Issue 55: January 14, 2008

In this issue:

Call for Papers

The 10th International Post Keynesian Conference

Call for Papers
Theme: Post Keynesian Economic Policy
June 29- July 1, 2008
Kansas City- Missouri USA

More information will be forthcoming at www.cfeps.org  and www.generaltheory.org  websites.
Contact: Heather Starzynski ( hms6f8@umkc.edu )

Graduate Summer School in Post Keynesian Economics

Call for Papers
June 26-28, 2008
University of Missouri- Kansas City and Center for Full Employment and Price Stability (CFEPS)
The faculty should submit a proposal for 1 hour class with class title and summary.
More information will be forthcoming at www.cfeps.org/ss2008
Contact: Heather Starzynski ( hms6f8@umkc.edu )

’John Maynard Keynes 125 years – what have we learned?’

24. April 2008, Hus 25.3, Roskilde University, Denmark
New trends in Macroeconomic Theory, Methodology and Politics
9.00 – welcome by Professor Jesper Jespersen
9.15-10.15 Professor Victoria Chick, University College London: Keynes’s macroeconomics and uncertainty – what have we learned?
10.30-12.30 parallel sessions: Theory, method and politics (analytical approaches)
12.30-13.30 - Lunch
13.30-14.30 Professor Lars Pålsson-Syll, Malmö Handelshögskola: Keynes’ macroeconomic methodology in perspective of Critical Realism
14.30-15.00 - Coffee
15.00-16.30 parallel sessions: Theory, method and politics (applied studies)
16.30-16.45 - Fruit
16.45-17.30 Professor Jesper Jespersen: Keynes-inspired research for the coming 25 years - globalization, environment and welfare institutions
17.30 – farewell reception
20.00 - dinner

Conference fee, 100 € (ph.d.-students 50 €); Conference dinner, 50 €
Send a paper outline (1-2 pages) not later than 10. March 2008 to Professor, Dr. Jesper Jespersen, e-mail: jesperj@ruc.dk , you will get an answer just after Easter.
Participants should register before 15th April.

The 35th Annual Conference of the History of Economic Society

The 35th Annual Conference of the History of Economic Society will be held 27-30 June 2008, at York University, in Toronto, Canada.
Most conference details are now on the HES website (Details on ground transportation and area attractions will be added shortly.):
http://historyofeconomics.org/Conference08/2008ConferenceToronto.htm
You can register by email and submit proposals online.
The deadline for submitting proposals for papers and sessions is 15 February 2008.
The conference coordinator is Deborah Groves, and the conference email address is 2008hes@gmail.com.

Happiness and capability: measurement, theory and policy

Workshop at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
22nd August 2008
http://www.ru.nl/hapcap/ 
Call for papers
Anyone interested in participating is encouraged to submit a proposal no longer than 500 words. Submissions for sessions are strongly encouraged. Sessions would consist of three to four papers or a roundtable discussion with 3-4 speakers. A session proposal should contain, in addition, title and description of the theme of the session in up to 500 words, and the name and contact information of the session organizer.
All submissions will be considered for a planned conference volume.
Timeline:
• January 31, 2008: proposal submission
• February 28, 2008: notice of acceptance or rejection
• June 30, 2008: completed paper
Please submit your proposal in pdf or word format to hapcap@fm.ru.nl. 
http://www.ru.nl/hapcap/ 

What is well-being? The list of answers—all potentially correct—may be daunting, ask any social scientist or humanities researcher working on the topic. Few other concepts lie at this juncture between the social sciences and humanities. The challenging task of answering what it is notwithstanding, well-being, across all disciplines, has never before been such a popular topic in academia. Indeed, the number of publications and specialist journals speaks for itself.
Though attempts to define well-being have been numerous and ambitious, they are often marred by contradiction, politics and scepticism, while the concept remains vague, primitive and easily captured by cultural relativism. Furthermore, as the theoretical debate unfolds, real-life applications of well-being constructs appear to enter the policy debate only scarcely. The aim of this workshop organized by the Chair in Economic Theory and Policy at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, is to provide a platform to debate this urgent set of issues. The workshop, which will be held in the former Augustinian convent Soeterbeeck (Ravenstein), brings together experts—economists, philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and policy makers—working on the frontier of the theoretical and empirical characteristics of well-being.
The focus of the workshop is on two approaches to well-being, namely, the happiness approach and the capability approach. While the happiness literature has moved ever closer to 'objectifying' its theoretical and measurement construct, the capability theory of well-being emerges from the concern that subjective well-being, no matter how objective, is not sufficient as an account of well-being; from the capability perspective, in fact, factors exogenous to the person whose well-being is evaluated are necessary. Which brings to the forth substantive issues such as how far are capability and happiness reconcilable? Whether some notion of human flourishing underlies and connects both constructs? Or can the happiness approach be integrated into a more general capability theory? And finally, to what extent would a happiness regime prove sufficient to single-handedly feed the policy debate?
Some possible themes:
Measurement issues:
• What are the measurement problems and desiderata in happiness and capability research?
• What are the implications of measurement issues on theory?
Happiness and capability theory:
• How compatible are the happiness and capability approaches to well-being?
• How culturally specific are theories of happiness and capability?
Policy dimensions:
• How can happiness and capability research help to shape and appraise policy?
• Do happiness and the capability approach call for different institutional arrangements?
Keynote speakers:
• Ruut Veenhoven (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
• Des Gasper (Institute for Social Studies)
• Jon Hall (OECD)

ERSA 2008- Culture, Cohesion and Competitiveness: Regional Perspectives

27-31 August 2008, Liverpool, UK

Chosen as European Capital of Culture for 2008, Liverpool has been the focus for numerous regeneration initiatives. The city has changed dramatically in the last decade and is emerging as one of the UK's leading centres for learning, culture, entertainment, sport and endeavour. The 2008 ERSA Congress, jointly hosted by the Department of Civic Design at the University of Liverpool and the British and Irish Section of the Regional Science Association International, will provide an excellent opportunity to see, and reflect on, the substantial progress that has been made. The overarching theme for the Congress, 'Culture, Cohesion and Competitiveness' encapsulates a number of different aspects that are topical and relevant, not only for Liverpool but also across the whole of Europe.
The programme will be organised around a variety of topics and include plenary sessions with lectures by distinguished keynote speakers, including Professor Ed Glaeser (Harvard). Papers are invited on topics that not only reflect the central theme, but also reflect other topics such as:
. Cultural regeneration and its evaluation
. Climate change and its implications for urban and regional development
. The evidence base for regional policy
. Regional analysis of enterprise formation, deformation and survival
. The development of air transport in European regions
. Labour mobility in the extended European Union
. The regenerative role of river basin management
. Spatial targeting and urban policy
. Geographical information systems and spatial analysis
. Local dimensions of sustainable development
. Globalisation and regional competitiveness
. Migration, diasporas and development
. Social segregation, poverty and space
. Rural and local development
. Dublin and Liverpool: two cities compared
. Cross-border cooperation and development
. Renewable energy: a regional development perspective
. Regeneration of urban districts: analysis, policy and evaluation
. The future for regional policy in Europe
. Public health and regional prosperity
. Spatial econometrics
. Long-term unemployment and lagging regions
. New technologies, innovation and space
. Public finance and regional development
. Sustainable development and regional economic strategies
. Spatial economic analysis
. Retail development and competitiveness
. Agglomeration, clusters and policy
. City and regional marketing
. Location of economic activities and people: new directions
. City and regional governance: the role of city regions
. Infrastructure, transport, mobility and communication
. Learning regions
. New frontiers in regional science: theory and methodology
In addition to the above, there will also be young scientists sessions.
Prospective participants should submit an abstract of up to two pages to the conference website, http://www.liverpool.ac.uk/ersa2008  by 14 January 2008.
Notification of acceptance of abstracts will be sent to authors by 29 February 2008 and the deadline for full paper submission is 30 April 2008.

Contact: Professor Peter Batey (Chair, LOC)
Sandra Robinson (Congress Administration)
Tel: +44 [0]151 794 3811
Tel: +44 [0]151 794 3118
Email:
pwjbatey@liverpool.ac.uk 
ERSA2008@liverpool.ac.uk 
sandrob@liverpool.ac.uk

HETSA Conference 2008

"The Study of the History of Economics: What does the Future Hold?"
The 21st Conference of the History of Economics Society of Australia
9-11 July, 2008
University of Western Sydney, Parramatta

The School of Economics and Finance at the University of Western Sydney is pleased to host HETSA 2008. Following in the footsteps of the 19th Conference at Ballarat, conference delegates will be able to sample rich indigenous and colonial history in the heart of a modern city. The conference will be held on a site formerly occupied by juvenile delinquents and psychiatric patients which will no doubt resonate with the HETSA membership.
Deadline for Abstracts: 25 April 2008
Deadline for Papers: 30 May 2008

(Other papers may be accepted after this date if space on the program is available).

For further information contact:
John Lodewijks
Professor and Head,
School of Economics & Finance,
University of Western Sydney
ED. G141 Parramatta Campus
Locked Bag 1797
Penrith South DC NSW 1797

Tel: 9685 9404
0414 017 346
J.Lodewijks@uws.edu.au

A Brief History of the Parramatta Campus

The University of Western Sydney's Parramatta Campus is a true community campus for its neighbours. Its remarkable historical significance means the campus is a vital part of Sydney's cultural tourism infrastructure.

Part of the campus is the Female Orphan School which began its life as a refuge for young orphan girls and then as a hospital for the mentally ill. It is the oldest three-storey brick building in Australia, and the nation's oldest public building.

The building's foundation stone was laid in 1813 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie and was oneof the most ambitious projects undertaken by the fledgling colonial government. The Female Orphan School's construction predates both Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney and the Female Factory in Parramatta, making it an important heritage asset. The School expanded in 1850 to include orphaned boys, but was closed in 1887 when a change in government policy favoured placing orphans with foster families. In 1888, the building became the Rydalmere Hospital for the Insane. The psychiatric hospital operated for some 90 years, until the hospital was gradually closed down during the 1980s.

In 1993 the University of Western Sydney acquired the site and work began developing the Parramatta campus. The campus opened to students in1998. The Female Orphan School forms the centerpiece of the University's historic Parramatta Campus, on the banks of the Parramatta River.

The development of the UWS campus at Parramatta complements the fiveother historical precincts in Parramatta - making a rich heritage available to the nation.

