bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Comparative Analysis of Mafriwal (Bos taurus × Bos indicus) and Kedah Kelantan (Bos indicus) Sperm Proteome Identifies Sperm Proteins Potentially Responsible for Higher Fertility in a Tropical Climate
Authors: Ashrafzadeh Ali , Nathan Sheila , Karsani Saiful
Published: July 2013

The fertility of zebu cattle (Bos indicus) is higher than that of the European purebred (Bos taurus) and crossbred (Bos taurus × Bos indicus) cattle in tropical areas. To identify proteins related to the higher thermo-tolerance and fertility of Zebu cattle, this study was undertaken to identify differences in sperm proteome between the high fertile Malaysian indigenous zebu cattle (Kedah Kelantan) and the sub-fertile crossbred cattle (Mafriwal). Frozen semen from three high performance bulls from each breed were processed to obtain live and pure sperm. Sperm proteins were then extracted, and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis performed to compare proteome profiles. Gel image analysis identified protein spots of interest which were then identified by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry quadrupole time-of-flight (LC MS/MS Q-TOF). STRING network analysis predicted interactions between at least 20 of the identified proteins. Among the identified proteins, a number of motility and energy related proteins were present in greater abundance in Kedah Kelantan. Sperm motility evaluation by Computer Assisted Semen Analysis (CASA) confirmed significantly higher motility in Kedah Kelantan. While results from this study do identify proteins that may be responsible for the higher fertility of Kedah Kelantan, functional characterization of these proteins is warranted to reinforce our understanding of their roles in sperm fertility.
Analysis of Various Subsets of Circulating Mononuclear Cells in Asymptomatic Coronary Artery Disease
Authors: Berezin Alexander , Kremzer Alexander
Published: July 2013

The objective of this study was to evaluate the correlation between multiple cardiovascular risk factors (MCRFs) and circulating mononuclear cells (CMCs) in asymptomatic coronary artery disease patients. Design and Methods: 126 subjects (54 male), aged 48 to 62 years, with asymptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD) documented previously with angiography, and 25 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. The flow cytometric technique was used for predictably distinguishing cell subsets that depend on the expression of CD14, CD34, Tie-2, CD45, and CD309 (VEGFR2). Results: The analysis of the outcome obtained shows a trend of an increase in circulating CD45−CD34+ CMCs and a reduction in CMC population defined as CD14+CD309+ and CD14+CD309+Tie2+ in known asymptomatic CAD patients in comparison with healthy volunteers. Substantial correlations between CD45−CD34+ and conventional cardiovascular risk factors (hs-CRP, T2DM, serum uric acid and hypertension) were found in the patient cohort. The concentrations of CD14+CD309+ and CD14+CD309+Tie2+ CMCs had effect on such factors as T2DM (RR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.10–1.40; p = 0.008), hs-CRP > 2.54 mg/L (RR = 1.29; 95% CI = 1.12–1.58; p = 0.006), Agatston score index (RR = 1.20; 95% CI = 1.15–1.27; p = 0.034), and occurrence of three and more cardiovascular risk factors (RR = 1.31; 95% CI = 1.12–1.49; p = 0.008). Conclusion: It is postulated that the reduction in circulating CD14+CD309+ and CD14+CD309+Tei2+ CMCs is related to a number of cardiovascular risk factors in asymptomatic patients with known CAD.
In Vitro Anticariogenic Effects of Drymocallis rupestris Extracts and Their Quality Evaluation by HPLC-DAD-MS3 Analysis
Authors: Tomczyk Michał , Pleszczyńska Małgorzata , Wiater Adrian , Granica Sebastian
Published: July 2013

In this study, for the first time, we investigated in vitro inhibitory effects of Drymocallis rupestris extracts and their subfractions obtained with solvents of different polarity (aqueous, 50% ethanolic, diethyl ether, ethyl acetate and n-butanolic) against bacterial viability and caries virulence factors of Streptococcus spp. strains. The diethyl ether subfraction (PRU2) showed bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity against mutans streptococci, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) in the range of 0.75–1.5 mg/mL and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) in the range of 1.5–3 mg/mL. Furthermore, PRU2 inhibited biofilm formation by Streptococci in a dose-dependent manner. It was also found that all five D. rupestris preparations exhibited diverse inhibitory effects on de novo synthesis of water-insoluble and water-soluble α-d-glucans by glucosyltransferases of the mutans group streptococci. The phytochemical profile of investigated samples was determined by spectrophotometric and chromatographic (HPLC-DAD-MS3) methods. The high polyphenol (total phenol, phenolic acids, tannins, proantocyanidins, and flavonoids) contents were found which correlated with anticariogenic activity of the analyzed samples. The results demonstrate that D. rupestris extracts and their subfractions could become useful supplements for pharmaceutical products as a new anticariogenic agent in a wide range of oral care products. Further studies are necessary to clarify which phytoconstituents of D. rupestris are responsible for anticaries properties.
Host Restriction of Lentiviruses and Viral Countermeasures: APOBEC3 and Vif
Authors: Jónsson Stefán , Andrésdóttir Valgerdur
Published: July 2013

