Heterodox Economics Newsletter

Issue 167 August 04, 2014 web pdf Heterodox Economics Directory

This summer issue of the Heterodox Economics Newsletter includes many, recently published journal items. So you can pick a great variety of refreshing holiday reads out of this newsletter-issue ;-)

Additionally, I wanted to point you to a recent report of the French Association of Political Economy (FAPE/AFEP), which analyzes recent trends in economics professors' recruitment in France. It shows a remarkable decline in hirings of economists with a heterodox orientation in research and teaching - a result summarized in the paper's subtitle as "the end of pluralism". The authors find that especially bibliometric evaluation-routines contribute to the decline in heterodox hirings. This result comes as no surprise since citation metrics have, beside many other drawbacks, a significant size-bias (the more voluminous literature is automatically judged as being of higher quality). While this finding confirms some prior theoretical predictions related to institutional lock-in in economics, it also dampens the prospects of heterodox economics. These developments are the main reason why the Heterodox Economics Newsletter provides a series of journal and department rankings, which are based on some past work of Frederic S. Lee (accessible here and here), on this page here.

A counterpoint to all this is provided, again, by the students of economics. Recently, a group of econ-students based at the University of Hamburg have put together a "Pluralist Economics Reader", which aims at giving a general, yet concise and accessible introduction to heterodox and pluralist economic thought. I had a look at their final result and found they succeeded well in this admittedly difficult task.

All the Best!

Jakob

© public domain

Table of contents

Call for Papers

2nd International Seminar on Methodology and Critical Analysis in Economics: “Alternative views on consumption and investment” (Bogota, 2014)

22 October, 2014 | Universidad de La Salle, Bogota, Colombia

The program in Economics and the research group in didactics and method in Economics from Universidad de La Salle at Bogotá, Colombia are pleased to invite researchers to participate in the II International Seminar on methodology and critical analysis in Economics: “Alternative views on consumption and investment”. This event will be held at the Campus Chapinero of Universidad de La Salle at Bogota, Colombia on October 22nd 2014.

The seminar will include these topics: Investment and development; internal and external financing; Investment and structural change; alternative theories of consumption and investment; financial instability and investment decisions; Consumption and external sector.

Proposals should be submitted to the email address: smetodolasalle@gmail.com.

The proposal must contain:

  1. The name(s) of the author(s), affiliation, mailing address, phone number, e-mail address;
  2. Topic;
  3. Abstract in Spanish and English;
  4. The papers can be written in Spanish, English or Portuguese;
  5. It should contain: introduction, context, theoretical framework, methodology, main results, conclusions and references. It should contain 6,000 words and typed in Times New Roman 12 with single spaced, and margins of 2,5 cm on each side. Please follow APA formatting. There is no financing considered. Anonymous referees will be used to select the proposals that will be included in the seminar.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF PAPERS:

Papers with partial or total results will be welcome as long as they are related to the topics of this seminar.

1. For the selection of papers it will be employed the rules of a blind arbitration; that is to say, both assessors and the authors remain anonymous.

2. Paper submission and deadline: Please send papers to: smetodolasalle@gmail.com

50 Years of Feminism at Kent: Conference on "Austerity, Gender and Household Finance" (Canterbury, 2015)

27-28 June, 2015 | University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

Radical Women: 50 Years of Feminism at Kent

In the current global and domestic economic crisis, the financial aspects of close personal and familial relationships have become more important and more strained than ever before.Many European countries and across the world are currently facing a time of financial crisis. This has supposedly brought with it a need for austerity in order to ride out the crisis. We have thus seen a reduction in public spending which in turn has led to a tightening of fiscal policies and an immediate impact upon the provision of welfare benefits and public service provision. The financial crisis has also led to other concerns such as unemployment, stagnation of incomes, access to credit, indebtedness, homelessness, etc.In such times of austerity, it is often the vulnerable in society, and particularly women, who bear the brunt of spending cuts. We aim to initiate a critical interdisciplinary dialogue to explore and interrogate the impact of austerity on households as well as the scope and effect of existing public policies and legal and regulatory measures on families and their financial circumstances. The plenary speakers include: Professor Mary Evans (LSE); Professor Suzanne Soederberg (Queen’s, Canada); and Professor Rebecca Tunstall (York).

Submissions from a broad range of disciplines including law, sociology, social policy, economics, psychology, geography and gender studies are welcome for any of the following four thematic streams:

1. Austerity and Housing (stream organiser: Professor Helen Carr (Kent))

Austerity has intensified the exclusions and insecurities which have characterized UK housing ever since the 1980s when the ‘Right to Buy’ privatized the most desirable social housing, ‘residualising’ what was left, and private renting was deregulated. Home ownership has been increasingly valorised and ‘Buy to Let’, stimulated by the deregulation of mortgage finance, exacerbates the divide between those who own property and those who do not. At the same time London, in particular, has experienced extraordinary demand for ‘super-prime’ housing, stimulating a house price boom (only partially stalled by the financial crisis) which excludes an increasing proportion of its population from the benefits of home ownership.

Following the financial crash the Coalition government has ratcheted up the conditionality of social housing, enabling, via its Localism Act 2011, social landlords to offer fixed term tenancies instead of so-called ‘tenancies for life’. The ‘bedroom tax’ reduces Housing Benefit to social tenants deemed to be under-occupying and the welfare cap prevents families receiving benefits of more than £500 per week, which forces those dependent upon benefits to move out of areas where rent levels are high. The Coalition government has also responded to the difficulties people have faced accessing homeownership, introducing ‘Help to Buy’ and encouraging the provision of shared ownership.

Noting the disproportionate number of women who are social tenants, the reliance of women upon social housing when they flee domestic violence, and the persistence of women’s presence in low paid jobs which exclude them from the housing market, this panel welcomes reflections on the gendered dimensions of these changes and developments. It particularly welcomes work which explores resistance and creative responses to the contemporary insecurities of housing.

2. Austerity and Debt and Credit (stream organisers: Dr. Julia Gumy (Bristol) and Dr Simone Wong (Kent))

In the past few years, austerity measures stemming from the recent economic crisis have had an impact on the finances of many households. Cuts in public spending including welfare cuts, pay freezes, increases in salaries that are well below the rate of inflation and unemployment are just some examples of the financial concerns brought about by the current economic crisis. These factors have led to many households seeing a fall in their incomes in real terms which in turn will affect their access to credit and overall levels of debt. This stream would like to invite gender related papers on the impact of austerity on the following topics:

3. Austerity and Parenting (organiser: Dr Ruth Cain (Kent))

This stream focuses on the impact of austerity politics and the culture(s) of the ‘new austerity’ on families. The post-1990s emphasis on individual success, entrepreneurship and personal responsibility, intensified in austerity by cuts in public spending and social security which have disproportionately affected women and parents of young children in terms of employment and benefit income, has arguably created new parenting orthodoxies. The ‘good’ parent ensures that his/her children will grow up to be economically viable, skilled and responsible citizens. In terms of mothering, media constructions such as the ‘mumpreneur’, ‘alpha mother’ and ‘welfare mother’ (creator of the ‘benefit brood’, to use a term coined by the UK tabloids) personify polarised acceptable and unacceptable faces of neoliberal and post-austerity maternity. The ‘deadbeat dad’ who fails to look after his family, and the ‘new man’ who does, arguably set up the same polarised dynamic for fathers, emphasising masculine economic reliability - alongside emotional and caring ‘involvement’ surpassing the traditional authoritative/breadwinner role.

Simultaneously, austerity has also been used to justify massive cuts in legal aid in the UK. Recent reforms in family law in the UK, Canada and elsewhere increasingly emphasise private negotiation to resolve divorce and separation-related cases and manage post-separation childcare and child support, and urge couples to keep their unruly disputes out of court. The reforms also offer sops to father’s rights movements and the rhetoric of gender-neutral ‘shared parenting’. These legal changes may have a pronounced, gendered impact on the usually female main carer, particularly the stigmatised single mother.

