Irene van Staveren

DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM v - v AND AS WHAT ELSE?

To what extent can Amartya Sens ideas on freedom, especially his conceptualization of development as freedom, enrich feminist economics? Sens notion of freedom (as the capability to achieve valued ends) has many attractions and provides important opportunities to analyze gender inequalities. At the same time, Sens recent emphasis on freedom as the dominant value in judging individual well-being and societal development also contains risks, not least for feminist analysis. We characterize the risks as an underelaboration and overextension of the concept of freedom. Drawing on Sens earlier work and various feminist theorists, we suggest instead a more emphatically pluralist characterization of capability, well-being, and value, highlighting the distinct and substantive aspects of freedom, as well as of values besides freedom, in the lives of women and men. We illustrate this with reference to womens economic role as caregivers.

Unpacking social capital in Economic Development: How social relations matter

Abstract Social capital is a contested concept, embraced by the mainstream as “the missing link” in economic analysis. This article suggests a way to turn it into a more meaningful understanding of how social relations matter in the economy. It will do so by unpacking the concept into various elements, distinguishing what social relations are from what they do, and by recognizing power in social relationships. We will illustrate our alternative approach with two case studies on the Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SME) footwear sector in Ethiopia and Vietnam. We conclude with suggestions on how this more contextual approach to the understanding of the economic influences of social relations may contribute to social economics.

Beyond Utilitarianism and Deontology: Ethics in Economics

This article starts from a methodological position that fact and value are mutually related, both in the real world and in economic analysis. It then discusses deontological ethics. This approach is concerned with equality and dignity, as expressed in right and norms, and how these rights and norms constrain individual choices. Deontology is thus different from the utility maximisation of utilitarian ethics, where ethics appears in utility functions as moral preferences. The paper then argues that, although deontology does better than utilitarianism in analysing ethics in economics, it has its own weaknesses. These weaknesses require another theory of ethics for economics, virtue ethics, which emphasises the interrelatedness of agents and commitment to shared values beyond the rules that a society has institutionalised. Virtue ethics internalises morality not as a preference or a constraint, but through the practices in which agents are related in their pursuit of value added.Abstract This article starts from a methodological position that fact and value are mutually related, both in the real world and in economic analysis. It then discusses deontological ethics. This approach is concerned with equality and dignity, as expressed in right and norms, and how these rights and norms constrain individual choices. Deontology is thus different from the utility maximisation of utilitarian ethics, where ethics appears in utility functions as moral preferences. The paper then argues that, although deontology does better than utilitarianism in analysing ethics in economics, it has its own weaknesses. These weaknesses require another theory of ethics for economics, virtue ethics, which emphasises the interrelatedness of agents and commitment to shared values beyond the rules that a society has institutionalised. Virtue ethics internalises morality not as a preference or a constraint, but through the practices in which agents are related in their pursuit of value added.

Gender Norms as Asymmetric Institutions: A Case Study of Yoruba Women in Nigeria

While a century ago, institutional economists like Thorstein Veblen recognized gender norms as important institutions in the economy, today this particular type of institution receives less attention in institutional analysis. At the same time, feminist economists have found the notion of an institution useful for the analysis of the relationships between gender and the economy. We will argue that the understanding of gender norms as institutions necessitates a distinction between institutions that have similar effects for everyone and institutions that have asymmetric effects, that is, systematically different effects on different groups. We will illustrate our argument with a case study on the livelihoods of Yoruba women in Nigeria. The case study will show how gender norms result in an asymmetric institutional setting for women and men, even when norms about women’s labor force participation, individual control over income, and partners’ contribution to the household budget are symmetric. The article will conclude that an understanding of some institutions as asymmetric will enable both institutional analysis and household analysis to include attention to power, ideology, and change more systematically.

Capabilities and Well-being

textabstractIntroduction The Capability Approach (CA) has been initiated and guided by Amartya Sen, since the 1980s, as an alternative to neoclassical welfare economics. The approach emerged gradually out of his rich critique of mainstream economics, in particular his dissatisfaction with conventional notions of rationality (e.g. in Rational Fools, Sen, 1977), efficiency (e.g. in Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal, Sen, 1970), utility (e.g. in On Ethics and Economics, Sen, 1987), and wellbeing (e.g. in Development as Freedom, Sen, 1999). Arising out of this critique, the CA can be characterized as an alternative approach to the analysis of poverty and wellbeing, one that has tried to find a middle ground between purely subjective theories of wellbeing on the one hand, such as the preference-based neoclassical paradigm, and, on the other hand, purely objective theories focusing on goods or, a bit less objective, needs. In the CA, it is people’s capabilities to function that is the central focus of wellbeing analysis, in other words, what people are able to be or do, rather than what they have in terms of income or commodities.