It is becoming increasingly clear that organisms have developed a variety of mechanisms to fight against viral infection. The viruses have developed means of counteracting these defences in various ways. The APOBEC3 proteins are a mammalian-specific family of nucleic acid cytidine deaminases that block retroviral infection. These inhibitors are counteracted by the Vif proteins encoded by most lentiviruses. In this paper, we will review the interaction of the lentiviral Vif proteins with the APOBEC3 proteins, with an emphasis on sheep APOBEC3 and maedi-visna virus (MVV) Vif.
Food for Thought: A Critical Overview of Current Practical and Conceptual Challenges in Trace Element Analysis in Natural Waters
Authors: Filella Montserrat
Published: July 2013

The practical and conceptual challenges faced by the analysis of trace elements present in natural waters are not merely, as is often thought, an endless race towards lower detection limits or to the development of techniques allowing the determination of any possible chemical species formed by all chemical elements. Rather, as discussed in this paper, they include the development of (i) robust, cheap, and reliable methods that could also be used by laypeople (the experience gained in the development of field kits for As is discussed as an example from which similar developments for other elements may be drawn); (ii) more environmentally-friendly methods (the current guiding criteria probably being too simplistic); and (iii) methods making it possible to follow diel concentration changes and sharp concentration variations caused by the probable increase of heavy rainfall events. This paper also claims that neither the measurement of total concentrations (reliable methods are lacking for many elements of the periodic table of trace elements, as illustrated through the cases of Bi, Te, and Sb), nor chemical speciation analysis, are as mature as often thought. In particular, chemical speciation studies demand the development of a better, comprehensive conceptual framework. A trial is carried out to lay the basis of such a framework.
Coupling of C-nitro-NH-azoles with arylboronic acids. A route to N-aryl-C-nitroazoles
Authors: Kurpet Marta K , Dąbrowska Aleksandra , Jarosz Małgorzata M , Kajewska-Kania Katarzyna , Kuźnik Nikodem , Suwiński Jerzy W
Published: July 2013

A method for the synthesis of N-aryl-C-nitroazoles is presented. A coupling reaction between variously substituted arylboronic acids and 3(5)-nitro-1H-pyrazole catalyzed by copper salt has been carried out in methanol in the presence of sodium hydroxide to afford the desired N-aryl-C-nitroazoles in good yields. This synthetic route has also been successfully applied to obtain N-phenyl derivatives of 4-nitropyrazole, 2-nitroimidazole, 4(5)-nitroimidazole and 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazole.
El Abencerraje: una lección de virtud en los albores del confesionalismo filipino
Authors: Torres Corominas Eduardo
Published: July 2013

Entre 1561 y 1565, vieron la luz las tres versiones de El Abencerraje hoy conocidas —Crónica, Diana e Inventario— cuya lección moral, basada en los principios del mejor humanismo, contrastaba con el incipiente proceso de confesionalización emprendido por la Monarquía hispana en esas mismas fechas. A partir de la reconstrucción de aquellos tres contextos de escritura —y encuadrando faccionalmente a los sucesivos refundidores de la pieza: el servidor de Jiménez de Embún, Jorge de Montemayor y Antonio de Villegas— el presente trabajo trata de demostrar, desde los estudios sobre la Corte en España, cómo la primera novela morisca de nuestras letras constituyó, en tanto que discurso ideológico, un ataque frontal contra el confesionalismo filipino surgido desde la filas de la oposición política.
Crisis teatral en Madrid durante el Trienio Liberal
Authors: Fernández Cabezón Rosalía
Published: July 2013

El Ayuntamiento madrileño, en la primavera y verano de 1820, incumple sistemáticamente el Reglamento de Teatros aprobado por la Regencia en 1812, por lo cual los directores de las dos compañías cómicas, Bernardo Gil y Antonio González, efectuarán infructuosas gestiones a fin de que el Consistorio aplique las leyes constitucionales, lo que provoca una grave crisis teatral agudizada porque los espectadores prefieren acudir a otros recintos de carácter más político. Ante la falta de respuesta de las autoridades locales los directores suspenden las funciones durante unos días en el mes de agosto y publican un Manifiesto en el que justifican su postura. Para la temporada siguiente los regidores municipales elaboran una normativa que contraviene el ordenamiento teatral de la Regencia, de ahí que Bernardo Gil redacte un Proyecto de Reforma, fechado en abril de 1821, en el que además de una propuesta dramática integral defenderá con sólidos argumentos los derechos que tienen los cómicos como ciudadanos que ganan su sustento desempeñando una actividad honrada.
El De Clausura Monialium de Galarza en el Don Juan de Azorín
Authors: Mañas Núñez Manuel
Published: July 2013

Este artículo estudia la influencia de la obra De clausura monialium controversia de Pedro García de Galarza en la novela Don Juan de Azorín. Se concluye que el Obispo Don García de Illán es el Obispo Don García de Galarza y que la ciudad donde ocurre el suceso de las monjas rebeldes es Cáceres (Diócesis de Coria-Cáceres).
Los proyectos editoriales de Mario Verdaguer: la revista Mundo Ibérico y las editoriales Lux y Apolo
Authors: Sanz Roig Diana
Published: July 2013