The stream invites papers on the financial/economic, legal, cultural and affective aspects of ‘austerity parenting’ and the mixtures of new and traditional orthodoxies which construct and result from it. Contributions might cover:

4. Austerity and Financialisation: What can we learn from the Global South? (organiser: Serena Natile (Kent))

In the wake of the global financial crisis great attention has been given to discourses surrounding austerity measures and processes of financialisation and their impact on economically and socially subordinate groups. These discourses have been increasingly invoked in analysing the nature and dynamics of contemporary finance and in rethinking the relationship between the Global North and the Global South within an interconnected global financial system.

In response to the current crisis, feminist scholars have revisited the literature on economic development and reinterpreted it in light of new questions concerning austerity and financialisation. Feminist research in the Global South has long been investigating the gender dynamics of economic crises, analysing how gender norms and practices are constitutive of the complex network of relations that produces markets, households and consumers. Interestingly, development strategies and conceptual frameworks created in or for least developed countries can be imported or reimported to developed countries in a time of crisis, when norms, values and practices are newly open for discussion.

Inspired by these reflections, this panel aims to bring into dialogue feminist scholarship on economic development in the Global South and more recent feminist discussions on austerity and financialisation in the Global North. The purpose is to create new opportunities to reflect on and reimagine what a just financial system would entail. This panel welcomes contributions exploring the following themes: how austerity and financialisation shape intra-household relations; how austerity and financialisation affect patterns of mobility; normative and regulatory measures related to austerity and financialisation; the digitalisation of money and financial practices; the interplay between formal and informal financial systems; reflections on the space of finance and the boundaries and meanings of inclusion/exclusion, private/public, local/global.

We also welcome papers addressing, amongst others, one or more of the following questions:

Conference organisers: Simone Wong, Ruth Cain and Serena Natile (Kent Law School) and Julia Gumy (Bristol)

Submission of abstracts: Interested scholars are kindly asked to send an abstract of 200-300 words to: Kentausterityconference@kent.ac.uk by 15 October 2014.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent in mid-November 2014.

Global & Local Economic Review: Special Issue in commemoration of the Hundredth Anniversary of the birth of Federico Caffè

Guest Editor: Professor Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank and Federico Caffè’s graduate student.

Context and motivations

The international journal Global & Local Economic Review announces the Special Issue to commemorate the notable Italian economist Federico Caffè, born on January 6, 1914, mysteriously disappeared on April 15, 1987, and declared dead on October 30, 1998. This year, Global & Local Economic Review joins with the University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) and Caffè-D’Ascanio Research Centre Foundation (Italy) in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Professor Federico Caffè.

Federico Caffè was particularly interested in Economic and Financial policy issues, and Welfare economics, especially in their social dimensions. One of his main seminal works, Lezioni di Politica Economica (En. tr. Lectures on Economic Policy), is widely regarded as the complete summary of his social and economic thoughts. He was a strong critic of free trade, avowedly Keynesian in inspiration, and also very interested in the Scandinavian welfare model.

Several institutions have been named after him, including the Faculty of Economics of the University of Rome III and the Roskilde University Centre for Southern European Studies. The Sapienza University of Rome also organizes annual conference that have been held by some of the most significant economists of our age. Many of the lectures have been published in a series of the Cambridge University Press. The University Gabriele d’Annunzio dedicated and entitled its Aula Magna to him at the University Campus of Pescara.

Serving as a Professor from 1959 until his retirement in 1987, Federico Caffè left an indelible and precious mark on the life of the Italian University. The emergence of his economic ideas over the past five years has been internationally renowned. Federico Caffè mentored several generations of Italian economists and scholars, many of whom rose to senior positions in academia, in political life and in public administration. Among others, he mentored the former Governor of the Bank of Italy, and the current ECB President, Mario Draghi, and the current Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, as well as a large number of prestigious scholars and academicians.

Aims and scope

The onset of the current “Great Recession” has given rise to a deep critique of standard economic models since they proved to be neither able to accurately interpret real economic dynamics nor to make correct predictions. This is mainly due because they focus on pure market economies devoid institutions and without concern for historical and structural transformations in contemporary economies. This opens a stimulus discussion on rethinking the foundations of traditional political economy analysis. Federico Caffè is undoubtedly one of the most influent economist who deeply discusses these transformations and the actuality of his thought has been gaining a new momentum.

The special issue to honor the Hundredth Anniversary of the birth of Federico Caffè opens and encourages intellectual inquiries both on the structural transformation of contemporary economies and on heterodox and interdisciplinary new contributions. It welcomes manuscripts that are methodological and philosophical as well as empirical and theoretical. Papers are invited for the following topics of special interest but are not limited to:

▪ Human behavior and the new economic humanism
▪ Economic research and human sciences
▪ Complexity and welfare economics
▪ The role of State in the economic system

▪ Monetary sector and stability of the economic system
▪ Monetary policy and financialization
▪ Perspectives on the rise of financial capitalism
▪ Income distribution and economic inequality

▪ Credit markets and economic development
▪ Financial markets and economic activities
▪ Shocks, crisis and business cycle fluctuations
▪ Public institutions and socio-economic development
▪ Positive vs normative economics

▪ Keynesian and post Keynesian economics
▪ Post Keynesian studies for the business cycle theories
▪ Public education and job creation
▪ Public choice and market failures

Submission of manuscripts

For any further information, please contact: e.bucciarelli@unich.it and dfuria@unich.it

Historical Materialism: Special Issue on "Reframing Labour and Workers' Resistance for the 21st Century"

Issue Editors: Maurizio Atzeni, Loughborough University, UK; m.atzeni@lboro.ac.uk and Immanuel Ness, Brooklyn College, CUNY, New York City; manny.ness@gmail.com

Interpretations of global labour in the age of neoliberal capitalism urgently demands robust and critical historical and comparative analysis. For decades, research on labour collective organisation has focused almost exclusively on workers collectively employed on a stable basis in industrial settings or in the public sector, defended by collective bargaining, represented by trade unions and inserted within relatively stable systems of industrial relations. This view however it has always failed to take into account the transformative potentialities of that vast, rich and meaningful array of ‘precarious’ work experiences and relations that allow the production and re-production of capital as a whole.

Women’s labour in the sphere of social reproduction, low-waged workers who work outside conventional work as subcontractors in global production chains or in the informal economy of the global cities or as crowd workers in the digital economy, migrant workers whose exploited work often lays at the margin of legality, new groups of dispossessed people forced into the labour market, are categories of workers traditionally excluded and neglected by the labour relations literature as laborers; often considered unproductive, unregulated, and thus unrepresentable. Considering the speed of development and intensity of integration of global capitalist processes and the political turn to neoliberalism, which have brought about new (or refreshed old) paradigms to increase workers’ productivity and profits, absent has been the signal importance of these ‘invisible’, precarious workers, today representing not just the vast majority of workers in the global South but also increasingly shaping the social landscape of cities across the world.

Broadening research on this underworld of precarious and not represented workers is important to understand one fundamental dimension of the process of capital accumulation in the global age but it also helps to address deep theoretical concerns, put in evidence by heterodox Marxist currents across the social sciences, originating from the use of narrow conceptions about work and workers:

In the past 30 years, one sided views of labour has been explicitly based on the political role assigned to the industrial workers. Either from a revolutionary or a reformist perspective this particular section of the working class was considered central to any transformative politics. The advent of neoliberalism has swept away many of the elements upon which this centrality was built, leaving a tabula rasa, politically and theoretically speaking. From an empirical point of view, diversity, heterogeneity, unevenness, unpredictability characterise most workers’ struggles of the 21 century.

