From the Editor
This past March 2009
Jacob T. Schwartz died. This name probably has
no meaning for most heterodox economists. But
in 1961 he published a book on Lectures on the
Mathematical method in Analytical Economics
which contained a section on ‘The Leontief Model
and the Technological Basis of Production’
(click here
for the section). For heterodox economists in
the 1960s/70s who were interested in Sraffa-Leontief
models (and most were), Schwartz’s section
contained some very interesting reading, if only
because it dealt with a theory of prices, a
topic not usually associated with Leontief
models.
In this Newsletter there are some interesting
conferences and seminars including one on
Proudhon, journal issues including the EJESS
issue on money and technological change, and
books—Political Economy Now! is of particular
interest as it deals with the struggle to teach
heterodox economics at the University of Sydney.
From June 1 to the first week in July I shall be
at the University of Bremen, Germany giving some
lectures. And Wolfram and I will be hosting a
Workshop on Assessing Heterodox Economics in a
European Context—information about it is given
in the Newsletter under Conferences, Seminars
and Lectures. All are welcome to participate.
But what this means is that I shall be away from
my office for around 6 weeks. Hopefully this
will not affect the timely publication of the
Newsletter, but one can never tell.
Fred Lee
In
this issue:
|
Call for Papers |
|
- The EAEPE 2009
Conference
- The Critique to Political Economy in 19th Century
- How Class Works – 2010 Conference
- A Green Economics Conference
- Special Issue of RRPE on Economic Democracy
- Region Formation in Contemporary South Asia
- 6th International Conference Developments in Economic
Theory and Policy
- The World Economy in Crisis – The Return of Keynesianism?
- The Financial and Monetary Crisis
- JSPE 57th Annual Conference- 2009
- 3rd International Research Workshop |
|
Conferences, Seminars and Lectures |
|
- Revue de la
régulation
- Séminaire Hétérodoxies du CES - Matisse
- Causes and Consequences of the Current Financial Crisis
- Globalisation and European Integration
- Congreso Anual 2009
- 6th EUROFRAME Conference on Economic Policy Issues in the
European Union
- Assessing Heterodox Economics in a European Context
|
|
Heterodox Conference Papers and
Reports and Articles |
|
- Paper assets, real debts: An
ecological-economic exploration of the global economic
crisis
- Minsky Conference Audio and Papers Now Available Online |
|
Heterodox Journals and Newsletters |
|
- International Review of Applied
Economics
- Feminist Economics
- European Journal of Economic and Social Systems
- Economia e Sociedade
- Critical Perspectives on International Business
- Challenge
- Friends of Associative Economics Bulletin
|
|
Heterodox Books and Book Series |
|
- From Economics Imperialism to
Freakonomics
- From Political Economy to Economics
- John Maynard Keynes
- Political Economy Now!
|
|
Heterodox Graduate Program and
Scholarships |
|
- Productivity, Employment and
Competitiveness
- Program on Gender Analysis in Economics (PGAE) |
|
Heterodox Web Sites and Associations |
|
- Economics for Equity and the
Environment Network |
|
Queries from Heterodox Economists |
|
- Wanted papers on the History of
Economic Thought from a Non-Western Perspective |
|
For
Your Information |
|
- New Paper Finds IMF Lending Still
Requires Harmful and Inappropriate Economic Conditions
- Origins of Institutional Economics According to Baylor
University Economists
- Declaración fundacional de la Asociación de Economía para
el Desarrollo de la Argentina (AEDA)
- Players of Political Economy
- The Economic Crisis and the Case for a Solidarity Economy
- Comments on the Financial Crisis
- The Economic Crisis and Obama’s Response |
|
|
Call for Papers
The EAEPE 2009
Conference
The EAEPE 2009 Conference will be organized in Amsterdam from 6
until 8 November.
The European Association for Evolutionary and Political Economy is
an active scholarly association in the area of institutional
economics broadly conceived.
The deadline for submitting abstracts has been extended to May 18
2009.
The theme of the 2009 conference is Institutional Solutions for
Economic Recovery.
One of the most challenging themes for institutional economists and
social scientists is to explain the economic situation of today and
to offer solutions for economic recovery. In the 20th century
institutional economists have been at the forefront in describing
and explaining business cycles and growth. In the 21st century the
present generations will need to revisit some of this legacy and
confront this with newer observations. For the time being many
questions abound:
What changes in the institutional environment, the institutional
arrangements, and in the norms and customs of people will lead to
economic growth? What is the role of investments in knowledge,
innovations, and entrepreneurship in creating these institutional
improvements? Which improvements in the financial institutions can
contribute to an economic recovery?
The 2009 conference of EAEPE in Amsterdam will address, in a broad
sense, such questions and will contribute to the debate on economic
recovery, through a multidisciplinary, institutional and
evolutionary perspective.
All papers related to this conference theme or to the EAEPE research
areas are invited.
Paper proposals (600-700 words) can be uploaded on the EAEPE website
( www.eaepe.org ) until May 18,
2009 and should mention:
- title of the paper
- name and address of the author(s)
- the aim of the study and methodology
- (expected) results and/or conclusion
- up to 5 keywords
- whether you submit an abstract for the conference theme, a
research area or the PhD session.
Please visit www.eaepe.org
to upload a paper proposal.
Selected papers will be notified before June 15, 2009.
More information on the conference theme and the conference venues
can be found on the EAEPE website:
www.eaepe.org.
The Critique to Political Economy in
19th Century
Part II: Pierre Joseph Proudhon Verona 16-19 September 2009
The first workshop held in Zaragoza in September 2008 explored the
complex network of relations that characterised the relationship
between utopian thought and economic policy from the late eighteenth
century to the first half of the nineteenth century. The second
workshop on September 16-19 at the University of Verona will focus
on Pierre Joseph Proudhon on the second centenary of his birth. The
French thinker challenged economic policies and sought to build a
new type of social science, one no longer based on metaphysical and
Œtheological¹ principles. What Proudhon wished to see was a model
capable of keeping pace with the historical transformations of
economic and social reality.
"I affirm the reality of an economic science...I affirm, on the
other hand, the absolute certainty as well as the progressive nature
of economic science, of all the sciences in my opinion the most
comprehensive, the purest, the best supported by facts: a new
proposition, which alters this science into logic or metaphysics in
concreto, and radically changes the basis of ancient philosophy." (J.P.Proudhon)
During his intellectual journey, Proudhon was critical of what he
considered the analytical distortions of economic policies;
similarly, he condemned the supporters of utopias who, on the basis
of an abstract idea of egalitarianism and social justice, provided
an inadequate interpretation of the economic and social phenomena of
modern capitalist society. Proudhon¹s influence was significant and
his ideas inspired widespread discussion on themes ranging from the
annals of economics and sociology to political and institutional
transformation, with interesting international ramifications.
Papers would be particularly welcome on various aspects of
Proudhon¹s thought in relation to the social and economic context of
his day, on specific aspects of his thought or the reception of his
ideas, on his interpreters, critics and followers, in Europe or
overseas.
Please submit titles and 300 word abstracts no later than 15 May
2009 to:
segreteria@proudhonverona.eu.
Replies will be given by 15 June 2009.
www.//http.proudhonverona.eu
Scientific committee:
Gilbert Faccarello, Université Pantheon-Assas (Paris II)
Vitantonio Gioia, Università di Lecce
Alfonso Sànchez Hormigo, Universidad de Zaragoza
Sergio Noto, Università di Verona
How Class Works – 2010 Conference
The Center for Study of Working Class Life is pleased to announce
the How Class Works – 2010 Conference, to be held at the State
University of New York at Stony Brook, June 3 - 5, 2010. Proposals
for papers, presentations, and sessions are welcome until December
14, 2009 according to the
attached
guidelines.
A Green Economics Conference
The clash between Ecology and Economy
Greening the Economy,
Explanations, causes and answers to the current crises:
the climate, biodiversity, mass species extinction, commodity
fluctuations, poverty, and the credit crunch?
Intergenerational and intragenerational equity, pensions
Our women's unequal pay and poverty project stream,
social justice, long termism in economics
Systemic,practical and theory change in economics
at
Mansfield College, Oxford University
4th Annual Green Economics Conference N
Friday 31 July to Saturday 1 August 2009
Including: Green Procurement and the Greening of Business.