Este trabajo se propone analizar los proyectos editoriales de Mario Verdaguer —novelista de vanguardia, crítico, traductor, pintor y ocasional escritor de poesía y teatro— que trató de mantener un no siempre fácil equilibrio entre el arte y los negocios. A la búsqueda de un beneficio económico que convertía el comercio de bienes culturales en un comercio como cualquier otro, Verdaguer se propuso conjugar la nueva literatura y la literatura comercial, como se pone de manifiesto en la voluntad integradora de la revista Mundo Ibérico, y en las apuestas literarias de las editoriales Lux y Apolo, que sacaron a la luz experimentos vanguardistas, traducciones de encumbrados escritores europeos, y, al mismo tiempo, libros de viajes o novelas para señoritas. A través de su correspondencia inédita, el presente artículo incidirá en su tarea de editor, traductor y director literario y en el papel de mediador que Verdaguer desempeñó entre la modernidad y el academicismo.
Los manuscritos machadianos de El hombre que murió en la guerra
Authors: Alarcón Sierra Rafael
Published: July 2013

El presente artículo analiza los manuscritos de la obra teatral machadiana El hombre que murió en la guerra, inéditos hasta ahora. A la vista de los mismos, estudia la génesis de la obra y describe el contenido, las partes escritas por cada autor y los diversos estadios de redacción. Finalmente, transcribe varios borradores inéditos.
Un poema devoto de Cubillo de Aragón y la peste malagueña de 1637
Authors: Marcello Elena E.
Published: July 2013

Edición del poema inédito Conversión de un pecador a los pies de un santo Cristo crucificado... de Álvaro Cubillo de Aragón, publicado en Granada en el año de 1637. En el estudio preliminar se analiza la ocasión de su composición, una epidemia de peste, que, según parece, podría identificarse con la ocurrida en la cercana ciudad de Málaga y se detallan los puntos de contacto, en cuanto a temática y recursos estilísticos, con la contemporánea poesía sacra y la literatura devota.
T Lymphocytes Sense Antigens within Seconds and Make a Decision within One Minute
Authors: Brodovitch Alexandre , Bongrand Pierre , Pierres Anne
Published: July 2013

Adaptive immune responses are triggered by the rapid and sensitive detection of MHC-bound peptides by TCRs. The kinetics of early TCR/APC contacts are incompletely known. In this study, we used total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to image human T cell membranes near model surfaces: contact was mediated by mobile protrusions of <0.4 μm diameter. The mean lifetime of contacts with a neutral surface was 8.6 s. Adhesive interactions increased mean contact time to 27.6 s. Additional presence of TCR ligands dramatically decreased contact to 13.7 s, thus evidencing TCR-mediated triggering of a pulling motion within seconds after ligand encounter. After an interaction typically involving 30–40 contacts formed during a 1-min observation period, TCR stimulation triggered a rapid and active cell spreading. Pulling events and cell spreading were mimicked by pharmacological phospholipase Cγ1 activation, and they were prevented by phospholipase Cγ1 inhibition. These results provide a quantitative basis for elucidating the earliest cell response to the detection of foreign Ags.
Bacterial CD1d–Restricted Glycolipids Induce IL-10 Production by Human Regulatory T Cells upon Cross-Talk with Invariant NKT Cells
Authors: Venken Koen , Decruy Tine , Aspeslagh Sandrine , Van Calenbergh Serge , Lambrecht Bart N. , Elewaut Dirk
Published: July 2013

Invariant NKT (iNKT) cells and CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are important immune regulatory T cells with Ag reactivity to glycolipids and peptides, respectively. However, the functional interplay between these cells in humans is poorly understood. We show that Tregs suppress iNKT cell proliferation induced by CD1d-restricted glycolipids, including bacterial-derived diacylglycerols, as well as by innate-like activation. Inhibition was related to the potency of iNKT agonists, making diacylglycerol iNKT responses very prone to suppression. Cytokine production by iNKT cells was differentially modulated by Tregs because IL-4 production was reduced more profoundly compared with IFN-γ. A compelling observation was the significant production of IL-10 by Tregs after cell contact with iNKT cells, in particular in the presence of bacterial diacylglycerols. These iNKT-primed Tregs showed increased FOXP3 expression and superior suppressive function. Suppression of iNKT cell responses, but not conventional T cell responses, was IL-10 dependent, suggesting that there is a clear difference in mechanism between the Treg-mediated inhibition of these cell types. Our data highlight a physiologically relevant interaction between human iNKT and Tregs upon pathogen-derived glycolipid recognition that has a significant impact on the design of iNKT cell–based therapeutics.
Synergistic Chemoimmunotherapy of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Using ErbB-Retargeted T Cells Combined with Carboplatin
Authors: Parente-Pereira Ana C. , Whilding Lynsey M. , Brewig Nancy , van der Stegen Sjoukje J. C. , Davies David M. , Wilkie Scott , van Schalkwyk May C. I. , Ghaem-Maghami Sadaf , Maher John
Published: July 2013