Against this theoretical and empirical gap in knowledge, the aim of this special issue is twofold.

  1. It aims to offer insights on the daily lives, organization and resistance of precarious workers, intending these in broader terms, as employed in a range of different sectors, geographical and spatial landscapes, economic environments, and regulatory employment regimes.

  2. It aims to produce new knowledge into the connections between these different workers’ struggles and the specific socio-economic, historical and productive context in which have developed.

Within these aims and considering the scope of the journal, we seek submissions from any social sciences discipline concerned with the study of workers and labour using a range of empirical and methodological analyses. The editors however would especially welcome papers that

General Information:

We encourage PhD students and established scholars to contribute.

Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/call-for-papers-reframing-labour-and-workers2019-resistance-for-the-21st-century

Metroeconomica: Special issue in honour of Augusto Graziani

Special Issue of Metroeconomica: International Review of Economics in honour of Augusto Graziani on “Modern Advances in the Monetary Theory of Production”

Guest Editors: Giuseppe Fontana (University of Leeds, UK and University of Sannio, Italy) and Riccardo Realfonzo (University of Sannio, Italy)

The past few decades have seen the flourishing of a complex body of writings in the tradition of Keynes’s Monetary Theory of Production (MTP) (Keynes, 1933). Unfortunately, this flourishing has been combined with growing doubts and deep tensions. Whereas most of these writings share a critical view of mainstream theory and policy, they seem to disagree on the way forward for the construction of a sound theory of money and its policy implications. This special issue of Metroeconomica: International Review of Economics planned for publication in late 2016 is to take stock of the current state of affairs in non-mainstream monetary theory, empirics, and policy making and to explore their future developments. By doing so, this special issue on “Modern Advances in the Monetary Theory of Production” will honour the memory and contributions of Augusto Graziani (1933-2014), a leading scholar of the MTP. Contributions may cover various topics including, but not limited to, the following:

Deadline for abstracts:

Please direct queries and an extended abstract of no more than 800 words to Prof. Giuseppe Fontana and Prof. Riccardo Realfonzo, Guest Editors, Special Issue of Metroeconomica in honour of Augusto Graziani on “Modern Advances in the Monetary Theory of Production”, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK, e-mail: busgf@leeds.ac.uk no later than Monday 1st September 2014.

After approval of abstracts, final papers will be due no later than Friday 1st May 2015 and should be submitted to Metroeconomica through the submissions website. Papers that will be published will meet the Metroeconomica standards, and the refereeing process will be performed by the Editorial Board of the Journal.

Pickering & Chatto: Call for Book Proposals in Social, Financial and Business History

Sophie Rudland (Pickering & Chatto Publishers) invites proposals for single-authored monographs and edited collections for our specialised series in Economic History:

Perspectives in Economic and Social History (Edited by Jari Eloranta)
The series deals with aspects of social and economic history worldwide from the early modern period into the twentieth century. It examines landholding patterns; poverty and welfare; demography and family history; consumption; medicine; industrialization, urbanization, trade; and micro-histories.

Financial History (Edited by Anne L Murphy and Farley Grubb)
This series provides a platform for works that apply financial theory to questions of perennial historiographical interest, works that use financial history to illuminate current public policy debates, industry studies, company histories, biographies of financiers, market studies and corporate finance.

Studies in Business History
This series examines particular industries or business-related entities such as non-financial public and private corporations, joint-stock companies, partnerships and regulatory agencies.

If you would like to discuss a project idea or send a proposal, please contact srudland@pickeringchatto.co.uk or one of the Series Editors.

Call for Participants

Conference of Socialist Economists and Capital & Class (London, 2014)

Conference of Socialist Economists and Capital & Class would like to invite all members and interested parties to the 2014 Annual General Meeting

Date: Saturday, 4 October, 2:30 pm (GMT)

Venue: Conway Hall (Brockway Room), Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL

International summer school in Vienna on the future of economics: "Alternative Economic and Monetary Systems" (Vienna, 2014)

Scholars and practitioners will meet in Vienna from August 4-16, 2014 in order to present and discuss the state of art in alternative economic systems – the most promising ideas for our economic and ecologic future! This new academic program is open to students and non-students of all branches and offers a unique approach to the topic: Rather than just presenting economic models, AEMS also presents the scientific data needed to critically assess proposals for economic and financial reform in regard to current ecological and social developments and future leeway!

Overconsumption, resource depletion, overpopulation, environmental degradation – the current problems are well known. But rather than just adding another discussion of the desolate state of the world, Alternative Economic and Monetary Systems.The economy of the future aims to offer solutions and provides the opportunity to link theoretical approaches to complex topics with subject-specific content from different scientific disciplines and work experience from professionals. Join lectures, workshops and discussion panels to acquire a deeper understanding of the intricate interactions of "society" and "economy" and explore the alternatives that are at hand:

  1. Alternative economic and monetary systems that are currently being developed in response to economic, financial, environmental and social crisis and show the most promising long-term perspectives for a partial or complete reorganization of global, regional and local economies.
  2. Ecologic sustainability: What are the actual options regarding a functional long-term management of natural resources on the local, regional and global scale, especially in regard to present consumption models and rising inequality?
  3. Business ethics, corporate social responsibility and consumerism, solidarity and the common good – what needs to change and how do we change it in order to reduce or reverse current problems of economy, society and environment?

Lecturers

We are proud to announce that many internationally renowned lecturers will join the program, among them Bernard Lietaer (Club of Rome), Helga Kromp-Kolb, Christian Felber and Joseph Huber. An overview can be found here.

Program

The program (August 4-16) will be a mix of lectures, discussions and exercises – regular attendance, active participation and the preparation of a short group presentation will be required to complete the Summer School successfully. In order to maintain a high level of academic quality, participants will be required to prepare themselves using a predetermined list of publications. Participants will also be required to complete a group project. .

More details about the program can be found here.

Regular Participation

Alternative Economic and Monetary Systems is an academic course. If completed successfully, BOKU-students or "MitbelegerInnen" from other Austrian universities acquire 5 ECTS credits from the University of National Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). Foreign students get a BOKU certificate that needs to be acknowledged by your home university. You can find more information about this here.

You can apply until July 29th!

One-day tickets

In addition to regular participation and in response to a large number of requests there will also be the possibility to join single days of the program. This aims at anyone who is interested in economic and monetary reform, but unable to participate for the whole duration of the Summer School. Please be aware that if you join the program for one or several days, you will not receive a BOKU certificate and/or ECTS credits.

For more information please contact aems@oead.at

Additional program

In addition to the Summer School there will also be a number of public panel discussions at Palais Harrach (Freyung 3, 1010 Vienna):

Attendance is free, but please be aware that seats are numbered and registration is necessary at aems@oead.at.

Workshop on "Inequality, Debt and Demand" at Kingston University (London, 2014)

18 September, 2014 | Kingston University, London

Venue: Penrhyn Road Room: PRJG3003, Kingston University

Two novel features characterise economic performance in last decades: rising debt and rising inequality. Growth has been associated with rising debt. Household debt in particular has been rising fast and before the crisis private consumption expenditures have been the main source of demand growth in the US and the UK, but also in southern European countries. At the same time inequality has increased to levels unseen in two generations. The superrich, the famous 1% are taking off and wage shares have been falling. What has been the driving force behind this? What has been the role of property prices in the process? How do rising debt levels impact upon household behaviour? What are the implications of rising debt for growth and stability? What, if any, is the link between debt and inequality? Has rising inequality contributed to increasing instability? These are some of the questions the workshop will discuss and aim to shed some light on.

The workshop is supported by the INET project Rising Inequality as a Structural Cause of the Financial and Economic Crisis.

PLEASE REGISTER USING THIS LINK.