Click here for
detailed information.
Special Issue of RRPE on Economic
Democracy
download pdf copy of CFP here:
http://www.urpe.org/rrpe/media/CFPSpecialIssueEconomicDemocracy.pdf
Manuscript submission deadline: extended to 1 December 2009
Economic democracy is a theme that has run through radical and
progressive theory and practice. Broadly, it stands for an expansion
of democratic practice beyond the political realm, into the economic
aspects of our lives. It has been applied at the microeconomic level
in pursuit of workers’ self-management and related cooperative
structures. It also suggests the need for planning, where democracy
would be fundamental to decision making about an economy’s
objectives and means of achieving them. It has been used as a term
to expand the role of organized labor in management, and to link
unions more fundamentally to national political processes. Today it
also has application to household decision making, and to
aspirations for global forms of redistribution.
All of the themes mentioned above are relevant to this special
issue, and there are no doubt others of importance that we have
overlooked. In the past few decades, the term economic democracy has
appeared in book titles, and as an aspiration of political
movements. The RRPE’s Editorial Board thinks that it is time to
reinvestigate issues that fall under this theme, and a special issue
is put forward as a partial means to that end. We see this
discussion as critical to renewing radical thought and re-energizing
the left in the United States, and in other nations and localities.
We invite papers on all aspects of economic democracy, at levels
from the household to the global economy, and on topics related to
inclusion, participation in decisions that affect one’s life,
self-fulfillment, and realization of aspirations to be a more
engaged citizen. Race, gender, ecology, and other fields of inquiry
are appropriate, if linked to expanding our practice of democracy or
barriers to doing so.
It is a common belief that capitalism sets strict limits on how much
democratic practice is possible in society. Is this the case? If so,
how would various forms of socialist society remove this barrier?
All aspects of economic activity are relevant to this topic, as we
seek to encourage broad rethinking of what it means to use
democratic practice in material provisioning. Various forms of
democratic practice are also at issue, including direct
participation and representative democracy; geographic forms that
suit local, national, and global practice; and democratic practice
across households, private for-profit and nonprofit firms, the
cooperative sector, and the public sector itself.
For more information, please visit the RRPE website:
http://www.urpe.org/rrpe/Announcements/CallForPapers/CFPSpecialIssueEconomicDemocracy.htm
Please send four copies by 1 December 2009 to:
Hazel Dayton Gunn, Managing Editor
Review of Radical Political Economics
Department of City and Regional Planning
106 W. Sibley Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853, U.S.A.
phone: 315-789-1414
email: hg18@cornell.edu
Region Formation in Contemporary
South Asia
Wednesday 25th November to Friday 27th November 2009 University of
Delhi, India
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to promote discussion of the
economic and political significance of regions in the subcontinent.
Arguably, contemporary South Asia cannot be fully understood without
considering the contradictions of regional social formations and
wider structural processes.
Click
here for detailed information.
6th International Conference
Developments in Economic Theory and Policy
The Department of Applied Economics V of the University of the
Basque Country and the Cambridge Centre for Economic and Public
Policy, Department of Land Economy, of the University of Cambridge,
are organizing the 6th International Conference Developments in
Economic Theory and Policy. The Conference will be held in Bilbao
(Spain), in July 2-3, 2009.
Although papers are invited on all areas of economics, there will be
Plenary Sessions with Invited Speakers about the following topics:
- Regional Economics
- Current Economic and Financial Crisis
- 21st Century Keynesian Economics
Invited Speakers include, among others, Gary Dymski (University of
California), Marco Crocco (Universidade Federale de Minas Gerais),
Barry Moore (University of Cambridge), Mike Kitson (University of
Cambridge), Amitava Dutt (University of Notre Dame), Ilene Grabel
(University of Denver), Philip Arestis (University of Cambridge),
Malcolm Sawyer (Leeds University), Costas Lapavitsas (SOAS,
University of London), Eckhard Hein (Berlin School of Economics),
Terry Barker (University of Cambridge), Elias Karakitsos (University
of Cambridge), Jan Kregel (Levy Economics Institute) and Giuseppe
Fontana (University of Leeds).
Suggestions for Organized Sessions are encouraged. An Organized
Session is one session constructed in its entirety by a Session
Organizer and submitted to the conference organizers as a complete
package. Session organizers must provide the following information:
- Title of the session, name and affiliation of the organizer, name
and affiliation of chair (if different than organizer)
- Titles of the papers, name, affiliation and contact information of
authors
Besides Plenary, Organized and Normal Parallel sessions, there will
also be Graduate Student Sessions (i.e., students currently making a
MSc or a PhD programme). In these sessions, students can present
their research and discuss that of other students. Participants in
Graduate Student Sessions will pay a lower conference fee.
The deadline to submit papers and ‘Organized Sessions’ is 31st May
2009.
For more information, you can contact with Jesus Ferreiro (
jesus.ferreiro@ehu.es )
or visit the website
www.conferencedevelopments.com
The World Economy in Crisis – The
Return of Keynesianism?
The Research Network Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policies (FMM)
organises its 13th conference on
‘The World Economy in Crisis – The Return of Keynesianism?’
30 – 31 October 2009, in Berlin.
The submission of papers in the following areas is encouraged:
- Global imbalances and the current crisis
- Financial crisis, real crisis and the risks of depression and
deflation
- Paradigm shift in macroeconomics – the return of Keynesianism?
- Economic policy reactions and the future relationship between the
market and the state
- Regulation of the financial sector from a Keynesian perspective
- Perspectives for a Keynesian New Deal
For the open part of the conference the submission of papers on the
general subject of the Research Network is encouraged as well. We
also ask for the submission of papers for graduate student sessions,
on the specific subject of this conference or on the general subject
of the Research Network.
Conference language is English. Selected papers will be published
after the conference.
The deadline for paper proposals is 30 June 2009. Please send an
abstract (one page) to Susanne Stöger (
susanne-stoeger@boeckler.de ). Decisions will be made by
mid-August. Accepted papers should be sent in by 15 October to be
posted on the conference web page.
Organising Committee of the conference:
Sebastian Dullien (
dullien@fhtw-berlin.de ), Eckhard Hein (
eckhard.hein@hwr-berlin.de ), Peter Spahn (
spahn@uni-hohenheim.de
), Achim Truger (
achim-truger@boeckler.de ), and Till van Treeck (
till-van-treeck@boeckler.de )
Coordinating Committee of the Research Network:
Sebastian Dullien (FHTW Berlin), Trevor Evans (Berlin School of
Economics), Jochen Hartwig (KOF/ETH Zürich), Eckhard Hein (Berlin
School of Economics), Hansjörg Herr (Berlin School of Economics),
Torsten Niechoj (IMK, Düsseldorf), Jan Priewe (FHTW Berlin), Peter
Spahn (University of Hohenheim), Engelbert Stockhammer (WU Wien),
Claus Thomasberger (FHTW Berlin), Achim Truger (IMK, Düsseldorf),
and Till van Treeck (IMK, Düsseldorf)
More on the Conference:
http://www.boeckler.de/33_94949.html
and on the Research Network:
http://www.boeckler.de/91434_36330.html
The Financial and Monetary Crisis
LE CENTRE D’ETUDES MONETAIRES ET FINANCIERES
AND
THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE (IEPI)
In collaboration with
ADEK (Association pour le Développement des Etudes Keynésiennes)
Present their
FOURTH BI-ANNUAL CONFERENCE
“THE FINANCIAL AND MONETARY CRISIS:
Rethinking Economic Policies and Redefining the architecture and
governance of international finance”
DECEMBER 10-12, 2009
Université de Bourgogne, Laboratoire Economie Gestion (Dijon,
France)
Deadline for Proposals : July 30th, 2009
Decision from the Committee: August 30th, 2009
Deadline for sending papers: November 15th, 2009
Organised by
Claude Gnos (Université de Bourgogne et Cemf-LEG, Dijon)
Louis-Philippe Rochon (Laurentian University and IEPI, Canada)
The financial crisis has had considerable impact on our economies.
In dealing with the fallout of the crisis, central banks and
governments around the world have intervened at unprecedented levels
– in fact at levels which only months ago were considered untenable.
