Search

"The Origins and Dynamics of Inequality: Sex, Politics, and Ideology" by Professor Wisman is a comprehensive survey of the evolution of inequality within and between human groups. The book argues that human behavior is driven by the Darwinian urge to compete for sexual partners and reproduction, which generates a struggle over inequality. It explores how inequality has existed in various forms throughout history, with elites competing for wealth and political power. The book also examines the role of ideology in sustaining inequality and proposes interventions such as income redistribution and workplace democratization to create a fairer future. [Extracted from the article]

We present an economics framework appropriate to the exceptionally broad scope of the climate change problem. This considers that economic and social processes, particularly those involved in purposive transitions of energy technologies and systems, involve the interplay between three distinct domains of decision-making and associated actors. The first concerns small-scale and often short-term decision-making, much of which reflects extensive 'satisficing' and habituation as identified in behavioural economics. Calculated economic optimization decisions, especially of companies in the energy and energy-intensive industries, then best reflect the core assumptions of neoclassical and welfare economics, including discrete market failures. Third, at the largest scale are strategic judgements made by big actors (e.g. governments, large multinational companies) relevant to transformation of complex systems over long periods—particularly concerning innovation and structural changes, for which lessons from theories of evolutionary and institutional economics are most relevant. Economically, these can be logically mapped in relation to the technology (or more accurately, 'best practice') frontier. Each has corresponding policy implications: most directly, respectively in terms of (i) standards and engagement to establish norms; (ii) competitive markets with the critical role of prices; and (iii) strategic investment in innovation and infrastructure. Each faces challenges of implementation and government failure, as observed, for example, with wholly inadequate carbon pricing to date, naïve and ineffective approaches to enhancing energy efficiency, or misdirected support to R&D. Based on the domain distinctions, we argue that the corresponding pillars of policy are naturally complementary, and can be mutually supportive: strong standards and norms on energy efficiency, for example, would enhance the political space for carbon pricing by reducing its direct consumer impacts, while carbon pricing has multiple positive two-way interactions with enhanced low-carbon innovation. From this we also posit a 'carbon pricing paradox': that adequate carbon prices, the central recommendation of most economists, are in most jurisdictions only feasible (or even optimal) if equal analytic and policy attention is devoted to the other pillars, and the wider context of macroeconomic and fiscal policies. Only these other aspects can reduce the absolute cost impact of carbon pricing (potentially turning into a gain) and offer consumers and businesses better lower-carbon alternatives, which are critical to establishing climate-compatible pricing structures across our economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We start from Robinson's article on Harrod's Dynamic Economics and her criticism that technological change was exogenous: 'in Mr. Harrod's world, technical progress falls like the gentle dew from heaven and is not susceptible to any economic influence'. Throughout her work she highlighted the endogenous sources of technological progress and growth and pre-empted both the National Systems of Innovation (NSI) literature and New Growth Theory (NGT), where the latter (NGT) appears to be neither new, nor able to explain innovation, growth and convergence trajectories. We also show that the productivity slowdown in advanced economies is explained by a fall in the wage share, a drop in the rate of accumulation of capital and prioritisation of incentives for R&D over policy instruments to diffuse innovation. While for developing economies, the failure of neoclassical economics to resolve the paradox of promoting market incentives for diffusion, while protecting intellectual property rights, implies an inevitable slowing of convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keen's "new economics" does not address these prominent novel phenomena. I turn finally to Keen's claim that a paradigm shift in economics is possible. Steve Keen has written an important book that should spark the interest of economists and others interested in pressing economic problems. [Extracted from the article]

This paper critically evaluates the liberal-humanist critique of neoclassical microeconomics and shareholder-driven corporate governance to articulate a more realistic cooperativist– humanist organisational philosophy of practice. Through an engagement with pluralist heterodox economics, it attempts to reconcile with contemporary concerns and philosophical developments around social ecology and care ethics. Our specific contribution is to develop a microfoundational complement to the macro-relational analysis of leading radical philosophical and political-economic thinkers on the Latin American left. In particular, the worker-inclusive multistakeholder cooperative (MSC) form is arrived at as the ideal firm-level organisation through which to promote diverse human (and non-human) dignity, understood through the lens of an affective-relational ethics of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing consensus that modern capitalist economies suffer from excessive rent extraction in both financial and real economy sectors. However, scholars have yet to develop a coherent analytical