Issue 202 September 19, 2016 web pdf Heterodox Economics Directory
Out there, in the blogosphere, you can find a nice and polite exchange between Simon Wren-Lewis and Jo Michell on the relative merits and problems of mainstream and heterodox macroeconomic modelling (see here, here and here). While they are raising a series of interesting and noteworthy points I was surprised to find that an even more inspiring read on this subject is provided by Paul Romer. Although Paul focuses solely on the mainstream and although I critized his superficial account on "mathiness" in the past (here), I think in his recent paper on The Trouble with Macroeconomics he gets a lot of things right and thereby underscores my past assertion that his views are endogenously evolving in the right direction (see here).
In his criticism he focuses on the role of calibration exercises in mainstream macroeconomic modelling shows why "calibration" often implies an obfuscated form of introducing unwarranted assumptions. Additionally, he correctly identifies disciplinary groupthink as a main source of the uncritical acceptance of these practices and chastises the related tendency to use exogenous shocks for incorporating otherwise unexplained developments (as in standard S/D-analysis, see here). He also makes a series of interesting remarks in passing - e.g. that relations between individuals matter for aggregate outcomes or that the increasing variety of models in mainstream economics invites arbitrariness when it comes to judging their relative importance and relevance.
"More recently, 'all models are false' seems to have become the universal hand-wave for dismissing any fact that does not conform to the model that is the current favorite." (Romer 2016, p. 5)
I actually made a similar argument about the still problematic treatment of unrealistic assumptions and an ever-widening variety of models within the mainstream in a panel-discussion on reforming economic education, which has been invited at the annual meeting of the German Economic Association. While my argument was intelligible to some parts of the audience, other participants ensured me that they could not see any problems and, hence, did not understand what I was talking about. As I was aiming for gently expressing my point of view in the panel-debate, I hope that Paul's more direct formulations might provide some addtional clarification.
All the Best,
Jakob
© public domain
25-28 February, 2017 | Washington D.C, US
ASE @ Eastern Economics Association meetings
Submissions are now open for the Association for Social Economics sessions at the 2016 Eastern Economic Association meetings, being held in Washington D.C. from Feb 25 – Feb 28, 2016.
Please visit the conference website for more details.
Individual submissions and/or organized sessions are encouraged to submit proposals. Session themes that integrate economics and other social disciplines including philosophy, sociology, geography, political science, and anthropology are particularly encouraged.
All whose proposals are accepted must register for the conference but do not have to pay the paper submission fee. It is expected that all presenters are willing to serve as a chair and/or discussant on other ASE sessions. Please indicate in your submission if there are any days/times that you are unavailable during the conference.
Please e-mail Michael J. Murray (mmurray@bemidjistate.edu) your proposals for papers and/or complete sessions (or any questions about the meetings) by Saturday, November 21, 2015.
Commemorating the 60 anniversary of March and Simon’s “Organizations”
Submission Deadline: 1st June, 2017
GUEST EDITORS
TOPIC OF INTEREST
James March and Herbert Simon’s (1958) Organizations is one of the most influential contributions to the social sciences. To celebrate its sixtieth anniversary, this Special Issue addresses, evaluates and explicates the continuing relevance of this work in various fields of management and organization studies. In line with the Carnegie School’s tradition of interdisciplinary research, we welcome contributions from across the social sciences and humanities. Contributions might address, but are not limited to issues such as the following:
We encourage theoretical or empirical articles that approach the subject creatively. Empirical contributions can be quantitative or qualitative.
SUBMISSION PROCESS AND DEADLINES
Papers will be reviewed according to the JMS double-blind review process.
Submissions should be prepared using the JMS Manuscript Preparation Guidelines (http://www.socadms.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/JMS-Manuscript-Preparation-Guidelines.pdf).
The deadline for submissions is 1 June 2017.
Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail to the guest editors at the following address: koumakhov@neoma-bs.fr and copied to bromiley@uci.edu; denise@cmu.edu; starbuck@uoregon.edu.
Informal enquiries relating to the Special Issue, proposed topics and potential fit with the Special Issue objectives are welcomed. Please direct any questions to the guest editors at the e-mail addresses above.
References and more details are available here.
3-4 June, 2017 | Tokushima Bunri University, Shikoku, Japan
The 81st Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for the History of Economic Thought (JSHET) will be held on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4, June 2017 at Tokushima Bunri University, Shikoku. It takes approximately 70 minutes from Tokyo to Tokushima by air.
The organising committee invites proposals for individual papers (in English or in Japanese) on all aspects of the history of economic thought.
Submissions should be sent to: https://www.secure-cloud.jp/sf/1473324330ElcAESuG
Each applicant is invited to send an abstract of about 600 words in English (or 2,000 letters in Japanese) for a paper as an attached document (PDF or WORD format) to an e-mail, containing the title of the paper, his/her name, affiliation, postal and electronic addresses.
The deadline for submission is Thursday 10 November 2016. A complete list of accepted presentations and a provisional programme will be available by the end of December 2016. An outline (up to 2,000 words in English) of the paper should be submitted by 5 March 2017. Failing to submit it by that deadline, your application will be automatically cancelled. The compiled outlines will be printed and mailed to all JSHET members one month before the conference. You can also ask the committee that your full paper should be downloaded from its website. Otherwise, you can distribute your paper or handouts to the conference on the day of your presentation. The fee for non-members of JSHET to present a paper at the conference is 6,000 JPY.
Further information of JSHET and of the conference may be found on the website: http://jshet.net/modules/english/
For additional information, please send your queries to the following email address. We are very much looking forward to welcoming you next year in Japan.
Local Committee
Programme Committee
March 31 - April 2, 2017 | Westin Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Theme: The Economy as Social - Studies in Social Economics
Recently there has been a revival of research that takes as its starting point the idea that economies are constituted through relationships and networks of social solidarity, communitarian ethics, and other-regarding behaviors. This has implications for re-interpreting, re-imagining and reconstituting economic concepts and theories such as human/social capital, community/social enterprise, technological innovation, human capabilities and solidarity economies. We invite papers from researchers and teachers that present case studies, empirical analyses, theoretical essays or pedagogical explorations that address these and other topics in social economics.
Please submit a copy of the paper title and abstract (up to 250 words) to Bruce Pietrykowski, Association for Social Economics Midwest Regional Director: bpie@umich.edu no later than October 6, 2016.
Please refer to the Midwest Economic Association web site for further information regarding the 2017 MEA Conference: http://mea.grinnell.edu/
Deadline: October 6, 2016
6 April, 2017 | Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York City, US
A one-day conference at Hofstra University celebrating the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of Karl Marx's Capital.
We invite submissions of papers to be presented at a conference to be held at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, on Thursday April 6th, 2017. We are soliciting papers from any discipline that extend and apply Marx's analytical apparatus (including the labor theory of value) to some aspect of the crisis of global capitalism today.
Plenary Speakers:
Please send a 250 word abstract by October 15th, 2016 to the conference organizers (Conrad.Herold@Hofstra.edu or Marc.L.Silver@Hofstra.edu). Include your name, an e-mail address, and a brief biographical statement. We anticipate including selected papers in a published anthology. We are prepared to extend the length of the conference into the weekend of April 7th to 9th, should submissions so warrant.
Sponsored by The Hofstra University Cultural Center
Conference Co-directors:
A PDF version of the call for papers is available here.
