Find out about latest publications, news and current events.
Thursday, 8 Dec, 5-6:30 PM (GMT) – Speakers: Rafael Wildauer and Athina Piterou
Location: Room QM369, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS (and via Microsoft Teams with this link)
5-5:45 PM: Rafael Wildauer – Was Pareto right?
5:45-6:30 PM: Athina Piterou - Sociotechnical transitions, market devices and the sociology of markets: the emergence of retail formats
All seminars are hybrid events and will also be accessible via Microsoft Teams with this link:
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 392 637 608 043
Passcode: 9qMR5q
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with any questions regarding our events.
PEGFA Administrator: Thomas Rabensteiner
E-Mail: t.rabensteiner@gre.ac.uk
Please see below the updated programme.
Thursday 17 Nov: PEGFA Seminar Series with Thomas Rabensteiner and Lorenzo Cresti
Location: Room QM369, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS (and via Microsoft Teams with this link)
5-5:45 PM: Thomas Rabensteiner - The decline in routine jobs in Western Europe:
The 21st century, the Great Recession and labour market institutions
5:45-6:30 PM: Lorenzo Cresti - Weak sectors and weak ties? Labour dependence and asymmetric positioning in GVCs
All seminars are hybrid events and will also be accessible via Microsoft Teams with this link:
Click here to join the meeting
Nov 2: PEGFA Seminar Series with Kefei You and Ben Tippet
Location: Room SL011, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS (and via Microsoft Teams with this link)
1-1:45 PM: Kefei You - Financial Development and Technological Progress: Does the Financing Channel Matter? Evidence from Spatial Analysis for Chinese Provinces
We examine the relationship between financial development and productivity growth by investigating the impact of total social financing and, more importantly, the four financial channels underneath it (i.e., formal bank loans, corporate bond market, equity market and shadow banking) on technological progress in Chinese provinces during 2013-2020. We first separate structural change from total factor productivity (TFP) to obtain the net factor productivity (NFP) series. We then employ spatial models to account for spatial dependence in technological progress; the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) is shown to best describe our data. We find that, first, both structural change and NFP have contributed positively to TFP in China. Thus, the latter captures the pure technological progress more accurately than TFP does. Second, while TSF overall does not seem to affect technological advancement in China, three of its four components do. Specifically, corporate bonds and formal bank loans promote technological progress across Chinese provinces, with the former producing stronger effects than the latter. Shadow banking also shows a positive impact but at a weaker magnitude than the above two. Conversely, equity financing does not foster technological progress in China. Finally, we observe positive spatial technological dependence, implying a cooperative relationship between Chinese provinces.
1:45-2:30 PM: Ben Tippet - House price cycles and speculative demand: understanding how the returns to capital gains and rent extraction drive the intensity of house price booms and busts
Why do some countries have stable house prices, while others have intense booms and busts? The existing literature in Comparative Political Economy (CPE) has argued that house price booms are caused primarily by domestic mortgage-credit encouraging institutions (and their interactions with a strong welfare state). Building on heterodox economic theories of house price cycles, this paper instead argues that intense house price booms and busts are driven by speculative demand, which in turn is shaped by institutions increasing the returns to housing via capital gains and rent extraction. Using turning point analysis, we demonstrate significant cross-country differences in the intensity of booms and busts across 26 OECD countries. We build a dataset of what we call “speculation encouraging institutions” and estimate their relationship to the intensity of house price cycles. We find that countries with speculation encouraging institutions are significantly more likely to have intense house price booms and busts. Once we control for speculative demand, mortgage-credit encouraging institutions no longer has a significant effect on house price cycles. This paper is a part of the Leverhulme grant "The Political Economy of growth models in an age of stagnation" Leverhulme, RPG-2021-045.
Sep 27: May AI revolution be labour-friendly? Some micro evidence from the supply side - Marco Vivarelli
This study investigates the possible job-creation impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, focusing on the supply side, namely the providers of the new knowledge base. The empirical analysis is based on a worldwide longitudinal dataset of 3,500 front-runner companies that patented the relevant technologies over the period 2000-2016. Obtained from GMM-SYS estimates, our results show a positive and significant impact of AI patent families on employment, supporting the labour-friendly nature of product innovation in the AI supply industries. However, this effect is small in magnitude and limited to service sectors and younger firms, which are the leading actors of the AI revolution. Finally, some evidence of increasing returns seems to emerge; indeed, the innovative companies which are more focused on AI technologies are those obtaining the larger impacts in terms of job creation.
Speaker: Marco Vivarelli, UNU-MERIT, Catholic University of Milan and IZA
Professor Vivarelli will present findings from a joint paper with Giacomo Damioli (European Commission, Joint Research Centre), Vincent Van Roy (European Commission, Joint Research Centre), and Daniel Vertesy (International Telecommunication Union and UNU-MERIT).