framework for identifying the common characteristics of modern economic rents. In particular, there has been little attention paid to distinguishing 'good' rents—key to innovation and growth—from 'bad' forms which contribute to economic stagnation and inequalities of wealth and income. This paper takes some first steps in this direction. We first review the existing rent theory most pertinent to this distinction, including classical political economy, the early twentieth century institutionalists, neoclassical perspectives and Keynes's analysis of financial rentiers. Secondly, we map and conceptualise some key stylised features of modern rents, drawing on descriptive empirical evidence. We then identify the key questions that these developments raise for rent theory, elaborating a new research and policy agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have identified a negative relation between firms' hiring rates and future stock returns in the cross-section. We document that this relation is significantly steeper in industries that rely relatively more on high-skill workers than low-skill workers. A long-short portfolio sorted on firm-level hiring rate earns an average annual return of 8.6% in high-skill industries, and only 0.9% in low-skill industries. Moreover, this pattern is not explained by the standard CAPM. These findings are consistent with a neoclassical model with labor force heterogeneity and labor market frictions if it is more costly to replace high-skill than low-skill workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For example, the ratio between the observed flow of profits and the actual capital stock is too directly identified with the "rate of profit" that is addressed in economic theory. Like most contributions by Lance Taylor and his collaborators, this research is situated at the crossroads between economic theory, economic history, applied economics and policy. Equally striking is the extent of I increase i in inequality: over the three decades ending in 2014, the top class, already receiving a disproportionate share of incomes, enjoyed an 8 percentage-point boost in it and benefited in addition from most of the capital gains. [Extracted from the article]

Albert O. Hirschman was a giant of social science in the 20th century and a courageous human being. Alacevich is unambiguous in concluding that 'In retrospect, Hirschman's intellectual project for a development economics as theoretically distinct from orthodox economics has completely failed' (258). Academic Press, London Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC 5 Rodrik, D. (2007) One economics, many recipes: What have we learned since Albert Hirschman. [Extracted from the article]

Empirical investigations have found relatively few cases of reswitching or capital reversal, but many more instances than expected of what look like Neo-Classical relationships, leading some eagerly to Affirm the Consequent, and call for restoration of the good old stories. This is unwarranted. A necessarily brief and incomplete account of recent work in the theory of money and credit shows that these seemingly neoclassical relationships may have a completely different origin and meaning. They are part of the structure and institutions, including markets, that support the circulation of money and credit, and the neoclassical appearance in particulars arises from the relation between r and g, properly adjusted. It has little or nothing to do with the flawed 'Choice of Technique' or with the stories of 'substitution' between labour and capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on capital theory is no more about the historical formation of neoclassical ideas in their original, most abstract form, but about the tools—certainly influenced by those ideas—which are used in teaching applied economics. One focus still is on the economy's aggregate production function, almost 70 years after Joan Robinson attacked this concept. It has turned out that reswitching—once the most effective argument against the production function—is rare, and that an approximate surrogate production function can be constructed, using random matrices. This seems to weaken the critique, but a new one has emerged, which shows that the number of effective techniques on the wage curve is small and that the possibilities of substitution between capital and labour are quite restricted in the relevant range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Bertram Schefold's recent papers on capital theory and the Cambridge critique argue that the very low likelihood of reswitching and reverse capital deepening that appears to emerge from empirical input–output tables is confirmed by theoretical results; these results, he concludes, largely rehabilitate traditional neoclassical views on capital and show that the Sraffian critics' insistence on reverse capital deepening as a fundamental criticism of neoclassical theory is misplaced. The present paper raises doubts about these arguments. In particular, Professor Schefold does not give adequate consideration to the 'supply-side' problems with the measurability and the given endowment of the traditional notion of capital as a single factor. On the empirical evidence based on input–output tables, I agree with Professor Kurz that it suffers from very serious weaknesses. The more recent argument for an extremely low likelihood of double switching, advanced in Schefold (2016 , 2018), appears criticisable too. Some weaknesses are also found in the recent argument jointly with Professor Götz Kersting on the 'poverty of production functions.