ECONOMICS AT THE EDGE: UNDERSTANDING AND REBUILDING THE WORLD AFTER COVID

The Fifth Nordic Post-Keynesian Conference

AALBORG UNIVERSITY, 27TH – 29TH APRIL 2022

Conference Theme
The list of challenges facing our economies seems to be growing all the time. While many countries had not fully recovered from the “Great Recession”, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit our societies hard, against the backdrop of rising inequality and the climate challenge.

While the magnitude of the health and economic shock of COVID-19 has been amplified by the underfunding of systems over the past decades, it is concerning that voices are beginning to call for a return to austerity policies, when we should instead be investing in the ecological transition and other social cohesion and resilience policies. Despite its media and academic dominance, mainstream economics does not offer adequate tools to address real problems or formulate coherent policy proposals. To develop theories and policies that are relevant to the real world, we need to use theories other than the mainstream view. As such, post-Keynesian theory is a prime candidate to offer an alternative.

The avenues of research to be developed are both qualitative and quantitative, including issues of conceptualization, methodology, modelling, as well as empirically calibrated economic policy formulation. In particular, there is an urgent need to pursue research in the Stock-Flow Consistent (SFC) tradition and to promote the benefits of pluralism, cross-cutting and problem-based learning in economics education. Finally, particular emphasis should be placed on the inclusion of ecological and societal issues in formulations of economic theory and policy.

Keynote speakers: Özlem Onaran, Anna Carabelli, Louis-Philippe Rochon, Etienne Espagne, Peter Skott

Further information:
https://www.business.aau.dk/research/mamtep/pkconference