Transport Details:
University of Western Sydney (Parramatta)

Parramatta campus is in Rydalmere between Ryde and Parramatta in westernSydney. To reach the campus from the Sydney Central Business District (CBD) or airport typically takes around 40 minutes by car.

Travelling By Car

From Sydney CBD, take the M4 Western Motorway and take the exit at the James Ruse Drive interchange. Note that the M4 is a tollway. Turn right onto James Ruse Drive. Take the Victoria Road exit and turn right at the traffic lights. Turn right again from Victoria Road to enter the campus. On-campus parking is available, and a valid $3 daily parking permit must be displayed at all times.

Travelling By Train

Take the Carlingford line to Rydalmere railway station, which is next to the campus. Information about the Sydney rail system and timetables are available from the Cityrail website.

Travelling By Bus

Sydney Bus Routes 520, 523 and 524 operate between Parramatta railway station and the campus.

The Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE)

President: Michael Piore (MIT)
SASE 2008
University of Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa Rica
July 21-23, 2008
Economic Flexibility and Social Stability in the Age of Globalization
The theme of the SASE 2008 meeting is suggested by Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation. Polanyi interprets the history of industrial society in the 19th and 20th centuries in terms of a pendulum-like "double movement." One side of that movement is toward free and flexible markets that underpin, and in some sense foster, the material and technological gains associated with the Industrial Revolution. The other side is a reaction to the disruption that these markets impose on people’s lives, an attempt to preserve the social relations through which people understand themselves and find meaning in their lives. The current era of globalization mirrors that of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in many ways. Markets are being established, liberalized, and deregulated throughout the world. Goods, finance, and people are moving within and across frontiers at an ever-accelerating pace. And people are bewildered, looking for alternatives to their increasingly chaotic and insecure lives. Furthermore, the reaction emerging today recalls the politics and policies of the Great Depression and the immediate postwar period, when the second half of Polanyi’s double movement came into effect. But with one critical difference: While the theories that have guided deregulation and globalization in the closing decades of the 20th century are the direct descendants of the laissez faire ideas that guided globalization a century ago, the philosophies that informed the second half of the double movement that is, the social legislation that grew out of the Great Depression—have in many ways been discredited. Today’s reaction is therefore more instinctive and visceral than deliberate and considered, and the question is whether it will indeed be possible to reconcile these two movements in theory or through practical politics. We will examine the prospects for reconciliation in a series of panels on the contemporary relevance of four major social and economic theorists: Marx, Keynes, Polanyi, and Hirschman.
A fifth panel will specifically explore the possibility that these older social theorists have been rendered obsolete by new technologies, especially information networking, which, if true, would call for new understandings of economic development, north-south relations, and the relationship between the economy and the society. The practical dimension will be explored through papers and panels drawing on grounded research on specific industries and geographic areas and devoted, where possible, to innovative approaches to critical markets (for labor, capital, raw materials, and the like). Special attention will be focused on the reaction against neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus in Latin American countries; to parallels in other countries and regions of the world; to the economic roots of that reaction; and to changes in economic and social policy that have emerged as a result not only in the region but throughout the world.
To explore the interaction between scholarly theory and political practice, we draw on the Latin American tradition of combining public service with careers as intellectuals and academicians. Óscar Arias, the Nobel Laureate and current President of Costa Rica, is one of the most prominent representatives of this tradition. He will also be the keynote speaker at the meeting. SASE will invite a group of prominent Latin American politicians with similar backgrounds to join him as panelists and discussants in roundtables with each other and with the academic participants.
The conference is organized in a series of networks which are listed on our webpage www.sase.org  If a particular network is not designated with a submission, the paper will be assigned to a workshop by the organizing committee. The official language of the meetings will be in English. But a limited number of sessions will be in Spanish and in French, and organized by those networks. Proposals submitted in Spanish or French will be assigned to the relevant language networks. Otherwise proposals should be submitted in English and papers presented in that language (although the papers themselves may be submitted in Spanish or French as well as English.
Program Committee : Andrew Schrank (University of New Mexico) Heloise Petit (Université Paris 1, Sorbonne - Centre d'Etude de l'Emploi)
Local Organizing Committee : Dr. Henning Jensen Pennington, Local Committee President Dr. Róger Churnside, General Coordinator local committee
Local Academic Committee : M.Sc. Olman VillarrealDra, Mayra Achío, Dr. Carlos Palma, M.Sc. Isabel C. Araya
For more detailed information click here.

Post Keynesian Economics Study Group

Inflation targeting: is there a credible alternative?

Balliol College, Oxford, Friday 4 April 2008

The new consensus is that discretionary macroeconomic policy should be limited to inflation targeting by control of the central bank interest rate. The Old Keynesian emphasis on discretionary fiscal and incomes policies has been discarded as no longer credible in terms of either history, theory or politics. This workshop will consider whether Post Keynesians have simply lost the argument, whether a new case can be made for the old policies, and whether Post Keynesian economics can offer fresh, credible policies with superior performance in terms of achieving genuinely full employment and price stability.

The Committee invites proposals for papers and seeks discussants to read the selected papers in advance and give considered and constructive criticism to the meeting. We expect to have three one-hour sessions, including 25 minutes for the main speaker in each session, 15 minutes for the discussant, and allowing 20 minutes for discussion from the floor.

Abstracts (about 500 words) should be sent to secretary@postkeynesian.net  not later than 29 February 2008. If accepted, the final paper will be required for distribution in electronic form not later than 21 March 2008.

Recent Developments in Economics: Mainstreams and Heterodoxies

On the same weekend that the Canadian Economics Association will be meeting in Vancouver this June, the Society for Socialist Studies will be meeting as part of Congress (June 4 to 8, 2008). This is unusual and I'd like to take advantage of it. I am trying to arrange a session for the Society that surveys theoretical developments in economics since the end of the neoclassical synthesis. I am hoping for relatively brief (c.
20 minutes), high-level overviews of new approaches (e.g., experimental economics, computation & complexity), new developments in the theorization of major actors (e.g., the Individual, the Firm) or of major traditional areas (e.g., welfare economics, labour economics).
Given the Society's focus, accounts that consider developments within both mainstream *and* heterodox theories, perhaps showing points of convergence and increasing divergence, would be particularly valuable.

Expressions of interest (name, contact info, proposed topic) should be sent to chris.borst@utoronto.ca  by January 15, 2008.

More information about the Society is available at http://www.socialiststudies.ca.  To give a little more information on this proposed session, the draft abstract for the session (circulated with the Society's Call for Papers) is included below.

Thanks,
Chris Borst

*Session Title:* Recent Developments in Economics: Mainstreams and Heterodoxies

*Description*:

Many left-inclined scholars have abandoned the study of economics on the grounds that it is a falsely technical mask for straightforwardly right-wing, anti-democratic ideology. As a result, few are aware of the startling transformation economics has undergone over the last two or three decades, a transformation that should be of great interest to socialist scholars. Mainstream and heterodox theories are interacting more than they have in over half a century. The "perfectly competitive"
neoclassical image of yore has given way to a complex picture of agents with identities, incomplete, interdependent and endogenous preferences, and limited knowledge and "rationality", interacting in pervasively incomplete markets suffused with transaction costs, rents, externalities, information asymmetries, bargaining, and increasing returns, relying on heuristic "rules-of-thumb", conventions, institutions, and "path dependent" (historical) outcomes to make what decisions they can, without any expectation those decisions are either individually or socially "optimal". In short -- something like the economy we actually know.

Submissions are invited that provide overviews of major recent developments in any area of economics, with special attention to the consequences of such developments for our overall understanding of existing economies and the possibilities for more democratic ones.

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Conferences, Seminars and Lectures

The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA)

The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) - the 3rd Annual Robert Heilbroner Memorial Lecture on the Future of Capitalism on February 14, 2008. This year's lecture will feature Stephen Marglin, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and author of The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like An Economist Undermines Community (forthcoming January 2008 from Harvard University Press).

Social Aspects of Green Economics

I am writing to warmly invite you to our special conference on the Social Aspects of Green Economics, with particular emphasis on Basic Income, Trafficking in women and on solving different aspects of poverty.
This is a one day conference which will take place at Oxford University and has a fascinating range of international speakers with lots of diffferent perspectives and experience of examining and implementing solutions to these problems.Some of our speakers explore market solutions and some take a socialist perspective and most take a radical green perspective.
Our speakers come from Belgium, France, Finland,Venuzuela and Germany to name a few and have experience in a range of situations from Barristers helping trafficked women at the coal face, to Directors of large and active Institutions,Professors of Economics from the USA and Finland and former government ministers and high profile mainstream journalists.There is a special emphasis on women and poverty and on the relationship between poverty and the environment.

I attach a flyer and a booking form and if you have any questions at all please email me at greeneconomicsevents@yahoo.co.uk  as soon as possible,Our recent events have completely sold out, as they are very popular so do make sure you email me to let me know you are coming as soon as possible and then fill in the attached booking form and send it with your registration to The Green Economics Institute, 6 Strachey Close,Tidmarsh, Reading RG8 8EP.
Looking forward to seeing you at the conference
Miriam Kennet
Director
Green Economics Institute

Has the Canadian Economy Caught Dutch Disease?

Implications for Canada of a High-valued Canadian Dollar January 30th, 2008 Metropolitan Hotel, Toronto, Ontario

On behalf of the Public Policy Forum, I would like to invite you or someone from your organization to participate in an upcoming conference entitled, Has the Canadian Economy Caught Dutch Disease? Implications for Canada of a High-valued Canadian Dollar. The conference will take place on January 30th, 2008 at the Metropolitan Hotel in downtown Toronto, Ontario.
Most observers agree that the Canadian dollar will remain high, although how high and for how long remains an open debate. This conference will consider the explanations for the dollar's rapid rise, implications for the Canadian economy and how both business and governments are responding to these challenges. From a wait-and-see approach, to government assistance for the manufacturing sector to currency union with the U.S., a full range of policy options will be considered.
Participants will be able to meet decision-makers and other leaders from business and government to discuss these issues. Space is limited and registration is on a "first come-first served" basis.
A draft agenda for the event can be found here

To register for this event, please follow the following link to view the registration form: http://ppforum.ca/common/assets/registrations/en/canadian_dollar_conference.pdf
In order to reserve a seat, completed registration forms should be faxed to (613) 238-7990 by January 18th, 2008. For more information please contact Matt LeBlanc at 613-238-7858 ext. 243 or matt.leblanc@ppforum.ca.

