Levelling up – will it turn Britain into a more equal country?
‘Levelling up’ is the nearest the Conservative Party has to a big idea and now it has just become a White Paper, which opens with the following words: “Levelling
The Digital Economy: a Covid Winner but for whom?
During lockdown, the digital economy has been essential and has boomed. But are private network monopolies in the public interest? The early 1900s saw the first attempt to challenge the
Split: Class Divides Uncovered…. by Covid-19?
How can we make sense of a world where we have both too many billionaires and too many foodbanks? The expected path of many is to go to university, forge
Sabotage and Covid-19
Financial malpractice, we’re told, is an aberration: the actions of a few bad apples deviating from the norms of a market-governed process and gaming the system. Anastasia Nesvetailova and Ronen
From Nudges to Catalysts: A New Approach to Policy for a New Decade
Elinor Ostrom at her 2009 Nobel lecture said: “Designing institutions to force (or nudge) entirely self-interested individuals to achieve better outcomes has been the major goal posited by policy analysts
A New Gold Standard or Impoverished Economics
The 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global
Why Capitalists Need Communists
The 2020s look set to be the decade of make or break. The big problems we face – climate change, inequality, job creation in the face of automation, housing shortages and pressures
Holding Corporations to Account: towards an Economic Democracy?
We take it for granted that we get to vote in elections, but that is of course a relatively recent innovation. Universal suffrage only occurred in 1928. However most of
Is Green Growth a Myth?
One thing you can be certain of in what was billed as the most uncertain of elections, is that most candidates will be trying to convince you that their party
Is there a future for Heterodox Economics?
Over the last 50 years, the community of heterodox economists has expanded, and its publications have proliferated. Heterodoxy was given a big boost after mainstream economics was discredited by the
#NotTheNobel Prize – Final Event
Our economic system is driving us towards a perfect storm. We are facing ecological breakdown. Rising debt is threatening a new financial crash. Inequality is pulling societies apart. For 50
The perils of CSR: Conflict and resistance in the extractive industries
There are more than 800 ongoing conflicts involving the extractive industries (mining, gas and oil) and communities impacted by extractive activity. Most of these conflicts are in the developing countries
#NotTheNoble Launch Webinar 1 with Christian Felber, Ann Pettifor and Nicholas Gruen
Listen to discussions with Christian Felber, Ann Pettifor, Nicholas Gruen on whether there should be a Nobel Prize for Economists. Has it been a force for good or bad for
#NotTheNobel Launch Webinar 2 with Steve Keen and Stephan Griffith-Jones
Listen to discussions with Steve Keen and Stephany Griffiths-Jones on whether there should be a Nobel Prize for Economists. Has it been a force for good or bad for society?
Basic Income and Universal Basic Services: conflicting or complementary?
Two distinct ideas are being promoted to help fix Britain’s broken social security system and badly depleted public services. The first idea – of basic income (BI) – seeks a
Is a Green New Deal the answer?
Since the idea of a Green New Deal was taken up by the newly elected, social media savvy US congress woman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez known as AOC, it has generated a
Are some countries destined to remain underdeveloped?
Since the mid-1990s, development economics has witnessed an explosion in the discourse explaining the poor economic performance in developing countries – especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) – by non-policy
Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business
Millions of people work, live, and travel in high-risk countries; very few are kidnapped and, of those that are, almost all come home safely – how can this be? Anja
Industrial Strategy for the Public Good
Since the Crash in 07/08, industrial strategy in the UK has seen a renaissance as a legitimate area for policy activity. It had been out of fashion since the 70s
The Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics 50 Years On
We know that although economic theory may be speculative, its impact is powerful and real. Since the 1970s, it has been closely associated with a sweeping change around the world—the
The Foundational Economy
Privatisation, market choice, outsourcing: these are the watchwords that have shaped policy in numerous democratic states in the last generation. These were claimed to provide more efficient services so we
Economic Growth: Our modern day religion?
For around half a century ecological economists such as Herman Daly have been seeking to win over the economics profession to the recognition that the economy is a subsystem of
What Economic Reform should have looked liked
The turn to economic liberalisation from the 1970s on used ideas from the academy to address the problems of over-regulation and economic policy making by deal doing. But once underway,
Land Value Tax in Practice
There has been substantial interest in the potential of land value tax over the last few years. It is seen as a way to address the growing inequality in terms
Innovation, Sustainability and Trust
Creating a human society which is sustainable must rate as the biggest innovation challenge humanity has ever faced. We often think of this challenge as one of technological innovation, but
10 Years after: Testimony from the Crash
The following is based on the actual testimony of real people who were affected by the Crash in different ways. It was performed as an improvised piece by Annee Blott
Economics: No More Experts Anymore?
A special public panel discussion with John Kay, Ann Pettifor, Angus Armstrong and Josh Ryan-Collins, chaired by Alan Penn, Dean of the Bartlett, UCL. Part of our 10 years after
Challenging “Nudge Economics”: Reframing the market as a community of advantage
‘Nudge economics’ has created a lot of interest and had a lot of influence most recently with a Nobel prize for Richard Thaler. Prof Robert Sugden, an eminent behavioural economist
Shut Down the Business School
Business schools are institutions which, a decade after the financial crash, continue to act as loudspeakers for neoliberal capitalism with all its injustices and planetary consequences. Little seems to
Applied Pluralism: The Case of Finance
There has been much recent debate also in the UK around the state of the economics profession. Prospect magazine published a piece by Howard Reed proposing that we need to
Backlash: Saving Globalisation from itself
Globalisation. Source of prosperity for billions? Or a driver of increasing inequality, poor labour conditions, unceasing environmental damage, and cultural fracture? Or both? The debate on what people gain and
Are Crypto Currencies and Blockchain the answer or a disaster?
Blockchain has been trumped as an amazing innovation with applications everywhere to deal with the ‘trust issue’. Bitcoins, which use blockchain, have become worth 10’s of thousands of dollars each,
How Economics Professors can stop failing us – Steven Payson
Steve Payson, an US economics practictioner of long standing, talks about his book ‘How Economics Professors Can Stop Failing us’ which provides an eye-opening expose on economics professors that will
How Economics Professors can stop failing us – Ellen Quigley
Steve Payson, an US economics practictioner of long standing, talks about his book ‘How Economics Professors Can Stop Failing us’ which provides an eye-opening expose on economics professors that will
How Economics Professors can stop failing us – Discussion
Steve Payson, an US economics practictioner of long standing, talks about his book ‘How Economics Professors Can Stop Failing us’ which provides an eye-opening expose on economics professors that will
The Good, Band and Ugly of Taxation
The Panama papers may have outed a rogue company but even the Queen was caught up in the Paradise papers. But we are told that it was all legal. Is
Post Brexit, What should our approach to trade be?
As the UK launches into negotiating free trade deals with anyone who will have us and Joe Stiglitz tells not to ‘waste our time’ negotiating with Trump, what should our
The next energy revolution: Glorious or bumpy? Winners or losers?
The future green energy revolution is often pictured as a glorious combination of economic growth, employment and a solution to climate change. However the signs look more ominous. Oil companies,