Blog
2018
A question of sovereignty: on the (im)possibility of Brexit
Adam Standring - 18 December 2018The chaotic endgame of Brexit shows the promise of reasserted sovereignty coming up against the reality of diffuse sovereignty in the UK.
Industrial strategy and inclusive structural change
Maria Savona - 17 December 2018Industrial strategy must pay attention to left-behind places as well as mature sectors and vulnerable categories of workers.
Beyond dirty development
Hayley Stevenson - 6 December 2018Reforming subsidies should be a core element of the G20 sustainability agenda.
The unintended euro and the problem of Italy
Helen Thompson - 30 November 2018The fate of Italy will determine what kind of monetary union, and with which member-states, can survive.
The G20 in Argentina
Tony Payne - 23 November 2018Argentina’s laudable attempts to raise issues vital to Latin America and the wider developing world are likely to fall on deaf ears. But, if the G20 is going to stop drifting from summit to summit and get to grips with genuinely global challenges, it needs to establish a modest but permanent secretariat and appoint an influential secretary-general, writes Tony Payne in this special post published jointly with the LSE Latin America and Caribbean blog.
Artificial intelligence and the transformation of production and work
John R. Bryson - 20 November 2018Inclusive prosperity requires an education system to provide people with the skills and experiences to avoid ‘technological unemployment’.
Inequality in Scotland: despite Nordic aspirations, things are not improving
Gwilym Pryce & Meng Le Zhang - 13 November 201820 years after the Scotland Act was passed, how has Scotland fared in its aspiration to reduce inequality?
Germany’s non-rebalancing of its mercantilist model
Patrick Kaczmarczyk - 12 November 2018Contrary to recent claims that Germany has ‘quietly rebalanced’ its economy since the Eurozone crisis began, when German policy is viewed from a more long-term perspective, there has been little in the way of meaningful rebalancing
Reprogramming national economies and the reshoring of manufacturing
John Bryson, Vida Vanchan & Rachel Mulhall - 08 November 2018Successful industrial strategy requires a long-term policy framework that encourages entrepreneurship and economic activity
What is the financialisation of food and why should we care?
Merisa Thompson - 07 November 2018This blog discusses Professor Jennifer Clapp’s recent visit to Sheffield where she presented work from her latest book project and current research on the financialisation of food
“Gender-sensitive trade”: buzzword or basic principle of post-Brexit trade policy?
Erin Hannah, Adrienne Roberts & Silke Trommer - 25 October 2018Brexit could provide an opportunity to create a more gender equitable global trading system, but immediate and potentially radical action will be needed
Damned if we don’t, damned if we do: a sideways look at Ciaran Driver and Grahame Thompson’s Corporate Governance in Contention
Craig Berry - 22 October 2018Corporate Governance in Contention, edited by Ciaran Driver and Grahame Thompson (Oxford University Press, 2018), offers an exemplary overview of some of the most important debates in scholarship on corporate governance in Europe and North America
Ethical Certification Doesn’t Eradicate Forced Labour
Genevieve LeBaron - 21 October 2018In the tea industry, on almost every indicator we used to measure labour standards, certified plantations fared about the same, if not worse, as non-certified plantations
Does Congressional experience lead to US governors securing higher state funding?
Harry Pickard - 19 October 2018New research shows that governors who have previously served in Congress prior to taking office as state governor increase the transfers to their state
Costing the country: Britain’s finance curse
John Christensen - 09 October 2018The finance industry is not the golden goose claimed by its vast public relations team: it looks much more like a cuckoo in the nest
Towards a post-crisis moral political economy?
Adam Standring - 08 October 2018Recent calls for economic justice, and particularly intergenerational justice, suggest a new post-crisis moral political economy could be emerging
The Schizophrenia of UK (De) industrialisation Policy
Richard Woodward & James Silverwood - 02 October 2018Far from radically rebalancing the structure of the UK economy, Theresa May’s industrial strategy seems destined to entrench the UK’s deindustrialisation
The Endemic Problem of Forced Labour in Global Tea and Cocoa Supply Chains
Genevieve LeBaron - 27 September 2018What do tea and cocoa have in common? Both products are widely consumed by households around the world; the early world market for both industries was intertwined with the history of colonialism; and in today’s global economy, both products are made with forced labour
What do Global Megatrends mean for the financing of the SDGs?
