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Abstract This paper presents a post-Keynesian ecological macromodel, which is stock-flow consistent, and incorporates directed technological change. Private and public R&D spending across three competing, yet complementary inputs – Labor, Capital, and Resources – follow a portfolio allocation decision, where inputs with relatively higher growth in costs, see higher R&D investment and productivity gains. Two policy experiments are reported; a market-based Resource tax increase, and a centralized green policy, where public R&D budget is shifted towards Resource-saving technologies. We highlight that in the presence of labor market institutions, which give rise to hysteresis, and limited R&D budgets, a policy of continuous Resource tax growth is needed to induce Resource-saving technological change to achieve a greener economy. This needs to be coupled with planned government spending adjustment to spur demand and boost investment. The findings also suggest that a mix of market-based and centralized policies may be optimal. [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]

• We examine the impact of social infrastructure, defined as expenditure in education, childcare, health and social care. • Higher social infrastructure expenditure increases female employment more than male employment in the short run. • Higher social expenditures raise both male and female employment in the medium run due to increasing output. • South Korean economy is gender equality-led, although the impact of gender pay gaps on growth is relatively small. • Sustainable equitable development requires a mix of both labour market and fiscal policies. This paper examines the short-run and medium-run impact of spending in social infrastructure, defined as expenditure in education, childcare, health and social care, wages and gender pay gap on output and employment of men and women for the case of South Korea. Based on a gendered post-Kaleckian feminist macroeconomic theoretical model, we estimate the macroeconomic effects of social expenditure, wages and gender pay gap using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) analysis for the period of 1970–2012. The results show that an increase in the public social infrastructure significantly increases the total non-agricultural output and employment in South Korea both in the short and medium run. Moreover, we find that higher social infrastructure expenditure increases female employment more than male employment in the short run and raises both male and female employment in the medium run due to increasing output. Finally, the results show that South Korean economy is gender equality-led in the medium run, although the effects are economically small in comparison to the strong effects of increases social infrastructure spending. The results indicate that sustainable equitable development and a substantial increase in employment requires a mix of both labour market and fiscal policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monetary analysis of some ecological economists currently appears to be mostly articulated around the following core: a stationary economy (and a fortiori a degrowth economy) is incompatible with a system in which money is created as interest-bearing debt. To question the relevance of the debt-money/positive interest rate/output growth nexus, this paper adopts a critical stance towards the currently emerging ecological monetary economics from the standpoint of another strand of heterodox economics – the post-Keynesian approach. In its current state, ecological monetary economics is at odds with post-Keynesian economics in its analysis of the money–growth relationship. This will be shown using the theory of endogenous money and a simple Cambridgian–Kaleckian model where debt-money and a positive interest rate are compatible with a full stationary economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper expands the BOP-constraint growth model and Kaldorian regimes (productivity and demand regimes) in order to include some of the concerns raised by ecological economics in post-Keynesian models for open economies. The demand regime is modified by taking into account Porter's hypothesis, which suggests that environmental innovations, spurred by environmental policies, can foster competitiveness. As a result, the equilibrium BOP-constrained rate of growth increases, leading to a different version of Thirlwall's Law, which opens room for analyzing the impact of environmental innovations on convergence between developing and developed economies. The productivity regime in turn considers the growth and employment implications of innovations in labor productivity (standard innovations) and environmental efficiency (environmental innovations). It is argued that the fiscal policy and composition of public expenditure matter for long run growth, employment and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Abstract: Many studies of privatization adopt the neo-liberal model which focuses on financial and economic distributional outcomes, and ignores social costs transferred to the state or broader society. We adopt a post-Keynesian point of view by identifying the social outcomes of privatization and the recipients of their effect in the society. We review regulation theory and discuss the effects of regulation on social and financial outcomes. Finally, we introduce a balanced regulatory model to show that privatization can become a process that achieves economic development and realizes broader social objectives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]