Papers by Carolina Alves
Both results show the particularity of the Brazilian financialisation process, which is buttresse... more Both results show the particularity of the Brazilian financialisation process, which is buttressed by the public sector debt. Further, they indicate that rather than being inefficient or restrictive, fiscal and monetary policies in peripheral countries within a context of financialisation have a more complex role than is reflected in Keynesian theory, or in the ISI developmental period. Public sector debt is a centrepiece of capital accumulation and surplus generation process that takes an increasingly financialised (fictitious capital) form -both in Brazil and globally. Brazil is pulled along in this process, insofar as it has been pulled into financialised global economic relations at a time when (super) leveraging has been generating new magnitudes of financial risk for financial-market participants around the world, especially for nations holding residual risk claims. v 1 Orthodox economics is associated with mainstream neoclassical economic theory. Broadly speaking, neoclassical theory includes a core set of propositions such as scarcity, equilibrium, rationality, preferences, methodological individualism and derivative beliefs, vocabulary, symbols and parables. In more specific terms, the Walrasian model is considered to be the backbone of mainstream economic theories. Heterodox economics refers to a collective of alternative theories vis-a-vis mainstream theory, and it encompasses, for example, Austrian, Feminist, Institutional-evolutionary, Marxian, post-Keynesian, Sraffian, and social economics. Further, heterodox economics implicitly and/or explicitly means a critique to the applicability to the world of experience of the logical conclusions of Walrasian [classic equilibrium] ( Kapeller & Springholz, 2016). In this sense, as Dymski (2014) argues, neoclassical theory functions as an intellectual sink where "all ideas are understood (or not understood) relative to their distance from Walrasian general equilibrium. Heterodox theory, by contrast, has the structure of clusters along a spiral: it contains a rich set of loosely-related but largely independent foci (gender, race, instability, uncertainty), each developing along one or more exploratory trajectories that intersect but always push deeper into historically and conceptually distinct intellectual ground" (p. 4). In the case of -1.00% -0.50%
When economic theory meets policy: Barbara Wootton and the creation of the British welfare state
The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
This paper revisits why Joan Robinson turned to Karl Marx in 1942 and which insights from Marxian... more This paper revisits why Joan Robinson turned to Karl Marx in 1942 and which insights from Marxian economics she sought to incorporate into her later works, while commenting on how her encounter with Marx was received by some her of contemporaries. By the end of the 1930s, Robinson wanted to bring academic and Marxian economics together in a search for a more realist theory of the rate of profit and income distribution, and clarifications on Keynes’s concept of full employment and the nature of technical progress and a long-period theory within the Keynesian framework. The result, An Essay on Marxian Economics (1942), was her most important work in terms of laying the foundations of her enduring challenge to the orthodox economics. Here she relied on Marxian insights to escape Marshallian orthodoxy. It is the story of how the originator of imperfect competition pushed further into a theory of exploitation.
Ensayos de Economía, 2020
"La economía es única entre las ciencias sociales en tener una sola corriente principal monolític... more "La economía es única entre las ciencias sociales en tener una sola corriente principal monolítica, la cual descono-ce o es activamente hostil a los enfoques alternativos". (John King, 2013, p. 17) ¿Qué significa economía heterodoxa? ¿Es una etiqueta útil o perjudicial? Al estar fuera de la corriente principal de la disciplina de la Economía, la forma en que nos posicionamos puede ser particularmente importante. Por esta razón, muchos de los que nos rodean rechazan el uso del término "heterodoxo" y desaconsejan su uso. Sin embargo, creemos que la renuencia a usar el término se debe en parte a malentendidos-y, a veces, desacuerdos-sobre lo que significa el término y quizás a los desacuerdos acerca de las estrategias para cambiar la disciplina. En otras palabras, este es un debate importante sobre la identificación y la estrategia. En este blog, deseamos plantear el tema en círculos heterodoxos y de la corriente principal, al des-baratar algunos mitos comunes sobre la economía heterodoxa, en su mayoría derivados de la ortodoxia. Esta es una pequeña parte de un proyecto más grande sobre la definición de la economía heterodoxa.
RAS | Review of Agrarian Studies, 2020
In this article, we argue that societies’ unpreparedness and inadequate responses to the Covid-19... more In this article, we argue that societies’ unpreparedness and inadequate responses to the Covid-19 pandemic expose weaknesses in the foundations of the dominant economic paradigm. We document how economics came to disembed itself from broader societal analysis and how this has influenced public policy in problematic ways, leading to privileging of efficiency over resilience. We then go a step further to consider the role of economic evidence in public policy more generally. Furthermore, we demonstrate how heterodox economics can enrich our understandings of our economies’ weaknesses and of how to build a more resilient and just economy. We conclude that we need an explanation of the crisis that is capable of seeing the economy as more than just markets and as embedded in society; one that is capable of linking the causes and consequences of the pandemic to our systems of production and distribution.
PSL Quarterly Review, 2019
This paper examines the increasing cross-border flows of capital involving developing and emergin... more This paper examines the increasing cross-border flows of capital involving developing and emerging economies in the past few decades. The discussion challenges the traditional economic theories based on net capital flows and deficits in current accounts to explain international borrowing by developing countries, and on the current account imbalances approach to explain financial crises. We argue that the increasing involvement of the private sector in developing countries' external debt and the fact that the public sector, previously reliant almost entirely on official credit, has become able to access private debt markets, reflect the increasing integration of developing countries into the global financial system, and this process has particular features. A closer look at data on gross capital flows reveals that net capital flows neither explain nor capture this global financial integration.