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the substantive meaning and limitations of the concept of choice of technique, developed in the context of a test of logical consistency of the neoclassical parable concerning the relation between techniques of production and distribution of income in capitalist economies, and commonly used as a vehicle to support propositions about changes in technology. This concept is shown to rest on a foundation of logical time that is antithetical to a conception of historical time relevant to observed features of technological change. In this regard, it exposes a fundamental lacuna in the traditional neoclassical narrative and supporting theory related to the dual problems of agency and dynamics of the transition process involved in analysis of capital accumulation and technological change. There is room here for emerging alternative narratives to provide effective resolution of these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are other alternatives to conventional economics available, including the fields of ecological economics and my favorite, biophysical economics (e.g. Hall and Klitgaard [2]). Herman Daly is most widely known for an antidote to that, the concept of steady-state economics, an approach to economics that does not rely on growth to be successful. Although it is often cloaked in seemingly sophisticated and complex, impenetrable mathematics, Daly, Victor, and I find that conventional economics does not pass muster with real natural scientists. [Extracted from the article]

Neoclassical finance assumes that investors are Bayesian. In many realistic situations, Bayesian learning is challenging. Here, we consider investment opportunities that change randomly, while payoffs are observable only when invested. In a stylized version of the task, we wondered whether performance would be affected if one were to follow reinforcement learning principles instead. The answer is a definite yes. When asked to perform our task, participants overwhelmingly learned in a Bayesian way. They stopped being Bayesians, though, when not nudged into paying attention to contingency shifts. This raises an issue for financial markets: who has the incentive to nudge investors? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Already, Mazzucato has been personally influential with a number of mainly European governments, as well as the European Commission itself, in securing the adoption of "mission thinking", especially for research and innovation policy, as the potential of this approach has become apparent. The reality for Mazzucato is that there can and should be a role for the social democratic state in identifying future priorities and directions for a prosperous, innovative economy, and inclusive society, as well as in creating a coherent policy framework within which these priorities can be activated. A more accurate and instructive story according to Mazzucato is one that credits governments with the policy framework, institutional structures and incentives, and in many cases the initial public investment that historically, including in the very recent past, have catalysed new ideas and associated value creation. [Extracted from the article]

Does borrowing at 400% APR do more harm than good? The U.S. Department of Defense thinks so and successfully lobbied for a 36% APR cap on loans to servicemen. But existing evidence on how access to high-interest debt affects borrowers is inconclusive. We estimate effects of payday loan access on enlisted personnel using exogenous variation in Air Force rules assigning personnel to bases across the United States, and within-state variation in lending laws over time. Airmen job performance and retention declines with payday loan access, and severely poor readiness increases. These effects are strongest among relatively inexperienced and financially unsophisticated airmen. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This Comment is an in-depth exploration of the neoclassical commitment to the idea that economic actors are appropriately modeled as optimizers—of profit, utility, or whatever. The robustness of this commitment is a major feature of the intellectual landscape surveyed by Mazzoleni and Nelson (2013, Industrial and Corporate Change, 22, 6), and the challengers’ inability to overthrow it is clearly a key rubric for an answer to the basic Mazzoleni and Nelson question about explanations for the failures of the successive challenges to neoclassicism. The principal thesis here is that the neoclassical commitment to optimizing actors has exacted a high opportunity cost because of its distorting effect on the discipline’s priorities. The commitment encourages theorists to engage primarily in the construction and analysis of models that are viewed as parables and valued primarily on esthetic grounds, and not for the insight into reality that they provide. Thus, the contemporary esthetics of neoclassical theorizing push the economics discipline away from serious engagement with the complexity of economic reality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contemporary microeconomics has witnessed a resurgence of behavioral, institutional, and evolutionary critiques of the neoclassical mainstream that came to dominate the field during the 1980s. Today’s critiques and proposals for reform have a long tradition in economics. While synthesizing the intellectual history of these challenges, this article explores the reasons why such critical strands of microeconomics fared poorly in the past, and—in contrast—what factors may account for their partial acceptance into the mainstream in recent times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Economic categories are part of the everyday concepts people use to apprehend social reality. While scholars recognize their importance for social and economic processes, it is not clear how these categories develop when reality itself changes. I address this issue with a framework that incorporates a cultural emphasis on meaning-making with a macro-structural analysis of the conditions in which they take place. I apply this framework to the marginalist revolution of the late 19th century, which marks