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains the most lethal gynecologic malignancy, underscoring the need for better therapies. Adoptive immunotherapy using genetically targeted T cells represents a promising new treatment for hematologic malignancies. However, solid tumors impose additional obstacles, including the lack of suitable targets for safe systemic therapy and the need to achieve effective T cell homing to sites of disease. Because EOC undergoes transcœlomic metastasis, both of these challenges may be circumvented by T cell administration to the peritoneal cavity. In this study, we describe such an immunotherapeutic approach for EOC, in which human T cells were targeted against the extended ErbB family, using a chimeric Ag receptor named T1E28z. T1E28z was coexpressed with a chimeric cytokine receptor named 4αβ (combination termed T4), enabling the selective ex vivo expansion of engineered T cells using IL-4. Unlike control T cells, T4+ T cells from healthy donors and patients with EOC were activated by and destroyed ErbB+ EOC tumor cell lines and autologous tumor cultures. In vivo antitumor activity was demonstrated in mice bearing established luciferase-expressing SKOV-3 EOC xenografts. Tumor regression was accompanied by mild toxicity, manifested by weight loss. Although efficacy was transient, therapeutic response could be prolonged by repeated T cell administration. Furthermore, prior treatment with noncytotoxic doses of carboplatin sensitized SKOV-3 tumors to T4 immunotherapy, promoting enhanced disease regression using lower doses of T4+ T cells. By combining these approaches, we demonstrate that repeated administration of carboplatin followed by T4+ T cells achieved optimum therapeutic benefit in the absence of significant toxicity, even in mice with advanced tumor burdens.
Reading and proclaiming the Birth Narratives from Luke and Matthew: A study in empirical theology amongst curates and their training incumbents employing the SIFT method
Authors: Francis Leslie J. , Smith Greg
Published: July 2013

Drawing on Jungian psychological type theory, the SIFT method of biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching suggests that the reading and proclaiming of scripture reflects the psychological type preferences of the reader and preacher. This thesis is examined amongst two samples of curates and training incumbents (N = 23, 27), serving in one Diocese of the Church of England, who completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Firstly, the narrative of the shepherds from Luke was discussed by groups organised according to scores on the perceiving process. In accordance with the theory, sensing types focused on details in the passage, but could reach no consensus on the larger picture, and intuitive types quickly identified an imaginative, integrative theme, but showed little interest in the details. Secondly, the narrative of the massacre of the infants from Matthew was discussed by groups organised according to scores on the judging process. In accordance with theory, the thinking types identified and analysed the big themes raised by the passage (political power, theodicy, obedience), whilst the feeling types placed much more emphasis on the impact that the passage may have on members of the congregation mourning the death of their child or grandchild.
Maternal Clinical Findings in Malaria in Pregnancy in a Region of Northwestern Colombia
Authors: Piñeros Juan Gabriel , Tobon-Castaño Alberto , Álvarez Gonzalo , Portilla Carmencita , Blair Silvia
Published: July 2013

In malaria-endemic regions of Latin America, little is known about malaria in pregnancy. To characterize the clinical and laboratory findings of maternal infection, we evaluated 166 cases of pregnant women infected with Plasmodium spp. in a prospective study conducted in northwestern Colombia during 2005–2006. A total of 89.8% (149 of 166) had fever or a history of fever in the past 48 hours, 9.0% (15 of 166) had severe malaria, of which 66.7% was caused by Plasmodium vivax and 33.3% by P. falciparum. Hepatic dysfunction was the main complication (9 of 15) observed. The proportion of severe cases was similar for both species (P = 0.41). In malaria-endemic areas of Colombia, malaria in pregnancy has a broad clinical spectrum. In pregnant women, P. vivax infection frequently leads to organ-specific complications.
Editorial to the Special Issue
Authors: Fontana Giuseppe , Hayes Mark (M.G.) , Perraton Jonathan
Published: July 2013

First paragraph

The contributions in this special issue on inflation targeting were presented at the Spring Seminar of the Post Keynesian Economics Study Group (PKSG) held at Balliol College, Oxford (UK) in April 2008. PKSG was founded in 1988 by Philip Arestis and Victoria Chick. The purpose of the Study Group (now formally a professional association) is to encourage collaboration among scholars and students of Post Keynesian economics, defined broadly as economics centred on the principle of effective demand. A detailed account of the history of PKSG can be found in Hayes (2008).
The Post Keynesian alternative to inflation targeting
Authors: Asensio Angel , Hayes Mark
Published: July 2013

