Economia Politica. Rivista di teoria e analisi
Economia Politica. Rivista di teoria e analisi
Sommari degli articoli pubblicati nel n.2, 1997
Index 1997 Content of no.2, 1997
Uncertainty, Europe, and Welfare Systems: Counterpoint
by Paolo Onofri
The growing domestic and international competition increases market uncertainty, hence the demand for more support from the welfare systems. However, welfare systems are supposed to restrain efficiency and to deteriorate public budget, hence to determine obstacles to European convergence. The Italian Government Commission on Welfare Reform tried to outline a proposal to get a solution consistent with the fulfillment of the principle of social citizenship in Italy, and with the structural reduction of the budget deficit.
Articles
Evolutionary Mechanisms within the Systems of Firms Dynamics (J.E.L.: B25, D12, D23)
by Mauro Lombardi
In order to understand the evolution of the systems of firms it is important to single out the factors, causing aggregation and decomposition processes among units operating within a production cycle. The following analysis aims at defining these factors by studying information processing mechanisms moving from an atypical view: the production process as an abstract sequence of discrete units. Necessary principles to organize a sequence architecture are thus defined, above all according to the ways of determining the basic parameters in the development of production phases; indeed, two models of adaptation processes among the production phases are described: selective systems and top-down systems. The concept of evolutionary hierarchies, basic to both models, allows to define two mechanisms (specific variants, rearrangement of routines), acting within the evolutionary processes of sets of units. Finally, the analysis of the relationships between evolutionary mechanims and environmental characteristics allow to show factors (coordination requirements and coordination costs), which are essential to explain evolutionary patterns of systems of firms.
Technological Change and Catastrophic Unemployment: A Non Linear Model (J.E.L.: J24, O33, J64)
by Mario Maggioni
The interactions between the creation of specific human capital (through learning by doing activities) and the distruction (through the obsolescence of skills and know-hows) of the same quality of human capital, induced by technological and organizational change is modelled in the paper, via a dynamical non linear system of equation. If one further assume the existence of a direct relation between human capital, productivity and employment, then the model can explain some feature of the European long-term unemployment, namely: persistence and hysteresis. The paper analyses also the combined effect of different ways of human capital creation and different rates of technological and organizational change.
New Value and Surplus Value. A Critique to J. E. Roemer’s Generalized Commodity Exploitation
Theorem (J.E.L.: B24)
by Stefano Perri
According to Morishima’s Fundamental Marxian Theorem, the profit rate is positive only if workers are exploited. However, J. E. Roemer showed that the exploitation of labour is equivalent to the exploitation of any other commodity. The profit rate is positive only if the quantity of any commodity directly and indirectly required for the production of a unit of the same commodity is lower than one. Thus labour seems to play the same analytical role as any other coefficient of production. However, Roemer changes some fundamental premises and definitions of the classical and Marxian theory of surplus. In particular, in his view, there is no difference between the technical conditions of production and the social conditions of reproduction. In this framework, labour is considered a commodity produced as any other input of the production. On the contrary, the Classical economists never identified the human activity of production with the result of this activity and, in particular, with the resulting means of production. Accordingly, they distinguished between the net product that remains after the material conditions of production are reintegrated and the surplus that remains after the social conditions of reproduction are reintegrated. Thus, in Marxian terminology, the surplus value is defined as a part of the “new value” that emerges in the productive process. This article shows that there are some substantial analytical differences between the coefficients of labour embodied in goods and the coefficients of commodity embodied as defined by Roemer. These differences acquire relevance when we consider Marx’s conception of how the net product emerges and the way in which he defines “new value.
A Note on Surplus Value and Exploitation (J.E.L.: B24, B40)
by Andrea Salanti
This note is devoted to reassert the possibility of defining the Marxian notion of surplus value according to Sraffa's prices of production. Such a possibility, however, does not resolve the old controversy about the existence of exploitation in capitalistic economies. This is so simply because algebra alone cannot completely support metaphysical judgements.
Surplus Value and Exploitation After Sraffa: A Reply (J.E.L.: B24, B40)
by Duccio Cavalieri
This short paper is a reply to a note published by Prof. Andrea Salanti in
the present issue of this journal. The discussion concerns some theoretical
questions related to the analysis of surplus value. The author thinks that a
correct use of algebra, or of any other formalized language, cannot prove,
or disprove, the truthfulness of a cognitive statement. But he does not
share Salanti's feeling of an inherent inadequacy of all formal schemes to
deal in a proper way with the problems posed by the existence of causal
links in the real world. Another question discussed in the paper is the
alleged lack of significance of the concept of surplus value in a
post-Sraffian theoretical system.
Differential Supply of Labour of Foreign Workers (J.E.L.: J22, J61, F22)
by Alessandra Venturini
The paper contributes to the debate on the effects that migrants have in the labour market in country of arrival. It analyses the labour supply decision of the migrant worker comparing it with the native one. In a labour market where wage and hours of work are fixed by occupation, a differential behavior in the "effort devolved in the work" is derived by different conditions in the supply. Two cases are examined: the first where different unemployment compensations exist and the second where differences in consumption bundles - with remittances for the foreigner - increase the purchasing power of the wage. In both cases the migrant optimal effort will be higher than the native one, but through time the foreigner's effort will converge to the native one for the reduction of the initial differential condition. Two types of employers are considered: an high turnover-cost employer and a low turnover-cost one. For the second one will be more efficient to hire migrant as soon as they arrive, before the reduction of the differential in effort, and fire them later, thus explaining the higher migrant unemployment more frequent in the later phase of immigration.
Review Article
Games and Justice: The Strategic Approach to Extra-Judicial Procedures (J.E.L.: D83, K41)
by Bernardo Bortolotti
Traditionally, the economist is encharged to define
the objectives of regulation, and the legal scholar to design the more
appropriate procedures to implement it. This paper is intended to
question this view, showing that economic theory - particularly game
theory and information economics - could represent a valuable tool for
understanding how the enforcement of laws is administrated. In this
direction, the paper provides a critical survey of the achievements of
a recent field of law and economics, namely the economic analysis of
extra-judicial procedures. The findings of this literature show that
modelling civil and criminal suits as games under incomplete
information provides an interesting theory of pre-trial negotiations
and plea bargains and some normative predictions about the welfare
effects of the negotiated enforcement of laws.
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