Markets are the focus in modern economics: when they work, when they don’t and what we can or can’t do about it. There are many ways to study markets and how we do so will inevitably affect our conclusions about them, including policy recommendations which can influence governments and other major organisations. Pluralism can be a vital corrective to enacting real policies based on only one perspective and a plethora of approaches provide alternatives to the canonical view. Although they have differing implications, these approaches share the idea that we should take a historical approach, analysing markets on a case-by-case basis; and they share a faith in the power of both individuals and collectives to overcome the problems encountered when organising economic activity.

A multimedia dossier outlining the various dimensions of credit and indebtedness for various actors such as individuals and governments. Special emphasis is put on the reflections of normative and power laden discourse sorrounding the issue of borrowing and on false analogies placed between household and government debt.

Cette vidéo présente la notion de financiarisation de l'économie et ses effets, définie largement comme la prise d'importance croissante des activités financières dans l'économie. Elle évoque les contradictions du système financier : capable de financer l'économie mais aussi de capter la valeur produite à son profit.

The authors discuss how identity affects economic outcomes by bringing together psychological and sociological perspectives and economics. For economic outcomes of a single individual, it might be interesting which kind of social groups this individual belongs to. This may influence individual daily decisions and hence economic outcomes. It can, however, not only affect individual economic outcomes but also economic outcomes of organizations, institutions and other groups. This paper describes these influences with respect to gender in the workplace, to the economics of poverty and social exclusion, and to the household division of labour.

As part of a larger series on Just Transitions, the author describes how the current corona crisis comes with new economic policy responses which would have been considered unthinkable only a year ago. Arguing that with the current high levels of confidence in politicians and scientific advice, combined with the realisation that the market has not been able to solve this problem on its own, we are now in a unique position to implement a radically different solution than was politically possible previously.

One method of economic modelling that has become increasingly popular in academia, government and the private sector is Agent Based Models, or ABM. These simulate the actions and interactions of thousands or even millions of people to try to understand the economy – for this reason ABM was once described to me as being “like Sim City without the graphics”. One advantage of ABM is that it is flexible, since you can choose how many agents there are (an agent just means some kind of 'economic decision maker' like a firm, consumer, worker or government); how they behave (do they use complicated or simple rules to make decisions?); as well as the environment they act in, then just run the simulation and see what happens as they interact over time.

An essay of the writing workshop on Nigeria’s Readiness for and the Effect of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Ce portrait de Ronald Coase brossé par Elodie bertrand chercheuse en histoire de la pensée économique permet de revenir sur son oeuvre avec un certain recul historique Sur la réception de ses travaux leurs sur interprétations et leur influence dans l économie de la deuxième moitié du XXème siècle en …

Le PIB fait l’objet de critiques régulières. En avril dernier, le Parlement a voté, sur la proposition de la députée Eva Sas (EELV), une loi prévoyant que des indicateurs alternatifs au PIB guident les politiques publiques. Mais le choix de ces indicateurs alternatifs soulève un certain nombre de questions. Par Géraldine Thiry (Université de Louvain, Forum pour d’autres indicateurs de richesse) et Adeline Guéret (étudiante à l’ENSAE, stagiaire à l’Institut Veblen). Le gouvernement français publie cette année, parallèlement au dépôt du projet de loi de finances, un rapport présentant " l’évolution, sur les années passées, de nouveaux indicateurs de richesse, tels que les indicateurs d’inégalités, de qualité de vie et de développement durable." Cette publication fait suite à l’adoption définitive au Parlement, en avril 2015, de la proposition de loi visant à prendre en compte de nouveaux indicateurs de richesse dans la définition de politiques publiques. L’article unique de cette loi prévoit "une évaluation qualitative ou quantitative de l’impact des principales réformes engagées l’année précédente et envisagées pour l’année suivante, notamment dans le cadre des lois de finances, au regard de ces indicateurs et de l’évolution du produit intérieur brut." Cette loi marque constitue donc une première étape dans la remise en cause de la centralité du PIB (produit intérieur brut), comme indicateur central du progrès de notre société. Comme l’explique la vice-présidente de la Commission des Finances de l’Assemblée nationale, la députée de l’Essonne, Eva SAS, à l’origine de cette loi, il est nécessaire de " renouveler la pensée économique " parce que nous sommes entrés " dans une période post-croissance qui nous impose de commencer à réfléchir autrement " (…) " Il faut remettre du long-terme dans les politiques publiques et prendre en compte ce qu’on lègue aux générations futures « . En consacrant son rapport annuel 2015 à la question des nouveaux indicateurs, l’Idies s’inscrit pleinement dans le cadre des missions qu’elle s’est donné depuis son origine : agir pour que soient réunies les conditions nécessaires pour que tous les citoyens puissent accéder à une information économique et sociale de qualité. Le choix des indicateurs rendant compte de l’état de notre économie et de notre société a une dimension technique. Mais il est surtout profondément politique. Il ne peut donc être laissé aux seuls experts et doit au contraire être placée au coeur de la délibération démocratique. C’est toute l’ambition de ce rapport que d’y contribuer.

As the Covid-19 fueled economic downturn begins to intensify this winter, an extended study of the Italian cooperative sector’s historical resilience in times of crisis can serve as a learning experience for other countries seeking to create policies that foster more stable economies, with job security, care for marginalized communities and adequate counter-cyclical policies. Particularly, the Italian cooperative sector’s contributions to three aspects should be noted in closing. Firstly, the innovative phenomenon of cooperative enterprises has contributed to social inclusion of immigrant communities, the activation of youth, the unemployed and people with disabilities, a true compensation for both a market and state failure. Secondly, they have contributed to a reduction in income and wealth inequalities at a time when the issue of inequality is of global significance. Thirdly, the Italian cooperative movement has helped local communities revitalize in the face of demographic shifts and rendered them more resilient to the ravages of globalization. Each of these in their own right is a remarkable achievement.

