Heterodox Economics Newsletter
Issue 325 April 01, 2024 web pdf Heterodox Economics Directory
About ten years ago a former teacher of mine, who had by then become a cherished colleague and friend, celebrated his retirement. He was a post-Keynesian economist in a mainstream department and the laudatio was given by one of his senior mainstream colleagues. At one point in the speech the laudator mentioned Kaleckian models, which my friend was fond of, and added that, potentially, this class of models should not have been neglected so much, because it cannot be ruled out that they provide important insights, which are now structurally overlooked. Now, maybe this implicit argument for pluralism was just a polite gesture. But in the face of the speaker, I sensed something different, namely regret. And indeed, until his PostDoc phase the senior mainstream colleague also was actively working on Kaleckian models himself – they even popped up in his PhD-thesis (which I read many years ago), but then he dropped the subject because it fell out of fashion. And still, thirty years later, he was seemingly unsure whether he made the right epistemic decision back then.
Maybe my interpretation of these past events is wrong, but still, the underlying intuition – that some sensible mainstream colleagues indicate regret or uncertainty about the paths chosen by the discipline and, relatedly, themselves – comes to me regularly. There is even a whole class of papers that I consider as 'regret-papers', like John Hicks' IS-LM: An Explanation, Paul Romer's take on the "mathiness" of DSGE models, Georg Akerlof's concerns about structural "sins of omission", Thomas Piketty's introductory remarks on the econ discipline in Capital in the 21st century, and, up to a degree, Alan Blinder's classic on "the economics of brushing teeth".
An interesting addition to this list is provided by Angus Deaton's recent piece on "Rethinking (my) economics", where he not only pins down some main blindspots of established ways of theorizing, but also points to important policy questions, like the role of unions or free trade, on which he effectively changed his mind and moved away from mainstream positions. While already the recent book by Deaton and Anne Case – on "Deaths of Despair" – indicated that Deaton & Case can take a critical stance, that resonates with heterodox accounts on the co-evolution of capitalism and public health, this short piece now explicates this critical stance more directly with regard to the state of the econ discipline. While some might say, this is still too little and too late, and others might add, that Deaton's view on migration is one-sided, I am happy for any turnaround that goes roughly into the right direction ;-)
All the best
Jakob
© public domain
Table of contents
- Call for Papers
- 15th Annual PKES PhD Conference (London, May 2024)
- 17th Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (Athens, August 2024)
- 4th Young Scholars Conference on Structural Change and Industrial Policy (online, June 2024)
- 8th Annual Freedom and Justice Summer Conference (Atlanta, August 2024)
- 9th Annual Conference of the Danish Society for Marxist Studies (Copenhagen, October 2024)
- Call for Book Proposals: Edinburgh Studies in Urban Political Economy
- Call for Papers: Special Issue on “Lance Taylor: reconstructing macroeconomics and contributions to development economics (Metroeconomica)”
- EAEPE 2024: Special Sessions and Research Area Calls (Bilbao, September 2024)
- EdgeNet summer workshop: Peripheries Research on the Edge (Penryn, June 2024)
- Heterodox sessions at ASSA 2025 (San Francisco, January 2025)
- IAFEP Conference 2024: Extended Deadline (Naples, July 2024)
- International Workshop on "German Influence on Turkish Economic Thought and Policy in the 19th and 20th Centuries" (Essen, June 2024)
- Planning and programming in European cooperation and integration: the past of a rejuvenated idea 1957-1992 (Italy, September 2024)
- Planning, democracy and postcapitalism (France, July 2024)
- Review of Evolutionary Political Economy: Special Issue on "Polycrisis"
- The CJRES 2024 Annual Conference (Cambridge, July 2024)
- The Failed Epistemologies of AI? Making Sense of AI Errors, Failures and their Impacts on Society (Switzerland, December 2024)
- The History of Economic Thought Society (THETS) Conference (London, September 2024)
- The Rise of Authoritarian Neoliberalism - Ten Years On (18 June, London)
- Where to now? Emerging themes and directions for Critical Political Economy (UK, June 2024)
- Workers of the World Journal: Special Issue on "Strike Activity in the 21st Century: Implications of the Recent Global Upsurge"
- XII Meeting of the Iberian Association of the History of Economic Thought (AIHPE) (Portugal, December 2024)
- Call for Participants
- AHE Webinar Series: The Argentina of Javier Milei (Online, April 2024)
- CRILS Public Lecture on "Industrial Animal Agriculture in the Polycrisis Era" (London, April 2024)
- Grecophone Summer School in Heterodox Economics (July 2024)
- IIASA-MacroABM 1st Workshop (Laxenburg, April 2024)
- Workshop: "The Political Economy of Growth Models in an Age of Stagnation" (London, May 2024)
- Conference Papers, Reports, and Podcasts
- Smith and Marx Walk into a Bar: A History of Economics Podcast, Episode 76
- Smith and Marx Walk into a Bar: A History of Economics Podcast, Episode 77
- Social Economics podcast: episode 10
- Job Postings
- Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
- Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Germany
- Modul University Vienna, Austria
- Newcastle University, UK
- University of Bonn, Germany
- University of York, UK (1/2)
- University of York, UK (2/2)
- Awards
- Thomas F. Divine Award: Winner's Announcement
- 2024-2025 URPE Dissertation Fellowship
- Pierangelo Garegnani Thesis Prize 2024
- Journals
- Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 44 (2)
- Cambridge Journal of Economics 48 (2)
- Capitalism Nature Socialism 35 (1)
- Ecological Economics 219
- Industrial and Corporate Change 33 (2)
- International Journal of Political Economy 53 (1)
- Review of International Political Economy 31 (2)
- real-world economics review 107
- Books and Book Series
- A Pluralistic Introduction to Macroeconomics:Methodology, Theory, and Policy
- Post-Keynesian Economics for the Future: Sustainability, Policy and Methodology
- Aristotle’s Economics: Ethics and Exchange
- Diplomacy and Capitalism: The Political Economy of U.S. Foreign Relations
- Elgar Encyclopedia of Water Policy, Economics and Management
- Inventing Ideas: Patents, Prizes, and the Knowledge Economy
- Land, Water, Air and Freedom: The Making of World Movements for Environmental Justice
- New Developmentalism: Introducing a New Economics and Political Economy
- Radical Politics: On the Causes of Contemporary Emancipation
- Robots and Immigrants: Who Is Stealing Jobs?
- Understanding Green Finance: A Critical Assessment and Alternative Perspectives
- Heterodox Graduate Programs, Scholarships and Grants
- Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany
- John Jay College, US
- The Gran Sasso Science Institute, Italy
- University of Glasgow, UK
- Websites
- AHE: "10 Women in Heterodox Economics that You Should Know About"
- Calls for Support
- European Economists for an Alternative Economic Policy in Europe (EuroMemo Group)
- For Your Information
- School of Political Economy: Term 2 Course Offerings, online