Jesús Muñoz - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Jesús Muñoz
World Review of Political Economy, 2013
Knowledge is an indicator of human development, and to contribute further knowledge to the interp... more Knowledge is an indicator of human development, and to contribute further knowledge to the interpretation of the legacy of Marx and Engels is the objective of this article. The relevant question in this theme is: Is the Marxian message alive in the twenty-first century? This article in the fields of the history of economic thought and methodology outlines the vision of Marx-Engels in its economic, sociological and philosophical elements—chiefly the first of these. For that purpose, a description of their Scientific Research Program (SRP), a Lakatosian concept is outlined in the first section as a test of their theoretical soundness. Specifically the hard core of Marx and Engels' SRP is outlined in the second section along with a brief literature review of conceptions about the legacy of Marx and Engels' work. Marx's theory is thus systematically organized in terms of scientific research programs. In addition, both the positive heuristic and protective belt of Marx and En...
Biological Conservation, 2013
Knowledge about spatial biodiversity patterns is a basic criterion for reserve network design. Al... more Knowledge about spatial biodiversity patterns is a basic criterion for reserve network design. Although herbarium collections hold large quantities of information, the data are often scattered and cannot supply complete spatial coverage. Alternatively, herbarium data can be used to fit species distribution models and their predictions can be used to provide complete spatial coverage and derive species richness maps. Here, we build on previous effort to propose an improved compositionalist framework for using species distribution models to better inform conservation management. We illustrate the approach with models fitted with six different methods and combined using an ensemble approach for 408 plant species in a tropical and megadiverse country (Ecuador). As a complementary view to the traditional richness hotspots methodology, consisting of a simple stacking of species distribution maps, the compositionalist modelling approach used here combines separate predictions for different pools of species to identify areas of alternative suitability for conservation. Our results show that the compositionalist approach better captures the established protected areas than the traditional richness hotspots strategies and allows the identification of areas in Ecuador that would optimally complement the current protection network. Further studies should aim at refining the approach with more groups and additional species information.
WRPE, 2013
Knowledge is an indicator of human development, and to contribute further knowledge to the interp... more Knowledge is an indicator of human development, and to contribute further knowledge to the interpretation of the legacy of Marx and Engels is the objective of this article. The relevant question in this theme is: Is the Marxian message alive in the twenty-first century? This article in the fields of the history of economic thought and methodology outlines the vision of Marx-Engels in its economic, sociological and philosophical elements-chiefly the first of these. For that purpose, a description of their Scientific Research Program (SRP), a Lakatosian concept is outlined in the first section as a test of their theoretical soundness. Specifically the hard core of Marx and Engels' SRP is outlined in the second section along with a brief literature review of conceptions about the legacy of Marx and Engels' work. Marx's theory is thus systematically organized in terms of scientific research programs. In addition, both the positive heuristic and protective belt of Marx and Engels' SRP are outlined in the third section. Since a research program is an indicator of progress in science based on the empirical success of the theory in question, some fulfilled (and previously discredited) predictions of Marx and Engels' SRP are briefly mentioned in the fourth section. These interrelated methodological tasks test the argument of the qualitative aliveness of the interdisciplinary message of Marx and Engels for all time, since the identification of theoretical soundness is the first step to test scientific progressiveness in a SRP. During the process some key concepts of Marx and Engels' SRP such as exploitation, alienation and surplus are reinterpreted under this perspective, proving their relevance in modern life. It is concluded from this exercise in the fifth section that Marx and Engels' SRP is sound and progressive in qualitative terms, although it was previously rejected on the basis of ideological, theoretical and practical misinterpretations.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013
