RETHINK
ECONOMICS
RETHINK
ECONOMICS
... and receive personalised notifications on
new pluralistic content directly into your inbox!

587 results

This brief but comprehensive account of the Post Keynesian approach to economic theory and policy is ideal for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in economics, public policy and other social sciences. Clear, non-technical and with a strong policy focus, it will also appeal to all of those who are dissatisfied with mainstream economics and wish to explore the alternatives.
2015
Level: advanced
Advanced Introduction to Post Keynesian Economics
Does Karl Polanyi's work “The Great Transformation” serve to analyse the current multiple crisis and social movements? Nancy Fraser revises Polanyi's concept of a double movement to capture social forces in the aftermath of the economic crisis of the 1930s – on the one side marketization and on the other hand social protection. Fraser proposes to talk about a triple movement and to account for emancipatory struggles. In the lecture, she discusses interactions as well as conflicts between those three forces, in particular conflicting aims of social protection. The lecture presents the content of her paper “A TRIPLE MOVEMENT? Parsing the Politics of Crisis after Polanyi“ in the New Left Review (2013).
2011
Level: advanced
Crisis of Capitalism, Crisis of Governance: Re-reading Karl Polanyi in the 21st Century
For some days, global financial markets are in turmoil. Central banks and governments are dealing with the unfolding crisis on a daily basis with seemingly u...
2020
Level: beginner
Replay of the financial crisis of 2008? What is different today, and what to expect?
This article provides a contextual framework for understanding the gendered dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic and its health, social, and economic outcomes. The pandemic has generated massive losses in lives, impacted people’s health, disrupted markets and livelihoods, and created profound reverberations in the home. In 112 countries that reported sex-disaggregated data on COVID-19 cases, men showed an overall higher infection rate than women, and an even higher mortality rate. However, women’s relatively high representation in sectors hardest hit by lockdown orders has translated into larger declines in employment for women than men in numerous countries. Evidence also indicates that stay-at-home orders have increased unpaid care workloads, which have fallen disproportionately to women. Further, domestic violence has increased in frequency and severity across countries. The article concludes that policy response strategies to the crisis by women leaders have contributed to more favorable outcomes compared to outcomes in countries led by men.
2021
Level: advanced
Feminist Economic Perspectives on the COVID-19 Pandemic
This paper presents an overview of different models which explain financial crises, with the aim of understanding economic developments during and possibly after the Great Recession. In the first part approaches based on efficient markets and rational expectations hypotheses are analyzed, which however do not give any explanation for the occurrence of financial crises and thus cannot suggest any remedies for the present situation. A broad range of theoretical approaches analyzing financial crises from a medium term perspective is then discussed. Within this group we focused on the insights of Marx, Schumpeter, Wicksell, Hayek, Fisher, Keynes, Minsky, and Kindleberger. Subsequently the contributions of the Regulation School, the approach of Social Structures of Accumulation and Post-Keynesian approach, which focus on long-term developments and regime shifts in capitalist development, are presented. International approaches to finance and financial crises are integrated into the analyses. We address the issue of relevance of all these theories for the present crisis and draw some policy implications. The paper has the aim to find out to which extent the different approaches are able to explain the Great Recession, what visions they develop about future development of capitalism and to which extent these different approaches can be synthesized.
2015
Level: advanced
Theories of finance and financial crisis: Lessons for the Great Recession
This short video visualizes the destabilizing effects financial markets can have on food prices, based on a paper by Jayati Ghosh. It introduces and explains the idea of future contracts and how those are used to speculate with basic food stuffs. After establishing the concepts, the video sketches out how the increase in those practices resulted in a substantial rise and later collapse of food prices around 2008 with severe consequences for many developing countries and their people.
2021
Level: beginner
Food and Finance