Science of Logic

The London Marx-Hegel reading group continues to make headway with the "Science of Logic". We have one more chapter from the Doctrine of Essence (Bk 2, §3 ch 3 Absolute Relation) to look at on Wednesday 16 January, and then we start on the Doctrine of the Notion. We hope to complete the Doctrine of the Notion in the next six months. Details can be seen at http://tinyurl.co.uk/whvk .  All Welcome! If you have any queries about the group, please contact me at a.denis@city.ac.uk.

Series on Modelling Social Conflict

Gordon Burt (Open University) continues his series on modelling social conflict this winter with sessions of interest to psychologists, educationalists, sociologists and many others.

See attached flyer for details of talks on: Educational design and social choice theory (17 January 2008), Introduction to mathematical psychology (7 February) and Social adaptive processes in the speculative market for well- being (6 March).

The series is co-sponsored by the Conflict Research Society and the Psychology Department of Goldsmiths, University of London.

Places are limited, so if you would like to attend, please let me know as soon as possible.

Herbert H. Blumberg, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London SE14 6NW, England h.blumberg@gold.ac.uk
tel: +44 (0)20 7919 7896; fax 7873. Home: +44 (0)20 8969 0017 www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/psychology/staff/blumberg.php 

Download the flyer.

Hétérodoxies du CES-Matisse

La prochaine séance du séminaire Hétérodoxies du CES-Matisse (dorénavant organisé sous la forme d'après-midi trimestriel) se tiendra le :

Mardi 15 Janvier 2008
Social-libéralisme : quel bilan ?
14h – 15h30
Patrick LE GALÈS (CEVIPOF, Science Po)
Tony Blair 1997-2007 : le bilan des réformes
Discutant : Stefano PALOMBARINI (Université Paris VIII – LED - Cepremap)
15h30 – 17h00

Rémi LEFEBVRE et Frédéric SAWICKI (CERAPS, Lille 2)
La société des socialistes (ed. du croquant)
Discutant : Bruno AMABLE (Université Paris I – CES-Matisse – Cepremap)

MSE, 106 Bld de l’Hôpital, 75 013 PARIS (M° Campo Formio) Salle des Conférences (6ème étage)

Les communications sont disponibles sur le site :
http://matisse.univ-paris1.fr/heterodoxies

Les prochaines séances auront lieu les 20 mai puis le 24 juin
Responsables du séminaire : Bruno Amable, Christophe Ramaux, Bruno Tinel et Carlo Vercellone. Contact Seminaire-Heterodoxies@univ- paris1.fr    

Three Talks by Loren Goldner

London, Jan 19th, 21st and 22nd, 2008

New York-based Marxist Loren Goldner is giving a series of talks in London this month, hosted by Mute magazine [http://metamute.org]
Best known for his prescient and revelatory analysis of the global credit bubble of the last thirty years, Goldner has revived and synthesised the theoretical insights of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Marx and CLR James suppressed by orthodox Marxism and the mainstream Left to offer a rigorous and revolutionary critique of contemporary life, politics, economy and culture.

This is a rare opportunity to hear one of today’s most interesting left communist analysts discuss a broad spectrum of his research and writing. For detailed information, click here.

The Revival of Political Economy

The Department of Economics at Drew University presents
The Revival of Political Economy
An all-day conference with distinguished scholars in Political Economy
Saturday February 9, 2008
9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Hall of Sciences, HS 4
Drew University, 36 Madison Ave., Madison, NJ 07940
For detailed info, click here.

Robert Solow and the Development of Growth Economics

The annual /History of Political Economy/ Conference -- this year on the topic "Robert Solow and the Development of Growth Economics" -- will be held 25-27 April 2008 at Duke University. Further information, including the tentative program, can be found on the Duke History of Economy Group website (http://econ.duke.edu/HOPE), following the links to HOPE Conferences and then to the 2008 conference or, directly, to the HOPE 2008 website

http://econ.duke.edu/HOPE/HOPEconference2008OpenAccess/HOPE2008master.htm

The 10th International Workshop on Institutional Economics

The 10th International Workshop on Institutional Economics will be held on 17-18 June 2008 at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield in England.

The workshop theme is:

Institutions, Technology and their Roles in Economic Growth
Speakers:
Geoffrey Hodgson (University of Hertfordshire)
Richard Lipsey (Simon Fraser University – to be confirmed)
Carlota Perez (University of Cambridge)
Jochen Runde (University of Cambridge)
Vernon Ruttan (University of Minnesota)

This workshop will also include a POSTER SESSION where participants will be able to discuss a small display of their work.

Further details and booking information can be found on the following website:
http://www.geoffrey-hodgson.info/p37.htm

Left Forum 2008

LEFT FORUM 2008 will take place March 14-16 at The Cooper Union, New York City.

This year we are excited to present many speakers who are new to Left Forum audiences, from around the world and right here in New York City, as well as many who are joining us again: Naomi Klein, Grace Lee Boggs, Tariq Ali, Staughton Lynd, Billionaires for Bush, Mahmood Mamdani, Adam Hochschild, Jeremy Scahill, David Harvey, Max Elbaum, Stanley Aronowitz, Frances Fox Piven, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Patricia McFadden, Patrick Bond, John Bellamy Foster, Michael Albert, Carlos Vilas, Dennis Brutus, Deepa Fernandes, and many more will participate.

The theme of Left Forum 2008 is Cracks in the Edifice. What is the nature of the emerging crises in global political economy? How can the Left confront its current challenges to build stronger anti-capitalist movements? If another world is possible, what will it look like? We will be adding several movement-building workshops to our program, and plan to examine1968 after 40 years.

Please join us this March to explore these questions and many more. In addition to the plenaries and panel discussions, there will be a pre-conference cocktail party and a cultural event on Saturday evening. Your participation in the entire weekend enriches the discussions, fuels the debates, and helps make Left Forum the critical and singular event that it is. Registration will be available shortly at www.leftforum.org , as well as information on the program as it develops.

10th SCEME Seminar in Economic Methodology

"Economics and Politics: Defining Neoliberalism"
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Venue: Old Library, Keele Hall
Keele University, UK
The Stirling Centre for Economic Methodology (SCEME), jointly with the Institute for Public Policy and Management (IPPM) of Keele University, invites registrations for its 10th seminar in a bi-annual series on economic methodology and is very pleased to announce that Professor Philip E. Mirowski has agreed to give the keynote paper.
Programme
from 10:00 Morning Coffee; Arrival of Participants
10:20 Welcome Address
Matthias Klaes (SCEME & IPPM)
10:30 Understanding the Tenets of Neoliberalism
Philip E. Mirowski (University of Notre Dame & All Souls College Oxford)
11:30 Rolling Back the State: Mrs Thatcher's Criminological Legacy
Steve Farrall (University of Sheffield)
12:30 Lunch
14:00 Righting Culture: Managerial Power and the Ethos of Markets
Rolland Munro (IPPM)
15:00 Neoliberalism and Workers' Rights
Paul Smith (IPPM)
from 16:00 Afternoon Coffee; Departure of Participants
Organisation & Registration:
The seminar is open to registered delegates only and intended as a forum for informal scholarly debate. Places are therefore limited. When registering, you are encouraged to express a preference regarding which of the papers you'd like to act as discussant for. Brief versions of seminar papers and discussant statements will be invited after the seminar for a joint peer-reviewed submission as a symposium to the Review of Social Economy. Further enquiries: enquiries@ippm.keele.ac.uk 
Registration forms can be found on: http://www.keele.ac.uk/research/ppm/
Further information: http://www.econ.stir.ac.uk/SCEME/events.htm

Convegno internazionale di Studi- International Studies Conference

Politica e mercato mondiale: a 150 anni dai Grundrisse
Politics and the World Market: 150 years since Marx’s Grundrisse
11-12 gennaio 2008 - January 11-12, 2008

Flows of Capital and of Labour-Power

Università degli Studi di Padova
12 gennaio 2008 - ore 9.00 Aula N
January 12nd, 2008: 9 a. m. - Room N
Terza Sessione
Third Session
Flussi di capitale e forze di lavoro
Flows of Capital and of Labour-Power
Download the program.

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Job Postings for Heterodox Economists

Buffalo State College

Buffalo State College invites applications for a full-time, tenure track position in the Department of Economics and Finance, beginning September 2008. Primary teaching responsibilities are in finance (capital markets, money and banking) and applied macro (econometrics, research methods) at the undergraduate and master’s levels. Preference is for candidates who show evidence of high quality teaching and research, interest in supervising research projects at the under- graduate and master’s level, and a desire to work in a department with a tradition of openness to alternative paradigms. Applicants must have completed Ph.D by August 1, 2008.

Please submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae and three letters of recommendation to: Susan M. Davis, Search Committee Chair, Dept. of Economics and Finance, Buffalo State College, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, N.Y. 14222.

Review of applications will begin March 1, 2008 and applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Buffalo State College is a liberal arts college-- more than one hundred and fifty years old-- with a diverse student population of 11,000 in an urban setting. Additional information about the college, its mission and facilities is available at www.buffalostate.edu.  Buffalo State is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

Senior Economist

The Canadian Labour Congress has a vacancy for the position of Senior Economist in the Social and Economic Policy Department at CLC Headquarters in Ottowa (Lesser qualified applicants could be appointed at the level of National Representative.)
For detailed information, click here (in French).

FTC- The Bureau of Economics

The Bureau of Economics at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is recruiting new as well as established Ph.D. economists. We will be interviewing candidates at the American Economic Association meetings in New Orleans in January 2008 and at the Bureau of Economics at FTC offices in Washington, D.C. during the recruiting season. The Bureau is looking for talented, well-trained economists specializing in industrial organization, applied microeconomics (such as labor, behavioral, or health economics), and applied econometrics to join our staff of approximately 70 Ph.D. economists, one of the largest and most talented groups of applied microeconomists in the country.

Staff economists at the FTC contribute to the agency's mission in a variety of ways. They provide state-of-the-art theoretical and empirical analysis of the competitive consequences of proposed mergers and other forms of business conduct as part of the FTC's antitrust enforcement missions. The FTC also enforces the country's consumer protection laws, and FTC economists are instrumental in providing analysis of consumer decision-making to guide both policy and law enforcement in this area. The Bureau of Economics also encourages, and our staff produces, high-quality research that is often placed in general interest journals such as the American Economic Review and field journals such as the RAND Journal of Economics and the Journal of Industrial Economics. The complexity and variety of economic issues examined both in the competition and the consumer protection arenas, as well as the opportunity to have a substantial and immediate impact on public policy, make the Bureau of Economics a unique and exciting place for an economist to work and learn. More detailed information about the Bureau and our economist Ph.D. recruiting efforts is available online at http://www.ftc.gov/be/recruit/index.shtm.

