Archive

Sigrid Leitner:
Family Policy Under the CDU/CSU/SPD Coalition Government in Germany (in German)

Heterodox Political Economy Specialization and Interconnection --Concepts of Contradiction, Heterogeneous Agents, Uneven Development

Phillip A. O’Hara

This paper extends the analysis presented by Marc Lavoie in this journal about the relationship between the major schools of heterodox political economy. We argue that the evolution of heterodoxy over the past four decades has seen both specialization and interconnection. The specialization has enabled a degree of detailed analysis of concepts, such as class, demand, innovation, gender, ecology and development. Interconnections between the schools also developed from an early stage. With both forces operating, the specialization promotes clarity of perception and depth of analysis, while the association enables this perception and depth to be linked between the schools. This has led to a degree of cross-fertilisation of themes to form broad concepts. Three such broad concepts are examined that are emerging and link aspects of different schools: contradiction, heterogeneous agents, and uneven development. These broad concepts are important for comprehending the social, institutional and historical forces of political economy, and for linking themes from the various schools of heterodoxy.

JEL classifications: B5, J1, O1, P16, Z13

Keywords: schools of heterodox political economy, specialization, association, concepts, contradiction, heterogeneous agents, uneven development

Monetary Policy Under Uncertainty (in German)

Heinz-Peter Spahn

"Uncertainty" indicated a critical post Keynesian argument against neoclassical monetarism, but was taken up by the European Central Bank (ECB) in order to emphasize the importance of the money supply indicator in its »two pillar« strategy. In a state of model uncertainty on behalf of market and policy agents, the quantity of money is meant to control long-term inflation expectations. However, the instability of money demand and the intention to reject the responsibility for the cycle leads the ECB to modify the quantity theory towards a credit theory of nominal income. The ECB decides on the validity of the money-inflation nexus in a discretionary way and thus undermines the credibility of the monetary pillar. Lack of information is also offered in order to defend the ECB’s single price-stability target. Following only this target is suboptimal on welfare-theoretic grounds as the ECB indirectly accepts the non-neutrality of money.

JEL classifications: E12, E41, E58
Keywords: interest rate policy, new Keynesian model, money demand, two pillars, inflation expectation

Time and Money in the Life Course -- Empirical Evidence and Implications for Social Policy from a Gender Perspective (in German)

Ute Klammer

The article analyses the distribution of time and money from a life-course perspective, focussing on differences between women and men. Using different available data-sources, characteristic patterns of female and male life courses and their changes over time are being discussed. The article also compares the German patterns with patterns from other European countries. In the second part, social policy measures and company strategies that could contribute to a gender-sensitive life-course approach in social protection are developed and discussed.

JEL Klassifizierung: Demographic Trends and Forecasts, Economics of Gender, Non-Labor Discrimination, Fertility, Family Planning, Child Care, Children; Youth, Time Allocation and Labour Supply, Enterprise Policy,
Keywords: Social security, employment security, gender, time allocation, employment income, flexicurity, international comparison

Inequalities in Earnings and Child Rearing: What is the Gender Aspect of Poverty?

Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn

Poverty rates of women are usually not or only slightly higher than those of men. Thus the statement »poverty is female« cannot be confirmed empirically. This is at least the case if the typical poverty measures are used. Nevertheless gender inequalities and low pay of women are a main source of poverty. This is shown for the case of Germany by empirical investigations of the relationship between individual earnings and poverty based on household income, both from a cross-sectional and a longitudinal point of view. It appears that low earnings of women and reduced work during periods of child rearing are an important reason for poverty, though not only for women, but also for their husbands, even if they work, and for their children.

JEL classifications: I3, I32, J16, J13
Keywords: gender, poverty, working poor, child care, low pay, discrimination, micro-simulation