This paper attempts to clarify how the European economic crisis from 2007 onwards can be understood from the perspective of a Marxian monetary theory of value that emphasizes intrinsic, structural flaws regarding capitalist reproduction. Chapter two provides an empirical description of the European economic crisis, which to some extent already reflects the structural theoretical framework presented in chapter three. Regarding the theoretical framework Michael Heinrich's interpretation of 'the' Marxian monetary theory of value will be presented. Heinrich identifies connections between production and realization, between profit and interest rate as well as between industrial and fictitious capital, which represent contradictory tendencies for which capitalism does not have simple balancing processes. In the context of a discussion of 'structural logical aspects' of Marx's Critique of the Political Economy, explanatory deficits of Heinrich's approach are analyzed. In the following, it is argued that Fred Moseley's view of these 'structural logical aspects' allows empirical 'applications' of Marxian monetary theories of value. It is concluded that a Marxian monetary theory of value, with the characteristics of expansive capital accumulation and its limitations, facilitates a structural analysis of the European economic crisis from 2007 onwards. In this line of argument, expansive production patterns are expressed, among other things, in global restructuring processes, while consumption limitations are mitigated by expansive financial markets and shifts in ex-port destinations.
2019
Level: expert
The European economic crisis from 2007 onwards in the context of a global crisis of over-production of capital - a Marxian monetary theory of value interpretation
This is an introductory level core course in macroeconomics for those expecting to take further courses in economics. It provides a theoretical and applied approach of introductory macroeconomics, with an international perspective and applications to account for the growing importance of the global economy and the rising openness of economies.
2021
Level: advanced
Introduction to Macroeconomics
The Atlas of Economic Complexity is an award-winning data visualization tool that allows people to explore global trade flows across markets, track these dynamics over time and discover new growth opportunities for every country.
2013
Level: beginner
Atlas of Economic Complexity
This is an introductory course into economics that navigates the intellectual history of political economy in a self-contained and non-technical manner. The course centres on the classical concept of political economy by emphasizing the moral and ethical problems that markets solve or may not solve.
2016
Level: beginner
Capitalism & Political Economy
This book analyzes the transition of chocolate from an exotic curiosity to an Atlantic commodity. It shows how local, inter-regional, and Atlantic markets interacted with one another and with imperial political economies. It explains how these interactions, intertwined with the resilience of local artisanal production, promoted the partial democratization of chocolate consumption as well as economic growth.
2020
Level: advanced
Empire, Political Economy, and the Diffusion of Chocolate in the Atlantic World
Mr Minsky long argued markets were crisis prone His moment has arrived The Wall Street Journal In his seminal work Minsky presents his groundbreaking financial theory of investment one that is startlingly relevant today He explains why the American economy has experienced periods of debilitating inflation rising unemployment and marked …
2008
Level: advanced
Stabilizing an Unstable Economy
Islamic finance's phenomenal growth owes to the Shariah compliant nature of its financial instruments. Shariah forbids the charging of interest (Riba) and instead promulgates risk-sharing and trade-based modes of financing. The Islamic financial industry has been subject to both critique and admiration. Critics argue that Islamic instruments (bearing debt-based structures) differ from their conventional counterparts only in legal lexicon and not in economic impact.
2018
Level: advanced
Rethinking Islamic Finance
Politicians tell us the UK is “borrowing too much” and faces a “debt crisis.” That’s wrong. The government creates the pounds it spends, and what’s called “borrowing” is really just it accepting deposits — or savings — from the public and financial markets.
2025
Level: beginner
Why the UK government can't borrow - and we should not pretend it does
Understanding the financial crisis from four very different economic theories: Social Economics, Institutional Economics, Post Keynesian economics.
Level: beginner
Economics from a pluralist perspective
This timely book answers the question of whether central banks should specifically target the stability of financial systems and if so, what kind of policies should be adopted to prevent or mitigate financial instability.
2025
Level: beginner
Central Banking, Monetary Policy and Financial In/Stability
Prof. Robert Guttmann looks at the current transformation of the international world order through the lenses of global money and finance.
2019
Level: advanced
Multipolar Capitalism
In this short podcast, Naomi Fowler, the Tax Justice Network's creative strategist, discusses how the laws made by those who profited from slavery and the empire and, the extractive business models of the major financial sector continue to impoverish some of the poorest nations.
2020
Level: beginner
Systemic racism, reparations and tax justice