Visiting Positions. The Bureau of Economics at FTC ıs also interested in working out visiting arrangements with faculty whose research complements our missions here at the Bureau of Economics. Such a visit can provide an ideal opportunity to develop new research projects and to gain deeper knowledge of particular industries.

Research and Data Analyst Positions. Finally, we are recruiting students with undergraduate and master’s degrees to serve as Research and Data Analysts to support our Ph.D. economists. As integral members of the team, Research and Data Analysts interact with economists and legal staff, thereby gaining an understanding of both economic and legal aspects of antitrust and consumer investigations. During these assignments, Research and Data Analysts conduct statistical analyses based on economic models, compile data from public and private sources, perform literature research, review the economic content of reports, and help design and test survey questionnaires and consumer experiments. They often go on to continue their educations at top economic departments, business schools, and law schools or move on to excellent employment positions after several years. Please encourage your undergraduates or masters students who may be interested in coming to Washington DC to apply with the FTC. Information about FTC Research Analyst Program can be found at http://www.ftc.gov/be/researchanalystprogram.shtm.

More detailed information about the Bureau of Economics and its missions is available online at http://www.ftc.gov/be/about.shtm.

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Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles

Living Wage Policies and Wal-Mart

Living Wage Policies and Wal-Mart: How a Higher Wage Standard Would Impact Wal-Mart Workers and Shoppers
by Arindrajit Dube, Dave Graham-Squire, Ken Jacobs, and Stephanie Luce
http://lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/listserv/wa?A2=ind0712B&L=PORTSIDE&T=0&F=&S=&P=10333

Lessons from the Subprime Meltdown

L.R. Wray
This paper uses Hyman P. Minsky’s approach to analyze the current international financial crisis, which was initiated by problems in the U.S. real estate market. In a 1987 manuscript, Minsky had already recognized the importance of the trend toward securitization of home mortgages. This paper identifies the causes and consequences of the financial innovations that created the real estate boom and bust. It examines the role played by each of the key players—including brokers, appraisers, borrowers, securitizers, insurers, and regulators—in creating the crisis. Finally, it proposes short-run solutions to the current crisis, as well as longer-run policy to prevent “it” (a debt deflation) from happening again.

Earnings Functions and the Measurement of the Determinants of Wage Dispersion: Extending Oaxaca’s Approach

JOSEPH DEUTSCH and JACQUES SILBER
Working Paper No. 521
www.levy.org/pubs/wp_521.pdf
In a pathbreaking paper, Ronald Oaxaca (1973) proposed a technique to decompose the relative wage gap between two population subgroups. The authors extend Oaxaca’s approach to include any number of groups, and combine techniques used in the fields of income inequality measurement and labor economics to analyze the determinants of the overall wage dispersion. An empirical illustration is based on income surveys in Israel.

Grupo De Propaganda Marxista

Compañeros/as:
Este aviso es para comunicaros la publicación en nuestra página Web http://www.nodo50.org/gpm  de un nuevo documento titulado “Crítica al neomarxista Samir Amín”.
Este trabajo tiene su origen en la petición de un compañero costarricense de cual es nuestra opinión sobre tan influyente autor, representante, entre otros, de la “escuela neomarxista” o del “marxismo crítico”. En el mencionado documento intentamos explicar desde el umbral hasta los principios y fines que caracterizan dicha “escuela”, además de las propuestas generales y concretas que Samir ofrece engañosamente a los que, en principio, pretenden superar los males del sistema capitalista.
La dirección para acceder directamente al documento es http://www.nodo50.org/gpm/neomarxismo/00.htm  Si deseáis descargaros todo el archivo en doc pinchad AQUÍ.
Para cualquier comentario, dirigiros a: gpm@nodo50.org 

Evidencia del Ciclo de Goodwin, por el Dr. Mario Garcia (primeras 9 partes-video)

En el intento de difundir el pensamiento economico crìtico, comenzaremos a usar elementos de difusion videograbados, en youtube. El total de partes son 16 de aproximadamente 6 minutos cada una. En este seminario, el Dr. Mario Garcìa, desarrolla un modelo de ciclos endògenos Volterra-Goodwin, en el intento de buscar evidencias empiricas, que lo avalen o no, discutiendo los supuestos, y consecuencias de los resultados obtenidos.
Entre los ùltimos se puede tratar de interpretar sobre la
posibilidad de interpretar distintos tipos de capitalismo, de maneras aùn no tratadas, en la literatura economica.Entre los primeros, fuertes limitaciones a modelos sin dinero, nosubican en la linea de modificar este tipo de desarrollos, en la busqueda de aprovechar el nùcleo endògeno de la generaciòn de ciclos, apartandose de los canònicos shock exògenos al modelo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr_4_VwSa_M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU9y3nqkMH8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSVM_QaQ5_A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp8kVmPTlJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvjU-3_tmac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIQhIIX74Jg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFdoDmo4mas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klViaqmykXM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj6k7R4rSKw

Si ud. se suscribe a grupo lujan en youtube le llegarà el resto del seminario en los proximos dìas. En proximos seminarios iremos mejorando en sonido e imagen.

Teaching heterodox economics concepts

Andrew Mearman, University of the West of England "Teaching heterodox economics concepts" - a chapter in the "Handbook for Economics Lecturers" published by The Economics Network, June 2007 (http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/handbook/).

The Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA)

SCEPA has several new publications:

- Two New SCEPA Policy Notes:
Productivity and Unemployment in the Short and Long Run by Armon Rezai and Willi Semmler & The Vast Majority Income (VMI): A New Measure of Global Inequality by Anwar Shaikh and Amr Ragab

Both are available at: http://newschool.edu/cepa/publications/index.htm

Declining Poverty in Latin America? A Critical Analysis of New Estimates by International Institutions

GDAE announces the publication of a new working paper by GDAE Research Fellow Ann Helwege and Melissa Birch:
“Declining Poverty in Latin America? A Critical Analysis of New Estimates by International Institutions”
Indicators of progress in overcoming poverty in Latin America have been heralded recently by international institutions. Yet a closer look at data from the World Bank and the United Nations reveals contradictions that are not easily resolved by reference to the underlying methodologies. This paper provides an introduction to how poverty is measured, what the data indicate about trends in poverty, and reasons to tread cautiously in interpreting it as evidence of progress or stagnation. While significant progress has been achieved in a few large countries, the poorest countries are still very poor, and some countries have even seen increases in their poverty rates despite economic growth.
The paper was presented at the Sept. 2007 Latin American Studies Association congress. It is available at:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/wp/07-02LatinAmPoverty.pdf

Cambridge Review of International Affairs

For all those interested, the new issue of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs (Volume 20, issue 4) includes a special section on Marxist approaches to Global Capitalism and the State-System including articles by Alex Callinicos, Adam David Morton, Kees van der
Pijl, John Hobson, Gonzalo Pozo-Martin and Benno Teschke and Hannes Lacher. To access the articles go to:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g788066542~tab=toc

The Global Repercussions of Changes in US Monetary Policy

Monetary policy in the US is being aggressively eased with the aim of avoiding recession and giving troubled financial institutions more breathing space to recover. Is this the right decision? Can the US economy continue to develop without a recession for almost two decades? In E-brief 2007/10, Marek Dąbrowski argues that the ongoing rate cuts in the US are risky for both the US and the global economy. For more, see: The Global Repercussions of Changes in US Monetary Policy available at http://www.case-research.eu  (english version).

Other recent publications:

• Price Convergence in the Enlarged Internal Market
• Using Energy Resources to Diversify the Economy: Agricultural Price Distortions in Kazakhstan
• Polish Economic Outlook - Economic Consequences of Civic Platform Winning the Elections
• Determinants of Portfolio Flows into CIS Countries
• Economic Relations between the EU and CIS (An Overview)
• The Intersection Between Justice and Home Affairs and the European Neighbourhood Policy: Taking Stock of the Logic, Objectives and Practices
• Institutional Harmonization in the Context of Relations Between the EU and Its Eastern Neighbours: Costs and Benefits and Methodologies of Their Measurement
• Assessing the Development Gap

Most of the above are available at:
http://www.case.com.pl/strona--ID-publikacje_recent,nlang-710.html

POLÍTICA MONETARIA Y CAMBIARIA EN LA ARGENTINA POSTCONVERTIBILIDAD

By Fabian Amico
Click here to download.

The Politics of Patents and Drugs in Brazil and Mexico: The Industrial Bases of Health Activism

GDAE Working Paper No. 07-05
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/wp/07-05PoliticsOfPatents.pdf
By Ken Shadlen

To comply with their international obligations, both Brazil and Mexico introduced regimes for pharmaceutical patents in the 1990s. While both countries initially implemented intellectual property (IP) systems that favored the interests of the transnational, innovation-based pharmaceutical sector, the two countries paths have diverged in dramatic fashion in recent years. In Brazil, the government responded to the high price of drugs and societal demands to reform the IP system by making it more difficult to obtain private ownership over knowledge and by increasing the rights of third parties to access and use knowledge. In Mexico, the response to similar demands has been to raise impediments to third parties’ rights of access and use and effectively to extend the periods of protection granted to patent-owners.

GDAE Research Fellow Ken Shadlen explores these differences from a political economy perspective. In Brazil, the combination of a strong, interested, and active Ministry of Health and a more autonomous local pharmaceutical sector created a propitious environment for initiatives to reform the IP system. In Mexico, the subordination of the Secretariat of Health and fundamental transformations of the local industrial sector meant that calls to reform the IP system were not well-received. Instead, the reform project in Mexico became commandeered by IP owners and ultimately had the perverse effect of reinforcing and strengthening the system that was being challenged.