Was the Keynesian message alive during the second half of the XXth Century, or was it betrayed by... more Was the Keynesian message alive during the second half of the XXth Century, or was it betrayed by his followers? This article in the fields of the history of economic thought and methodology contrasts the Scientific Research Programmes (SRPs), a Lakatosian concept, of Keynes in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (TGT) with those of its immediate orthodox schools: Monetarism (MS), Neoclassical Synthesis (NS), New Classical Macroeconomics – rational expectations – (RE) and General Disequilibrium (GD). The objective is to to assess the immediate impact of Keynes’s vision in economics. It can be concluded according to this comparison that Keynes’s bequeath was alive during the period between 1950 and 1980, but that it was accepted under different names. Many economists deny this statement. However it is hereby argued with the help of Lakatosian methodology that in both economic and philosophical terms the MS, NS, RE and GD SRPs are degenerative variants of Keynes's SRP. The Keynesian reasoning chain – a non self-regulated system, non neutrality on the part of money, organicism, non-ergodicity, historical time and uncertainty – is misunderstood and hence misapplied on the part of these deviant schools, or transformed into “bastard Keynesianism”, to quote Joan Robinson (Joan Robinson, 1975[1973], 125). In other words, Keynes’s economics is different from Keynesian economics as was firstly proposed by Axel Leijonhuvfud (Leijonhuvfud, 1968). The internal history of macroeconomics in those periods is undertaken, since it is is the rational reconstruction of the meaning of a SRP. Section 1 is an introduction to basic concepts related to philosophy of science and methodology, especially Lakatosian methodology, which can be skipped by the specialized reader. Section 2 is an analysis of Keynes’s hard core in his SRP, also being an introduction to the problem as it outlines Keynes’s thinking, Section 3 describes initial Post Keynesianism, which was faithful to the original message. Sections 4, 5, 6 and 7 outline the hard cores of Monetarists, Neoclassical Synthesis, New Classical Macroeconomics and General Disequilibrium, respectively. Section 8 is a comprehensive analysis of the differences between the mentioned paradigms, and hence concludes. References are listed at the end of the article.
Journal of International Development, 2006
Pegged exchange rates in capital importing countries partially 'socialised' the risks o... more Pegged exchange rates in capital importing countries partially 'socialised' the risks of international borrowing. A corollary of managed floating, therefore, is a reallocation of risk bearing to private capital markets. Equity finance offers explicit risk sharing but Mexican experience since ...
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013
Investigation of Keynes' philosophy is not a new subject. For instance, O´Donnell has dealt with ... more Investigation of Keynes' philosophy is not a new subject. For instance, O´Donnell has dealt with this broad topic it since 1982. The purpose of this paper is narrower: to synthesize the philosophical background of The Economic Consequences of the Peace (hereafter ECP) in order to learn more about the foundations of Keynes's legacy. Attention will be paid to the philosophical origins, foundations and meaning of the ECP. Keynes's critique of the Treaty of Versailles was in terms of its viability. His methodological approach was thus related to the coordination of theory and practice as well as the use of both rationality and intuition, wherein his economic thought mirrored his philosophical thought. Keynes's core lays in both organicism and uncertainty. The complex interrelations of a system are at the core of the ECP. Indeed Keynes aimed to see a coordinated effort on the part of nations as every happening in Europe affected all the countries and sectors. Accordingly he is considered as a realist. Further Keynes's belief in the lack of a natural order highlighted the need for practical and ethical intervention. Thus, in 1919 he championed practical egalitarianism. Efficacy in terms of reparations was for him the road to freedom. Since his objective was to search for the truth and freedom, Keynes realized that the then current situation in Europe was a turning point in world history. If this was his objective Keynes's language was characterized by reasonableness, propaganda and persuasion. His advanced philosophy in 1919 anticipated his intellectual legacy, especially remarkable after 1936. The first Section is an introduction to the topics studied in the ECP. The second Section is a literature review of Keynes's general philosophy. The third Section is about the general philosophy expressed in the ECP. The fourth Section is about the philosophical insights of the ECP in terms of Epistemology, Ethics, Ontology, and Political and Social Philosophy. Section 5 concludes. References are listed at the end of the article.