Time: 15:00 – 16:30 GMT, 27 Sep 2022
Location: Room HH102, Greenwich Business School, Hamilton House, 15 Park Vista, London, SE10 9LZ
This is a hybrid event and will also be accessible via Microsoft Teams with this link:
Click here to join the meeting
22-24 June: Post-Keynesian Economics Summer School
This three-day summer school introduces Post Keynesian Economics. Post Keynesian theory is part of a broader Political Economy approach which highlights the social conflict and power relations between classes such as labour, capital and finance and social groups stratified along the lines of gender and ethnicity. Economic analysis should thus be rooted in a historic and institutional setting.
Post Keynesian Economics emphasises the role of fundamental uncertainty about the future, the central role for ‘animal spirits’ in the determination of investment decisions; inflation as the result of unresolved distributional conflicts; money as an endogenous creation of the private banking system; unemployment as determined by effective demand on the goods markets; and financial markets prone to periodic boom-bust cycles.
The summer school is aimed at advanced undergraduate students of economics and social sciences. As the aim of Post Keynesian Economics and Political Economy ultimately is to provide the foundation for progressive economic policies, it may be of interest for a broader audience.
Reduced rates for PKES members are available. Membership for students is £10/year and includes online access to all issues of European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention and Review of Keynesian Economics. Further benefits and info about PKES membership can be found here: https://www.postkeynesian.net/membership/
Speakers:
Engelbert Stockhammer King’s College London: Post Keynesian Economics, Introduction & Overview
Maria Nikolaidi University of Greenwich Endogenous Money and Minsky’s Financial Instability Hypothesis
Özlem Onaran, University of Greenwich: Aggregate Demand and Inequalities - Income and Wealth distribution and Gender
Yannis Dafermos, SOAS, University of London: Modelling approaches in ecological and environmental macroeconomics
Jo Michell, UWE Bristol: Complexity in New Keynesian and Heterodox Models
Rafael Wildauer, University of Greenwich: A New Keynesian and Post Keynesian Model in a Simple Unified Framework
Adam Aboobaker, University of the West of England: Development and Income Distribution
Christina Wolf, Kingston University: Development from Post Keynesian and Institutionalist perspectives
Esra Ugurlu, University of Leeds: Keynesian Economics and New Developmentalism
Time: 22 to 24 June 2022 all day
Sign up: In order to book your place please follow this link: https://store.gre.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/short-courses/pkes
June 11: A festival for the future of economics and transformative economic thinking
The Institute of Political Economy, Governance, Finance and Accountability (PEGFA) and Progressive Economy Forum is co-organising a festival for the future of economics and transformative economic thinking on 11 June at the University of Greenwich. In a world battered by crises, facing environmental collapse, leading thinkers will present the arguments and the solutions we need to build a radically better economy. The conference will be packed with sessions ranging from "Beyond the Green New Deal" to "Political Economy of Ukraine," "Workers and the Crisis," and "The End of Economic Growth?"
Speakers
Featured speakers include Anne Pettifor, Kate Pickett, Guy Standing, Grace Blakeley, Ed Miliband, Nadia Whittome, Ozlem Onaran, Maria Nikolaidi, Yuliya Yurchenko, Alex Guschanski, Ben Tippet, and many more.
Time: 9:30 – 18:30 BST
Sign up: The event is free and please register via this link
Location: Registration will be in Ground Floor Stockwell Street. The conference will be held between King William Building and Stockwell Street
April 6: Financing sustainability in the SMEs of the UK after Brexit, Covid-19 and COP 26: The road ahead
After Brexit, Covid-19 placed an unexpected burden on this already battered sector. However, according to the government’s post Pandemic policies, half of the UK's Medium-Sized and Small businesses (SMEs) anticipate a rise in income and demand on 2022; In fact, official sources gather that SMEs feel borrowing will be important to their growth and recovery. Equally relevant, SMEs account for over 50% of all carbon emissions produced by UK businesses: Committing to the pledges made in COP26 of the net zero emissions target, British SMEs may reap benefits that are significant. After Brexit and Covid-19, there is an increasing need for support in their effort to be environmentally responsible, since short and/or medium-term growth and recovery would be otherwise long-term impossible (this is also being challenged by recent events in international energy markets). In this seminar we hope to shed some light about what is possible or not for UK SMEs after COP26. Implications for HEIs in the dissemination of practices are as well explored.
Speakers
Organiser and Moderator: Dr Mary Arrieta (University of Greenwich, EIB Greenwich Faculty of Business, PEGFA and ISBE member)
Dr Robyn Owen (Middlesex University Business School) Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR) and Greenfin Research Hub, Middlesex University, London and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP).