Gail Hurley - 19 September 2018How finance is raised and spent must be transformed to effectively meet the enormous challenges of the 21st century
Book review: Race and the Undeserving Poor
Owen Parker - 17 September 2018Robbie Shilliam’s brilliant book highlights the historical importance of race in social and welfare policy in Britain and in so doing makes a crucial and timely intervention into contemporary progressive debate
2008 is dead, long live 2008! Or, how we learned to imagine the unimaginable
Liam Stanley & Tom Hunt - 11 September 2018What’s changed in the ten years since the global financial crisis in 2008?
If this is capitalism, where are the price signals?: The glacial effects of passive investment
Jan Fichtner. Eelke Heemskerk & Adam Leaver - 3 September 2018In the 10 years since the 2008 crash, the ‘passive-aggressive’ tendencies of large index funds have reshaped how modern capitalism operates
African capitalisms, infrastructure and the role of urban real estate in political settlements
Tom Goodfellow - 22 August 2018Exploring how capital intersects with contemporary urban forms can help to bring Africa to its rightful position at the forefront of global debates on capitalist transformation.
#MeToo and Harvey Weinstein: Telling stories of vulnerable bodies
Tom Watts - 17 August 2018Since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, the #MeToo and #TimesUp hashtags campaign have become internationally recognised as a symbol of resistance against sexual and gender-based violence and abuse. The campaigns inspired people to tell their stories of everyday abuse, assault and discrimination but how much difference can a social media campaign make?
“I was a thing: not a nobody, but a body”: The political economy of the body & the Weinstein scandal
Sophie Wall - 15 August 2018Hollywood’s commodification of women’s bodies must be recognised as a contributory factor when questioning the (un)shocking prevalence of sexual violence and abuse. Therefore, to fully understand the political economy of the Weinstein scandal, it is necessary to foreground the body
Who pays for sexual harassment?
Sylvie Craig - 14 August 2018Calculating the economic costs of sexual harassment obscures its underlying wrongs – as does the disparagement of people that ‘sleep their way to the top’. The Weinstein scandal calls both of these approaches into question
The political economy of the Weinstein scandal
Liam Stanley, Ellie Gore & Genevieve LeBaron - 13 August 2018This blog series introduces some preliminary research from SPERI’s PREPPE programme, a project that asks: What can political economy tell us about the Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement? And what can the Weinstein scandal and #MeToo movement teach us about political economy?
US investors drive growing top income inequality in Britain
Lukas Linsi, Pascal Jaupart & Jonathan Hopkin - 01 August 2018New findings show that the Americanization of British firm ownership causes substantial increases in executive pay
The changing politics of regionalism in Asia-Pacific
Ahmad Rizky Mardhatillah Umar - 30 July 2018Recent development in the Asia-Pacific region show how regionalism is a ‘dynamic’ political project rather than merely an institution and rule-based political order
‘Global Britain’ equals Osbornomics squared
Craig Berry - 27 July 2018The tussle over Brexit within the Conservative Party is actually a debate about the UK’s future place in the global capitalist order. Boris Johnson is merely taking remainer George Osborne’s vision to its logical conclusion, while in pinning her hopes on continental capitalism, Theresa May is arguably the real fantasist
Unions in the 21st century: adapt to survive, co-opt to grow
Emily Kenway - 27 July 2018Could a clever campaign make support for unions an integral part of corporate social responsibility?
Book review: Brexit: Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union
Owen Parker - 24 July 2018Harold D. Clarke, Matthew Goodwin and Paul Whiteley’s new book provides a nuanced picture of why people voted as they did in 2016
Making the unpolishable Brexit turd sparkle?