World Review of Political Economy, 2013
Knowledge is an indicator of human development, and to contribute further knowledge to the interp... more Knowledge is an indicator of human development, and to contribute further knowledge to the interpretation of the legacy of Marx and Engels is the objective of this article. The relevant question in this theme is: Is the Marxian message alive in the twenty-first century? This article in the fields of the history of economic thought and methodology outlines the vision of Marx-Engels in its economic, sociological and philosophical elements—chiefly the first of these. For that purpose, a description of their Scientific Research Program (SRP), a Lakatosian concept is outlined in the first section as a test of their theoretical soundness. Specifically the hard core of Marx and Engels' SRP is outlined in the second section along with a brief literature review of conceptions about the legacy of Marx and Engels' work. Marx's theory is thus systematically organized in terms of scientific research programs. In addition, both the positive heuristic and protective belt of Marx and En...
Biological Conservation, 2013
Knowledge about spatial biodiversity patterns is a basic criterion for reserve network design. Al... more Knowledge about spatial biodiversity patterns is a basic criterion for reserve network design. Although herbarium collections hold large quantities of information, the data are often scattered and cannot supply complete spatial coverage. Alternatively, herbarium data can be used to fit species distribution models and their predictions can be used to provide complete spatial coverage and derive species richness maps. Here, we build on previous effort to propose an improved compositionalist framework for using species distribution models to better inform conservation management. We illustrate the approach with models fitted with six different methods and combined using an ensemble approach for 408 plant species in a tropical and megadiverse country (Ecuador). As a complementary view to the traditional richness hotspots methodology, consisting of a simple stacking of species distribution maps, the compositionalist modelling approach used here combines separate predictions for different pools of species to identify areas of alternative suitability for conservation. Our results show that the compositionalist approach better captures the established protected areas than the traditional richness hotspots strategies and allows the identification of areas in Ecuador that would optimally complement the current protection network. Further studies should aim at refining the approach with more groups and additional species information.
WRPE, 2013
Knowledge is an indicator of human development, and to contribute further knowledge to the interp... more Knowledge is an indicator of human development, and to contribute further knowledge to the interpretation of the legacy of Marx and Engels is the objective of this article. The relevant question in this theme is: Is the Marxian message alive in the twenty-first century? This article in the fields of the history of economic thought and methodology outlines the vision of Marx-Engels in its economic, sociological and philosophical elements-chiefly the first of these. For that purpose, a description of their Scientific Research Program (SRP), a Lakatosian concept is outlined in the first section as a test of their theoretical soundness. Specifically the hard core of Marx and Engels' SRP is outlined in the second section along with a brief literature review of conceptions about the legacy of Marx and Engels' work. Marx's theory is thus systematically organized in terms of scientific research programs. In addition, both the positive heuristic and protective belt of Marx and Engels' SRP are outlined in the third section. Since a research program is an indicator of progress in science based on the empirical success of the theory in question, some fulfilled (and previously discredited) predictions of Marx and Engels' SRP are briefly mentioned in the fourth section. These interrelated methodological tasks test the argument of the qualitative aliveness of the interdisciplinary message of Marx and Engels for all time, since the identification of theoretical soundness is the first step to test scientific progressiveness in a SRP. During the process some key concepts of Marx and Engels' SRP such as exploitation, alienation and surplus are reinterpreted under this perspective, proving their relevance in modern life. It is concluded from this exercise in the fifth section that Marx and Engels' SRP is sound and progressive in qualitative terms, although it was previously rejected on the basis of ideological, theoretical and practical misinterpretations.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013