20-22 April, 2017 | Boston College, US
Broadly considered, critical race IP brings together two strands of scholarship: critical race theory and IP. Scholarship in critical race IP, which engages a variety of topics and texts, focuses on questions which thematically examine the relationship between race and racial formation and the study of copyrights, trademarks, patents, rights of publicity and trade secrets. Issues such as the trademarking of #BlackLivesMatter, the creation of race-based patents, the deployment of rhetorics of piracy demonstrate that race and IP intersect in important and complex ways. Regardless of their chosen topic of study, Race IP Crits do work which implicates thematic questions such as:
For full consideration, please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words of the proposed paper with your name, position, and affiliation to raceipconference@gmail.com. We welcome abstracts from participants at all stages in their careers. Junior faculty members and graduate students that indicate their positions on their submissions will be considered for slots set aside for emerging scholars. All abstracts must be received by October 31, 2016.
Accepted participants will be expected to circulate completed papers of approximately 8,500 words by March 15, 2017 so that they may be distributed to moderators and panelists. Papers must be original and unpublished (not in print at the time of the conference). A selection of conference papers will be published in an edited collection which outlines the theoretical investments, aims, methods, and directions of study of critical race IP.
Please feel free to email the organizers with abstracts or questions: raceipconference@gmail.com
Submission Deadline – October 31, 2016
The Race + IP conference organizing committee:
11-13 April, 2017 | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Ludwig M. Lachmann (1906-1990) was an outstanding social scientist whose achievements ranged across a number of disciplines, including economics, sociology, law and philosophy. Well known for his work on Max Weber, his analysis of the limitations of equilibrium economics, and his contributions to the development of Austrian economics, Lachmann’s legacy revolves around three central themes: radical subjectivism, hermeneutics and human agency; market process and legal order; capital theory and macroeconomics.
To celebrate Lachmann’s life and work, WINIR is holding a Symposium at his former university in South Africa. Submissions on any of the above topics, or any other topic related to Lachmann’s research, are welcome. Papers can be supportive or critical of Lachmann’s views. The Symposium will use Lachmann’s work as a point of departure to generate a wide-ranging discussion of the relations between uncertainty, agency and institutions.
The Symposium will open on the afternoon of Tuesday 11 April and end in the afternoon of Thursday 13 April 2017.
Keynotes lectures will be given by:
Abstract submissions (300 words max.) from any academic discipline, theoretical approach or methodology are welcome.
Submit an abstract here.
Submissions will be evaluated by the WINIR Scientific Quality Committee: Bas van Bavel (Utrecht University, history),Simon Deakin (University of Cambridge, law), Geoff Hodgson (University of Hertfordshire, economics), Uskali Mäki (University of Helsinki, philosophy), Katharina Pistor (Columbia University, law), Sven Steinmo (European University Institute, politics), Wolfgang Streeck (Max Planck Institute Cologne, sociology), Linda Weiss (University of Sydney, politics).
Please note the following important dates:
We look forward to receiving your submission. For more information visit www.winir.org
GUEST EDITORS: Thomas Allmer and Ergin Bulut
Modern universities have always been part of and embedded into capitalism in political, economic and cultural terms. In 1971, at the culmination of the Vietnam War, the Chomsky-Foucault debate reminded us of this fact when a young student pointed a question towards Chomsky: "How can you, with your very courageous attitude towards the war in Vietnam, survive in an institution like MIT, which is known here as one of the great war contractors and intellectual makers of this war?" (Chomsky and Foucault 2006, 63) Chomsky responded dialectically, but also had to admit that the academic institution he is working for is a major organisation of war research and thereby strengthens the political contradictions and inequalities in capitalist societies.
Edward P. Thompson, one of the central figures in the early years of British cultural studies, edited the book "Warwick University Ltd" in 1970. Thompson was working at the University of Warwick then and published together with colleagues and students a manuscript that discovered, as the title suggests, the close relationship of their university with industry and industrial capitalism. The book also revealed some evidence of secret political surveillance of staff and students by the university uncovered by students occupying the Registry at Warwick at that time.
The relationship between state control and global capitalism has intensified in the last decades. With the collapse of the welfare state and the drop of public funds, universities are positioning themselves as active agents of global capital, transforming urban spaces into venues for capital accumulation and competing for international student populations for profit. In this environment, students have to pay significant amounts of tuition for precarious futures. Similarly, teaching and research faculties across the globe have to negotiate their roles that are often strictly defined in an entrepreneurial manner. Increasingly, the value of academic labour is measured in capitalist terms and therefore subject to new forms of control, surveillance and productivity measures. As the recent cases of Steven Salaita (USA), Academics for Peace (Turkey) and the crackdown against students in India reveal, academic labour and academics in general are also facing immense challenges in terms of state control and freedom of speech.
Situated in this economic and political context, the overall task of this special issue of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique is to gather critical contributions examining universities, academic labour, digital media and capitalism. We are thus particularly interested in articles focusing on (1) the context, history and theoretical concepts underlying academic labour, (2) the relationship between academic work and digital media/new information and communication technologies/the Internet/social media and (3) the political potentials and challenges within higher education.
We welcome submissions that cover one or more of the following or related questions:
1) Contextualising and Theorising Academic Labour
2) Academic Labour and Digital Media
3) Politics, Struggles and Alternatives
DEADLINES:
Please submit article title, author name(s), contact data and abstract of 200-400 words to: Thomas Allmer, thomas.allmer@uti.at and Ergin Bulut, erginb@gmail.com
ABOUT THE GUEST EDITORS:
Thomas Allmer is Lecturer in Digital Media at the University of Stirling, Scotland, UK, and a member of the Unified Theory of Information Research Group, Austria. His publications include Towards a Critical Theory of Surveillance in Informational Capitalism (Peter Lang, 2012) and Critical Theory and Social Media: Between Emancipation and Commodification (Routledge, 2015). For further information, please see: http://allmer.uti.at
Ergin Bulut is Assistant Professor of Media and Visual Arts in Istanbul. His research interests include political economy of media, digital media and politics, and media labor. Together with Michael A. Peters, he edited Cognitive Capitalism, Education and Digital Labor (Peter Lang, 2011). His work has been published in TV & New Media, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Media, Culture and Society, and Journal of Communication Inquiry.
15-17 September 2016 | University of Coimbra, Portugal
This year’s EuroMemo Group conference will be jointly hosted with the Faculty of Economics at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, from 15-17 September 2016 (Thursday-Saturday).
The complete failure to cope with the refugee crisis and the continuing surge of nationalism with the Brexit referendum as its provisional culmination have contributed to a further deepening of the political and economic crisis of the European project during the past year. Against this background, the annual conference of the EuroMemo Group will address the political and economic state of the European Union, provide a critique of prevailing policies and discuss options for progressive alternatives.
With key-notes and contributions by Hans-Jürgen Bieling (University of Tübingen), Catherine Mathieu (OFCE/Science Po), Ricardo Cabral (University of Madeira), Cédric Durand (Paris 13 University) and Fabio De Masi (MEP GUE/NGL).
Please visit the conference website (http://www.euromemo.eu/annual_workshops/2016_coimbra/index.html) for the full programme and more details.
If you would like to participate, please copy the registration form into an email and reply to info@euromemo.eu.