Program

9.30 Registration and coffee
10.00-12.00

12.00-13.20 Lunch
13.20 -15.20

15.40-17.00

Location

The workshop takes place at Penryhn Road Campus (Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT1 2EE). Public Transport: take train from London Waterloo to Surbiton (20 mins approx.) and walk (15 mins approx.) or buses 71, 281, K2, K3 (5 mins approx.) from Surbiton Station to Kingston University. For further details and driving directions, see here.

Political Economy Research Group (PERG)

The Political Economy approach highlights the role of effective demand, institutions and social conflict in economic analysis and thereby builds on Austrian, Institutionalist, Keynesian and Marxist traditions. Economic processes are perceived to be embedded in social relations that must be analysed in the context of historical considerations, power relations and social norms. As a consequence, a broad range of methodological approaches is employed, and cooperation with other disciplines, including history, law, sociology and other social sciences, is necessary. Further information about PERG can be found here and information about courses on political economy at Kingston University can be found here.

Job Postings

California State University, US

The Global Studies Program and the Department of Political Science in the College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences at California State University San Marcos invite applications for a joint hire as a tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor, beginning in Fall 2015 (appointment is available to begin in Spring 2015 depending on the availability of the successful candidate). We are interested in candidates who possess a regional specialization in Sub-Saharan Africa or Asia (we are not looking for a specialist in the Middle East) with a secondary specialization in comparative political economy or human security.

Minimum requirements for the position include: Ph.D. in Political Science or related field by August 2015 (if position begins in Spring 2015, Ph.D. should be in hand by January 15, 2015); primary teaching and scholarly emphasis in Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, South Asia, or Central Asia; evidence of teaching effectiveness; evidence of an active scholarly agenda. The successful candidate should be prepared to teach a survey course in the area specialization (for example, Asian Politics or African Politics) and the interdisciplinary Global Studies core upper-division course (GBST 300), as well as the Global Studies capstone course (GBST 400).

Preferred requirements for the position include: A secondary specialization in comparative political economy or human security is desired. Interdisciplinary training and the ability to teach social science research methods are also desired. Preference will also be given to candidates with demonstrated intercultural competence with diverse groups in teaching, research, and/or service.

Duties and responsibilities: This position is a 50/50 joint hire between the Global Studies Program and the Department of Political Science beginning August 2015 (or Spring 2015). The successful candidate will be expected to offer courses in his/her area(s) of specialization that will count in both the Political Science and in the Global Studies curriculum. The successful candidate will also be expected to offer GBST 300 (Perspectives on Globalization) and GBST 400 (the Global Studies senior capstone course) on a regular basis. If the candidate is trained in social science research methods, teaching Political Science 301 (research methods) on a regular basis will also be expected. The typical teaching load is three courses per semester. The faculty member will advise and mentor Political Science and Global Studies undergraduate students, develop an active research agenda, and provide service to the Political Science Department and Global Studies Program, to the college, to the university and to the wider community.

Applications must include:

Submit all application materials electronically and direct any inquiries to: PSCITT@csusm.edu.

Applications may be considered until the position is filled; however, applications and all supporting materials should be received by September 1, 2014, to ensure full consideration. Additional materials may be requested of candidates at a later date.

St. Lawrence University, US

Position: Assistant Professor
Department: Global Studies
Job Type: Faculty Positions
Posted: 07/15/2014

The Global Studies Department at St. Lawrence University, located in Canton, New York, invites applications for an Assistant Professor position. The successful candidate must be able to: (1) teach introductory and upper-level undergraduate courses in Global Studies, including courses on Asia; globalization and political economy; and theories of global political economy, among others; (2) evaluate and grade students’ class work; (3) initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions; (4) compile, administer, and grade examinations; (5) keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature and participating in professional conferences; (6) engage in scholarly activity leading to presentation and publication of the findings; (7) prepare course materials such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts; (8) plan, evaluate and revise curricular, course content, and course materials and methods of instruction; (9) maintain regularly scheduled office hours in order to advise and assist students; (10) cooperate in Department course planning and development; (11) assist with Department projects and programs; and (12) participate in Department division and general faculty meetings and other forms of University service.

Qualified candidates must have Ph.D. degree in International Relations, Global Studies (or related field); expertise in global political economy; and must present evidence of excellence in teaching.

Please send a letter of application and CV to: Colleen Manley, Human Resources, St. Lawrence University, 23 Romoda Drive, Canton, NY 13617. Review of applications will begin immediately.

All offers of employment are contingent upon the finalist successfully passing a background (including criminal records) check.

Located in Canton, N.Y., St. Lawrence University is a coeducational, private, independent liberal arts institution of about 2,400 students from more than 40 states and 40 nations. The educational opportunities at St. Lawrence inspire students and prepare them to be critical and creative thinkers, to find a compass for their lives and careers, and to pursue knowledge and understanding for the benefit of themselves, humanity and the planet. Through its focus on active engagement with ideas in and beyond the classroom, a St. Lawrence education leads students to make connections that transform lives and communities, from the local to the global.

The University is committed to and seeks diversity among its faculty, staff and students. Such a commitment ensures an atmosphere that is diverse and complex in ways that are intellectually and socially enriching for the entire campus community. Applications by members of all underrepresented groups, as well as from individuals with experience teaching or working in a multicultural environment, are encouraged. St. Lawrence University is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

For additional information about St. Lawrence, please visit http://www.stlawu.edu.

University of London (SOAS), UK

Position: Senior Teaching Fellow in Microeconomics (0.5 FTE) Fixed Term for 1 Year at the Department of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London

Salary: £32,862 - £38,795 pro rata p.a. inclusive of London Allowance

Vacancy No: 000712

The Department of Economics invites applications for the post of Senior Teaching Fellow available from 1 September 2014 for one year. The successful candidate will be expected to teach courses in microeconomics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and an undergraduate course in quantitative methods. You will also be expected to contribute to the administration of the department.

You will have (or be near to completing) a PhD in economics, proven expertise in the field of microeconomics, and the ability to teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Economics to a high standard. You will also be able to demonstrate an enthusiasm for research-led teaching, and an interest in the mission of SOAS and its Department of Economics.

To apply for this vacancy or download a job description, please visit www.soas.ac.uk/jobs.


University of York, UK

The Environment Department of the University of York offers a position as Postdoctoral Research Associate (Ref: 3728)

You will be a research associate on an exciting and timely project “Evaluating the impact of austerity upon environmental policy in Europe” funded by the Leverhulme Trust and led by Dr Charlotte Burns. As such you will carry out a range of research tasks appropriate to the post including primary and secondary data searches and collating, reviewing and coding EU legislative data. You will organise and conduct fieldwork interviews with elite policy actors in the UK and other European countries. You will aid the development of a dissemination strategy for the project, and prepare and write single and jointly-authored peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters detailing the project’s findings.

You will have or be close to completing a PhD in a relevant discipline. Experience of analysing EU legislative data and conducting elite interviews will be an advantage. You will be fluent in written and spoken English to academic standard. Further European languages will be an advantage.

Starting salary will be: £30,434 per annum. The post is available for up to 36 months and is full-time, 37 hours per week.

Closing date: midnight on 11 August 2014.

For informal enquiries please email charlotte.burns@york.ac.uk . To apply go to our website.

The University of York holds an Athena SWAN Bronze Award. The Environment Department is committed to supporting equality and diversity for all staff and students.

Wellesley College, US

Title: Research Scientist/Senior Research Scientist/Economics (full time)

The Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) at Wellesley College is seeking a fulltime economist with research interests related to women and families, gender, and/or social inequalities. WCW is a women and gender-focused research and action institute funded primarily by grants and contracts. Our mission is to advance gender equality, social justice, and human wellbeing through high quality research, theory, and action programs. Please visit our website for a full description of current work at the Wellesley Centers for Women.