Economists like to base their theories on individual decision making. Individuals, the idea goes, have their own interests and preferences, and if we don’t include these in our theory we can’t be sure how people will react to changes in their economic circumstances and policy. While there may be social influences, in an important sense the buck stops with individuals. Understanding how individuals process information to come to decisions about their health, wealth and happiness is crucial. You can count me as someone who thinks that on the whole, this is quite a sensible view.
2020
Level: beginner
Decision by Sampling, or ‘Psychologists Reclaim Their Turf’
A remarkable and insightful tribute into the works of late Malawian development economist, Professor Thandika Mkandawire. Must read for anyone looking to broaden their scope of understanding development as it relates to the African continent.
Level: beginner
Thandika Mkandawire - A Giant of African Economic Development
Industrial policy has been a central part of policy prescription by many heterodox schools arguably since mercantilism, but the theories behind it and types of policy advocated for have evolved over time. Recently some neoclassical economists have shown renewed interest in it, but is this mainstream acceptance a step back or a step forward from earlier heterodox ideas?
2021
Level: beginner
Industrial policy
In this webinar for the Princeton Bendheim Center for Finance, Nobel Prize winner William Nordhaus explains the main problems regarding the economics of a low-carbon energy transition.
2020
Level: beginner
Climate Compacts to Combat Free Riding in International Climate Agreements
The Trialogue is a podcast about combining historic ideas of the high-culture of the Inca and modern problems. The three authors each put their own perspectives of the topic and show insights into their actual view of economics.
2020
Level: beginner
Trialogue Of Taking Socialistic Hints From The Inca For A Better Modern Society
Post-Colonialisms Today researcher Chafik Ben Rouine looks to Tunisia’s post-independence central banking method to provide insight on what progressive monetary policy can look like.
2020
Level: beginner
Monetary Policy for Development, During and Beyond Crisis
After completing the module, participants should be able to analyse the concepts of degrowth, ecological unequal exchange, Green New Deal, and embeddedness by applying theories situated within the fields of academic research of Ecological Economics and Political Ecology.
2021
Level: beginner
Political ecology, Degrowth and the Green New Deal
"Yuliya Yurchenko is a senior lecturer and researcher in political economy at University of Greenwich. She is currently in Ukraine on an extraordinary leave. And while she writes that she is, for the moment, in relative safety, that could change any moment. Being a Ukrainian, an activist and an academic, Yuliya traveled to Ukraine on Feb 19, 2022 as part of a fact-finding and solidarity mission with a number of MPs, trade unionists and journalists. The goal, she says, of this mission is to connect with civil society organizations, trade unions, activists and politicians, and “to express direct, cross-border solidarity from the UK working class to the Ukrainian working class.”
2022
Level: advanced
Yuliya Yurchenko expands the frame for understanding the Russian invasion of Ukraine
This book is an authoritative and accessible guide to the pluralist movement threatening to revolutionise mainstream economics. Leading figures in the field explain why pluralism is a required virtue in economics, how it came to be blocked and what it means for the way we think about, research and teach economics.
2013
Level: advanced
Pluralist Economics
Principles of Macroeconomics by Howard J. Sherman and Michael A. Meeropol differs from other texts in that this book stresses far more the inherent instability of the macro-economy.
2013
Level: advanced
Principles of Macroeconomics
In analyzing the global competition between Chinese and Indian tea, Andrew B. Liu challenges past economic histories premised on the technical “divergence” between the West and the Rest, arguing instead that seemingly traditional technologies and practices were central to modern capital accumulation across Asia.
2020
Level: advanced
Tea War
One of the most authoritative authors on the intellectual heritage of John Maynard Keynes, Robert Skidelsky draws a sketch of the great man's economic thinking both accessible and insightful.
2010
Level: beginner
Keynes: A Very Short Introduction
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. People and ideas are important; but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture.
2016
Level: beginner
Prisoners of Geography
In this new book Smith returns to Solow s classic productivity paradox which essentially states that we can see automation everywhere like the spheres of leisure sociality and politics but not in the productivity statistics He examines why labor saving automation in the service age in the Global North has …
2020
Level: advanced
Smart Machines and Service Work

Donate

This project is brought to you by the Network for Pluralist Economics (Netzwerk Plurale Ökonomik e.V.).  It is committed to diversity and independence and is dependent on donations from people like you. Regular or one-off donations would be greatly appreciated.

 

Donate