements. In evaluating our survey results, we discuss to what extent the clusters that we identified do—or do not—represent the two schools of thought of ecological and neoclassical environmental economics. We also propose some fields of research that can help to bridge the gaps amongst sustainability economics researchers while clearly marking others that are more suitable for a scientific ‘competition of ideas’. Key results of the study are: We identify two primary scientific clusters, one clearly confirming the existence of the ecological-economics school of thought, and the other largely capturing the neoclassical environmental view. Yet, there are some surprising exceptions: Both schools of thought share a conceptual definition of sustainability that is integrative in considering ecological, societal and economic dimensions (‘three pillar concept’) and is geared at preserving the development potentials of society. We also find a shared critique of ‘pure economic growth’ strategies in our sample. These shared opinions may provide bridging concepts between the schools of thought. Also both clusters agree with respect to a wide range of future fields of sustainability economics research. Yet, the research agenda of the ecological-economics cluster contains a large number of additional topics, primarily related to social, distributional and evolutionary aspects of sustainable development. Strong divides between the clusters that seem to be more suitable for a scientific competition of ideas are primarily related to the question of how to achieve sustainability, including appropriate environmental policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The neo-classical economics view that behavior is driven by – and reflective of – hedonic utility is challenged by psychologists’ demonstrations of cases in which actions do not merely reveal preferences but rather create them. In this view, preferences are frequently constructed in the moment and are susceptible to fleeting situational factors; problematically, individuals are insensitive to the impact of such factors on their behavior, misattributing utility caused by these irrelevant factors to stable underlying preferences. Consequently, subsequent behavior might reflect not hedonic utility but rather this erroneously imputed utility that lingers in memory. Here we review the roles of these streams of utility in shaping preferences, and discuss how neuroimaging offers unique possibilities for disentangling their independent contributions to behavior. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Trilateral Externality Approach takes its origin from a several year integration activity of various evaluation methodologies (Energetic, Exergetic, Emergetic, Economic, etc.) and aims at giving a rigorous synthesis of such an integration process in the context of Neo-Classical Economics through the fundamental category of externality, in its extensive and intensive meaning.After having shown the different (but complementary) perspectives of elaborating a unifying concept of externality (bottom-up and top-down approaches), the paper presents a limited set of synthetic Indicators for possible strategies of investment (at a regional and national level). An example of application devoted to Hydrogen technologies will show how renewable (or “equipollent”) Sources are already widely “competitive” with respect to fossil fuel technologies, obviously if analyzed in the light of such a general evaluation approach, which involves a unique trilateral relationship between firm, citizen and state.In this context it will be thus much easier to show why the so-called “incentives” (in their several different possible forms) are nothing but a “remuneration” of positive externalities that a firm produces in favor of the collectivity, whereas the state recuperates such “incentives” because of a consequential increase in economic activities induced by those primary externalities, in a non-zero sum global process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Reports on the results of three experiments based on the neoclassical theory of consumer behavior. Controlled experiments of individual decision-making under certainty; Model of utility maximization; Application of the theory of revealed preference; Inconsistency of the individual consumer's behavior with the neoclassical model.

We present a model of the physician-patient relationship extending on the model by Farley [Farley, P.J., 1986. Theories of the price and quantity of physician services. Journal of Health Economics 5, 315-333] of supplier-induced demand (SID). First, we make a case for the way this model specifies professional ethics, physician competition, and SID itself. Second, we derive predictions from this model, and confront them with the neoclassical model. Finally, we stress the importance of considering how SID affects patient welfare in providing an example where physicians' ability to induce makes patients better off. To evaluate patient welfare, we derive approximations of the patients' welfare loss due to physician market power in both the neoclassical model and the inducement model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a speech entitled "The Methodology of Economics," by Columbia University Professor Amitai Etzioni at the 9th Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) International Conference on Socio-Economics in which he discussed neoclassical economics and socio-economics by providing background and critiques of both models.