Mis-measurement of inequality: a critical reflection and new insights

This article documents that the Gini index is an insufficient measure of inequality and, according to the traditional logic of interpretation, that it may lead to incorrect deductions. Since, apart from concentration, it cannot grasp other relevant features of inequality like heterogeneity and asymmetry—which, beyond its intensity, allow for considering the direction of inequality too—we suggest using the less known Zanardi index of asymmetry of the Lorenz curve as an appropriate measure of inequality. Our findings are supported with estimates from the Luxembourg Income Study Database.

     

Offshoring and backshoring: A multiple case study analysis

Motivations underscoring offshoring and backshoring are typically investigated as separate entities in the academic literature. This separation undermines a deeper comprehension of the two phenomena, and implicitly denies the conceptualization of backshoring as a possible step of the firm internationalization process. Our paper seeks to fill this gap by (1) understanding the relations (if any) among offshoring and backshoring motivations at firm level; (2) exploring whether backshoring is a “failure” of the offshoring initiative, or rather the evolution of the firm's competitive and location strategies. A content-based literature review provides the base for the identification of the key motives for offshoring and backshoring, which are then organised using a theory-grounded framework. Next, we conduct a multiple case study analysis based on four companies, searching for common patterns in offshoring and subsequent backshoring initiatives. Cases allow understanding how the motivations (Why) connect with the governance modes (How), and the location choice (Where). Building on the case findings, the paper presents some propositions for future empirical research.     

Dynamics of a business cycle model with two types of governmental expenditures: the role of border collision bifurcations

Decisions in Economics and Finance - We reconsider the multiplier–accelerator model of business cycles, first introduced by Samuelson and then modified by many authors. The original simple...     

Cultural change and the migration choice

Review of World Economics - Cultural differences play an important role in shaping migration patterns. The conventional proxies for cross country cultural differences, such as common language;...     

Recent advances in financial networks and agent-based model validation

We introduce the papers appearing in the special issue of this journal associated with the WEHIA 2015. The papers in issue deal with two growing fields in the in the literature inspired by the complexity-based approach to economic analysis. The first group of contributions develops network models of financial systems and show how these models can shed light on relevant issues that emerged in the aftermath of the last financial crisis. The second group of contributions deals with the issue of validation of agent-based model. Agent-based models have proven extremely useful to account for key features economic dynamics that are usually neglected by more standard models. At the same time, agent-based models have been criticized for the lack of an adequate validation against empirical data. The works in this issue propose useful techniques to validate agent-based models, thus contributing to the wider diffusion of these models in the economic discipline.     

Heterogeneity in Labour Supply Responses: Evidence from a Major Tax Reform

We use a large and rich administrative household panel data set to estimate labour supply responses for a large number of subgroups in the Netherlands. The identification of the parameters benefits from a major tax reform in the data period. We uncover large differences in behavioural responses. In particular, we find differences in labour supply responses between households with and without children that are much bigger than suggested by previous studies that had to pool these household types in the estimation of preferences. An efficient tax‐benefit system should take the substantial heterogeneity in behavioural responses into account.     

Fisher and Wicksell on money: A reconstructed conversation

Abstract

The paper offers a reconstruction of the ‘conversation’ between Irving Fisher and Knut Wicksell on money as shown by references they made to each other's works. The first phase corresponded largely to the period between 1897 and 1911, when they proposed different explanations of the interaction between interest and prices, and incorporated aspects of each other's approaches into their own respective frameworks. This was followed by Wicksell's extended criticism of Fisher's compensated dollar plan and his bewilderment at its apparent lack of relation with the quantity theory of money (1912–1919). Finally, especially after Wicksell's death, Fisher came to support a significant part of Wicksell's monetary policy proposals, particularly in connection with the Swedish stabilisation experiment in the early 1930s. Fisher and Wicksell were both heirs of Böhm-Bawerk's interest theory, but interpreted and criticised the Austrian from different perspectives, which helps to explain the differences in their approaches to monetary dynamics.