Presentation title: Seeding Green Innovation to Build Back Better: A Critique of UK Green SME Finance Policy
Abstract: The UK government has announced a £12bn green rebuilding plan for the UK, but there is no specific mention of green SME innovation finance. This paper focuses on early-stage Cleantech innovation finance in the UK. It argues that if the UK wishes to pursue the policy of aspiring "World leader" in green finance and innovation it rapidly requires increased focus and investment on cleantech innovations that will shape the future of global Climate Change.
Prof Ciarán Mac an Bhaird (Dublin City University)
Presentation title: TBA
Mr Brishni Mukhopadhyay (CFA – ESG Specialist at Western Asset Management)
Presentation title: Sustainable Finance Education and Sustainable Finance Practices in the UK: Are SMEs accounted for?
Time: 18:00 – 20:00 GMT
Details: This is an online event. It will be hosted on Microsoft Teams via this link.
April 5: Defence Acquisition and Procurement: How (not) to buy weapons.
Professor Ron Smith will present a paper on defence economics for students and staff at the University of Greenwich, and interested members of the public.
Speakers
Professor Ron Smith, Professor of Applied Economics, Department of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, Birkbeck, University of London
Chair: Dr Robert Calvert Jump, research fellow at the University of Greenwich
Time: 16:00 – 17:30 GMT
Sign up: The event is free and please register via this link.
Location: Room QA075, Queen Anne Building, University of Greenwich. This is a hybrid event and will also be accessible via Microsoft Teams via this link.
March 10: A shorter working week for a gender-equal green transition
The workshop will present findings from a report by Ozlem Onaran and Robert Calvert Jump for the Women’s Budget Group (WBG) Feminist Green New Deal Project and explore the potential impact of a shorter working week with contributions by Sara Reis and Will Stronge. Link to the report:
https://wbg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Shorter-Working-Week-Report.pdf
Speakers
Prof Leigh Doster, PVC, Greenwich Business School: Opening Remarks
Prof Ozlem Onaran, co-director of PEGFA and professor of economics at the University of Greenwich
Dr Robert Calvert Jump, research fellow at the University of Greenwich
Dr Sara Reis, Deputy Director, Head of Research and Policy, WBG
Dr Will Stronge, ESRC Fellow at Brighton University and Co-Director of Autonomy
Chair: Ines Heck, PhD Economics students at the University of Greenwich
Time: 18:00 – 19:30 GMT
Location: This is a hybrid event. For online attendees please join us on Microsoft Teams via this link. For those attending in person, the event will be in Lecture Theatre QA065, Queen Anne Building, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS.
March 16: Fertility, electricity and television: is there a link? Evidence from Pakistan, 1990-2018
In 1960s Pakistan, every woman was giving birth to more than 6 children on average. In 2021, Pakistan still has the second highest fertility rate in South Asia with every woman giving birth to 3.4 children on average. This paper uses four waves of Demographic and Health Survey data to empirically analyse trends in fertility in Pakistan between 1990 and 2018; accounting for wealth, education and locational differences, this paper looks at three additional pathways for reducing fertility: (i) electrification, (ii) access to TV and (iii) family planning commercials broadcast on television. We employ multi-level fixed effects and the average yearly district-wealth level access to the three channels as instrumental variable. Across models we show that electricity does not reduce fertility. In contrast, access to television appears to have a significant effect in reducing fertility rates, which seems to operate to a large extent through family planning commercials broadcast on television. The content and evolution of Pakistani soap-operas is also discussed, and it is argued that the role models, the types of households and the messages conveyed by these soap-operas may represent strong pathways for the fertility decline.
Speakers
Dr. Luca Tasciotti, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Greenwich
Dr Natascha Wagner
Dr Farooq Sulheria
Time: 17:00 – 18:30 GMT
Location: This is a hybrid event. For online attendees please join us on Microsoft Teams via this link. For those attending in person, the event will be in Room QA063, Queen Anne Building, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS.
March 30: The roles of standards for trade in changing the (economic) environment
The number of plant and animal species under threat of extinction our current geological epoch is unprecedented. Environmental standards have been promoted as a policy guideline that can effectively regulate the effect of human activity on the environment. In an ever-interconnected world, environmental standards have multiple effects which affect trade patterns, environmental protection, poverty, economic development and employment across countries. This talk with economists, social scientists and environmental activists links environmental standards for trade with several issues that have recently received attention: environmental protection and conservation, trade, corruption, environmental justice and human rights.