4-5 October, 2016 | Vienna, Austria
The Chamber of Labour Vienna and the Society for Pluralism in Economics organize the 5th annual Young Economists Conference 2016. The conference is a forum for young researchers to present their work to the academic community with the opportunity to receive constructive feedback from internationally renowned keynote speakers. An outstanding presentation is awarded the Eduard März Award.
Keynote speakers
Content
While labour markets have not yet recovered from the impacts of the Great Recession, new challenges, like the fourth industrial revolution, are already arising. However, the effects of so-called „Industry 4.0“ are ambiguous and offer a wide field for speculation, ranging from nearly half of the jobs at risk to negligible total effects on employment. For sure, some types of work will become obsolete and others will be created in the course of technological progress, but there is considerable uncertainty concerning the impact on employment.
How do these developments affect working time and living standards in terms of wages, leisure, and social activities? Is Keynes’ proclaimed 15 hours working week becoming a feasible scenario or will it remain utopian? These and other related questions are highly relevant for the near and more distant future, and progressive answers are needed.
Location: Technisch Gewerbliche Abendschule (TGA), Hörsaal B 402, Plößlgasse 13, 1040 Wien
Conference language is English; attendance is free. Please register online or write an email to daniela.paraskevaidis@akwien.at until Tuesday, 27th September 2016.
The conference program is available here.
27-28 September, 2016 | Brussels, Belgium
The FESSUD project will close 5 years of research about financialisation of our economy and is pleased to invite you to its final conference, which will take place on 27 and 28 September 2016 in Brussels.
It will present its main findings and policy recommendations for a financial system better serving the economy, society and the environment. Academics, but also policy makers, representatives of the business sector, the social economy sector, and the civil society sector from across Europe will contribute to the discussions. The conference will conclude with a round table on “Finance better serving economy and society".
Please visit the project website for more information and registration.
Job Title: Assistant Professor in Economics
The Department of Business at Rollins College is seeking applicants for a tenure-track position in Economics at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning in August 2017. A specialization in development economics is desirable.
Housed in the Department of Business, the position involves curriculum development and regularly teaching a one-semester combined introductory micro- and macro-economics course (a core class for three business majors), as well as teaching an interdisciplinary lower-level course on global development challenges and opportunities (a core class for the Social Entrepreneurship major). The ability to teach other courses in areas such as Finance, International Business, Management, or Social Entrepreneurship is highly desirable.
Other responsibilities of the positions include advising, program development, assurance of learning (AOL), service activities, and research. The ability and willingness to develop and sustain an active research agenda and output is expected. The willingness to teach blended and evening courses is also expected.
The normal teaching load will be the equivalent of six courses a year, typically three courses per semester. Rollins College is committed to liberal education and expects all faculty to contribute to the general education programs of the college. Summer teaching is available through the evening program.
The minimum requirement is a doctorate in Economics – ABDs will be considered. Some college-level teaching and evidence of active teaching methods is highly desirable. Candidates must have the ability to develop and deliver curriculum; meet the demands of the position in a timely manner; and assess student learning outcomes. In addition, candidates should have strong oral and written communication and strong interpersonal skills.
The successful candidate must be able to contribute to a diverse and inclusive learning and working environment at Rollins. We view differences (e.g. nationality, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, physical ability, learning styles, perspectives, etc.) as rich opportunities for understanding, learning, and growth.
The undergraduate business programs at Rollins College are accredited by AACSB International. The Department of Business offers undergraduate majors in Business Management, International Business and Social Entrepreneurship. The Business Management major is offered to both Day and Evening Students.
Founded in 1885, Rollins is an independent, comprehensive, liberal arts college. The campus, noted for its lakefront beauty and for its unique location, is set in the residential community of Winter Park, just 15 minutes from one of the nation's most dynamic urban centers, Orlando. Rollins enrolls approximately 3,200 students in diverse degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate level. Rollins ranks number one among 128 Southern master's-level universities in the annual rankings of "America's Best Colleges," released by U.S. News & World Report. Rollins is one of only 36 Ashoka U Changemaker Campuses in the world. For additional information, please visit the College website at www.rollins.edu and the Department of Business website at http://www.rollins.edu/undergraduate-business.
Nationally recognized for our commitment to community engagement, service, and social responsibility, Rollins seeks candidates who are committed to integrating these values into their roles at the College.
For more information about these efforts at Rollins, visit the Center for Leadership & Community Engagement website.
Link to the job advert is available here.
Job Title: Faculty in Economics
Sarah Lawrence College invites applicants for the full-time tenure-track John A. Hill Chair in economics beginning in fall 2017. Sarah Lawrence is a small liberal arts college with a unique pedagogy based on small classes and individual tutorials; interdisciplinary work is a central component of the curriculum. We are seeking an economist with expertise in a range of fields including environmental/ecological economics, the economics of development, microeconomics, and quantitative methods.
The successful candidate will be familiar with both mainstream and heterodox economic theory. All members of the economics department are expected to teach courses in introductory and intermediate level theory and history of economic thought on a rotating basis. A PhD completed by the time of appointment, and evidence of success as a teacher is required.
The application should include the following: cover letter; statement of educational philosophy, teaching and research interests; curriculum vitae; three letters of reference; course descriptions and syllabi for two proposed courses; a sample of scholarly writing; and graduate transcript(s). Deadline for receipt of applications: November 1, 2016. To apply for the position, go to: https://slc.peopleadmin.com/postings/723
For information on Sarah Lawrence College, our curriculum, teaching methods, and philosophy of education, please see our Web site at: http://www.slc.edu/ . SLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to achieving a racially and culturally diverse community.
Application deadline: 11/01/2016
Link to the job advert is available here.
Job Title: Permanent Instructor Position
We are adding a new instructor line (permanent) at TCU and heterodox economists are more than welcome!
The Department of Economics at Texas Christian University invites applications for a renewable, non-tenure-track Instructor position beginning August 2017. The position offers two potential promotions in rank (Instructor II and Senior Instructor), the possibility of multi-year contracts, a 4/4 teaching load, and generous research support though the position carries no formal research expectation. The successful candidate will regularly offer introductory macroeconomics and at least one of the following: intermediate macroeconomics, intermediate microeconomics, econometrics, or contending perspectives in economics. Of particular interest are candidates able to offer upper-division field courses that complement those of the current faculty. Applicants must have completed a Ph.D. in economics by August 2017. By November 30, interested individuals should submit (1) a cover and letter, vita, and evidence of effective teaching to https://tcu.igreentree.com/CSS_Faculty
and (2) three letters of recommendation to: hremployment@tcu.edu.
As an AA/EEO employer, TCU recruits, hires, and promotes qualified persons in all job classifications without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ethnic origin, disability, genetic information, covered veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.
Job Title: Assistant Professor
The Department of Social Science, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University, invites applications for a tenure-stream position in Business and Society at the rank of Assistant Professor to commence July 1, 2017. More information about the Department can be found at http://sosc.laps.yorku.ca/; more information about the Business and Society Program can be found at http://buso.sosc.laps.yorku.ca/.
The successful candidate will have a completed PhD in one of the social sciences, an interdisciplinary social scientific program or a related field (e.g., ethics, political philosophy, history, critical management studies), and; will demonstrate excellence or the promise of excellence in teaching, and research and publications. There is a strong preference for candidates who can teach from a critical, interdisciplinary perspective in the areas of The Firm or Business and the Environment. Candidates must have the breadth and versatility to teach the core courses of the Business & Society undergraduate program. The ability to teach courses in more than one of the program streams and expertise in heterodox economics would be a major asset.