the birth of neoclassical economics and focus on the new understanding of 'value' that emerged during this period. I trace it to the rise of finance and the problem of price fluctuations, and show how its class standpoint helps explain the different outcomes of the marginalist revolution in England, Austria and France. The analysis provides insights into the power of economic ideas and the cultural dimension of structural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a framework, called the Risk-Reward Nexus, to study the relationship between innovation and inequality. We ask the following question: What types of economic actors (workers, taxpayers, shareholders) make contributions of effort and money to the innovation process for the sake of future, inherently uncertain, returns? Are these the same types of economic actors who are able to appropriate returns from the innovation process if and when they appear? That is, who takes the risks and who gets the rewards? We argue that it is the collective, cumulative, and uncertain characteristics of the innovation process that make this disconnect between risks and rewards possible. We conclude by sketching out key policy implications of the Risk-Reward Nexus approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As I have argued elsewhere, there is no room for the concept of need in the prevailing neoclassical school of economics—without reducing the need to a purely subjective construct. Not so, however, both in classical political economy and in the contemporary heterodox schools of economics. The main aim of this paper is, firstly, to show the existence of the concept of need as such in Carl Menger—widely acknowledged as one of the fathers of modern economics; and secondly, to trace the concept's erasure in the orthodox school along with its rediscovery in the heterodox schools. With this exposition on the history of the idea, I hope to demonstrate how taking the concept seriously would urge us to engage ontological research and would mandate a significant change in economic analysis, regardless of whether this change is considered to reside within the orthodox tradition or be deemed a departure to heterodoxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historians of economic thought are paying greater attention to issues of social ontology (i.e. to the assumptions that economists make about the nature of social reality). We contribute to this burgeoning literature by exploring the hitherto neglected way in which James Buchanan invoked ontological considerations, concerning in particular the nature of human choice, both in criticising neoclassical economics and also in setting out his own contributions to constitutional political economy. We focus on Buchanan's account of man as an artifactual being who has the capacity to choose the kind of person he wishes to become, in particular by selecting the kind of preferences he wishes to have and the kinds of rules under which he wishes to live. We discuss how Buchanan's thinking on this issue was shaped by Frank Knight and G. L. S. Shackle and explain why Buchanan explicitly described his argument as ontological in nature. Finally, we contend that Buchanan's approach would have benefited from further ontological elaboration, in two ways: first, because his arguments would have been stronger had he said more about the attributes of the human agent that help to secure their engagement in thinking creatively about themselves and the rules of society ('the constitutional moment'), and second because his account would benefit from a deeper discussion of the interplay between human agency and social structure, especially with regard to the question of which structures might constrain or facilitate creative choices of the kind by which he set such great store. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into the sources of productivity growth has taken many disparate routes, from aggregate theoretical modeling to firm-level empirical explorations. This article provides examples from the literature of evidence against the representative firm assumption. Once heterogeneity of firms and market selection is taken into account, theoretical effects of policy on aggregate productivity follow through many paths. The article gives examples of recent empirical work that uses micro-level information to assess the effects of policy on macro-level productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper revisits the conception of heterodox economics advanced by Tony Lawson in 2006 and critically assesses its reception. I consider the bearing of later contributions—most importantly, his 2013 paper 'What is this "school" called neoclassical economics'—in which Lawson further develops his analysis of heterodox economics. The goal is to provide additional clarity to the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to offer a theoretical framework for the analysis of labour demand alternative to the neoclassical one, taking as its starting point the conception of the firm that derives from the capabilities or competence-based theories of the organization. After briefly reviewing the essential elements of this approach to the firm, we tackle a range of diverse aspects, such as the link between labour demand decisions and the firm's strategic planning and its determinants, the characterisation of labour demand as a demand for productive competencies, the consequences that these competencies are embedded in human beings or the relative independence between labour demand decision-making and the process of wage-setting. In general terms, this conception of labour demand allows us to incorporate many of the main peculiarities of labour and the demand for it from a number of different areas of heterodox economics (particularly, from institutional and post-Keynesian economics) and it fits in with the conventional literature on internal