Books by Craig Berry
Agenda, 2021
Does the UK still have an industrial strategy? How should we understand the renewed interest with... more Does the UK still have an industrial strategy? How should we understand the renewed interest within government in industrial policy – and now its apparent reversal – in recent years? This collection of essay by leading academics and practitioners including Victoria Chick, Kate Bell, Simon Lee, Karel Williams, Susan Himmelweit, Laurie Macfarlane and Ron Martin – among many others– considers the effectiveness of recent industrial policies in addressing the UK’s economic malaise. In offering a broad political economy perspective on economic statecraft and development in the UK, the book focuses on the political and institutional foundations of industrial policy, the value of "foundational" economic practices, the challenge of greening capitalism and addressing regional inequalities, and the new financial and corporate governance structures required to radicalize industrial strategy.
Oxford University Press, 2021
Private pensions provision in the UK is in crisis, yet it is not the crisis often depicted in pol... more Private pensions provision in the UK is in crisis, yet it is not the crisis often depicted in political and popular discourses. While population ageing has affected traditional pensions practice, the imperilment of UK pensions is due in fact to the peculiar way policy-makers have responded to wider social and economic change. Pensions are a mechanism for managing failed futures, yet this function is being impeded by the individualization of provision. This book offers a political economy perspective on the development of private pensions, focusing specifically on how policy elites have sought to respond to perceived crises of demographic change, under-saving, and fund deficits, and in doing so have absorbed imperatives to subject individuals to a market-led regime under the influence of neoliberal ideology. This terrain is explored through chapters on the historical and comparative context of UK pensions provision, the demise of collectivist provision, the rise of pensions individualization and the state's role as facilitator and regulator in this regard, and the financial and economic context in which pensions provision operates. By placing the UK system in a comparative context of pensions reform agendas across the world, this book offers an original understanding of the unique temporality and materiality of pensions provision as a set of mechanisms for coping with generational change and forecast failures in capitalist economies. It also presents a nuanced account of the extent to which the state acts to anchor the process of pensions rematerialization and, crucially, concludes by outlining a coherent and radical programme of progressive pensions reform.
Published a year on from the government’s industrial strategy white paper, and with Brexit now le... more Published a year on from the government’s industrial strategy white paper, and with Brexit now less than six months away, What We Really Mean When We Talk About Industrial Strategy features expert authors on a wide range of subjects connected to industrial policy.
Edited by Craig Berry, key issues covered include:
--The sources of the UK’s ‘productivity puzzle’. The book suggests that larger firms – not the ‘long tail’ of small firms – have greatest responsibility for the productivity slowdown, and that this is connected to corporate governance practices.
--The difficult balance between nurturing 4.0 and sustaining employment. The book suggests that holding back the tide of automation is probably futile, and would further damage the UK economy, but much more must be done to prepare the UK workforce for new forms of employment.
--The importance of low-value or foundational industries. The book suggests that many of the UK’s economic problems are located in the less glamorous industries such as retail and hospitality, and those dependent on public expenditure.
--The prospects of local industrial strategy. The book suggests that the British state is structurally biased against supporting local economic development. The move to city-led industrial policy may be a step in the right direction, but a decentralisation of economic powers and resources is necessary.
--The gendered nature of the UK’s economic problems. The book suggests that industrial strategy should focus far more on female-dominated industries such as care. Craig Berry’s concluding chapter argues that a chronic gender pay gap indicates the UK’s failure to capitalise on the economy’s inherent strengths.
The book is published by Manchester Metropolitan University with the support of the British Academy. It builds upon Craig Berry’s work as part of the Industrial Strategy Commission.
This book explores the politics of local economic development in Northern England. Socio-economic... more This book explores the politics of local economic development in Northern England. Socio-economic conditions in the North – and its future prospects – have become central to national debates in the UK. The status of Northern regions and their local economies is intimately associated with efforts to ‘rebalance’ the economy away from the South East, London and the finance sector in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The contributors to this volume focus in particular on the coalition and Conservative governments’ ‘Northern Powerhouse’ agenda. They also analyse associated efforts to devolve power to local authorities across England, which promise to bring both greater prosperity and autonomy to the deindustrialized North. Several chapters critically interrogate these initiatives, and their ambitions, by placing them within their wider historical, geographical, institutional and ideological contexts. As such, Berry and Giovannini seek to locate Northern England within a broader understanding of the political dimension of economic development, and outline a series of ideas for enhancing the North’s prospects.