Speakers
Dr. Elissaios Papyrakis, Senior Lecturer in Development Economics (Macroeconomics) at the Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University Rotterdam
Prof. Lorenzo Pellegrini, Associate Professor of Economics of Environment and Development at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam
Dr. Luca Tasciotti, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Greenwich
Plus more to be announced
Time: 17:00 – 18:30 GMT
Location: This is a hybrid event. For online attendees please join us on Microsoft Teams via this link. For those attending in person, the event will be in Room QA063, Queen Anne Building, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS.
Feb 8: A shorter working week as part of a green, caring economy as part of the Feminist Green New Deal project
PEGFA will present their project A shorter working week as part of a green, caring economy as part of the Feminist Green New Deal project of the Women's Budget Group and Women's Environmental Network
Speakers
Professor Özlem Onaran and Dr. Robert Calvert Jump, University of Greenwich.
More details about this event will be announced on our website.
Time: 13:00 GMT
Location: This is an online event. Please sign up via this link.
Feb 16: Worker autonomy and wage divergence: Evidence from European survey data
This paper contributes to the understanding of increasing wage inequality in Western Europe. We ask if worker autonomy, defined as the degree of control workers have over their own work process, can explain wage growth differences in Western European countries from 2003 to 2018. We provide econometric analyses using individual-level wage data from the European Union Survey of Income and Living Conditions and find that wages in occupations with high autonomy have grown significantly faster than in occupations with low autonomy. Because workers in high autonomy occupations are generally at the top of the wage distribution, this process has increased wage inequality. We use additional worker surveys to shed light on technological, institutional, and demographic determinants of the ‘autonomy premium’ and highlight three main findings: (i) The autonomy premium is higher in countries with lower collective bargaining; (ii) the autonomy premium increases more in industries with faster computerisation; (iii) the rising autonomy premium increases gender inequality because women are less likely to be employed in high autonomy occupations, but we do not find differences in the increase of the autonomy premium between women and men. These findings suggest that wage inequality between high and low-autonomy jobs is shaped by technological as well as institutional factors.
Speakers
Thomas Rabensteiner, PhD Candidate in Economics (University of Greenwich)
Dr Alexander Guschanski, Senior Lecturer in Economics (University of Greenwich)
Time: 17:00 – 18:30 GMT
Location: This is a hybrid event. For online attendees please join us on Microsoft Teams via this link. For those attending in person, the event will be in Room QA063, Queen Anne Building, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS.
Feb 23: Analysing the link between periods of financial bonanza and premature de-industrialization in developing countries
The outbreak of Covid-19 brought back to the forefront the crucial importance of structural change and productive development for economic resilience to economic shocks. Several recent contributions have already stressed the perverse relation that may exist between productive backwardness and the intensity of the Covid-19 socio-economic crisis. In this paper, we analyse the factors that may have hindered productive development for over four decades before the pandemic. We investigate the role of (non-FDI) net capital inflows as a potential source of premature de-industrialization. We consider a sample of 36 developed and developing countries from 1980 to 2017, with major emphasis on the case of emerging and developing (EDE) economies in the context of increasing financial integration. We show that periods of abundant capital inflows may have caused the significant contraction of manufacturing share to employment and GDP, as well as the decrease of the economic complexity index. We also show that phenomena of “perverse” structural change are significantly more relevant in EDE countries than advanced ones. Based on such evidence, we conclude with some policy suggestions highlighting capital controls and external macroprudential measures taming international capital mobility as useful policy tools for promoting long-run productive development on top of strengthening (short-term) financial and macroeconomic stability.
Speakers
Prof. Alberto Botta (Associate Professor in Economics)
Time: 17:00 – 18:30 GMT
Location: This is a hybrid event. For online attendees please join us on Microsoft Teams via this link. For those attending in person, the event will be in Room QA063, Queen Anne Building, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, London SE10 9LS.
Jan 26: Does technological innovation affect inequalities? Separating the pure innovation effect from the rent extraction effect
The empirical literature draws on reduced-form models to estimate the effects of technological innovation on inequality. We argue that such models may not identify the true effect because market power and labour-market institutions affect both innovation and inequalities at the same time. To identify the true effect, we adopt a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach in which markups and labour-market deregulation determine innovation, capital share and inequality simultaneously. Using an unbalanced panel of 34 countries from 2000-2018, we find that the main driver of inequalities is not technological innovation per se, but markups and labour-market deregulation that increase capital share and worsen inequalities at the same time. Post-estimation evidence indicates that human capital and fiscal/monetary policy variables we control for are insufficient to reverse the adverse effects of capital share, markups and labour-market deregulation on inequalities. Our findings are robust to sample variation, two different markup measures, and five different measures of inequality.
Speakers
Professor Mehmet Ugur
Time: 16:00 – 17:00 BST
This event will be hosted online at 4pm on Microsoft Teams via this link.
Location: Room HH103, Hamilton House, University of Greenwich, 15 Park Vista, SE10 9LZ