Conference Call for Papers  The Economics of Structural Change: Theory, Institutions and Policies A Conference in honour of Luigi L. Pasinetti Sponsored by the Cambridge Journal of Economics Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, U.K. 12th -13th September 2012 Call for Papers CAMHIST Seminar series XX Seminar 19 January 2012, 8.15pm, College meeting room A Conversation with  Luigi L. Pasinetti Emeritus Professor, Catholic University of Milan Emeritus Reader, University of Cambridge Honorary Fellow Gonville and Caius College on "Income Distribution (worse than ever), Growth (?), Structural Change (rediscovered at last?). Clues from the Cambridge School of Economics after Keynes." Discussion is followed by drinks and everyone is invited to stay and meet the speaker. XIX Seminar 30 June 2011, 8.15pm, College meeting room  Alessandro Vercelli (University of Siena and Clare Hall) will speak on The Co-evolution of Macroeconomics and Capitalism: Interaction and Crises This paper explores the interaction between the Great Recession triggered by the “subprime crisis” in the USA and the crisis of mainstream macroeconomics that has proved unable to forecast and control the deep and persisting financial and real turmoil. It is argued that a major determinant of the Great Recession and its dire consequences has been an approach to macroeconomics that is unable to deal with irregular phenomena and their possible degeneration in critical economic and financial processes. On the other hand, the deep financial crisis that is heavily affecting the real economy requires a major redirection of macroeconomic theory to make it able to explain, forecast and control irregular phenomena. The recent interaction between the crisis of the economy and the crisis of macroeconomics is analysed in the light of a reconstruction of a few general patterns of co-evolution of capitalism and macroeconomics since the Industrial Revolution. XVIII Seminar 5 May 2011, 8.15pm, College meeting room  Erik S. Reinert (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia and the Other Canon Foundation) will speak on Crises and Revisions: On the Long-Term Cyclicalities of Economic Theory The Whig conception of economics, rather than judging economic ideas by their relevance in a given context, tends to see them either as anticipations of current healthy principles or as an example of hopelessly ill-conceived theories. Contrary to that Whig conception, this presentation argues that the economics profession faces an eternal trade-off between levels of abstraction which was well expressed by Joseph Schumpeter in 1930: 'the general reader will have to make up his mind, whether he wants simple answers to his questions or useful ones – in this as in other economic matters he cannot have both'. The background paper for this talk is Erik Reinert's Chapter 3 The Technological Dynamics of Capitalism: A Note on Antiphysiocracy, Colbertism, and 1848 Moments forthcoming in the book Physiocracy, Antiphysiocracy and Pfeiffer edited by Backhaus, Jürgen Georg, Springer. XVII Seminar 24 February 2011, (Clare Hall, West Court)8.15pm, Richard Eden room  (Fellow at Newnham College and Director of the Winton Centre for Financial History)
will speak on The Tropics
of Folly: Changing Narratives of early modern financial bubbles In this talk, I investigate the early modern origins of this curious reflex of some economists, many economic historians, and most financial commentators to resort to psychological metaphors when confronted with the collapse of asset-price bubbles and to use analogies to medicine to assess the risks to the wider economy. Although most contemporary commentators pitched them as morality tales of greed, folly, and even the work of religious minorities, the seeds of these modern psychological metaphors can also be found in some contemporary accounts and were given their fullest articulation in Charles Mackay's famous nineteenth-century collection. Although amusing, the persistence of this rhetorical move distracts attention from the underlying structural linkages between the phenomenon of asset-price bubbles and the credit markets that support them. When permitted to substitute for serious analysis, the result is ineffective public policy and a steady and persistent impoverishment of economic thought. Rather than serving as catalysts for more robust theories of financial markets, 'irrational' asset-price bubbles have become the exception that proves the rule of (crudely) 'rational and efficient' markets. Both those who would build on mainstream economics and those who would critique it would do well to extricate themselves from sterile discursive conventions.
17 February 2011, 8.15pm, College meeting room Geoff Tily (Member of the Government Statistical and Economic Services, UK) will speak on The fundamental difference between Keynes's General Theory and ‘Keynesian’ economics -- Geoff Tily will discuss the different historical origins of the General Theory and ‘Keynesian’ economics. Keynes’s changed understanding of the nature of the economic system will be explained through an examination of his earliest contributions, through to the Treatise and lastly to the General Theory. The critical and fundamental change was Keynes’s rejecting the underlying equilibrium of the classical system, and his devising a theory of a multiple equilibrium system. This distinction will be emphasised and clarified, with the long-term rate of interest in a central position. The ‘Keynesian’ system will be seen as a far less radical approach that emerged in parallel but separately to the General Theory. Key contributions from Dennis Robertson in Cambridge, J. R. Hicks in Oxford, Alvin Hansen in Harvard, Bertil Ohlin in Stockholm and Gottfried Haberler at the League of Nations will be examined. And how the ‘Keynesian’ perspective came to dominate will be addressed. Rejecting this account and restoring Keynes’s original leads to a different perspective on economic history in the twentieth century, and on the present crisis and its means for resolution. Ultimately matters concern large-scale monetary reform. 
Geoff has been a member of the UK Government Economic Service since 2006 and the Government Statistical Service since 1989. He did his MSc in economics at University College London and a PhD under the supervision of Victoria Chick. His book has just been published in paperback as Keynes Betrayed (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
|  Clare Hall Group in the History of Economic Analysis A group of
scholars at Clare Hall, including Antonio Andreoni, Francesco Boldizzoni,
Harald Hagemann, Geoffrey Harcourt, Prue Kerr, Roberto Scazzieri and Albert
Steenge is organising a seminar in the history of economic analysis. What
characterises the seminar's approach is the conception of political economy as
a social discipline, that is, as a discipline principally devoted to the study
of the nature, production and distribution of income and the process of
accumulation of wealth within society. CAMHIST acts as a reference point for the Cambridge community, and for the wider community of economists, historians and philosophers visiting the University. The speakers are leading figures in the field as well as younger academics from all over the world. Scholars at all levels, including graduate and research students, are welcome to attend the meetings. The Seminar meets regularly in each term at Clare Hall, on Thursdays at 8.15pm, with a presentation of around 30 minutes followed by discussion and drinks. The venue is the College meeting room.  |