Requirements

A Ph.D. in economics is required, as is a record of scholarly publications and l research grant procurement. The ideal candidate has a background in applied microeconomics, labor economics, development economics, or public economics – although applicants with a women and families, gender, or social inequalities focused research agenda from other economic subfields are also welcome. The person in this position will bring her/his own research agenda. She/he can also collaborate with other WCW researchers to build on prior national and international work or to advance new strategic initiatives of the Centers.

The ability to secure funding is expected of all WCW researchers. Startup funding that includes salary support is available in the first two years of this position. Eventual financial self-support is expected, although WCW maintains funds for periodic partial support to offset the inevitable volatility of soft money funding.

This is a fulltime, 12-month position. We will begin reading letters of nomination and applications accompanied by a curriculum vitae beginning July 1, 2014. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

To apply online, please use the following link.

Awards

The 2015 ISRF Essay Competition in Economics

The Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) and the Cambridge Journal of Economics (CJE) intend to award a prize of CHF 7,000 for the best essay on the topic "What is the place of care in the economy?" This is a topic, not a title. Accordingly, authors are free to choose an essay title within this field.

Please read these details carefully before submitting your essay for consideration or contacting the Independent Social Research Foundation or the Cambridge Journal of Economics with a query.

The essay will be judged on its originality and independence of thought, its scholarly quality, its potential to challenge received ideas, and the success with which it matches the criteria of the ISRF and the CJE. The successful essay will be intellectually radical, orthogonal to existing debates, and may articulate a strong internal critique across the fields of economic research. Its challenge to received ideas will have the potential to provoke a re-thinking of the topic.

The ISRF is interested in original research ideas that take new approaches and suggest new solutions, to real world social problems. The full statement of the ISRF’s criteria and goals may be viewed here.

The CJE provides a forum for theoretical, applied, interdisciplinary, history of thought and methodological work, with strong emphasis on realistic analysis, the development of critical perspectives, the provision and use of empirical evidence, and the construction of policy. More detail about the Journal can be found on the Journal’s website.

The submitted essays will be judged and the winning essay will be chosen by an academic panel (the ISRF Essay Prize Committee). The panel’s decision will be final, and no assessments or comments will be made available. The result will be notified to applicants by email on 30th June 2015 and will then be announced by posting on the websites of the ISRF and of the CJE. The ISRF and the CJE reserve the right not to award the prize, and no award will be made if the submitted essays are of insufficient merit.

The winning essay, and any close runners-up, will be accepted for publication in the Journal; authors may be asked to make some corrections before publication. Other applicants may receive encouragement to revise and then re-submit their essays to the CJE.

The details and criteria are as follows:

Submissions should be made online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cje. Authors must indicate in an accompanying letter to the Editors that they wish their essay to be considered for the prize when submitting.

Queries: Telephone +44 (0) 20 7262 0196 or email essayprize2015@isrf.org.

The JSPE-Routledge Book Prize

The Japan Society of Political Economy (JSPE) is happy to announce the creation of the JSPE-Routledge Book Prize. The JSPE is an interdisciplinary association devoted to the study, development, and application of political economy to social problems. It has been the largest organization of heterodox economists in Japan since its founding in 1959, providing important occasions for developing and debating ideas about capitalism and its dynamics. The JSPE wishes to play a more active role in promoting political economy and heterodox economics internationally.

The Book prize is financially supported by Routledge, which is the world's leading academic publisher in the Humanities and Social Sciences, serving scholars, instructors, and professional communities worldwide. The prize encourages members of the JSPE to publish their work in English and to challenge the growing dominance of orthodox neo-liberal economics among economists and policy-makers. It also promotes studies in heterodox economics all over the world. It is the hope of the members of the JSPE that this prize in political economy will become equivalent to other great international economic prizes, such as the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which is given only to mainstream economists. The winner of this prize in any given year will be invited to the JSPE annual conference in Japan and will receive an award certificate and monetary grant (sponsored by Routledge).

Objectives of the JSPE-Routledge Book Prize and subject matter

The book prize will be awarded to a living political economist based on his or her "lifetime achievement" as embodied in a distinguished book that:

  1. has been published in English in the last quarter century; and
  2. reflects the analytical perspectives represented by the Japan Society of Political Economy – that is, which encompasses one of the following subjects:

Authors of books published between 1990 and 2014 are eligible for the 2014 book prize. It is open to both the JSPE members and non-members, and to both Japanese and non-Japanese authors.

Prize nomination and Selection process

The JSPE International Book Prize Committee, which consists of Chairperson of the JSPE, Chairperson of the JSPE International Committee and three members of the JSPE, invites each member of the JSPE steering committee and its Overseas Aacademic Advisers (Andrew Barshay, Robert Boyer, Enfu Cheng, Ronald Dore, Gerard Dumenil, Gary Dymski, James Heintz, Costas Lapavitsas, Alain Lipietz, Robert Pollin, Robert Rowthorn, Saskia Sassen) to nominate a candidate for the prize every year. The JSPE International Book Prize Committee reviews proposals and votes for the winner. The Prize winner is announced at the JSPE annual conference.

Contact: Nobuharu Yokokawa (The JSPE International Committee); Jspecice@jspe.gr.jp; Musashi University, Toyotama-kami 1-26-1, Nerima-ku, Tokyo 1768534, Japan

Journals

Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 7 (1)

Daniel F. Hartner: From desire to subjective value: what neuroeconomics reveals about naturalism

Ian Wright: A category-mistake in the classical labour theory of value

Richard Sobel and Nicolas Postel: Conceptualising the labour-money connection: a critical re-examination of Benetti and Cartelier’s Marchands, salariat et capitalistes

In pursuit of the rarest of birds: an interview with Gilbert Faccarello

Forum for Social Economics, 43 (2)

Edward O'Boyle: Origins of the Association for Social Economics

Ori Zax, Mosi Rosenbaum, Tal Shavit: Effects of Expected Effort on Females in the Labor Market

Joshua D. Pitts, Charles Kroncke: Educational Attainment and the Gender Wage Gap: A Comparison of Young Men and Women in 1984 and 2007

Frederic L. Pryor: What Do the Elderly Do?

Roger A. McCain: Why Need is “A Word We Cannot Do Without” in Economics

Industrial and Corporate Change, 23 (4)

Jongwook Kim: Formal and informal governance in biotechnology alliances: board oversight, contractual control, and repeated deals.

Mi Feng: Local appeal and competition in multiple geographic markets: evidence from California retail banking between 1900 and 1990.

Giulio Buciuni & Giancarlo Coro' & Stefano Micelli: Rethinking the role of manufacturing in global value chains: an international comparative study in the furniture industry.

Marco Capasso & Elena Cefis & Koen Frenken: On the existence of persistently outperforming firms.

Hans-Theo Normann & Elaine S. Tan: Effects of different cartel policies: evidence from the German power-cable industry.

Mariana Mazzucato & Alan Shipman: Accounting for productive investment and value creation.

Leonardo Becchetti & Stefano Castriota & Sara Depedri: Working in the for-profit versus not-for-profit sector: what difference does it make? An inquiry on preferences of voluntary and involuntary movers.

Daniel Fackler & Claus Schnabel & Joachim Wagner: Lingering illness or sudden death? Pre-exit employment developments in German establishments.

Intereconomics, 49 (4)

Debora Revoltella: The European Investment crisis

László Andor, Sebastian Dullien, H. Xavier Jara, Holly Sutherland: Designing a European unemployment insurance scheme

Ansgar Belke: Monetary dialogue 2009–2014: Looking backward, looking forward

David Cronin: Interaction in euro area sovereign bond markets during the financial crisis

Dennis Tamesberger, Heinz Leitgöb, Johann Bacher: How to combat NEET? Evidence from Austria

Aldis Auster: How great is Latvia’s success story?