The paper concludes by underscoring the importance of pharmaceutical industries for development. The findings suggest that the existence of independent pharmaceutical sectors may not just be beneficial for industrial development, but also for promoting public health and pursuing humanitarian goals. The key factor for explaining efforts to reform patent systems to increase access to drugs is the presence of an autonomous national pharmaceutical industry that is available as an alliance partner for those pushing for such reforms. Thus, the key to IP-for-humanitarianism is maintenance of some degree of IP-for-industrialization.
GDAE Working Paper No. 07-05 http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/wp/07-05PoliticsOfPatents.pdf
For more on GDAE’s Globalization and Sustainable Development Program:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/globalization.html

Complexity Meets Development- A Felicitous Encounter on the Road of Life

Lewis L. Smith
Office of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico, The United States of America

Click here to download the paper.


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Heterodox Journals and Newsletters

Levy News

Digital Newsletter of The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
December 20, 2007

The Natural Instability of Financial Markets
JAN KREGEL
Working Paper No. 523
www.levy.org/pubs/wp_523.pdf

An historical review of the U.S. banking system shows that banks have lost their role as specialized evaluators of credit and providers of liquidity. The decline in credit standards and the deterioration of the “quality” of assets held by financial institutions have created a highly fragile financial system. The author concludes that the stage has been set for a Minsky/Fisher-style debt deflation, where the damage will be widespread and further interest rate reductions will be powerless to stop it.

Promotion National: Forty-Five Years of Experience of Public Works in Morocco
HIND JALAL
Working Paper No. 524
www.levy.org/pubs/wp_524.pdf
The author reviews the mandate and history of Morocco’s Promotion Nationale public program and its effectiveness in countering unemployment and developing the poor Saharan provinces. Since the program budget now targets the nonpoor urban zones, she recommends ways that the program can be improved to develop the poor zones. Jalal notes that this program is one of the last remaining social stabilization tools to counter inequalities in the country.

January 3, 2008

NEW WORKING PAPER

Financialization: What It Is and Why It Matters
THOMAS I. PALLEY
Working Paper No. 525
www.levy.org/pubs/wp_525.pdf
Financialization refers to the increasing importance of the financial sector in the operation of the economy and governing institutions. There are reasons to believe that financialization may put the economy at risk of debt deflation and prolonged recession. Palley calls for a multifaceted agenda, including policy and political reform, to counter this trend.

SUMMARY, WINTER 2008
Volume 17, No. 1
www.levy.org/pubs/sum_17_1.pdf
The Summary, published three times a year, is aimed primarily at an academic audience. It updates current Levy Institute research, with synopses of new publications, special features on continuing research projects, accounts of professional presentations by the research staff, and an overview of Levy Institute events.

Review of Social Economy

Volume 65 Issue 4  is now available online at informaworld (http://www.informaworld.com).

This new issue contains the following articles:

Social responsibility for living standards: Presidential address, association for social economics, 2007 p. 391
Authors: Deborah M. Figart
Link

Family, religion and economic performance: A critique of cultural determinism p. 407
Authors: Manuel Couret Branco
Link

Simulating inequality and social order in the classroom: A macroeconomic game p. 425
Authors: Thomas Kemp; Tim Wunder
Link

Beyond Böhm-Bawerk: Searching for a place for relations in economic theory p. 445
Authors: Stefan Mann
Link

A mathematical note on Msgr. John A. Ryan's thought on the minimum wage p. 459
Authors: Emil B. Berendt
Link



The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought

Volume 14 Issue 4  is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com ).

This new issue contains the following articles:

Bazaars of the Thousand and One Nights p. 629
Authors: Eyüp Özveren
Link

Interest rate gaps and monetary policy in the work of Henry Thornton: Beyond a retrospective Wicksellian reading p. 657
Authors: Jean-Stéphane Mésonnier
Link

Economists on Darwin's theory of social evolution and human behaviour p. 681
Authors: Alain Marciano
Link

Wage behaviour and unemployment in Keynes' and New Keynesians' views: A comparison p. 701
Authors: Nicola Meccheri
Link

Keynes vs. the Post Keynesians on the Principle of Effective Demand p. 725
Authors: Jochen Hartwig
Link

Lluis Argemí d'Abadal (1945 – 2007) p. 741
Authors: Jordi Pascual
Link

Poverty in Focus: Gender Equality

This issue of IPC’s journal Poverty in Focus presents a dozen articles summarising some of the most important recent research results and commentaries on the links between gender and poverty. Reducing gender inequality promises significant returns; empowering women by improving their living conditions and enabling them to actively participate in the social and economic life of a country may well be the key for long-term sustainable development.
• Available online at: http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCPovertyInFocus13.pdf 
Contents: - Gender, Labour Markets and Poverty: An overview Naila Kabeer, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex

- Poverty as a Gendered Experience: The policy implications Gita Sen, Indian Institute of Management

- The Burden of Gender Inequalities for Society Joana Costa and Elydia Silva, International Poverty Centre

- Gender, Institutions and Development: Better data, better policies Denis Drechsler, Johannes Jütting and Carina Lindberg

- Poverty, Employment and Globalisation: A gender perspective James Heintz, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst

- Gender Equality and Economic Growth—for poverty reduction
Ruth Alsop and Paul Healey, Department for International Development, UK

- Gender Equality Is Good for the Poor Andrew Morrison, Dhushyanth Raju and Nistha Sinha, the World Bank

- Reducing the Gender Gap in Education: The role of rural wage labour John Sender, Development Studies, University of Cambridge

- Empowering Women through Microfinance: Evidence from India
Ranjula Bali Swain and Fan Yang Wallentin, Uppsala University

- Microfinance for Gender Equality: A dilemma? Irene KB Mutalima, Christian Enterprise Trust of Zambia

- Is There Really a ‘Feminisation of Poverty’? Marcelo Medeiros and Joana Costa, International Poverty Centre

- Beyond incomes: A New Take on the ‘Feminisation of Poverty’ Sylvia Chant, London School of Economics

This collection of articles should contribute to a better understanding of the importance of recognising the crucial role of gender inequalities as barriers to economic and social development, and thus of undertaking policy and institutional reforms that will more effectively reduce poverty and social injustice.
Other IPC publications at: http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/ipcpublications.htm

Feminist Economics

Volume 14 Issue 1 is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com ).

This new issue contains the following articles:

“Opting out”? The effect of children on women's employment in the United States p. 1
Authors: Heather Boushey
Link

Working for less? Women's part-time wage penalties across countries p. 37
Authors: Elena Bardasi; Janet C. Gornick
Link

Is deindustrialization good for women? Evidence from the United States p. 73
Authors: Ebru Kongar
Link

Whose money, whose time? A nonparametric approach to modeling time spent on housework in the United States p. 93
Authors: Sanjiv Gupta; Michael Ash
Link

Poland's transition and new opportunities for women p. 123
Authors: Bozena Leven
Link

A Comment on“The Citation Impact of Feminist Economics ” p. 137
Authors: Frederic Lee
Link

Reply to Frederic Lee's Comment on“The Citation Impact of Feminist Economics ” p. 143
Authors: Frances Woolley
Link

Sociedad Latinoamericana de Economía Política y Pensamiento Crítico (SEPLA)

The first issue of our electronic journal was published at September 2007. Please visit the web page   sepla.webhop.org.

Revista Electrónica
NÚMERO 1 - SEPTIEMBRE, 2007
Economía
Política
En el Siglo XXI
Contenido:
1.- Presentación de la Revista
2.- A Planificação Socialista em Cuba e o Grande Debate dos Anos Sessenta
3.- Un Socialismo para el Siglo 21: Cuadro Sintético de Reflexión
4.- Marxismo y Economía Política de la Transición Socialista en la Periferia del Capitalismo en la Epoca Contemporánea
5.- Tendências Sistêmicas e Anti-Sistêmicas: Um Olhar Sobre a América Contexto Latina no
6.- La Experiencia Brasileña: Deuda Externa, FMI y Política Económica
7.- Política Económica en la Transición al Socialismo del Siglo XXI
8.- Declaración de Montevideo do Desenvolvimento do Sistema Mundial Moderno
PRESENTACIÓN

http://sepla.webhop.org/

New Political Economy

Volume 12 Issue 4  is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com ).

This new issue contains the following articles:

How Wealthy Nations Can Stay Wealthy: Innovation and Adaptability in a Digital Era p. 451
Authors: Tobias Schulze-Cleven; Bartholomew C. Watson; John Zysman
Link

The ‘New Conditionality’ of Socially Responsible Investing Strategies: The Politics of Equity Financing in Emerging Markets p. 477
Authors: Susanne Soederberg
Link

Economic Ideology and Politics in the World Bank: Defining Hunger p. 499
Authors: Devi Sridhar
Link

The ‘Art’ of Colonisation: Capitalising Sovereign Power and the Ongoing Nature of Primitive Accumulation p. 517
Authors: Tim Di Muzio
Link

Social Reproduction and the Constitution of a Gendered Political Economy p. 541
Authors: Isabella Bakker
Link

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation p. 557
Authors: Lucy Ferguson
Link

Andrew Baker: The Group of Seven: Finance Ministries, Central Banks and Global Financial Governance p. 569
Authors: Louis W. Pauly
Link

Economic Systems Research

Volume 19 Issue 4   is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com .