Balance of payments stability is of paramount importance for developing countries, both to secure the value of their domestic currencies as well as reliable foreign currency inflows. But how is that stability ensured and how important is the growth of exports for stability?

Hamilton argues that economics lacks the political economy context in order to understand racism, and demonstrates how racism is embedded in the political economy of America.

Neoclassical Economics imposed itself over the past decades as the core of mainstream economics, largely influencing academia and policy making.

In spite of the manifold critique about the state of economics in the aftermath of the financial crisis, an even increasing presence of economists and economic experts can be observed in the public sphere during the last years. On the one hand this reflects the still dominant position of economics in the social sciences as well as the sometimes ignorant attitude of economists towards findings of other social sciences. On the other hand this paper shows that the public debate on politico-economic issues among economists is dominated by a specific subgroup of economists, tightly connected to an institutional network of “German neoliberalism”. This group of “public economists” (i) is dominant in public debates even after the financial crisis, (ii) reproduces the formative German economic imaginary of the Social Market Economy in a German neoliberal interpretation and (iii) has a good access to German economic policymaking, rooted in a long history of economic policy advice.

Recovery from the Covid-19 crisis provides a chance to implement economic measures that are also beneficial from environmental and social perspectives. While ‘green’ recovery packages are crucial to support economies tracking a low-carbon transition in the short-term, green measures such as carbon pricing are also key to improving welfare in the long-term. This commentary specifies the need for carbon pricing, outlines its implications for our everyday lives, and explains how it works alongside value-based change in the context of climate action and societal well-being.

This course will fundamentally ask whether we can, or even should use the word ‘decolonising’ in our pursuit of a better economics?

This syllabus provides an overview of the contents of the course "Understanding Economic Models" at the University of Helsinki.

Der Klimawandel dürfte die globalen Migrationsbewegungen in den kommenden Jahren deutlich verstärken – was die Politik gleich an mehreren Fronten unter Handlungsdruck setzt.

In this one-on-one interview, co-host Gerardo Serra talks with Felwine Sarr, author of Afrotopia (2016) and professor of economics at Gaston Berger University in Senegal. Topics include the relevance (or lack thereof) of development economics to conditions in African economies, the significance of African philosophy for thinking about the economic problems of the continent, and the status of the field of history of economic thought in Africa.

This report presents the results of the “Financial Mechanisms for Innovative Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems” project, designed to foster a better understanding of the different ways in which financial resources can be made available and accessed to support the growth of social and solidarity economy (SSE) organizations and their ecosystems. The project is supported by the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social and Solidarity Economy of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

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.

Sustainable Development has become dominant in policy debates in the last two decades. Standard models in neoclassical economics as taught in undergraduate classes fail to capture the complex relationships between the economy and the environment.

Isabella M Weber and Evan Wasner challange the dominant view of inflation that it is macroeconomic in origin and must always be tackled with macroeconomic tightening In contrast they argue that inflation is predominantly a sellers inflation that derives from microeconomic origins namely the ability of firms with market power …

This article explores the production function, the prevailing view of capital that underpins it, and the main alternative perspective. By exploring these perspectives, the authors aim to provide students with a foundational understanding of the controversies surrounding the treatment of capital in production, a topic expressly excluded from mainstream textbooks.

The foundational economy is a concept which describes the infrastructure of everyday life, encompassing all essential services like utilities or healthcare that people require for wellbeing. This contribution provides an overview of foundational thinking.

In this podcast, Nalia Kabeer talks about her work, criticising the way in which Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) is adopted as a sole form of impact assessment. At the beginning of the talk, she briefly describes The Ultra Poor Project (the context of her study), RCTs and its critiques (such as lack of acknowledgement of human agency, heterogeneity, and social context); also, the problem that most RCTs practitioners do not allow for qualitative research conducted in an integrated way as it might cause their studies “being contaminated.”

The dominant view of inflation holds that it is macroeconomic in origin and must always be tackled with macroeconomic tightening. In contrast, we argue that the US COVID-19 inflation is predominantly a sellers’ inflation that derives from microeconomic origins, namely the ability of firms with market power to hike prices.

What possibilities exist for a fairer world Can one person truly make a difference In this social sciences course we sample the possibilities and limits of social change in an interconnected inequitable global landscape This course features in depth examinations of the rise of garment work for Bangladeshi women a …

Galbraith gives an overview of economic history from the 18th century until the end of the 19th century covering issues such as the industrial revolution the enclosure of the Scottish highlands the Irish famine and the colonization of North America Additionally the ideas of economists such as Smith Ricardo Malthus …

Economics is dogmatic, monolithic, merely quantitative, highly normative, strongly political, primarily ethical, pseudo-scientific, and manipulative.

Our public services are in dire need of investment. But in the middle of a debate over competing spending plans, isn’t it also time to ask what we want our public services to actually do for us? That’s the view of group of economists and campaigners who are pushing for something called ‘Universal Basic Services’ – a radical expansion of high-quality public services for all to areas like transport, childcare and social care.

In its first edition, this book helped to define the emerging field of ecological economics. This new edition surveys the field today. It incorporates all of the latest research findings and grounds economic inquiry in a more robust understanding of human needs and behavior.