While mainstream policies may be beyond improvement in the enchanted ›optimizable‹ world, Post Keynesians have to manage without a magic wand in our uncertain world. We discuss the alternative policies proposed in the recent Post Keynesian literature and argue that control of interest rates is too imperfect for such policies to be feasible in general, although they provide useful guidelines and may be successful in favourable circumstances. Consequently, the question of credibility is irrelevant, if this means whether policy-makers will honour their commitment to an unfeasible ideal target. The right question is whether policy is convincing enough to make the conventional state of expectation (and the related interest rate) consistent with full employment. It is all a matter of confidence. The basic principles involved in such an approach to monetary policy are discussed.
Post-Keynesian economics – how to move forward
Authors: Stockhammer Engelbert , Ramskogler Paul
Published: July 2013

Post-Keynesian Economics (PKE) is at the crossroads. Post-Keynesians (PKs) have become effectively marginalized; the academic climate at universities has become more hostile to survival and the mainstream has become more diverse internally. Moreover, a heterodox camp of diverse groups of non-mainstream economists is forming. The debate on the future of PKE has so far focussed on the relation to the mainstream. This paper argues that this is, in fact, not an important issue for the future of PKE. The debate has so far strangely overlooked the dialectics between academic hegemony and economic (and social) stability. In times of crisis the dominant economic paradigm becomes vulnerable. The important question is, whether PKE offers useful explanations of ongoing socio-economic transformations. PKE has generated valuable insights on core areas such as monetary macroeconomics and medium-term growth theory, but it offers little on important real world phenomena like the globalisation of production and social issues like precarisation and the polarization of income distribution or ecological challenges like climate change. It is these issues that will decide the future of PKE.
Tax policy and innovation: A search for common ground
Authors: Courvisanos Jerry , Laramie Anthony J. , Mair Douglas
Published: July 2013

The paper is motivated by a desire to find common ground between mainstream and post-Keynesian approaches to fiscal policy. A post-Keynesian approach with origins in Kalecki offers a promising line of enquiry which is developed here. The paper identifies the principal differences between the Keynesian and Kaleckian approaches. The possibilities are explored of finding accommodation between the mainstream and Kaleckian approaches to the taxation of greenhouse gases. The macroeconomic implications of taxing greenhouse gases are identified. However, these may be thwarted by the emergence of ›political aspects of innovation‹, akin to Kalecki’s ›political aspects of full employment‹. A Kaleckian balanced budget approach allied to fiscal incentives to innovate offers some prospect of common ground with the mainstream.
Crises and paradigms in macroeconomics
Authors: Sawyer Malcolm
Published: July 2013

Contrasts are drawn between mainstream macroeconomics (with the ›New Consensus in Macroeconomics‹ taken as the current manifestation) and heterodox macroeconomics and their abilities to comprehend the financial crises and world wide recession of 2007 – 09 for macroeconomic paradigms is discussed. Specifically, the contrasting ways in which the two schools of thought treat unemployment, human behaviour, aggregate demand and money and credit are discussed. It is concluded that the events of 2007 – 09 once again cast doubt on the abilities of mainstream macroeconomics to confront the realities of capitalist economies.
Global imbalances, monetary disorder, and shrinking policy space: Keynes's legacy for our troubled world
Authors: Carabelli Anna M. , Cedrini Mario A.
Published: July 2013

The paper aims at showing that revisiting Keynes's early writings on international economic relations and some less well-known episodes of his economic diplomacy, with special attention being paid to the methodological issues involved, may disclose useful insights in understanding the features of his desired new global order. We contrast the three main pillars of Keynes's vision as detected in this revisitation (coordinated multilateral responses to global imbalances, a rational international monetary regime, and enhanced policy space) with the major shortcomings of the current non-system, and show the continuing relevance not only of Keynes's specific proposals for global reform, but also, and most importantly, the legacy of his way of reasoning about international economic relations.
Kaldorian boom-bust cycles in the housing market
Authors: Barens Ingo , Flaschel Peter , Hartmann Florian , Röthig Andreas
Published: July 2013

We show that the Kaldor (1940) trade cycle mechanism can be meaningfully applied to the market for residential housing space, since the demand for houses may be positively related to the housing price in a mid-range price domain, while it is downward sloping for house prices sufficiently small as well as sufficiently large. Confronted with the current supply of houses this gives rise to multiple equilibria. Then the employed nonlinear house demand schedule is coupled with backward-looking house price expectations and a planar dynamics is obtained with the same range of model-consistent expectations equilibria as in the partial situation studied beforehand. The model however is not dependent on the backward oriented expectation scheme, but also applies to the case of myopic perfect foresight. The nonlinear demand function for houses in connection with changes in the housing stock initiates sudden reversals from booms into busts and vice versa, which from a mathematical point of view give locally rise to fold catastrophes at the bifurcation points, with the dynamics being described by relaxation oscillations from the global perspective.
The economics of deleveraging: The aftermath of financialization
Authors: Palley Thomas I.
Published: July 2013

This paper provides a simple model of deleveraging that surfaces the contradictions inherent in neoliberal financialization and explains the pattern of US business cycles over the past thirty years. Deleveraging involves a two step correction. The first step is when a borrowing boom ends. The second step is when agents increase saving and re-pay debt. Borrowing accelerates economic activity as consumers spend. When borrowing stops, the economy slows. Moreover, the economy is further slowed by accumulated debt burdens. With deleveraging, households increase saving and re-pay debt which deepens the economic slowdown. Repayment reduces debt, helping economic activity eventually to recover.
Flattening of the Phillips Curve: Estimations and consequences for economic policy
Authors: Kromphardt Jürgen , Logeay Camille
Published: July 2013