Candidates will demonstrate an ongoing program of interdisciplinary research in the field and will have publications appropriate to their stage of career. The successful candidate must be suitable for prompt appointment to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Pedagogical innovation in high priority areas such as experiential education and technology enhanced learning is an asset.
York University is an Affirmative Action (AA) employer and strongly values diversity, including gender and sexual diversity, within its community. The AA program, which applies to Aboriginal people, visible minorities, people with disabilities, and women, can be found at www.yorku.ca/acadjobs or by calling the AA office at 416-736-5713. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.
Applicants must submit a signed letter of application outlining their professional experience and research interests, an up-to-date curriculum vitae, a sample of their scholarly writing (maximum 50 pp.), and a teaching dossier, and arrange for three signed confidential letters of recommendation to be sent to: Professor Amanda Glasbeek, Chair, Department of Social Science, Ross Building, S754 York University, 4700 Keele St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3. Email: soscjobs@yorku.ca (Subject line: “Business and Society Appointment”)
The deadline for applications is November 15, 2016. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. All York University positions are subject to budgetary approval.
Posting End Date: November 15, 2016
Link to the job advert is available here.
In 1995 the History of Economics Society established an annual award for Best Article in the History of Economics. Beside the honor, the winner receives a stipend of $500 plus travel expenses up to $500 to attend the Society's annual conference and be presented the award in person.
The Society is now accepting nominations for this year's competition. Any article on the history of economics published in English during 2016 is eligible. It is recognized however, that despite official publication dates, many publications are shipped after year end. In such cases, relevant articles that are in 'proof' form, with accompanying evidence of the journal and its year of publication, may be accepted at the discretion of the Chair of the committee.
The Committee considers all nominated articles as well as all articles published in the Society's journal, Journal for the History of Economic Thought. The committee will not ask editors of journals for their nominations as editors, but editors may nominate in a personal capacity. Nomination of an article by its author is welcome.
The judging committee comprises Roger Backhouse, Harald Hagemann and Perry Mehrling. Nominations (brief reasons), including a complete citation of the article and/or a pdf of the article, should be sent to the Chair of the committee, Roger Backhouse, at hesprize@bhouse.org.uk no later than January 31, 2017 (earlier if possible).
It is with great pleasure that the Editorial Board of the Review of Radical Political Economics announces this year’s winner of RRPE’s Annual Best Paper Award for the volume year of 2015: Erik Olsen’s paper has been selected as this year's winner of RRPE’s Annual Best Paper Award.
Erik K. Olsen. 2015. "Unproductive Activity and Endogenous Technological Change in a Marxian Model of Economic Reproduction and Growth.” March 47(1): 34-55.
Free access to the full version of the current award-winning paper is available for 60 days on the SAGE website.
The winner of the 2016 Schumpeter Prize is Dengjian Jin with his book "The Great Knowledge Transcendence:The Rise of Western Science and Technology Reframed" (Palgrave Macmillan 2016)
About the book
The Great Knowledge Transcendence turns upside down the conventional view of the natural rise of the West and blockage of the Rest. Professor Jin uses new developments in cognitive sciences and counterfactual examples of China, India, and the Islamic world to make the casethat all premodern knowers and their communities faced inherent limits. The West was able to transcend those limits to develop modern science and technology because of the inherent contradictions of Christian theology and Thomist insistence on the unity of faith and reason. Under this unique European context, the paradoxical combination forced Western intellectuals to challenge all existing knowledge claims and existing ways for knowledge creation and justification. This induced them to seek the new solid foundations for the certainty of knowledge by controlledexperiments and the mathematization of nature, ultimately leading to the rise of modern science and technology.
'In this stunning comparative analysis, Jin shows that our progress from stone age to space age has not been natural at all, but the product of deeply artificial and contingent conditions that arose only in modern Europe. Ranging from cognitive science and the study of religion toeconomics and global history, and taking us from classical times to the present, Jin offers an elegant and novel view of how humanity achieved the breakthroughs of modern scientific thought. A truly extraordinary work.' Jack Goldstone, Hazel Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University, USA
"The Great Knowledge Transcendence is a brilliant book. It is exhaustively researched and offers a compelling analysis. It is essential reading for those seeking insight into our rapidly changing society". Don E. Kash, Hazel Professor Emeritus, School or Public Policy, George Mason University
“In this bold and provocative book, Dengjian Jin combines scholarship from cognitive science, economics, and the history of science to propose an innovative and imaginative solutionto the question of the origins of the rise of Modern Science in the West after 1500. This is globalinterdisciplinary history at its most ambitious, and the thesis he proposes is intriguing and thought-provoking.” Joel Mokyr, Robert H. Strotz Professor, Northwestern University, USA
Link to the book is available here.
Geoffrey Ingham, Ken Coutts, Sue Konzelmann: Introduction: ‘cranks’ and ‘brave heretics’: rethinking money and banking after the Great Financial Crisis
John Smithin: Some puzzles about money, finance and the monetary circuit
Dirk J. Bezemer: Towards an ‘accounting view’ on money, banking and the macroeconomy: history, empirics, theory
Yeva Nersisyan, L. Randall Wray: Modern Money Theory and the facts of experience
Eric Tymoigne: Government monetary and fiscal operations: generalising the endogenous money approach
Giuseppe Fontana, Malcolm Sawyer: Full Reserve Banking: More ‘Cranks’ Than ‘Brave Heretics’
Ben Dyson, Graham Hodgson, Frank van Lerven: A response to critiques of ‘full reserve banking’
Sheila Dow: The Political Economy of Monetary Reform
Massimo Amato, Luca Fantacci: Failures on the market and market failures: a complementary currency for bankruptcy procedures
Stefano Lucarelli, Lucio Gobbi: Local clearing unions as stabilizers of local economic systems: a stock flow consistent perspective
Georgina M. Gómez, Paolo Dini: Making sense of a crank case: monetary diversity in Argentina (1999–2003)
Peter North: Money reform and the Eurozone crisis: panacea, utopia or grassroots alternative?
Editor’s Introduction: Is Overpopulation a Problem? Multiple Perspectives on this Perennial Question
Heather Remoff: Malthus, Darwin, and the Descent of Economics
Leslie Root, Jennifer Johnson-Hanks†: Gender, Honor, and Aggregate Fertility
Zhihe Wang, Ming Yang, Jiaming Zhang, Jiang Chang: Ending an Era of Population Control in China: Was the One-Child Policy Ever Needed?
