Journal of Economic Surveys最新文献

Despite criticism, human capital theory (HCT) has remained central for six decades to the teaching and practice of economics. This paper reformulates the critique of HCT, focusing on two aspects that are typically relegated to the margin. The first of these is the pervasive presence of the external effects of learning, which is paid lip service in formal expositions of HCT but marginalized in the bulk of empirical work and policy advice. Similarly, marginalized are the social determinants of education demand. We show that the embedding of HCT in methodological individualism makes impossible the incorporation of key, non-peripheral factors that affect the demand for, and effects of education. The resultant tensions from the use of an individualistic methodology to explain inherently social phenomena have been accommodated within HCT by ignoring them. The outcome is problematic in important fields of socioeconomic inquiry, several examples of which are noted in this paper. We conclude by advocating a new research agenda and revised program for the training of economists concerned with learning that includes behavioral economics, applications to education of the capability approach, and an expansion of empirical research on the external effects of education in historical and contemporaneous contexts.

The paper reviews and integrates the definitions, measurement techniques of climate risk, and its economic, social, and financial impacts. It systematizes the various dimensions of climate risk, including climate transition risks and physical risks, and how these risks are defined and understood in the current literature. The paper compiles the methodologies used to measure climate risks, highlighting innovative approaches such as big data analytics, machine learning, and complex network models. Additionally, it assesses the societal impacts of climate change, examining how different sectors, including agriculture, energy, transportation, and finance, are affected. By synthesizing findings from a broad range of studies, this review provides a detailed understanding of the multifaceted nature of climate risk and offers insights into effective risk management strategies. Significantly, this research serves as a crucial theoretical foundation for policymakers in formulating policies to combat climate change and for industry practitioners in devising investment strategies, thus providing practical implications that are essential for mitigating the adverse effects of climate change on society. The paper aims to be a valuable resource for those working in this area.

The dominant approach to macroeconomics has always claimed its capacity to incorporate new ideas, continuously adapting its models in order to address contemporaneous challenges. This narrative leads to present academic macroeconomics research as driven by a continuous linear progress. 2008 and its trail of crises seems to have revealed more openly that such interactions, to consider that they may have existed, may no longer operate. Focusing on recent period, we propose to challenge this narrative, investigating whether such interactions still exist today and questioning their nature. We established a set of 2299 articles composed by Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models and Macro Agent-Based Models (MABM). We investigate the structure of the social communities authoring these articles and their intellectual interactions in view of establishing their relative fragmentation or strong scientific unity. Bibliographic coupling reveals that DSGE and MABM literatures refer to two different sets of bibliographic references. We also pay attention to two communities known to be interstitial: HANKs and hybrid models. While the overall results exhibit a relative fragmentation of these communities, they do not provide evidence of collaboration between MABM and DSGE authors. Rather, results suggest a completely dissymmetric influence from DSGE on the MABM literature

Government size—the degree of participation by governments in the economy—has been considered a potential breeding ground for corruption. However, heterogeneity in reported findings— reflecting different viewpoints on the role of large governments—makes it difficult to assess the size of the effect and, consequently, the design of anti-corruption measures. To address this issue, we perform a meta-regression analysis (MRA) of the literature on government size and corruption, examining 450 empirical estimates retrieved from 44 primary papers published from 1998 to 2022. We find that the considerable heterogeneity in results depends mainly on whether or not the paper is published, if it accounts for endogeneity, and whether it uses panel or cross-sectional data. There is evidence of bias in favor of publishing studies reporting a positive effect-size estimate. However, after controlling for publication selection bias, a negative or zero mean effect remains, which overturns the conventional wisdom. Moreover, the type of measures of corruption has a significant impact on the sign of the relationship with government size. Finally, several robustness checks confirm our main results.

Impact investing has emerged as a significant global phenomenon as it provides a valuable avenue for investors to shape their cognitive decision-making ability to have a societal impact. The present study aims to review the existing literature on impact investing systematically. It tries to understand the major motivational factors that impact the investor in impact investing using the ADO framework by linking it with McClelland's Theory of Motivation, geographical areas, journal of publication, and type of research articles for impact investing, significant research gaps in impact investing, theoretical and managerial implications and future research of impact investing. PRISMA framework has been used to finalize the articles from the Scopus database. As a result, 154 articles have been identified from the year 2011 to 2024. The result identifies three motivational factors that drive the investor to invest in impact investing. It includes financial, social, and self-actualization. The study will guide the policymaker in introducing comprehensive regulatory policies in the area of impact investing. Accordingly, tax incentives and subsidies should be granted for promoting investment in impact investing. The development of proper infrastructure for trading in impact investing needs attention.

