This study examines the socio-economic and spatial dynamics of India's Chor Bazaars (thieves' markets) using a critical, interdisciplinary framework anchored in postcolonial urbanism and subaltern political theory. It finds that Chor Bazaars were structurally produced by colonial racialized zoning and remain functionally essential to the post-liberalization circular economy, facilitating the repair, reuse, and recycling of goods, including e-waste. A core finding is that the stigmatizing label 'Chor' functions as a potent tool of aesthetic governmentality, consistently weaponized in municipal policy and legal discourse to deny vendors the right to the city and justify displacement. Spatially, the markets are characterized by occupancy urbanism, where space is claimed through continuous, negotiated occupation, and governance is managed by informal panchayats. The study concludes that the Chor Bazaar ecosystem is under profound threat, which dismantles not just livelihoods but the vital, place-based social infrastructure sustaining these communities.
The article explores the conditions that made possible the engagement of FIOM Cgil in Automobili Lamborghini, Italy, in a process of innovative bargaining: i.e. a form of collective negotiation through which trade unions succeed in expanding negotiation beyond the boundaries of traditional bargaining. Through a qualitative case study, this work analyses the interplay of Lamborghini's workplace regime with industrial relations and union's sources of power to show how unions, under certain structural and organisational conditions, can engage in forward-looking, participatory forms of bargaining that reshape the nature of industrial relations in the digital age. Far from being reactive or defensive, innovative bargaining constitutes a proactive strategy, enabling labour to influence the technological and organisational future of the firm. It challenges conventional dichotomies between participation and conflict, consultation and negotiation, managerial prerogative and worker representation, pointing toward a renewed and expanded vision of collective action in the era of digital capitalism.
Despite the rapid growth of remittances in Nepal, their impact on multidimensional poverty remains uneven and insufficiently understood, particularly in the presence of structural inequalities. This study examines how remittances influence poverty incidence, depth, severity, and food and non-food deprivation using data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey IV (2022/23). Grounded in the Network Theory of Migration and the New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM), and extended through a social economics perspective, the analysis emphasizes how structural inequalities and institutional constraints shape migration and remittance outcomes. Empirically, instrumental variable (IV) estimation and propensity score matching (PSM) are employed to address endogeneity and selection bias. The results show that remittances significantly reduce multiple dimensions of poverty. However, these effects are not uniform, as migration is a selective process shaped by unequal access to resources, networks, and infrastructure. The findings highlight that remittances are socially embedded processes, requiring policies that address structural inequalities for inclusive poverty reduction.
Over the last 40 years, Latin American countries (LACs) have experienced a variety of specialisation trajectories, however sharing a common pattern of weak and unstable growth. Manufacturing has represented an interrupted opportunity of development, given the accelerated premature deindustrialisation path and the loss of productive capacity. The result has been a stable landing into a middle-income trap and economic stagnation. Accordingly, in this paper we address the relationship between sectoral productive composition, growth performance and its volatility. Integrating the UN-COMTRADE and the Penn World Table 10.1 databases between 1962 and 2017, we account for the specialisation strategies of LACs, linking aggregate output, export products, and sectoral composition. In a nutshell, we examine the extent to which revealed comparative advantages, at country or technological-class level, and the relative composition of the export baskets exert any significant role in explaining output growth and volatility. According to our findings, specialising in existing factor endowments and natural resources have brought LACs into a trap of halted catching-up.
The integration of young people into productive employment is a major challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. To meet this challenge, many countries have implemented multiple policies to help vulnerable young people enter the labor market. The objective of this work is to evaluate the impact of job search support programs on the integration of young people in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. Using primary data from 14,936 individuals from Cameroon, Congo, C & ocirc;te d'Ivoire, Senegal, and Chad, we apply a difference-in-differences propensity score matching (DID-PSM) approach. Analyses show that job search support programs have a positive impact on the integration of young people and on their income in the short and long terms. This impact is heterogeneous from one country to another and remains very remarkable on the first incomes obtained and a little weak on the real income over time. These results highlight the importance of employability support organizations in terms of training, intermediation, and entrepreneurship aimed at improving the conditions of job seekers in the labor market.