Robert J. Walker: Population Growth and its Implications for Global Security
Temis G. Taylor, Joseph A. Tainter: The Nexus of Population, Energy, Innovation, and Complexity
Tasos Hovardas: Two paradoxes with one stone: A critical reading of ecological modernization
Frida Franzén, Patrik Dinnétz, Monica Hammer: Factors affecting farmers’ willingness to participate in eutrophication mitigation — A case study of preferences for wetland creation in Sweden
Keri B. Watson, Taylor Ricketts, Gillian Galford, Stephen Polasky, Jarlath O’Niel-Dunne: Quantifying flood mitigation services: The economic value of Otter Creek wetlands and floodplains to Middlebury, VT
M. Yusof Saari, Erik Dietzenbacher, Bart Los: The impacts of petroleum price fluctuations on income distribution across ethnic groups in Malaysia
Y. Schaeffer, D. Cremer-Schulte, C. Tartiu, M. Tivadar: Natural amenity-driven segregation: Evidence from location choices in French metropolitan areas
A.C.D. Trevisan, A.L. Schmitt-Filho, J. Farley, A.C. Fantini, C. Longo: Farmer perceptions, policy and reforestation in Santa Catarina, Brazil
Christopher K. Ansell, Martin Bartenberger: Varieties of experimentalism
Marc A. Saner, Michael Bordt: Building the consensus: The moral space of earth measurement
Matthew Altonji, Corey Lang, Gavino Puggioni: Can urban areas help sustain the preservation of open space? Evidence from statewide referenda
Giacomo Pallante, Adam G. Drucker, Sajal Sthapit: Assessing the potential for niche market development to contribute to farmers’ livelihoods and agrobiodiversity conservation: Insights from the finger millet case study in Nepal
Deborah E. Lee, Mario Du Preez: Determining visitor preferences for rhinoceros conservation management at private, ecotourism game reserves in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa: A choice modeling experiment
Glòria Estapé-Dubreuil, Arvind Ashta, Jean-Pierre Hédou: Micro-equity for sustainable development: Selection, monitoring and exit strategies of micro-angels
Sebastian Villasante, Graham J. Pierce, Cristina Pita, César Pazos Guimeráns, João Garcia Rodrigues, Manel Antelo, José María Da Rocha, Javier García Cutrín, Lee C. Hastie, Pedro Veiga, U. Rashid Sumaila, Marta Coll: Fishers’ perceptions about the EU discards policy and its economic impact on small-scale fisheries in Galicia (North West Spain)
Xavier Irz, Pascal Leroy, Vincent Réquillart, Louis-Georges Soler: Welfare and sustainability effects of dietary recommendations
Tom Kompas, Long Chu, Hoa Thi Minh Nguyen: A practical optimal surveillance policy for invasive weeds: An application to Hawkweed in Australia
Piotr Czembrowski, Jakub Kronenberg, Michał Czepkiewicz: Integrating non-monetary and monetary valuation methods – SoftGIS and hedonic pricing
Gwendolen DeBoe, Kurt Stephenson: Transactions costs of expanding nutrient trading to agricultural working lands: A Virginia case study
Jonathan Chenoweth, Alma López-Avilés, Stephen Morse, Angela Druckman: Water consumption and subjective wellbeing: An analysis of British households
N.L. Pollesch, V.H. Dale: Normalization in sustainability assessment: Methods and implications
Felipe Arias Fogliano de Souza Cunha, Jan Börner, Sven Wunder, Carlos Alberto Nunes Cosenza, André F.P. Lucena: The implementation costs of forest conservation policies in Brazil
Boris T. van Zanten, Peter H. Verburg, S.S.K. Scholte, K.F. Tieskens: Using choice modeling to map aesthetic values at a landscape scale: Lessons from a Dutch case study
Jayson L. Lusk, F. Bailey Norwood: Some vegetarians spend less money on food, others don’t
GM Monirul Alam, Khorshed Alam, Shahbaz Mushtaq: Influence of institutional access and social capital on adaptation decision: Empirical evidence from hazard-prone rural households in Bangladesh
Amy C. Chiang, Michael R. Moore, Jeremiah X. Johnson, Gregory A. Keoleian: Emissions reduction benefits of siting an offshore wind farm: A temporal and spatial analysis of Lake Michigan
William C.C. Wright, Florian V. Eppink: Drivers of heritage value: A meta-analysis of monetary valuation studies of cultural heritage
Frans Hermans, Dirk Roep, Laurens Klerkx: Scale dynamics of grassroots innovations through parallel pathways of transformative change
Mahelet G. Fikru: Determinants of International Standards in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of institutional pressure from different stakeholders
Leonith Hinojosa, Eric F. Lambin, Naoufel Mzoughi, Claude Napoléone: Place attachment as a factor of mountain farming permanence: A survey in the French Southern Alps
Martin Burgess: Personal carbon allowances: A revised model to alleviate distributional issues
Martin Falk, Laurent Vanat: Gains from investments in snowmaking facilities
Robert Costanza, Lew Daly, Lorenzo Fioramonti, Enrico Giovannini, Ida Kubiszewski, Lars Fogh Mortensen, Kate E. Pickett, Kristin Vala Ragnarsdottir, Roberto De Vogli, Richard Wilkinson: Modelling and measuring sustainable wellbeing in connection with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
David J. Chapman, Richard C. Bishop, W. Michael Hanemann, Barbara J. Kanninen, Jon A. Krosnick, Edward R. Morey, Roger Tourangeau: On the adequacy of scope test results: Comments on Desvousges, Mathews, and Train
F. Kemal Kızılca: Breaking with Dogma: Unorthodox Consumption Patterns and Women's Labor Market Outcomes in Turkey
Mahdi Majbouri: Against the Wind: Labor Force Participation of Women and Economic Instability in Iran
Leanne Roncolato: The Feminization U in South Africa: Economic Structure and Women's Labor Force Participation
Marcella Corsi, Fabrizio Botti & Carlo D'Ippoliti: The Gendered Nature of Poverty in the EU: Individualized versus Collective Poverty Measures
María Arrazola & José de Hevia: The Gender Wage Gap in Offered, Observed, and Reservation Wages for Spain
Zofia Łapniewska: Reading Elinor Ostrom through a Gender Perspective
Deirdre Nansen McCloskey: Bourgeois dignity arrives in early Georgian drama
Michael Makovi: Two opposing literary critiques of socialism: George Orwell versus Eugen Richter and Henry Hazlitt
Michelle Albert Vachris; Elizabeth Samios: Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, fiction or fact?
Jeffrey Cleveland; Kim Holder; Brian O'Roark: The economics of The Hunger Games
Darwyyn Deyo: Jane Austen and the economic way of thinking
Caroline Breashears: 'A parcel of heart': the business of love in Peregrine Pickle
Stefan Svallfors: Politics as organised combat – New players and new rules of the game in Sweden
Colin Hay: Good in a crisis: the ontological institutionalism of social constructivism
Kristen Hopewell: The accidental agro-power: constructing comparative advantage in Brazil
Agnes Orban: Mobilizing moral boundaries: the politics of derivatives reform in the US
Geoffrey C. Chen & Charles Lees: Growing China’s renewables sector: a developmental state approach
Iain McMenamin, Michael Breen & Juan Muñoz-Portillo: Comparative politics and quasi-rational markets
Nick Bernards: The International Labour Organization and the ambivalent politics of financial inclusion in West Africa
Alicia Girón: Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda: in the Light of Public Policy and Changes of Government in Latin America
Ana María Álvarez: Challenges for Latin America: The Agenda for Sustainabale Development and Negotiations
in the Twenty-First Century
Oscar Ugarteche: Lessons from the Euro Crisis for Regional Financial Cooperation
Guillermo Foladori: Nanotechnology Public Policy in Latin America
Noé Fuentes, Germán Osorio and Alejandro Mungaray: Intangible Capabilities for Micro-Enterprise Competitiveness in Mexico
Laura Martínez Salvador: Food Security, Self-Sufficiency, and the Availability of Amaranth in Mexico
Eduardo Loría: Mexico: Restricted Economic Growth and the Exchange Rate, 1950-2014
Armando Sánchez Vargas, Guillermo Arenas and Ignacio Perrotini: Fundamentals, the Net Positions of Speculators, and the Exchange Rate in Brazil
Alexander E. Kentikelenis, Thomas H. Stubbs & Lawrence P. King: IMF conditionality and development policy space, 1985–2014
Iain Hardie & Sylvia Maxfield: Atlas constrained: the US external balance sheet and international monetary power
Adam S. Chilton: The political motivations of the United States’ bilateral investment treaty program
Stephen B. Kaplan: Banking unconditionally: the political economy of Chinese finance in Latin America
Mary Anne Madeira: New trade, new politics: intra-industry trade and domestic political coalitions
Eduardo da Motta e Albuquerque, Alex Callinicos: Crises and Transformation of Capitalism: Marx’s Investigations and Contemporary Analysis
Part I: Marx's Investigations and Crisis Theory
Lucia Pradella: Crisis, Revolution and Hegemonic Transition: The American Civil War and Emancipation in Marx’s Capital
Leonardo Gomes de Deus, Joāo Antonio de Paula, Hugo Eduardo da Gama Cerqueira, Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak: A Theory in the Making: Marx’s Drafts of Capital and the Notebooks on the Crisis of 1866
Alex Callinicos, Joseph Choonara: How Not to Write About the Rate of Profit: A Response to David Harvey
Part II: Empirical Trends and Theoretical Explanations
Guglielmo Carchedi: Was the Great Recession a Crisis of Profitability?