This new issue contains the following articles:

Inequality in Exchange: The Use of a World Trade Flow Table for Analyzing the International Economy
Authors: Utz-Peter Reich
Link

Economic Integration: Systemic Measures in an Input–Output Framework
Authors: Dipti Prakas Pal; Erik Dietzenbacher; Dipika Basu
Link

Input–Output Based Measures of Underlying Domestic Inflation: Empirical Evidence from Denmark 1903–2002
Authors: Kim Abildgren
Link

Labour Values, Prices of Production and the Effects of Income Distribution: Evidence from the Greek Economy
Authors: Lefteris Tsoulfidis; Theodore Mariolis
Link

Potron and the Perron–Frobenius Theorem
Authors: Christian Bidard; Guido Erreygers
Link

The Extraction of Technical Coefficients from Input and Output Data
Authors: Thijs Ten Raa
Link

Some Comments on the GRAS Method
Authors: Manfred Lenzen; Richard Wood; Blanca Gallego
Link

Referees for Economic Systems Research , Volume 19, 2007
Link

History of Economics Review 46, Summer 2007

Contents:

ARTICLES

- The Appointment of the ANU’s First Professor of Economics
Selwyn Cornish

- Walter Layton on the The Relations of Capital and Labour (1914): A Marshallian Text pur sang?
Peter Groenewegen

- Mill, McCracken and the Modern Interpretation of Say’s Law
Steven Kates

- Not the Devil’s Decade: Nicholas Kaldor in the 1930s
J. E. King

- Making History by Making Identity and Institutions: The Emergence of Post Keynesian–Heterodox Economics in Britain, 1974–1996
Frederic S. Lee

- On Ibn Khaldun’s Contribution to Heterodox Political Economy
Adil H. Mouhammed

- A Survey of Thomas Tooke’s Contributions to Political Economy
Matthew Smith

ONE HUNDRED YEARS FROM TODAY

- Irving Fisher’s ‘Rate of Interest’
Colin Rogers

COMMUNICATIONS AND NOTES FROM THE ARCHIVES

- John Maynard Keynes: External Examiner for the University of New Zealand, 1919
Conrad Blyth

- Obituary: Professor Terence Wilmot Hutchison
Robin Ghosh

BOOK REVIEWS

- P.J. O’Rourke, ‘On the Wealth of Nations’
William Coleman

- G.C. Harcourt, ‘The Structure of Post-Keynesian Economics:
The Core Contributions of the Pioneers’
Jerry Courvisanos

- T. Raffaelli, G. Becattini and M. Dardi, ‘The Elgar Companion to Alfred Marshall’
Mark Donoghue

- P. Coleman, S. Cornish and P. Drake (eds), ‘Arndt’s Story:
The Life of an Australian Economist’
Peter Groenewegen

- Valeria Mosini (ed.), ‘Equilibrium in Economics: Scope and Limits’
Peter Groenewegen

- A. Dow and S. Dow (eds), ‘A History of Scottish Economic Thought’
J. E. King

- Gordon Fletcher, ‘Dennis Robertson: Essays on His Life and Work’
Colin Rogers

- M. Skousen, ‘Vienna & Chicago: Friends or Foes? A Tale of Two Schools of Free-Market Economics’
Osvaldo Schenone and Adrián Ravier

- James P. Huzel, ‘The Popularization of Malthus in Early Nineteenth Century England: Martineau, Cobbett and the Pauper Press’
Michael Schneider

The Associative Economics Bulletin

The Associative Economics Bulletin consists of news and views on associative economics, including short extracts from Associative Economics Monthly (available electronically for £1 an issue at www.cfae.biz/aem  or in a hard copy format - tel (UK) 01227 738207).

1. Editorial - Beyond Maths
2. Events at The London School of Economics
3. News - The Friends of Associative Economics
4. AE Festival in August
5. The Colours of Money and Other Events in 2008
6. The December AE-Bulletin
For detailed information, click here.

International Review of Applied Economics

Volume 22 Issue 1  is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com ).

This new issue contains the following articles:

What explains Latin America's poor investment performance during the 1980–2001 period?: a panel unit root analysis p. 1
Authors: Miguel D. Ramirez
Link

Interdependency and adjustments in the European Union p. 17
Authors: Jacques Mazier; Sophie Saglio
Link

Do liberal trade policies promote trade openness? p. 45
Authors: Turan Subasat
Link

Scale economies with regard to price adjustment costs and the speed of price adjustment in Australian manufacturing p. 63
Authors: Michael Olive
Link

Classical biased technical change approach and its relevance to reality p. 77
Authors: Hiroaki Sasaki
Link

The bilateral J-curve: Canada versus her 20 trading partners p. 93
Authors: Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee; Gour G. Goswami; Bidyut Kumar Talukdar
Link

An analysis of growth competitiveness p. 105
Authors: Jay Squalli; Kenneth Wilson; Sarah Hugo
Link

Call for Papers Special Issue p. 127
Link

Review of Political Economy

Volume 20 Issue 1  is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com ).

This new issue contains the following articles:

Has Growing Inequality Contributed to Rising Household Economic Distress? p. 1
Authors: Heather Boushey; Christian E. Weller
Link

Edmund Phelps and Modern Macroeconomics p. 23
Authors: Robert W. Dimand
Link

The Structure of Social Capital: An Austrian Perspective on its Nature and Development p. 41
Authors: Emily Chamlee-Wright
Link

Was Frank Knight an Institutionalist? p. 59
Authors: Pier Francesco Asso; Luca Fiorito
Link

Classical Theory and Exhaustible Natural Resources: Notes on the Current Debate p. 79
Authors: Fabio Ravagnani
Link

The Political Economy of Monetary Institutions in Brazil: The Limits of the Inflation-targeting Strategy, 1999–2005 p. 95
Authors: Matías Vernengo
Link

The Monetization of Profits in a Monetary Circuit Framework p. 111
Authors: Eladio Febrero
Link

The Optimal Lifetime of Capital Goods: a Restatement of Sraffa's Analysis of Fixed Capital p. 127
Authors: Giuseppe Vitaletti
Link

AIRLEAP's Newsletter

Please check out the December 2007 issue of AIRLEAP's newsletter, Ethical Economics Support, now posted at: http://www.airleap.org/NewsLetters/newsletter071226b.pdf

Revista Circus: Una revista argentina de Teoria Economica

http://www.geocities.com/alejandrofiorito/revistacircus.html
 

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Heterodox Books and Book Series

Advances in Heterodox Economics

Edited by Fred Lee and Rob Garnett
http://www.press.umich.edu/series.do;jsessionid=81666AD99CD3FF7B6BD27CB5D9222F8D?id=AHE 

Socialism after Hayek by Theodore A. Burczak

http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=93585 
Socialism after Hayek reinvigorates the socialist quest for class justice by rendering it compatible with the social and economic theories of F. A. Hayek. Theodore A. Burczak advances a new vision of socialism that avoids Hayek's criticisms of centrally planned socialism while adhering to a socialist conception of distributive justice and Marx's notion of freely associated labor. In contrast to the socialist models of John Roemer, Michael Albert, and Robin Hahnel, Burczak envisions a "free market socialism" in which privately owned firms are run democratically by workers, and governments engage in ongoing redistributions of wealth to support human development, yet markets are otherwise unregulated.
Theodore A. Burczak is Associate Professor of Economics at Denison University. Visit his website at: www.denison.edu/economics/faculty/burczak.html.
"Burczakian socialism = (Hayek + Nussbaum + Sen + Ackerman + Resnick and Wolff) = Ellerman = legal-economic democracy. Brilliant! Burczak takes Hayek, his critics, and other social theorists and produces the foundations of a legal-economic order in which the concerns of most current thinkers are provided for. It is a deep, sustained, and brilliant achievement."
---Warren J. Samuels, Professor Emeritus, Economics Department, Michigan State University; former President of the History of Economics Society and the Association for Social Economics; coeditor of the Journal of Income Distribution; and author of over 40 books
"Theodore A. Burczak's Socialism after Hayek is a thoroughly researched and thoughtful examination not only of the ideological debate that framed the twentieth century, but of Hayek's intellectual framework. Burczak hopes for an economic framework that is both humanistic in its approach and humanitarian in its concern while being grounded in good reasons. The book should be on the reading list of every comparative political economist and in particular anyone who wants to take Hayek seriously, including those who would like to push Hayek's classical liberal politics toward the left in the twenty-first century. Burczak has made an outstanding contribution to the fields of political and economic thought and to Hayek studies in particular."
---Peter J. Boettke, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax
"An advance well beyond the great 'socialist calculation debate.' Socialism after Hayek is both novel and challenging to contemporary Hayekian scholars. Burczak is the only scholar working in the post-Marxist tradition that thoroughly understands and appreciates the Hayekian critique of socialism. He is on his way to answering many of our long-held objections."
---Dave Prychitko, Department of Economics, Northern Michigan University
"One does not have to agree with all of Burczak's arguments to accept that he has developed a bold, creative and challenging response to the powerful Hayekian critique of socialism. Burczak wisely rejects the agoraphobia---literally the fear of markets---of many socialists, and focuses instead on the socialist goal of the abolition of exploitation. If this important book is read by both socialists and Hayekians, then there is a chance that debates on the viability of socialism may avoid some past pitfalls."
---Geoffrey M. Hodgson, University of Hertfordshire, UK
"Provocative and expansive. An excellent book that deals in depth with the relevant literature, incorporating it into a new analysis of the question of socialism. . . . The scholarship is superior: Burczak integrates the works of Hayek and Marx to develop a new theory of justice and to provide a new way to think through the problems of a socialist economy."
---Stephen Cullenberg, Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside
"A brilliant, fair-minded approach to Marx, Hayek, Sen, and Nussbaum yields a needed socialist vision for the twenty-first century."
---Stephen Resnick, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts

Future Directions for Heterodox Economics

edited by John T. Harvey and Robert F. Garnett, Jr., Editors
http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=171896 
Twenty-first century economists will have to understand and improve a post-Cold War world in which no single economic theory or system holds the key to human betterment. Heterodox economists have much to contribute to this effort, as a wave of pluralism spawns new lines of research and new dialogues among non-mainstream economists. Future Directions for Heterodox Economics showcases the full range of heterodox ideas, surveying leading-edge discussions of pluralism; socially-grounded reconstructions of the individual in economic theory; the goals and tools of economic measurement and professional ethics; the complexities of policymaking in today's global political economy; and innovative connections among formerly separate theoretical traditions (Marxian, Austrian, feminist, ecological, Sraffian, institutionalist, and post-Keynesian).
John T. Harvey is Professor of Economics at Texas Christian University.
Robert F. Garnett, Jr. is Associate Professor of Economics at Texas Christian University.

Economics in Real Time: A Theoretical Reconstruction

by John McDermott
http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=17693 
This book offers a new model for contemporary economic behavior that accounts for changes since neoclassical and Marxian microeconomics were formulated over a century ago. By incorporating real time into the analysis of sales and purchases, the phenomena of product innovation, advertising and distribution, the provision of consumer credit, and, ultimately, the production of a changing workforce all become intrinsic to microeconomic analysis rather than being treated as extraneous to fundamental theory.
Economics in Real Time transforms the analysis of contemporary sales and purchases. In mainstream economics the series of purchases, say, of a personal computer, then of software upgrades, peripherals, on-line services, and even support services are analyzed as discrete, essentially unrelated transactions. However counterintuitive, this approach is theoretically necessary to sustain the free-market narrative, its price and general equilibrium theories, and its efficiency and welfare theorems. Economics in Real Time instead links such related purchases within what is called a "sale/purchase state" occupying the time interval that begins with the initial purchase of the PC and ends only when all of the PC's services have been exchanged to the buyer. Under this analysis, typical contemporary sale/purchase states, as for automobiles, benefit plans, and electronic goods, place the purchaser in continuing, often dependent relationships to multiple sellers, at least some of which were not even overt partners to the initial purchase. Moreover they typically impose a continuing stream of expenditures upon the purchaser, as for automobile upkeep or music CDs, and so forth.
Economics in Real Time analyzes a contemporary economy as shaped in both its narrowly economic and broadly social features by these sale/purchase states. It draws a radically different picture of its terrain, challenging at the most fundamental level both the relevance and the theoretical warrant of the free-market conception.
John McDermott is Professor Emeritus of the State University of New York and a member of the editorial board of the Review of Radical Political Economics. His books include Corporate Society: Class, Property, and Contemporary Capitalism. His work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, the Nation, and other venues. He now lives in the Boston area.