This paper examines the long-term relationship between economic growth and land inequality in Brazil. We use data aggregated at the level of minimally comparable areas and employ a growth regression approach to identify the determinants of long-term economic performance. To address potential endogeneity between economic growth and inequality, we implement an Instrumental Variable approach, using the percentage of non-whites from the 1872 Brazilian Population Census as an exogenous instrument for land inequality in 1970. Our analysis is further complemented by a spatial econometric approach. The results reveal a negative association between the land Gini index and economic growth over the period 1970-2010. From a policy perspective, these findings suggest that efforts to reduce land concentration could have a positive impact on long-term economic growth.
This paper develops a dual-chain feedback model linking automation and financialization as the twin mechanisms of welfare erosion in contemporary capitalism. Automation substitutes labour and compresses fiscal capacity by weakening wage-based revenues, while financialization transforms these surpluses into speculative accumulation detached from production. They generate growth without distribution, a moral inversion in which efficiency undermines justice. Drawing on the moral economy traditions of Smith, Mill, Polanyi, and Sen, the paper interprets welfare as a constitutive system of social provisioning under conditions of technological and financial change. It advances three normative correctives, the automation tax, the universal basic share, and the financial-automation levy, explicitly designed to intervene in the feedback mechanisms identified by the model and to re-embed efficiency within ethical purpose. Using indicative cross-national evidence from the ILO, OECD, IMF, and BIS, the analysis shows how productivity gains coexist with fiscal fragility and predistributive inequality, concluding that moral reconstruction, not technical optimization, is the essential condition for sustainable welfare.
Addressing inequalities in France's healthcare sector is essential to uphold its reputation for quality care and ensure equitable benefits for all. Studies highlight significant regional disparities, with notable inequality in healthcare opportunities across France. For this purpose, a comprehensive study examining multiple health services and the distribution of healthcare professionals across all 18 regions, including overseas territories, is required. This study addresses this gap by analysing 2021 data from the Permanent Database of Facilities, using the Theil entropy index to measure inequality in the distribution of medical and paramedical functions and healthcare services. Findings reveal substantial regional disparities, with higher inequality in healthcare professional availability in overseas territories and greater service inequality within mainland regions. Notably, inequality levels differed between the two categories, suggesting that targeted policies are necessary to address these distinct regional and service-based healthcare disparities.
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the OECD/G20 Two-Pillar Solution, guided by three research questions: (i) how do the economic effects of the framework differ across developed countries, developing economies, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS); (ii) what compliance challenges does the framework generate across these economy types; and (iii) what policy implications arise from the implementation of the framework. By uniquely contrasting the distinct challenges faced by SIDS with those of larger economies, this research fills a critical gap in the literature on global taxation reforms. Using a qualitative methodology, the findings reveal that while developed countries benefit substantially from the new tax framework, developing nations and island economies encounter significant hurdles in compliance and revenue generation, highlighting the need for tailored policy recommendations. The study offers policy-relevant insights for promoting equity in global taxation while maintaining the economic resilience of vulnerable states in an increasingly digitalised economy.
This paper is based on a plenary given at the American Social Science Association (ASSA) in 2024. It examines the relationship between the individual and the collective/society, looking at the importance of the rise of the individual during the Enlightenment in Europe. Individualism has gone too far, according to feminist and post-structuralist critiques, and the paper goes over some of these arguments. I postulate that a new collective of economics has come about and, although meant to be universal, it has taken an exclusionary turn, in that those who do not wish to focus on wealth creation or extol Eurocentric technology-based economics are, at best, given a marginal place within the field. Some examples for correction may lie in rereading the original fathers of the discipline, examining recent creative work such as behavioral economics or identity and stratification economics, and the incorporation of ethics. This may help develop and extend the field of social economics.