Matt Bishop - 13 July 2018The economic logic of hard Brexit has always been a chimera, and our political class is finally waking up to the impossibility of delivering it in any meaningful sense
Localising pension fund investments: opportunities and challenges
Adam Barber - 09 July 2018Pension funds could play an important role in achieving a more balanced economy, but new investments should prioritise benefits for members above all else
The Political Economy of Brexit and the Future of British Capitalism
Scott Lavery, Lucia Quaglia & Charlie Dannreuther - 02 July 2018Two symposia in New Political Economy bring together academic experts to examine the implications of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in key economic policy areas
Peace walls and other social frontiers can breed crime and conflict in cities
Gwilym Pryce - 28 June 2018Identifying social frontiers is the first step to understanding what impacts they have on the people living nearby
Frankfurt and Paris as financial centres after Brexit
Scott Lavery - 26 June 2018The City of London is likely to remain as Europe’s pre-eminent financial centre after the UK leaves the EU, but new research shows how Frankfurt and Paris seek to ‘capitalise’ on the fall-out from Brexit
Understanding vulnerability to forced labour in global supply chains
Genevieve LeBaron - 25 June 2018Forced labour is prevalent in the tea and cocoa industries and is happening in the context of widespread labour abuse
Why the smallest states fail to secure special treatment in global trade politics
Courtney Lindsay - 22 June 2018There are four reasons why Small Island Developing States and Small Vulnerable Economies fail to secure special and differential treatment (SDT) and Preferences as global norms
What will Brexit mean for UK climate action?
Jeremy F.G. Moulton & James Silverwood - 21 June 2018Our research reveals that the UK is at risk of letting climate change slip off the agenda at a time when attention and action has never been as important
Intangible concerns: Goodwill and the risk of pro-cyclicality in corporate America
Adam Leaver - 20 June 2018Much has been written about the growth of debt since the Great Financial Crisis. But whilst leverage is a worry, much less has been written about the problem of asset quality
Ahead of the African Union Summit: How to boost East African economies?
Claire Elder - 19 June 2018This month’s African Union Summit is poised to probe widespread corruption but a closer look at East Africa also reveals other pressing issues, not least rising political uncertainty, economic instability and violence
The ideological shifts, economics and geopolitics of the Italian election
Lorenzo Genito - 12 June 2018The agenda of Italy’s new anti-liberal, Eurosceptic and pro-Russian government could have significant ramifications far beyond Italy
Book Review: Extracting Profit: Imperialism, Neoliberalism, and the New Scramble for Africa
James Chamberlain - 11 June 2018Lee Wengraf provides an important reminder that Africa’s position within the world economy is heavily determined by its unequal insertion into the global capitalist system and ongoing manifestations of imperialism.
Three lessons the labour movement must learn from the Fight for 15 at Walmart
Alex J. Wood - 08 June 2018Social media, the power of reputational damage and effective communications are powerful tools for trade union organising
A call for the revival of political and economic education
Antonia Jennings - 07 June 2018Political and economic education is pitiful, and via political parties, the education system and trade unions, it desperately needs to be revived
Embracing data is key to the future of unions
Jenny Andrew - 06 June 2018Learning to read and predict our changing environment through strategic use of data is crucial for the survival of trade unions
Building up the bundle of sticks. New ideas for union organising
Tom Hunt - 05 June 2018A new mini-series of blogs, published by SPERI and openDemocracy, will present new ideas for how unions can organise and engage with the workforce
How does the geographic spread of a bank’s subsidiaries affect its value?
Georgios Efthyvoulou - 04 June 2018Our new research show that the values of banks in emerging countries are highly responsive to their internationalisation strategies
Missing: the smallest states are absent in international political economy analysis
Courtney Lindsay - 01 June 2018Small Island Developing States and Small Vulnerable Economies are not present in the academic literature on international norms. A new two-part blog will consider why
The politics and economics of Brexit
Simon Bulmer & Lucia Quaglia - 25 May 2018Brexit may dominate in the UK but it is just one of several challenges to governance and integration facing the EU
Book Review: Flawed Capitalism: The Anglo-American Condition and its Resolution
Scott Lavery - 23 May 2018David Coates’ critique of Anglo-American capitalism is devastating; his optimism about transforming it is welcome. The left must now develop a political strategy capable of overcoming structural barriers to reform
Italy in an age of authoritarian liberalism: How the recent history of Italian capitalism has been shaped by populists and technocrats
Ernesto Gallo - 17 May 2018Italy has its own brand of democracy, which has very little to do with what is in textbooks.. That is why scholars and pundits have so much difficulty coming to grips with it
Why we need to stop letting economic crises go to waste
Jacqueline Best - 08 May 2018There’s a popular adage that we should never let a good crisis go to waste. Yet, arguably, that’s what we’ve been doing for decades now.