Liberating Economics: Feminist Perspectives on Families, Work, and Globalization

by Drucilla K. Barker and Susan F. Feiner
http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=11867 
Liberating Economics draws on central concepts from women's studies scholarship to construct a feminist understanding of the economic roles of families, caring labor, motherhood, paid and unpaid labor, poverty, the feminization of labor, and the consequences of globalization. Barker and Feiner consistently recognize the importance of social location—gender, race, class, sexual identity, and nationality—in economic processes shaping the home, paid employment, market relations, and the global economy. Throughout they connect women's economic status in the industrialized nations to the economic circumstances surrounding women in the global South.
Rooted in the two disciplines, this book draws on the rich tradition of interdisciplinary work in feminist social science scholarship to construct a parallel between the notions that the "personal is political" and "the personal is economic."
Drucilla K. Barker is Professor of Economics and Women's Studies, Hollins University.
Susan F. Feiner is Associate Professor of Economics and Women's Studies, University of Southern Maine.

Radical Thinkers III

New from Verso

Ahmad, Balibar, Althusser, Baudrillard, Bhaskar, Marcuse, Ross, Sartre, Derrida, Therborn, Virilio, Zizek …

Following the success of the first two sets of Radical Thinkers (published November 2005 and January 2007) Verso is pleased to announce a new set of twelve titles in this very well received series.

The third set features some of the most notable authors in the Verso canon, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Baudrillard and Slavoj Žižek, and makes available once again, long out of print titles by author such as Roy Bhaskar and Aijaz Ahmad.

Beautifully designed, with new liquorice allsorts-like jackets, the latest twelve titles are available at the same competitive price as the previous set: £6.99/$12.95 each.

“A golden treasury of theory” - Eric Banks, BOOKFORUM

“Verso's beautifully designed Radical Thinkers series, which brings together seminal works by leading left-wing intellectuals, is a sophisticated blend of theory and thought. The 12 authors whose writings are included in the series have worked tirelessly to expose the mechanisms by which culture and knowledge are manufactured, managed and controlled.” – Ziauddin Sardar, NEW STATESMAN

Radical Thinker III:
**In Theory, Ahmad (2008), PB 978-1-84467-213-4
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Nations-Classes-Literatures-Thinkers/dp/1844672131/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197394527&sr=1-2
**Spinoza and Politics, Balibar (2008), PB 978-1-84467-205-9
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spinoza-Politics-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844672050/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197394630&sr=1-1
**On Ideology, Althusser (2008), PB 978-1-84467-202-8
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ideology-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844672026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197394691&sr=1-1
**The Perfect Crime, Baudrillard (2008), PB 978 1-84467-203-5
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Crime-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844672034/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197394749&sr=1-1
**A Realist Theory of Science, Bhaskar (2008), PB 978-1-84467-204-2
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Realist-Theory-Science-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844672042/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197395214&sr=1-1
**A Study on Authority, Marcuse (2008), PB 978-1-84467-209-7
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Study-Authority-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844672093/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197395411&sr=1-1
**The Emergence of Social Space, Ross (2008), PB 978-1-84467-206-6
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emergence-Social-Space-Rimbaud-Thinkers/dp/1844672069/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197395444&sr=1-1
**Between Existentialism and Marxism, Sartre (2008), PB 978-1-84467-207-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Exixtentialism-Marxism-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844672077/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197395705&sr=1-1
**Ghostly Demarcations, Derrida et al. (2008), 978-1-84467-211-0
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghostly-Demarcations-Symposium-Derridas-Specters/dp/1844672115/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197395765&sr=1-1
**What Does The Ruling Class Do When It Rules?, Therborn (2008), PB 978-1-84467-210-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ruling-Class-Rules-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844672107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197395798&sr=1-1
**Open Sky, Virilio (2008), PB 978-1-84467-208-0
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Open-Sky-Radical-Thinkers/dp/1844672085/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197395823&sr=1-1
**For They Know Not What They Do, Zizek (2008), PB 978-1-84467-212-7
http://www.amazon.co.uk/They-Know-Not-What-Enjoyment/dp/1844672123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197395851&sr=1-1

Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism

Edited by Jacques Bidet and Stathis Kouvelakis.
The Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism is an international and interdisciplinary volume which aims to provide a thorough and precise panorama of recent developments in Marxist theory in the US, Europe, Asia and beyond. Drawing on the work of thirty of the most authoritative scholars, the Companion spans all the humanities and social sciences, with particular emphasis on philosophy. The work is divided into three parts: 'General Trends', which provides a broad intellectual and historical context; 'Currents', which tracks the trajectories of twenty specific currents or disciplinary fields; and 'Figures', which examines in detail the work of fifteen key actors of Marxist or para-Marxist theory (Adorno, Althusser, Badiou, Benjamin, Bhaskar, Bourdieu, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Gramsci, Habermas, Jameson, Lefebvre, Uno, Williams). The Companion is set to be unsurpassed for many years, in breadth and depth, as the definitive guide to contemporary Marxism.
http://www.brill.nl/product_id17981.htm

Institutional economics and psychoanalysis: how can they collaborate for a better understanding of individual-society dynamics?

by Arturo Hermann, Uniservice, Trento, Italy, 23.50 EUR

http://www.uni-service.it/institutional-economics-and-psychoanalysis-how-can-they-collaborate-for-a-better-understanding-of-individualsociety-dynamics.html 

http://www.uni-service.it/

Beyond the World Bank Agenda: An Institutional Approach to Development

Stein, Howard
320 p., 1 halftone, 2 line drawings, 13 tables. 6 x 9 2008
Cloth $45.00spec ISBN: 978-0-226-77167-0 (ISBN-10: 0-226-77167-9) Spring 2008
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/269209.ctl
Despite massive investment of money and research aimed at ameliorating third-world poverty, the development strategies of the international financial institutions over the past few decades have been a profound failure. Under the tutelage of the World Bank, developing countries have experienced lower growth and rising inequality compared to previous periods. In Beyond the World Bank Agenda, Howard Stein argues that the controversial institution is plagued by a myopic, neoclassical mindset that wrongly focuses on individual rationality and downplays the social and political contexts that can either facilitate or impede development.
Drawing on the examples of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and transitional European economies, this revolutionary volume proposes an alternative vision of institutional development with chapter-length applications to finance, state formation, and health care to provide a holistic, contextualized solution to the problems of developing nations. Beyond the World Bank Agenda will be essential reading for anyone concerned with forging a new strategy for sustainable development.

Social Murder And Other Shortcomings Of Conservative Economics

By Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson

Arbeiter Ring Publishing

Corporate power is one of the strongest forces shaping our world. More than half of the top 100 economic entities today are private corporations. With their immense size comes commensurate influence, to the point where corporations are able to wreak social and environmental destruction with few serious consequences. Yet, amazingly, this subject is essentially absent from the study of economics.

The conservative economic theory that dominates the profession is based on the core belief that as little as possible should interfere with businesses’ pursuit of profit. This approach to economics ignores history, politics, poverty, the natural environment, and social class, among other inconvenient realities. Conservative economics would almost be laughable—were it not for the fact that this way of thinking helps prop up the worst excesses of capitalism.
Social Murder examines the connections between the destructiveness of global capitalism and the professional economists who help keep it that way.

Robert Chernomas is a Professor of Economics at the University of Manitoba with research and political interests in health economics, the social determinants of health and macroeconomics.

Ian Hudson is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Manitoba, currently researching in the areas of political economy and ethical consumption.

To find out how to order please visit:
http://www.arbeiterring.com/new/socialmurder.html

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Heterodox Book Reviews

The Wealth of Ideas: a history of economic thought

by Alessandro Roncaglia
Reviewed by Hugh Goodacre
http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521843375 Click here to download the review.

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Heterodox Web Sites

Allan Schmid’s Institutional Economics

Allan Schmid’s Institutional Economics web page—check it out
http://www.msu.edu/user/schmid/instecon.htm 

SEPLA

Sociedad Latinoamericana de Economía Política y Pensamiento Crítico (SEPLA) is devoted to economic thinking in an antineoliberal way. Please visit the web page at: http://sepla.webhop.org. 

Queries from Heterodox Economists

Firm Theory

Professor Gustavo Vargas is planning to do a post PhD research on the general subject of the firm theory, and in particular about Multinational Firm or Transnational firm from a Post Keynesian-heterodox perspective. He would like to hear from professors and researchers in this area. You can e-mail Professor Vargas at vargassanchez@hotmail.com. 

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For Your Information

Kendall P. Cochran 1924-2007

On November 30, 2007 Ken passed away peacefully at his home in Dallas with his wife Mona at his side. Ken was 83. He was born in Newton, Kansas on October 12, 1924. He was very active in heterodox economics associations, being an original founder of the Association for Evolutionary Economics and of the Association for Institutional Thought. He was elected President of the Association for Social Economics. He also received the Thomas Devine Award in Social Economics. He helped Ludwig Mai of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio begin publishing The Forum for Social Economics and later served as its editor. He also served on the Editorial Board of the Review of Social Economy. Ken studied with Clarence Ayres at the University of Texas. He earned his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1955. After two years at Ohio he moved to the University of North Texas where he taught from 1957 to 1988 and received numerous teaching awards, all well-deserved.

In his dissertation he showed that democratic economic planning was a central element in institutional economics. His Presidential Address to the Association for Social Economics was entitled “Economics as a Moral Science.” Ken never lost his faith in the spirit of FDR’s New Dealism. He worked quietly to maximize his effectiveness. That was his way—fierce attachment to a moral and ethical vision combined with an ability to persuade softly. The soft persuasion was due to his inveterate kindness. He was a genuinely nice man. He introduced me and other young economists (Ron Stanfield) to many people who could help us and urged them (unknown to me) to do so. He spent countless hours reading and critiquing my early papers, encouraging and supporting me and others like me at every turn.

