The Political Economy of Growth Models in an Age of Stagnation

The workshop offers a venue to discuss current research in Comparative Political Economy and the growth models approach in particular . It is motivated by and will present findings from the project The Political Economy of Growth Models in an Age of Stagnation. The 2008 Global Financial Crisis has led to a period of stagnation and divergent economic growth performances. The project investigates institutional sources of such divergent growth, considering both macroeconomic and institutional factors as well as their interaction. Specifically, we study (i) whether differences in financial and housing institutions explain why some countries are more prone to unstable house-price driven growth; (ii) whether differences in industrial relations and skill policies determine the successfulness of maintaining growth through exports; (iii) whether differences in fiscal and monetary policy coordination explain the use of government spending to support growth. At the theoretical level, the project combines post-Keynesian macroeconomics with a comparative institutionalist analysis of demand formation at the national, sectoral, and actor level. Empirically, we focus on the growth experiences of European countries. The project builds on previous research of the team's members: Stockhammer on Post-Keynesian macroeconomic foundations for Comparative Political Economy; Kohler and Stockhammer on financial cycles, austerity, and competitiveness in growth models since the Global Financial Crisis; Benassi on the role of industrial relations institutions for export performance; and Rademacher on the role of fiscal-monetary relations for economic policy outcomes.

The event is free, but registration is required

The event is co-organised by the International Political Economy Research Group, Department of European and International Studies, King’s College London.

SCHEDULE

09.30 coffee

09.45

• Engelbert Stockhammer: Opening remarks

10.00 - 12.00
Panel 1 (chair: Engelbert Stockhammer)

• Karsten Kohler (University of Leeds), Ben Tippet (University of Greenwich) and Engelbert Stockhammer (King’s College London): What goes up, must come down. Speculation-encouraging institutions and house price cycles across countries
• Jose Tomas Labarca (Univ of Cambridge) and Inga Rademacher, (City University): The Only Game in Town: Quantitative Easing and Central Bank Boundary Work at the Zero-Lower-Bound
• Ben Clift (University of Warwick) and Iacopo Mugnai (Loughborough University London): The ECB on Capitalist Restructuring in an Age of Stagnation: The Constructivist Political Economy of European Growth Models

12.00-13.00 lunch

13.00-15.00
Panel 2 (chair: Inga Rademacher)

• Chiara Benassi (University of Bologna) and Joshua Cova (MPIfG): The high and low road to export specialization in services: What role for industrial relations and education systems?
• Lucio Baccaro (MPIfG): Preferences for Growth Strategies in Advanced Democracies: A New “Representation Gap”?
• David Edgerton (King’s College London): Innovation and growth – a dissenting perspective

15.00-15.30 coffee break.

15.30-17.30
Panel 3 (chair: Karsten Kohler)

• Nikhil Kalyanpur and Natalya Naqvi, (LSE): Growth models in the global south
• Sonja Avlijas (University of Belgrade): Gender vs class in political economy research: Implications for growth models
• Engelbert Stockhammer (King’s College London) and Jose Tomas Labarca (Univ of Cambridge): Beyond regulation and redistribution. The state as a productive economic actor

17.30-18.00
Closing discussion