This paper examines the limits of Argentina's post-neoliberal project in addressing social demands after the 2001 collapse. Neoliberal reforms of the 1990s deepened inequality through labor market deregulation, privatization, and welfare retrenchment, leaving large sectors excluded from formal employment and adequate income. While Kirchnerist governments (2003-2015) sought to reverse these trends through compensatory policies, they failed to tackle the structural roots of exclusion or redefine state-market relations. Using official data, public discourses, and surveys, the paper argues that these measures mitigated inequality but lacked political legitimacy: beneficiaries perceived them as temporary, while the excluded viewed them as unfair. The expansion of income transfers without broad social consensus, combined with inconsistent economic performance, fueled discontent and paved the way for conservative backlash under Macri (2015-2019) and Milei (2023-). Rather than replacing macroeconomic explanations, this paper complements them by highlighting the disarticulation between economic models and their social and political legitimacy.
This study explores the pivotal role of undocumented immigrants in Amsterdam's informal economy, emphasizing their economic contributions despite systemic exclusion from formal institutions. Drawing on the mixed embeddedness theory and disadvantage theory, the study examines how restrictive immigration laws and limited market opportunities shape the entrepreneurial activities of undocumented individuals. These entrepreneurs often operate in marginalized sectors, such as hospitality, cleaning, and informal retail, where they navigate precarious conditions, exploitative practices, and lack of access to such formal and legal protections as social security, healthcare access, and regulatory standards. Public discourse in the Netherlands frequently portrays undocumented immigrants as a burden on society, overshadowing their significant contributions to local economies. By analyzing the interaction between institutional barriers and economic agency, this study underscores the resilience and ingenuity of undocumented entrepreneurs in sustaining livelihoods while highlighting the structural inequities that perpetuate their vulnerability. The findings aim to inform policy discussions on integrating undocumented workers into the formal economy, recognizing their vital role in urban economic ecosystems.
This paper examines women workers’ participation in the Indira Gandhi Rozgar Guarantee Yojana–Urban (IRGY), a public works program introduced in 2022 in Rajasthan as one of the recent experiments with employment guarantee schemes in urban India. The study reveals that women demonstrate significantly higher interest and participation in IRGY than men, especially those engaged in housework/ casual wage work. A central benefit of IRGY for women lies in its role in easing their entry or return to the labor market through flexible and locally available employment provided by the government. In a context where female labor force participation has historically remained low, the paper shows how access to public employment can facilitate women’s participation in the labour force, expanding the pool of working women, not just redistributing work among those already employed, making IRGY a novel intervention in urban employment policy.
This article addresses a persistent gap in Latin American research: the empirical study of the capitalist class. From a Marxist-materialist perspective centered on ownership of the means of production, we examine Chile-an early and stable 'advanced neoliberal model'-to characterize its contemporary structure. Using administrative registers, national surveys, and firm-level statistics, we operationalize the capitalist class through four differentiation criteria: economic activity, international trade, labour and economic size, and ownership complexity. Descriptive indicators and a multiple correspondence analysis reveal a dual structure. Business groups, though representing a small fraction of firms, concentrate most equity, sales, and export linkages, while micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises make up the majority and a large share of employment but remain marginal in aggregate terms, with weak access to trade and unionization. These results confirm structural heterogeneity in Chile's development model and open a comparative research agenda on the capitalist class in Latin America.
The main purpose of human development is to expand people's choices and capabilities in order to improve human welfare in an equitable, inclusive, and sustainable manner. In the Indonesian context, the implementation of fiscal decentralization has been regarded as an effective approach to promoting equity and reducing disparities across regions. This paper examines whether fiscal decentralization affects the human development index convergence across 34 Indonesian provinces (2011-2020). Using Arellano-Bond GMM on a panel of 302 observations, evidence of convergence is found. The finding shows that the degree of fiscal decentralization (in revenue base), the degree of regional financial dependence, and government spending in education and economy significantly accelerate convergence, while government spending in health is linked to a negative effect. Furthermore, poverty and unemployment as control variables hinder human development index improvements. In contrast, the degree of fiscal decentralization (in output base) is insignificant.