This crisis forces us to reconsider the role of various agents, the
need to scrutinize national and international finance, the need to
better manage the possibility of liquidity constraints, the rating
agencies, the need to limit the proliferation of financial
derivatives, and the need for better transparency and accountability
with respect to financial operations. More importantly, however, it
has brought back the role of the State in discussions over economic
policy.
We encourage papers relating to conference’s general topic,
and more specifically, although not exclusively, on the following
themes :
-History of the crisis, comparisons with past crises
- Financialisation
- Nature and efficiency of central bank operations
- Role of the State
- How can we foresee future crises
- Fiscal and monetary policy
For more information or to send proposals; please send to
Louis-Philippe Rochon, Associate Professor, Laurentian University,
at Lprochon2003@Yahoo.com
or Lprochon@Laurentian.ca
Or to Claude Gnos, Université de Bourgogne, Cemf-LEG, Dijon,
claude.gnos@u-bourgogne.fr
Scientific Committee:
Angel Asensio (Université de Paris XIII, France), Claude Gnos (Université
de Bourgogne, Cemf-LEG,
Dijon), Eckhard Hein (Berlin), Jesper Jespersen (Roskilde
University, Denmark), Dany Lang
(Université de Paris XIII, France), Edwin Le Heron (IEP Bordeaux),
Noémi Levy (UNAM, Mexique),
Alain Parguez (Université de Besançon), Jean-François Ponsot (Université
de Grenoble II), Louis-
Philippe Rochon (Laurentian University, Canada), Mario Seccareccia
(University of Ottawa), Sergio
Rossi (University of Fribourg, Suisse
JSPE 57th Annual Conference- 2009
The World Crisis of 2008 and the Future of Capitalism
To be held on November 22-23, 2009, at the University of Tokyo,
Hongo Campus in Tokyo, Japan
The 57th annual conference of the JAPAN SOCIETY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
(JSPE) will be held on
November 22 (Sunday) and 23 (Monday), 2009, at the University of
Tokyo, Hongo Campus in Tokyo. The theme ofthe plenary session is:
The World Crisis of 2008 and the Future of Capitalism. In the last
annual conference at Kyushu University in 2008, we focused on the
global financial crisis caused by the subprime mortgage fiasco in
the United States in 2007. We analysed the causes and risks of the
subprime shock and discussed the financial situation just after the
bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008. Through
analysing this subprime mortgage crisis from multifaceted
perspectives, we tried to clarify where global capitalism was now
and where it was going.
In October 2008, the financial crisis worsened and the U.S. Congress
passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, authorizing the
Treasury Department to use up to 700 billion dollars in a Troubled
Asset Relief Program to stabilize financial markets. However, this
financial crisis spread over Europe and many countries. The leaders
of the G-7 held a meeting in Washington, D.C. on October 11, but
were not able to find an effective way from this crisis. The Dow
Jones average fell 733 points on October 15, which was the biggest
fall since the Black Monday in October 1987. In December, the Big
Three automakers of the United States were plunged into a business
crisis because of stagnant car sales and the 700 billion dollars for
saving financial institutions were also applied for these
automakers’ bailout. The rapid fall of consumption in the United
States caused a world-wide decline in exports.
Japanese manufacturing industries rapidly reduced their employment
at the end of 2008, raising serious concerns about emerging social
problems. The U.S. recession has also had a strong effect on
production and employment in real sectors of newly industrialising
countries in the 21st Century, like China, India and Brazil. The
world economic situation has got into a world depression, which is
beyond the phase of subprime shock and credit crunch.
We call this ongoing rapid economic contraction mentioned above “THE
WORLD CRISIS OF 2008.” We will try to empirically analyse the
historical path of this crisis, and theoretically understand the
roots of this crisis on the theme of the plenary session. We will
also think about “THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM” because contemporary
capitalism has dramatically changed in the age of globalization. Can
we integrate our society with the ideology of welfare state? Will we
live in the regionalized society in the future? We will discuss the
future of capitalism beyond economic forecasts and business cycles.
We call for papers from JSPE members and from others interested in
participating in this conference which is based on the
aforementioned theme. We will welcome various participants with a
wide range of interests and methodological approaches. Although the
main conference language is Japanese, we will organize
English-language sessions on November 22, especially aiming at
accepting those from overseas who are willing to participate in the
following two categories:
English Sessions 1: Topics relating to the general theme of the
conference
These sessions are designated to the topics relating to the
conference general theme: The World Crisis of 2008 and the Future of
Capitalism
English Sessions 2: Other specific topics
These sessions will be organized to focus on other specific topics
such as environment and gender and regional economies (including
China and others), and so on, while remaining completely open to
suggestions and proposals.
Submission Procedures and the Deadline
All those who want to present a paper at the conference should send
an abstract of the paper [in 200 words] with (1) name, (2) address
(E-mail and mailing address), (3) affiliation and other relevant
data by no later than June 13, 2009,
to:
Prof. Shinjiro HAGIWARA or Dr. Tomohiko SEKINE,
E-mail: Jspecice@jspe.gr.jp
Postal mailing address: Faculty of Economics, Yokohama National
University, Tokiwadai 79-3, Hodogaya-ku,
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa, 240-8501, Japan. Tel:
+81-45-339-3575(Office), Fax: +81-45-339-3518
*Notification of acceptance will be sent by June 27. Attendants will
pay their conference fee (5000 yen including theconference buffet),
as well as their own transportation, accommodation and other
personal expenses.
Prof. Shinjiro HAGIWARA, Faculty of Economics, Yokohama National
University,
Chairman of the JSPE Committee for International Communication and
Exchange
*JSPE Executive Office:
Dr. Tetsuji Kawamura, Secretary General of the JSPE, Japan.
c/o Dr. Tetsuji Kawamura, Professor, Faculty of Economics, Dean of
the Graduate School of Economics, Hosei University,
4342 Aihara, Machida-shi, Tokyo 194-0298, Japan, Tel:+81-42-783-2593
& Fax:+8142-783-2611
e-mail:
secretariat@jspe.gr.jp JSPE URL:
http://www.jspe.gr.jp/ja
3rd International
Research Workshop
Ankara, September 14th and 15th, 2009
IIPPE invites applications to its 3rd Annual Research Workshop in
Ankara, Turkey on the 14-15th September 2009. The event is organised
with the support of TSSA (Turkish Social Sciences Association) under
the theme of “The Crisis, Interdisciplinarity and Alternatives”.
Those interested in participating are invited to send a one-page
abstract to 132590@soas.ac.uk
before the deadline of 30th May 2009 (with the subject: IIPPE 3rd
Research Workshop). We aim to inform successful participants and
attendees by 8th June. Participants are required to provide a
written paper in advance, the deadline for delivery of which is the
14th August 2009.
IIPPE Working Groups are encouraged to put forward a collective
proposal for a session (usually 3-4 papers) within the Workshop.
Please submit such session proposals, indicating the names and
titles of the session papers to
132590@soas.ac.uk before the 30th May. Abstracts for these
papers, and the papers themselves, should then be sent separately as
above.
IIPPE is only able at most to cover basic accommodation and food
costs for most workshop participants. We therefore strongly urge you
to seek alternative sources of funding to cover the cost of travel
and other expenses, including a workshop fee if available. Please
indicate whether you have such funding in place when sending your
abstract to us.
For further information regarding the event please contact
132590@soas.ac.uk
Top
Conferences, Seminars
and Lectures
Revue de la régulation
Les analyses consacrées aux mécanismes financiers ayant conduit à la
crise de grande ampleur que nous connaissons se multiplient
aujourd’hui. Souhaitant prendre un peu de recul par rapport à cette
actualité, la Revue de la Régulation. Capitalisme, Institutions,
Pouvoirs sortira en juin un numéro spécial consacré à une remise en
perspective de cette crise du capitalisme financiarisé.
Voici en primeur de ce dossier :
- Robert Boyer « Feu le régime d’accumulation tiré par la finance :
La crise des subprimes en perspective historique », qui fournit
d’importantes pistes pour analyser la fin du régime d’accumulation
tiré par le crédit aux ménages.
http://regulation.revues.org/index7367.html
- Gerald Epstein « Obama's Economic Policy: Achievements, Problems
and Prospects » , qui propose un première analyse fournie de la
politique économique d'Obama.
http://regulation.revues.org/index7459.html
Un autre sera également publié rapidement en avant-première :
- Frédéric Lordon « "Réguler" ou refondre ? Les insuffisances des
stratégies prudentielles »
Un séminaire autour de ce dossier "crise du capitalisme financier"
sera organisé le 11 juin à 17h à la MSH Paris Nord.