Barry Eichengreen: The ECB tries again

International Journal of Political Economy, 42 (4)

Marion Seccareccia: Understanding Financialization: History, Theory, and Institutional Analysis: Editor's Introduction

Malcolm Sawyer: What Is Financialization?

Alessandro Vercelli: Financialization in a Long-Run Perspective: An Evolutionary Approach

Ben Fine: Financialization from a Marxist Perspective

Jo Michell, Jan Toporowski: Critical Observations on Financialization and the Financial Process

Bruno Bonizzi: Financialization in Developing and Emerging Countries: A Survey

Noemi Levy-Orlik: Financialization and Economic Growth in Developing Countries: The Case of the Mexican Economy

Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 24 (3)

William Kingston: Schumpeter and the end of Western Capitalism

Christian Schubert: “Generalized Darwinism” and the quest for an evolutionary theory of policy-making

Martin Binder: Should evolutionary economists embrace libertarian paternalism?

Christos A. Iaonnou: Coevolution of finite automata with errors

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Hamid Beladi: A model of trade between creative regions in the presence of sector specific learning by doing

Jackie Krafft, Francesco Quatraro, Pier Paolo Saviotti: Knowledge characteristics and the dynamics of technological alliances in pharmaceuticals: empirical evidence from Europe, US and Japan

Arianna Martinelli, Önder Nomaler: Measuring knowledge persistence: a genetic approach to patent citation networks

Michael Peneder, Martin Woerter: Competition, R&D and innovation: testing the inverted-U in a simultaneous system

Christian Cordes, Peter J. Richerson, Georg Schwesinger: A corporation’s culture as an impetus for spinoffs and a driving force of industry evolution

Journal of Institutional Economics, 10 (3)

Daniel Cole, Graham Epstein, and Michael D. McGinnis: Digging deeper into Hardin's pasture: the complex institutional structure of ‘the tragedy of the commons’

Valentin Seidler: When do institutional transfers work? The relation between institutions, culture and the transplant effect: the case of Borno in north-eastern Nigeria

Olivier Brette, Thomas Buhler, Nathalie Lazaric and Kevin Marechal: Reconsidering the nature and effects of habits in urban transportation behavior

Javier Alfonso-Gil, Maricruz LaCalle-Calderón, and Rocío Sánchez-Mangas: Civil liberty and economic growth in the world: a long-run perspective, 1850–2010

Bryan C. McCannon: Trust, reciprocity, and a preference for economic freedom: experimental evidence

Randall G. Holcombe: The economic theory of rights

Michelle Hallack and Miguel Vazquez: Who decides the rules for network use? A ‘common pool’ analysis of gas network regulation

Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 36 (4)

John T. Harvey: Teaching Keynes's business cycle: an extension of Paul Davidson's capital market model

Kenneth Austin: Systemic equilibrium in a Bretton Woods II-type international monetary system: the special roles of reserve issuers and reserve accumulators

Kevin W. Capehart: Thinking about a hairy situation

Yasuo Nishiyama: The endogenous money supply revisited in a more realistic institutional framework

Douglas Alcantara Alencar, Eduardo Strachman: Balance-of-payments-constrained growth in Brazil: 1951-2008

Pablo Ignacio Chena: Balance-of-payments-constrained growth in Argentina (1976-2006)

Eric Tymoigne: Measuring macroprudential risk through financial fragility: a Minskian approach

Akhand Akhtar Hossain: Monetary policy, inflation, and inflation volatility in Australia

Jakob Kapeller, Bernhard Schütz: Debt, boom, bust: a theory of Minsky-Veblen cycles

Review of Keynesian Economics, 2 (3)

Steve Keen: Endogenous Money and Effective Demand

Brett Fiebiger: Keen and the “Walras-Schumpeter-Minsky Law”: Financial Intermediation and the Distribution of National Income also Matter to Macroeconomics

Thomas I. Palley: Effective demand, endogenous money, and debt: a Keynesian critique of Keen and an alternative theoretical framework

Marc Lavoie: A comment on endogenous money and aggregate demand: a revolution or a step backwards?

Jamee K. Moudud and Francisco Martinez- Hernandez: The Political Economy of Public Investment and Public Finance: Challenges for Social Democratic Policies

Mark Stelzner: Political Contest, Policy Control, and Inequality in the United States

Penélope Pacheco-López and A. P. Thirlwall: A New Interpretation of Kaldor’s First Growth Law for Open Developing Economies

Review of Political Economy, 26 (3)

Andrew Farrant & Edward McPhail: Can a Dictator Turn a Constitution into a Can-opener? F.A. Hayek and the Alchemy of Transitional Dictatorship in Chile.

Guinevere Nell: The Alchemy of the Can Opener: How an Austrian Economist Found Himself Supporting Dictatorial Imposition of a Liberal Order.

John Meadowcroft & William Ruger: Hayek, Friedman, and Buchanan: On Public Life, Chile, and the Relationship between Liberty and Democracy.

Theodore Burczak: Dictating Liberty.

Jon D. Wisman: The Financial Crisis of 1929 Reexamined: The Role of Soaring Inequality.

Alexis Stenfors: LIBOR as a Keynesian Beauty Contest: A Process of Endogenous Deception.

Motohiro Okada: A Reassessment of Marx's Thought on Labour Exchange.

Kristina Spantig: Keynesian Dominance in Crisis Therapy.

John A. Cotsomitis: Demand-Side Characteristics of the Learning Economy: A Preliminary Assessment.

Review of Radical Political Economics, 46 (3)

Bruno Jossa: The Key Contradiction in Capitalist System

Kate Bayliss: The Financialization of Water

Thomas Marois: Historical Precedents, Contemporary Manifestations: Crisis and the Socialization of Financial Risk in Neoliberal Mexico

Chiara Piovani: Class Power and China’s Productivity Miracle: Applying the Labor Extraction Model to China’s Industrial Sector, 1980-2007

Simon Mohun: Unproductive Labor in the U.S. Economy 1964-2010

Daniel E. Saros: Interlocking Turnover Continua and the Structure of Capital

Books and Book Series

Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

By Wolfgang Streeck | 2014, Verso Books

The financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 still has the world on tenterhooks. The gravity of the situation is matched by a general paucity of understanding about what is happening and how it started.
In this book, based on his 2012 Adorno Lectures given in Frankfurt, Wolfgang Streeck places the crisis in the context of the long neoliberal transformation of postwar capitalism that began in the 1970s. He analyses the subsequent tensions and conflicts involving states, governments, voters and capitalist interests, as expressed in inflation, public debt, and rising private indebtedness. Streeck traces the transformation of the tax state into a debt state, and from there into the consolidation state of today. At the centre of the analysis is the changing relationship between capitalism and democracy, in Europe and elsewhere, and the advancing immunization of the former against the latter.

Link to the book is available here.

Credit Ratings and Sovereign Debt: The Political Economy of Creditworthiness through Risk and Uncertainty

By Bartholomew Paudyn | Palgrave Macmillan

At the heart of the struggle to constitute the 'politics of limits' – the parameters defining the budgetary realities facing governments – is the growing antagonistic relationship between the imperatives of private (financial) markets and public democracies. Through a new analytical instrumentality, this interdisciplinary account problematizes credit ratings and the problem of sovereign debt to show how the authoritative knowledge underpinning the political economy of creditworthiness is constructed through the deployment of the discursive practices of risk and uncertainty. Unpacking the 'black-box' of sovereign ratings, as a socio-technical device of control and governmentality, we better understand how their authoritative capacity/utility are constituted through their performative effects, which create the conditions and subjectivities that serve to validate and regenerate a disinflationary fiscal normality/rectitude. Political judgment is censured through depoliticizing risk techniques; as a (fallacious) analytics of ratings helps elevate quantitative expertise and relegates competing, qualitative approaches in the design of a neoliberal politics of limits. This exacerbates the asymmetry between epistocracy and democracy, which prompts attempts to reclaim lost fiscal sovereignty.

