Instrumental arguments linking inequality to sustainability often suppose a negative relationship between inequality and social cohesion, and empirical studies of inequality and social trust support the assumption. If true, then redistribution should increase levels of social cohesion and...

The National Bioenergy Investment Model is a scenario model that simulates the decisions of domestic and international investors on whether to invest in biofuel enterprises in a developing country. In the model, investors compare the profitability of different biofuel feedstock and fuel...

A central conclusion of the standard theory of consumption is that consumers' preferences can be taken as theoretical primitives. Special categories of consumption, such as "basic needs", or of goods, such as "subsistence goods" are seen as extra theoretical baggage that add few, if any,...

This paper presents a theory of induced technological change in which firms pursue a random, local, and bounded search for productivity-enhancing innovations. Firms implement profitable innovations at fixed prices, which then spread through the economy. After diffusion, all firms adjust prices...

This paper presents a theory of induced technological change in which firms pursue a random, local, and bounded search for productivity-enhancing innovations. Firms implement profitable innovations at fixed prices, which then spread through the economy. After diffusion, all firms adjust prices...

In the (very) long run, a sustainable economy must rely on renewable resources. Until that time, an economy can be based on either renewable resources alone or a mix of renewable and non-renewable resources, but the particular mix may constrain the types of economic structures that are possible....

Kaleckian models are widely used for macroeconomic analysis due to their flexibility and simplicity. Sraffians counter that the Kaleckian model fails to capture a central fact of modern economies, the existence and importance of intermediate consumption. The critique is correct, but as the...

In the face of increasingly likely dangerous climate change, many developing countries are designing green economy or low-emissions development strategies, but are simultaneously on a course of investment locking them into high-emission infrastructure. Meanwhile, many high-income countries are...

This paper provides an explication of the Method of Reflections developed by Hidalgo and Hausmann and a critique of their interpretation of the variables that it produces. They show that a quantity they identify with the average complexity of a country’s exports is correlated with log income....

Management structure affects income distribution within the firm. We construct a model in which the managerial wage bill is determined by the number of direct reports to each manager (the “span of control”) and the increase in pay between levels in the managerial hierarchy. The model...