Jan Toporowski: The Crisis of Finance in Marxian Political Economy
Gérard Duménil, Dominique Lévy: Technology and Distribution in Managerial Capitalism: The Chain of Historical Trajectories à la Marx and Countertendential Traverses
Michael Roberts: It’s a Depression
Leonardo Costa Ribeiro, Eduardo da Motta e Albuquerque: Countertendencies at Work: New Sectors and New Regions in the Current Transition Towards a New Phase of Capitalism
Tributes: Honouring Ajit Singh
The legacy of Ajit Singh (11 September 1940–23 June 2015)
José Gabriel Palma: Why are developing country corporations more susceptible to the vicissitudes of international finance?
Rethinking Precariousness and Flexibility
Iain Campbell and Robin Price: Precarious work and precarious workers: Towards an improved conceptualisation
Dario Judzik, Haider A Khan, and Laura T Spagnolo: Social capabilities–based flexicurity for a learning economy
Pasi Pyöriä and Satu Ojala: Precarious work and intrinsic job quality: Evidence from Finland, 1984–2013
Raul Ramos, Esteban Sanromá, and Hipólito Simón: The part-time wage penalty: Does bargaining coverage outweigh regional differences in Spain?
Enrico Marelli and Elena Vakulenko: Youth unemployment in Italy and Russia: Aggregate trends and individual determinants
Minqi Li: Endless Accumulation, Limits to Growth, and the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall
Juan Pablo Mateo: The Great Recession in the US from the Perspective of the World Economy
Iwebunor Okwechime, Joshua Tavershima Yange, Ayodeji Anthony Aduloju: Africa and the Global Economic and Financial Crisis
Malancha Chakrabarty: Ethiopia–China Economic Relations: A Classic Win–Win Situation?
Christina Wolf: China and Latecomer Industrialization Processes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case of Combined and Uneven Development
Ndinawe Byekwaso: The Politics of Modernization and the Misleading Approaches to Development
By Marco Senatore | 2014, Xlibris
This book has already been published in Italy by the university press Aracne. Its twofold purpose is to define some dimensions of individual autonomy (in particular, existential, functional and relational autonomy) and promote their dissemination within society, mainly through the introduction of some legal and economic tools.
Starting from references to authors such as Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, Theodor W. Adorno, Jurgen Habermas and Amartya Sen, this book highlights the key role of individual autonomy for rediscovering a sense of community and dealing with social challenges. This implies analyzing the difference between the currently widespread individualism (as the free choice of means) and individuality (which focuses on the determination of personal objectives).
The book also illustrates the contribution that inner motivations, on which autonomy is grounded, can make to tackling several important issues of our time, such as pollution, the growing sway of finance over the economy, the unbalanced distribution of income and the choke-hold of lobbyists on politics. This could mainly take place through transactions involving the exchange not only of actions (as in our daily life) but also of inner motivations (values and metavalues).
Although the positive effects of autonomy are primarily of an economic nature, the author has followed an essentially interdisciplinary approach, based on the assumption that the fragmentation of knowledge prevents us from fully grasping the potential of individuals and from questioning the cultural and social mechanisms that hinder its development.
Link to the book is available here.
By Tim B. Thornton | 2016, Routledge
The discipline of economics has been increasingly criticized for its inability to illuminate the workings of the real world and to provide reliable policy guidance for the major economic and social challenges of our time. A central problem in contemporary economics, and a problem from which many of its other failings flow, is its lack of plurality. By a lack of plurality it is meant that contemporary economics lacks diversity in its methods, theories, epistemology and methodology. It is also meant that economics has become far less interdisciplinary. From Economics to Political Economy offers an explanation as to why economics has become so determinedly non-pluralistic, and also gives considerable attention to exploring and evaluating promising strategies for reform. These strategies include developing a pluralist economics under the label of ‘political economy’ within other social science departments (such as departments of politics). Along the way the reader will learn about the worldwide student movement seeking greater pluralism in economics, encounter some dramatic case studies in intellectual suppression, gain a fuller sense of the nature of contemporary economics and explore the relationship between economics and other social sciences. This book is of interest to any social scientist, particularly those with interests in economics and politics.
Link to the book is available here.
By Robert Skidelsky | 2012, Penguin
What constitutes the good life? What is the true value of money? Why do we work such long hours merely to acquire greater wealth? These are some of the questions that many asked themselves when the financial system crashed in 2008. This book tackles such questions head-on.
The authors begin with the great economist John Maynard Keynes. In 1930 Keynes predicted that, within a century, per capita income would steadily rise, people’s basic needs would be met, and no one would have to work more than fifteen hours a week. Clearly, he was wrong: though income has increased as he envisioned, our wants have seemingly gone unsatisfied, and we continue to work long hours.
The Skidelskys explain why Keynes was mistaken. Then, arguing from the premise that economics is a moral science, they trace the concept of the good life from Aristotle to the present and show how our lives over the last half century have strayed from that ideal. Finally, they issue a call to think anew about what really matters in our lives and how to attain it. How Much Is Enough? is that rarity, a work of deep intelligence and ethical commitment accessible to all readers. It will be lauded, debated, cited, and criticized. It will not be ignored.
Link to the book is available here.
By Jack Rasmus | 2016, Clarity Press
Looting Greece examines how and why the Syriza party, which took power in January 2015 promising to end eliminate debt, end austerity, and return Greece to economic growth, ended up agreeing to a deal much worse than its political predecessors in 2010 and 2012. Greece’s debt crisis is primarily non-Greek in origin, and largely the consequence of the creation of the Euro and its monetary system. It is also non-governmental in origin, as Greek private debt was transferred into public debt after the crash of 2008-09 and the series of Troika debt restructuring deals that followed.