England’s local elections 2018: the unusual case of Sheffield City Region’s mayoral contest
Arianna Giovannini - 01 May 2018On 3 May, the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority will elect its first ‘metro mayor’. Although the mayor will preside over a devolution deal with no powers and funding (yet), this is a contest that is worth watching.
Understanding the IMF better
Tony Payne - 23 April 2018The Fund does make normatively driven interventions in ideologically charged economic policy debates, but not always from the perspective imagined and often with only limited impact
Reimagining tax through speculative design: or, how to critique neoliberalism
Liam Stanley - 20 April 2018If you were given £5m to communicate *something* with all income taxpayers, what message would you want to circulate? What form would it take? How radical would you be?
Macron’s railway reforms: the ultimate test for French trade unionism
Heather Connolly - 19 April 2018Railway trade unions have begun three months of rolling strikes from April-June 2018 against reforms to their employment rights. The outcome of this dispute will be decisive for the government and its ability to make further reforms, and for the very future of the French trade union movement
From capitalism grounded to grounded capitalism – Part 2
Craig Berry - 18 April 2018Even on the left, post-crisis regional economic policy in Britain has been underpinned by pre-crisis intellectual paradigms. This post argues that a ‘grounded capitalism’ approach can transform the British growth model while alleviating regional inequalities
From capitalism grounded to grounded capitalism – Part 1
Craig Berry - 17 April 2018We can partly situate the grounding of Britain’s pre-crisis growth model in its geographical unevenness – but the left must also situate its response to regional inequalities in a new understanding of capitalism’s spatiality
A Question of Value: Raising Productivity by Lowering Inequality
Ed Pemberton - 13 April 2018The focus on low UK productivity overlooks the crucial influence of inequality
A review of the SPERI series, ‘Revisiting the developmental state’
Rick Rowden - 06 April 2018Despite many changes in today’s modern global economy developmental states are needed more than ever
Doing politics differently? Metro-mayors and democratic renewal
Georgina Blakeley & Brendan Evans - 03 April 2018Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region metro-mayors have been in power just under a year, but has political diversity and participation changed?
Don’t Panic! (At least not about inflation)
Jacqueline Best - 22 March 2018Concerns about high inflation – a key narrative underpinning recent financial volatility – are highly suspect
After Carillion: the function of procurement in public projects
Jon Morris & Andrea Genovese - 20 March 2018The post-Carillion debates must consider the effectiveness of local authority procurement strategies
How a new electoral law could shape the 2018 Italian elections
Dario Quattromani - 02 March 2018Italy’s new electoral law – used for the first time in this weekend’s election – could have a wide-ranging impact on the country’s politics
The politics of fear: how immigration is dominating the Italian election campaign
Fabio Bordignon, Luigi Ceccarini & Ilvo Diamanti - 02 March 2018Growing popular concern about immigration could see the centre-right benefit in Sunday’s election
Globalising cities and their de-globalising hinterlands: Book review
Scott Lavery - 02 March 2018Global cities at the ‘core’ of the national economy generate deep and de-stabilising patterns of under-development in the ‘periphery'
USS is the tip of the iceberg. Our pensions system is a hot mess
Christine Berry - 01 March 2018This week, university staff have been on strike against devastating changes to their pensions, braving the freezing weather to stand on picket lines waving placards with brilliantly dweeby slogans.