labour markets and labour market segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of the firm has been dominated by a neoclassical apparatus that abstracts from most real-life features familiar to managers. Yet the economy can often be characterized by certain regularities of behavior, both over time and cross-sectionally Rejection of fully optimizing behavior as an explanation of economic activity does not single out any precise alternative as a theory of boundedly rational behavior This paper develops an evolutionary model describing the relation between endogenous technological change and economic growth along the lines of an 'artificial world' modeling philosophy. In this model firms must determine what proportion of their investment budget will be devoted to R&D as an operating routine. In contrast to the more neoclassical approaches the paper investigates this decision problem in the context of bounded rationality where agents can have only vague ideas about the relationship between their actions and outcomes. The model is constructed around three basic blocks. The first block describes how the artificial economy evolves with a given set of technologies and firms, with selection taking place at both levels. This block consists of equations for the rate of capital accumulation, the diffusion of new technologies in the total capital stock of the firms and the real wage rate. The second block describes a set of rules that is used to introduce new technologies and firms into the economy. This block takes the innovative behavior of firms as given and then describes the probability that individual firms will make an innovation as well as how this innovation is introduced. The third block describes how innovative behavior changes under the influence of the evolution of the economy and firm learning. This block describes feedback from performance to innovative behavior and thus a form of collective learning. The paper concludes that an evolutionary approach appears to offer an attractive alternative explanation of how an economy can 'bootstrap' itself in historical time through a succession of growth phases and market structures. The model also demonstrates that a bounded rationality approach to the theory of the firm, coupled with an evolutionary framework for analyzing market selection and collective behavior, does yield dividends both in terms of explaining how identifiable patterns of behavior emerge from profit-seeking rather than completely rational profit-maximizing assumptions and how market structures and growth regimes may be endogenized simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American corporate sector saw major rearm movements during the 1980s. Despite frequent admixture in practice, two key movements can be singled out as analytically distinct: financial restructuring (generally debt-financed, often involving mergers), and total quality management (a particular approach to productive restructuring). Unfortunately the precepts and practices of these movements often clashed. This paper examines these tensions and explores them by reference to economic theories of the firm associated with each movement. While financial restructuring has been interpreted through the lens of neoclassical agency theory, total quality management has strong links with alternative approaches that can be grouped under the heading 'capabilities theory'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While other developed economies have moved away from this practice, Kumakura claims, Japan continues to rely on intervention in the currency markets in order to maintain a low value for the yen. Thus, Kumakura concludes, whereas quantitative easing has ostensibly been adopted as a measure to stimulate the economy, in practice this has largely served to increase short-term political support rather than secure long-term improvements to Japan's economy (127-128). The third chapter considers Japan's monetary policy, which has lately been focused especially upon stimulating inflation through a programme of quantitative easing. [Extracted from the article]

This paper discusses the Marshallian Industrial District as it was rediscovered and further developed by Italian economists before tracing the main changes in the market and institutional context in the wake of globalization. It then focuses on some of the main transformations that have taken place in the Italian districts since the 1990s. After highlighting the important role still played by the districts in the Italian economy, the paper develops a framework for the evolutionary processes of the Marshallian Industrial District that would allow reproduction of the district in a manner suited to the era of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard postulates concerning the aggregate production function are about marginal productivities and the associated demands for labour and capital. These demands are supposed to be negatively related to the factor prices, namely the wage rate and the interest rate. The theoretical cases in which these neoclassical properties fail to hold are regarded as anomalies. We compute the aggregate values for production, capital and labour and find that the neoclassical postulates do not hold for the detailed dataset that we consider. The obvious implication of this result is that the models and analysis based on the aggregate neoclassical production functions are ill founded, as they are based on something that does not exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable discussion on so-called 'mainstream pluralism', that is, on the co-presence of a variety of research programmes in today's mainstream economics that: 1. significantly deviate from the neoclassical core; 2. are pursued by different, often separate communities of researchers; and 3. have their origins outside economics. The literature tends to regard mainstream pluralism as a