We test the hypothesis that the long-term Phillips curve is downward sloping and has become flatter in the last 10 to 15 years. Controlling for the most important other factors influencing the inflation rate, we estimate cointegrations and test whether a »break« in the Phillips curve can be detected. We restrict our study to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA. The results vary considerably between the countries, but all exhibit a downward sloping long-run Phillips curve and show the presumed »break«. First we explain the results by changes in the wage or price setting circumstance. Then we critically discuss explanations based on the time-varying NAIRU and put against them explanations based on aggregate demand and hysteresis. In the conclusion, some consequences for economic policy are indicated.
A view on post-Keynesian interest rate policy
Authors: Argitis Giorgos
Published: July 2013

The dominant role of the »new consensus models« in central banks' policy-making in the last two decades has triggered the reaction of post-Keynesian economists to examine alternatives to inflation-targeting monetary strategies and to Taylor-type interest rate rules. This paper develops a simple macroeconomic model in order to pinpoint the distributional/demand effects of rentiers' interest income in a money/debt-using and demand determined economy. The ultimate objective of this model is to provide a starting point for the development of a post-Keynesian approach to interest rate policy that differs from the »activist« and the »parking-it« approaches.
Post-Keynesian theory, direct action and political involvement
Authors: Harcourt G.C.
Published: July 2013

In this paper I analyse how I became an economist and at the same time a democratic socialist and a Christian. I also explain how I became politically involved after my graduate studies at Cambridge in the late 1950s and started lecturing at Adelaide. When back in Cambridge in the 1960s, teaching this time, the war in Vietnam persuaded me to support direct action through the anti-war movement in South Australia when I returned to Adelaide in 1967. The 1960s and the events of the time did influence my approach to teaching and research. More concretely, I was persuaded that ideology and analysis were indissolubly mixed and that one's stance should always be made explicit. How these influenced what I did in my years in Adelaide, and then from 1982 back in Cambridge, along with my earlier experiences, are all described in the paper.
Editorial to the Special Issue
Authors: Asensio Angel , Lang Dany
Published: July 2013

First paragraph

The last few years have been characterized by a significant renewal and development of post-Keynesian modelling (PKM hereafter). For obvious reasons, this growing interest has been reinforced since the 2007 crisis, a tragic event that has confirmed the relevance of PKM. The papers gathered in this issue are amongst the most stimulating ones that were presented at a conference dedicated to this issue, organised by the Center of Economics of Paris North (CEPN), University of Paris 13, on November 20–21, 2009.
Output, stock markets and macro-policy measures in a Keynesian portfolio model
Authors: Asada Toichiro , Charpe Matthieu , Flaschel Peter , Malikane Christopher , Mouakil Tarik , Proaño Christian R.
Published: July 2013

We present a simple macrodynamic model of the real-financial markets inter action with a dynamic multiplier representing the goods market and a structured portfolio choice between money holdings and equities. This is contrasted with Blanchard's (1981) alternative approach, where interest-bearing bonds and equities are perfect substitutes and are subject to myopic perfect foresight, with the result that the usual saddle-point dynamics is established, and where therefore the jump-variable technique of the rational expectations approach is needed in order to tame the explosive nature of the model by assumption. We consider this latter representation a very virtual one in contrast to our descriptive treatment of the interaction of the real with the financial markets. Our implied dynamical system has three dimensions: output, share prices and capital gains expectations. We show that this model exhibits a financial accelerator mechanism that endangers the stability of its stationary solution, at least when it becomes sufficiently strong. Furthermore, we show that this type of instability can definitely be overcome if actual capital gains are taxed to a sufficient degree. This tax policy is therefore effective as compared to an interest rate policy of Taylor type, showing that monetary policy may not impact the markets for risky financial assets, unless it is interpreted as state of confidence for the current situation of the economy and may therefore be fairly overrated in the current macrodynamic literature. By contrast, all policy measures that stabilise the profit rate of the economy may add to the stability implications of the assumed Asada et al. (2010) type tax on capital gains.
Confidence and financial crisis in a post-Keynesian stock flow consistent model
Authors: Le Heron Edwin
Published: July 2013

The paper aims at showing that one of the main channels by which the US 2007 financial crisis became a real and global economic crisis is the ›confidence channel‹, i.e. that the financial crisis affected firms, banks and households' expectations and confidence, thus leading to what they were fearing. And I propose to model expectations and the state of confidence of private agents to use the indexes calculated by national statistical services from monthly polls.
Principles of capitalistic commodity production
Authors: Helmedag Fritz
Published: July 2013