Craig Berry assesses UK economic policy in the wake of the financial crisis through the lens of t... more Craig Berry assesses UK economic policy in the wake of the financial crisis through the lens of the austerity agenda, focusing on monetary policy, economic rebalancing, industrial and regional policy, the labour market, welfare reform and budgetary management. He argues that austerity is geared towards a resurrection of financialisation and the UK’s pre-crisis economic model, through the transformation of individual behaviour and demonisation of the state. Cutting public spending and debt in the short term is, at most, a secondary concern for the UK policy elite. However, the underlying purpose of austerity is frequently misunderstood due to its conflation with a narrow deficit reduction agenda, not least by its Keynesian critics. Berry also demonstrates how austerity has effectively dismantled the prospect of a centre-left alternative to neoliberalism.
The ‘globalisation’ concept has become ubiquitous in British politics, as it has in many countrie... more The ‘globalisation’ concept has become ubiquitous in British politics, as it has in many countries of the world. This exciting new book examines discourse on foreign economic policy to determine the impact of globalisation across the ideological landscape of British politics.
The book critically interrogates the assumption that the idea of globalisation is derivative solely of neo-liberal ideology by profiling the discourse on globalisation of five political groups involved in making and contesting British foreign economic policy between 1997 and 2009: New Labour, International Financial Services London, the Liberal Democrats, Oxfam and the Socialist Workers Party. In addition to the relationship between neo-liberalism and globalisation, it also explores the core meaning of the idea of globalisation, the implications for the principle of free trade, the impact on notions of the state, nation-state and global governance, and whether globalisation means different things across the ideological spectrum.
Topically, the book examines how the responses to the global financial crisis have been shaped by globalisation discourse and the value of ideology as an analytical concept able to mitigate debates on the primacy of material and ideational explanations in political economy. It will be of vital use to students and scholars of global economic change, financial crisis, the state, the impact of globalisation on national governance, and those interested in ideological change.
Academic papers and chapters by Craig Berry
Most of this book was completed in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing upon resear... more Most of this book was completed in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing upon research conducted in what in what was until recently routinely referred to as the post-crisis period (with reference to the financial crash of 2007/08), but may soon be relabelled as the inter-crisis or pre-pandemic era. (Of course, it seems likely that the climate crisis already upon us – and to which the spread of COVID-19 is intimately related – will in time assume terminological pre-eminence.) Yet we can proceed with certainty that COVID-19 has had a transformative impact on UK industrial policy, in both exposing the weaknesses of recent and current practice, and forging the contours over which any economic policy framework must in future be built. For now, the UK faces the task of recovering from the economic impact of COVID-19. Is it capable of doing so? More pertinently, is it capable of doing so while simultaneously addressing the country’s endemic class, racial and geographical inequalities? If a significant uptick in growth and/or employment ensues, will it be based on genuinely enhancing the economy’s productive capacity, and individual and community well-being? Will the recovery be sustainable, in terms of both protecting society from endemic economic short-termism, and moving towards a substantially greener model of development? Industrial policy has never mattered more. This concluding chapter considers where advocacy of (different approaches to) industrial policy sit on the political/ideological spectrum – which is far less straightforward than it appears – before discussing the prospect of a progressive industrial strategy being forged in the context of COVID-19. It, and therefore the book, ends by considering how the left can establish a platform for economic transformation which endures beyond the impact of a particular set of industrial policies.
Despite recent advances in our understanding of how innovation happens – for example, recognising... more Despite recent advances in our understanding of how innovation happens – for example, recognising the role of the state in fuelling private sector innovation, and of user demand in enabling the generation and dissemination of innovation – the assumption that inequality somehow enables innovation remains widespread. This paper builds upon empirical evidence that more equal societies tend to be more innovative by exploring how inequality and insecurity can inhibit innovative activity at the individual level, both directly and indirectly, by diminishing the resources and capabilities which enable innovation, and disincentivising risktaking and entrepreneurialism. The paper also outlines an ‘entrepreneurial egalitarianism’ policy agenda, exploring how social and economic policies based on egalitarian values can support innovation, focusing in particular on a contributory social security system with income guarantees that supports entrepreneurial risk-taking, an expansive conception of universal basic services, a widening of access to capital, and the potential for institutions such as trade unions to facilitate innovation.
