Charalampos Konstantinidis

Climate Change: The Political Economy of Kyoto Flexible Mechanisms

The Kyoto Protocol entered into force on February 16, 2005. Emissions reductions targets established by the protocol will be met by domestic policies and by three international flexible mechanisms: clean development, joint implementation, and emissions trading. Following a value-theoretic and class-based approach, the purpose of this paper is to analyze these flexible mechanisms. In particular, the paper investigates the nature and adoption of flexible mechanisms, and their class and environmental links and implications. Carbon-intensive capitalist firms and developed economies are found to be exerting great influence on the shaping and implementation of flexible mechanisms. Environmental effectiveness and justice, and equal sustainable development raised and claimed by worker-citizens, social movements, local communities, and developing countries have not been secured. Thus flexible mechanisms do not present a real challenge to current institutions and practices for sustainable climate conditions for the workers-citizen of the world. JEL classification: B5, P1, Q4

Small and Productive: Kenyan Women and Crop Choice

The question of gender differences in agricultural productivity has received particular attention in the development literature. The stylized fact that women produce less than men, while on average occupying smaller farms, presents a quandary as it is also a stylized fact that smaller farms have higher yields per unit of area. Using data from the 2006 Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey, this study examines whether there is a gap in output per acre between men and women farmers in Kenya. Using ordinary and two-stage least-squares (OLS and 2SLS) analyses, it shows that when crop choice is taken into account, women are as productive as men. Specifically, the study finds that market-oriented crops are the source of differences. This suggests that further research into what determines crop choice is needed, in addition to policy that ensures that women have the same access as men to support for market-oriented crops.

The effect of unions on the distribution of wages of hospital-employed registered nurses in the United States

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES We estimate the impact of unionisation on the wage structure of hospital-employed registered nurses in the USA. We examine whether unions have an effect on wage differences associated with race, gender, immigration status, education and experience, as well as whether there is less unexplained wage variation among unionised nurses. BACKGROUND In the past decade, there has been resurgence in union activity in the health care industry in the USA, particularly in hospitals. Numerous studies have found that unions are associated with higher wages. Unions may also affect the structure of wages paid to workers, by compressing the wage structure and reducing unexplained variation in wages. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis of pooled secondary data from the United States Current Population Survey, 2003-2006. METHOD Multivariate regression analysis of factors that predict wages, with models derived from labour economics. RESULTS There are no wage differences associated with gender, race or immigration status among unionised nurses, but there are wage penalties for black and immigrant nurses in the non-union sector. For the most part, the pay structures of the union and non-union sectors do not significantly differ. The wage penalty associated with diploma education for non-union nurses disappears among unionised nurses. Unionised nurses receive a lower return to experience, although the difference is not statistically significant. There is no evidence that unexplained variation in wages is lower among unionised nurses. CONCLUSIONS While in theory unions may rationalise wage-setting and reduce wage dispersion, we found no evidence to support this hypothesis. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The primary effect of hospital unions is to raise wages. Unionisation does not appear to have other important wage effects among hospital-employed nurses.

Appropriating Nature in Crisis-ridden Greece: The Rationale of Capitalist Restructuring, Part 1

ABSTRACT The ongoing crisis in Greece constitutes an emblematic case of repressive capitalist restructuring. In this first part of a two-paper series, we argue that public debt is used as a vehicle for furthering the neoliberal transformation of Greek society with serious implications for the appropriation of nature. We present theoretical considerations about nature in capitalism, the rationale of neoliberal capitalist restructuring, as well as the relation between nature and neoliberalism. We finally present the timeline of the Greek crisis, as well as how the three structural adjustment programs wrought a severe capitalist restructuring upon Greece.

Appropriating Nature in Crisis-ridden Greece: Deepening Neoliberal Capitalism, Part 2

ABSTRACT This is the second paper in a two-paper series in which we present how the ongoing crisis in Greece has been used to accelerate the neoliberal restructuring of Greece with serious implications for the appropriation of nature. In this paper we focus specifically on particular aspects of the austerity programs that relate to natural resources and natural conditions. We examine changes to the business environment and ongoing privatization schemes to show how the Greek austerity programs benefited private capital with significant concessions of natural resources. By discussing relevant specific cases, we concretely show how austerity programs have had far-reaching adverse consequences for the living conditions of working people and their access to natural resources.

Capitalism in Green Disguise: The Political Economy of Organic Farming in the European Union

Following the post-1992 Common Agricultural Policy, organic farming has expanded rapidly in the European Union. This growth is often considered evidence of the success of a distinctive model of small-scale family-farm agriculture. However, I show that European organic farms display features (large farm size, low labor intensity, high prevalence of mechanization, and adoption of monocultures) that are characteristic of capitalist rather than peasant farms. These features raise doubts about whether European organic farming exemplifies repeasantization. JEL Classification: B50, O13, Q18

The Neoliberal Restructuring of Agriculture and Food in Greece

While public debt has become the focal point of discussions of the Greek crisis, the Greek crisis has been used as an opportunity to extend a series of neoliberal reforms. I examine the agricultural and food sector of Greece since 1981 and I show how Greece’s integration into the European market, following Greece’s entry in the European Economic Community led to (a) the dismantling of agricultural and food production in Greece and (b) the increased power of middlemen in the Greek food system. The three structural adjustment programs that were implemented in Greece after 2010 increased the liberalization of Greek agriculture and the centralization of the food sector. These changes had adverse implications for both farmers and consumers: farmers faced liberalization and increased costs of production, while consumers saw increased food prices despite internal devaluation.

Assessing the socio-economic dimensions of the rise of organic farming in the European Union

Abstract Organic farming is considered one of the most important rural development tools in the European Union, often connected to the socio-economic objectives of small-farm support and employment generation. Using an EU-27 regional panel data-set from 2000 to 2010, I show that the share of a region’s agricultural area under organic methods is positively associated with average farm size. Furthermore, I show that the share of organic farming in a region is not associated with higher application of agricultural labor per hectare. Both results question the connection between organic farming and the aforementioned objectives, and point to the conventionalization of European organic farming.