Silvio Berlusconi: what to expect from the comeback king in Italy’s election
James Newell - 01 March 2018Berlusconi’s reputation as one of Europe’s most remarkable politicians of recent decades remains fully deserved
The radical left in the 2018 Italian election
Paolo Chiocchetti - 21 February 2018Torn between centre-left respectability and anti-establishment protest, the Italian radical left struggles to devise a coherent and appealing political project
Europe (and immigration) among the new Eurosceptics in the 2018 Italian elections
Simona Guerra - 21 February 2018Populist ‘elites vs the people’ narratives are playing upon rising Euroscepticism and concerns about immigration
The UK, EU and the distance effect on trade
Patrick Kaczmarczyk - 20 February 2018Despite the notion of hyper-globalisation, most trade happens with countries in close geographic proximity. Tendencies towards regionalisation and the UK’s strong dependence on EU imports seem to have been forgotten in the Brexit debate
The intricacies of coalition-making in the 2018 Italian election
Anna Cento Bull & Galadriel Ravelli - 19 February 2018Italy’s parties are engaging in complex official and unofficial coalition building. The outcome will determine who will form and lead Italy’s next government
The 2018 Italian election: old faces, new parties, familiar uncertainty
Daniele Albertazzi & Arianna Giovannini - 14 February 2018Over the coming weeks a new blog series with the PSA Italian Politics Specialist Group will look ahead to the Italian election on March 4th and analyse the results
Conform or confront? Will young people turn to trade unions to address precariousness?
Craig Berry & Sean McDaniel - 12 February 2018Our new research published today considers the perspectives of today’s young people on trade unionism – and how unions can respond
Outsourcing firms and the paradox of time travel
Adam Leaver - 12 February 2018Analysis of Carillion’s accounts reveals the complex interplay between the firm’s present and future, and sheds new light on which other large outsourcing firms are ‘levered on the future’
TARGET2 imbalances and the stagnating political economy of Europe
Muhammad Ali Nasir - 09 February 2018A new approach is needed to respond to secular stagnation and imbalances in the Eurozone
Gender inequalities and sexual harassment in global value chains
Lara Bianchi - 06 February 2018To change the dynamics of gender inequality we need to change those of the contemporary global economy
New shocks and old sins: economic adjustment in the age of automation and Brexit
Gavin Kelly - 31 January 2018Success or failure in responding to economic adjustment will shape not just the economics, but also the politics, of the post-Brexit era
How the government’s pro-remain leaflet shaped the EU referendum
Harry Pickard - 26 January 2018New research shows how the official government leaflet successfully changed voting behaviour in the referendum
Healthy rivers, healthy cities? The case of Sheffield and its rivers
Jon Morris - 24 January 2018The UK Government’s new 25-year environmental plan shows the need to increase biodiversity and resilience of our waterways. This has implications far beyond the immediate health of the river system itself
Beyond the madness: Donald Trump and the resetting of America’s social contract
David Coates - 19 January 2018Away from the White House chaos an ultra-conservative Republican Party is building an America for the rich and privileged
Out of time: The fragile temporality of Carillion’s accumulation model
Adam Leaver - 17 January 2018Carillion is the epitome of the modern financialized firm and its liquidation tells us much about risk in this phase of financialization
Will Frankfurt become Europe’s leading financial centre after Brexit?
Scott Lavery & Davide Schmid - 16 January 2018Frankfurt views its ‘stability’ as a key advantage in the battle for jobs and investment with other European financial centres after Brexit
Fat Cats in paradise: Why private wealth is a political issue
Jacqueline Best - 15 January 2018The future of liberal democracy is threatened unless growing inequality and the culture of wealthy entitlement it creates are effectively tackled
The political economy of forced labour
Genevieve LeBaron, Neil Howard, Cameron Thibos & Penelope Kyritsis - 10 January 2018‘Confronting Root Causes: Forced Labour in Global Supply Chains’, a new report that call for innovative approaches to tackle forced labour in global supply chains is published today. The first chapter of the report is republished here.
Young people and the normalisation of economic crisis in the UK
Craig Berry & Sean McDaniel - 08 January 2018Our new research considers the perspectives of today’s young people on the economy, crisis and labour market change – and how they view the prospect of transforming their circumstances through politics
The hard and soft powers of England’s new metro-mayors
Georgina Blakeley & Brendan Evans - 03 January 2018Transport and homelessness show how Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram are using their formal and informal powers in Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region