Bonne lecture !
Thomas Lamarche
Maître de Conférences en Sciences Economiques
Université Lille 3 et Germe paris 7
Revue de la régulation. Capitalisme, Institutions, Pouvoirs.
Http://regulation.revues.org
Séminaire Hétérodoxies du CES -
Matisse
Nicolas POSTEL et Richard SOBEL
(Clersé – UMR 8019 CNRS / Lille 1)
Economie politique, institutionnalisme et heterodoxies: Un essai de
généalogie conceptuelle de l’objet propre des hétérodoxies
économiques
Mardi 5 mai 2009 à 16h00
Maison des Sciences Economiques
106 Boulevard de l’Hôpital, 75 013 PARIS (Métro Campo Formio) Salle
des Conférences (6ème étage)
Le texte de la communication sera disponible à compter du 29 avril
sur le site :
http://matisse.univ-paris1.fr/heterodoxies
Causes and Consequences of the
Current Financial Crisis
‘Causes and consequences of the current financial crisis: What
lessons for European Union countries?‘
Date: Friday, 12 June 2009, 8.30am – 6.00pm
Venue: British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH
If you wish to attend and are not presenting a paper the
registration fee (including lunch and refreshments) is £80.00 + VAT.
Registration is required. Click here to pay and register. You will
be redirected to SWREG secure website.
If you would like to receive further information, please contact Pat
Shaw by
email: p.shaw@niesr.ac.uk
or phone: 020 7654 1905.
Globalisation and European
Integration
‘Globalisation and European Integration: the Nature of the Beast’,
5th-6th June 2009, University of Warwick.
ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL TO PARTICIPANTS
Registration is now open
Description
A cutting-edge event on Critical Political Economy approaches to
European integration and its relationship with globalisation. The
conference aims to stimulate a constructive engagement between
historical materialist, constructivist and post-structuralist
approaches to European integration. It aims to encourage
interdisciplinary exchange between specialists from the fields of
politics, international relations, international political economy
and sociology on their research findings regarding global
governance, regional integration and the national state with special
reference to the European Union.
Registration fee
£27 including refreshments, buffet lunch and wine reception on
Saturday.
Registration deadline
15 May 2009.
Capacity
There is a limited number of places available, so please register as
soon as possible in order to secure your participation.
Keynote Speakers
A. Cafruny and M. Ryner.
Participants
K. Van der Pijl, B. Jessop, H. Overbeek, L.S. Talani, A. Bieler, W.
Bonefeld, B. Clift, A. Wigger, H. Buch-Hansen, O. Holman, H.J.
Bieling, S. Shields, C. Belfrage, J. Grahl, G. Menz, J. Baines, H.
Macartney, I. Bruff, J. Drahokoupil, L. Levidow, C. Shaw, G.
Strange, J. Tittenbrun, H. Plaschke, E. de Zutter, F. Ercan, S.
Oguz, S.M. Rodrigues Balão, C. Dannreuther, K. Möller, C. Hermann,
L. Horn, V.Muzaka, M. Notshulwana, A. Popa, O. Parker, J. Caballero,
F. Capano, M. Fini, N. Fuentes, E. Gundogdu, W. Ko, O. Yaka, S.
Braconi, J.W.Son.
For more information (conference programme, registration procedure,
transport/accommodation information), please visit
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/ss/beast/ .
Co-organisers: Andreas Tsolakis (
A.A.Tsolakis@warwick.ac.uk ) and Petros Nousios (
P.Nousios@warwick.ac.uk
).
This event is kindly funded by the American Study and Student
Exchange Committee and the PAIS department at Warwick.
Congreso Anual 2009
“Oportunidades y Obstáculos para el Desarrollo de Argentina.
Lecciones de la post-convertibilidad”
Invitamos a presentar ponencias
Se extendió el plazo para presentar resúmenes.
Nueva fecha: Lunes 11 de Mayo
El Congreso tendrá como eje central el tópico que hemos elegido como
título pero serán igualmente bienvenidas aquellas contribuciones de
carácter teórico, así como relativas a otros países de América
Latina u otras etapas históricas que contribuyan al debate. En estos
últimos años, nuestro país ha experimentado un viraje político y
económico significativo respecto a la trayectoria adoptada desde
mediados de los años 70. Este viraje ha impulsado un período de
vigoroso crecimiento y modificado aspectos sustanciales de la
dinámica económica. El mundo también se ha transformado
profundamente. Pero ninguno de estos procesos se encuentra aún
definido ni mucho menos concluido. Los márgenes de acción y los
caminos a seguir están abiertos y por ello cobra especial
importancia la construcción de una agenda de política económica
creativa, sustentada en los mejores análisis. Por lo tanto, se busca
reunir la producción intelectual más relevante y generar un espacio
propicio para la renovación de propuestas y la identificación de los
desafíos principales que la política económica nos depara en el
próximo quinquenio
6th EUROFRAME
Conference on Economic Policy Issues in the European Union
Causes and consequences of the current financial crisis:
What lessons for European Union countries?
Friday, 12 June 2009, London
Organised by the EUROFRAME group
of Research Institutes
www.euroframe.org
Venue: British Academy,
10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH
Click
here for detailed information.
Assessing Heterodox
Economics in a European Context
A Workshop
Assessing Economic Research in a European Context: The Future of
Heterodox Economics and Its Research in a Non-Pluralist Mainstream
Environment
26 – 27 June 2009
University of Bremen, Germany, iino-Institute for Institutional and
Innovation Economics
Click here
for detailed information.
Top
Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles
Paper assets, real debts: An
ecological-economic exploration of the global economic crisis
by Giorgos Kallis, Joan Martinez-Alier, Richard B. Norgaard
This paper
sets out to investigate the potential contribution of the
inter-disciplinary field of ecological economics to the explanation
of the current economic crisis. The root of the crisis is the
growing disjuncture between the real economy of production and the
paper economy of finance.
The authors trace the epistemological origins of this disjuncture to
the myths of economism – a mix of academic, popular and political
beliefs that served to explain, rationalise and perpetuate the
current economic system.
The authors recommend ending with economism and developing new
collective and discursive processes for understanding and engaging
with ecological-economic systems.
The authors embrace the notion of sustainable de-growth: an
equitable and democratic transition to a smaller economy with less
production and consumption.
Minsky Conference
Audio and Papers Now Available Online
18th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the U.S. and
World Economies
“Meeting the Challenges of Financial Crisis”
Audio downloads now available at
http://www.levy.org/vevents.aspx?event=23
Top
Heterodox Journals and
Newsletters
International Review of Applied
Economics
Volume 23 Issue 3 is now available online at informaworld
( http://www.informaworld.com
).
Special Issue:Mechanisms of Inequality
This new issue contains the following articles:
Mechanisms of inequality: an introduction
Authors: Maurizio Franzini; Mario Pianta
Trade, catching-up and divergence
Author: Francisco Serranito
Globalisation vs internal reforms as factors of inequality in
transition economies
Authors: David Barlow; Gianluca Grimalda; Elena Meschi
Migrant remittances and inequality in Central-Eastern Europe
Authors: Marilena Giannetti; Daniela Federici; Michele Raitano
Innovation and wage polarisation in Europe
Authors: Elisabetta Croci Angelini; Francesco Farina; Mario Pianta
Poorer workers. The determinants of wage formation in Europe
Author: Francesco Bogliacino
Persistence of inequality in Europe: the role of family economic
conditions
Authors: Maurizio Franzini; Michele Raitano
National vs local funding for education: effects on growth and
inequality
Author: Massimo Giannini
The politics of social protection: social expenditure vs market
regulation
Authors: Debora Di Gioacchino; Laura Sabani
Feminist Economics
Volume 15 Issue 2 is now available online at informaworld
( http://www.informaworld.com
).