Link to the book is available here for Europe (and UK) and here for North America.

Greek Capitalism in Crisis: Marxist Analyses

By Stavros Mavroudeas | 2014, Routledge

Despite the depth of the Greek crisis, the exorbitant burdens placed upon the working people and the massive popular resistance movement to capitalist policies, there is a definite lack of consistently Marxist analyses of the Greek problem. International debates regarding the Greek crisis have been dominated by orthodox (Neoclassical and neo-Keynesian) approaches.

The heterodox side of these debates has been occupied by Radical Political Economy approaches (usually radical post-Keynesian or Marxo-Keynesian perspectives). Moreover, they are dominated by the ‘financialisation’ thesis which is quite alien to Marxism, neglects the sphere of production and professes that the global crisis is simply a financial crisis that has nothing to do with ‘real’ accumulation and the profit rate.

This book argues that by emphasising the sphere of production and profitability, classical Marxist analysis better explains the Greek crisis than its orthodox and heterodox competitors. The contributors present critiques of the prevalent approaches and offer studies of the Greek crisis that use the methodology and the analytical and empirical tools of classical Marxist Political Economy. In particular, it is shown that the Greek crisis was caused by falling profitability and the ensuing overaccumulation crisis. The ‘broad unequal exchange’ existing between the euro-center and the euro-periphery contributed to Greek capital’s falling profitability. This book enriches the debate about the Greek economic crisis by demonstrating the insights that can be drawn by considering the Marxist alternative to the dominant mainstream and heterodox approaches.

Link to the book is available here, to receive a 20% discount, enter code "LRK69" @ checkout.

Jeffrey Sachs: The Strange Case of Dr. Shock and Mr. Aid

By Japhy Wilson | 2014, Verso Books

Jeffrey Sachs is a man with many faces. A celebrated economist and special advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, he is also no stranger to the world of celebrity, accompanying Bono, Madonna and Angelina Jolie on high-profile trips to Africa. Once notorious as the progenitor of a brutal form of free market engineering called "shock therapy," Sachs now positions himself as a voice of progressivism, condemning the "1 per cent" and promoting his solution to extreme poverty through the Millennium Villages Project.

Appearances can be deceiving. Jeffrey Sachs: The Strange Case of Dr. Shock and Mr. Aid is the story of an evangelical development expert who poses as saviour of the Third World while opening vulnerable nations to economic exploitation. Based on documentary research and on-the-ground investigation, Jeffrey Sachs exposes Mr. Aid as no more than a new, more human face of Dr. Shock.

Link to the book is available here.

Macroeconomics: A Fresh Start

By Peter Dorman | 2014, Springer

The world has changed dramatically in recent years and so has the field of economics, but many introductory economics textbooks have remained stuck in the past. This book provides a new beginning for the study of macroeconomics, fundamentally international in its approach and emphasizing current debates and research trends. The first, mostly descriptive half of the book presents the main macroeconomic and financial patterns observed across the world, the institutions that govern national economies and the policy options available to decision-makers. In the second half, different schools of thought in macroeconomics are introduced with an emphasis on their underlying assumptions, so that students can judge for themselves how well they apply in real-world situations.
Throughout the book, the post-2007 financial crisis is a continuing focus and financial markets are fully integrated in the analysis. Policy debates are viewed in light of political economy considerations, both domestic and international. The book’s style focuses on in-depth explanations and supports teaching methodologies based on critical thinking and active learning, encouraging students to relate to current discussions, especially those taking place online.

Link to the book is available here.

Microeconomics: A Fresh Start

By Peter Dorman | 2014, Springer

The world has changed dramatically in recent years and so has the field of economics, but many introductory economics textbooks have remained stuck in the past. This book provides a new beginning for the study of microeconomics, emphasizing current debates and research trends. It is international in outlook and reflects the shift toward empirical methods, as well as the study of institutions and economic behavior. It is also written to fit in with an approach to teaching based on active learning and critical thinking. Mainstream material is still covered, but within a new context, making it more relevant, realistic and responsive to the deeper questions economists are now asking about theory and policy. Economics as a discipline is viewed from a broad perspective that takes into account new developments at the intersections with psychology, political science, the natural sciences and philosophy. Economics as presented in this text is less sure that it has all the answers, but it is more interesting, application-oriented and open to new ideas.

Link to the book is available here.

Political Economy After Economics: Scientific Method and Radical Imagination

By David Laibman | 2014, Routledge

This re-incorporation of economics into political economy is one (small, but not insignificant) element in a larger project: to place all of the resources of present-day social-scientific research at the service of increasing democracy, in an ultimate direction toward socialism in the classic sense. An economics-enriched political economy is, above all, empowering: working people in general can calculate, build models, think theoretically, and contribute to a human-worthy future, rather than leaving all this to their "betters."

Link to the book is available here, to receive a 20% discount, enter code "LRK69" @ checkout.

Process of Economic Development: 4th edition

By James M. Cypher | 2014, Routledge

The fourth edition of The Process of Economic Development offers a thorough and up-to-date treatment of development economics. This landmark text will continue to be an invaluable resource for students, teachers and researchers in the fields of development economics and development studies. The new edition has been revised and updated throughout, reflecting the most recent developments in research and incorporating the latest empirical data, as well as key theoretical advances. This book is unique in its scope and in the detailed attention it gives to the historical contexts that have influenced progress toward development. It is accessibly written both for students of economics and for those with an interest in the many aspects of development studies.

Instructors considering this as a core text on relevant courses with 12 or more students may request a complimentary exam copy by emailing beth.henderson@taylorandfrancis.com.

Link to the book is available here, to receive a 20% discount, enter code "LRK70" @ checkout.

Heterodox Graduate Programs, Scholarships and Grants

Economic Research Forum: Calls for Proposals

ERF is pleased to announce the following calls for proposals:

1. The Use of the Online Labor Market Panel Surveys Data

Deadline for submissions: August 15, 2014

ERF has made substantial investments in collecting Labor Market Panel Surveys and has made these data sets publicly available to researchers through the ERF data portal. Capitalizing on the datasets currently available online from three waves of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) carried out in 1998, 2006 and 2012 and one wave of the Jordan Labor Market Panel Survey (JLMPS) carried out in 2010, we encourage researchers to use this valuable data resource to enhance our understanding of a variety of labor market challenges and issues relevant to the region. Researchers are invited to submit original research proposals to address any research question which requires the use of the Labor Market Panel Surveys data available.

2. Reforming the Pension Systems in the ERF Region

Deadline for submissions: August 15, 2014

The call is intended to generate fresh knowledge on how well these systems are designed, how they function and how to make them more sustainable, efficient and equitable. The proposals may address any of the following sub-themes or relationships, focusing on a specific country or a group of countries in the region.

  1. Social security and inter-generational inequality
  2. Social security and inequality between formal and informal workers
  3. Social security, public finance and financial sustainability
  4. Social security markets and institutions (including rules, providers, regulators) and their impact on efficiency and equity
  5. Social security, incentives and employment.

3. Education in the ERF Region

Deadline for submissions: August 15, 2014

Researchers are invited to submit proposals to address any of the following, but by no means exclusively, sub-themes:

  1. Linking student performance with teachers incentives/management pecuniary and non-pecuniary incentives,
  2. Evaluating the performance of public vs. private education institutions,
  3. Assessing (quantitatively and qualitatively) the relationship between educational outcomes and the governance structure of education institutions, especially in terms of autonomy, accountability and transparency,
  4. Examining the impact of decentralization experiences on education outcomes,
  5. Assessing public spending on education (allocations, spending patterns) in terms of its efficiency (student–teacher ratios, class size, and unit costs) and equity (geographically, income class, gender), and the process of budgetary allocations,
  6. Assessing the policy of free education, especially in terms of access by the poor and social mobility.

