Cambridge Political Economy Society

The Cambridge Political Economy Society, founded in the 1970s, aims to advance the education of the public in political economy and related matters, and to promote research in matters pertaining to political economy and to publish the useful results of such research. To this end the Society publishes the Cambridge Journal of Economics, the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society and Contributions to Political Economy.

In 1985 the Society established a charitable Trust which works to further these aims by providing funding for a variety of projects. More information about the Trust and the types of funding it provides is available here.

Local Economic Growth: Recession, Resilience and Recovery

The Cambridge Political Economy Society is delighted to announce a two-day conference that will bring together current and new thinking on the determinants of local economic growth. It will draw upon and explore a number of alternative perspectives and how these help us to understand the forces that are shaping patterns of economic growth and development at the local level at a time when many local economies are struggling to resume economic growth and prosperity. The conference will assess the scope for policy intervention and the direction this might take.

The Conference will take place at the McGrath Centre, St Catharine's College, Cambridge from 11th - 12th July 2013.

Full information, as well as registration and booking details, can be found on the conference website

The Society also sponsors the following seminar series:

Cambridge Realist Workshop
Click here to read more

St Catharine's Political Economy Seminar Series
The next St Catharine's Political Economy Seminar in the series on the Economics of Austerity, will be held on Wednesday 15th May 2013 - Sue Konzelmann will give a talk on 'The Political Economics of Austerity'. The seminar will be held in the Ramsden room at St Catharine's College from 6.00-7.30 pm. All are welcome.

SUE KONZELMANN is a Reader in Management, Director of the London Centre for Corporate Governance and Ethics and a Research Associate in the Cambridge Centre for Business Research. Her research focuses on the effects of institutions and organization on economic and social performance. She is particularly interested in how the interaction of societal, economic and political forces shapes the direction of theory and policy - and how this, in turn, influences developments in global financial markets and the broader system in which they are embedded. Within this, she has conducted research on corporate restructuring, corporate governance and employment relations; and most recently, on industrial strategy and policy aimed at re-balancing the productive and financial sides of the economy and thereby offering hope for a sustainable future. For further information, including a list of publications, please visit http://www.bbk.ac.uk/management/our-staff/academics/konzelmann.

CONTENT: The 2007/8 financial crisis has reignited the debate about the political economics of austerity. With the aim of understanding why a government would pursue such a policy in the current context of persistent economic recession, this article traces the social, political and economic developments that have together shaped the evolution of ideas about economic austerity, from the earliest theorizing by the Classical political economists some three hundred years ago. From this, it becomes clear that austerity is not grounded in a well established body of 'economic austerity theory'; nor does it form part of a coherent policy aimed at fiscal and monetary sustainability or macroeconomic recovery. Although policies aimed at fiscal consolidation and public debt reduction have a lengthy history, the term 'austerity' has only occasionally been used to describe them - usually during times of crisis, when panic erupts in the financial markets and politicians become gripped with fear that they will become unable to borrow, that the servicing charge will rise to an unsustainable level or that speculators will launch hostile attacks on their country's sovereign debt. During times like these, the emotive power of the debate is high - and austerity is presented as both an economic and moral imperative. Austerity thus emerges as the 'policy of last resort' - for the nearly-not-credit-worthy government - when the financial markets demand it.

Please contact the seminar organisers Philip Arestis (pa267@cam.ac.uk) and Michael Kitson (m.kitson@jbs.cam.ac.uk) in the event of a query.

Conference: "The Future of Capitalism"
Robinson College, Cambridge (UK), 25-26 June 2011
The conference was sponsored by the Cambridge Journal of Economics
Click here to go to the Conference archive