transitory state towards a new, post-neoclassical, mainstream. This paper advances a new interpretation: it suggests that the changing and fragmented state of mainstream economics is likely to persist over time under the impact of specialization (as a self-reinforcing mechanism) and the creation of new specialties and approaches, also through collaboration with researchers from other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implicitly, the Socialist Calculation Debate is about the connection between neoclassical theory and reality. It involves several ontological presuppositions, with wide-ranging implications. Our purpose is to discuss one of these presuppositions. We want to scrutinise the conception, implicit in the 'market socialist' arguments, that things have economic roles or functions independently of the social environment in which they exist. Primary factors and techniques of production are taken to exist independently of social arrangements; jointly with consumer preferences, they are supposed to define the economic problem of a community. In criticising this conception, we borrow from F. A. Hayek, complementing his reflections with those of Donald Davidson, Tony Lawson and others. We also discuss a second problem, which follows directly from the first: if, in contrast with the market socialists' conception, the economic roles of things depend holistically on complex social processes, how can we compare alternative forms of economic organisation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies extensive connections between Adam Smith's and William James's accounts of the psychological basis of intellectual, material and moral progress. These connections are brought into focus through discussion of their shared circumspection towards claims to objective truth, which highlights Smith's distance from mainstream interpretations of his contributions to economics. The paper additionally argues that insight into the sustained emphases that Smith and James place upon the role of psychological satisfaction as a motivating factor in societal and personal progress can aid current efforts to draw upon their work and to reconcile the disciplines that they are widely credited with founding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on an experiment investigating whether the Hayek hypothesis (Smith, 1982) extends to the long-run setting. We consider two environments; one with a production technology having a U-shaped long-run average cost curve and a single competitive equilibrium, and another with a constant long-run average cost curve. We present alternative efficient production plans as a menu of fixed and marginal cost pairs. In both environments, we observe convergence to long-run competitive equilibrium prices and quantities typically within six long-run decision horizons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We draw on the seminal contribution to economics by Luigi Pasinetti, respond to his call to reverse what he saw as the 'original sin' of classical economists exacerbated by neoclassical economists, namely the assumption of non-increasing returns to scale, and move towards building a post-classical economics. We outline the contours of a post-classical framework that draws on key themes and contributions from Pasinetti on learning, technical progress, increasing returns, resource creation, trade and catching up, and contributions from within and without economics that are in line with, lend support to and challenge it. We advocate the pressing need and opportune timing for a concerted effort to revitalise ideas from the once vibrant 'Cambridge School' of economics and help develop a fresh, more pluralist and inclusive post-classical economics that cuts across divides and opens up opportunities for a less 'dismal science'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent paper (this journal, 2015, 34) dedicated to the reconstruction of the intellectual relations of Gramsci and Sraffa, the author basically accepted the reconstruction proposed by Garegnani that underlines the existence of a 'turning point', between Summer and Autumn 1927, in Sraffa's theoretical reflection that led him to his 1960 book. This turning point, consisting in a movement from a Marshallian interpretation of classical political economy (where Marshall's theory was considered 'not at all incompatible' with Marx) to the rediscovery of an alternative theory of value and distribution, was described as an 'endogenous' path. According to de Vivo's 'exogenous' path, instead, the draft of the Sraffa's 'first equations' (where the absence of a surplus is assumed), would demonstrate the existence of an autonomous development starting out from Marx's schemes of reproduction. In the present paper, the author provides new evidence, based on Sraffa's manuscripts, on the intermesh of post-Marshallian problems with themes deriving from the classical economists. In contrast with de Vivo's statement that Sraffa's writings belonging to the 'Marshallian phase' would not bear any connection with the work undertaken for the 1960 book, it is shown that this continuity exists, and it is meaningful. The final section of the paper is dedicated to show the ambiguity of the idea-accepted, among others, by de Vivo-that the discrimination between the surplus approach and the marginal approach concerns the opposition between 'reproducibility' and 'scarcity'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on inclusive economics of poems by Robert Frost. Topics discussed include depiction of natural resources, energy and capital in the poem "Spring Pools" by Frost views of historian Donald M. McCloskey regarding neoclassical economists, "Meme Wars: The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics" by Kalle Lasn that depicts Frost as an economist and relevance of human nature for environment and economics being depicted in his poet.