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2022
Britain is rarely considered an exemplar of ‘state capitalism’. In contrast, we argue that Britai... more Britain is rarely considered an exemplar of ‘state capitalism’. In contrast, we argue that Britain should be treated as the prototype project of state capitalism in the world economic system, the primary contribution of our paper been to outline the parameters of state capitalism in Britain across two historical periods. Turning the conceptual lens of state capitalism towards Britain raises some challenging issues for the wider literature. Recent scholarship has started to consider greater diversity in regimes of state capitalism and moved beyond the typical nation-state geographical imaginary of state capitalism. Similarly, our paper seeks to introduce a new spatiality to state capitalism with deeper sensitivity to multi-scalar relations. State capitalism in Britain has rarely been bound to the geographical limitations of the nation-state; instead, it has been a transnational project, centred variably on empire, Europe, and the global market – with industrial policy tailored to enable the British economy to exploit and/or service these various spaces by ‘making markets’. We emphasize the often-financialized nature of this industrial policy intervention arguing it is constitutive of a ‘financial state capitalism’.
Competition and Change, 2021
Introduction to a special section of Competition and Change, 'Financialization, state action and ... more Introduction to a special section of Competition and Change, 'Financialization, state action and the contested policy practices of neoliberalization'. Co-authored with Inga Rademacher and Matthew Watson
Competition & Change, 2021
This article advances the notion of ‘the substitutive state’ to explore the changing character of... more This article advances the notion of ‘the substitutive state’ to explore the changing character of state institutions and state action in the context of neoliberalization. This understanding is contrasted with alternative accounts of state neoliberalization such as ‘the regulatory state’ and ‘the competition state’. It focuses upon the UK, and three domains of economic statecraft in particular: industrial policy (primarily the May government’s 2017 industrial strategy), housing policy (primarily extensive support for mortgage lending and borrowing since the 2008 financial crisis) and private pensions policy (primarily the establishment of state-owned pension scheme providers in the context of ‘automatic enrolment’ regulations). The article argues that state action in the UK increasingly encompasses new mechanisms for intervention in the private economy. However, associated policy practices are rarely strategic or purposeful. Interventionist mechanisms are often populated by the private economic actors implicated in the problem intervention is designed to solve, or are used to relieve the private sector from serving unprofitable market segments. Substitutive statism is aligned with a wider accumulation regime which state actors perceive as immutable; they are therefore willing to intervene to sustain this regime, irrespective of market signals. In short, state institutions have a more expansive interventionist footprint, but are doing less with more. In contrast to accounts of ‘the neoliberal state’, we should not assume that these institutions add up to ‘the state’, albeit a state with neoliberal characteristics. State action has always been a central, organizing element of neoliberalism, although its form has evolved as neoliberal ideas confront capitalist accumulation in practice.
Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 2022
This paper explores the local impact of various forms of fiscal and monetary support for UK-based... more This paper explores the local impact of various forms of fiscal and monetary support for UK-based companies in the context of disruption caused by COVID-19 and associated public health restrictions, including support for household incomes (and therefore private consumption) via the ‘furlough’ scheme, the Covid Corporate Financing Facility and various national and local business support schemes. It shows that the economic crisis associated with the pandemic has been construed to justify interventions that preserve the spatially uneven status quo of the UK’s model of economic development, protecting business from harms arising, apparently, from the public’s reaction to the pandemic. To some extent, COVID-19 has been treated as a localised phenomenon that the national economy requires protection from.
Renewal, 2022
Craig Berry and Julie Froud interviewed by Suzanne Konzelmann and Scott Lavery about their 2021 b... more Craig Berry and Julie Froud interviewed by Suzanne Konzelmann and Scott Lavery about their 2021 book, The Political Economy of Industrial Strategy in the UK.
Soundings, 2020
This article asks what kind of state intervention is needed for a post-Covid recovery. The govern... more This article asks what kind of state intervention is needed for a post-Covid recovery. The government bailout will seek to sustain a modified form of neoliberalism, but what is needed is a bailout for society from the wreckage of the neoliberal paradigm. The outlines of a strategy for the UK economy are presented: at its heart is a radical industrial policy that prioritises social infrastructure, a green transition and providing quality employment opportunities, while paying particular attention to the functioning of the foundational economy. An active labour market policy (ALMP) is also needed, which turns away from a focus on conditionality for those on benefits, and instead focuses support on industries less affected by the pandemic and its implications for demand, including through securing a workforce that is ready to populate them. Conditionality should, on the other hand, be imposed on firms receiving government support. Bailout 2.0 must also involve intervention designed to create new public assets, managed via new forms of democratic ownership.
Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2020
The 2008 crisis crystallised the trend towards 'precarious' labour market conditions which dispro... more The 2008 crisis crystallised the trend towards 'precarious' labour market conditions which disproportionately affect young people. Few studies since the crisis, however, examine how young people understand and engage with their economic circumstances and industrial relations. This article draws upon rich and original data from focus groups and an online community exercise to examine the attitudes of young people in relation to the apparent 'normalisation' of precarity in the post-crisis economy. It argues that although young people have internalised precarious labour market conditions, they recognise the abnormality of this situation. It shows that their view of these conditions as immutable, however, means they often fail to see value in conventional forms of trade union organisation. The article concludes by outlining a future research agenda around economic crisis, generational identities and the future of industrial relations.
The notion of 'corporate welfare' rightly points to the problematic relationship between the UK s... more The notion of 'corporate welfare' rightly points to the problematic relationship between the UK state and private firms, but also demonises normal industrial policy practice. There is, however, a potentially nefarious form of corporate welfare within UK industrial policy, one which is arguably becoming more embedded: the role of powerful, incumbent firms in decisions over how to allocate public funds and guide important areas of public policy. As the space for industrial policy has grown in the UK polity, the new policy architecture is also business-centred. This can be seen in at least three policies developed by Conservative-led governments over the last few years: Sector Deals, Local Enterprise Partnerships, and the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. This paper takes each of these in turn, showing how private sector personnel, practices and interests were embedded within them at their inception. As such, while in institutionalising new forms of state intervention, UK industrial policy since 2008, and certainly since 2016, has appeared to challenge neoliberal principles of economic governance, by privileging the perspectives and interests of powerful private enterprises, public policy in recent years represents a reinforcement of neoliberal practices.
Draft of a chapter to be published in The Routledge Handbook of IPE. It argues that political eco... more Draft of a chapter to be published in The Routledge Handbook of IPE. It argues that political economy scholarship in Britain is in very poor health, and identifies the persistence of the ‘British School’ of International Political Economy – as both an actual and imagined community of academic political economists – as a key dimension of its demise. The British School remains wedded conceptually to a small number of influential scholars, most notably Susan Strange and Robert Cox, and has distanced itself from the broader traditions of classical political economy which have long featured in British social science. While the work of Strange, in particular, and Cox is rightly venerated, their legacies have locked the British School into a subservient relationship within the broader, American-centred field of International Political Economy. The chapter argues that, far too often, the British School is invoked simply as a positioning device vis-à-vis the ‘American School’, with scholars associated with the British School content to engage with sub-disciplinary niches, by way of attracting the stateside recognition craved by elite universities in Britain. The concentration of British School scholars in Russell Group political science departments is a key part of this story – as the increasingly positivist character of British political science squeezes the space available to classical political economy – and serves as a barrier between the British School and political economists located in other social science disciplines, both in Britain and continental Europe.
New Political Economy, 2019
Industrial policy has been on the agenda of British policy elites since the 2008 financial crisis... more Industrial policy has been on the agenda of British policy elites since the 2008 financial crisis, particularly since Theresa May became Prime Minister in 2016. This has been seen as a challenge to pre-crisis norms of economic governance associated with neoliberalism. This article explores key aspects of industrial policy development in post-crisis Britain – new forms of vertical support for industry, local government reform, and the public financing of private sector R&D – in order to sketch a new understanding of political and ideological change. It focuses on the institutional mechanisms through which industrial strategy will ostensibly be implemented, including subnational and private spheres of governance. The article argues that recent industrial policy developments do not represent the receding of neoliberalism, but rather have provided opportunities for the reseeding of neoliberal norms in British economic statecraft. The strategy has reinforced forms of state machinery through which pre-crisis elite practice can be maintained and legitimated. By demonstrating that the apparent revival of state intervention in the wake of capitalist crises must not be assumed automatically to challenge pre-crisis economic orders, and highlighting the crucial role of exigent political circumstances, the article makes an important contribution to the literature on neoliberal resilience.
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Books by Craig Berry
Edited by Craig Berry, key issues covered include:
--The sources of the UK’s ‘productivity puzzle’. The book suggests that larger firms – not the ‘long tail’ of small firms – have greatest responsibility for the productivity slowdown, and that this is connected to corporate governance practices.