The causal structure of capitalistic commodity production can be revealed by notionally separating total output into two categories: ›necessaries‹ bought by employees, and the rest constituting society's surplus. The rate of profit is determined in the wage good industry and becomes the system's key variable. In association with demand for ›luxuries‹ it governs the respective amount of profit accruing to the two sectors as well as the corresponding employment. The consequences for economic policy contradict predominant recipes.
Editorial to the Special Issue
Authors: Niechoj Torsten , Onaran Özlem , Reiner Sabine
Published: July 2013

First paragraph

In 2012, public debt is still at the centre of attention and economic policies – globally, but especially in Europe. For most of the mainstream commentators the main source of public debt can be traced back to loose public spending behaviour and a lack of fiscal discipline. However, story and facts do not coincide perfectly, to say the least (see also the contributions by Ederer in the forum section of this issue and Niechoj and van Treeck 2011 in the last issue of this journal). To give only one example taken from the European case: In Spain the level of public debt is still below the German level although Germany is the main proponent and an example of presumably sound fiscal policy and a successful recovery after the financial market crisis from the point of view of both the public and mainstream academia. Additionally, the debt-to-GDP ratio of Spain had been falling until 2007, down to only 36 per cent, which is quite low in international comparison and far below the debt criterion of the European Stability and Growth Pact.
Editorial to the Special Issue
Authors: Ederer Stefan , Hein Eckhard , Niechoj Torsten
Published: July 2013

First paragraph

The financial and economic crises which started in 2007 have triggered and motivated increasing research on finance and the instability of the financial system but also on the relationship between finance, distribution and growth. This special issue discusses various, but related theoretical and empirical aspects of finance, instability, distribution and investment.
Aggregate savings, finance and investment
Authors: de Carvalho Fernando J. Cardim
Published: July 2013

Among the areas in which the Keynesian revolution has been more unsuccessful in changing orthodox views, the relationship between savings and investment must certainly be the best known. Even today, after more than seventy years of publication of The General Theory, policy-makers are still advised to raise national savings rates in order to accelerate growth (and, more recently, end the crisis initiated in 2007 in the United States). Keynes's proposition that investment creates savings, and not the converse, seems to violate fundamental intuitions of economists as well as of the general public. In fact, investment creates savings in monetary economies, the operation of which is harder to grasp than the corn economy that inspires the opposite causality. How is the relationship between savings and investment defined in Keynesian and orthodox theories? In this paper, Keynes's views are contrasted to Wicksell's and to Wicksellian approaches embodied in loanable funds theories. In particular, one searches to clarify the theoretical relationship between the concept of aggregate savings (non-consumed output) and financial savings (net demand for assets) that should be more relevant to a discussion of investment finance. The special concept of finance employed by Keynes is used to stress the role played by banks in Keynes's theory and, in combination with his rejection of Say's law, to clarify the meaning of the »investment creates saving« proposition.
Modeling financial instability
Authors: Asada Toichiro
Published: July 2013

In this paper, we reconsider Minsky's financial instability hypothesis from the point of view of mathematical macrodynamic modeling. We start from a simple prototype small scale model of private debt and income with fixed prices. This system is similar to the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey system, in which private debt plays the role of predator and income plays the role of prey. Then, we extend the model step by step by introducing variable prices, inflation expectation, public debt and a budget equation of the consolidated government including the central bank. We also study the effect of macroeconomic stabilization policies by means of monetary and fiscal policies.
New instruments for banking regulation and monetary policy after the crisis
Authors: Detzer Daniel
Published: July 2013

This paper analyzes two instruments – asset-based reserve requirements put forward by Thomas Palley and asset-based capital requirements proposed by Charles Goodhart and Avinash Persaud – regarding their merits in reducing excessive asset price inflation. A theoretical framework of asset pricing based on the ideas of Keynes and Minsky is developed, within which the working of the instruments is demonstrated and analyzed. It is shown that in theory both instruments are able to reduce excessive asset price inflation by reducing the amount of credit money and investment flowing from financial institutions into a booming sector. It is concluded that the effect of asset-based reserve requirements is more predictable and that those are therefore more suitable for the task.
Modelling accumulation: A theoretical and empirical application of the accelerator principle under uncertainty
Authors: Arestis Philip , González Ana Rosa , Dejuán Óscar
Published: July 2013

In this paper we derive a theoretical macro accumulation function, which relies on the accelerator principle and is complemented by utilizing capacity and profits. This investigation also accounts for several sources and kinds of uncertainty: exchange rates for financial uncertainty, oil prices for political uncertainty and interest rates for stock market uncertainty. The latter purports to account for the relationship between physical and financial investment. We also take on board the role of conventions in an attempt to account fully for uncertainty. In doing so, we include the relevant variables as deviations from their conventional levels. In the second part of the paper we estimate the investment function, by means of the system GMM in a panel of 12 OECD economies over the period 1970–2010.
An empirical evaluation of three post-Keynesian models
Authors: Skott Peter , Zipperer Ben
Published: July 2013