This new issue contains the following articles:
Divorced, Separated, and Widowed Women Workers in Rural Mozambique
Authors: Carlos Oya; John Sender
The Spatial Determinants Of Wage Inequality: Evidence From Recent
Latina Immigrants In Southern California
Author: Pascale Joassart-Marcelli
(Not) Valuing Care: A Review of Recent Popular Economic Reports on
Preschool in the US
Author: Mildred E. Warner
Sexual Orientation Discrimination: An International Perspective,
edited by Lee Badgett and Jefferson Frank. New York and London:
Routledge, 2007. 322 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-415-77023-1, ISBN-10:
0-415-77023-8 US$150.00
Author: Karin Schönpflug
Money With a Mission, Volume 1: Microfinance and Poverty Reduction,
by James Copestake, Martin Greely, Susan Johnson, Naila Kabeer, and
Anton Simanowitz. Warwickshire, UK: Practical Action, 2006. 272 pp.
ISBN-13: 978-1853396144 (pbk). US$33.95.
Author: Ranjula Bali Swain
The Feminist Economics of Trade, edited by Irene van Staveren, Diana
Elson, Caren Grown and Nilüfer Cagatay. London and New York:
Routledge, 2007. 328 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0415770590. ISBN-10:
0415770599 (hbk.). US$75.60.
Author: Marina Durano
Assembling Women: The Feminization of Global Manufacturing. Teri
Caraway, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2007. 224pp.
ISBN 978 0 8014 7365 4. Price, $18.95(pbk) $55.00 (hbk)
Author: Juanita Elias
Matrilineal Communities, Patriarchal Realities: A Feminist Nirvana
Uncovered, by Kanchana N. Ruwanpura. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 2006. 256 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-472-06977-4, ISBN-10:
0-472-06977-2 (pbk.). US$22.95
Author: Drucilla K. Barker
Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family, by Nancy
Folbre. Cambridge, MS: Harvard University Press, 2008. 248 pp.
ISBN-13: 978-0674026322 (hbk.). US$45.00
Author: Ingrid Robeyns
Modern Couples, Sharing Money, Sharing Life,edited by Janet Stocks,
Capitolina Diaz, Bjorn Hallerod. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
200 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0230517028, ISBN-10: 0230517021 (hbk.) US$74.95
Author: Fran Bennett
Global Perspectives on Gender Equality, Reversing the Gaze, by Naila
Kabeer and Agneta Stark with Edda Magnus. New York: Routledge, 2007.
312 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0415963497 (hbk.). US$95.00., Pages 125 - 130
Author: Maria Sagrario Floro
Mujeres economistas: Las aportaciones de las mujeres a la ciencia
económica y a su divulgación durante los siglos XIX y XX [Women
Economists: Women's Contributions to the Economic Sciences and
Advancement during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries]
Author: Susana Martinez-Rodriguez
European Journal of Economic and
Social Systems
vol 21/2 - 2008
http://ejess.revuesonline.com/
Money and Technological Change
The role of Financing int the Process of Evolution
- CONTENTS [FREE] pp.149-149
- Money and Technological Change. The Role of Financing in the
Process of Evolution
A.FUMAGALLI, S.LUCARELLI - pp.151-163
- From Natural Order to Case. Money and Machineries
G.LUNGHINI - pp.165-178
- Minimum Wage, Credit Rationing and Unemployment in a Monetary
Economy
G.FORGES DAVANZATI, A.PACELLA - pp.179-194
- Solvency and Labour Effort in a Monetary Theory of Production
E.BRANCACCIO - pp.195-211
- The Role of Banks in the (over-)Accumulation of Capital
S.ROSSI - pp.213-231
- Technological Shift and the Rise of a New Finance System. The
Market-pendulum Model
L.BADALIAN, V.KRIVOROTOV - pp.233-266
- Innovative Activity as Factor of Instability in a Monetary
Production Economy
A.FUMAGALLI - pp.267-288
Economia e Sociedade
Economia
e Sociedade aims at contributing to the development of critical
reflection in the fields of economics and economic history. Since
its inception in 1992, it welcomes a heterodox economics literature,
inspired by the traditions of Marx, Keynes, Kalecki, and Schumpeter,
as well as by Latin American reflections on economic development.
Economia e Sociedade has been published by the Institute of
Economics at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) since 1992.
New issues appear every four months.
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_issuetoc&pid=0104-061820080004&lng=en&nrm=iso
Critical Perspectives on
International Business
Volume 5 Issue 1
Published: 2009 | Start Page: 6
Special Issue: Reflections on a global financial crisis
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContainer.do;jsessionid=9929CC014846F965308C336F2D2609F9?containerType=Issue&containerId=15001369
Challenge
Volume 52 Number 3 / May - June 2009 of Challenge is now available
on the mesharpe.metapress.com web site at
http://mesharpe.metapress.com/link.asp?id=H20717K6141L
This issue contains:
- Letter from the Editor
Jeff Madrick
- Iceland as Icarus
Robert Wade
- Their Great Depression and Ours
James Livingston
- How to Fight (or Not to Fight) a Slowdown
Eckhard Hein, Achim Truger
- Has the Rise in American Inequality Been Exaggerated?
Robert J. Gordon
- The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences, by John
Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff
Michael Meeropol
- Postscript on the G20 Summit
Mike Sharpe
Friends of Associative Economics
Bulletin
Friends of Associative Economics Bulletin provides an overview of
what is going on around the world in the associative economics
movement. The bulletin is viewable as a webpage at
www.cfae.biz/fae-bulletin/09May/
May 2009
1) What is real in Economics?
2) Forthcoming Events
3) Associate! May 2009 - Concerning Rights
4) How to Build a New Economic Model - A Report
5) Money Means Not Money
Click
here for detailed information.
Top
Heterodox
Books and Book Series
From Economics
Imperialism to Freakonomics
The Shifting Boundaries between Economics and other Social Sciences
By Dimitris Milonakis, Ben Fine
University of Crete, Greece; School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London, UK
http://tandf.msgfocus.com/c/1RU9d6uzDYEnvk8B
Is or has economics ever been the imperial social science? Could or
should it ever be so? These are the central concerns of this book.
It involves a critical reflection on the process of how economics
became the way it is, in terms of a narrow and intolerant orthodoxy,
that has, nonetheless, increasingly directed its attention to
appropriating the subject matter of other social sciences through
the process termed "economics imperialism". In other words, the book
addresses the shifting boundaries between economics and the other
social sciences as seen from the confines of the dismal science,
with some reflection on the responses to the economic imperialists
by other disciplines.
From Political Economy to Economics
Method, the social and the historical in the evolution of economic
theory
By Dimitris Milonakis, Ben Fine
University of Crete, Greece; School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London, UK
http://tandf.msgfocus.com/c/1RUbio6EMKGP2mcD
Economics has become a monolithic science, variously described as
formalistic and autistic with neoclassical orthodoxy reigning
supreme. So argue Dimitris Milonakis and Ben Fine in this new major
work of critical recollection. The authors show how economics was
once rich, diverse, multidimensional and pluralistic, and unravel
the processes that lead to orthodoxy’s current predicament.
John Maynard Keynes
NOTICE: An inexpensive paperback edition of Paul Davidson's JOHN
MAYNARD KEYNES book will be available beginning in May 2009—just in
time for you to order copies for class room use in courses on
Macroeconomics. This latest paper back version has an additional
chapter indicating how Keynes’s analysis that are presented in the
earlier chapters of the book provides the explanation for the global
financial and economic crisis that we are currently experiencing.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, by Paul Davidson (Palgrave/Macmillan, London
and New York, 2007) ISBN# 978-02302290204
“Global imbalances, the unshackling of capital, the precarious state
of modern capitalism: rarely has the world of economics been in more
need of the thoughts of John Maynard Keynes. Although Keynes is no
longer with us, this book is the next best thing. Paul Davidson is
the leading expert on Keynes and Keynesianism and his book should be
read by anybody who wants to understand the world as it is, rather
than as the economic text books say it ought to be.
” - Larry Elliott, Economics Editor, The Guardian
“Davidson convincingly shows how Keynes's radical assault on
classical economic theory was undermined by mainstream interpreters
anxious to make his doctrines politically acceptable. Keynes's own
‘general theory' is compellingly explained; its obfuscators attacked
with Davidson's familiar panache.” - Lord Skidelsky, author of John
Maynard Keynes 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman
“This could be the best one-volume treatment of Keynes's economics
since Keynes himself. Clear, logical and faithful, Paul Davidson
introduces the real Keynes to a new generation. And do we ever need
him.” - James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin and
Levy Economic Institute
“Paul Davidson's fascinating, encyclopaedic book captures the drama
of the appearance of the General Theory, illuminates the
controversies still surrounding it, and passionately defends
Keynes's radical innovations in economic theory and policy. It is
high time for economists and policymakers to go back to Keynes's own
words, whose power Davidson so effectively articulates.” Peter L.