--The difficult balance between nurturing 4.0 and sustaining employment. The book suggests that holding back the tide of automation is probably futile, and would further damage the UK economy, but much more must be done to prepare the UK workforce for new forms of employment.
--The importance of low-value or foundational industries. The book suggests that many of the UK’s economic problems are located in the less glamorous industries such as retail and hospitality, and those dependent on public expenditure.
--The prospects of local industrial strategy. The book suggests that the British state is structurally biased against supporting local economic development. The move to city-led industrial policy may be a step in the right direction, but a decentralisation of economic powers and resources is necessary.
--The gendered nature of the UK’s economic problems. The book suggests that industrial strategy should focus far more on female-dominated industries such as care. Craig Berry’s concluding chapter argues that a chronic gender pay gap indicates the UK’s failure to capitalise on the economy’s inherent strengths.
The book is published by Manchester Metropolitan University with the support of the British Academy. It builds upon Craig Berry’s work as part of the Industrial Strategy Commission.
The book critically interrogates the assumption that the idea of globalisation is derivative solely of neo-liberal ideology by profiling the discourse on globalisation of five political groups involved in making and contesting British foreign economic policy between 1997 and 2009: New Labour, International Financial Services London, the Liberal Democrats, Oxfam and the Socialist Workers Party. In addition to the relationship between neo-liberalism and globalisation, it also explores the core meaning of the idea of globalisation, the implications for the principle of free trade, the impact on notions of the state, nation-state and global governance, and whether globalisation means different things across the ideological spectrum.
Topically, the book examines how the responses to the global financial crisis have been shaped by globalisation discourse and the value of ideology as an analytical concept able to mitigate debates on the primacy of material and ideational explanations in political economy. It will be of vital use to students and scholars of global economic change, financial crisis, the state, the impact of globalisation on national governance, and those interested in ideological change.
Academic papers and chapters by Craig Berry
Edited by Craig Berry, key issues covered include:
--The sources of the UK’s ‘productivity puzzle’. The book suggests that larger firms – not the ‘long tail’ of small firms – have greatest responsibility for the productivity slowdown, and that this is connected to corporate governance practices.
--The difficult balance between nurturing 4.0 and sustaining employment. The book suggests that holding back the tide of automation is probably futile, and would further damage the UK economy, but much more must be done to prepare the UK workforce for new forms of employment.
--The importance of low-value or foundational industries. The book suggests that many of the UK’s economic problems are located in the less glamorous industries such as retail and hospitality, and those dependent on public expenditure.
--The prospects of local industrial strategy. The book suggests that the British state is structurally biased against supporting local economic development. The move to city-led industrial policy may be a step in the right direction, but a decentralisation of economic powers and resources is necessary.
--The gendered nature of the UK’s economic problems. The book suggests that industrial strategy should focus far more on female-dominated industries such as care. Craig Berry’s concluding chapter argues that a chronic gender pay gap indicates the UK’s failure to capitalise on the economy’s inherent strengths.
The book is published by Manchester Metropolitan University with the support of the British Academy. It builds upon Craig Berry’s work as part of the Industrial Strategy Commission.
The book critically interrogates the assumption that the idea of globalisation is derivative solely of neo-liberal ideology by profiling the discourse on globalisation of five political groups involved in making and contesting British foreign economic policy between 1997 and 2009: New Labour, International Financial Services London, the Liberal Democrats, Oxfam and the Socialist Workers Party. In addition to the relationship between neo-liberalism and globalisation, it also explores the core meaning of the idea of globalisation, the implications for the principle of free trade, the impact on notions of the state, nation-state and global governance, and whether globalisation means different things across the ideological spectrum.
Topically, the book examines how the responses to the global financial crisis have been shaped by globalisation discourse and the value of ideology as an analytical concept able to mitigate debates on the primacy of material and ideational explanations in political economy. It will be of vital use to students and scholars of global economic change, financial crisis, the state, the impact of globalisation on national governance, and those interested in ideological change.
The main text is complemented by a set of responses from five leading thinkers from the worlds of politics, policy and academia: Martin Craig; Tony Greenham; Rachel Laurence; Adam Leaver and Stewart Wood.
domestic economic policy agenda in the context of the shift in British economic statecraft since the financial crisis towards the development of substantive industrial policies. It considers specifically what might change as a result of the switch from Theresa May to Boris Johnson,
and what might – despite the rhetoric of radical departure – stay more or less the same.