Structuralist and post-Keynesian models differ in their assumptions about firms' investment behavior and pricing/output decisions. This paper compares three benchmark models: Kaleckian, Robinsonian and Kaldorian. We analyze the implications of these models for the steady growth path and the cyclical properties of the economy, and evaluate the consistency of the theoretical predictions with empirical evidence for the US. Our regression results and the stylized cyclical pattern of key variables are consistent with the Kaldorian model. The Kaleckian investment function and the Robinsonian pricing behavior find no support in the data.
Endogenous income distribution in the Bhaduri-Marglin model
Authors: Schütz Bernhard
Published: July 2013

The results of the Bhaduri-Marglin model build on the assumption of an exogenous profit share. The present paper examines critically the robustness of these results by asking how its results change if we take the endogeneity of the profit share into account. In doing so, the constituents of the latter (labor productivity and the real wage rate) are treated as endogenous. The paper finds that the conditions for wage- and profit-led regimes only change when we assume increases in the real wage rate to be followed by very strong labor rationalization. Furthermore, the paper shows how these additional channels can increase or decrease the profit-led/wage-led character of a regime and how they may even become a source of instability.
Veblenian and Minskian financial markets
Authors: Argitis Giorgos
Published: July 2013

The purpose of this paper is to provide an exposition of Veblen's and Minsky's views on the financial markets and to explore the possibility of any common denominators. I stress that they both bring forward the importance of leverage as a path-breaking insight, as well as of liquidity and solvency in the real-world financial markets characterized by uncertainty, innovations and evolving institutions. I remark that Veblenian and Minskian financial markets are naturally and endogenously unstable, nonneutral and influence ‘real’ economic performance. I argue that if Veblen's institutional logic in his business enterprise system became integrated with Minsky's financial processes of creation and destruction, it could set up a realistic framework to analyse the evolution of financial markets in capitalism.
Do Institutionalists and post-Keynesians share a common approach to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)?*
Authors: Nesiba Reynold F.
Published: July 2013

Are Institutional and post-Keynesian economists converging on a shared approach to understanding Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)? The literature suggests growing recognition that post-Keynesians and Institutionalists share a common intellectual history, conceptual frameworks, and overlapping professional memberships. For this reason, Post-Keynesian Institutionalism (PKI) has emerged as a unifying approach to heterodox economics. In this review of the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) literature, I explore the degree to which this PKI convergence extends, or fails to extend, to the historical, theoretical, and policy issues surrounding MMT. The point of this paper is to delineate where scholars from these traditions agree, where they specifically disagree, and to explore whether or how these disagreements may be ameliorated with respect to MMT.
Connecting social provisioning and functional finance in a post-Keynesian–Institutional analysis of the public sector
Authors: Todorova Zdravka
Published: July 2013

This paper establishes connections between the frameworks of social provisioning and functional finance, and discusses a post-Keynesian–Institutionalist theory of the public sector that emerges out of these linkages. The concept of social provisioning has emerged out of Institutional economics, and has been further developed by institutional and other heterodox economists. Its potential as a methodological foundation that connects various heterodox approaches has received some growing attention. Such discussions have not referred in an analytical manner to functional finance. On the other hand, the principles of functional finance have been elaborated and developed outside an explicit grounding in a social provisioning framework. The article specifies further the concept of social provisioning and discusses functional finance within such a framework. The framework of functional finance gains a structural and institutional grounding which enables a deeper and more critical conceptualization of the public sector.
Understanding financial innovation systems: Veblen and Minsky at the periphery
Authors: Leonel Solange Gomes , Marques Sylvia Ferreira , do Couto Santos Ester Carneiro , da Cunha Resende Marco Flávio
Published: July 2013

Setting off from an Evolutionary perspective, this paper debates key aspects of the process of financing innovation based on Keynes's asset choice model within the context of Minsky's cycle and the Institutionalist approach of Veblen. Innovative activity is surrounded by great uncertainty because firms invest funds for the long term without being sure whether they will earn high returns. As a result, firms run into additional obstacles when trying to obtain financing to develop new technologies. This difference becomes clearer when developed countries (USA) and less-developed countries (Brazil) are compared. The higher the level of uncertainty in world markets, the lower the amount of funds available to finance innovation; and this situation is accentuated in less-developed countries because they do not have a mature financial system capable of supporting innovation risks.
The economic–environment relation: can post-Keynesians, Régulationists and Polanyians offer insights?
Authors: Chester Lynne , Paton Joy
Published: July 2013

As the environmental debate has intensified, post-Keynesians, Régulationists and Polanyians remain relatively silent. All treat time as historical, consider economic issues subordinate to politics and have plenty to say about growth, institutions, uncertainty and path-dependent events. These concepts seem pertinent to understanding the economic–environment problematic. This article explores the ‘environmental potential’ of these three heterodox economic traditions. We examine the conception of nature underpinning each methodological approach and the ability of their key conceptual tools to explain the economic–environment relation. Methodological pluralism and a project driven by the neoclassical agenda, we posit, seriously weakens the possibility of a post-Keynesian-grounded coherent environmental perspective. On the other hand, the Régulationists and Polanyians provide cogent analytical frameworks to advance explanations of the economic–environment relation and the contemporary environmental challenge.