Ken once told me that Gross Domestic Product, Net Economic Welfare, and the Unemployment Rate were all important, but they needed a human and personal dimension: visit the poorer quarters of the country yourself and look at the faces of the babies and their mothers. Are the babies happy and healthy, gurgling and rambunctious? Are the mothers smiling and relaxed? Do they give off an aura of joy? Are they well-fed? Or, are the babies silent and listless? Their mothers drawn and tired? Do they look hungry? Only after you look, will you really know how to rank the economy that produced them.

Maybe even now someone is producing “The Cochran Index.” Rest in Peace Ken. Your light shines on.

William M. Dugger
Tulsa, Oklahoma
December 9, 2007

Andrew Glyn

It is with great sadness that I pass along the news that Andrew Glyn died today (December 23, 2007). I just received a phone call from Bob Sutcliffe in Oxford informing me of this. Andrew was diagnosed with a severe, and inoperable, brain tumor only a couple of months ago. It obviously took hold of him relentlessly. Now he is gone. Of course, Andrew has been one of the great figures in political economy for more than 30 years. My friends and I were debating his 1972 book with Bob Sutcliffe, British Capitalism, Workers and the Profit Squeeze, when we were graduate students in the 1970s. We didn’t realize then that Andrew was only a few older than we were. Andrew continued to make seminal contribution throughout the next three decades. His most recent book Capitalism Unleashed, is, in my view, the best analytic history of neoliberalism around.
I happened to review Capitalism Unleashed for New Left Review for their August 2007 issue—just a few months ago. I heaped deserved praise on the book and Andrew. But I did also offer some criticisms, including that he didn’t go very far by way of an ending. Here is Andrew’s response to this criticism, which was characteristic of him: modest, extremely funny, and bound up with jazz, which he loved:
“I did worry a lot about how to finish the book off and how much to say programmatically but in the end feebly followed Miles David' advice to John Coltrane - "try taking the horn out of your mouth"”
Andrew was a fantastic person: he was a truly great economist with a deep, lifelong commitment to the left. He was also unbelievably warm and generous as a friend. I also had the good fortune to observe him a bit up close as a father. There is no getting around the loss that his children are now experiencing. But they can also feel fortunate in all that they were able to gain, and will continue to gain, from having been with Andrew. I think we should be inspired by Andrew’s memory as we move on in everything we do this coming year.
Bob Pollin
I didn't know Andrew personally, although I did speak to him over the phone once or twice. However, he was a very influential voice for Marxism around the British Labour left. In the late 70s, he inspired many young people drawn to socialism with his clear analysis. I will always be grateful for the work he (often with Bob Sutcliffe) produced during that period. This was a time when the crisis of the Keynesian system was obvious to everyone, and the Thatcherite neoliberal right was waiting in the wings. Andrew helped radicals understand what was happening with global capitalism as the long postwar boom came to a grinding halt. He was also clear about the need for a democratic socialist alternative. Like Bob Pollin, I would also recommend his last book, "Capitalism Unleashed." It really puts the last 30 years in context. Let's use this work to think about the next 30 years, and what we need to do to pull the curtain down on this insane and barbaric system once and for all.

Sean Sweeney

To read more on Andrew Glyn, click here.

Dollars & Sense seeks collective members

Do you want to have an impact beyond the academy walls? Want to share your knowledge and help challenge the mainstream media’s account of how the U.S. economy works? Dollars & Sense is looking for progressive Boston-area academics to join our collective and take an active role in our work for economic justice.

Dollars & Sense publishes critical analyses of a broad range of economic topics. Our readers include professors, students, journalists, and activists, who value our smart and accessible economic coverage. Our unique perspective and economic focus make Dollars & Sense an important resource for economic justice activists. James Tracy of the San Francisco Community Land Trust writes that he uses Dollars & Sense as “a community organizing tool. ...The articles ... break down complicated issues in ... terms that everyone can understand. Dollars & Sense has been useful in communicating with both community members and policy makers.”

In addition to our bimonthly magazine, Dollars & Sense also publishes college-level economics readers that give thousands of college students each year the economic story that their textbooks don’t tell. Robin Hahnel of American University says that our books are “jargon-free, up-to-date, and consistently and thoughtfully progressive. As textbooks become more conservative and less topical, Dollars & Sense readers are more useful than ever.”

Located in Boston, D&S is run by a collective that aspires to operate in a democratic and non-hierarchical structure. The collective—which includes professors, graduate students, journalists, and activists—works with the paid staff to help produce the books and magazine, and run the business. Collective members write and edit articles, participate in planning new books, help us find new supporters, and contribute to all major decision-making. The collective meets every Thursday evening and members are expected to attend at least twice a month. You don’t need to be an economist to join—you just need a strong interest in radical economics, and a desire to pitch in and help.

For more information, please e-mail dollars@dollarsandsense.org,  and tell us a little about yourself. Visit dollarsandsense.org to learn more about what we do.

Save the Marxian Tradition at Seoul National University, South Korea

This is an urgent appeal for solidarity in the struggle against neoliberalism-dominated economics in universities. Marxian economics at Seoul National University (SNU) is hovering on the brink of elimination. We are aware that these processes are also happening at University of Marburg now and a lot of universities in the world have already begun eliminating the critical or non-mainstream traditions in social sciences under claims of efficiency, market principle, and restructuring of university, etc.

The only Marxian economist in the faculty of SNU, Prof. Soohaeng Kim is going to retire in Feb.2008. He is famous in Korea for having translated Marx's Capital into Korean and his translations have sold about 350 thousand copies since 1988. Marxism has been one of the serious weapons against long-standing military dictatorship and domination of capital in industrial relations here in South Korea, and therefore Prof. Kim's lecture of Marxian economics has been overcrowded with many students enthusiastic about radical change and true democracy of Korea. He has taught 'Introduction to political economy' and 'Marxian economics' at the undergraduate level, and 'Studies in Marxian economics' at the graduate level and supervised 15 Ph.d. dissertations about Marxian and non-mainstream themes in economics.

However, it is highly likely that his position will be replaced by a neoliberal economist when he retires in February. Unsurprisingly, 32 of 33 faculty members are pro-market conservative economists and 30 of the 33 have gotten their Ph.D degrees from universities in the United States. In fact, Prof. Kim was able to join the faculty of SNU in 1989 as a result of graduate students' demonstrations with a boycott of classes back then. Most of the faculty in the department of economics in SNU have assumed a displeased stance against the Marxian tradition in SNU, often called 'the highest ranking university of Korea', and Prof. Kim's retirement is a good chance for them to wipe out this tradition at SNU.

We graduate students are preparing to fight to preserve the Marxian tradition at SNU. While we are preparing concrete actions here, including a graduate students sit-in and protest assemblies, it is crucial that our struggle not be isolated and thus we are appealing for international support through a signature campaign. Marxian economics is still an important branch for critical social science and its role as a lens for understanding class dynamics between capital and labour has grown even more crucial as the neoliberal attack is winding around every corner of Korean society, let alone the universities.

We are urgently appealing for your support. Please take a minute to act in solidarity by sending an e-mail with your name, school or organization, and country to vorwarts@naver.com  to indicate your support for our cause. If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. We would be tremendously grateful if you could also further distribute this to sympathetic colleagues, comrades etc. We will be taking signatures until Tuesday, February 5 , 2008 and urge you to please take the small but very important solidarity action by sending the e-mail today.

Thank you very much for your consideration and support.

May our struggle meet with solidarity and the May Marxian tradition in economics survive the neoliberal attack at SNU!

A New Collection on American Economic Thought and Policies

Princeton University's Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library has completed a two-year project to process all of its economics-related public policy collections to modern standards.
Twenty-eight collections, totaling over 1,100 linear feet, were processed through the generous support of the John Foster and Janet Avery Dulles Fund and a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). Electronic finding aids for each collection are available on its website for researchers:
http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/index.html

These collections provide a rich resource about American economic thought and policies in the 20th century and the impact of American economic policy and the ideas of some of the leading economic thinkers on the emerging world economy, especially in developing nations. The collections as a whole document economic activity that spans the globe, including every settled continent. The main subjects documented by the papers are public and international finance, economic development, and economic policy, as well as monetary policy, policies during World War I and II, business history, and demography. These records provide insight into the economic debates that thrived during the 20th century, whether they be the establishment or disavowal of the gold standard, international monetary policy and free trade, the various approaches to what was called Third World development (including population control), or means to alleviate depression and/or inflation. In a time when free market ideas are ascendant, these collections bear testament that the path was neither linear nor smooth.

The collections document both the theory and practical application of economics and include the papers of scholars, United States government officials, advisors to governments throughout the world, bankers, lawyers, businessmen, a policy advocacy group, and organizations devoted to economic development. Among the important collections are the papers of Edwin W.
Kemmerer, advisor to many countries on monetary policy during the 1920s; Jacob Viner, one of the most prominent economic scholars of the 20th century; Nobel Laureate W. Arthur Lewis; and Albert O. Hirschman, a leading scholar in the field of economic development. Records of prominent organizations were also processed as part of the project including the records of Development and Resources Corporation, a for-profit corporation involved in economic development around the world, including a substantial project in Iran; Women's World Banking, a non-profit international financial institution that facilitates the participation of women entrepreneurs in the modern economy; and the Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy, an advocacy group for monetary policy, especially for the gold standard, in the United States.

The project began in October 2005 with the hiring of project archivist Adriane Hanson to oversee the work on the 28 collections.
She was joined in January 2006 by special collections assistant Christopher Shannon and a small group of student assistants. In two years, the team arranged and rehoused all 28 collections, ranging in size from 1 box to 450 boxes. Hanson wrote finding aids and catalog records for each of the collections, which are now available online to aid researchers in discovering and utilizing these rich resources.

Further information on the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library can be obtained at http://www.princeton.edu/mudd.

Stephen Frowen died on 21 December 2007

It is with a great feeling of sorrow that I read about Stephen Frowen's death. Stephen was not only a good economist but was truly a great gentleman -- in the finest sense of the word. Unfortunately neither the economics profession nor the world at large have many who have the wonderful intelligence and character that Stephen displayed. I treasure the few encounters and dscussions that Stehen and I had over the years. From hindsight, I wish there had been many more.

Paul Davidson



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