Bernstein, President of Peter L. Bernstein, Inc., and author of
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk and also Capital
Ideas Evolving.
Political Economy
Now!
The struggle for alternative economics at the University of Sydney
Gavan Butler, Evan Jones and Frank Stilwell
Darlington Press
ISBN: 9781921364051
AUS$34.95 plus postage
The book is available from Sydney University Press eStore at
www.sup.usyd.edu.au
http://purl.library.usyd.edu.au/sup/9781921364051
Political Economy Now! is the story of one of the most substantial
and enduring conflicts in the history of Australian universities.
Beginning in the late 1960s, it pitted those committed to the
teaching of mainstream economics at the University of Sydney against
the proponents of an alternative program in political economy. The
dispute continued for decades until a Department of Political
Economy was established in the Faculty of Arts in 2008.
Why all the fuss over the teaching of economics? Why were the
disagreements so deep and protracted? What has been at stake? Why
did dissident staff and students commit so much time and energy to
establishing and developing alternative courses and administrative
arrangements?
The dispute involved substantial differences of opinion about the
nature of the curriculum, the style of teaching, and the structures
of power and decision making. Although locally focused at the
University of Sydney and at its most intense during the 1970s and
1980s, the dispute also has wider implications for how we understand
the economic system and the role of economic policy. It reflects a
broader tension in Australian society about what economic
arrangements best serve social needs.
The story of the struggle for alternative economics told from the
political economists' perspective weaves together a general
historical narrative with illustrations and interpretations of the
causes and consequences of the conflict, and personal recollections
of eleven former student activists, all now in significant
professional positions.
Political Economy Now! is a fascinating read for those concerned
about how a discipline of great social and political significance is
understood and taught to its would-be practitioners.
Heterodox
Graduate Program and Scholarships
Productivity, Employment and
Competitiveness
The Department Economics of Innovation, Delft University of
Technology is inviting applicants for a 4-year PhD project on
“Productivity, Employment and Competitiveness:
A Cumulative Growth Model Analysis for 20 OECD Countries
(1960-2005)”
According to the standard theory of equilibrium unemployment (or
NAIRU theory), persistent un¬employment is caused by “excessive”
labour market regu¬lation, whereas aggregate demand, ca¬pi¬tal
accumulation and technological progress have no lasting effects on
unemployment. The aim of this project is to show that the NAIRU
model is a special case of a larger model of equi¬li¬bri¬¬um
unemployment, in which aggregate demand, investment and endogenous
technological pro¬¬gress do have long-term effects. To do so, a
cumulative growth model will be used to analyse the effects of
labour market regulation on growth, productivity, (un-) employment
and com¬peti¬tive¬ness. This model builds upon post-Keynesian
tradition ? Bhaduri and Marglin (1990), Taylor (1991, 2006), Bhaduri
(2006), Naastepad (2006) and Storm and Naastepad (2007, 2008) ? and
in¬te¬grates (available) demand, productivity and labour market
regimes. This framework can be used to show that the NAIRU is a
special case of a more general model which (i) allows demand to
influence equilibrium unemployment and (ii) endogenizes productivity
growth and tech¬nolo¬gi¬cal change. The candidate will apply this
model to 20 OECD countries (1960?2005), addressing two questions:
(1) What are the determinants of structural unemploy¬ment?
(2) Are there differ¬en¬ces in demand, productivity and employment
regimes between (groups of) OECD countries and are these differences
associated with differences in macro-eco¬no¬mic performance?
A longer des¬cription of the project is available upon request;
please contact dr. Naastepad or dr. Storm at the addresses given
below.
References
Bhaduri, A. and Marglin, S. (1990) “Unemployment and the real wage:
the economic basis for contesting political ideologies.” Cambridge
Journal of Economics 14 (), 375-393.
Bhaduri, A. (2006) Endogenous economic growth: a new approach,
Cambridge Journal of Economics 30 (1), 69-84.
Naastepad, C.W.M. (2006) Technology, demand and income distribution:
A cumulative causation model with an application to the Dutch
productivity slowdown, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 30 (3),
403-434.
Storm, S. and C.W.M. Naastepad (2007), Why Labour Market Regulation
May Pay Off: Worker Motivation, Co-ordination and Productivity
Growth, Economic and Labour Market Paper 2007/4, Employment and
Labour Market Analysis Department, International Labour
Organization, Geneva: ILO.
Storm, S. & C.W.M. Naastepad (2007) OECD demand regimes (1960?2000),
Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics 29 (2) 211?246.
Storm, S. & C.W.M. Naastepad (2007) It is high time to ditch the
NAIRU, Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics 29 (4) 531?554.
Storm, S. & C.W.M. Naastepad (2008) The NAIRU reconsidered: Why
labour market de-regu¬la¬tion may raise unemployment, International
Review of Applied Economics 22 (3).
Taylor, L.(1991) Income Distribution, Inflation and Growth. Lectures
on Structuralist Macro¬economic Theory. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT
Press.
Taylor, L. (2004) Reconstructing Macroeconomics, Harvard University
Press.
Requirements
University graduate.
We are looking for an open-minded (macro-) economist with some
training in statistics and eco¬no¬metrics (further training
possibilities will be provided). The candidate should have a strong
interest in (post-Keynesian) macro-economic theory and its policy
implications.
Conditions of employment
Estimated gross salary per month: ca. 1900 Euro (starting salary).
Employment basis: temporary contract for a 4 year period, with full
inclusion in the Dutch social security system (including a good
pension scheme).
Starting date: Summer 2009.
Additional information & application:
Please send your CV to:
Dr. C.W.M. Naastepad (
c.w.m.naastepad@tudelft.nl ) or
Dr. S. Storm (
s.t.h.storm@tudelft.nl ) or
Prof. Alfred Kleinknecht (
a.h.kleinknecht@tudelft.nl ).
Program on Gender
Analysis in Economics (PGAE)
The Department of Economics at American University in Washington,
D.C., is pleased to announce the Program on Gender Analysis in
Economics (PGAE). The program offers three options to meet different
needs:
Graduate Certificate on Gender Analysis in Economics,
Gender Analysis in Economics track in the MA in Economics,
Gender Analysis in Economics field in the PhD program.
The PGAE differs from other gender-related graduate programs by
presenting a gender-focused yet economics-based curriculum. Courses
apply gender analysis to different fields of economics, including
microeconomics, macroeconomics, political economy, labor economics,
public finance, development, and international trade and investment.
The PGAE is geared to students seeking careers in government
agencies, research institutes and think tanks, non-governmental
policy organizations, or economic and financial institutions who
need well-trained professionals with skills in both economics and
gender analysis.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/programs/gender.cfm.
Top
Heterodox
Web Sites and Associations
Economics for Equity and the
Environment Network
Economics for Equity and the Environment Network (E3) has launched a
new website, www.RealClimateEconomics.org, to demonstrate the weight
of economic analysis in the peer reviewed literature that supports
immediate, large-scale policy responses to the climate crisis.
The Real Climate Economics website offers a reader's guide to the
real economics of climate change, an emerging body of scholarship
that is consistent with the urgency of the problem as seen from a
climate science perspective.
As the climate policy debate intensifies, economic analysis is
playing an increasingly central role. The case for inaction is no
longer argued on the grounds of skepticism about the science;
instead, some have claimed that it will be too expensive to take
more than token initiatives. There is now extensive economic
analysis that challenges and refutes this idea. The peer-reviewed
articles included on this website demonstrate that:
- Risk and uncertainty are fundamental to the climate problem;
- Ethics and equity are inseparable from economic analysis of
climate change
- Marginal analysis of small changes and modest adjustments of
market-based instruments are inadequate to the task of understanding
and protecting the earth's climate.
E3 is a national network of economists doing applied economic
research on environmental issues with a social equity focus. For
more about E3's programs and to get involved, please visit our
website at www.e3network.org
Top
Queries from Heterodox
Economists
Wanted papers on the History of
Economic Thought from a Non-Western Perspective
I wonder if any heterodox economists can steer me to some web-sites
where I might be able to find high quality papers that are in the
public domain, and that talk about the history of economic thought
from a non-western perspective; especially papers on non-Western
(Latin American, Indian, Moslem, etc.) thinkers and ideas. This is
to fill in one serious gap in the “Social Science Library” which is
described below.