Was the Keynesian message alive during the second half of the XXth Century, or was it betrayed by... more Was the Keynesian message alive during the second half of the XXth Century, or was it betrayed by his followers? This article in the fields of the history of economic thought and methodology contrasts the Scientific Research Programmes (SRPs), a Lakatosian concept, of Keynes in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (TGT) with those of its immediate orthodox schools: Monetarism (MS), Neoclassical Synthesis (NS), New Classical Macroeconomics – rational expectations – (RE) and General Disequilibrium (GD). The objective is to to assess the immediate impact of Keynes’s vision in economics. It can be concluded according to this comparison that Keynes’s bequeath was alive during the period between 1950 and 1980, but that it was accepted under different names. Many economists deny this statement. However it is hereby argued with the help of Lakatosian methodology that in both economic and philosophical terms the MS, NS, RE and GD SRPs are degenerative variants of Keynes's SRP. The Keynesian reasoning chain – a non self-regulated system, non neutrality on the part of money, organicism, non-ergodicity, historical time and uncertainty – is misunderstood and hence misapplied on the part of these deviant schools, or transformed into “bastard Keynesianism”, to quote Joan Robinson (Joan Robinson, 1975[1973], 125). In other words, Keynes’s economics is different from Keynesian economics as was firstly proposed by Axel Leijonhuvfud (Leijonhuvfud, 1968). The internal history of macroeconomics in those periods is undertaken, since it is is the rational reconstruction of the meaning of a SRP. Section 1 is an introduction to basic concepts related to philosophy of science and methodology, especially Lakatosian methodology, which can be skipped by the specialized reader. Section 2 is an analysis of Keynes’s hard core in his SRP, also being an introduction to the problem as it outlines Keynes’s thinking, Section 3 describes initial Post Keynesianism, which was faithful to the original message. Sections 4, 5, 6 and 7 outline the hard cores of Monetarists, Neoclassical Synthesis, New Classical Macroeconomics and General Disequilibrium, respectively. Section 8 is a comprehensive analysis of the differences between the mentioned paradigms, and hence concludes. References are listed at the end of the article.
Journal of International Development, 2006
Pegged exchange rates in capital importing countries partially 'socialised' the risks o... more Pegged exchange rates in capital importing countries partially 'socialised' the risks of international borrowing. A corollary of managed floating, therefore, is a reallocation of risk bearing to private capital markets. Equity finance offers explicit risk sharing but Mexican experience since ...
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013
Investigation of Keynes' philosophy is not a new subject. For instance, O´Donnell has dealt with ... more Investigation of Keynes' philosophy is not a new subject. For instance, O´Donnell has dealt with this broad topic it since 1982. The purpose of this paper is narrower: to synthesize the philosophical background of The Economic Consequences of the Peace (hereafter ECP) in order to learn more about the foundations of Keynes's legacy. Attention will be paid to the philosophical origins, foundations and meaning of the ECP. Keynes's critique of the Treaty of Versailles was in terms of its viability. His methodological approach was thus related to the coordination of theory and practice as well as the use of both rationality and intuition, wherein his economic thought mirrored his philosophical thought. Keynes's core lays in both organicism and uncertainty. The complex interrelations of a system are at the core of the ECP. Indeed Keynes aimed to see a coordinated effort on the part of nations as every happening in Europe affected all the countries and sectors. Accordingly he is considered as a realist. Further Keynes's belief in the lack of a natural order highlighted the need for practical and ethical intervention. Thus, in 1919 he championed practical egalitarianism. Efficacy in terms of reparations was for him the road to freedom. Since his objective was to search for the truth and freedom, Keynes realized that the then current situation in Europe was a turning point in world history. If this was his objective Keynes's language was characterized by reasonableness, propaganda and persuasion. His advanced philosophy in 1919 anticipated his intellectual legacy, especially remarkable after 1936. The first Section is an introduction to the topics studied in the ECP. The second Section is a literature review of Keynes's general philosophy. The third Section is about the general philosophy expressed in the ECP. The fourth Section is about the philosophical insights of the ECP in terms of Epistemology, Ethics, Ontology, and Political and Social Philosophy. Section 5 concludes. References are listed at the end of the article.