In the new 2015 debt deal, pensions are reduced even more than before, retirement ages raised, temporary pension restorations of early 2015 for the poorest rolled back, workers’ right to strike and collectively bargain further limited, mass layoffs now made legally possible, more government workers and teachers may be laid off and have their wages cut, taxes are raised on households, farmers and small businesses across the board, and social safety nets further shredded. To additionally pay for the $98 billion in new loans from the Troika― more than $85 billion of which will go to pay previous debts to the Troika and European bankers―sales of Greek public assets are expedited and the list of projects to be ‘privatized’ even further expanded.
How the Euro Troika bureaucrats effectively subdued and conquered Greece economically, in the process destroying its democracy, is traced in a series of articles written from February through August 2015 as the Troika and Syriza negotiated over debt and austerity. Why the Troika set out to destroy Syriza and how Syriza ended up destroying itself are discussed, as well as how the respective strategies and tactics of both parties resulted in a final agreement in August 2015, which was not only worse in austerity terms compared to previous deals, but established new arrangements for ensuring debt repayment that are unique to recent debt deal restructuring. Placing the Greek events of 2015 in broader historical perspective, the book argues a radical new neoliberal initiative in Europe has emerged: in the 2015 debt deal the Troika will now directly manage Greece’s economy―running its banks, writing Greece’s budget, vetting and replacing government ministers, exercising veto rights over Greece’s parliament and Executive agencies, dictating its taxes, and implanting ‘Troika Commissars’ to watch over and approve day to day decisions of Greek government at all levels.
Looting Greece explains how a new kind of financial imperialism is emerging in Greece, Europe’s periphery, and soon elsewhere.
Link to the book is available here.
By Ronaldo Munck | 2016, Zed Books
As we approach the year 2020, the question of how Marxism can remain relevant in a constantly changing environment where social movements are spreading across the globe is as charged and important as ever. In this provocative and critically engaged introduction to Marxism, Ronaldo Munck offers an accessible examination of the essential role that Marxism still plays in today’s thought and policies. To do so, Munck analyzes Marx’s theories in the context of global development, the environmental crisis, financial austerity, and feminism andqueer theory, among other ideas and current events. Munck also offers a straightforward report on the state of Marxism in the wake of the global financial crash.
Encompassing transformations in both the Global South and the Global North, Marx 2020 provides a thought-provoking guide to Marxist and alternative thought and the action it inspires.
For more information or to request a review copy please contact Laurence Radford: laurence.radford@zedbooks.net
Link to the book is available here.
By Raju J. Das | 2016, Brill
Marxist Theory of Class for a Skeptical World is a critique of some of the influential radical theories of class, and presents an alternative approach to it.
This book critically discusses Analytical Marxist and Post-structuralist Marxist theories of class, and offers an alternative approach that is rooted in the ideas of Marx and Engels as well as Lenin and Trotsky.
It presents a materialist-dialectical foundation for class theory, and conceptualizes class at the trans-historical level and at the level of capitalism. It shows that capitalism is an objectively-existing articulation of exchange, property and value relations, between capital and labour, at multiple geographical scales, and that the state is an arm of class relation. It draws out implications of class relations for consciousness and political power of the proletariat.
Link to the book is available here.
By Dirk H. Ehnts | 2016, Routledge
This book provides a new methodological approach to money and macroeconomics. Realizing that the abstract equilibrium models lacked descriptions of fundamental issues of a modern monetary economy, the focus of this book lies on the (stylized) balance sheets of the main actors. Money, after all, is born on the balance sheets of the central bank or commercial bank. While households and firms hold accounts at banks with deposits, banks hold an account at the central bank where deposits are called reserves. The book aims to explain how the two monetary circuits – central bank deposits and bank deposits – are intertwined. It is also shown how government spending injects money into the economy.
Modern Monetary Theory and European Macroeconomics covers both the general case and then the Eurozone specifically. A very simple macroeconomic model follows which explains the major accounting identities of macroeconomics. Using this new methodology, the Eurozone crisis is examined from a fresh perspective. It turns out that not government debt but the stagnation of private sector debt was the major economic problem and that cuts in government spending worsened the economic situation. The concluding chapters discuss what a solution to the current problems of the Eurozone must look like, with scenarios that examine a future with and without a euro.
This book provides a detailed balance sheet view of monetary and fiscal operations, with a focus on the Eurozone economy. Students, policy-makers and financial market actors will learn to assess the institutional processes that underpin a modern monetary economy, in times of boom and in times of bust.
Link to the book is available here.
By Franklin Obeng-Odoom | 2016, The University of Chicago Press
Neoclassical economics, the intellectual bedrock of modern capitalism, faces growing criticisms, as many of its key assumptions and policy prescriptions are systematically challenged. Yet, there remains one field of economics where these limitations continue virtually unchallenged: the study of cities and regions in built-environment economics.
In this book, Franklin Obeng-Odoom draws on institutional, Georgist, and Marxist economics to clearly but comprehensively show what the key issues are today in thinking about urban economics. In doing so, he demonstrates the widespread tensions and contradictions in the status quo, demonstrating how to reconstruct urban economics in order to create a more just society and environment.
Link to the book is available here.
By Jack Rasmus | 2015, Clarity Press
Just as contemporary economics failed to predict the 2008-09 crash, and over-estimated the subsequent brief recovery that followed, economists today are again failing to accurately forecast the slowing global economic growth, the growing fragility, and therefore rising instability in the global economy. This book offers a new approach to explaining why mainstream economic analyses have repeatedly failed and why fiscal and monetary policies have been incapable of producing a sustained recovery. Expanding upon the early contributions of Keynes, Minsky and others, it offers an alternative explanation why the global economy is slowing long term and becoming more unstable, why policies to date have largely failed, and why the next crisis may therefore prove even worse than that of 2008-09. Systemic fragility is rooted in 9 key empirical trends: slowing real investment; a drift toward deflation; money, credit and liquidity explosion; rising levels of global debt; a shift to speculative financial investing; the restructuring of financial markets to reward capital incomes; the restricting of labor markets to lower wage incomes; the failure of Central Bank monetary policies; and the ineffectiveness of fiscal policies. It results from financial, consumer, and government balance sheet fragilities exacerbating each other -- creating a massive centripetal force disaggregating and tearing apart the whole, untameable by either fiscal or monetary means. This book clarifies how the price system in general, and financial asset prices in particular, transform into fundamentally destabilizing forces under conditions of systemic fragility. It explains why the global system has in recent decades become dependent upon, and even addicted to, massive liquidity injections, and how fiscal policies have been counterproductive, exacerbating fragility and instability. Policymakers’ failure to come to grips with how fundamental changes in the structure of the 21st century global capitalist economy—in particular in financial and labor market structures—make the global economy more systemically fragile can only propel it toward deeper instability and crises.
Link to the book is available here.
Edited by Victor Beker and Beniamino Moro | 2016, College Publications
After the 2008 financial meltdown, the American crisis soon infected the European financial system, becoming both a sovereign debt crisis and a banking debacle in many peripheral Euro area countries. The European crisis spread quickly among closely integrated economies and the implementation of austerity policies reinforced a spiral of economic contractions and provoked a rising political rebellion. This World Economics Association book, edited by Victor Baker and Beniamino Moro, was written to address monetary, financial and debt issues, alongside the questions of social stabilization, strategies for structural reform and economic growth that may be re-considered to frame new economic perspectives for Europe. The call for reflection is persuasively made by the contributors: Jacques Sapir; Gerson Lima; Carmelo Ferlito; Merijn Knibbe; Enrico Marelli and Marcello Signorelli; Tom Vleeschhouwer and Tara Koning; Cristiano Boaventura Duarte and André de Melo Modenesi; Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Michalis Nukiforos and Gennaro Zezza.