The Social Science Library: Frontier Thinking in Sustainable
Development and Human Well-Being is being developed to send on
electronic media that can be shipped inexpensively around the world;
our intention is to get it into all post-secondary-school libraries
in 137 countries, selected on the basis of low per capita income and
generally poor Internet access.
The contents of the Social Science Library include a bibliography of
over 9,000 journal articles and book chapters. Of these about
one-third will be available, as full-text articles, on the CDs or
thumb-drives (MB USB drives) on which the SSL will be shipped. If
you would like to see what the Social Science Library looks like,
and how it works, an early version can be seen at
www.socialsciencelibrary.org. (See technical notes, below)
The problem we address is that many institutions of higher learning
in less wealthy countries have extremely limited printed materials
in the social sciences – sometimes only a shelf or two. At the same
time, a large number do not yet have adequate access to the
Internet. The technology used in this project overcomes both the
cost of sending printed books and continuing, serious difficulties
and costs of Internet access.
The belief that has informed the development of the Social Science
Library is that the challenges of the 21st century will require
educated problem-solving from all parts of the world, in the social
as well as the natural sciences, and not only from the wealthier
countries, where the social sciences have been developed, and which
continue to dominate thought and research in these areas. The
project’s goals are:
- To further the development of the social sciences in the world’s
less-wealthy nations;
- To strengthen the ability of social scientists in these countries
to influence their own local policies;
- To ensure that global debates on the future of the human species
will increasingly include these voices; and
- To give global attention and emphasis to those social science
writings that are most likely to contribute to understanding and
promotion of sustainability and human well-being.
For many of the recipient institutions the SSL will multiply by a
factor of tens, or even hundreds, the available social science
writings. It is designed not only to be used in libraries, but to be
readily copied so that students, teachers, researchers and others
can have their own social science library in their pockets. The
format provides a tremendous wealth of reading materials in
anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, political science,
sociology, and social psychology. At the same time, because of its
structure and organization, it is also a superb teaching tool.
Technical notes: Each library will receive the Social Science
Library in two forms – a thumb-drive, and a pair of CDs – so that
any student or faculty who can afford to purchase either of these
pieces of hardware can take the blank to the library, quickly copy
the SSL onto it, and become the possessor of his or her own
library-in-a-pocket. The thumb drive version is superior, because it
can hold the entire SSL, which will have to be divided in half to go
on two CDs; however we recognize that there will be some users who
can afford a blank CD but not a thumb drive.
The version of the SSL that can be seen on the Web, through the link
given above, is an early one that was developed for a single-CD
version that we sent out for testing and feedback to 21 of the 137
intended recipient countries. When we then modified this build for
the Web site, we formatted in bold articles or chapters that the
ultimate users of the CDs will be able to access in full; however,
because of our agreements with publishers, such access is not
available in anything we post on the Internet. The number of bolded
titles shown on this version is only about half of what will be
included in the final products. Note that the final version will
also contain significant improvements in the areas that explain the
concept, nature and purpose of the social sciences.
Neva Goodwin, Co-director
Global Development And Environment Institute
Tufts University
www.gdae.org
http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae
Top
For Your Information
New Paper Finds
IMF Lending Still Requires Harmful and Inappropriate Economic
Conditions
For Immediate Release: April 21, 2009
Contact: Dan Beeton, 202-239-1460
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Center for Economic and Policy Research
(CEPR) released a new paper today that finds that the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) is still prescribing inappropriate policies that
could unnecessarily worsen economic downturns in a number of
countries. The paper, "Empowering the IMF: Should Reform be a
Requirement for Increasing the Fund's Resources?" examines
conditions tied to the IMF's new lending to El Salvador, Pakistan,
Ukraine and other countries and finds the IMF is requiring
macroeconomic conditions that can unnecessarily exacerbate the
effects of the global economic recession on these countries.
"New funding should not be provided to the IMF unless the
institution is subject to important reforms that will prevent the
Fund from continuing and repeating the serious errors that they made
in the last major crises of the 1990s," said Mark Weisbrot,
co-Director of CEPR and lead author of the paper.
Among the harmful conditions cited in the paper are agreements that
unnecessarily tighten fiscal and monetary policy in countries facing
declining output and negative external economic shocks. The IMF has
at the same time advocated the passage of economic stimulus packages
and expansionary monetary policy in developed economies such as the
U.S., Europe, and Japan.
"The main purpose of the IMF's lending and the increased resources
for the Fund right now is supposed to be to help low-and
middle-income countries do what the high-income countries are doing
- stimulate their economies," said Weisbrot. "It defeats the purpose
to require them to do the opposite."
The authors also find that Fund-supported policies may have
contributed to the vulnerability of countries in the current crisis,
as it did in the run-up to the Asian crisis a decade ago.
The paper concludes that governments allocating new resources to the
IMF should first ensure that there is sufficient reform of IMF
governance and past IMF practices, and that accountability
mechanisms are put in place at the Fund.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=kzPDH6gGORI2VXUfWmZCXNXol7%2B%2FHxYt
Origins of Institutional
Economics According to Baylor University Economists
I received the following from a colleague that may be amusing to
you:
Baylor University in Waco, Texas devoted its Fall 2007 issue of
Baylor Business Review to a special topic which it apocalyptically
christened "Economics Saves the World". Articles and commentary by
its faculty addressed various contemporary issues aimed at a general
audience. Most accounts drew on traditional mainstream concepts
except for one foray into the terminology of institutional
economics.
When mentioning conspicuous consumption, readers were told the
phrase was "introduced..by economists Thorstein and Veblen in 1899"
(sic) (p. 12). Either so little respect was given to heterodox
approaches by this faculty that the reference was purposely
misstated, the editor was unaware that only one person coined this
term, or perhaps it was believed that Veblen (often inaccurately
accused of so many types of alleged misbehavior) may have suffered
from a split personality. Then again, those devoted to a strictly
mainstream approach have seldom demonstrated accuracy in either
their knowledge or interpretation of history.
Declaración
fundacional de la Asociación de Economía para el Desarrollo de la
Argentina (AEDA)
La Argentina ha experimentado en los últimos años un importante
viraje en su orientación económica, alejándose de una etapa previa
dominada por políticas neoliberales. Este viraje se implementó a
contracorriente del consenso general de la profesión de los
economistas y de buena parte de las ciencias sociales.
No obstante este avance, debe llamarse la atención sobre la
persistencia de la matriz ideológica que sustentó las políticas
económicas pasadas, que llevaron a la Argentina por un sendero de
exclusión social, desindustrialización y desempleo. La mayor parte
de los economistas se forma en esa tradición y se agrupa en torno de
fundaciones y consultoras muy bien financiadas por sectores de poder
interesados en que esas ideas se desarrollen y se difundan. La
batalla ideológica contra esa orientación, lejos de haberse ganado,
continúa vigente. La tarea es urgente, en la medida en que el
desempeño económico de estos últimos tiempos permite avizorar una
oportunidad para que la Argentina experimente en los próximos años
una etapa de desarrollo económico sustentable.
Para aprovechar esa oportunidad, es necesario no sólo consolidar un
modelo económico, sino también articular un nuevo pensamiento que de
a luz ideas y perspectivas renovadas y una agenda de largo plazo
para avanzar en un cambio estructural que garantice una sociedad
incluyente y un sendero de industrialización.
Con estos objetivos nos hemos propuesto poner en marcha la
Asociación de Economía para el Desarrollo de la Argentina (AEDA),
que procura nuclear a profesionales de las ciencias sociales
comprometidos con estas ideas. Se trata asimismo de una apuesta
generacional que busca sumar nuevas voces al debate.
Te invitamos a protagonizar este proyecto asociándote a AEDA y
participando en las distintas actividades que estamos organizando.
Buenos Aires, octubre de 2008
Players of
Political Economy
Frank Stilwell | May 06, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THE International Monetary Fund recently revised its global economic
projections downwards. The global financial crisis has created the
most difficult economic conditions for more than 70 years.
Australia, though better placed economically than many other
nations, cannot avoid being adversely affected by the global
downturn.