ISRF Independent Scholar Research Fellowship (ISF2)

Providing Research Support in Interdisciplinary Social Science

The Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) wishes to support independent-minded researchers to do interdisciplinary work which is unlikely to be funded by existing funding bodies. It is interested in original research ideas which take new approaches, and suggest new solutions, to real world social problems.

The Foundation intends to award on a competitive basis, to candidates of sufficient merit, up to two Independent Scholar Fellowship grants to support original interdisciplinary research, across the range of the social sciences, to be held from a start date no later than the end of December 2015.

The award is intended to enable the buy-out from current occupation of an independent scholar to pursue his/her research full- or part-time (or for support if unwaged) for a period of up to 12 months, and will be considered to a maximum of £25,000 per successful applicant. The awards are not intended to support newly qualified scholars entering the post-doctoral stage. Reasonable childcare or other domestic costs may be considered.

An ‘Independent Scholar’ is understood as someone, whether or not currently in employment, who is engaged on intellectual work of a nature and standard comparable to that of a professional academic.

Normally applicants will hold a PhD. Other academic or professional qualifications may be considered, along with publications usually in peer-reviewed academic journals. Monographs, professional journals and the popular media may also be considered.

The research proposed may include, but is not confined to: initiation of a project or of research level work intended to draw on or contribute to one of the professions, completion of a project, or preparation of an article or monograph for publication, based on existing work.

Referees will be asked not only to assess the value of the project, but to comment on the applicant’s intellectual orientation and acumen, and commitment to intellectual values.

The proposals will be assessed on the same criteria and by the same selection process as the foundation’s professional academic fellowships.

Applicants should consult the Criteria as set out in the Further Particulars (see link below) and show that they meet them. Applicants should follow the Application procedure and should present their Proposal in the format specified there.

Closing date for applications is 4pm on August 18th 2014. Click here for more information.

MPhil/PhD Scholarships at City University London

The department is seeking to award a bursary which includes a 3-year teaching assistantship plus tuition waiver to an outstanding applicant for MPhil/PhD study. Our recently restructure programme involves taking three taught advanced modules in the first year in macroeconomics, microeconomics, and econometrics. The department offers supervision in the areas of Behavioural Economics, Economics of Development, Econometrics, Financial Economics, Health Economics History of Economic Thought and Economic History, Industrial Organisation and the Economics of Regulation and Competition, Labour Economics and Macroeconomics. Preference will be given t applicants whose cover letters offer convincing motivation for PhD study and whose research proposals address the fit of their own research with the interests of existing staff members. For more information on the latter, please visit: www.city.ac.uk/economics-staff-profiles.

For summary information about staff research interests plus a more detailed description of the opening, visit this website.

Deadline: 20th August 2014.

Interviews (via Skype or in person): 2nd and 3rd September 2014.

Anyone potentially interested in HET or economic history should contact Andy Denis in the first instance.

The Environment Department of the University of York offers a PhD studentship

PhD studentship to work on a Leverhulme Trust funded project: ‘Evaluating the impact of austerity upon environmental policy in Europe’

Institution: University of York: Environment Department Duration: 3 years

Fully Funded PhD

Applications are invited for a fully-funded three year PhD in the Department of Environment at the University of York, to work on an exciting and timely project investigating the impact of austerity upon environmental policy in Europe funded by the Leverhulme Trust and led by Dr Charlotte Burns. The project will evaluate the impact of austerity upon EU level environmental policy and four EU national case studies.

Qualifications

Applicants should have at least a good 2:1 degree in political science/public policy or a cognate discipline and have, or be close to completion of, a Masters’ degree. Applicants should have fluent written and spoken English to academic standard, and be able and willing to travel within the EU. Further European languages will be an advantage.

To Apply

Please go to our online application system and apply via the Environment Department, Environmental Economics and Environmental Management PhD programme:

Informal Enquiries can be addressed to Dr Charlotte Burns (charlotte.burns@york.ac.uk).

Newsletters

Global Development And Environment Institute

Timothy A. Wise: Will the WTO fast-track trade at the expense of food security?

Global Economic Governance Initiative

Kevin P. Gallagher, José Antonio Ocampo, Ming Zhang, Yu Yongding: Capital Account Liberalization in China: A Cautionary Tale

Kevin P. Gallagher: BRICS: Toward a Rio Consensus

Rachel Denae Thrasher: Leaked TISA Financial Services Text: A glimpse into the future of services liberalization

Global Labour Column

Eddie Cottle: Chinese Construction Companies in Africa: A Challenge for Trade Unions

Ahmet Tellioglu: Turkey seen through the Prism of Occupational Diseases: Success Story or Hidden Disaster?

Stephanie Barral: Labour Issues in Indonesian Plantations: from Indenture to Entrepreneurship

For Your Information

FAPE-Report on "Evolution of Economics Professors' Recruitment since 2000 in France"

The French Association of Political Economy (FAPE/AFEP) has published a report on recent trends in economics professors' recruitment in France. It shows a remarkable decline in hirings of economists with a heterodox orientation in research and teaching - a result summarized in the paper's subtitle as "the end of pluralism".

Pluralist Economics Reader

The Pluralist Economics Reader offers basic readings in mainstream critique, pluralism and theoretical alternatives. Due to copyright reasons the reader must be used for self-learning purposes only. Comment on the reader and give content-related improvement proposals below – a new edition of the Pluralist Economics Reader will be published every year!

Step 1: Request your access key: reader@plurale-oekonomik-hamburg.de

Step 2: Download the Pluralist Economics Reader:

Part I: Economics in Crisis

Part II: Confronting the Mainstream

Part III: Pluralism - What's in a name?

Part IV: No Pluralism without Alternatives

About this Reader

The basic idea of this reader is to help students of economics to help themselves. In a time of flawed economic education students are called to organize teaching on their own in order to gain new scientific perspectives. The economics mainstream seemed to have been without means to predict the crisis in the best case, to be an integral part of its causes in the worst. Numerous student initiatives emerged independently from each other and unified under the concept of pluralism. While this movement grows steadily, with the formation of the International Students Initiative for Pluralist Economics as its latest expression, there can be no question of a clear line for the realignment of economics. Pluralism as a concept doesn’t give concrete answers, but opens the door for asking new questions.

There are fundamental controversial questions within Pluralist Economics that can and should not be answered ultimately. Some of these are: What exactly makes up mainstream economics, and to which sort of critique should it be exposed? Are mainstream economics neoclassical in nature, or have they moved towards internal pluralism? Are their basic ideas fundamentally flawed or is there space for their gradual advancement? How does the critique of the mainstream relate to the more than 30-year-old tradition of heterodox economics? Is there a unified alternative economic paradigm, or is it possible at least? In which ways is science embedded in society, and how political is the economics discipline?

The Pluralist Economics Reader offers entry-points into these discussions. The first Part (Economics in Crisis), portraits the on-going struggle over the future of the discipline and situates it in the context of a world economy in crisis. The second part (Confronting the Mainstream) gives insight into the varied criticism mainstream economics is exposed to. Besides axiomatic criticism, thorough examinations of the epistemology, history of thought, methodology as well as of micro- and macro-approaches in mainstream economics are included in this chapter. The third part (Pluralism – what’s in a name?) presents important pieces of the on-going debate about the nature of heterodox economics in relation to the pluralist project. The last part (No Pluralism without Alternatives) portraits four approaches to economics which can be said to belong to the paradigms most ignored by the mainstream – namely feminist, ecological, post-keynesian and marxist economics.

This reader is a project in progress. On the website the current selection can be exposed to criticism and improvement proposals. Pluralism is an empty phrase if it isn’t understood as a challenge for opening competing world views, ideas and theories for dispute.