Handbook of economics and ethics

The Handbook of Economics and Ethics portrays an understanding of economic methodology in which facts and values, though distinct, are closely interconnected in a variety of ways. From theory building to data collection, and from modelling to policy evaluation, this encyclopaedic Handbook is at the intersection of economics and ethics.

Beyond social capital : a critical approach

Introduction Sierk Horn and Adam R. Cross 1. The Rise of the Japanese Multinational Enterprise: Then and Now Peter J. Buckley Part 1: Japanese Investment Strategies for China 2. Competition Strategies of Japanese Manufacturing Firms in China mid-1990s and 2000s Tetsuo Abo 3. Spatial Determinants and Characteristics of Japanese FDI in China John Cassidy 4. The Evolution of Japanese Investment in China: From Toys to Textiles to BPO Andrew Delios 5. Cross-Border Development of Equipment Manufacturing Industries in Asia Markus Thinnes Part 2: Competitive and Localisation Strategies of Japanese MNEs 6. Cooperation or Competition in the Electronics Industry in China - Segmentation and Concentration Strategy with regard to R&D and Human Resources Development Sung-Jo Park 7. Pre-clusterization in Emerging Markets: The Toyota Groups Entry Process in China Faith Hatani 8. The Competitive Edge and Localisation Dilemma faced by Japanese Companies in China Hiroshi Itagaki Part 3: Japanese Management Practices in China 9. Multidomestic Industries from Japan and the Transfer of Organisational Practices to Chinese Subsidiaries Jos Gamble 10. Leapfrogging the Wheel of Retail: Japanese Retailing Strategies in China Sierk Horn and Katrin Horn 11. A Comparative Study of Product Development and Marketing in China and Japan Tomoo Marukawa Part 4: Japanese MNEs and Regional Integration in East and SE Asia 12. Intermodal Logistics Developments in North-East Asia - Challenges and Directions Burkhard Horn and Sam Dzever 13. Global Operations Management of Japanese companies in the Asian Region Masahiro Miyagawa 14. The Transformation of Japan Post into a Global Player Tim Goydke

Embedding Care and Unpaid Work in Macroeconomic Modeling: A Structuralist Approach

Abstract This study embeds paid and unpaid care work in a structuralist macroeconomic model. Care work is formally modeled as a gendered input into the market production process via its impact on the current and future labor force, with altruistic motivations determining both how much support people give one another and the economic effectiveness of that support. This study uses the model to distinguish between two types of economies – a “selfish” versus an “altruistic” economy – and seeks to understand how different macroeconomic conditions and events play out in the two cases. Whether and how women and men share the financial and time costs of care condition the results of the comparison with more equal sharing of care responsibilities making the “altruistic” case more likely.

To Measure is to Know? A Comparative Analysis of Gender Indices

Abstract In this paper, I present a comparative analysis of five cross-country composite gender indices. Although there is a relatively high correlation between the indices, the overlap of underlying indicators is low. Country rankings both at the top and at the bottom have parallels but are quite distinct. The differences are explained in two ways: methodologically and theoretically. The methodological differences concern in particular weights, capping, and aggregation. The Capability Approach helps to explain the different focus of each index by distinguishing between four stages of human development, which include distinct types of indicators. The substantial differences that exist between the gender indices require a cautious selection between these for research and policy analysis. This is shown in a few examples with policy variables. Finally, I present a set of three decision trees, which enables an informed choice between the indices.In this paper, I present a comparative analysis of five cross-country composite gender indices. Although there is a relatively high correlation between the indices, the overlap of underlying indicators is low. Country rankings both at the top and at the bottom have parallels but are quite distinct. The differences are explained in two ways: methodologically and theoretically. The methodological differences concern in particular weights, capping, and aggregation. The Capability Approach helps to explain the different focus of each index by distinguishing between four stages of human development, which include distinct types of indicators. The substantial differences that exist between the gender indices require a cautious selection between these for research and policy analysis. This is shown in a few examples with policy variables. Finally, I present a set of three decision trees, which enables an informed choice between the indices.

Focus Groups: Contributing to a Gender-Aware Methodology

A focus group is an open group interview from which research hypotheses can be derived. It enables economic research to step down from its narrow theoretical assumptions and to embed research questions in a life context. It also can contribute to strong objectivity and when done in womens groups and/or on gender issues, focus groups can contribute to a feminist methodology. Experience from a focus group by the author held in Africa has indicated how diverse and enriching economic notions can become, when discussed in a group, before the research has started.