These are circumstances in which we may expect some fundamental
rethinking by economists. It was their confidence in free markets
producing efficient outcomes that gave legitimacy to the neo-liberal
policies of the past two decades. Those policies, including
privatisation and financial deregulation, reduced the capacity of
the government to directly influence economic outcomes. During the
boom years this did not seem to matter, but with the benefit of
hindsight we can see that it was a fools' paradise.
"Obey ye the market" has proved to be a misleading mantra. The
emergent recession shows the economic rationalist approach did not
provide sound foundations for sustainable economic activity. Some
see the policies as directly culpable for the disastrous economic
outcomes. The unwarranted faith in market outcomes led in practice
to an orgy of speculation and mounting levels of unsustainable debt.
Productive investment, including socially necessary infrastructure
investment, has been correspondingly neglected.
It is necessary to look more critically at economic processes and
institutions to understand what has happened. Keynesian economics
has rightly experienced a revival because it provides an explanation
of recession and tools for counter-cyclical economic management.
There is also renewed interest in Marxian analysis of capitalism,
focusing on the contradictory aspects of the capital accumulation
process, the causes of growing economic inequality and periodic
economic crises.
There are mild echoes of such concerns in Kevin Rudd's denunciation
of "extreme capitalism".
Institutional economics also has an important contribution to make.
This is a dissident tradition of economic thought that emphasises
the significance of institution building in creating the conditions
for sustainable economic activity. As US political economist William
Lazonick has written: "History shows the driving force of successful
capitalist economic development is not the perfection of the market
mechanism but the building of organisational capacities."
None of these alternative schools of economic thought have much
faith in the free market mechanism to deliver economic outcomes that
are consistently efficient, equitable and sustainable. They
challenge the neoclassical economic orthodoxy that has underpinned
the embrace of economic rationalism and neo-liberal policies.
Are our universities going to start teaching about these
alternatives? All alternative approaches warrant careful
consideration, especially in the present difficult economic
conditions. Universities need to restructure their courses in
economics to consider and compare the contributions that each of
these schools of thought can offer.
Unfortunately, the curriculum in almost all universities remains
overwhelmingly neoclassical. This perpetuates the type of economic
policy advice coming from the Productivity Commission and the
right-wing think tanks.
However, it is not conducive to an economic outlook that is
sensitive to the present needs for recovery and reconstruction.
One university that seeks to explore the different approaches to
economic analysis is the University of Sydney. For decades it has
offered students the opportunity to study courses in political
economy as well as mainstream economics. The courses look at
Keynesian, post-Keynesian, Marxian and institutional analyses of
capitalism as well as the neoclassical orthodoxy.
It was a tremendous historical struggle to get those alternative
courses established, contrary to the wishes of professors wedded to
the orthodoxy approach.
It's interesting to see that graduates of the political economy
program during the past 40 years include many people now at the
forefront of government, academe and journalism.
As a political economy student, Anthony Albanese staged a protest on
top of the university clock tower in support of an autonomous
political economy department. Now as federal Infrastructure,
Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister, he
oversees much of the vast stimulus spending that the Rudd Government
is hoping will see us through this crisis. In NSW politics you'll
find Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt (portfolios include climate
change, the environment and commerce) and David Borger (housing), to
name just two.
It's also perhaps no coincidence that two of the most vocal figures
warning of unfettered consumption and market speculation - public
intellectual and author Clive Hamilton and University of Western
Sydney economics academic Steven Keen - also are former political
economy graduates and activists, both of whom write about the
formative role the discipline played in their thinking in a new book
about the efforts to establish political economy at Sydney
University.
Others are reporting on the crisis: an activist from the early
years, Steve Burrell, is a senior Fairfax business journalist, while
more recent graduates include business and economics journalists
Jessica Irvine (The Sydney Morning Herald) and Stephen Long (ABC),
The World Today presenter Eleanor Hall and Lateline Business'
Michael Janda. Hopefully another graduate, The Chaser's Charles
Firth, will provide us with some light relief from the gloom. The
list goes on.
A new book about the years spent establishing alternative economics
at the university, titled Political Economy Now! The Struggle for
Alternative Economics at the University of Sydney, includes a cameo
appearance from a young Malcolm Turnbull, who tried to play a
mediating role between activists and university management.
Today students are again flocking to the study of political economy.
A surge means more than 600 undergraduates are enrolled in political
economy, with more completing majors, honours and masters
qualifications.
Will other universities follow the lead in revising and diversifying
their teaching of economics? Or will they remain wedded to a
neoclassical orthodoxy that has shown itself to be part of the
present economic problem?
Frank Stilwell is professor of political economy at the University
of Sydney. Political Economy Now!, co-written with Gavan Butler and
Evan Jones, was launched yesterday at the university.
The Economic Crisis and the
Case for a Solidarity Economy
If you have ever asked yourself...
Whats really behind the current crisis and is the answer more
regulation by the government?
Why does our economy periodically suffer from such crises?
What should a well-functioning economy do?
What's the connection behind lower wages for ordinary workers and
large Wall Street bonuses?
How do we build a more just and sustainable economy?
...then this course is for you!
The Economic Crisis and the Case for a Solidarity Economy
An Online Course offered by the Center for Popular Economics
Summer Session I (June 1 - July 9, 2009)
Course Fee: $900 for THREE Univ. of Massachusetts Credits or $400
for non-credit students.
40-60 Professional Development Points (in MA) or 3.6 Continuing
Education Credits (outside MA) available.
Scholarships are available for non-credit students.
The Center for Popular Economics, in collaboration with the Forum on
Social Wealth and the Political Economy Research Institute at Univ.
of Massachusetts, Amherst is offering a special topics 3-credit
online course (Econ 197) this Summer. The course runs from Monday,
June 1st till Thursday July 9th, 2009. No background in Economics is
required. The course is suited for students as well as activists and
community members who want to learn more about the current economic
crises, its causes and its solutions. Please see attached flyer and
visit
http://www.populareconomics.org/online_course_2009.html
for more information. You can also contact Amit Basole at
abasole@gmail.com or
Emily Kawano at
emily@populareconomics.org for more details on registering
for the course.
Overview: The current economics crisis has once again raised the
question with great urgency: what purpose do we want our economy to
fulfill? Is it fulfilling this purpose today? If not, what can we do
about it? In this course we will place special emphasis on the
ongoing economic and financial crisis and its long-term and
short-term causes and consequences. We will also discuss various
alternative economic models rooted in principles of economic
democracy, cooperation and sustainability. Finally, we will talk
about a vast store of wealth that communities everywhere possess and
on which they can draw for constructing alternatives.
The course is comprised of two main parts. Part One takes a look at
how 30 years of neoliberal economic policy created the conditions
for the present crisis, which threatens to be the most severe since
the Great Depression. Falling or stagnant wages for the majority of
Americans, rising and unsustainable levels of debt in the economy,
and a poorly regulated financial sector all played a part in
precipitating the crisis. We will also go beyond the crisis and
attempt fo understand how our economic model has allowed
unprecedented accumulation of wealth by a few and while bringing low
wages, longer work hours, and rising healthcare and education costs
for the many, in addition to a deterioration of our natural and
social environment. We start with a look at the historical roots of
neoliberalism and then try to understand the economics behind it.
In Part Two, we will talk about how some of the things that we saw
going wrong in Part One can be set right. Building a just economy
that is not prone to repeated crises depends on the efforts we make.
In the midst of growing inequality and corporate power, many
grassroots economic alternatives have been springing up throughout
the U.S. as well as the rest of the world. This is the new
"Solidarity Economy." Grounded in principles of economic democracy,
social solidarity, cooperation, egalitarianism, and sustainability,
this is an alternative to the Neoliberal vision of the economy. In
this part of the course we will look at some examples of such
alternatives, including alternatives to the current financial
system, as well as understand the economics behind them. We will
also see how an economy organized around solidarity principles can
tap into reservoirs of social wealth, assets that all communities
possess; our cultural and ecological commons and our capacity to
work for those we care.
Comments on the Financial
Crisis
Dr. James K. Galbraith
Sponsored by the University of Chicago Money and Markets Workshop
April 10, 2009
Click here to
download the interview.
The Economic Crisis and
Obama’s Response
Dr. James K. Galbraith
Sponsored by the International Study Stream
Click here
to download the interview.
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