The challenge now is threefold. Firstly, to ensure that this newfound intervention serves to empower citizens and protect them from the economic downturn, rather than create new opportunities for disciplining individuals to conform to the whims of a failing accumulation model. Secondly, to ensure that its costs and benefits are shared fairly, supporting a broad range of people and economic activities. Thirdly, to ensure that we put something better in place of the economic rubble now confronting us, rather than simply rebuilding upon unsustainable foundations.
This paper begins by surveying UK policy elites’ management of the inter-crisis period, and the alternative forms of economic statecraft which have now become imaginable. The second section focuses on issues around fiscal policy and taxation, and the third section focuses on the use of private banks in the economic policy response to COVID-19, amid significant changes to financial regulation and monetary policy. The fourth section considers employment and industrial relations, and the fifth section explores the radical shifts to industrial policy – very broadly conceived – which may now be possible and necessary, with particular reference to ‘the green economy’ and ‘the foundational economy’.
incumbent – for protecting and enhancing competition. A final section briefly outlines a progressive policy agenda in response to these developments.
forms of company ownership to that which is dominant in the UK economy.
might throw GDP’s utility into doubt, and thus allow for the promotion of alternative measurements, in reality the crisis served only to reinforce a traditional growth agenda as governments pursued economic recovery (Bleys and Whitby 2015). This review of the literature seeks to both explore the limitations of GDP in measuring aspects of our economy and society, as well as alternative ways of measuring and understanding the economy.
UK’s economic performance extends much further back than the past four decades (Berry and Giovannini 2017; Martin and Gardiner 2017). Furthermore, not only does the UK have one of the highest levels of spatial inequality among developed countries (McCann 2016; MacKinnon et al. 2015), but it also has ‘one of the most centralised systems of sub-national government finance, whereby local authorities are heavily dependent on transfers from central government’ (MacKinnon et al. 2015). The limits of decentralisation and the de facto
and de jure concentration of power in London is seen to entrench spatial imbalances and uneven patterns of economic development in the UK, by producing a London-centric focus amongst policy-makers (MacKinnon et al. 2015). Accordingly, much discussion of local economic performance in the UK is accompanied by discussion of the prospects for greater devolution of powers to regional and local authorities. The purpose of this review is, primarily, to summarise and assess the literature on local economic development in the UK (occasionally drawing upon evidence from other countries, where relevant); that is, seeking to move beyond a purely regional perspective on the UK’s
economic geography, and instead codify evidence and perspectives on the sub-regional level. Alas, the distinctions between regional and local are, at times, somewhat blurred within the literature. This is most apparent in analysis of the UK’s large cities, which are technically
sub-regional economic spaces but often incorporated into debates about regional economic performance (with the London city-region being the exception that proves the rule in this regard). Of course, we start from the assumption that understanding economic performance
and development at any spatial scale necessarily requires us to understand dynamics within the broader landscapes within which localities exist.
Fiscal policy: 1. How much do fiscal rules vary, and what has been the impact of different rules? 2. How prevalent are independent fiscal councils, and what has been their impact? 3. How have the costs and benefits of fiscal risks been assessed and modelled?
Monetary policy: 4. Is ‘secular stagnation’ still a useful way of understanding post-crisis capitalism? 5. What is the case for and against negative interest rates? 6. How much do central bank mandates vary, and what has been the impact of different mandates?
Trade and globalisation: 7. What is the trend in current account balances for both advanced and developing countries? 8. How have advanced countries sought to improve their current account balance, and what accounts for an successful cases? 9. In advanced economies, what are the theoretical and empirically observed relationships between the effective exchange rate and (a) current account balances, and (b) living standards?
relationship with uncertainty. Should political economists embrace the inescapability of this condition as a key foundation of inquiry? This publication brings together a series of short essays, by academic and non-academic experts, to explore uncertainty and the business of
predicting the future in political research. It was curated by Craig Berry on behalf of the PSA British and Comparative Political Economy Specialist Group, and features contributions from Helen Thompson, Colin Hay, Matthew Watson, Paul Krishnamurty, Glenn O'Hara and Muhammad Ali Nasir.
As such, three key questions underpin the research presented here: 1. What is the attitude of young people towards work and employment, and their economic circumstances and economic futures more broadly? 2. How are traditional industrial relations, includingthe role of trade unions, seen by today’s young people? 3. Is there evidence that the crisis (and policy responses) triggered change in attitudes, behaviour or expectations among young people, or was the crisis seen as a routine part of economic life?