The ISLM model, introduced in 1936-37 to provide interpretations of Keynes's General Theory, subsequently emerged in its Hicks-Hansen form as the workhorse and 'trained intuition' of post-war macroeconomists. However, ISLM is an essentially orthodox model based on neoclassical foundations and fails completely as an adequate representation of central elements of Keynes's macroeconomic thought. This article proposes IYLM as a replacement for ISLM, the new model being General Theory-compatible in that it is grounded only on key propositions in that work. Its purpose is to contribute, within the constraints of a two-market framework, to the resuscitation of Keynes's macroeconomics as an alternative to the inadequacies of much current macroeconomics. The first part of the article derives the model and argues that those sympathetic to The General Theory can accept the IYLM framework whilst simultaneously rejecting ISLM. The second part shows that Hicks- Hansen ISLM is based on an income-augmented form of orthodox loanable funds theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition is taken for granted by neoclassical economics: its cause is human nature and its functioning is the result of spontaneous interactions. As such it is contrasted with power, which is an unnatural restriction on human liberty. By contrast, Marx discusses competition as a coercive mechanism. Historically, competition develops with the development of market relations and what today appears as 'human nature' is part of this process. Thus it is within competition and not outside of it that Marx explains the coercive nature of capitalism. His critique shows that competition and power appear to be antithetical because market relations are based on individual freedom. However class relations are another essential aspect of capitalism. By neglecting these relations, neoclassical economists (including those of a 'radical' inspiration) implicitly espouse the ruling class's viewpoint, which they simply translate into rigorous mathematical terms. In this sense they are the modern expression of what Marx called the 'vulgar political economy'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marx's justification of his theory of surplus value in the face of unequal compositions of capital, by interpreting total profits as a redistribution of surplus value, is not correct in general. However, it is shown here that the equality holds if the input matrices are random and the labour theory of value holds, in a sense to be specified, on average. Manuscripts recently published for the first time confirm that to the end Marx trusted his approach to the theory of value in that he continued to use the identity of the aggregates of capital and surplus in value and in price terms. His insistence was rooted in his philosophy. An attempt is made to clarify his use of a Hegelian methodology by comparing Hegel's and Marx's approaches to the foundation of the infinitesimal calculus. The article concludes with Marx's late reconsiderations of his theory of the falling rate of profit, which also continue to be based on the equality of profit and surplus value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that firms are more innovative under difficult external condition has no prominent place in evolutionary economics. The neo-Schumpeterians agree with Schumpeter that innovation is stimulated by positive driving forces and associated with industrial renewal through creative destruction. Also Darwinian economists shed light on opportunity factors (variation) and selection. On the other hand, in neoclassical Schumpeterian models, fierce competition and low product demand may enforce innovation and productivity increases in established firms. An orthodox Schumpeterian tradition even maintains that innovation in depression is the cause of the following recovery. But the orthodox Schumpeterians are as reluctant as the neoclassical Schumpeterians to elaborate the underlying psychological mechanism. In the theory of transformation pressure, firms facing an actual decline in profit are supposed to be more creative and rational, or at least more anxious to follow near-rational heuristic rules, having a positive effect as a possible over-reaction on innovation and productivity growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Famine, Irish wages caught up to those of Great Britain. Catch-up is ascribed to globalised labour markets and the effects of emigration. However current estimates of the level of Irish wages and their rate of growth are based on a small sample of the male workforce. This article presents estimates of the average wage for all wage earners and the Irish wage bill. This enables an estimate of an (implied) British average wage and wage bill. The new estimates show that although there was significant wage catch-up in a few occupations, in general catch-up was less rapid than recent studies have suggested. The origins of this catch-up are also examined. Consistent with earlier studies which emphasise modernisation of the post-Famine economy, the evidence of this article is consistent with the effects of traditional convergence forces such as TFP growth, capital accumulation and