Institutional corruption can be defined as a corrupt act by a public or private agent that is justifiable legally. This arises out of the degree of discretion of the constitutional framework, missing institutions, laws, and regulations. The ability of powerful agents to influence the making and implementation of laws and regulations is the source of institutional corruption. This article develops a conceptual framework of institutional corruption and applies some of the dimensions to the issue of privatization of nonrenewable natural resources in India. We analyze three case studies in oil and gas, coal blocks, and bauxite mining. We observe that it is important for developing economies to establish independent and autonomous regulatory institutions and the Supreme Court to minimize the costs of institutional corruption. In democracies, freedom of civic bodies and the media is also a necessary condition.

Microfinance research plays a pivotal role in addressing global development challenges, yet comprehensive assessments of its alignment with sustainable development goals (SDGs) remain scarce. This study fills this gap by systematically mapping the landscape of microfinance literature to its corresponding SDG contributions. Leveraging data from Scopus and SCIval, we analyzed 1004 microfinance articles spanning between 2014 and 2023. Our findings reveal a substantial body of research focused on poverty alleviation (SDG 1) and economic empowerment (SDG 8), with notable attention to gender equality (SDG 5) and reduced inequalities (SDG 10). Key thematic clusters include the performance and impact of microfinance institutions (MFIs), microinsurance innovations, and Islamic microfinance. Notably, top-cited articles underscored the sector's commitment to poverty alleviation and economic growth, with a nuanced exploration of gender dynamics and rural household impacts. Furthermore, our BERTopic analysis unveils the multidimensional nature of microfinance research, highlighting prevalent themes such as MFI performance and rural household impact. Geographically, research efforts are concentrated in the United States, India, and France, reflecting a global commitment to SDG-aligned microfinance interventions. The paper's theoretical contributions lie in its framework development, interdisciplinary engagement, nuanced understanding of microfinance themes, global perspective, and methodological advancements, all of which enhance the scholarly discourse on microfinance's role in achieving SDGs.

We provide a comprehensive review of the literature on the drivers of long-run development and inequality, and new datasets for their study. Three distinct elements emerge in the 10 articles of this special issue that broadly characterize the field. First, development should be understood from a multidimensional perspective and when considering long-run patterns a wide array of indicators must be used, ranging from material living standards to health, education, and gender. Second, the construction of widely used development metrics has to be critically reviewed to arrive at more accurate narratives of how the world developed. Third, the drivers of development and global inequalities are best analyzed and understood from a long-term perspective. Some sweeping trends with major consequences for countries and regions alike took many years to unfold, such as the emergence of the modern state, or the implementation of large-scale education reforms. In sum, this special issue shows that global inequalities are the result of long-term persistent forces that have operated through periods of decades (and centuries), involving institutional change, demographic processes, and cultural persistence (among others). A better understanding of patterns and explanatory factors of development over the long term is key to tackle current-day challenges for development and inequality.

This paper performs a meta-analysis and a meta-regression analysis on the price semi-elasticity of wine quality ratings in the context of estimating hedonic price functions. To do so, we thoroughly search for publications that have estimated hedonic functions in this market, resulting in 223 articles estimating 1595 functions, although not all of them incorporate quality ratings. Additionally, 60 aspects of the different studies are coded, including sample characteristics, incorporated attributes, and other implemented methodological choices. The meta-analysis is then performed, revealing evidence of selection and publication biases. Taking them into account, the price elasticity is found to be around 5%–6%, remaining robust to several robustness checks. The meta-regression explores the unexplained heterogeneity in the price elasticities observed in the meta-analysis. Results indicate that quality ratings are more influential in the context of red wines, and less important in the case of sparkling and organic wines. The nature of the data source matters, but generally not the type of price used except the ones obtained from auction and en primeur sales. The influence of the remaining attributes incorporated in the hedonic function is relatively small, except for other quality aspects, reputation, and environment. The econometric techniques used in the estimation do not affect the effect size. This is also the result found for the type of publication, except for studies published in books. Finally, we find that the most cited studies are those that show a smaller effect.

This literature review describes the recent empirical literature in economics and finance focusing on how climate change-related risks affect banks, with a particular emphasis on microeconomic evidence. The comparison of empirical estimates shows that many studies project limited estimates of damages for banks. For both loan and bond spreads, most estimates of the effect of climate change are below 50 bp. In comparison, studies on stock markets document responses that are more substantial. In real estate markets, there is evidence of price effects notably for flood risks associated with sea level rise. However, some studies indicate that climate risks could be underestimated. We note challenges related to the measurement of adaptation potential, non-linear changes in hazards and responses, and the aggregation of effects across studies, markets, and bank portfolios.