Link to the book is available here.
By Bas van Bavel | 2016, Oxford University Press
Link to the book is available here.
We would like to bring to the attention to an attractive opportunity for students seeking an alternative to mainstream graduate programs in economics and finance. At the Levy Economics Institute is currently welcoming students to the third year of the new Master of Science in Economic Theory and Policy. This degree program is designed to train economists in the innovative models and approaches to policy employed by researchers at the Levy Institute. The program seeks to provide a basis in mainstream economic theory but with a concentration on alternative approaches such as those pioneered by former Levy Distinguished Scholars Hyman Minsky and Wynne Godley. Instruction and research concentration are undertaken in one of the Institute’s major research areas: Macroeconomic Theory, Policy, and Modeling; Monetary Policy and Financial Structure; the Distribution of Income, Wealth, and Well-Being; Gender Equality and Time Poverty; and Employment and Labor Markets.
The innovative two-year program offers unprecedented access to areas of advanced economics research, small classes taught by experts in their areas of current research, and the opportunity to take part in research seminars in which students work alongside the Institute’s teams of expert scholars. The program is designed to result in a terminal degree that enables students to utilize the Levy Institute’s extensive research network of experts and professionals to build a career in nongovernmental and civil society organizations, government agencies, multinational firms, and global economic institutions, as well as in the corporate sector, connecting through generations of Bard alumni.
Blithewood, the Levy Institute’s main teaching and research facility, located on the Bard College campus, includes a library of 12,000-plus print volumes dedicated to economics, finance, and policy, in addition to the collected papers of Minsky and Godley. The Institute also subscribes to more than 10,000 journals and proprietary international financial statistics. All of the Levy Institute’s own research publications are available on its website, www.levyinstitute.org. Graduate students also have access to Bard’s main library, as well as software packages with dedicated servers, including Stata, SAS, and EViews, offering computing power and speed.
Application deadlines are November 15 for Early Decision and January 15 for Regular Decision. Early Decision applicants will receive higher preference for scholarships and other forms of financial aid, which is awarded on the basis of both need and merit. An introduction to the program is provided by a series of interactive webinars featuring Institute scholars. Application fees are waived for all prospective students who attend a webinar.
To download a PDF of the program brochure, click here.
We invite expressions of interest for a PhD project jointly funded by the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands and the Roskilde University in Denmark. The project is located within critical political economy and will focus on European Austerity Programmes under Transnational Contestation.
Please feel free to spread the call further and inform potentially interested candidates!
PhD project in Critical Political Economy - European Austerity Programmes under Transnational Contestation at Radboud University Nijmegen (NL) and Roskilde University (DK)
The project will investigate the content, form and scope of (transnational) contestation of austerity programmes in Europe. It is set up as a double degree with a duration of three years, 18 months at Nijmegen and 18 months at Roskilde; the PhD is located at the respective departments for the duration of these periods. The project is based on full-time employment, with a salary according to the respective collective agreements in Denmark and the Netherlands. The project will be jointly supervised by dr. Laura Horn, Roskilde University, and prof. dr. Bertjan Verbeek and dr. Angela Wigger, both from the Radboud University.
Candidates for the project should
Expressions of interest in this project are welcome until 7 October 2016.
Please email us your CV, a grade transcript, a writing sample, a letter of motivation outlining why you would like to pursue a PhD, and a brief project proposal (max 2 A4) at austeritycontestationproject@gmail.com. We will then send you more details on the project and the logistics. Skype interviews will be conducted with selected candidates in third and fourth week of October. Please note that this is an informal call for expressions of interest; no rights can be derived from this announcement.
This advertisement is for interested research fellows and possibly PhD students (who may be graduating very soon).
SPRU are recruiting a Research Fellow in Finance and Innovation, full time for 15 months starting in December - please forward these details to potential candidates, and circulate through your networks.
We are seeking to appoint a Research Fellow to work with Professor Mariana Mazzucato on an EC Horizon 2020 funded research project DOLFINS - Distributed Global Financial Systems for Society (6407720), dedicated to a better understanding of the economics of innovation with a particular focus on the role of finance.
The project is aimed at thinking about the relationship between different types of financial structures and growth in the real economy, and in particular the relationship between different types of finance and the rate and direction of innovation. For this reason, a background in innovation economics and financial economics is particularly relevant to the role.
The successful candidate will have:
The appointment is in the first instance fixed term for 15 months, until the end of the project in February 2018. There will be potential for extending this period if new grant applications are successful.
The position is full time, Fixed term for 15 months, with the possibility of extension
Further details and how to apply: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/aboutus/jobs/1207
Link to the latest Newsletter is available here.
Job Title: PROGRAM SECRETARY (3-year term appointed by Executive Council)
The Association for Social Economics (ASE) seeks a new Program Secretary. The Program Secretary is responsible for coordinating efforts in order to ensure smooth running of the ASE sessions at the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) meetings. This is a three-year term from January 2017 through December 2019. The Program Secretary is appointed by the Executive Council of the Association.
The Program Secretary:
In order to apply, please send a letter of interest and a CV to Prof. Giuseppe Fontana (G.Fontana@leeds.ac.uk), President of the Association for Social Economics, Economics, Univ. of Leeds (UK) and Univ. of Sannio (Italy), by November 1st, 2016. Phone interviews will be held in mid-November 2016.
J.A. Schumpeter’s classic account of bank credit/money creation from his History of Economic Analysis (1954) has been reprinted and is available open access here: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ael.ahead-of-print/ael-2016-0012/ael-2016-0012.xml
Editorial Board Call for Applications
Work, employment and society is seeking 10 new members to join its Editorial Board and serve for three years from January 2017 to end of December 2019.
The full call and online application form are available at: http://www.uk-engage.org/britsocwes
If you have queries about the application process, please contact UK Engage, who are running the election process at: britsoc@uk-engage.org
If you have queries about the role or about your eligibility, please contact the Chair of the Editorial Board, Professor Jackie O’Reilly (J.O'Reilly@brighton.ac.uk)
WES Editorship 2018-2020
The British Sociological Association and SAGE, joint owners of the journal, would like to hear from Editorial Teams interested in editing the journal Work, employment and society (WES), for a 3 year period from January 2018 to December 2020.
WES is currently in its 29th successful year and is a highly respected journal with an international profile. Strongly grounded in the sociological tradition, WES draws upon disciplines adjacent to sociology to make an original contribution to issues and debates in the sociology of work and employment worldwide. It receives over 400 submissions a year, has an Impact Factor of 2.153 and is ranked 4 on the Chartered Association of Business Schools’ Academic Journal Guide.
The BSA is looking for a strong, diverse team of Editors to shape and sustain the journal’s leading position in the field. We particularly welcome expressions of interest from a variety of institutions and backgrounds. Applicants must be based in the UK and be willing to maintain BSA membership throughout their term of office.
For further information on making an application visit our website to read the full call: https://www.britsoc.co.uk/opportunities/publications-opportunities/
If you have any queries or would like to register an Expression of Interest please contact: Alison Danforth, Publications & Membership Manager: alison.danforth@britsoc.org.uk