structural change operating alongside the effects of emigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I respond to Tony Lawson's 'What is this 'School' called neoclassical economics?' Lawson's paper is provocative because it reformulates neoclassical economics, based on Veblen's original intent, as a mismatch created by recognising the value of an evolutionary approach to the economy whilst remaining over-reliant on elements of a 'taxonomic' approach. For Lawson many heterodox economists may be neoclassical under this description. I argue that there is clearly a case to be heard but that the reformulation of the neoclassical raises a number of issues. There are issues concerning the specific critique of the current usage of the term 'neoclassical'--regarding genealogy and meaning. There are specific issues regarding the further development of the new (old Veblen) definition of the neoclassical: how clear is the definition in a practical context as a way to identify a 'neoclassical group', based on the commitments of the critique and the definition, what does it mean to be 'more realistic', and what is the strategic value of such a provocation for heterodoxy? I argue that the combination of these are reasons for more consideration of issues of social ontology not less insofar as the terms of the argument are incomplete, and this invites both Lawson and those he is criticising to progress the argument, particularly on method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a topic of continuing interest for demographers and sociologists of the family: which factors promote relationship stability among couples. Two competing theories have been highly debated to explain how relative earnings relate to relationship quality and stability. The neoclassical economic theory posits that specialization of home and work duties leads to stability because partners fill complementary roles. Gender scholars propose an alternative explanation, suggesting that when couples violate the traditional male-breadwinner model, they experience relationship strain and are more likely to experience a breakup. Using the new How Couples Meet and Stay Together (HCMST) data set, this paper offers a unique perspective on the debate, by comparing same-sex couples to heterosexual couples. The paper presents three sets of analyses to determine how relative earnings relate to relationship stability. The first analysis employs discrete-time event history models to assess the likelihood of breakup for both heterosexual and same-sex cohabiting couples. Next, the paper presents results predicting self-reported relationship quality among married and cohabiting couples. The final analysis focuses on non-cohabiting couples from wave I of the HCMST survey and examines the likelihood of entering cohabitation in subsequent survey waves. Results demonstrate that the economic or specialization model does not hold in same-sex relationships, suggesting that the effect of earnings equality is dependent upon gender norms in heterosexual relationships. When earnings power is disentangled from gender, as in the case of same-sex couples, equality in earnings promotes stability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We introduce the model of asset management developed in Gennaioli, Shleifer, and Vishny (“Money Doctors,” Journal of Finance, forthcoming 2015) into a Solow-style neoclassical growth model with diminishing returns to capital. Savers rely on trusted intermediaries to manage their wealth (claims on capital stock), who can charge fees above costs to trusting investors. In this model, the ratio of financial income to GDP increases with the ratio of aggregate wealth to GDP. Both rise along the convergence path to steady state growth. We examine several further implications of the model for management fees, unit costs of finance, and the consequences of shocks to trust and to the capital stock. JEL Codes: D91, E21, E44, G11. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aggregate structural macroeconomic analysis (ASMA) is frequently criticised for being ad hoc and justified (if at all) only as a pragmatic expedient. This paper argues instead that ASMA is consistent with the principles of well-established bodies of social theory. Appeal to these principles reveals that ASMA is adequate and likely even necessary for the successful prosecution of macroeconomic inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article investigates Dennis Robertson’s effort to defend the Cambridge utilitarian tradition against the ‘new welfare economics’, developed in the 1930s and 1940s on the basis of Lionel Robbins’s influential criticism of the scientific legitimacy of interpersonal comparisons of utility. It is shown that Robertson’s sustained endeavour to rescue Marshallian cardinal utility attracted some attention from economists at the time. Robertson claimed that welfare economics should be based on cardinal utility and that the ordinalist revolution in the consumer and welfare theories should be rejected. His claims were based on a careful discussion of what he saw as theoretical inconsistencies of the ordinalist approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]