Book Reviews by Carolina Alves
Review of the book The Financialization Response to Economic Disequilibria: European and Latin American Experiences N Levy-Orlik and E Ortiz. Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham UK, 2016. (http://www.economicissues.org.uk/Files/2017/117Levy-Orlik_rev.pdf)
Review of the book The Financialization Response to Economic Disequilibria: European and Latin Am... more Review of the book The Financialization Response to Economic Disequilibria: European and Latin American Experiences N Levy-Orlik and E Ortiz. Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham UK, 2016.
Working Papers by Carolina Alves
The rise of the so-called Developing and Emerging Economies (DEEs) has been one of the most funda... more The rise of the so-called Developing and Emerging Economies (DEEs) has been one of the most fundamental changes to the global economy in recent years. However, despite their rising economic power, DEEs remain in a subordinate position in global financial markets and the international monetary system, which shapes and constrains domestic economic actors' opportunities and exposes them to recurrent crises and vulnerabilities. This paper argues that
ESRC GPID Research Network Working Paper 19, 2019
This paper considers common arguments that either dismiss or undermine the term ‘heterodox econom... more This paper considers common arguments that either dismiss or undermine the term ‘heterodox economics’ in order to show that the reluctance to use it stems in part from misunderstandings of (and sometimes disagreement over) what the term means and what it entails to do ‘heterodox’ research. The paper then develops a new definition of ‘heterodox economics’ in which the term is understood as a positive and open project based on principles that do not necessarily align with the ‘mainstream’. The latter is defined as the study of the scarcity, the study of how people use resources to respond to incentives, or the study of decision-making, in line with the definition of the American Economic Association , while heterodox economics draws on explicit theories of production and distribution of economic surplus, a study of economic systems (most often the capitalist system), and unstable tendencies associated with it. Although these ‘two economics’ may work together or complement each other, we argue that understanding, acknowledging and accepting, rather than denying or dismissing, the differences between them is crucial for delineating and understanding the differences between how mainstream and heterodox economists approach and deal with their object of study. We argue that this is also a necessary step if Economics is to regain relevance as well as the progress in the discipline. Furthermore, having a clear definition of what it means to be a ‘mainstream’ or ‘heterodox’ economist is important for our understanding of different ways of doing economics research, as well as interdisciplinary research.
There has been an increase of private non-guaranteed external debt (PNG) in developing countries ... more There has been an increase of private non-guaranteed external debt (PNG) in developing countries and emerging economies in the last two decades reflects the increasing cross border flows of capital. The traditional literature, relaying on the current account, i.e. net capital flows, associates external debt in emerging and developing countries with deficits in current account, and cross border capital flows with global current account imbalances. This paper presents empirical evidences showing that during the 2000s that emerging markets have experienced a surge in private capital flows. As a result, emerging and developing countries cross-border asset positions have correspondingly increased, with the share of private sector claims on emerging markets increasing and the share of liabilities held by government and multilateral institutions decreasing. There is increasing involvement of the private sector in the developing countries’ external debt and the fact that the public sector, previously reliant almost entirely on official credit, has become able to access private debt markets reflects the increasing integration of developing countries into the global financial system. Gross capital flows data reveals that net capital flows do not explain and do not capture this global financial integration. The emerging and developing economies are at the margin of the process when it comes to cross-border financial flows that are still very much driven by developed economies, especially the EU and US and are concentrated in only a few countries. The surge in private capital flows within a context of current account surpluses has its mirror image in the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves. In turn this connects the capital flows towards these economies with factors such as the international monetary cycle. Lastly, it is discussed that the growing integration of developing and emerging countries into the global financial system is also the product of official development policy becoming more supportive of the private sector. The EU Aid policy has relentlessly supported the ‘pro-finance’ argument to achieve economic growth in these countries. Interestingly, one of the main tools to promote the development of the financial sector in developing countries relies on the notion of ‘blended finance’, which rests on using public Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) funds to leverage private funds and on developing broader types of public-private partnerships. There is therefore increasing increased integration of Emerging and Developing Economies in the global financial system, emerging 'financialization' in the economic and social development of developing countries and the increased role of the private sector, and inter-dependence between the European Union (EU) and the emerging countries and an assessment on the potential economic and social benefits for European sovereigns.
Conference Papers by Carolina Alves
Tomando a Miséria da Filosofia como objeto de análise, indicamos a seguinte questão como norteado... more Tomando a Miséria da Filosofia como objeto de análise, indicamos a seguinte questão como norteadora de nossa comunicação: 1.) em que medida a concepção de valor de Marx é constituída com base no antagonismo de classe?
MPhil Dissertation by Carolina Alves
This dissertation is related to the Marx's labour-value theory in his book Misery of Philosophy. ... more This dissertation is related to the Marx's labour-value theory in his book Misery of Philosophy. Written in 1847 in a boisterous political context, Misery of Philosophy brings together elements that made possible for the author to present a yet inchoate criticism to the theory of labour-value elaborated by the classical economists, and to indicate an initial outline of his own theory of labour-value. These elements are: an analysis of reality from a materialistic view of history, wherein the interaction between the development of productive forces and productive relations are evinced; a debate with the socialists of his time, particularly Proudhon, pinpointing the problem of exchange of equal quantities of labour to occur in the capitalist mode of production; and a systematization of the economic studies, where the theory of labour-value is "taken for granted" as the necessary mediation for the understanding of the origin of accumulation of wealth, notwithstanding the author is still far from discovering the conception of surplus-value.
Key-Words: classical political economy; Marxist economy; neoclassical economy;
capitalism; labour-value theory.
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Papers by Carolina Alves
Book Reviews by Carolina Alves
Working Papers by Carolina Alves
Conference Papers by Carolina Alves
MPhil Dissertation by Carolina Alves
Key-Words: classical political economy; Marxist economy; neoclassical economy;
capitalism; labour-value theory.