From the financial crash to the climate emergency and Covid, this book demonstrates that recent crises have had unequal impacts, that they require a heterodox approach to economics for their understanding, and new ways of thinking are needed to address them. Drawing on a variety of heterodox and radical perspectives and global voices, including those from India, Africa, and South America, this collection explores the causes and impacts of global emergencies from a wide array of viewpoints. The first section outlines how the pandemic has shown up the biases of orthodox thought and policy, particularly its Eurocentric and patriarchal focus on the urban, formal economy. It outlines how adding an international dimension to institutional analysis uncovers systematic inequalities in the responses to emergencies, and how new paradigms can provide better alternatives. The massive interventionism worldwide has led to renewed interest in the global financial system, and also in Marxian approaches to money. The second section of the book therefore considers a range of alternative approaches to the study of finance – from Marx to Minsky – which are currently being revisited. The collection concludes with a suggestion for heterodox economics pedagogy, since changing economics education is vital for future dissemination of real-world ideas. The book will be of interest to a variety of researchers and postgraduate students, and lecturers, especially in the fields of development, health, labour and feminist economics, also international political economy and heterodox economics.

From the financial crash to the climate emergency and Covid- 19, this book demonstrates that recent crises have had unequal impacts, they require a heterodox approach to economics for their understanding, and new ways of thinking are needed to address them. Drawing on a variety of heterodox and radical perspectives and global voices, including those from India, Africa, and South America, this collection explores the causes and impacts of global emergencies from a wide array of viewpoints. The first section outlines how the pandemic has shown up the biases of orthodox thought and policy, particularly its Eurocentric and patriarchal focus on the urban, formal economy. It outlines how adding an international dimension to institutional analysis uncovers systematic inequalities in the responses to emergencies, and how new paradigms can provide better alternatives. The massive interventionism worldwide has led to renewed interest in the global financial system, and also in Marxian approaches to money. The second section of the book therefore considers a range of alternative approaches to the study of finance – from Marx to Minsky – which are currently being revisited. The collection concludes with a suggestion for heterodox economics pedagogy, since changing economics education is vital for future dissemination of real- world ideas. The book will be of interest to a variety of researchers and postgraduate students, and lecturers, especially in the fields of development, health, labour and feminist economics, and also international political economy and heterodox economics.

This book continues the ongoing debate about the need for alternative, interdisciplinary and heterodox approaches to teaching economics at university. It deals with challenges currently faced by economists, pursues an interdisciplinary approach to enhance collaboration with academics from disciplines other than economics, and analyses several questions and issues related to the 2007-08 financial crisis and the current Covid-19 emergency. The Covid pandemic has shown the flaws of the current neoliberal model and the inability of mainstream economic theory to address the problems created by the pandemic. The book engages with an academic audience interested in incorporating a wider range of economic approaches in their research and teaching, and with undergraduate and postgraduate economics students who are trying to understand the limitations of their current economics syllabi. The novelty of the book is the active involvement of undergraduate and postgraduate students who contribute to this volume with three chapters. The book will be of interest to a wide range of researchers, students and teachers interested in interdisciplinary and heterodox economics.

Contemporary capitalism is characterized by periods of vigorous economic growth and periods of slow or even negative growth. This book draws on the classical political economy approach to consider both economic cycles and economic growth and draw conclusions about the inherent instability of the modern economy. The book shows that the work of the old classical economists (Smith and Ricardo) and Marx is theoretically sound and capable of providing answers to both growth and cycles. It also demonstrates the potential and natural integration of growth and cycles in a single model. The microeconomic foundation of this model is the labor theory of value, which continues with the General Law of Capital Accumulation, the Law of the Falling Rate of Profit, and the movement of the Industrial Reserve Army of Labour. Finally, a dynamic model of growth-cum-cycles is constructed consisting of the evolution and interaction of five key variables, namely, the rate of profit, the propensity to invest in fixed capital, technological change, the reserve army of labour, and the rate of capital devaluation. The analysis demonstrates that economic growth and cycles are not disconnected from each other, as they have been treated in the literature, but rather interdependent aspects of the same evolutionary process of a capitalist economy. This book will interest readers in the history of economic thought, economic growth and development, macroeconomics, and political economy.

Unequal development has been a defining characteristic of capitalism. Throughout history, countries and regions have exhibited differences in labor productivity growth – a key determinant in poverty reduction and development – and although some nations may catch up with the productivity levels or well-being of developed economies at times, others fall behind. This book explores these processes of catching up and falling behind of developing countries from Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and Africa in relation to the US economy from 1970 to 2019. The research presented in this book integrates a historical interpretation of post-World War II capitalism with economic theory and empirical analysis. By exploring the historical experiences of these countries, the book provides an overview of their economic transformations. The interplay between technical change, profit rate and capital accumulation, on one hand, and institutional change, on the other, are combined to explain the dynamics of catching up or falling behind in labor and capital productivities. Furthermore, the book provides, from the perspective of developing countries, fundamental lessons for the implementation of successful strategies for catching up and development. This book is a major resource for readers interested in economic growth and development, heterodox macroeconomics, development economics, and related areas.

An alternative theory of the firm is needed that helps better understand the nature and actual functioning of firms as well as the challenges raised by digital platform firms. In defining firms as economic collective ventures organised by political means, this book offers a “political economy” vision of firms. Specifically, the book provides an authority-based conception of the firm that supplies a theoretical grounding for democratic governance. It is argued that workers must be viewed as actors of the firm, not passive subjects of capital, given that authority is a non-coercive form of power. The book examines authority and subordination from the workers’ perspective and argues that when workers accept authority, it is because they see it as facilitating mutually beneficial cooperation between people with divergent interests. As managerial authority is based on its acceptance by workers, it calls for legitimacy. Neither ownership nor the function that authority performs makes it legitimate. The book shows that legitimacy entails the democratisation of corporate governance, within the framework of “pluralistic companies”, and thus joins the many voices that increasingly question shareholder primacy. The book will be of great interest to researchers and students in economics and law as well as labour professionals, employers, unions, policymakers and anybody interested in economic democracy.

This book examines why democracy has failed to deliver effective solutions to income inequality problems over the last four decades, and if democracy can offer solutions to various increases in inequality in the future. It also addresses what elements are necessary for democracy to serve as an effective alternative for addressing inequality issues. Historical experiences over the past 40 years, including the global financial crisis, not only underscore the need for fresh perspectives on income inequality in economics but also question the ability of democracy to continue providing alternatives for addressing the escalating forms of inequality. Seo and Kang’s response to these inquiries diverge from conventional research in several significant ways. Primarily, what sets this research apart from existing studies is its intensified focus on income inequality as a product of the complex interplay between the political and economic domains, rather than a standalone examination of income inequality in isolation. Through a political economy perspective, this book argues that income inequality and income redistribution are shaped by the institutions, policies, and laws generated by the political system, with their formation and nature being determined by the power distribution among socio-political groups. A useful resource not only to researchers who study political phenomena in the field of economics, but also to scholars who study economic phenomena in the field of politics. Furthermore, it will be particularly intriguing for policy makers concerned with issues of inequality and income redistribution.